BC Law Magazine Summer 2015 Boston College Law School

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Boston College Law School Magazine

Summer 7-1-2015 BC Law Magazine Summer 2015 Boston College Law School

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Recommended Citation Boston College Law School, "BC Law Magazine Summer 2015" (2015). Boston College Law School Magazine. 46. http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/bclsm/46

This Book is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Boston College Law School Magazine by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NEWSMAKER Justice in Baltimore How Marilyn Mosby ’05 Stunned the Nation

POLITICS BOSTON COLLEGE LAW SCHOOL MAGAZINE The Citizen SUMMER 2015 Leon Rodriguez ’88 BC.EDU/BCLAWMAGAZINE Safeguards the American Dream

PROFILE Lost and Found The Remarkable Journey of Taisha Sturdivant ’16

THE ODD COUPLE PAUL CALLAN ’75 AND MEL ROBBINS ’94 ARE THE UNLIKELIEST OF PAIRINGS AS TWO OF CNN’S TOP LEGAL ANALYSTS. BUT THEIR ON-AIR FUSION YIELDS SHREWD INSIGHT, CHARISMATIC COMMENTARY, AND TURBO-CHARGED DEBATE BC Law Magazine

AGAINST THE ODDS

HOW TAISHA STURDIVANT ’16 USED HER WITS TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE. PAGE 38

Photograph by DANA SMITH PHOTOGRAPHS, FROM TOP: JACOB KEPLER; KATE WOLKOFF; ADAM DETOUR; ILLUSTRATION: ISTVAN BANYAI “ Features 24 38 32 44 system. system. overwhelm Nevada’s judicial plex that they threatened to malpractice cases so com- volved inaseries ofmedical seen italluntil hegot in- Polsenberg ’82thought he’d Appellate lawyer Daniel The Go-To Guy knowing hand. immigration agency witha the top US citizenship and León Rodriguez ’88guides Polish, Cuban American, Himself aJewish, Turkish, Guardian oftheMelting Pot Photograph byKate Wolkoff Paul Callan ’75 andMel Robbins ’94. On theCover CNNlegal experts and hatespeech;Andrew Haile ’15. Mel Robbins ’94; theFirst Amendment Polsenberg CNN’s ’82; Paul Callan’75 and From top, Appellatelawyer Daniel CharlesBy Fancher B. Jr. ChadKoneckyBy commentary, anddebate. yields shrewd insight, but theiron-airfusion CNN’s top legal analysts liest ofpairings astwo of Robbins ’94are theunlike- Paul Callan ’75 andMel It Takes Two she’s defiedtheodds. near-homelessness, but faced poverty, danger, and Taisha Sturdivant ’16 That’s GotHer God BlesstheChild

By Jeri ZederBy Own” By PeterBy Perl

12 6 4 3 2

events ofnote. ’05; campus news and attorney Marilyn Mosby In BriefBaltimore’s state’s Candid Andrew Haile ’15. affordable legal assistance. help more lawyers deliver Technology seems poised to Behind theColumns By Dean Vincent Dean By Rougeau In LimineFrom theEditor. Docket Foremost Letters andcontributors. Correspondence 68 32 22 20 18 16 14

the mortgage market. sor McCoy’s role in righting Faculty ScholarshipProfes- alumni onthejob. Alex Hood ’10, andsixother In theField Kate Barton ’87, score onthejobs front. Evidence 2014 graduates League’s DarnellWilliams. Rougeau andtheUrban Brainstorm DeanVincent peans think. how Americans andEuro- insight into differences in Professor Kohler offers Global Engagement 53 52 68 64 62 60 58

Commencement 2015. Click Law Day and A campaign to remember. Light theWorld Giving Report The 2014Reunion and Richard L.Campbell ’05. GenerationsRichard P. ’74 Alumni News Esquire Class Notes By KentBy Greenfield Amendment Working? Is theFirstIn Closing Summer 2015 VOLUME 23/NUMBER2 Contents

BC LAW MAGAZINE 1 LAWBC MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015 24 IN LIMINE Foremost

remarkable things happen. Lots of them. recent graduates in expressing the value of the A Pipeline to Just ask alumni. In this issue, BC Law Semester-in-Practice program or a first Tax a Better World Magazine offers feature articles about success- class or Professor Robert Bloom’s Criminal Pro- ful graduates Paul Callan ’75 and Mel Robbins cedure course (“2014 Grads Score on the Jobs What better place than the Law ’94, a legal tag team at CNN (page 24); Daniel Front,” page 22). Carl Takei ’07 (page 57) applies School to witness how a pipeline Polsenberg ’82, a respected appellate lawyer in knowledge acquired from BC Law’s criminal works. At its entrance every fall Nevada (page 32); and León Rodriguez ’88, chief justice clinic when authoring American Civil stands a cluster of nervous, aspiring lawyers; of US Citizenship and Immigration Services Liberties Union reports on abuses in immigra- from its egress every spring emerges a group (page 44). To a person, these alumni talk about tion detention facilities. of accomplished, idealistic attorneys ready how the formative lessons of the Law School Articles about students Andrew Haile ’15 to take on the world. During the three years endure in heir lives and careers. Rodriguez, for (page 12) and Taisha Sturdivant ’16 (page 38) that students labor to learn along this passage, one, says his legal training helped prepare him provide another perspective: What it’s like in for the toughest job interview of his career, the the pipeline today. Before graduating in May, withering questioning last year during congres- Haile speed-walked through law school, earning sional oversight hearings for his current post. public interest fellowships, internships, and a And they are not alone. In another story, we top law school student honor, the St. Thomas learn how BC Law School gave Baltimore State’s More Award. Sturdivant is another quick study, Attorney Marilyn Mosby ’05 the legal backbone busily running for student office, organizing to bring charges against six police officers in the panel discussions, and doing community work, death of Freddie Gray, a stunning decision after all in the service of giving back. a spate of unrequited deaths at the hands of law Every law school is its own pipeline, of enforcement in black communities across the course, but there is something refreshingly wor- country. “The foundation of everything I learned thy in the pursuits of those who travel Boston was at BC, especially about being a prosecutor,” College Law School’s.

she says in the article about her on page 6. VICKI SANDERS, Editor Elsewhere, Alexander Chai joins other [email protected]

CONNECT

Don’t forget to update your informa- place. The BC Law Alumni Portal Participating firms and volunteer SUPPORT/GIVE Law School Fund Gifts to BC Law’s tion so the Law School and other gives you access to BC LawNet, the representatives provide perspective annual fund provide immediate alumni can reach you. Contact us at website where you can look up alumni on the changing legal industry, men- Light the World Campaign BC Law financial support for many of the Law [email protected], call 617-552- in an online directory, take advantage tor and recruit students, and partner is conducting an ambitious campaign School’s most important needs. It has 4378, or visit www.bc.edu/lawalumni. of career resources, register for events, with the Office of Advancement to to raise $50 million to directly support been used to fund financial aid for submit class notes, update your contact strengthen the alumni community. Law School priorities, notably endowed students, loan repayment assistance information, and maintain an @bc.edu Contact Amanda Angel, director professorships, scholarships, loan for alumni in public interest positions, forwarding address. Register now at of annual giving, at amanda.angel@ repayment assistance, faculty research, and faculty research grants. Contact ALUMNI RESOURCES www.bc.edu/lawnet. bc.edu or 617-552-8696. and Law School centers of excellence. Amanda Angel, director of annual The fundraising initiative is part of giving, at [email protected] or BC Law Magazine BC Law’s alumni Mentoring Program The 1L Mentor the University’s $1.5 billion campaign. 617-552-8696. magazine is published twice a year, in Program matches first-year students Contact Jessica Cashdan, executive January and June. To request a copy of VOLUNTEER with alumni volunteers in the city where director of advancement and associate Dean’s Council Giving Societies the latest printed edition or share news they want to practice and in the prac- dean, at [email protected] or call Members receive invitations to special items, press releases, letters to the edi- Reunion Committee The most tice area they are considering. Mentors 617-552-3536. receptions and events as well as enjoy tor, class notes, or photos, contact editor successful reunion celebrations are serve as informal advisors between stu- membership in comparable University- Vicki Sanders at [email protected] those that have engaged volunteers dents’ first- and second-year summers. Named Scholarships A number of wide giving societies. The Dean’s or call 617-552-2873. on our Reunion Committees. Com- Contact Christine Kelly ’97, director of scholars are selected each academic Council recognizes leadership gifts in mittees are formed the year before alumni relations, at christine.kelly.3@ year based on their demonstrated societies based on giving levels starting Alumni Chapters Chapters of the the reunion weekend, and participants bc.edu or call 617- 552-4703. leadership, financial need, academic at $1,500. Contact Amanda Angel, Alumni Association meet in locations can contribute as little as two hours excellence, or public service achieve- director of annual giving, at amanda. around the country and beyond to per month. Contact Amanda Angel, Judging Oral Advocacy Competi- ments, in accordance with donors’ [email protected] or call 617-552-8696. socialize, network, and share memories. director of annual giving, at amanda. tions Students participate in four preferences. The Dean’s Scholars To start a chapter, organize an event, or [email protected] or 617-552-8696. in-house competitions: Negotiations Program, established in 2013, awards Alumni Association Dues Program reach fellow alumni, contact Christine (early autumn), Mock Trial (late au- full-tuition merit scholarships to Dues exclusively fund activities and Kelly ’97, director of alumni relations, at Ambassadors Program The tumn), Client Counseling (late winter), exceptionally promising students. events for alumni. Support the dues pro- [email protected] or 617-552-4703. Ambassadors Program promotes and Moot Court (spring). Alumni are Contact Jessica Cashdan, executive gram by visiting www.bc.edu/lawdues engagement with and giving to BC needed to judge these competitions. director of advancement and associ- or contact Christine Kelly ’97, director Online Community Alumni services Law among alumni at law firms with Contact Rosemary Daly at rosemary. ate dean, at [email protected] of alumni relations, at christine.kelly.3@ are brought together in one convenient a large BC Law alumni presence. [email protected] or 617-552-0536. or call 617-552-3536. bc.edu or 617-552-4703.

2 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 Editor photograph by ADAM DETOUR CORRESPONDENCE

We’d like to hear from you. Send your letters to  BC Law Magazine, 885 Centre St., Newton, MA 02459-1163, or email to [email protected]. Please include your address, email, and phone number.

SUMMER 2015 hierarchy, dominance, and violence. And VOLUME 23 / NUMBER 2 Changing Rape Culture I agree with Professor Cassidy in his arti- unless/until we choose to change our DEAN cle “Lessons on Preventing Rape” [Winter culture, rapes are likely to continue and, Vincent Rougeau 2015] “that the best way to prevent sexual given the fearful environment, escalate. EDITOR assault on campus is to teach our sons not Lawrence Johnson ’75 Vicki Sanders to be rapists before they get there.” St. Louis, MO [email protected] I believe the way to do that requires CREATIVE DIRECTOR Magazine Heightens School’s Visibility our recognition—as with the growing Leaders Everywhere Robert F. Parsons BC Law Magazine has made an amazing awareness of the unconscious racial bias Kudos to the editors for the Winter SEVEN ELM sevenelm.com transformation this year. The increase in in our society—of the unconscious sexual 2015 issue of BC Law Magazine themed online presence, the boost in photography bias as well. The bias is “cultural”; it is “Leadership.” The cover photo of our CONTRIBUTING EDITOR and graphics, the widening in the scope of consciously and unconsciously conveyed guy Secretary of State John Kerry ’75, Deborah J. Wakefield content and coverage—all of these factors in every aspect of our society: families, portraying the brand of leadership BCLS

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS have elevated the prestige and reader- communication, education, religion, art, is capable of producing, worked for me, Glenda Buell ship of the magazine recently. I am seeing media, etc. The message is that women are as did the photos and blurbs of the fifteen Charles B. Fancher Jr. students share articles on social media, less equal than others and, therefore, may other impressive BC Law leaders. Chad Konecky send links in email chains, and have had be dominated. This results in women in I was also moved by another story, Ronald Makawa ’15 family and friends notice the magazine’s America becoming the victims of sexual “A Spot of Brown in a Sea of White,” the Margie Palladino ’85 articles and send them along too. These violence, every two minutes of every day. essay by IL Charlene Ochogo, a student Peter Perl David Reich efforts have already greatly contributed This message is being psychologically from Kentucky via Kenya who first ex- Maura King Scully to the Law School’s visibility in the com- internalized, not only by our sons but also perienced being called a “nigger” while Jane Whitehead munity and established a stronger place by everyone in the society: our fathers, in college. She certainly picked the right Jeri Zeder for BC Law in the dialogue about the law brothers, uncles, and grandfathers, who Law School to mold her brand of law that is happening online. The change of make excuses for such masculine behav- and social justice to redress these most CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Istvan Banyai the interface of the BC Law website has ior, and our mothers, daughters, aunts, unfortunate, recurrent issues. Her pres- Juliette Borda also been a catalyst for putting a spotlight nieces, and grandmothers, who often feel ence enriches BC Law. Soon her brand Tim Bower on the magazine’s strengths. Thank you guilty and to blame for being victimized, of leadership will benefit us, the Bar, and Jesse Burke for your hard work. so do not report their assaults. all of society. Suzi Camarata LSA President Alaina (Lainey) Sullivan ’15 These biases are inherent in our pre- Charles E. Walker Jr. ’78 Joe Ciardiello West Roxbury, MA vailing cultural paradigm of patriarchy, Dorchester Center, MA Adam DeTour Jacob Kepler Mark Ostow Christopher Soldt, MTS, BC CONTRIBUTORS Brian Stauffer Stephen Voss Kate Wolkoff

PRINTING Lane Press

Boston College Law School of Newton, Massachusetts 02459- 1163, publishes BC Law Magazine two times a year: in January and June. BC Law Magazine is printed by Lane Press in Burlington, VT. We welcome readers’ comments. Contact us by phone at 617-552- 2873; by mail at Boston College Law School Magazine, 885 Centre Street, Newton, MA 02459-1163; Chad Konecky Kate Wolkoff Joe Ciardiello Charles B. Fancher Jr. or by email at vicki.sanders@ WRITER Chad Konecky is an PHOTOGRAPHER Brooklyn photogra- ILLUSTRATOR Joe Ciardiello has WRITER Charles B. Fancher Jr. bc.edu. Copyright © 2015, internationally published journalist pher Katherine Wolkoff’s editorial been a freelance illustrator for has been a writer and editor on Boston College Law School. All with 10,000 bylines throughout work includes assignments for more than forty years. His work has the Philadelphia Inquirer and the publication rights reserved. a twenty-five-year career. His the New York Times Magazine, appeared in the New York Times Detroit Free Press, a corporate portfolio includes on-air duties for Atlantic, Real Simple, New York, Book Review, the New Yorker, Rock communications executive, and Opinions expressed in BC Law Magazine do not necessarily reflect SportsChannel’s coverage of the the New Yorker, Time, and Travel & Roll Hall of Fame, Rolling Stone, a lecturer in the School of Com- the views of Boston College Law NFL and a half-decade at ESPN. and Leisure. While photographing Smithsonian Magazine, Sports Illus- munications at Howard University. School or Boston College. Based in Gloucester, Massachu- the cover story at CNN (page 24), trated, and the Wall Street Journal. In his profile of Taisha Sturdivant setts, he is a full-time consultant she says she was “struck by how Among his awards are five medals ’16 on page 38, he finds an affect- for USA TODAY. In “It Takes Two” the anchor desk was right in the from the Society of Illustrators. He ing story of how intellect, fierce on page 24, he profiles antipodal middle of the newsroom. It was enjoys having the opportunity to determination, and grace chang- CNN legal analysts Mel Robbins a very hushed environment with in- create portraits of BC Law faculty ed her life and those of everyone

WOLKOFF: STEPHEN HILGER WOLKOFF: ’94 and Paul Callan’75. tense energy running throughout.” members (page 20). else she’s met.

Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 3 BEHIND THE COLUMNS Foremost “Just three years ago, many people dismissed as naïve the suggestion that law schools could work with members of the bar to launch small firms and solo practices that would serve low- and middle-income people. Now, incubators are up and running around the country and technological innovation is helping them to keep costs low.” Dean Vincent Rougeau

their ranks are quickly thinning. Law students today cannot expect to succeed in their work if they cannot master legal research using online tools. Not only is technology ubiquitous in law practice, it is a driving force behind the changing economics of the provision of legal services. Increasingly sophisticated technology has reduced the need for associates in big law firms by offering low-cost solutions to a number of tasks traditionally performed by junior lawyers. Technology also has made clients more demanding; they expect more work done more quickly at lower cost. Unfortunately, technology has not yet solved the problem of how to deliver high-quality legal services to the underserved at rates they can afford. Huge numbers of low- and middle-income Americans still have inad- equate access to legal advice, but there are hopeful signs of change. Law schools around the country, including Boston College, are working together to develop incuba- tor programs for solo and small firm practice, with one explicit goal being broader access to legal services. Just three years ago, many people dismissed as naïve the suggestion that law schools could work with members of the bar to launch small firms and solo practices that would serve low- and middle-income people. Now, incubators are up and running around the country and technological An Elusive Goal within Reach innovation is helping them to keep costs low. Technology seems poised to help more lawyers deliver affordable legal Technology—specifically access to the internet— moves these programs forward by driving down the cost assistance to the underserved. BY DEAN VINCENT ROUGEAU of running an office and reducing staff. Today’s attorneys need less office space, and many solo practitioners share A recent long weekend gave me time to catch up on a favorite televi- space or use “swing space” that they rent on an as-needed sion show, Mad Men. Although it is obviously highly stylized for our basis by the day or the week. Computers eliminate many viewing pleasure, this drama set in the advertising world of Madison expenses for copying and transmitting documents, Avenue in the 1960s offers reminders of how our everyday lives have dispense with the need for telephone service, and, yes, changed over the last fifty years. One fairly obvious difference be- provide legal research that once required a library. All of tween that time and now is the complete absence of personal com- this means lower fees. The rapidly expanding middle class that fueled the puters of any kind. But we do not have to go all the way back to the growth of the American economy and enriched “ad 1960s to encounter a time when computer technology was a mystery men” in the 1960s is a shadow of its former self. Today, to most people. ¶ Desktop personal computing only became wide- the middle class is shrinking and the concern is rising spread in offices in the 1980s and in homes somewhat later than that. income inequality. Huge disparities in wealth have not Now it is impossible for most us to imagine what life would be like traditionally been the hallmarks of stable democracies, without immediate access to smartphones, tablets, laptops, or desk- and it has not encouraged broader access to legal services in this country. Perhaps technology is a way to level the tops. There are few areas of our lives that technology has not touched playing field so that, one day, all American citizens can or changed, and our work as lawyers is no exception. ¶ Although get access to basic legal assistance, and the lawyers who some attorneys still hold out for research to be done “in the books,” serve them also might be able to make a decent living.

4 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 Photograph by SUZI CAMARATA Campus News and Events of Note

IN BRIEF 6 CANDID 12 IN THE FIELD 14 GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT 16 BRAINSTORM 18 FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP 20 EVIDENCE 22

EXPLORING MAGNA CARTA

On the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, it seemed appropriate to explore the presence of that iconic document in the Law Library’s collection. Professor Daniel R. Coquillette’s gift of his personal Magna Carta collection enabled the current exhibi- tion in the rare book room. Coquillette has written and lectured widely on the document, as has fellow legal historian Professor Mary Bilder.

To view the Magna Carta exhibit, go to www.bc.edu/magnacartaexhibit. Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 5 DOCKET In Brief

Another death of a young black man the morning of April 12, 2015, in a West Balti- The in the hands of police, this time, more neighborhood, and started running. The in Baltimore. But this time, things police pursued and arrested him. Within the Imperturbable would be different. This time, State’s Attor- hour, Gray was rushed to a hospital emergen- ney Marilyn J. Mosby ’05 spoke these words cy room. Two days later, he underwent spinal Marilyn on national television: “We have brought the surgery. He died on April 19. According to his following charges…” And she called for the family, his spine had been 80 percent severed. Mosby ’05 arrest of six police officers for crimes ranging Baltimore erupted in more than two weeks of How Baltimore’s state’s from misconduct in office to second-degree violent protests, which ended April 30 with attorney became the prosecutor depraved-heart murder. Mosby’s announcement. who quieted a troubled city. With that, Mosby rose to national promi- Mosby’s decision to charge the six police BY JERI ZEDER nence, and quelled the fires of a city that had officers involved in Gray’s arrest was widely been burning since the death of Freddie Gray. credited with calming the community, but Gray, a twenty-five year-old African Amer- there is no getting away from the tragedy of ican man, “made eye contact” with police on the situation. “This is not the kind of case

Marilyn Mosby, Balti- more state’s attorney, announced criminal charges against six police officers on May 1. “At the end of the day, this is where the facts have led me and I know that my pursuit is justice.” Marilyn Mosby ’05

that any prosecutor wants to see come across a glimpse of Mosby’s developing philosophy of her desk,” said Tracey West, BC Law’s associate criminal justice. Mosby represented a woman Extra! Extra! dean for external relations, diversity, and inclu- who had violated the terms of her probation. For faculty, the medium is sion. She was a faculty advisor to Mosby when When Mosby realized that her client had a sub- often the message. Mosby was a student. stance abuse problem, she started pushing the Mosby, all of thirty-five and on the job only probation officer for time in a treatment program As BC Law’s thought leaders figure since January, has been widely lauded and also instead of prison. The probation officer kept re- more prominently in public discourse, their commentary and perspectives are criticized for taking swift action in the case of fusing, but Mosby kept advocating, and he even- generating media coverage and influenc- Freddie Gray. Yet she appears calm in the center tually relented. Her client went into a residential ing the debate on many pressing issues. of the storm. “At the end of the day, this is where treatment program, got clean, and then stayed on Professor Robert Bloom, for ex- the facts have led me and I know that my pursuit as a counselor to other women seeking treat- ample, was a top legal authority on the is justice,” she said in a recent phone interview. ment. When Mosby’s law school graduation drew Dzhokhar Tsarnaev marathon bombing case. More than thirty-five media outlets “The foundation of everything that I learned near, the probation officer contacted Beckman. and programs, among them ABC, was at BC, especially about being a prosecutor,” “He wanted to know if he could write a letter of NBC, and Reuters, sought his opinion she continued. “In making the decision and recommendation for Marilyn,” Beckman said. on everything from whether Tsarnaev ultimately understanding that the duties and Clinical Professor Evangeline Sarda, who would take the witness stand to why the obligations of a prosecutor is to seek justice had Mosby in her seminar on authority and sentencing phase of the trial would be when the case would be won or lost. over convictions—that was instilled in me in my leadership, said that Mosby’s rich biography Writing in the Boston Globe before prosecutorial ethics course [taught by Profes- provides advantages as she tackles the role of the jury sentenced Tsarnaev, Assistant sor Michael Cassidy]. That’s the foundation of Baltimore’s lead prosecutor. In high school, Professor Kari Hong took issue with car- who I am and what I believe, and it started at Mosby was in METCO, the oldest desegregation rying out a death sentence with drugs: BC,” she said. program in the country, and at one point was the “There’s an underlying problem with the protocol, which is to spare us from hav- In fact, Mosby’s choices during law school only black child in her school. She graduated ing to face the reality of what it means suggest that she was intentionally preparing with honors, attended Tuskegee University in for society to sanction a killing. It’s less herself for a career in criminal justice. She Alabama, the first in her family to go to college, disturbing to visualize someone drifting worked for the US attorney’s office in Boston and received a presidential scholarship. She off into a fatal sleep than to imagine a and DC, and for Boston’s Suffolk County ho- comes from five generations of police officers. bullet-riddled corpse. Put another way, if we can’t stomach the rifle, we should be micide unit. Besides prosecutorial ethics, she “The complexity of her experience, what she equally squeamish with the needle.” took courses in Criminal Law, Constitutional represents, the fact that she wants to be a voice Even Gasson Chair Professor Law I and II, a seminar in theories of punish- for any victim and, at the same time, her affilia- Frank Brennan, SJ, who has returned ment, a seminar called Authority and Leader- tions with the police department—I think that to Australia after his year at BC Law, ship in Professional Life, and she served in the managing all these inner tensions is a strength commented on the case in EurekaStreet, saying that “the death penalty is always Civil Litigation Clinic and in the year-long BC of hers,” Sarda said. political, macabre, and undermining of Defenders clinic. She wrote a research paper What Mosby learned since leaving BC Law the rule of law regardless of which legal looking closely at two cases that affected her is that Baltimore and communities across the system attempts to apply it.” personally: the murder outside her home in country are extremely distrustful of law en- Professors were also consulted on Dorchester, when she was just fourteen, of her forcement and the criminal justice system. “You other timely matters: George Brown, author of “Stealth Statute—Corruption, seventeen-year-old cousin by another seven- have to think of ways to address that so you can the Spending Power and the Rise of teen-year-old, and the conviction of another ultimately get your job done,” she said. To that U.S.C. § 666,” spoke to the New Jersey young cousin for attempted murder. end, in her short time as state’s attorney, she has Record about the wisdom of using the “I wanted a well-rounded perspective and I instituted a number of community programs statute to build a case against Governor really wanted to understand the dynamics of the intended to break down what she calls “the Chris Christie staffers involved in the George Washington Bridge lane criminal justice system,” she said. Ultimately, barriers of distrust.” A cornerstone of that effort closure. Brian Quinn weighed in with she chose a career as a prosecutor because, she is the appointment of community liaisons for Reuters on T Rowe Price’s challenge explained, “of the awesome amount of discre- every section of the city. to the Dell buyout. Professor David tion that prosecutors have that I believe not only From the age of fourteen, after her cousin’s Olson penned an op-ed in the Chicago affects the victims of crime, and the defendants, murder, Mosby said she has wanted to keep Tribune on music streaming. Cathleen Kaveny talked to Bloomberg about the but the community.” young people from choosing a life of crime. It’s a new Indiana religious freedom law. Kent As Mosby’s supervisor in the BC Defenders journey she continues as state’s attorney for the Greenfield spoke to the New York Times clinic, Clinical Professor Sharon Beckman got troubled—and hopeful—city of Baltimore. about the Etsy IPO.

Photograph by ALEX BRANDON/AP PHOTO Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 7 DOCKET In Brief

YOUNG RETIREMENTS ACHIEVERS Speaking Truth to Power Alaskan Sam Gottstein ’15 parlayed law the way he loved the law,” Markey said, his Boston College Law Review note calling Katz a great teacher and wise advisor. on domestic and sexual assault and Fellow long-time professor Hugh Ault alcohol abuse among Alaska Na- described how academic careers often tives into a Clough Center travel grant that enabled him to testify take one of two paths: People become before the Alaska State Legislature revered scholars in their ivory tower or in March. He discussed tribal juris- they become deeply invested in their com- diction and how the status quo in munity. “What Sanford has done is both of Alaska fails to adequately protect them,” Ault said. the rural Alaska Native population from this violence. His note argued Former research assistant Phillip that the State of Alaska has been Professor Katz, Weiner ’80 spoke of coming to law school center, with friends the main impediment to jurisdic- and family. determined to be a labor lawyer only to tional reforms and that Congress have his career path rerouted by Katz, who and the State of Alaska should felt his potential lay elsewhere. “They say expand tribal jurisdiction to give Alaska Natives the ability to stem that certain teachers do have an impact,” Weiner the tide of the epidemic. While ‘ A Historic Night’ noted. “That happened to me, all because Sanford in Juneau, Gottstein met with the Admirers recall Professor Katz’s loyalty and Katz said, ‘Try criminal law.’” Weiner became a war Lieutenant Governor and legisla- caring at retirement party. BY VICKI SANDERS crimes tribunal judge who, at Katz’s urging, estab- tors, testified before the House lished an internship program at The Hague to which Judiciary Committee, and gave a Lunch and Learn presentation that Professor Sanford Katz’s son Andy summed things Katz happily ever after recommended students. was broadcast statewide. up in one sentence: “This is a historic night.” He A whole host of other speakers also expressed was speaking at the May 7 retirement party for his their fondness and admiration for Katz. Among them Selfless Acts Shannon Johnson ’15 was selected as one of two law father, a BC Law faculty member for forty-seven was Professor Ruth-Arlene Howe ’74, who said of students to receive a Merit Dis- years. The event drew friends, colleagues, and family him: “He was my first teacher, then a colleague, then tinction for the PSJD Pro Bono from across the country—including about a dozen a promoter, then a supporter.” Publico Award, which honors of Katz’s former research assistants—who came to Beaming and characteristically avuncular, Katz one law student nationwide for pay tribute to his prodigious output as a scholar and, began his remarks with a nod to T. S. Eliot. “It’s the his or her pro bono contribution to society. Shannon was selected more personally, his unflagging commitment to gen- journey, not the arrival that matters,” he said. He talk- because of her single-minded erations of students as both teacher and mentor. ed about his mentors and said he’d tried to continue dedication to immigrant youth. One of those students, US Senator Ed Markey their tradition by encouraging his own students. Matt Brooks ’15 was also a finalist ’72, recalled in his remarks having arrived at the Law Finally, he reminded the audience that with a for the award for his work reviving School as a student on the same day in the same year book in the works, he was not yet saying goodbye. the anti-foreclosure task force. that Katz arrived as a professor. “He made you love the “I’m not going away,” he said. “So I’ll see you around.” Third Time’s the Charm This is the third consecutive year (and the fourth overall) that a Admissions chief Rita Jones Simpson fisherman,” or “one of you is a film- Law School student has won the is on to the next chapter. For the 2,600 maker.” It helped break the ice among prestigious Deak Award. The students who’ve enrolled at BC Law the newcomers and made them curious winner is Kathryn Manza ’14 for over the past decade, the presence of about one another, Simpson says. her note, “Making Chocolate Simpson in the Admissions Office is a In the past ten years alone, 59,059 Sweeter: How to Encourage familiar one. This June she retired after applications have crossed Simpson’s Hershey Company to Clean Up ten years as assistant dean for admis- desk. She feels honored. “I’m happy Its Supply Chain and Eliminate sions and financial aid and nine previous for the opportunity to give someone Child Labor,” which appeared in years as associate director. else the chance I’ve had to do the work the Boston College International Simpson was the person at 1L I’ve loved so much,” she says. orientation who had scoured all the “Shaping an incoming class that and Comparative Law Review. The incoming class’s files for interesting best represents the unique nature of Deak Award is bestowed by Ox- nuggests of information. “One of you this institution is a mixture of both ford University Press for the best headed a music department at a private art and science,” says Dean Vincent international law student article in school,” she might say in her welcoming Rougeau. “Without question, Rita was Rita Jones Simpson a student-edited law journal. speech, “one of you was a commercial the right person for the job.” —VS

8 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 “A case doesn’t need to reach staggering numbers to be considered a genocide. It could [be] fifty if done in an attempt to destroy a people.” HHRP lecturer Maung Zarni

Where Is the Will to Buddhist monks, Buddhist people are involved in … throwing young children into houses which Stop Mass Killings? have been set afire—it shook me to the core,” he Genocide can’t be measured by said. Buddhists are taught not to kill living crea- the lives it takes. The defining metric tures, even ants. How could they, of all groups,

is the will to destroy. BY DAVID REICH he wondered aloud, perpetrate a genocide? Speaker The answer, he said, is common to every Maung Zarni When we hear the word genocide, many of us genocide: The perpetrator learns to see himself think of mass killings like the Jewish and Ar- as a victim, and a defender of his nation or menian holocausts or the slaughter of Rwan- ethnic group. “We have to frame the target of After the Rwandan genocide, the interna- dan Tutsis, but according to Maung Zarni, a the attack as a threat to our livelihood, a threat tional community, through the UN, assumed Burmese scholar and activist affiliated with to our national community, as a virus, a leach, a “responsibility to protect,” yet the world has Harvard and the London School of Economics, a bloodsucker,” he said. “Buddhists can go to a not protected the Rohingyas, Zarni said. When “a case doesn’t need to reach staggering num- monastery and accumulate good karma while alerted to the genocide, government officials bers to be considered a genocide. It could [be] constructing Rohingyas as allies of Al Qaeda, from the US and Europe say, “Don’t rock the fifty if done in an attempt to destroy a people.” as Muslim terrorists.” The internet has made boat, [Burma’s military government] is open- On April 13, Zarni gave a passionate lecture, this brand of rhetoric easier to disseminate. ing up, if you push them too hard they will go sponsored by the Law School’s Owen M. “If you’ve got broadband,” said Marni, “hate back into their shell,” according to Zarni, who Kupferschmid Holocaust and Human Rights spreads very fast.” cited Burma’s strategic move away from China Project, about the slow-motion genocide of his All genocides, including the one in Burma, and its strengthening economic ties to West- country’s Rohingya Muslim ethnic group by have another common element, Zarni said, in ern nations as reasons for the governments’ members of the Buddhist majority, a crime that that genocidal acts are orchestrated, not spon- reluctance to act. has involved explicit violence on a relatively taneous. “This is not like football hooliganism,” He urged the forty-some audience members modest scale but also techniques like forced he said, “where your team lost and you want to to contact their congressional representatives birth control, forced relocation, and denial of express your rage. You always find an organiza- and media outlets on behalf of the Rohingyas. access to food and medical care. tion, you always find leaders who are mobiliz- “A hundred years after the Armenian genocide,” Zarni, raised a Buddhist, described his shock ing public opinion [in favor of] an act that is he said, “we are still a long, long way from mak- at learning the details. “When you [find out] that otherwise unthinkable.” ing [the] worthy slogan ‘Never Again’ a reality.”

AROUND THE ACADEMY

Elisabeth J. Medvedow BC Andrew Liu After receiving his Mary Holper Under the associate Frank Brennan, SJ During his visit Mithra Merryman The Greater Law’s Rappaport Center for Law LLM/MBA from BC in 2014, Liu clinical professor’s supervision, four as Gasson Chair, Brennan delivered Boston Legal Services senior attor- and Public Policy in May welcomed has enjoyed great success. He students in the BC Law Immigration major lectures, including “Autonomy ney and BC Law adjunct professor Medvedow as its new executive returned in February to talk with Clinic won an asylum grant for a and the Common Good: The Case was this year’s honoree at the 27th director. She came to the Law students about the value of an Honduran man who feared persecu- Study of Law and Policy Relating Annual PILF Auction. She spoke at School from Discovering Justice, advanced degree and of member- tion because he was a former po- to Euthanasia and Physician As- the gathering in March about her a Boston-based civic and justice ship in the New York Bar if they lice officer. Shannon Johnson and sisted Suicide” and “Human Rights work helping women victimized by education nonprofit. The center also seek employment in international Matt Geduldig got him released on and the National Interest: The domestic violence. Merryman di- announced its twelve 2015 Fellows business. Within a short period bond and secured a critical country Case Study of Asylum, Migration, rects the Latinas Know Your Rights selected from area law schools for after joining China’s Fosun Group conditions expert; Shayna Sehayik and National Border Protection.” Project, which supports victims of summer public policy and public as executive director, he played a filed relevant documents and He also completed two books, No such violence in immigrant com- service positions. BC Law’s partici- role in its merger with Australia’s briefing; and Cristina Manzano and Small Change: The Road to Recogni- munities through representation in pants are 1Ls James Bor, Malgorzata Roc Oil Company and became the Melina Munoz did more briefing tion for Indigenous Australia and family law, immigration, and public

PHOTOGRAPHS, KATZ, HHRP AND BRENNAN: CHRISTOPHER SOLDT, MTS, BC; SIMPSON: NATE KENYON NATE BC; SIMPSON: MTS, SOLDT, HHRP AND BRENNAN: CHRISTOPHER KATZ, PHOTOGRAPHS, Mrózek, and Amani Kancey. new entity’s CFO. and conducted the five-hour trial. Amplifying That Still, Small Voice. benefits proceedings.

Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 9 DOCKET In Brief

The conversation ranged from income disparities and social justice to segregation and voting rights. Shapiro, who has done extensive research on racial inequality and public policy, said his mantra is to let no fact go uninterpreted. He cited the fact that the typical white family in the US has about $111,000 in financial assets, compared to the average black family’s $7,000 in assets. Shapiro dismissed some peoples’ claims that this gap is due to a person’s lack of education, lack of hard work, and marital status. The racial wealth gap won’t be understood, he said, until society looks at the institutions and policies that lead to such high gains for one group in our society. Wells agreed that a truthful coming to terms Clockwise from top left, Susan with racism is Maze-Rothstein needed. A funda- (at the lectern), mental problem, Tom Shapiro, Catharine Wells, and she said, is that Darnell Williams. many whites don’t understand racism. Law Students Association (BLSA), They believe that if they ignore Are We in an the Jesuit Institute at Boston the problem, then everything will College, and the Law School Office be OK. This is wrong, she said, ‘Equality Recession’? of the Dean this past spring to and it is whites’ responsibility to Panel explores causes and effects of turning discuss the “equality recession.” educate themselves about racism. a blind eye to injustices. BY GLENDA BUELL That’s a term coined by two lead- Wells’ own understanding on ers of BLSA, Alvin Reynolds ’15 the matter began to emerge in Last year the nation marked the sixtieth anniversary of the and Taisha Sturdivant ’16. adulthood after a conversation Brown v Board of Education ruling, in which the Supreme The panelists, experts in urban with an African American friend. Court struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine. Many advocacy (Darnell L. Williams, She had grown up in a small New other civil rights victories followed the high court’s decision, including CEO of the Urban League of East- England town where only one the Voting Rights Act. And now a black man lives in the White House. ern Massachusetts), social policy black family lived. But recently there have been rumblings in the black community and economics (Tom Shapiro, She told her friend that she about what some view as setbacks to the advancements in civil rights: professor and director of the In- had not personally known any unarmed black men being shot by cops; the school-to-prison pipeline; at- stitute on Assets and Social Policy blacks until she went to college. tacks on voting rights; income and education disparities between whites at Brandeis University), and civil The friend asked Wells why more and blacks. This all calls into question how far we have really gotten, said rights theory (BC Law professor people of color didn’t live in her Susan Maze-Rothstein ’85. Catharine Wells), explored some hometown. Wells was stumped. Maze-Rothstein, a Northeastern Law School professor, was modera- of the issues pertaining to the She thought it was probably the tor of a forum hosted by BC Law School and co-sponsored by the Black “equality recession.” result either of “natural forces” or

To view the Equality Recession panel discussion, 10 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 go to www.bc.edu/equalityrecessionevent. Photographs by ADAM DETOUR “While Massachusetts was one of the last states to enact a law mandating evidence retention and access to evidence for scientific testing, the working group’s collaboration is a great model for future reform.” Professor Sharon Beckman

because it was such a sleepy little No More Wrongful mittee for Public Assistance Services Innocence town with not much going on that Program), public interest lawyers (the New blacks didn’t want to live there. Convictions England Innocence Project), prosecutors (the Her friend challenged her Unusual group of collaborators work to keep Middlesex District Attorney’s Office and the assumptions and suggested Wells the innocent free. BY JERI ZEDER Suffolk District Attorney’s Office), courts (the read Sundown Towns by James Middlesex Superior Court Clerk’s Office and W. Loewen. She learned from It’s a shocking piece of an already shocking story. the Suffolk Superior Clerk’s Office), and police the book that some New England Lowell, Massachusetts, native Dennis Maher (the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab and communities once had ordinances spent more than nineteen years in prison (1984- the Boston Police Crime Lab). They have been prohibiting blacks from being in 2003) for two sexual assaults he did not com- working together to identify cases with viable town after sundown. Also, as more mit. While incarcerated, he sought exoneration post-conviction innocence claims and conduct freed slaves began moving north, through DNA testing, but was repeatedly denied DNA testing when possible. They are also work- developers put restrictive cov- without so much as a hearing. Then a law student ing to improve systems for storing and preserving enants in deeds. Some blacks who on his Innocence Project case got an idea from a criminal evidence after convictions. The group’s had lived in town for awhile saw Hollywood movie based on the true story of exon- work is being funded through grants from the their houses burned down. Others eree Kenny Waters: She persuaded a Middlesex National Institute of Justice, a subsidiary of the were arrested and lynched. Court clerk to look for Maher’s trial evidence in US Department of Justice. Understanding history is es- the courthouse basement. “While Massachusetts was one of the last sential to rooting out lingering And there it was. states to enact a law mandating evidence reten- racism, Wells said. “It’s hard to DNA testing proved Maher innocent of one of tion and access to evidence for scientific testing, accept our responsibility if we are the rapes. Weeks later, evidence from his second the working group’s collaboration is a great ignorant about why things are the rape trial miraculously materialized, and DNA model for future reform,” says Clinical Professor way they are.” testing again proved him innocent. But here’s the Sharon Beckman, director of the BC Law In- Panelist Williams pointed to thing. Had those boxes of evidence been properly nocence Program who was recently appointed to recent attempts to suppress voter catalogued and accessibly stored, Maher’s time in the SJC’s committee on eyewitness protection. participation as history repeating prison might very well have been cut in half. Seven working-group members attended the itself. Williams, who served on the A panel of criminal justice experts came to the panel discussion, “Collaborating Against Wrong- National Commission on Voting Law School in March to discuss efforts underway ful Convictions,” moderated by Beckman and by Rights, said he learned that it in Massachusetts to correct the circumstances students Jennifer Flynn, Jennifer Henricks, and wasn’t just a “black problem.” La- faced by Maher, Waters, and many others. The Lauren Robbins. Panelists told disturbing stories tinos, Asian Americans, and Na- panelists were members of the Post-Conviction of evidence stowed in sketchy courthouse cellars tive Americans are facing similar DNA Testing Assistance Program Working and poorly resourced police stations, of bloody challenges in voting. He called the Group, which is addressing a 2012 statute, Chap- shirts displayed to juries on poster board, stuffed government-issued voter ID laws ter 278A, “Post-Conviction Access to Forensic into plastic bags, and left to degrade, undocu- in some states the most “perni- and Scientific Analysis.” The law establishes mented, in storage, of drug evidence mishandled cious” voter suppression tactic. procedures for DNA testing and other scientific at trial by order of a judge, and of murder weapons Student Roxana Ortez asked analysis in wrongful conviction cases, and sets passed among the gloveless hands of jurors. The the panelists how she and her forth rules for the retention, working group is assembling a best practices peers could engage in conversa- handling, preservation, and Left to right, Middlesex manual for inventorying, tracking, and storing County Assistant DA Joe tions about race. storage of evidence. Gentile, Suffolk County evidence for future DNA innocence cases, and Wells suggested they organize The working group is Assistant DA Elianna Nuzum, Middlesex and Suffolk counties are preparing and Massachusetts State book groups around this subject, an unusual collaboration of Police Crime Lab Deputy inventories of their evidence and starting the much as students in the 1960s did public defenders (Com- Director Lynn Schneeweis. preservation process. Given that more than 30 on such topics as black power and percent of the Massachusetts prison population the Vietnam War. is in Suffolk and Middlesex counties together, this In summation, Shapiro re- initiative will touch a significant number of cases. called a friend once telling him, Much more work is needed, panelists empha- “Hegemony is hard work; undoing sized. Counsel, police, and courts need training, it is even harder.” He added, “and storage facilities must be built and maintained,

INNOCENCE PANEL: CHRISTOPHER SOLDT, MTS, BC MTS, SOLDT, CHRISTOPHER INNOCENCE PANEL: that’s the task ahead of us.” and tracking systems must be put into place.

Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 11 DOCKET Candid “Just living in a poverty-stricken neighborhood can lead to more contact with the justice system, and that in itself is unfair.”

STUDENT The Solution SNAPSHOT Provenance Grew up on cam- Seeker puses in Connecticut and Ohio, the son of a prep school English Andrew Haile ’15 finds his calling in helping others. teacher. “They were really great INTERVIEW BY JANE WHITEHEAD places to grow up, but also a bit of a bubble.” Learning BA in English, Middlebury College. I started to get really passionate about poverty and Pre-Law Public health volunteer homelessness when I studied abroad in Paris. Some- with Peace Corps in Guinea, thing that really gripped me and a couple of friends was immigration counselor and Board of Immigration Appeals accred- the high homelessness rate there, and back at Middle- ited representative, Greensboro, bury a group of us helped found an outreach program to North Carolina. Languages a local shelter. English, French, Fulani. At BC Law Public Service Scholarship recipient; BC Law Review articles I really wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone— editor; Clough public interest law prep school, leafy Middlebury—and decided the Peace fellow and academic law fellow; Public Interest Law Founda- Corps was a good way to do that. I picked Sub-Saharan tion community events chair; Africa, and because I had French, they sent me to a Committee for Public Counsel francophone country, Guinea. Services Roxbury/Dorchester Division certified legal intern; Fellowship at Auschwitz for the Back in the US I was looking for something that Study of Professional Ethics allowed me to use my language skills and do cross- (FASPE) fellow. Honor Recipi- ent of BC Law St. Thomas More cultural work. I got a job working for a refugee resettle- Award. Hangout “You’d prob- ment agency in Greensboro, North Carolina, which is ably find me lurking somewhere where my wife is from. We focused mainly on victims around the PILF lounge.” Next Clerkship with Judge Paul J. of persecution. Barbadoro ’80, US judge for the District of New Hampshire. One case that I wrapped up just before coming to law school was an asylum case for a deaf Ghanaian woman who had suffered horrible domestic abuse. We had a peerless ASL interpreter and worked closely with her for three months, getting a comprehensive story. So when she got asylum, it was a wonderful moment.

We enforce our laws in an inequitable way. As activist Bryan Stevenson says, the justice system in many ways treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent. Just living in a poverty-stricken neighborhood can lead to more contact with the justice system, and that in itself is unfair.

I love working directly with clients at CPCS [Com- mittee for Public Counsel Services], and I love being my clients’ champion. It can be stressful, because the stakes are high. My very limited experience thus far is that clients get a sense of whether or not you really care. And when you do show them that you care, about their family, about their life, even when a case doesn’t go your way, they tend to be very gracious.

12 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 Photograph by ADAM DETOUR

DOCKET In the Field

POCKET RÉSUMÉ

Kate Barton ’87 From “humble origins” in Brighton, Massachu- setts, to Americas Vice Chair for Tax Services with Ernst & Young. Challenges Staying true to the overall agenda because every week brings a new “crisis.” Location New York, New York. Passion Spending time with her family, including her mother, three siblings, and beloved nieces and nephews, all still close to home in Boston.

Kate Barton ’87 oversees 13,000 people and $4 billion dollars in setts CPA exam during her senior A Head for business as Americas Vice Chair for Tax Services with Ernst & year. “But I kept working for the Young (EY). It’s a daunting task by any measure, but Barton is firm, and as it started to build out Numbers quick to credit her success to the people she works with, the clients they a specialized international tax Kate Barton is that rare serve, and—no joke—her local Upper West Side SoulCycle studio, where group, it just fit.” person who uses “tax” and “fun” she heads every morning at 5 a.m. to let loose and cycle fast. At the time, Barton was one of a in the same sentence. “You have to have a good team or you can’t do your job,” says Barton, few women in the Boston office; she BY MAURA KING SCULLY who found her way to EY thirty years ago through a BC Law friend, Ed went on to become the first woman Hanley ’86. “Ed had spent a summer at the firm, which was then called tax partner there. She was also Ernst & Whinney. He took my résumé to his office and helped me to get the first tax managing partner for an internship for the summer after my first year of law school.” a geographical region (New Eng- That 1985 internship changed the direction of her life. “I thought I land) and, today, is the only woman would go into business law,” recalls Barton, who majored in business vice chair for tax services among and accounting in college and had impressively passed the Massachu- the “big four” accounting firms.

14 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 Photograph by CHRISTOPHER CHURCHILL 1 2 3 4 5 6

“When I started, all of the relationships from law struggling with substance meetings, with both my col- Paths to Success school are as valuable as abuse and mental health is- leagues and clients, were men and Alumni find career satisfaction in unusual places. the degree.” sues, enabling them to lead productive and law-abiding me,” she says. “Now, 50 percent 1. F. Thomas O’Halloran ’80 vestors seeking permanent 4. Deborah Silva ’92 lifestyles. Breaking Barri- of EY staff are women and they Change of Plans A former US residency. Best Part Justice for All As direc- ers She was the first Korean make up 51 percent of our tax trial lawyer, he headed to “Working with younger tor of the Equal Justice American judge appointed practice. EY has made supporting the world of Wall Street in attorneys on my team Coalition, she provides in Massachusetts. Advice and promoting women a priority.” 1987 and now is partner who are eager to learn.” civil legal aid to one mil- “If you are afraid of trying a and portfolio manager for Revelation “I’m surprised lion low-income people in case, find a case to try. Gain Barton heads a practice that Lord Abbett, a privately that every experience I had Massachusetts. Misper- credibility and confidence covers all aspects of a company’s held investment manage- in seemingly unrelated ceptions “I spend a lot of by tackling those things tax life cycle, including compli- ment firm. He directs the fields helps me in things I time correcting the incred- you fear most.” ance, reporting, tax account- firm’s small cap growth, do today. There is no such ibly widespread belief that ing, planning, and controversy micro cap growth, and thing as time wasted.” people who live in poverty 6. Marta Villacorta ’07 growth equity strategies. do so because they are too Self-Starter Not many in North, South, and Central How He Does It “I always 3. Kyle Robertson ’08 lazy to work, even though, American attorneys end America as well as Israel. throw myself at more than Trajectory He worked as in many instances, they up in Micronesia, let alone “When people meet me, they I can handle. I love the an artificial intelligence are trying to make ends as the court attorney for can’t believe I do tax,” she says contest I am engaged in.” engineer before law school, meet by working two or the Chuuk State Supreme with characteristic exuberance. No Regrets “Law taught did a stint at WilmerHale, even three jobs.” Satisfac- Court. Her Role “As me to make decisions in and is now founder of tion “What I love about one of the four states of Quick to laugh and down to earth, complex matters, and trial NarrativeDx, an analytics my job is knowing that my the Federated States of Barton views her work as a kind law transformed my com- platform that helps hospi- work has contributed to Micronesia, Chuuk’s legal of game. “For me, it’s about solv- munication skills.” tals improve patient care leveling the playing field.” system is evolving. I had ing complicated puzzles. My law and engagement. Input the opportunity to serve degree helps me reason through 2. Julia Yong-hee Park ’05 “There is a strong financial 5. Eleanor C. Sinnott ’89 as a legal advisor to the The Journey Originally incentive for hospitals to Career She served in five state court judges on problems and understand regula- from Korea, she practiced understand what patients the US Navy and was both civil and criminal tions. What’s fun is that I’ve securities law at Cravath are saying and how they appointed to the Boston matters.” Advice “Don’t always enjoyed coming up with for four years before can improve. Our technol- Municipal Court bench in be afraid to step outside tax structures that fit our clients’ launching a solo immigra- ogy turns masses of patient 2006. Currently, the found- of your comfort zone and businesses.” tion practice. Now is man- narratives about care ing and presiding judge explore new territories, aging director of a New experiences into action- of the Boston Veterans even if that means you Today, mentorship is one of York EB-5 regional center able insights in real time.” Treatment Court, which have to travel 8,000 miles her key focuses as a leader, par- that assists immigrant in- Wisdom “The long-lasting helps rehabilitate veterans to get there.” —MKS ticularly as the executive sponsor for the EY Black Professional Network, one of the firm’s many affinity groups. Bold Move Leads to Unexpected Rewards “EY has a special culture that Alex Hood ’10 Five years ago, Alex Hood was about to join include three full-time and two part-time attorneys, and is now is conducive to mentorship, spon- the largest law firm in Colorado when, like incoming associates almost exclusively focused on class action suits. “We do boots- sorship, and opportunity,” she across the nation, he was handed a one-year furlough. on-the-ground intake at worker centers and other locations With an interest in immigrant workers rights, Hood and a where we can educate people about their employment rights. explains. “I grew up in Brighton, lawyer friend launched Towards Justice to fill the year. “Our Then, we either litigate cases ourselves or refer them to other from very humble origins. The mission was to help the immigrant Spanish-speaking commu- attorneys or agencies that can help.” first twenty-five years of my ca- nity with all types of legal needs,” recalls Hood, who became In 2014, Towards Justice handled 270 intakes, represented reer were about getting to where so immersed in the work that he gave up the big firm offer. 166 workers and settled its first class action for $300,000, I needed to go. I tell people that, “But we quickly homed in on wage theft.” filed on behalf of illegally compensated grocery store work- The Colorado Fiscal Institute estimates that state workers ers. Towards Justice is currently litigating eight class cases in on one hand, you should always be are deprived of $749.5 million per year. The Colorado Depart- the Colorado state and federal courts. The Washington Post reaching up the career ladder. On ment of Labor and Employment receives an average of 5,000 reported on Towards Justice’s nationwide class action on behalf the other, you should be reaching complaints a year and recovers about $1 million in unpaid wages, of 50,000 current and former au pairs in the State Department’s down to lift others up. Now that but it doesn’t have the J-1 visa program, alleging anti-trust violations, fraud, and that I’m in my legacy period, one of my resources to keep up with the au pairs were paid below $4.35 an hour, which is less than the volume of grievances. federal minimum wage and the minimum wage of many states. top goals is helping young people “We have a two-prong “It’s still shocking to me when people show up with pay stubs to achieve success. It is one way to approach,” says Hood, that say they are working sixty hours per week with no overtime,”

SILVA: JOEL BENJAMIN SILVA: make the working world better.” whose office has grown to says Hood. “The scope of the problem is tremendous.” —MKS

Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 15 DOCKET Global Engagement

Asking the Deeper Questions Professor Kohler’s exploration of philosophy and German labor law provides rare insight into fundamental differences in how Americans and Europeans think. BY JERI ZEDER

At the family dinner table one night in Saginaw, Michigan, when Thomas Kohler was just in high school, he turned to his father and proclaimed: “The unions have ruined Michigan.” “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” his father said. The next thing Tom knew, his father, a labor relations manager for Michigan Bell Telephone, arranged for Tom’s attendance at a union meeting. Tom wound up writing his school term paper on US labor history, and after that, Kohler recalls, “I swore I would never touch a labor issue again.” Famous last words. Today, Kohler is an international authority on comparative labor law specializing in the labor laws of Germany. Regularly sought after for his expertise by international corporations, NGOs, governments, and international news media, Kohler speaks, researches, and publishes extensively not only in the US, but also in Germany—and in the German language. “He is the only American in his profession who is doing this,” says Michael Kittner, a German professor and former legal counsel to the world’s largest labor union. Kohler’s German colleagues consider him one of their own. Kohler is also a philosopher who populates his lectures and writings with the likes of Nathan Glazer, G.K. Chesterton, Tocqueville, Edmund Burke, Aristotle, and Hugh of St. Victor. His reflections on humanity’s biggest questions—Who are we? How are we

Photograph by ADAM DETOUR related to one another? What do Board as a federal hiring freeze caught up with Simitis, his profes- we owe ourselves and each oth- descended. In 1979, he practiced sor from Yale. Kohler won German GLOBE-TROTTING er?—include the words “love” and labor law at a firm in Grand Rap- Marshall Fund and Fulbright Collaborating Across the Pond “friendship.” He thinks deeply ids, and in 1981, went off to Yale scholarships to teach and study at While a student in the London Program last semester, Rita Muse about Catholic social thought and Law School for his LL.M. Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe Univer- ’15 interned at Justice, where she its connection to the European There, Kohler met the first sität in Frankfurt, and he started was tasked with creating a report idea of Solidarity. A framed photo mentor of his emerging career, making important connections for Parliament detailing why victims of Cesar Chavez adorns his office Professor Julius Getman. Get- with German labor law’s leading of “miscarriages of justice” (in windowsill. man was an advisor to Poland’s thinkers and practitioners. American parlance, “wrongful convictions”) should be compensated. “At a time when there has been Solidarity Movement, and Kohler stands out for his When Muse, who had studied under a shifting away from a focus on Kohler, meanwhile, was awaken- mastery of German labor law. “He BC Innocence Project Director labor, unions, and working people, ing to foundational questions is able to understand the system Sharon Beckman, contacted the Tom has nurtured students who of his life’s work: “Why is it that much, much better than most professor for guidance, Beckman will be representing employers American law can’t deal with people do,” says Goethe Univer- connected her to Christopher Skall ’16, who’d written a paper on the and students who will be repre- groups and associations, it can sität Professor Manfred Weiss. topic. His work enabled Muse to senting employees and given them only deal with individuals?” This, Weiss suggests, gives Kohler include in her report timely research a balanced understanding of how he wondered. Kohler turned to unusual insight into the strengths on US exoneree compensation laws. the law impacts labor Europe for answers, and and weaknesses of the American Madison Abroad Professor Mary and employment,” Kohler couples in the spring of 1982, he labor system and the ways it could Bilder traveled to Oxford University says BC Law Dean his knowledge took a seminar on German be reformed. Kohler couples his this spring for a panel on “James Vincent Rougeau. of German labor law with Profes- knowledge of German labor law Madison and the Constitutional “And, he brings this sor Spiro Simitis. On the with a learned, even soulful, grasp Convention” held at the Rother- labor law with mere American Institute as part of comparative perspec- last day of class, Simitis of Catholic social thought, and a learned, even the Constitutional Thought and tive, with Germany soulful, grasp of invited Kohler to visit him this is where his contributions History Seminar. Colleen Sheehan as an interesting Catholic social in Germany one day. connect reality and philosophy. (Villanova University) and George contrast to US labor thought, and On Getman’s recom- “He combines a practical under- Thomas (Claremont McKenna law. He melds that mendation, then-BC standing of labor issues and a College) were commentators on this is where his Bilder’s forthcoming book, Madison’s with Catholic social Law Professor Mary philosophical understanding of contributions Hand, to be published by Harvard teaching and its view connect reality Ann Glendon recruited the nature of large organizations,” University Press in October. that work is a way of Kohler, and he joined the Getman, his mentor, says. “That’s and philosophy. The Peripatetic Scholar Professor bringing dignity to faculty in 1983. Glendon important because it gives you an emeritus Hugh Ault was a guest human lives, which introduced him to BC interesting take on things.” speaker at the Hautes Études gets to the core mes- philosopher and theolo- That “interesting take” is being Appliquées du Droit (HEAD) Law sage of the Law School’s Jesuit, gian Fr. Joseph Flanagan, SJ, and manifested in a book Kohler is School’s March conference on tax planning strategies and interna- Catholic identity.” every Sunday for the next twenty writing, which traces the history tional challenges. HEAD, located From an early age, Kohler years, the three studied together. of Solidarity from the French in Paris, is a branch of BC Law’s knew labor. “I put myself through Kohler also waded into the classic Revolution to today. “This work Global Practice Program. Ault also school, so I needed every dime political, legal, and social texts of has taken everything Fr. Flanagan was a visiting scholar at the Max I could get,” he says. He worked Western civilization through BC’s has ever introduced, everything Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance in Munich for the in his grandfather’s machine Perspectives Program. that is at the heart of law but month of April, and in May was a shop. He dug trenches. He waited “I began to gain an integra- also at the heart of society, also panelist at a conference on “Tax tables and tended bar. At a pickle- tive philosophy,” Kohler has said the heart of how we understand Policy beyond Patent Boxes and packing plant, he unloaded about these encounters. “I also ourselves,” Kohler says. There is State Aid” in Stockholm. scorching bottles from a steril- began to leave my romantic Ca- nothing comparable to the idea of Sharing Knowledge Adjunct pro- izer, the floor slick with pickle tholicism behind for a faith that Solidarity in American life—one fessors Kevin Curtin ’88 and Hon. juice and broken glass. is all-encompassing, unafraid of reason, Kohler says, that Ameri- Christine McEvoy went to Tashkent After graduating from Wayne questions, and that pervades and cans and Europeans don’t quite Law School in Uzbekistan to train students in trial practice under the State University Law School in underpins every area of knowing.” understand each other. auspices of the State Department 1977, Kohler squeaked into a job In the 1990s, Kohler’s studies Perhaps his book will bridge and SJC Justice Robert Cordy, a with the National Labor Relations took him to Germany, where he that gap. law reformer in the region.

Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 17 DOCKET Brainstorm

Q+A WITH The Urban League’s Darnell Williams and DEAN VINCENT ROUGEAU

“It’s wrong to think we’ve become a post-racial society. There have been ABRIDGED AND EDITED too many incidents that have popped up that remind us that we’re not there yet. ” BY GLENDA BUELL —DARNELL WILLIAMS

18 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 The following are edited excerpts from a conversation between Dean Vincent Rougeau and Darnell L. Williams, CEO of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, a nonprofit organization that provides programs and services in education, career and personal development, and employment for African Americans and other residents of color. He was formerly president of the Springfield Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

night. We had conversations with A Search for Equality the bankers about paying these Breaking the gridlock of race, poverty, and immigration. people a living wage. Boston and London have a lot VR: I don’t think it’s audacious clean hospital beds. They do many in common: They are economi- to hope that the US will become of the jobs African Americans were cally vibrant cities with signifi- a post-racial society one day. doing years go. Among the people I cant immigrant populations. By However, I think it’s audacious to serve, immigration is being talked partnering with large employers hope that race will go away as an about at kitchen tables and restau- and other key economic actors, issue. This society is so bound up rants because they are not immune you can start to bring low-wage in the concept of race that we have to it. Many African Americans or workers out of the shadows. to learn to “own” our racial history Caribbean Americans are affected in a much more honest way. But by the immigration laws. They DW: Boston and London are also we’ve got a lot of hurdles to get have family members in Africa, or two cities where there is a striking over. There are still racial stereo- Haiti, or the Dominican Republic contrast of wealth on one end and types, differences, and inequalities. who can’t come here. It is fun- stark poverty on the other. The We need to have open and honest damentally and morally wrong people at the bottom of the well, conversations about race, includ- to separate children from their as Harvard Law professor Der- ing talks about the bad things. And parents who have lived in the US rick Bell called them [in his book then we can move forward from a five or more years. Faces at the Bottom of the Well], position of honesty and reality. It is important to speak out are struggling to make ends meet. about these gridlock issues. They take two buses to get to work. DW: We’ve now elected a black Native Americans say it best: If There’s little time at the end of president twice. I never thought people are against immigrants, the day to sit at the dinner table I’d see that in my lifetime. And when is everybody leaving? and talk to their kids about school. we’ve elected a black governor Their situation prevents them here in Massachusetts. These were VR: The changes brought by im- from saving for a rainy day. For symbolic and inspirational elec- migrants, for the most part, have them, every day is a rainy day. The tions. But it’s wrong to think we’ve been a source of revitalization challenge is how do we redistribute become a post-racial society. There and rejuvenation in this coun- the wealth so that they can have have been too many incidents that try. Immigration is a strength a good lifestyle and save for their have popped up recently involving and a part of our history that we children’s education? racism, poverty, and immigration are proud of. Or are we going to that remind us that we’re not there live in fear once again—fear of VR: In London the movement to yet. Particularly in the urban cen- differences, fear of the other? It raise their wages went a long way ters where I’ve served, those issues is important to understand that to alleviate the suffering and help are closely bound. when there is only one image of people meet their needs in a digni- what it means to be American, fied way so that they could start VR: I feel very strongly about the many people are harmed and the participating in society: voting, current anti-immigrant sentiment country suffers. For people of going to school board meetings and in the US. This country has a long color, it is particularly important teacher conferences. It was a les- history of welcoming strangers. to speak out in favor of diversity. son that started in the US labor and The very idea that we have this The same can be said of England. civil rights movements. But I don’t anti-immigrant movement now I have done work in London know if we’ve used it effectively [that disseminates] half-truths, un- researching racial and economic in recent years in the debate over truths, and fears is disappointing. disparities as they pertain to shared economic and social needs. immigrant communities. We DW: Immigrants have added approached the big banks and DW: I am a prisoner of hope that significant vitality to the US. They talked to them about the people someday we will become a better pay taxes, they drive taxis, and they who were cleaning their offices at society.

Photograph by ADAM DETOUR Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 19 DOCKET Faculty Scholarship

Throwing the Book at Federal Regulators Professor Patricia McCoy’s pivotal role in righting the mortgage market. BY DAVID REICH

The Idea: Many of us know in a general way that the 2008 financial crisis arose out of problems in the mortgage lending business. Far less familiar are some of the details revealed in congressional testimony and an astonishingly detailed book by Boston College Law Professor Patricia McCoy, including facts on Wall Street’s crucial role in encouraging risky mortgages, mortgage lenders’ chicanery, and nonfeasance by federal regulators who believed in the magic of unfettered markets.

Cleaning Up the Mess: In 2009 McCoy went to Washington to testify before the Senate Banking Committee. Indeed, she testified three different times that year alone, after which she spent a couple of years in government, implementing some of the remedies she had proposed. Between 2000 and 2008, McCoy testified, banks were selling mortgages to Wall Street almost as fast as they could book them. Because they wouldn’t own the loans, banks cared more about volume than risk. They were making their money, after all, from loan origi- nation fees, and if a loan were to default in a few months or years, well, that was someone else’s problem. In 2009, McCoy reminded the senators POCKET RÉSUMÉ that during the 2000-2002 bear market for stocks, Wall Street firms had found a hot new Diplomas Oberlin College, AB. profit center underwriting mortgage-backed University of California (Berkeley), JD. Interests Insurance Law, Banking securities (MBSs)—essentially bundles of Regulation, Mortgage Regulation, mortgage loans. Firms like Bear Stearns and Housing Finance, Securities Regulation, Lehman, she said, bought up not just loans but Consumer Financial Protection. Books McCoy has three books to her credit, entire lending institutions “in order to have an including The Subprime Virus, coau- assured pipeline of mortgages” that they could thored with Kathleen C. Engel. Cutting bundle and sell to incautious investors. Edge Forthcoming article on countercy- clical regulation, which is an innovative The banks, meanwhile, in their zeal to lend new approach to financial regulation. money to virtually any borrower, were offering loans with dangerous, exotic terms, among

20 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 Illustration by JOE CIARDIELLO Patricia McCoy and co-author Kathleen Engel had been warning in journal articles about what McCoy calls “unsustainable” lending practices as early as 2001. them hybrid adjustable-rate loans and interest- like the mega-insurer AIG, had bet on the sol- BC LAW FACULTY only loans. Underwriting rules allowed borrowers vency of mortgages, and because MBSs and other to be qualified based on teaser rates instead of mortgage-based instruments served as collateral ACHIEVEMENTS the much higher rates they’d be paying once their for loans to big financial institutions, the whole He Rules Professor Mark Brodin, editor of the Handbook of Massachusetts loans reset. As for documentation, banks demand- system tottered. Evidence, has been named editor of the ed little from borrowers, and some banks engaged McCoy and Engel had been warning in journal six-volume treatise, Weinstein’s Federal in outright fraud. articles about what McCoy calls “unsustainable” Evidence. He was recommended for the High-risk “subprime” mortgages proliferated, lending practices as early as 2001. By 2005, the position by Professor Daniel Coquil- but the riskier the loan, the better Wall Street height of predatory lending, “we felt we were lette, who serves on the senior editorial board of Moore’s Federal Practice. With liked it, because riskier loans came with higher banging our heads against the wall, and nobody this prestigious appointment, Brodin interest rates and, when bundled, brought higher was listening,” McCoy recalls. By 2008, of course, will have an opportunity to shape evolv- underwriting fees. Wall Street incentivized risk by people had started listening. ing law, as his job will include taking paying “yield spread premiums” (the higher the in- In her 2009 Senate testimony, which accom- positions on controversial rulings and terest rate on a loan, the bigger the fee to the origi- panied the drafting of legislation that eventually statutes. nator). Lenders responded by pushing borrowers became the Dodd-Frank Act, McCoy called for the A Look at Ireland’s Police Professor into subprime mortgages. The MBSs resulting creation of a new agency to protect consumers Robert Bloom ’71 is a recipient of the from these shaky deals carried sketchy disclosures from predatory loans. Trinity College Dublin Long Room Hub Fellowship, a distinguished recognition to investors, but they garnered gold seal ratings She went on to serve as assistant director for from Ireland’s oldest and most es- from outfits like Moody’s and S&P, ratings paid for mortgage markets at the new agency, the Con- teemed law school. Bloom was granted by the MBS issuers. sumer Financial Protection Bureau. There she the fellowship after proposing to study Federal bank regulators, as a matter of con- fleshed out details of regulations she had also the An Garda Síochána (“the Guardian viction, did little actual regulation of MBSs or recommended in her testimony, which required of the Peace”), the police force of Ireland. In recent years, the Garda has mortgage loans. The Federal Reserve chair, Alan that lenders document a borrower’s ability to been criticized for corruption and lack Greenspan, staunchly believed in self-regulating pay. Incredibly, no such requirement had existed of accountability, and Bloom hopes to markets. According to The Subprime Virus (Ox- before the financial crisis. work with Garda and Irish government ford, 2011), coauthored by McCoy and Kathleen McCoy also oversaw the writing of a new, more officials to investigate these accusations. Engel, Greenspan “trusted bankers to avoid exces- consumer-friendly version of the disclosure form Ensuring Student Success For her sive risk in the interest of self-preservation” and provided to borrowers. With the old form, bor- work as Associate Dean for External saw MBSs as a handy new tool for doing just that. rowers with adjustable loans had had no idea how Relations, Diversity, and Inclusion at BC Law, Tracey West was named a National Bankers had indeed been avoiding risk, by high their payments might rise. “We tested sample Association for Law Placement (NALP) selling it off as fast as they could, but by 2008, disclosures on consumers in nine different cities Diversity Champion for 2015. West after loans began defaulting in record numbers, nationwide,” she says, ”and we put the draft dis- has led the successful 1L LAHANAS the market for MBSs froze, and lenders and closures on our website.…By the time the form was program, which assists diverse students investment banks alike were stuck with many finalized, consumers understood them beautifully. in their transition to the Law School and the profession. She also fosters relation- billions in worthless paper. Because other players, They go into effect this year.” ships with external sponsors committed to diversity. Her position as associate dean was one of the first diversity and

NOTABLE FACULTY PUBLICATIONS inclusion positions at any law school with a direct report to the dean.

Professor Dean M. Hashi- Associate Professor Katha- Professor Alfred Yen, who Professor Mary Bilder with Making Constitutions Work moto co-authored “Impact rine Young, whose expertise was just appointed BC Law’s Sharon Hamby O’Connor Associate Professor Richard Albert of Organizational Policies lies in economic and social new Associate Dean of Faculty, (and Charles Donohue) was a convener of the invitation-only and Practices on Workplace rights, comparative and consti- is a nationally known scholar were awarded the Joseph Workshop on Comparative Constitu- Injuries in a Hospital Setting” tutional law, and international in copyright law, the internet, L. Andrews Legal Literature tional Amendment held in May at the in the Journal of Occupational human rights law, published Asian-American legal issues, Award for the book and BC Clough Center for the Study of & Environmental Medicine. He “The Avoidance of Substance in and law teaching. He recently website Appeals to the Privy Constitutional Democracy. The gather- holds five advanced graduate Constitutional Rights: A Reply worte “The Constructive Role Council from the American ing drew experts from around the globe, degrees, focuses his scholarship to Ray” in Constitutional Court of Confusion in Trademark” Colonies: An Annotated Digital including prominent scholars from Oslo, on the interface of law, science, Review. She has also written on for the North Carolina Law Catalogue published by the and medicine, and is faculty democratic experimentalism in Review.” Other works include Ames Foundation in 2015. The Vienna, Peking, Ghent, and Dublin, as director of BC Law’s JD/MPH Economic Rights in Theory and “Third Party Liability After award is the oldest bestowed well as a number from top American dual degree program with Tufts Practice: A Critical Assessment Grokster,” which appeared in by the American Association law schools. Outcomes of the event will School of Medicine. by Routledge University Press. the Minnesota Law Review. of Law Libraries. eventually be gathered into a book.

Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 21 DOCKET Evidence

2014 Grads Score on the Jobs Front Highly skilled students, smart placement initiatives yield impressive career numbers. BY MAURA KING SCULLY

There is good news at Boston Col- lege Law School. Thanks to a variety of innovative programs developed by the Career Services Office and the high-achieving students who impressed potential employers with their skills and acumen, the Class of 2014 turned in the best job numbers in years. ¶ Ten months after graduating, 90.10 percent of the class had secured employment. While the majority of the class chose to enter the private sector, a healthy contingent headed into government and public interest work. The graduates fanned out across the country and around the globe; many found jobs in the Northeast. According to data from the ABA, among the 41 law schools in the Northeast, BC shot up to the No. 7 spot for employment (from No. 13 for the Class of 2013), coming in only behind the law schools at the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, Cornell Univer- sity, Columbia University, Harvard University, and Yale University. Far and Wide BC Law graduates are everywhere. In addition to a strong showing in the Northeast, members This was no small feat, particu- of the class of 2014 obtained positions throughout the 134 United States as well as abroad.* larly because BC had a larger class 46 10 size—273 in 2014, compared to 253 NEW ENGLAND MID-ATLANTIC 14 in 2013—while nationally class siz- SOUTH ATLANTIC CENTRAL es were shrinking. ¶ Here’s a look 32 PACIFIC at some of the interesting facts and INTERNATIONAL figures that illustrate graduates’ 0 EMPLOYED GRADUATES 150 impressive career achievements. *Class size is 273, and employed within that as of 10 months after graduation, are 246.

22 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 Illustrations by TIM BOWER Resident Attorney Program The law school launched five 2014 grads into one-year fellowships in the first year of a new Resident Attorney Program that provides full-time employment by the private sector with in-house legal departments. The program is expanding to include small firms in the coming year. The Class of 2014 participating employers are:

ALERE, WALTHAM, MA / LIONBRIDGE TECHNOLOGIES, WALTHAM, MA / PTC, NEEDHAM, MA / TRIPADVISOR, NEWTON, MA

Brandon Dunn ’14 Hazel Koshy ’14 Kevin Gerarde ’14 Jenny Harp ’14 Jennifer Hess ’14 Alexander Chai ’14 Ropes & Gray Office of the State Attorney’s Office US Department of Cubist, Inc. (Merck) Cedars-Sinai ASSOCIATE, TAX AND BENEFITS District Attorney ASSISTANT STATE ATTORNEY, Justice, Office of Privacy COMPLIANCE OFFICER, GLOBAL ASSISTANT LEGAL COUNSEL, DEPARTMENT, BOSTON MIAMI-DADE COUNTY HUMAN HEALTH COMPLIANCE, TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OFFICE, ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY, and Civil Liberties LEXINGTON, MA LOS ANGELES PHILADELPHIA ATTORNEY ADVISOR, WASHINGTON, DC

Dunn was introduced to Koshy came to the Law Gerarde began with an Harp obtained her job With a background in After a 2L summer intern- Ropes & Gray as a 1L School with the sole interest in a private firm through the Attorney theology and medical ship with Cedars-Sinai, during the Law School’s intent of becoming a career path that would General’s Honors ethics, Hess planned on Chai opted to stay on for annual Meet the Employ- prosecutor. allow him to be in court, Program. a legal career in the field the fall semester as part ers program. but a semester in Profes- of medical ethics after of BC Law’s Semester-in- sor Robert Bloom’s Crimi- graduation. Internships Practice clinical program. nal Procedure inspired a with Cubist led to her shift to the prosecutorial current position. side of criminal law.

“It was not until I “My classroom “This is not the “It was my goal to “I was fortunate to “The Semester-in- took my first Tax experiences and job I had in mind be a federal gov- begin my career Practice program class that I con- my internships when I entered ernment attorney, with a company was the most sidered a career soundly prepared law school, but and I hoped to whose focus is on valuable experi- in tax law. The me for a career eight months into secure a spot in developing acute ence I had while more Tax classes in prosecu- my career, I can- an honors pro- care antibiot- at BC Law. It I took, the more tion. Today, my not think of any gram. My focus ics that have a gave me an op- questions I found primary focus is job I would rather wasn’t limited to real impact on portunity to have, myself asking, trifold: Secure have.” a certain practice patients’ lives. as a law student, and the more I just verdicts, area, though I was My job provides real life experi- wanted to learn advocate for vic- interested in both me with a way to ences and learn about this fasci- tims, and ensure regulatory law intersect my in- what it means to natingly complex the continued and public policy.” terests in science, practice law.” area of the law.” protection of the medical ethics, community.” and the law.”

On the Rise BC Law’s Across the Board The Class of 2014 found meaningful employment throughout all legal sectors and beyond. full-time, long-term, bar admission required/JD advantage jobs (a most valued 0 PERCENTAGE BREAKDOWN: 53.66% LAW FIRMS / 25.20% GOVERNMENT / 12.60% BUSINESS / 7.72% PUBLIC INTEREST / 0.81% ACADEMIA 100 category for US News placement rankings) increased How They Did It Career Services always stresses the importance of networking, and for good reason: It was how more than from 2013 to 2014.* 71.54% 83.88% a third of the class of 2014 found a position, followed by job fairs and online job postings.

*The overall employment number rose 2013 2014 from 87.75% in 2013 to 90.10% in 2014. 0 BREAKDOWN: 35% REFERRAL, NETWORKING / 28% OCI, JOB FAIR, OFF-CAMPUS JOB FAIR / 26% ONLINE JOB POSTING / 11% OTHER 100

Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 23 IT TAKES TWO Paul Callan ’75 and Mel Robbins ’94 are the unlikeliest of pairings as two of CNN’s top legal analysts, but their on-air fusion yields shrewd insight, charismatic commentary, and turbo-charged debate. BY CHAD KONECKY PHOTOGRAPHS BY KATE WOLKOFF

“I’ve been covering trials for more than thirty years and whenever something new comes up, I’ll make a quick call to Paul and ask t’s hard to reconcile where Paul Callan and Mel Robbins are him about a point of law,” says longtime CNN now with where they have been. On so many levels. National Correspondent Susan Candiotti. He drove a cab for years, couch-surfed for a spell on univer- “Without fail, he can explain it for me. He’s sity campuses all across the UK and once worked six months as seen different kinds of cases from all sides.” an ADA in Brooklyn without a paycheck. She spent her infancy While “The Professor” rode the express living in public housing, waged war with postpartum depression train into the legal-analyst spotlight, Robbins as a first-time mom, and discovered her true calling at an Oprah caught the local. She stopped practicing law al- Winfrey conference. most twenty years ago after a stint with a large To be sure, cherry-picking from almost any accomplished corporate firm in Boston preceded by three and résumé usually produces an idiosyncratic zig or zag. But as di- one-half years as a public defender for violent vergent as the backstories might seem from the current realities felony criminal offenders in Manhattan. The of their professional lives, the pair’s must-see-TV convergence why is quintessential Mel Robbins: “I realized inside the same network studio on the same shows at the same that I love the law, but I don’t ever want to an- time is, at best, improbable. swer the question ‘What do you do for a living?’ Robbins grew up in a western Michigan municipality so small with the words ‘I’m an attorney.’” that CNN’s New York bureau houses nearly as many employees as her hometown has people. And She hired a life coach, who within three in spite of an increasingly jet-set lifestyle, she still self-identifies as a “Midwestern girl,” though she weeks told her she should be a life coach. Rob- defies the stereotype entirely. She is brash, brainy, and brutally honest. Titillatingly transgressive. bins followed up by launching two self-help Equal parts legal eagle and Joan Rivers with a dash of Vivien Leigh’s flair for the dramatic. That companies, earning a reputation as a tough- said, one gets the distinct impression Robbins would never depend upon the kindness of strangers. love, personal-improvement coach and a guru Callan is measured and methodical. He exudes gravitas and poise, possessing a ship captain’s of CEO makeovers, then scored a syndicated Iaffect, which figures since he’s a “mostly” self-taught sailor. Some CNN colleagues call him call-in advice show on Sirius. “The Professor.” Maybe. But with a gunslinger’s cool. And he is no Fred to her Ethel. Remove the “Mel doesn’t mind doing ‘ready-fire-aim,’” politics and the marriage (though their on-air rhetoric can approximate a domestic squabble) and says retired attorney and family friend Chris there’s a very real vibe of antipodal policy wonks James Carvil and Mary Matalin. Lucas ’94, who partnered with Robbins and Ann Together, these two BC Law alums comprise 40 percent of CNN’s primary stable of legal ana- Taylor ’94 en route to the New England cham- lysts. They are passionate, contentious, caring, and unvarnished. They are pals. And they remain pionship in mock trial at BC Law. “That’s part of awestruck by the privilege of the platform they’ve been afforded as well as obsessed with interpre- her charm, and I think it’s what has propelled her tive accuracy. Their earnest partnership—an adaptive and compelling on-screen tango—is arguably from a media perspective. Nothing fazes her.” revving into cable television’s fast lane. Whatever CNN is paying them, it’s probably not enough. In point of fact, Robbins sports a tattoo on “Without question, they are nothing less than a dream team,” says Ashleigh Banfield, an her right wrist that reads: It Shall Be. anchor at CNN since 2011 and now host of Legal View in CNN’s weekday noon slot. “I couldn’t be Television folks began sniffing around in happier that they’ve agreed to sit with me on a regular basis. They are delightful and two of the 2007. That landed Robbins a development con- smartest people on television.” tract with ABC, an on-air talent gig with FOX Be that as it may, birds of a feather, they are not. (on a show that never aired), and two seasons Callan has been involved in some of the nation’s most noteworthy criminal and civil matters as a relationship coach on Monster in-Laws, of the past four decades, serving on the prosecutorial team in the case against Son of Sam serial an original reality series on A&E. The break- killer David Berkowitz, orchestrating the Nicole Brown Simpson estate’s successful civil suit through came in 2011, when Random House against O. J. Simpson, and representing parties to past and pending actions in the Central Park 5 published her self-help book Stop Saying You’re case. His other well-known Fine and when her Tedx talk “How to Stop clients as a founding part- Screwing Yourself Over” became an internet ner at New York’s Callan, sensation that now has over three million views. Koster, Brady & Brennan She made her first appearance on CNN in 2013. have included actor Leonardo Here and now, Callan’s day job revolves DiCaprio, director Quentin around his enthusiasm for civil rights ad- Tarantino, and billionaire vocacy on behalf of wrongfully imprisoned socialite Ivana Trump. Callan criminal defendants. In this capacity, he serves signed an exclusive contract as of counsel to the specialty firm Edelman & with CNN in 2011. Edelman, and he has the luxury of being highly

26 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 souri, grand jury; Indiana’s religious freedom law; the arrest of documentary film subject Robert Durst; the death of Baltimore’s Freddie Gray while in police custody; and many other hot-button legal battles. The network has been unafraid to lean on them like the two most trusted arms in a major league bullpen. “We’re getting a lot of use and we’re both PAUL CALLAN very flattered they rely

First job ever: Paper boy on us so much to do and also a caddie at Indian commentary,” says Cal- Meadow Country Club in lan. “Whenever there’s Westborough. (“A lot of the guys I carried clubs for were been a jury verdict in BC Law grads.”) Biggest risk a big case over the last ever taken professionally four years, I’ve been and the outcome: Quitting my job as a soon-to-be partner fortunate enough to be in a large civil law firm in NYC invited on air.” and hanging out my own Shortly before nine shingle as a solo practitioner in 1980. The firm eventu- on an overcast Tuesday ally grew to forty attorneys. morning this spring, Describe yourself in one they are scheduled to word: Eclectic. Best piece of advice you’ve ever received: trade jabs at the top of Get your fee upfront. If you the hour about the likely could have one more hour fate of a seventy-three- in your day, how would you dispense that: Become more year-old reserve deputy active in charitable endeavors. in Oklahoma, who shot What is the most stressful and killed a suspect situation you’ve handled and what was the outcome: while apparently under Representing an innocent cli- the impression he was ent in a murder case, because deploying a Taser. They you’re always second-guessing yourself, realizing one error on received this discus- your part could send a person sion topic just forty-five to prison for life. Family: Wife, minutes earlier. Eileen. Three grown children. Callan crams in a seventh-floor hold- selective. He has also downshifted from senior lywood to them. They sparkle. There’s a little ing area for on-air guests at the Time Warner partner to of counsel at the firm he founded to something extra the viewer is going to get from Center. Robbins sits in a barber’s chair across accommodate the workload. them. They have a good banter. There’s good the hall getting makeup and hair. Though both Robbins is a brand unto herself, stewarding chemistry. There’s energy. When they disagree, profess a high degree of solemnity for the the eponymous inspirational-speaking jugger- it’s a lot of fun to watch. They are such an asset responsibility and challenge of what they’re naut, Mel Robbins: A Motivational Experience. to CNN, and they make us look good.” being asked to do each time they go live, neither She’s booked nearly two-dozen engagements exhibits any nerves. Suddenly, a frantic text already this year at major sales, leadership, from their producer kicks off a hurried dash to entrepreneurship, and upper-management Oil and Water the fifth floor, where they need to be miked and corporate summits. Growing this business— A typical day at CNN for Robbins and Callan is seated at the anchor desk within three minutes. conceived thanks to Oprah—is her top priority. essentially a series of bench sidebars (minus On set, Robbins keeps things loose, banter- So, what does CNN get out of all this? the judge) cranked out at the pace of a short- ing with bystanders and kidding with Callan, “They hit at the heart of what an editorial order cook. And the legal landscape in 2015 who plays along. A superstructure overhead producer looks for,” says CNN Senior Edito- has kept them busy: the Boston Marathon supports a bristling array of forty production rial Producer Marie Malzberg. “They have the bombing case; the trial of former Patriots tight lights trained in their direction. Final show depth, and they also have a little bit of Hol- end Aaron Hernandez; the Ferguson, Mis- prep is executed in intense bursts. They tap

Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 27 “Yeah, I can see the analogy,” says Cal- lan. “But [she brings that along] with an Ivy League degree.” Meanwhile, up against the vocal and vibrant handful that is Robbins, Callan trades punches artfully and with vigor. He is clear, relentlessly unperturbed, and counters her nimbly, occasionally punctuating points with a sly, all-knowing smile. It is oil and water, and it is great television. “Paul is the definition of what we at CNN are going for,” says Chris Cuomo, host of CNN’s New Day and the youngest son of New York’s late three-term gover- nor. “Sure, he’s telegenic * MEL ROBBINS and his answers fit well Favorite word: Any four- into our format. But he’s letter word. Least favorite got street smarts and word: Can’t. What turns book smarts along with you on creatively, spiritu- ally, or emotionally: the experience of being a Helping people reach their prosecutor and a defense potential. What turns you attorney in the criminal off: Mean people. The sound you love most: The setting, plus he under- sound of my kids coming up stands civil as well, so the stairs when they enter he’s a home run.” the house. What profession other than your By his own admis- own would you like to sion, some of Callan’s attempt: Best-selling author most pivotal prepara- or a filmmaker.What profession would you not like tion for a professional to do: A corrections officer. life that now includes My hat goes off to those jawing on CNN’s air- folks. I’d hate to be with folks who are locked in prison waves came long before all day. Family: Husband, he earned his JD. Chris. Three children, ages He offers up his tu- ten, fourteen, and sixteen. telage at Town Taxi and his UK odyssey mostly on tablets. They scribble notes—she on neatly Carol Costello. They manage to build tension as a bit of color. The truth is, he drove a cab to printed index cards, he in low-slung cursive on as well as explain critical and nuanced legal help pay his BC Law tuition, and his hopscotch sheets of scrap paper—as the floor manager for doctrines that will apply to any proceedings. around British universities was by invita- CNN Newsroom ticks off waypoints from one The contrast in styles is immediately evident. tion as a national collegiate debate champion minute down to ten seconds. Right off the bat, Robbins reacts to a Cal- at Seton Hall. Yet both experiences strongly “It’s like a mini law school exam every single lan comment with “What?! You really think informed his current skillset. The former day for every single assignment,” says Robbins, that?!” She gawks. She mugs at the camera. taught him much “about relating to potential who went to Dartmouth as an undergraduate. It is not beyond her to turn to an anchor and jurors,” while the latter built a foundation for “It’s not only case law, it’s drilling down into declare, “I’m about to hit him” or “He’s just breakneck prep, fluid improvisation, and deft sentencing guidelines. So much of what we talk plain wrong.” But the stagecraft doesn’t come deconstruction of opposing views. about are stories at a state level. You have to across as overdone. Principally because when “It takes a lot of practice to develop those know the facts of the case, the law, and what ap- it’s her turn to talk, she offers a point of view skills,” says Callan. “For me, it all goes back to plies, but also the sentencing possibilities.” that’s at once plainspoken and penetrating. debate. I spent pretty much every weekend of The segment lasts only four minutes as the Robbins calls her style “ruthless compassion.” my high school and college career doing public two of them serve and volley core issues of Without question, she brings a little working speaking through debate. Trial lawyers require jurisprudence between prompts from anchor class frankness to her production value. complementary, though very different skills.

28 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 *Questionnaire borrowed from French cultural commentator Bernard Pivoty. DATELINE: BALTIMORE As state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby makes news, CNN’s Mel Robbins breaks it.

I’ve had a lot of practice at it through the years.” ence between someone having the right to do BC Law classmate Dan Murphy ’75, a man- something and something being right to do. I aging partner at New York’s Putney, Twombly, think it’s easy to watch them and be in a state Hall and Hirson, suggests that practice has of wonder about how they are both so accurate Callan flirting with perfection these days. and insightful, and they do it in a manner on “He’s a tremendously talented trial lawyer, TV that is not easy.” but I think he’s a great commentator,” says Cuomo’s callout speaks to how seamlessly Murphy, also a longtime Callan friend. “You the duo juggles the law and an anchor-desk usually learn something and he always has chaperone while still managing to generate some angle on it that no one else has seen. He entertainment value. Some of their punchi- This spring’s gripping events in doesn’t do it with histrionics. He gets his point est exchanges are pure magic, and transcripts Baltimore thrust two BC Law alumni across, but he’s not saying this is the only way prove that anchor Banfield’s show often pro- into the spotlight from vastly different to look at it. He doesn’t try to be somebody else. duces prime examples. Even when they side perspectives. That doesn’t mean he’s not hard-hitting. He with one other. Marilyn J. Mosby ’05, the state’s comes across as an earnest, sincere lawyer, and This was the case after a Ringling Broth- attorney for Baltimore City, shook up the world by leveling felony charges at it works. And the great thing is, it’s true.” ers circus accident last year in which nine six police officers for their alleged roles Murphy, like Callan, arrived at the Brooklyn acrobats suspended by their hair were injured in the death of Freddie Gray (see story DA’s office in 1975 and both went uncompen- after plunging to the ground when equipment page 6). sated throughout the Big Apple’s worst finan- malfunctioned. Meanwhile, Mel Robbins ’94, the cial crisis in history. Despite that inauspicious only CNN legal analyst in the New York bureau at the time, became the start, the considerable breadth of Callan’s BANFIELD: OK, Mel, I decide to hang from network’s first on-air expert to comment lengthy CV serves him well when he has to go my hair thirty-feet up and spin around … on the developing story. toe-to-toe with Robbins. don’t I assume some of the responsibility Seconds after Mosby reached the “I love the way he puts together his argu- when I do death-defying stuff and then give podium, Robbins grasped the magni- ments,” says CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson, up my right— tude of the moment. “I shouted, ‘Oh my God, she’s going to charge them all.’ A an attorney at Koehler and Isaacs in Manhat- ROBBINS: The hair didn’t detach. What hap- call from a producer prompted a mad tan. “He has a way of countering your point pened [was] an equipment failure … maybe a dash to the Newsroom set. by getting his own point out there without sprained ankle, maybe a broken wrist you’d “I missed about two minutes of her demeaning the person he’s with. He’s got that presume might happen in this line of work, remarks getting from one floor to another,” says Robbins, whose kids attend air and that aura of invincibility about him. and there’s workers’ comp to take care of that. the same suburban-Boston high school Mel is a tightrope walk, but nobody walks the [But] if they can prove something wrong with (Dover-Sherborn) from which Mosby, tightrope better. Paul’s got a completely dif- the equipment or the way it was assembled— a Dorchester native, graduated as a ferent style from Mel, but a very effective way maybe there was a union involved [at the METCO student in 1998. about how he approaches things. It’s not hard venue]—they might have a tort action. As Mosby’s press conference ended, the anchor asked Robbins off-air what to recognize the heights Paul and Mel have CALLAN: Absolutely. should be highlighted. reached, and it’s because of their ability.” BANFIELD: [But] their job is very, very “When a story’s breaking in front of Cuomo agrees that though Callan and dangerous. you, the key is laser-focus on the aspects Robbins often plug into the issues with an AC/ ROBBINS: But it’s not to fall from the sky of law, but also having an eye on the DC flow, the meeting of their minds results in because of the equipment breaking. bigger piece that addresses humanity in general,” explains Robbins. “[Mosby] a high-voltage, cross-section in terms of the If [the job is] hanging from your CALLAN: came out guns blazing and really met viewer experience. hair, it’s still your job, so it’s workers’ comp. the moment. I thought it was important “When you compare Paul to Mel, as soon as But if there was an equipment failure … to underscore that she conducted her the picture goes up on the screen, the guy’s at an that’s a products’ liability case … they can own investigation and that she’s extraor- immediate disadvantage—after all, it is a visual sue the equipment manufacturer. And you dinarily confident in what she’s doing because she laid her entire case out for medium,” quips Cuomo. “But Paul isn’t just some make more money in those lawsuits than the world to see, and that’s unprecedent- guy who’s well-spoken, succinct, and provoca- you get in workers’ compensation benefits. ed. We also needed to keep reminding tive. There’s genius that is fundamental to his ROBBINS: I’d like to see Paul try to do that. people that those officers deserve due daily existence for our purposes on television. Hang from your hair up there, Paul. process.” So, did Robbins feel like she herself “Mel gives you all of those things we’re CALLAN: That’s very cruel of you to say. met the moment? looking for, but also some palette of humanity,” BANFIELD: Best joke ever on this set. “Moments like that are the real he continues. “Because it’s not just about the ROBBINS: He can take it … he’s smarter honor, privilege and heart-thumping facts, it’s about the feel. She gets the differ- than me, so I got to hit below the belt. aspect of the job,” she says. —CK

Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 29 What’s in a Name? CNN, I realized I could either be that chick Over eggs, Callan and Robbins talk shop. Within an hour of stepping off theNewsroom up in Boston that you call for legal stuff, or I They’ve already huddled industriously with an set, Callan and Robbins are breakfasting in could figure out a way to really feel connected executive producer regarding their scheduled the bureau’s tenth-floor cafeteria, which to the organization,” she recalls. “So I made a noon appearance on CNN’s Legal View, where boasts a panoramic view above Manhattan. decision … to learn the names of everybody in they will discuss jury deliberations in the Her- Even more breathtaking than the sweep of the building. From the moment you walk in on nandez trial. Robbins is hoping a verdict will scenery is the fact that during their brief 58th Street, all the way up. One day, Paul walks be reached so she can cancel her 3 p.m. Amtrak journey between floors, the two of them in with me and sees this and decides he has to home and remain available for the network’s greet more than a dozen fellow employees— learn all the names too. Now, it’s like a com- resulting round-the-clock coverage. from security guards to camera operators petition to see who knows more names. What There is a profound efficacy to their dia- to cooks—by their first name. Robbins, who happened was really interesting. By taking an logue. So much so, they have enough margin to lives in a leafy suburb west of Boston, casually interest in other people, we’ve become known whistle while they work. explains the mind-blowing phenomenon. inside the organization. It’s the smallest things “This job is stimulating, exhilarating, col- “When I was given the opportunity to join in life that make the biggest difference.” laborative, constantly changing, and very fast-

30 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 “They hit at the heart of what an editorial producer looks for. They have the depth, and they also have a little bit of Hollywood to them. They sparkle.” MARIE MALZBERG, CNN SENIOR EDITORIAL PRODUCER

“It’s not about us as individuals,” insists would stand before a jury during voir dire and Robbins as Callan nods approvingly. “It’s about say, ‘I don’t know why, but I tend to get red as I the product being incredible. Because we’re talk and my chest gets all hivey, and it doesn’t such good friends and really respect each mean this dude’s guilty.’ I made a joke of it. It’s other and understand each other’s strengths, just my genetic makeup. It always got a laugh. even though I might vehemently disagree with And because I stopped focusing on the rashes, Paul’s interpretation, I’m still interested in they went away.” what he has to say. I might even steal some of it During the Hernandez trial segment, Callan for the next segment. Because he does change and Robbins predict a hung jury on the two my mind and I know I do the same.” murder counts and the weapons charge (they Finding balance, then, is both the art and were both off the mark). Callan tends to take such the craft of their task. missteps harder than she, but the merit of their “When you argue everything to the extreme misguided message is most assuredly the medi- and there’s never any concession, you lose um. He gets from A to B with a sniper’s precision, credibility,” says Robbins. “We also understand while Robbins shoots from the hip. Interestingly, the job. It’s not to sit there and say, ‘You’re right, her husband predicted she’d last three months Paul. Great analysis.’ The job is to tease out the before uttering something irrevocable on live TV. nuances of the topic and argue the law so that “I remember the first time I appeared on air people are both informed and entertained.” with Paul and I was like, ‘This guy is a smooth Callan, scrolling on his phone, suddenly re- operator,’” says CNN’s Jackson. “He’s conver- directs the flow. He’s received a plea via email sant with the law, he brings the perspective to accept an emergent criminal negligence case of his experience and knows how [an issue] from an incident in the city the night before. relates to things he’s done in the past. Mean- “Should I take this case, Mel?” while, Mel is absolutely not going to run away “Are you nuts? You’ve got a lot on your plate.” from the controversy in what she’s talking “Mel is my career consultant,” Callan muses. about, but she’s going to add just enough flavor Now, it is Robbins’ turn to interrupt. A of diplomacy to what she says to get her point producer is texting her for their count-by-count out in a very straightforward way that’s no- predictions on the Hernandez verdict so an on- nonsense, but not offensive. It’s like, ‘Damn screen graphic can be constructed. Callan wants man, how’s she’s doing this?’” to warm up for this component of their discus- The net for Time Warner is a product that sion, but Robbins shuts it down, “Let’s not get too competitors might try to imitate, but will deep into this right now, let’s save it for the air.” struggle to duplicate. Callan leans in with a grin. “Like we “I trust and depend on them inherently wouldn’t argue on the air if we didn’t have [the for their insight, their wisdom, and their counts] to talk about.” research acumen,” says CNN’s Banfield. “We Incongruously enough, their interpersonal change topics at lightning speed, sometimes ease is clearly the wellspring of their success when we’re live on the air. Relying on some- paced,” says Callan, a native of Worcester who as a feisty professional tandem. Their authen- one’s foundation in that setting is a sticky set down permanent roots in New York after ticity when cameras are rolling is little more wicket, but when Paul and Mel are on the air, arriving in 1975. than an extension of their affinity off screen. we’re solid. They are bright, articulate, clever, “All of the meaty stuff happens off-set,” Robbins’ love of pre-cue levity is as much a funny and terrific broadcasters and that is a adds Robbins. “We’ll spend an hour or two coping mechanism as it is a character trait. As hard combo to find. There are plenty of smart talking about cases, sharing research back and a young lawyer, she was plagued by neck rashes lawyers out there in the sea. To find one who is forth, maybe making a call or two to a buddy caused by pre-trial anxiety. The affliction was engaging, magnanimous, fun, and easy to work who specializes in a certain area of law. Then pronounced enough for her to conceal it with a is a very tough get.” we rush from makeup and hair to the set, and scarf or turtleneck, even in summer. It appears that CNN has found two. we’re on for just three minutes.” “I would get these big, blotchy neck rashes Given their on-air fireworks that routinely and I was so scared the jury would think that it Chad Konecky is a regular contributor and a resemble the Yankees-Red Sox animus, the meant I was worried my client was guilty,” she freelance writer based in Gloucester. He also words “collaborative” and “sharing” seem a tad recalls. “I finally realized I might as well just serves as a National Director on behalf of the tough to swallow. call out the elephant in the room. Over time, I USA TODAY Sports Media Group.

Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 31

GREAT CASES THE GO-TO GUY Nevada’s top appellate lawyer Daniel Polsenberg ’82 thought he’d seen it all until he got involved in a series of medical malpractice cases so voluminous and complex that they threatened to overwhelm the state’s judicial system.

BY JERI ZEDER PHOTOGRAPHS BY JACOB KEPLER

33 GREAT CASES

When the verdict came in, in spring of 2010, Las Vegas Lawsuits by other plaintiffs began piling up. attorney Daniel F. Polsenberg ’82 was waiting to board Polsenberg recalls that three of them ended in verdicts in the hundreds of millions of dollars, a plane at McCarran Airport to attend a conference. and one trial was starting when—spoiler alert— The news was reporting that a jury had awarded plaintiffs a master settlement was reached in February $5 million in damages against drug manufacturers, in- 2012. The Nevada Supreme Court at one point counted as many as 200 civil actions filed with cluding the Israeli-based company, Teva Pharmaceutical the trial courts in connection with the hepatitis Industries. This wasn’t his case, but Polsenberg intuited C outbreak. (According to Polsenberg, it wasn’t that it was about to be. He called his law partner and possible to bring all plaintiffs into a single class-action because each plaintiff’s case raised said, “I don’t think I should go.” In Polsenberg’s telling, unique issues of causation and damages.) The his partner replied, “Don’t be so full of yourself. The world various cases were before various judges, and doesn’t revolve around you. Go to the conference.” legal issues common to each trial were being decided in different ways. Polsenberg worked Days later, the jury awarded punitive dam- because of their associations with the clinic, on appeals of these disparate rulings. ages. A shocking $500 million—likely the larg- now faced a lifetime of medical monitoring, “This was my best experience ever work- est such award in Nevada history. “That’s when economic hardship, possible or actual illness, ing with teams of lawyers,” Polsenberg says. I got a call,” Polsenberg says. and pain and suffering. They started filing civil “Everybody was so good at what they were do- Polsenberg was being realistic, not im- suits. They sought proof of liability and dam- ing. The dynamic was fantastic. People would modest, in assuming that he’d get pulled into ages against various actors, including health play off of each other’s ideas. We had great this case. Consider his résumé. An appellate maintenance organizations and pharmaceuti- conversations.” lawyer in Nevada for more than thirty years, he cal companies like Teva. The sheer number of potential civil suits has argued more than 250 appeals in matters Polsenberg worked on the defense side of threatened to overwhelm Nevada’s judicial sys- ranging from family law to products liability to several of the civil cases. This was arguably the tem. The Nevada Supreme Court couldn’t rely taxes, has written briefs in hundreds more, and largest legal challenge Polsenberg had encoun- on the research and reasoning of an appellate di- has been counsel in more than 150 reported tered in his career. Multiple lawyers and law vision below it because Nevada didn’t even have decisions of the Nevada Supreme Court. He is firms were in on the act. “I’m used to having big a court of appeals until January of 2015, after a a fellow of the American Academy of Appel- cases with lots of trials and lots of plaintiffs,” ballot referendum passed and the state became late Lawyers—the first attorney in Nevada so Polsenberg says. “This surpassed even that.” forty-first to have an intermediate appellate honored. When Nevadans need an appellate The cases raised legal issues novel to the State body. As verdicts were appealed and additional lawyer, Polsenberg is at the top of the A-list. of Nevada and yielded several reported opin- trials entered the pipeline, the Nevada Supreme The Teva verdict was a very large tip of a ions by the Nevada Supreme Court. Court took interim appeals of trial judges’ rul- gigantic iceberg of civil litigation arising from “I had to lean heavily on my extensive ings and stayed the trials pending its decisions. a 2007 outbreak of hepatitis C in the city of Las background and experience to keep up with the That allowed the court to issue “course correc- Vegas. At the center of the outbreak was a med- legal and procedural complexities of this case,” tions”—that is, to clarify legal issues that were ical scandal that saw a doctor and a nurse sent Polsenberg says. “It was like playing 3-D chess likely to come up again and again in these cases. to prison on murder charges. Dr. Dipak Desai, where all the chess pieces have machetes.” “I think it was obvious to everybody that certain owner of the Endoscopy Center of Southern That first suit—the one that ended in a rulings had to be taken care of before more cases Nevada and other clinics, and nurse anesthe- jury awarding half-a-billion dollars in dam- were tried,” Polsenberg says. tist Ronald Lakeman had been double-dipping ages—went after Teva as a generic maker of the As issues were resolved in the middle of syringes into bottles of propofol, an anesthetic, propofol used in the endoscopy clinics. Henry trials, the trials themselves would morph in and injecting the contents of the contaminated Chanin, sixty-two, had contracted hepatitis C new directions. “Things would change both the bottles into multiple patients. More than 100 at Desai’s clinic and sued the pharmaceutical way we were defending the case and the way patients were eventually found to be infected company on the grounds that 1) the propo- the plaintiffs were prosecuting the case in each with hepatitis C, a virus that can lead to fatal fol vials did not contain sufficient warnings trial,” Polsenberg says. “It was always evolving. liver disease. At least two have died. State and against reuse, and 2) the size of the vials— That is highly unusual.” federal health officials issued advisories to tens 50-milliliters—were essentially an invitation One of those changes happened because of thousands of patients; Polsenberg himself to clinicians to reuse the anesthetic rather than of the Supreme Court—not of Nevada, but of went and got tested. People who were infected “wastefully” throw the vials away after one use. the United States. During the Chanin trial, at the clinic, or were at risk of contracting Teva’s share of the half-a-billion dollar punitive the plaintiffs wanted to hold Teva to state law hepatitis C or other blood-borne diseases damages award amounted to $356 million. failure-to-warn labeling standards. Teva argued

34 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 that state and federal laws were in conflict to the next, and going up on appeal in the mid- at all connected with the hepatitis C outbreak regarding requirements for warning labels for dle of cases to get directions for future trials could get a fair and impartial jury in Las Vegas. generic drugs, and that federal law trumped because we wouldn’t get the first direct appeal The story was everywhere: on television, radio, state law under principles of federal preemp- heard in time,” Polsenberg says. “The rulings the internet. Sixty thousand Nevadans had tion. While the Chanin case was on appeal, the on the first trial were just absolutely amazing. received letters from health officials warning US Supreme Court decided Pliva v. Mensing Basic principles of pharmaceutical liability, like that they might have been exposed to hepatitis (2011). The court ruled that generic drug manu- the learned intermediary rule, where you rely and HIV. There were criminal investigations facturers cannot legally change their warning on the doctor to weigh the risks and benefits— and bankruptcy proceedings. Two hundred labels without FDA approval, and so cannot be even that principle was being challenged. civil actions had been filed. Dr. Desai was a held to state-law failure-to-warn standards. “I think it was clear to the Nevada hated household name. The people of Las “Mensing was decided after the Chanin Supreme Court that these cases could be a Vegas were very, very angry. trial, but it is an issue that we had raised before real drag on the system, not just in terms of “I’ve seen this phenomenon before,” Polsen- trial, so it would apply on appeal, possibly— incorrect results, but—[what] if we tried 116 berg says. “I’ve seen it in medical malpractice probably—resulting in a complete reversal and plaintiffs and then had to try them all over cases where the jury will get very angry at a dismissal of that case,” Polsenberg explains. again? With the amount of judicial resources situation but only have one particular defen- “Plaintiffs had to concoct a new theory for the being devoted to these cases, we would snap dant in the court room. The only way to vent the trials after Chanin to get around the federal our small and delicate system,” Polsenberg anger is to return the verdict against that defen- preemption issue.” says. “I’m really impressed that the [Nevada dant.” Teva’s lawyers fought to move the trials The interim rulings gave the lawyers a Supreme] Court stepped in.” from Clark County to Washoe County, where run for their money. “Here we were, changing A significant issue on appeal was whether the jury pool had not been inundated with so things on the fly, between trials, from one trial a pharmaceutical company whose name was much adverse publicity. Polsenberg felt that not

Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 35 36 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 GREAT CASES

“I had to lean heavily on my extensive back-

ground and experience to keep up with the ence, at which all the cases settled,” Polsenberg legal and procedural complexities of this case,” says. The terms of the settlement are confiden- tial. But the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Polsenberg says. “It was like playing 3-D chess in February 2012 that Teva settled 120 lawsuits for $285 million, leaving only fifteen unsettled where all the chess pieces have machetes.” lawsuits against Teva. Before settling, Teva was at risk for nearly $800 million in compensatory even the most diligent jury selection process or degree of scientific probability that the cause and punitive damages from the first three trials the most exquisite voir dire questioning could of the harm was something other than what the that went to verdict. guarantee an impartial jury in Clark County. plaintiffs were claiming? Yes, ruled the Nevada BC Law Professor Dean M. Hashimoto, an The Nevada Supreme Court disagreed and Supreme Court. Polsenberg for the defense expert in law, medicine, and health care policy, ruled against a change of venue in Sicor, Inc., had argued hard against that ruling. He faced it and director of the Law School’s JD/MPH v. Hutchison (2011). Interestingly, the control- again on behalf of his client Teva in Williams v. dual degree program, can’t comment on the ling precedent in Sicor was National Collegiate Eighth Judicial District Court (2011). specifics of the settlement, which are closed to Athletic Association v. Tarkanian (1997), a As part of their defense in the Williams the public, but he can comment more generally case Polsenberg had argued before the Nevada trial, the pharmaceutical companies had a about why cases like this frequently end with Supreme Court more than a decade earlier nurse and a doctor testify that it may not have the parties settling out of court. He notes that as counsel for Jerry Tarkanian. Tarkanian, a been double-dipping into vials of propofol that in the Teva litigation, several trials ended in college athletic coach, had sued the NCAA for caused the plaintiffs’ hepatitis C infections, but multi-million dollar verdicts. That provided wrongful termination, and the NCAA sought rather dirty scopes that had been improperly the parties with important information. a change of venue from Clark County on the cleaned by clinic personnel. The doctor and “From Teva’s end, it’s certainly in its inter- grounds that pretrial publicity had tainted the nurse could not, however, point to any par- est to try to settle the case as soon as it has a jury pool. Polsenberg won that one. ticular piece of equipment as the culprit. The reasonable sense as to the value of the cases The Nevada Supreme Court relied on the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that, in general, just to put this issue behind it,” Hashimoto analysis established in Tarkanian to reach its nurses can testify as experts on medical causa- says. “And from the plaintiffs’ standpoint, it ruling in Sicor. The court combed through the tion, provided they have the credentials to do works out as well; they don’t have to suffer the record looking for evidence related to the size so. The nurse-expert in this case lacked those litigation costs.” The courts also had an inter- of the community, the nature and gravity of the credentials, the court said, but he did have the est in the parties settling. “The court system lawsuit, the nature and extent of the pretrial credentials to offer expert testimony on the would be supportive of settlements, given the publicity, the time between the publicity and proper handling of endoscopy equipment. amount of litigation time that was potentially the trial, potential jurors’ familiarity with the On the issue of medical causation, the court involved, so there could very well have been publicity, effect of the publicity on potential made some refinements to its ruling inMosi - pressure from that end,” Hashimoto says. jurors, care used and difficulty in selecting a cato. Once plaintiffs have met their burden of One way to look at cases like this is to think jury, and the status of the parties and political proof in establishing the medical cause of their of the legal system as treating pharmaceutical overtones. Taken together, the court ruled, “The injuries, the court said, the defendants can companies whose products are connected to record evidence demonstrated that, although rebut the plaintiffs’ claims in three ways: 1) by patients’ injuries as, to some extent, insurers. this case and the related cases received a fair cross-examining the plaintiffs’ expert; 2) by “In these drug cases, which don’t require a amount of pretrial publicity, some of which was contradicting the plaintiffs’ expert with their finding of fault—it’s a strict liability system—it viewed by potential jurors, it was not of a kind own expert; or 3) by offering an alternative is a matter of imposing costs from a policy or to the extent that it tainted the jury pool, theory of medical causation. The court said perspective,” Hashimoto says. “[The compa- leading to a reasonable belief that appellants that when defendants are employing tactic nies] will continue to manufacture the drugs in could not receive a fair trial in Clark County.” number three, the alternative theory offered by association with medical treatments as long as, Another issue that made new law in Nevada their expert must have a “reasonable degree of basically, the costs of these so-called accidents involved the admissibility of expert testimony. medical probability” (be more likely than not). are less than the benefits.” Once again, Polsenberg had encountered a But if defendants are employing tactic number “It’s the idea of including the negative related issue in an earlier case he himself had two, the court said, “the defense expert does impacts as being part of the costs of business, handled. That case, Mosicato v. Sav-On Drug not need to state each additional cause to a then letting the manufacturer decide whether Stores (2005), involved a medication that was greater than 50 percent probability.” it’s worthwhile to still go forward in that par- improperly labeled. The case turned on wheth- In the end, the Nevada Supreme Court never ticular business line,” Hashimoto explains. er the medicine was the cause of the plaintiffs’ got to the merits of the plaintiffs’ claims against injuries. The question was, must the defen- Teva. “Chanin was set to go to oral argument Jeri Zeder is a Boston-area freelance writer. She dants’ expert witness testify to a reasonable and the plaintiffs asked for a settlement confer- can be reached at [email protected].

Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 37 » Taisha Sturdivant ’16 faced poverty, danger, and near-homelessness, but she’s defied the odds. And she’s winning.

38 PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANA SMITH BY CHARLES B. FANCHER JR. “God Bless the Child That’s Got Her Own” Taisha Sturdivant ’16 faced poverty, danger, and near-homelessness, but she’s defied the odds. And she’s winning. The world as she knew it ended for Taisha Sturdivant eleven years ago on the day her mother died of compli- cations from AIDS. Taisha was just fifteen years old, and the anchor of her young life had been snatched away.

Not that life had been easy before. The earned top grades, is the inaugural Ruth- she was barely out of her teens and a student family had no money. She had never known her Arlene W. Howe Black Leadership Scholar, and at Brandeis University, Sturdivant had already biological father; her older siblings, a brother has served a term as external vice president of lost twenty friends to street violence. The and a sister, were fighting demons of their own. the Black Law Students Association. She co- streets were so dangerous that a friend once At the time, her extended family, while loving produced a widely publicized diversity panel at told her that he and some of the other boys she and well-meaning, had little they could offer. the Law School and nearly won a tight race for knew felt safer in jail. She was on her own, and her survival, let vice president of the Boston College Law Stu- At fourteen, Sturdivant had already had alone the possibility that she might prosper, dent Association. She is a resident assistant in a gun pulled on her while walking in her was in doubt. “I was in a fog,” says Sturdivant, a Boston College undergraduate dormitory. neighborhood, known for its housing project- a rising third-year student at Boston College Her successes notwithstanding, Sturdi- based gangs, in places like Academy Homes Law School, speaking of the day her mother vant’s trip hasn’t been over smooth waters. and Heath Street Projects. “My best friend and died, her voice trembling almost imperceptibly It rarely is for young black girls trying to I were standing on a corner; we had just left a from the intensity of the memory. “We had a escape the streets of Boston’s Dorchester and party,” Sturdivant recalls. “A car pulled up, and hospital bed in the living room, and I sat there Roxbury neighborhoods where she grew up in the window opened, and somebody poked a with her for four or five hours, talking to her.” A a series of apartments with her mother, sister, gun out.” Time stopped, and then the car sped few relatives were there, some from New York, and brother. After her mother died, the three away, its occupants laughing at the girls’ reac- where Sturdivant was born, and others from siblings tried to go on living in the apartment tions to their cruel act. Boston, to which the family had moved a few they had shared with their mother, but the The next time she was just sixteen and years earlier. But, all of Sturdivant’s attention social security payments ran out. Sturdivant’s hanging out with friends in the food court of was focused on Liz, her mother. brother ran into trouble with the law and was a local mall. But the fun stopped when a gang As afternoon shadows gathered, Sturdivant sent to prison. Her sister departed for New showed up. “I was the target because of where stepped away to go to the bathroom, and as York City. Left alone, Sturdivant moved in I was from,” Sturdivant says, referring to the she returned, the sounds of crying and moan- with the man who had been her mother’s part- territorial imperatives that seem to shape ing met her. She knew immediately what had ner, in the first of what would become a series much of the violence. Although she had no happened. Her mother was gone. As the “baby” of temporary living situations. “Some local gang ties, Sturdivant was from an area another in the family, Sturdivant says her mother [relatives] wanted to adopt me,” she says, but gang considered its own. That’s all it took when had always been especially protective of her, those efforts never worked out. “So, I bounced they spotted her. With no avenue of escape, she and even at the end, she says she believes her around from house to house.” confronted the potential attackers. “I remem- mother “had been waiting for me to leave the At a young age, Sturdivant was already ber mouthing off,” she says. “I talked trash to room” before passing away. Sturdivant fled the facing the reality of the classic Billie Holiday them, and they talked trash to me.” Luckily, house and walked six blocks to a friend’s home. lament, “God Bless the Child”: Them that’s got She pushed through the doorway past her shall have/ Them that’s not shall lose/ So the friend and without a word of explanation, she Bible said and it still is news/ Mama may have, Taisha Sturdivant visits the Roxbury home and neighborhood where she lived with her mother and siblings says, “I went into her closet and went to sleep.” Papa may have/ But God bless the child that’s as a girl and where she twice faced down gunmen. So the voyage began, a passage fraught with got his own/ That’s got his own. uncertainty and danger, interspersed with “Tai had to learn early that you don’t always moments of discovery, accomplishment, and feel safe as a child,” says Briget Evans, an older she says, something broke the escalation of the joy. And, when she graduates in the class of cousin—in many ways more of an aunt—with conflict, and she was able to retreat. “It was,” 2016, Taisha Sturdivant—“Tai” to friends and whom Sturdivant has occasionally lived since she declares, “definitely scary.” family—will have traversed a vast social and entering law school. “People around her didn’t In the meantime, she was getting into cultural expanse. have the same aspirations…. She had to make trouble at school. “I was fighting all the time,” Already, with two years of law school her own choices,” Evans adds. she recalls. At a slight 5-foot-4-and-1/2 inches behind her, Sturdivant counts well-known Along with the insecurity of not having a tall, Sturdivant is not a physically intimidating lawyers and judges, community activists, permanent home, Sturdivant had to find her figure. “I was tiny, but I had a big mouth,” she educators, and other Boston-area opinion way among the ever-present, and frighteningly says, which often made her a target at English leaders among her friends and admirers. She’s random, dangers of street violence. By the time High School. Her older (and bigger) sister

40 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015

“Taisha is one of the most impressive young people I have encountered in my forty-five-year career as a teacher, coach, and administrator in the Boston Public Schools.” Gerald “Jerry” Howland, glimpse of what was to come during the next headmaster of Another Course to College two years at ACC, and it was the beginning of a mentoring relationship that continues to this day. In the scholarship recommendation he had attended the school before her, and some school. The clock was ticking, and then she wrote for her this year, Howard said: “Taisha is students who’d had differences with her sister made the discovery that would change her life one of the most impressive young people I have were happy to use the younger (and smaller) forever. She found Another Course to Col- encountered in my forty-five-year career as a Sturdivant as a surrogate in battles over old, lege (ACC), a unique college preparatory high teacher, coach, and administrator in the Bos- unresolved disputes. school in the Boston Public Schools system ton Public Schools. She is very intelligent, has Still, Sturdivant was a good student, albeit a that, the school’s mission statement declares, even greater wisdom, and is the most compas- troublemaker. “I was always wise enough to get offers “enrollment to any Boston student who sionate and thoughtful person I know.” my work done,” she says. Her restless energy is willing to make the commitment to ac- ACC turned out to be a community that led her to distract other students who weren’t cept the challenge of this rigorous academic valued Sturdivant’s personal and intellectual as quick or as diligent, and she provoked experience.” At ACC, admission to college is strengths. “I was inspired by my twelfth grade teachers’ ire, because “I was talking back.” In a requirement for graduation, and the school English teacher,” she says, referring to Robert her sophomore year, Sturdivant’s disruptive claims that more than 90 percent of the gradu- Comeau. For his part, Comeau saw a lot of behavior landed her on the radar scope of the ates go on to enroll. potential in a student who was “fearless, really principal, Jose Duarte. “He said if I got into one In her typically straightforward way, Stur- courageous, focused, and clear.” Sturdivant more fight, that I would be expelled and that he divant called the school to ask for an appoint- was “still finding her voice” when she came would see to it that I wouldn’t be admitted to ment. Gerald “Jerry” Howland, the school’s into Comeau’s class, he says. “She had to be another Boston public school,” Sturdivant says. headmaster at the time, says Sturdivant stood coached into participation, but she quickly The principal’s warning unsettled her because out immediately. “Her bearing was so profes- grew into a leader.” already she “knew [another fight] was coming. sional and so interactive,” says Howland. “She Nevertheless, Comeau says he “worried Those things don’t just happen.” has this way of knowing the right thing to say about how she’d respond to all those upper- Sturdivant had to graduate from high and do.” That meeting offered Howard just a middle class kids at Brandeis,” the Waltham university where she eventually went to college. In the long term, he needn’t have worried, but initially there were more than a few barriers Sturdivant had to cross. Sturdivant didn’t even know where Waltham was. Neither, she adds, did she know anything about Judaism, the tradition in which Brandeis is rooted. She recalls one of her first days on campus when she was walking down the hall in her dormitory, and saw that the door of the resident advisor’s room was open. It was early evening, and it was beginning to get dark. She stopped to say hello, but she was puzzled by the RA’s response. “‘It’s dark in here, don’t you think?’” Sturdivant recalls her saying. Sturdivant agreed. There was a pause. Then, the RA said, “It sure would be nice if there was some light in here.” Sturdivant was even more puzzled, but she reached out and turned on the lights. “Thank you so much,” the RA exclaimed. It was only then that Sturdivant learned that it was Shabbat and that the observant RA could neither turn on the light nor directly ask Sturdivant to do it. It was the first a result was later invited back to be one of the of a young black woman. Sturdivant remembers of many such revelations. program’s counselors. Wolf, a friend of former being intimidated. “I had writer’s block for a Aside from religious discoveries, Sturdi- ACC headmaster Howland, has remained a week,” she says, but the columns were powerful, vant also had a lot to learn about wealth and friend and mentor to Sturdivant, and his rec- and they added yet another layer of experience privilege. Like the time she found an acquain- ommendation led to a job when she graduated for a young woman barely out of her teens. tance sobbing uncontrollably and, in seeking from Brandeis, as a legal program associate at At BC Law School, Sturdivant continues to comfort her, realized that the reason for the the Discovering Justice program, which edu- to make strong impressions. Mark Brodin was tears was that someone else on campus had ac- cates young people about civic responsibility. her Civil Procedure professor, and he hired quired a luxury car nearly identical to the one Meryl Kessler, now the executive director her as a research assistant to work on the the distraught girl’s father had recently given of the League of Women Voters of Massachu- Handbook of Massachusetts Evidence. “She’s her. “It was fascinating to me that she was setts, was Sturdivant’s supervisor at Discover- extremely bright, hard-working, and able to do crying over that,” Sturdivant says, but it was just one of the times her eyes would be opened to the sense “My best friend and I were standing on a corner; we had just left a party. A car pulled up, of entitlement that shaped the way and the window opened, and somebody poked a gun out,” says Sturdivant. Time stopped, some of her fellow students moved and then the car sped away, its occupants laughing at the girls’ reactions to their cruel act. through the world. Even though she had spent a year after high school at Brandeis in the Posse Foun- ing Justice. “Taisha has the highest emotional so many things simultaneously,” he says. dation program that provides a transitional year intelligence of anyone I’ve ever met. She has At first meeting, it is easy to forget that the into prestigious partner schools for students that very rare quality of knowing how to meet polished young woman who earns top grades, from disadvantaged backgrounds, the Brandeis people on their terms,” Kessler says. During volunteers for community service, and enjoys environment was “so far removed from my Sturdivant’s first year of law school, she lived hanging out with friends started from a place experience,” she says, that “I was a sophomore with her cousin Evans in the Hyde Park area, that many of her law school contemporaries can before I started to feel at home in the space.” an arduous commute on public transportation only imagine. But, taking those first impressions Nevertheless, she found a path. She studied from the Newton campus, especially late in the for the whole truth would be a mistake, because hard; she made friends, and threw herself into evening. So, Kessler gave her a key to her own Sturdivant, however far she has traveled, is the campus life. But, during summers when many home near the campus so she could stay over sum of all her experiences. Asked, for example, other students departed for home, Sturdivant on those late nights. about her plans after law school, she says she is remained behind to work to earn money and, considering practice in the lucrative real estate importantly for her, to get the campus hous- It is late afternoon, and Evans, who was in the business. But, characteristically, she is looking ing that went with the job, because she had apartment when Sturdivant’s mother died, is beyond the potential financial rewards. “I’ve had nowhere else to go. perched on a counter stool at a Boston coffee very little stability, and I’ve had relatives lose She was making it, but she is quick to point shop. She pauses as she reflects on the balance Section 8 housing,” she says, adding that volun- out that she had help. “A lot of people invested Sturdivant has achieved between her own teer work with the AIDS Action Committee also in me,” she says. Among them were Senior US goals and her desire to help others. gave her insights into the impact the law can District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf and the late She leans forward as she talks about the have on housing issues. So, she sees real estate US District Judge Reginald Lindsay. She met way Sturdivant took time to care for her uncle law as a way to make a good living and also to do them while she was still in high school, as a Michael Sturdivant, who died last year from good for people. participant in the Nelson Fellowship Program, a variety of obesity-related diseases. “She Professor Catharine Wells, from whom named for the late David S. Nelson, the first became his health care proxy. He couldn’t walk, Sturdivant took a civil rights seminar, says African American US District Court Judge in and she would go and take him to the doctor,” Sturdivant has a way of cutting through so the District of Massachusetts. Evans says. Sturdivant would sit with him after much of the “mindless chatter about civil Each summer, the program provides sti- he was hospitalized in his final days. rights.” Asked how she thinks Sturdivant pends for twelve high school students to work And then there’s Sturdivant’s knack for being will turn out after law school, Wells gives a for judges in their chambers on meaningful in the right place at the right time, like the time response that almost certainly represents a assignments, to take classes, and to participate in 2010, when Wolf invited her to participate in larger truth about Taisha Sturdivant. in a mock trial. “Our hope was that it would a panel on the relevance of genocides in Africa to “I am confident,” Wells says, “that she will give [high school students like Sturdivant] gang violence in Boston. Her pointed comments surprise us.” experience that would help them envision and probing questions caught the attention of a greater futures for themselves,” says Wolf, to Boston Globe editor, which led to an invitation to Charles Fancher of Annapolis, Maryland, is a whom Sturdivant was assigned. He says Stur- write a series of guest columns for the newspa- longtime writer and editor and most recently divant was a standout in the program and as per on a variety of topics from the perspective was a lecturer at Howard University.

Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 43

GUARDIAN OF OF GUARDIAN

HIMSELF A JEWISH, TURKISH, POLISH, CUBAN

AMERICAN, LEÓN RODRIGUEZ ’88 GUIDES

THE TOP US CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION

AGENCY WITH A KNOWING HAND. THE MELTING POT MELTING THE

BY PETER PERL PORTR AITS BY STEPHEN VOSS

44 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015

León Rodriguez sat impassively at the witness table in the wood- ton male uniform of blue suit, white shirt, and paneled hearing room of the Dirksen Senate office building, blue tie. He’d sat at countless tables in front of listening to members of the US Senate question his background, microphones for more than twenty-five years his experience, his managerial skills and political connections, even in courthouses and meeting rooms of govern- his integrity, as they considered whether to confirm him as the new ment agencies, although never with the stakes director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). quite as high. His primary interrogator was Republican Rodriguez can be an imposing presence: Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, who staunchly big, balding, with a heavy, furrowed brow and criticized President Barack Obama’s immi- the impassioned, animated speaking style of a gration policy, which Grassley said failed to champion debater and a veteran federal trial protect the borders and the rights of American lawyer. But here he was, quiet and expression- citizens. A forty-year veteran of Congress and less, six-foot-one and 215 pounds of silent ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Com- attentiveness wrapped in the classic Washing- mittee, Grassley made clear that he viewed

46 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 WHEN IT COMES TO ACTUALLY

ENFORCING THIS DEFERRED

ACTION FOR CHILDHOOD ARRIVALS

INITIATIVE, THE MAN WHO WORKS decision is to have them work and pay taxes, tion moved toward a vote on June 26, 2014. In PASSIONATELY BUT CALMLY IN and go to school and be upstanding citizens.” another lengthy statement, Republican Sena- THE CROSSHAIRS IS RODRIGUEZ. That answer infuriated Republicans, partic- tor Jeff Sessions of Alabama attacked him as ularly Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah, an “activist” who could not be trusted to carry who raised his voice close to a shout: “That’s out his duties and whose nomination “is a not what the law says, and that’s sickening!” direct affront to the officers who every day are Republican congressional staffers dug trying to enforce the law.” deeply into Rodriguez’s background and What was León Rodriguez thinking as he questioned a variety of his activities, particu- listened repeatedly to all these attacks? “I’ve larly whether he had supported and condoned been in Washington long enough to know that possible illegal activity in 2007 when he served this is our trade, so I take nothing person- as a pro bono board member of CASA de Mary- ally. I’m a trial lawyer and this is just another land, an immigrants rights group in Montgom- trial. Answer the questions honestly, without ery County, where Rodriguez lives. Grassley creating collateral damage,” he says afterward. alleged that “[t]hey have trained undocument- “It wasn’t making me upset, although I would ed workers to understand their rights and pub- observe that some of it was just not based in lished a cartoon pamphlet advising people not fact,” he adds, smiling. He likened congres- to speak to law enforcement when approached. sional oversight hearings to “bare knuckles, They go so far as to encourage them not to even like a cage match for two-and-a-half hours,” provide their names.” although he says he thinks that elements of his Grassley demanded to know if Rodriguez legal training and family background helped approved this action, and whether he had tried him stay composed. to retract the offending cartoon pamphlet. Congressional Democrats and immi- The nominee replied that he was not aware of grant rights groups defended and promoted the document until Grassley raised it. He had Rodriguez, citing in particular his unusual volunteered for about 100 hours total at CASA, background as both a veteran prosecutor and said that he had resigned around that and a civil rights lawyer. “We can think of no same time in 2007 to become the Montgomery better individual to lead an agency with the County Attorney. dual task of extending the hands of welcome Grassley would later submit nearly ninety to new Americans, while working to ensure written questions and would criticize Rodri- that those who wish us harm are not welcomed guez for stonewalling him with repeated non- in our country,” said the National Hispanic answers. The senator also issued a sharply Leadership Agenda, a coalition of thirty-seven phrased 1,800-word written statement against Latino organizations. He also won the strong his confirmation. As the confirmation hear- endorsement of the Major Cities Police Chiefs ing ended, Grassley told Rodriguez that in Association, representing sixty-six cities and his forty years in Congress, countless nomi- counties with at least 1 million population, nees “like you” promised to cooperate with jurisdictions that inevitably must confront USCIS as a bastion of weakness and political congressional oversight. “And invariably they difficult immigration-related problems. The correctness rather than serious law enforce- never live up to it,” he concluded, his voice association’s president is Chief J. Thomas ment, a flaccid agency that was just rubber- rising, “So what is your view of the oversight Manger of Montgomery County, Maryland, stamping approvals for countless undocu- authority of Congress?” who worked closely with Rodriguez for three mented immigrants to stay in America. Rodriguez did not rise to the bait. He years and describes him as “steady, thoughtful, Rodriguez testified that as a former state paused, furrowed his brow, smiled, and slowly and ideally suited” to work on these thorny law and federal prosecutor he’d learned of the need replied: “So-o-o, I think the senator’s question enforcement-immigration issues. for “prosecutorial discretion” because no agen- is: How can I assure you that I mean it when When all the speeches and statements cy has the capability to prosecute everyone. He I say that. Is that correct, senator?” Laughter were over, Rodriguez was confirmed, by a elaborated at a later House session: “We don’t broke out behind Rodriguez, as both he and 52-43 party-line vote, to take over a sprawling have the resources to remove 10 million or 11 even Grassley smiled. “Yes,” Grassley said, international agency with 19,000 employees million individuals, so the question is whether “Thank you for your understanding.” and contractors who—according to USCIS we let them persist in the shadow economy, or Relentless, biting criticism of Rodriguez statistics describing an “average day”—fin- do we have them work and pay taxes. And the continued and even escalated as his nomina- gerprint and photograph 15,000 immigrant

Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 47 guez recalls in an interview at his office on “WE WERE EXCITED WHEN A GUY NAMED Massachusetts Avenue near the US Capitol. RODRIGUEZ SHOWS UP. BUT HE TURNS OUT TO The hazing finally stopped by middle school, when he got bigger and better at sports, he says, BE JEWISH! A TURKISH JEW…FROM A CUBAN “but I think it actually plays a role today in me being able to keep my act together.” FAMILY! WE LAUGHED AND SAID, ‘THIS GUY’S As he grew and worked diligently through the Miami public schools, he was also learning PERFECT. HE BREAKS ALL THE STEREOTYPES.’” formative lessons about social conscience at WILLIAM MANDELL ’86 ON EFFORTS TO ATTRACT DIVERSE STUDENTS TO BE PART home. He frequently heard stories about his OF THE OWEN M. KUPFERSCHMID HOLOCAUST/HUMAN RIGHTS PROJECT maternal grandfather, Gershon “John” Policar, a Turkish shoemaker who became very active in Jewish and Zionist organizations around Havana, and devoted countless hours to the applicants at 136 locations, conduct 148,000 1930s. Prior to that, a young Jewish accoun- Hebrew Immigrant Absorption Society. León’s national security background checks, answer tant named Leon Rodrik (or Rodrig) emigrated mother recalled to him how her father would 44,000 phone calls, host 375,000 visitors to in the 1920s with his family. Hoping to make rush out at all hours, day or night, to meet its website, process 310 refugee applications it to America, they were diverted by various shiploads of European refugees from the Holo- around the world, and welcome 2,300 new obstacles, including the strict immigration caust, helping families to relocate in Cuba and citizens to America. quotas of the era, and they ended up in Havana, eventually in America. But he never made it to USCIS was created by President George W. Cuba. There, Leon Rodrik married a Polish America himself, dying at the age of fifty-three. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks Jewish woman, and by the time their son, León had top grades at Miami Beach High exposed scandalous weaknesses in the nation’s Isaac, was born, they had become the Rodri- School and a room full of trophies as a debate immigration controls. Part of the Department guezes. The family became small wholesalers champion specializing in extemporaneous of Homeland Security, USCIS has very differ- of jewelry, perfumes, toys, and whatever else speeches. He became fluent not only in his ent functions from the US Immigration and they could sell—until Fidel Castro’s revolution native Spanish, but also in French, and later Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US Customs demanded that their business be expropriated. developed conversational ability in Italian and Border Protection. Criminal enforcement The Rodriguezes fled Cuba in 1961, and and Hebrew. When Rodriguez was accepted by ICE and the Border Patrol draws the TV Isaac and his wife, Sarah, whose family had at Brown University, he initially aspired to be- crews and the headlines, but it is USCIS, which also fled Turkey, ended up in a Jewish neigh- come a doctor, a desire that began at age eleven handles all applications for asylum, naturaliza- borhood in Brooklyn, where their son was born when students in his sixth grade class went on tion, green cards, and visas, that has become a in 1962. By Sephardic tradition, the boy was a field trip to witness open-heart surgery. His central flashpoint in one of the most important named for his grandfather, León Rodriguez. He mother was fearful he would vomit, but, ac- political fights of the era. grew up in a household speaking only Spanish cording to Rodriguez folklore, when she picked President Obama is, of course, the primary until he was four, when they moved to Miami up León in her car, he asked if she had brought target of ferocious opposition on immigration, Beach, where his real Americanization began. lunch because he was starved. He dropped his particularly for his pledge not to deport hun- His would become a classic American suc- interest in medicine quickly at Brown when dreds of thousands of undocumented children cess story. He was immersed in the melting pot he was undone by a freshman year class in brought here by their families. But when it of Miami as a small, red-haired, freckled little organic chemistry. His other career ambition comes to actually enforcing this Deferred kid who had to wear glasses and an eye patch to was spurred by his family’s emphasis on help- Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative, the combat amblyopia or “lazy eye.” Between that ing others, and by his experience with Hebrew man who works passionately but calmly in the and being a smart kid who didn’t play sports, school and Judaism. He seriously considered crosshairs is Rodriguez. León was a prime target for bullying. Even his a double-major of history and religious studies best buddy from childhood, Jimmy Morales, at Brown, intending perhaps to become a rabbi. now the City Manager of Miami Beach, con- Instead, after graduation in 1984, he chose The roots of León Rodriguez trace back to fesses to beating up León on the first day of Boston College Law School. Initially, he was unlikely places: to an ancient city in western kindergarten. As they became lifelong friends, unsure what kind of law he wanted to prac- Turkey called Kirklareli, whose original Greek Morales says he realized Rodriguez’s strength tice, but was drawn to BC in part by the Jesuit name meant “the place of forty churches,” a was internalized. “He’s passionate. He will tradition emphasizing the pursuit of a life of clue that it was not a particularly welcoming fight. But he does it patiently and civilly.” service. That belief was affirmed when BC Law place for its Sephardic Jews, many of whom “I got picked on when I was little, and you sponsored the creation of the Holocaust/Hu-

eventually fled anti-Semitic pogroms in the learn to keep yourself under control,” Rodri- man Rights Research Project, in which Rodri- IMAGES MARK WILSON/GETTY BY PHOTOGRAPH

48 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 Rodriguez recites the pledge of allegiance during a naturalization ceremony at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, August 28, 2014, in Washington, DC. guez would play an early leadership role. The Rodriguez shows up. But he turns out to be ing a prosecutor in New York City, handling project, now named for its late founder, Owen Jewish! A Turkish Jew…from a Cuban family! the cases of people who were defenseless and M. Kupferschmid ’85, dissected Holocaust We laughed and said, ‘This guy’s perfect. He suffering from the most grievous criminal war-crimes prosecutions to expand and apply breaks all the stereotypes.’” injuries. “That’s the kind of guy León is.” their principles to international pursuit of all Michael Perino, Rodriguez’s closest friend war crimes, whenever and wherever they oc- in their Class of 1988, says he marveled in first cur. Thirty years later, following creation of the year that “he pretty quickly got to know every- The rookie lawyer plunged plunged directly International Criminal Court, the BC project body, and everyone liked León. No enemies.” into the big leagues. As an Assistant District endures and draws international attention. “I never figured that out, how he did that” in Attorney in Brooklyn—at the height of the “He is a mensch, a true, true mensch,” says such a highly competitive place, he chuckles. crack epidemic and the depths of a recession— William Mandell ’86, who says Rodriguez Perino, a professor at St. John’s University Rodriguez prosecuted countless cases of drug was effective in lobbying faculty and stu- Law School, says that while many classmates trafficking, assaults and robberies, homicides, dents to support the project. Mandell says he pursued corporate law, he was not surprised sex crimes, and complex racketeering cases and Kupferschmid had tried hard to attract that León showed no interest. Nor was he involving the Genovese and Colombo families diversity “and we’re excited when a guy named surprised when Rodriguez ended up becom- of La Casa Nostra.

50 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 RODRIQUEZ LIKENED CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT HEARINGS TO “BARE KNUCKLES, LIKE A CAGE MATCH FOR TWO-AND-A-HALF HOURS,”

ALTHOUGH HE SAYS HE THINKS THAT ELEMENTS OF HIS LEGAL in a “core cultural narrative” of immigrants TRAINING AND FAMILY BACKGROUND HELPED HIM STAY COMPOSED. coming here with nothing and working hard so children will thrive. He says he understands people who complain that immigrants “take away our jobs,” but he is not convinced that is true. Many business people and experts argue It was grim, grueling work, says his US Attorney for the Western District of Penn- that as an economy grows, it actually needs BC classmate and friend, Lori Grifa ’88, sylvania, prosecuting white-collar crime and more immigrant workers, he says, both low- who worked in the same office, which health care fraud. When Harry Litman became skilled for service sector and agriculture jobs, she recalls as “a lean and hungry place.” US Attorney there in 1998, he had to choose a as well as high-skilled. She says she was impressed when First Assistant from among some 100 lawyers. In his first year on the job, Rodriguez Rodriguez decided to join the Special This would be his chief of staff, “the bad cop, has attempted to move quickly on Obama’s Victims Unit, prosecuting human and the consigliere,” Litman says. He picked agenda. His agency has issued two new major trafficking and horrific assault cases Rodriguez. Asked to describe him, Litman says, visa-policy documents designed to promote against women, children, and the most “principled, honest, down-to-earth. Sees the the immigration of qualified high-skilled defenseless. “Law school is intense and big picture. Warm and funny and likeable, with workers. It launched a New Americans Task can make you insular in studying, but buckets of integrity.” Litman adds, “Not self- Force to promote the integration of immi- he had a sensitivity and commitment to promoting. No sharp elbows. Not an ambition grants, including an estimated 8.8 million larger human rights issues and activi- machine…It is a form of leadership you don’t who are eligible, but have not yet applied for ties,” Grifa says. And throughout his often see.” Litman followed Rodriguez’s USCIS citizenship. USCIS has also stepped up its ref- career, which she follows closely, “he is confirmation process and says, “His ability to ugee-processing efforts, not only for eligible still the same guy with the impish, boy- sit there and be attacked; I don’t think I could Central American children, but by redeploying ish smile.” take it. León was really raised right.” refugee officers to Baghdad and by processing That sense of commitment brought Rodriguez’s mother, Sarah Policar Rodri- requests from Syria. Along with these efforts, Rodriguez to Washington in 1994 as a guez, was adamantly opposed to her son be- it is undertaking a major modernization of its criminal trial attorney in the Justice coming director of USCIS because she worried information technology structure. Department’s Civil Rights division, tak- about the personal toll that the stress and time On March 12, 2014, the day of his Senate ing on massive cases. He spent months demands of his biggest job would have on him, confirmation hearing, Rodriguez was the last in San Juan, Puerto Rico, investigating his wife, and their two children, Talia, thirteen, of five nominees to be questioned. The other and prosecuting prison guards who and Elias, eleven. “He is a very devoted father four were nominated to be US District Court were beating prisoners and conspiring and those kids adore him. I call him ‘Mister and Circuit Court judges, and their composi- to cover up their crimes. And in South Mom,’” says his mother. Rodriguez says he tion reflected a radically changed America Carolina and Florida, he worked several tries to leave work early enough at least twice a from the days of white-male dominance. The years on a major case against traffickers week for his kids’ basketball and soccer, voice only white nominee was a woman, and the oth- who exploited and imprisoned Guatema- lessons, and Hebrew. He says he is committed ers were a black man, a Latino man, and a black lan and Mexican migrant farmworkers. “not just to showing up at a play, but doing the woman who was openly lesbian. Rodriguez That case, US v. Flores, “gave me administrative and emotional work of parent- listened to their testimony, as each of them a depth of understanding of undocumented ing.” His mother says she is reminded of his told something about their backgrounds. people that plays a big role in how I think to- priorities whenever she asks about problems at Then the Judiciary Committee finally day,” Rodriguez says. “These young men were work. “He says, ‘I don’t let it stress me out.’ He moved to consider Rodriguez. In his open- victims who were threatened and beaten and says, ‘if my family has problems, I get stressed ing statement, before he began to talk about lived in horrible conditions, and two things out, but not from my job.’” himself, he told the senators, “I would like to became clear to me: One, they were incredibly In a lengthy interview, Rodriguez says that salute the great American stories of the other resilient and strong individuals, people who I the government must listen openly to critics, nominees here today. Their stories illustrate thought would be very successful Americans. who have legitimate concerns about the law and the long road that we have all traveled. And it is Who had that sort of get-up-and-go to leave about border security. “I will never be one of stories like theirs that inspire me.” their country, leave their families, and look for those guys who says that if you complain about work. And, two, it was clear to me that what the undocumented it means you just don’t like Peter Perl, a freelance writer in Silver Spring, they did, they did for their families.” immigrants. That is very unfortunate rhetoric.” Maryland, worked for the Washington Post for Rodriguez, by this time married to Jill Rodriguez thinks that the anger over immi- thirty-two years. His last article for BC Law Schwartz, an obstetrician he’d met at a party in gration is somewhat exaggerated and that the Magazine was on White House advisor David New York, moved to Pittsburgh as an Assistant “center 80 percent” of Americans still believe Simas ’95.

Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 51 Alumni News and Events of Note

GENERATIONS 52 CLASS NOTES 53

SPOTLIGHTS Richard Backer 53 Scott Fifer 54 Kerry Kennedy 55 Ingrid Schroffner 56 Carl Takei 57 ALUMNI NEWS 58 CLICK 60 LIGHT THE WORLD 62

GENERATIONS

RICHARD P. CAMPBELL ’74, LEFT, AND SON RICHARD L. CAMPBELL ’05.

52 Photograph by JESSE BURKE Written and edited by Deborah J. Wakefield and Margie Palladino ’85

Class Notes We gladly publish alumni news and  photos. Send submissions to BC Law Magazine, 885 Centre St., Newton, MA 02459-1163, or email to vicki.sanders@ bc.edu. Due to space considerations, alumni news regarding inclusion in Super Lawyers Magazine and The Best Lawyers in America will be published on BC Law’s LawNet.

Alan G. Macdonald is Len DeLuca was a president and chief panelist at the New 69 executive officer 77 York University of Hallmark Health System in (NYU) Stern School of Manage- Medford, MA. He previously served ment 2015 Strategy Forum, and as executive vice president for a member of the “Next Wave of strategy and public affairs for the NCAA Litigation” panel at the NYU organization. 4th Annual Sports Law Colloquium. Founder of Len DeLuca & Associ- Howard A. Davidson ates LLC in New York, NY, and retired as director an adjunct professor at the NYU 70 of the American Bar School of Professional Studies Association Center on Children and Tisch Institute for Sports Manage- the Law. Having worked in the area ment, Media, and Business, he is of child law since 1974, he plans to also a featured contributor to the remain involved in the field of child ESPN Films 30 for 30 Shorts: The welfare law and policy on a part- Billion Dollar Game, and media con- time basis. sultant and negotiator for ESPN’s Walter E. Stern was selected by “The Basketball Tournament.” the Natural Resources, Energy, and RICHARD BACKER ’83 Joan A. Lukey received Environmental Law (NREEL) Sec- New Direction Left law to a top “Band 2” ranking C. Joseph Greaves is the tion of the State Bar of New Mexico become a rabbi. Tipping in the category of Liti- author of Tom & Lucky as the 2014 recipient of the NREEL Point “As senior vice president 74 for Fidelity Investments, I was gation: Trial Lawyers in the Cham- and George & Cokey Flo Lawyer of the Year Award. He is a 81 traveling around the world and bers Global 2015 US rankings, mak- published by Bloomsbury USA and partner in the Albuquerque, NM, enjoying my job, but missing ing this the sixth consecutive year due to be released in November. office of Modrall Sperling. time with my family. I had she has received a top band ranking. David R. Sullivan is a partner in always believed there was a next chapter in which I would In May, the National Law Journal Ellen J. Krug is the the Boston office of Murtha Cul- do something very different, also named her an Outstanding executive director lina LLP and a member of the firm’s a career set in a more spiritual Woman Lawyer. She is a partner and 82 of Call For Justice, Business and Finance Department. and interpersonal setting.”

chair of the complex trial and appel- a Minneapolis-based nonprofit He focuses his practice on federal Best Advice Ever Received late litigation group at Boston-based organization, which was awarded and state taxation and business law. “Life may have many chapters, and we can each change the Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP. the 2015 Louis M. Brown Award for Hon. William F. Sullivan was ap- world for the better—each Legal Access by the American Bar pointed an associate justice of the in our own way.” Last Book William D. Kirchick Association. Her article, “We Hear Massachusetts Superior Court. He Read Radical Judaism. is a partner in the You Knocking: An Essay on Welcom- previously maintained a criminal 76 Trusts and Estates ing ‘Trans’ Lawyers,” was published and civil law practice based in Department of Boston-based Nutter in the 2014–2015 issue of the Wil- Quincy, MA. McClennen & Fish LLP. He was liam Mitchell Law Review. previously a partner in the estate Daniel F. Polsenberg reached a iRichard L. Backeri was planning group at Morgan, Lewis & career landmark in April when he ordained as a rabbi Bockius LLP in Boston. argued his 250th appellate case 83 at the Aleph Renewal Hon. William D. Palmer is presi- involving a contract dispute between Jewish Seminary in Broomfield, dent-elect of the Council of Chief two mining companies over royalties CO, in January. After 25 years Judges of the State Courts of Appeal, associated with the Carlin Trend, of corporate real estate work for and will assume the presidency of the largest gold producing district Fidelity Investments, Graham Gund the council in October. He is a dis- in the US. He is a partner in the Architects, and Gunwyn Develop- trict judge of the Fifth District Court Las Vegas, NV, office of Lewis Roca ment, he is now a hospital chaplain of Appeal in Daytona Beach, FL. Rothgerber LLP (see story page 32). in the Boston area.

Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 53 ESQUIRE Class Notes

mer law partner, Melissa, and their ing Authority, participated in a panel two daughters in Rockland. discussion on climate finance sponsored by the City of Boston at Boston Brian A. Cardoza was University School of Management. elected to the Ameri- His presentation was on the financ- 87 can Board of Trial ing of large energy conservation and Advocates. He is a senior attorney performance contracts. with Southern California Edison Rita A. Sheffey is assistant dean Company in Rosemead, CA, and has for public service at Emory Uni- tried numerous cases to verdict, versity School of Law in Atlanta, including major wildland fire cases, GA. She was previously a litigation commercial disputes, and personal and intellectual property partner at injury actions. Hunton & Williams LLP in Atlanta. John G. Casagrande Jr., general counsel at Bright Horizons Family Frederick Lane, at- Solutions, was named a 2015 “Lead- torney, educational ers in the Law” honoree by Massa- 88 consultant, expert chusetts Lawyers Weekly. witness, author, and lecturer based iScott A. Fiferi , former New York in Burlington, VT, announced his City attorney and Hollywood screen- most recent book, Cybertraps for writer, is founder and chief execu- Educators, published by Mathom tive officer of GO Campaign (go- Press in January. campaign.org), a national nonprofit organization based in Santa Monica, Charlotte (Jackson) Patrick McNamara is CA, that identifies and partners with Crutchfield was ap- SCOTT FIFER ’87 the executive director grassroots organizations throughout 89 pointed by the Mont- of the Sylvan Learn- the world to provide children with gomery County (MD) Council to His Passion Go Campaign, 84 a nonprofit he founded.Most ing Centers of Albany and Clifton essential services, resources, and serve a three-year term on the Mont- Impactful Movie Hotel Park, NY. Previously, he practiced opportunities. (See also Kerry Ken- gomery County Merit System Pro- Rwanda. “I realized I didn’t general corporate and entertainment nedy ’87.) tection Board. Elected to serve on know anything about the law in New York, NY. iKerry Kennedyi , president of the Montgomery County Democratic atrocity. It made me want to , vice president the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Central Committee representing learn more about the world.” Jonathan L. Moll The Result Volunteered for a and general counsel of Babson Justice and Human Rights, was District 19 for the 2010–2014 term, month in Africa, which led to College in Wellesley Hills, MA, was featured in a story “A School for the she also ran a close but unsuccess- founding the GO Campaign named a 2015 “Leaders in the Law” Village” by Wendy Abrams in the ful campaign as a 2014 Democratic in 2006 to help 20 children in honoree by Massachusetts Lawyers book Unselfish: Love Thy Neigh- candidate for the Maryland House of Tanzania; it has now helped Weekly. bor as Thy Selfie about her visit to Delegates, District 19. over 58,000 children across 28 countries. Role Models “My impoverished Nuevo Zaragoza, Christopher J. Devlin returns to parents. They loved volunteer- Hon. Gregg J. Mexico, that resulted in a collabora- Bernstein Shur as a partner and ing.” Leisurely Pursuits Flying Pasquale, following tive effort between the RFK Center member of the business law practice trapeze and learning Swahili, nomination by Gov- and Go Campaign (founded by Scott group in the firm’s Portland, ME, Spanish, Khmer, and any other 85 Fifer ’87, see above) to raise support office. He was formerly a partner language he can. ernor Deval Patrick and unanimous approval by the Executive Council, for the village’s rebuilding efforts. at Bernstein Shur from 1993 to was sworn in as a justice of the The book, compiled by Paul D. Par- 2005, and most recently served as Massachusetts Superior Court in kinson and published by Unselfish managing counsel at Unum Group in October 2014. He was previously Stories in May, also includes a story Portland. a partner at Pasquale & White in by Kennedy entitled “Alicia from Rockland, MA, and practiced in the East Timor.” Adolfo E. Jimenez area of medical malpractice litiga- Dean Papademetriou, assistant was honored with a tion. He lives with his wife and for- general counsel at the Boston Hous- 90 Lifetime Achieve-

54 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 ment Award by the Daily Business Manuel L. Crespo Jr. Partners Health Care System in Bos- Review. He is a partner in the Miami, was elected president ton, was named a 2015 “Leaders in FL, office of Holland & Knight LLP 91 of the Cuban American the Law” honoree by Massachusetts and chair of the firm’s South Florida Bar Association. He is a partner at Lawyers Weekly. litigation practice group. Sanchez-Medina, Gonzalez, Que- Robert M. O’Connell Jr., of Karen M. O’Toole, senior vice sada, Lage, Crespo, Gomez, Machado counsel in the Boston office of Fish president and deputy general & Preira LLP in Coral Gables, FL, & Richardson, was included in the counsel of Fidelity Investments in and focuses his practice in the areas 2015 edition of World Trademark Boston, was named a 2015 “Leaders of real property transactions and Review 1000–The World’s Leading in the Law” honoree by Massachu- civil litigation. Trademark Professionals for the fifth setts Lawyers Weekly. Paul G. Cushing, legal counsel at consecutive year.

Joseph J. Centeno, a REUNION WEEKEND: NOVEMBER 6-7, 2015 partner in the Phila- 93 delphia, PA, and New York, NY, offices of Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP, was elected to the firm’s Manage- ment Committee in April. He also serves as chair of the firm’s Labor KERRY KENNEDY ’87 Relations and Employment Law Doing the Right Thing Department, and practices in the Human rights activist recently areas of collective and class action featured in book about Mexican litigation, employment litigation, poverty. BC Law Class with labor relations, and executive em- Most Impact Legal clinic with Professor Bob Bloom. “He ployment agreements. was an inspiring teacher who Deborah J. Peckham was recog- combined practical hands-on nized in the 2015 edition of World experience with rigorous intel- Trademark Review 1000–The lectual underpinnings.” About World’s Leading Trademark Profes- Her Story, “Alicia from East Timor” “I feel blessed to know sionals. She is a partner in the Bos- someone who, after losing ev- ton office of Burns & Levinson LLP erything she owned in the world and co-chair of the firm’s intellectual to war, gave away the very last property group. thing she owned, for her com- Mark C. Schueppert, general munity.” Describe Yourself in One Word “Optimistic.” counsel and vice president of human resources at Justice Resource Insti- Reunion Events—Come Back and Celebrate tute in Needham, MA, was named a For alumni from classes ending in 0 or 5 2015 “Leaders in the Law” honoree Return to where it all began—where you met lifelong friends, explored your passions, and were challenged to excel like never before. by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. Mark your calendar now for November 6 and 7, a celebration filled with social, academic, and networking events in Boston and on campus. Saturday night dinner will be at the Ritz- Edward J. Carbone was Carlton downtown. Visit www.bc.edu/lawreunion or contact the alumni office at 617-552- 4378 or [email protected] for more information. appointed to the Con- 94 stitutional Judiciary Committee of the Florida Bar for Alumni Association Notice At the Assembly Meeting Nov. 6, during Reunion Weekend 2015, elections will be held for the 2014–2015. In March, he presented 2016 Alumni Board, among other agenda items. The Board will also meet that weekend. If you a Florida Society for Health Care have volunteered for the Law School since June 2014, you are a member of the Alumni Risk Management and Patient Safety Assembly and have the right to vote for members of the Alumni Board. Please check our website at www.bc.edu/lawalumni for all association notices. For more information on the assembly, webinar entitled “Ten Things Health the election, or how to join the board, contact Christine Kelly at [email protected]. Care Providers Should Do to Reduce

Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 55 ESQUIRE Class Notes

Medical Malpractice Exposure.” He previously served as vice president geles, CA, offices of Nixon Peabody is managing partner in the Tampa, for constituent and central develop- LLP, where he represents clients FL, office of Roig Lawyers and head of ment programs and deputy campaign from a wide range of industries in the firm’s health care practice group. director with the Oregon State Uni- complex international corporate and versity Foundation in Corvallis, OR. finance transactions. iIngrid C. Schroff- neri , co-chair of the Myles K. Bartley is Jessica C. Sergi is 95 MassHealth Diver- a member of the of counsel in the Bos- sity Council, and fellow council 98 complex litigation 02 ton office of Mintz members received certificates of group at Denlea & Carton LLP in Levin and focuses her practice on appreciation from Massachusetts White Plains, NY. He was previ- litigation matters with an empha- Medicaid for their contributions ously a counsel with Curtis, Mallet- sis on government investigations, of service to the agency. In March, Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP in New including those related to health the Massachusetts Bar Foundation York, NY. care, securities, and criminal is- (MBF) Board of Trustees named her Tara A. Twomey was a featured sues. Previously, she worked in the a MBF Life Fellow. She is assistant speaker at the National Association Federal Public Defenders Office general counsel in the Massachu- of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys and the Massachusetts Office of the setts Executive Office of Health and 23rd Annual Convention in April. Attorney General, Special Investiga- Human Services in Boston. She is of counsel to the National tion and Narcotics Division. INGRID Consumer Law Center headquar- SCHROFFNER ’95 Sejal Natu Badani is tered in Boston, and the project Greta LaMountain New Accolade Certificate the author of her first director for the National Consumer Biagi was presented of appreciation from Mas- 97 novel entitled Trail of Bankruptcy Rights Center. 03 with the 2015 K. sachusetts Medicaid. On the Broken Wings and published by Lake Colleen Nunnelly Award by the Job Works for Massachusetts Union Publishing in May. Thaddeus R. McBride National Association of Consumer Executive Office of Health and Jennifer A. Creedon was named is a partner at Bass, Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) at Human Services and co-chairs MassHealth Diversity Council. a 2015 “Client Service All-Star” by 00 Berry & Sims PLC in its annual convention in Chicago in MassHealth is ... The com- BTI Consulting Group. She is a part- Washington, DC, and serves as chair April. She was chosen from more bined Medicaid and Children’s ner in the Boston and Providence, of the firm’s international trade than 4,000 members and 600 con- Health Insurance Program RI, offices of Verrill Dana LLP and practice group. He was previously a ference attendees for her whistle- providing health care coverage focuses her practice on products li- partner in the Washington, DC, of- blowing actions when a judge in to 1.3 million Massachusetts residents. Diversity Council ability litigation, asbestos litigation, fice of Sheppard Mullin. Eastern Hampshire District Court Goal To foster an inclusive and and business litigation. in Massachusetts sent an elderly respectful work environment by Kevin J. Heaney is deputy vice Thomas E. Gaynor is man to jail because he could not pay facilitating training opportuni- president for development at Princ- a partner in the San a $500 debt. She is in private prac- ties, education, best practices, eton University in Princeton, NJ. He Francisco and Los An- tice in Amherst, MA, and represents and leading initiatives to better 01 serve MassHealth members. Good Deed Secretary of the BC Law Alumni Board. Most Recent Gig “Playing IN MEMORIAM for my twins’ preschool class and teaching the kids a song (complete with hula motions) Michael Ross ’43 Leo A. Egan ’57 Daniel D. Gallagher ’62 Berril Shief ’72 from Hawaii, where I am from.” Hon. Donald W. Cushing ’49 William E. Hickey ’57 Alan I. Kaplan ’63 Penny A. Levin ’74 Favorite Quality of BC Hon. William H. Carey ’50 Michael F. Walsh ’57 Robert F. Dwyer ’64 Lt. Cdr. Charles A. Marciano ’75 Law Alums A lasting sense of Hon. Mary Beatty Muse ’50 Francis B. Bryson ’59 Philip T. Beauchesne ’65 Jean Shapiro Perwin ’75 connection. Favorite BC Law Thomas A. Printon Jr. ’54 Irving L. Greenbaum ’59 John Kelley McDevitt ’65 Robert T. Capeless Jr. ’77 Professor “Ingrid Hillinger— John J. Walsh ’54 John P. Kelly ’59 Alan J. Goldman ’66 Kieran P. Fallon ’80 she has such verve!” Samuel B. Mesnick ’56 Louis W. Barassi ’61 John M. Baker ’67 Mark Alan Fischer ’80 Charles E. Rice ’56 Thomas F. Bennett ’61 Hon. Robert V. Greco ’69 Joseph J. Hall ’80 Neil J. Roche ’56 Francis E. Jenney ’61 Hon. William W. Teahan Jr. ’70 James Mitchell Lish ’96 John J. Savage Jr. ’56 Pierre O. Caron ’62 Jerome S. Solomon ’71 Robert S. Kamin ’07

56 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 clients in the areas of bankruptcy, and complex commercial litigation. small business, family, real estate, Andrew S. Gallinaro is a partner in estate planning, zoning, and condo- the Philadelphia, PA, office of Conrad minium law. O’Brien PC and focuses his practice Daniel L. Gold is a partner in on complex commercial cases. the Miami, FL, office of Wilson John A. McBrine is a partner at Elser and focuses his practice on Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP in bankruptcy and creditors’ rights. Boston and a member of the firm’s He was previously a partner at Trusts and Estates Department and Miami-based Ehrenstein Charbon- Nutter Charitable Advisors. neau Calderin. Marilyn Mosby was sworn in as Baltimore City (MD) state’s Kathleen A. Barclay is attorney in January, and is cur- a partner at Maguire rently the youngest chief prosecu- 04 Cardona PC in Al- tor in a major US city. She and bany, NY, and practices in the areas her husband, Nick J. Mosby, 7th of medical malpractice defense, District Baltimore City council- errors and omissions, product li- man, have two daughters and live in ability, general liability defense, and West Baltimore, MD (see also pages insurance coverage. A member of 6 and 29). the Capital District Trial Lawyers Shagha Tousi is a litigation Association, Albany County Bar As- partner at Nutter McClennen & sociation, Capital District Women’s Fish LLP in Boston and focuses her Bar Association, and New York practice on complex civil disputes, State Bar Association, she resides with an emphasis on product li- in Ballston Lake, NY, with her hus- ability litigation and the defense of reports on abuses in US immigration band and two sons. individuals before the US Securities detention facilities: “Detention Is CARL TAKEI ’07 Melissa B. Coffey is a partner in and Exchange Commission. No Place for Infants, Children, and Righting Wrongs Authored the Tallahassee, FL, office of Foley Families,” in reference to the Berks recent ACLU reports on im- & Lardner LLP and focuses her Stephanie A. Hirano County (PA) family detention facil- migration detention facilities’ practice on securities litigation is a partner in the ity, and “A Most Unsurprising Riot,” abuses. Learning Curve and enforcement, False Claims Act Seattle, WA, office which details life inside the Willacy Participated in the criminal 06 justice clinic at BC Law on investigations and litigation, white of Perkins Coie LLP and focuses County (TX) Correctional Center. the prosecution side. “Shifting collar defense, and complex com- her practice on corporate gover- my perspective to rely heavily mercial litigation. nance, public company reporting, Stacy M. Hadeka is on police testimony showed Stephanie Sprague Sobkowiak is a mergers and acquisitions, and an associate in the me how the sources of our partner and a member of the health corporate finance. Washington, DC, office information can profoundly 10 influence what we understand care practice group in the New Matthew A. Kane is a partner of Hogan Lovells and a member of the facts to be.” Three Words Haven, CT, office of Murtha Cullina at Boston-based Laredo & Smith the firm’s government contracts to Describe His Work at the LLP. Her practice includes assisting LLP and a member of the firm’s practice. She was previously a staff ACLU Exciting, heartbreaking, clients with transactions, compli- business litigation practice. He was attorney at General Dynamics and absolutely necessary (OK— ance, and risk management. previously of counsel in the Boston Mission Systems while completing that’s four). Proudest Moment “My cross-examination of an office of Bulkley, Richardson and her LLM in Government Procure- expert witness in a trial about Jennifer Briggs Fisher Gelinas LLP. ment at George Washington Univer- segregation of and discrimination is a partner in the San sity Law School. against prisoners with HIV. In Francisco, CA, office iCarl Takeii , staff just a few minutes, I was able to 05 show that his conclusions about of Duane Morris LLP and practices attorney for the Na- Jason J. Mathew is an as- our clients were impossible to in the areas of white-collar criminal tional Prison Project sociate in the real estate 07 disentangle from his homopho- defense, internal corporate inves- of the ACLU in Washington, DC, 11 group of Goldberg Kohn bia and other prejudices.” tigations, regulatory compliance, is the author of two recent ACLU in Chicago, IL.

Illustration by BRIAN STAUFFER Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 57 ESQUIRE Alumni News

Generosity Has Its Rewards Now in its tenth year, the Scholarship Dinner brings donors and students closer.

At the Tenth Annual Scholarship Dinner, BC Law students and donors came together for a shared evening of celebration and appreciation. Held at the Liberty Hotel in downtown Boston, the gala gave scholarship recipients the opportunity to express their gratitude and to build stronger connections with their donors, who are among the school’s most philan- thropic alumni. In his speech, Christian Chorba ’15, the 2015 recipient of the Derek J. Boc Scholarship, reflected on his grandmother’s humble beginnings in Ireland and the “transformative power of education” upon her later success. He spoke about the struggle many students face to finance their education, and how scholarship donors make a difference. “Your sponsorships have given us more than just a golden opportunity. They have given us an example to strive for in our own lives. An example not just of giving back but of always remem- bering how we got to where we are— with another’s help.” Following Chorba, the donor behind his scholarship spoke about his motivations in endowing the fund. John F. Boc ’74, a longtime BC Law donor and volunteer, shared with the group his own story, starting with his humble beginnings working through Scholarship Dinner school and leading up to the untimely 2015 was held at the Liberty Hotel passing of his son, Derek ’07. John, in Boston. together with Derek’s mother, Elaine, established the scholarship fund in

58 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 Photographs by CHRISTOPHER SOLDT, MTS, BC SCHOLARSHIP DINNER 2015

their son’s honor and they were quickly joined by more than 2 100 relatives, friends, and colleagues. This remarkable example of generosity—and the impact on students’ lives—ex- emplifies BC Law’s Jesuit ideal of men and women for others. It 1 3 is a thread that runs through student and “Your sponsorships donor stories alike, and have given us more that fuels the extraor- than just a golden dinary success of BC opportunity. They Law’s Light the World have given us an campaign. As the Law example to strive School surpasses its for in our own lives.” $50 million goal, it is CHRISTIAN CHORBA ’15, 4 5 noteworthy that more BOC SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT than $38 million raised to date is dedicated to financial aid for BC Law students. The Law School has established sixteen named, endowed scholarship funds to date (these funds are created with gifts of $250,000 or more and each fund contributes a significant PHOTO IDS portion of a student’s aid package) and LEFT TO RIGHT 6 1. Christian Chorba dozens of financial aid funds (estab- ’15 and John Boc ’74. lished with gifts of $100,000 or more). 2. Roger Bougie ’62, Supporting students is at the core of Hayoung Chung ’15, and Ronald the campaign’s mission. This annual Makawa ’15. 3. Cole gathering recognizes kindness and Goodman ’16 and Thomas Jalkut ’76. impressive achievements, both hall- 4. Cadesbury Coo- marks of the BC Law community. per ’15, Kristin Mont- Though each student and donor gomery, and John Montgomery ’75. has a unique story, they all share the 5. The Liberty 7 8 common commitment of service to Hotel. 6. Nicholas Maschinot ’15 and others. BC Law’s donors are making Joseph Vanek ’87. a difference in the lives of hundreds 7. Patrick Kessock ’17, Elaine Morisi, of students each year, as well as in the and Mark Morisi. lives that these students will touch 8. Jeanne Picerne through their good work. As Chorba ’92. 9. Frances Spill- ane ’58 and Douglas so aptly put it, “As our sponsors, you MacMaster Jr. ’58. share in our successes and in the good 10. Fred Salvucci, Rosalba Salvucci, works that we hope to accomplish. You and Danielle Black 9 10 have become part of our own stories.” Salvucci ’96.

To see more Scholarship Dinner photos, go to www.bc.edu/scholarshipdinner. Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 59 ESQUIRE Click

LAW DAY 2015

Several hundred people attended Boston College Law School’s annual Law Day event on April 30th at the Boston Harbor Hotel to celebrate the honorees: Professor Emerita Ruth- Arlene W. Howe ’74 (St. Thomas More Award); Professor Robert M. Bloom ’71 (William J. Kenealy, SJ, Alumnus of the Year Award); David Schoen ’84 (Honorable David S. Nel- son Public Interest Law Award); and the Honorable Leslie E. Harris ’84 (Daniel G. Holland Lifetime Achieve- ment Award). This year’s event included a special tribute to the Law School’s Black 1 2 Alumni Network on its thirtieth anniversary, as well as a commemora- tion of the recent fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. Preceding the event, Goulston & Storrs hosted a roundtable discussion entitled “The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act—What has Been Accom- plished? What Remains to be Done?” At the awards ceremony, former 3 chief justice Roderick Ireland of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massa- chusetts and BC Law Dean Vincent Rougeau offered comments on how much has changed and how far we have come as a society since the days of the Civil Rights Act. They were followed by powerful presen- tations from the honorees in which 4 5 they credited mentors and others in the alumni community with helping them to achieve what otherwise LAW DAY 2015 SPONSORS might not have been possible. SILVER Boston College Law School Black The Law School is grateful to the Alumni Network many generous sponsors who, along Esdaile, Barrett, Jacobs & Mone Goulston & Storrs with the hundreds in attendance, Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo contributed toward this splendid BRONZE evening, which successfully raised Adler Pollock & Sheehan Conn Kavanaugh Rosenthal Peisch & Ford enough to support a Law Day Scholar EMC Corporation next year. Hemenway & Barnes Holland & Knight Jones Day Liberty Mutual McGrath & Kane PHOTO IDS LEFT TO RIGHT Morgan, Brown & Joy 1. 2015 Honorees: David Schoen ’84, Professor Nutter McClennen & Fish Robert Bloom ’71, Professor Emerita Ruth- O’Malley and Harvey Arlene W. Howe ’74, and Honorable Leslie Proskauer Rose Harris ’84. 2. Justice Roderick Ireland. 3. Meg Seyfarth Shaw Connolly ’70, Michael Mone ’67, and Norman Silk Road Advisory & Strategic Partners, Jacobs ’64. 4. Kenny Sambour ’13 and Caroline Edward Leahy ’ 71 Spillane ’12. 5. Professor Emerita Ruth-Arlene Witmer, Karp, Warner & Ryan W. Howe ’74. 6. Chuck Walker ’78 and Susan 6 PATRON Maze-Rothstein ’85. Beck Reed Riden

To view photos of Law Day, 60 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 go to www.bc.edu/lawday. Photographs by CHRISTOPHER SOLDT, MTS, BC COMMENCEMENT 2015

Top Obama aide David Simas ’95, bottom right, addressed graduates at BC Law’s 83rd Commencement May 22, imploring them to be true to values and ethics they learned at the Law School. The director of the White House Office of Political Strategy and Outreach said to take up those values “in the courtrooms, the boardrooms, and everywhere in between.” Two hundred and forty-seven graduates earned their JD degrees and seventeen received their LL.M degrees.

To view the video of Commencement, go to www.bc.edu/lawcommencement.

Photographs by CAITLIN CUNNINGHAM Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 61 ESQUIRE Light the World

THE MAKING OF

A LEGACY Professor Patricia McCoy with, from left, The Class of 2015 is transforming BC President William P. Leahy, SJ, past last year’s class gift campaign into what and present Liberty Mutual senior vice many hope will become a lasting tradi- presidents Christopher Mansfield ’75 and James Kelleher, and Dean Vincent tion of impressive success that provides Rougeau at the inauguration of the tangible resources to a BC Law student. Liberty Mutual Insurance professorship. This year’s 3Ls reached more than 90 percent participation and raised enough in gifts and matching funds to help support a student from the Class of 2016 in a one-year post-graduate fellowship in New Chairs Support public interest law. LSA President Alaina “Lainey” Sullivan Business Law Scholarship ’15 explained why this project resonates: “Our degree is supposed to be about McCoy and Shnitser celebrated as inaugural Liberty Mutual and Donohue professors. helping people and helping communities. We all feel deeply drawn to the idea of Two professors who recently joined the BC Law on that he would not practice law but would use making a real difference in real lives.” School faculty— Patricia McCoy and Natalya what he learned in law school to make sound busi- At the March kickoff event, Sullivan introduced Colette Irving ’14, recipient Shnitser—and the donors whose named chairs they ness decisions based on value judgments. of the first school-funded post-grad fill were celebrated this past semester at events that The celebration of the inaugural Donohue fellowship of this focused on scholarship in business law. Professor included a panel discussion with BC Law kind, founded by Professor Shnitser was feted on January 22 senior business faculty Kent Greenfield, Renee the Law School alongside David Donohue ’71 and Pamela Donohue, Jones, Brian JM Quinn, and Alfred Yen. to recognize the fundraising whose generous gift established the David and Pa- McCoy, a nationally prominent scholar in finan- achievement of mela Donohue Assistant Professorship to nurture cial services regulation and the inaugural Liberty Irving’s class. and retain promising junior faculty. Shnitser, a Mutual Insurance Professor of Law, was welcomed In May, BC graduate of Yale Law School who also holds degrees at a March 30 event that included Christopher C. Law named from Stanford University, teaches Corporations and Mansfield ’75, who was instrumental in establish- Shannon Johnson Collette Irving, ’15 as the Class Employee Benefits Law and is currently researching the chair while he was senior vice president Lainey Sullivan, and ing retirement security in the United States. and general counsel at Liberty Mutual Group. Also David Weinstein of 2014 Public Service Fellow. “Pure and simple, establishing an endowed representing Liberty Mutual were two senior vice Johnson will join Ascentria Care Alliance professorship is a transformative moment for the presidents, chief legal officer James Kelleher and in Worcester, where she will provide legal Law School,” Dean Vincent Rougeau said in his chief public affairs officer Paul Mattera. services, training, and advocacy for immigrant youth and their families. remarks. “I want to thank David and Pamela for “The professorship has not only added new aca- The driving force behind the class making this possible.” demic strengths in property and casualty insurance gift program is David Weinstein ’75, The Donohues’ gift reflects Dave Donohue’s law,” BC Provost David Quigley said in his address, a Boston College trustee and Dean’s interests in business and entrepreneurship. He is “but has also created exciting new synergy in an area Advisory Board member. Since 2006, the president of International Human Resources of business law that speaks to the broader economy.” Weinstein has provided incentives to help student leaders raise funds and Development Corporation, a global management McCoy helped establish the Consumer Financial increase 3L participation. training company for the oil and gas industry, and Protection Bureau after joining the US Depart- “Beyond the immediate reward of owner of Arlington Storage Corporation, which ment of the Treasury in 2010. A graduate of Oberlin public service fellowships, the class gift operates underground gas storage facilities in New College and UC Berkeley School of Law, she teaches program promises long-term benefits York state. Donohue has said that he realized early Insurance Law, Banking Regulation, and Topics in for BC Law and its graduates,” explains Financial Services Regula- Weinstein. “Students who contribute to Celebrating the Donohue BC Law upon graduation are also more assistant professorship, tion. McCoy was among the likely to contribute as alumni, especially from left, BC President first scholars to raise alarms when they see the positive impact. And William P. Leahy, SJ, about subprime loans. 3Ls gain valuable experience learning Professor Natalya Shnit- ser, Pamela Donohue, Appropriately, the topic how to ask others to financially support a David Donohue ’71, and cause they believe in. Mastering the ‘ask’ Dean Vincent Rougeau. of her lecture at the Liberty is a lifelong skill that helps alumni build Mutual event was “Insurance their communities.” and the Common Good.”

62 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 Photographs by CHRISTOPHER SOLDT, MTS, BC As the Light the World Campaign draws near its end, Boston College Law School is proud to report that our alumni and friends are demonstrating unprecedented levels of financial support. Inspired by the stories of students whose education depends on the generosity of others, our donors are enabling the Law School to soar past its campaign goal, reaching heights never seen in our history. Earlier this fiscal year, BC Law received its largest gift ever from Jerome Lyle and Phyllis Rappaport. At the close of the fiscal year, we have reached anall-time record for BC Law of $13.6 million in total commitments in a single year—double last year’s record high. In these pages we recognize the many in our community who are stretching to give back to the school they love and share stories that highlight what this philanthropy enables us to achieve.

CAMPAIGN DONORS IGNATIAN CIRCLE

BC Law’s campaign commitments include gifts and pledges made between June 1, 2004 and present. Recognizes paid lifetime gifts of $1 million or more. The following donors to BC Law are members of this society. John F. Boc ’74 $7.5 Million+ Joan Lukey ’74 and Anne P. Jones ’61 James A. Champy ’68 Jerome Lyle and Philip D. Stevenson* Robert P. ’75 and Jeanne Joy David A. T. Donohue ’71 Phyllis Rappaport Raymond T. Mancini Paul M. ’70 and Darald R. Libby ’55† Christopher C. ’75 and Ellen Ennis Kane P ’93, ’92 Jerry and Phyllis Rappaport, The Phyllis & Jerome $3 Million+ Laura Lee Mansfield Donald M. Keller ’83 Lyle Rappaport Foundation Liberty Mutual James M. ’73 and Lisa Micali* John M. and Lizanne T. Kenney David C. Weinstein ’75 Raymond F. ’61 and George M. Kunath ’73 $2 Million+ Pamelee Murphy* Mark Leddy ’71 Arbella Foundation Jeanne M. Picerne ’92 Peggy Ann Leen Marianne D. Short ’76 and Ronald R.S. Picerne P ’92 James Lerner ’80, P’14 ENDOWED CHAIRS Raymond L. Skowyra* Michael J. ’77 and David Leslie ’74, P ’07 Christine Marie Puzo* Douglas J. MacMaster ’58 David and Pamela Donohue Assistant Professorship $1 Million+ Jeffrey S. Sabin ’77 James McDermott ’80 and Robert F. Drinan, SJ, Professorship Anonymous* John H. Schaaf ’51*† Sharon Bazarian Richard G. Huber Visiting Professorship James A. ’68 and Lois Champy* William ’82 and Cynthia Simon John J. McHale ’75 William J. Kenealy, SJ, Professorship Leonard F. ’77 and Geri DeLuca* David M. ’76 and Lisa Solomon Kathleen M. McKenna ’78 Darald and Juliet Libby Professorship David A.T. ’71 and Robert C. Mendelson ’80 Liberty Mutual Insurance Professorship Pamela Donohue $100,000+ Michael E. ’67 and J. Donald Monan, SJ, University Professorship Charles J. ’59 and Barbara Gulino* Anonymous (3) Margaret Supple Mone P ’96 The Jerome Lyle Rappaport Visiting David C. Weinstein ’75 Anonymous* John T. ’75 and Professorship in Law and Public Policy Kathryn J. Barton ’87 Kristin Montgomery P ’11, ’06 $750,000+ John F. Boc ’74, P ’07 Daniel F. ’75 and Estate of Tedd J. ’35 and John F. ’74 and Carole Bronzo P ’11 Jane E. Murphy Jr. ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS Victoria E. Syak George G. ’59 and Albert A. Notini ’83 Sandra Backofen Burke* P ’92 Estate of Frank Oliver Cornerstone Scholarships $500,000+ Joseph H. Burke ’72 Robert and Gifts of $1 million or more Roger M. ’62 and Barbara Bougie* Philip Cahill ’48* Kathleen Paulus P ’05 Molly and Phil Weinstein Scholarship Kimberly L. and Paul T. Dacier Robert C. Ciricillo ’70* R. Robert Popeo ’61, P ’98, ’94 Robert K. Decelles ’72 and Denis P. Cohen ’76* Francis D. Privitera ’56, P ’95, ’95 Endowed Scholarship Funds Mary L. DuPont* Daniel R. Coquillette P ’96 Philip J. Privitera ’95 Gifts of $250,000 or more Michael H. ’83 and Helen Lee John J. ’57† and Michael J. Richman ’85 Anonymous Boston College Law School Scholarship Joseph M. ’87 and Laura Vanek Mary D. Curtin P ’90, ’88 Patricia K. Rocha ’82, P’14 Roger M. Bougie Boston College Law School Scholarship Lidia B. ’80 and Kitt ’77 and Heather B. Sawitsky* James A. ’68 and Lois Champy Scholarship $250,000+ David W. Devonshire Kathleen E. Shannon ’75 Dacier Family Boston College Law School Scholarship Anonymous John D. Donovan ’81 and Richard A. and Decelles Family Veterans Law Scholarship Anonymous* Donna L. Hale Joanne M. Spillane P ’12 Bill & Lynn Kargman Family Scholarship Hugh J. and Martina David Ault* Clover M. Drinkwater ’81 James F. Stapleton ’57 Francis, Josephine B., and Robert D. Keefe Scholarship John F. Donohue and Douglass N. ’72 and Debra Brown Steinberg ’79 Ann and Raymond T. Mancini Scholarship Frances L. Robinson Caroline A. Ellis John A. ’81 and Antonio and Anthony Mancini Scholarship William M. Kargman ’67, P ’11 Michael K. ’84 and Patrice Tarantino P ’12 Mansfield Family Boston College Law School Scholarship Robert D. Keefe ’72 Elizabeth C. Fee P ’15 Robert A. Trevisani ’58 Michael E. Mone, Esq., Endowed Scholarship Kieran Estate Goulston & Storrs David Wirth* Honorable Francis P. O’Connor ’53 Scholarship Brian J. Knez ’84 John D. ’74 and Douglas L. ’78 and Jeanne and Ronald Picerne Family Boston Dennis A. Lalli ’77 Barbara F. Hanify P ’17 Maureen E. Wisner College Law School Scholarship Miss Wallace Minot Harold Hestnes ’61 Joanne Caruso ’85 and Lawrence and Lillian Solomon Fellowship Leonard Foundation Ellen S. ’75 and Jeffrey G. Huvelle* Thomas ’84 Zaccaro Vanek Family Boston College Law School Scholarship

* Includes a legacy gift designated to BC Law School †Deceased Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 63 ESQUIRE The

MEMORIES TO LAST A LIFETIME

The November 2014 Reunion was a smashing Reunion success. Nearly 500 alumni and friends joined us to celebrate during the course of a memo- R. Joseph Parker Lynda Murphy Connolly rable weekend. We enjoyed talks by beloved Giving Lawrence W. Schonbrun Loring A. Cook faculty and thought-provoking discussions Paul M. Shanley Robert M. Cox about legal issues and current events with fel- Richard M. Shaw Lodowick F. Crofoot low alumni; walked down memory lane at the Morris S. Shubow Kenneth J. Davis Friday night Bar Review; Report Mitchell J. Sikora Karen Dean-Smith and gathered for one of Leo W. Tracy Barbara A. Dortch- the best attended Sat- Peter J. Tyrrell Okara urday evening dinners Barry L. Weisman Diane Durgin ever at the Ritz-Carlton. Ruby Roy Wharton Edward A. Fitzgerald 2014 James P. Whitters James E. Flynn We also reminisced, John V. Woodard Daniel A. Ford reconnected, and shared Katherine M. Galvin stories about life since 1964 1969 John Wright Gibbons 1974 our law school days. 50th Reunion 45th Reunion John T. Gilbert My Class of 1984 as- Class Gift Total: $28,406 Class Gift Total: $26,125 40th Reunion Robert M. Graham sembled and distributed Class Participation: 42% Class Participation: 28% Class Gift Total: $471,183 Ruth-Arlene W. Howe a fantastic Reunion Book in which classmates Class Participation: 31% Michael B. Isaacs described their lives, families, careers, and, of $10,000+ $5,000+ Alan J. Kaplan course, their days at BC Law. Classmates from Herbert J. Schneider Stephen L. Johnson $100,000+ E. Tupper Kinder across the country socialized with one another $5,000+ $2,500+ Joan Lukey Paul A. Lacy Martin J. O’Donnell Paul E. Sullivan $50,000+ Gary H. Lefkowitz all weekend and well into the night on Saturday. $1,500+ $1,500+ John F. Boc Benjamin M. Levy Other highlights included a special celebra- Jerome M. Tuck Margaret S. Travers Richard P. Campbell Alan D. Mandl tion of the Center for Experiential Learning, Richard R. Zaragoza John D. Hanify Regina Snow Mandl the Alumni Assembly with featured speaker US Additional Donors $10,000+ Martin J. McMahon Attorney Carmen Ortiz, a Dean’s Council recep- Charles B. Abbott Additional Donors John F. Bronzo Kevin J. Moynihan tion for members of the Law School’s leadership Michael F. Bergan Richard A. Aborn Gary R. Greenberg Peter A. Mullin gift societies, and time to enjoy autumn in New Philip J. Callan Roger C. Adams David Leslie Eliot Norman England together at the Head of the Charles. Richard M. Cotter Carl E. Axelrod Walter B. Prince Richard L. Olewnik To mark this milestone, many alumni were Robert J. Donahue Michael J. Brawley $5,000+ James M. Puopolo David G. Ries inspired to make a personal gift as well as to en- William L. Haas Thomas H. Brown J. Elizabeth Cremens Patricia K. Hagedorn Thomas E. Connolly Arlene M. Violet Theodore S. Sasso courage classmates to do the same. The results Norman I. Jacobs James M. Cronin $2,500+ Barbara Ellen Schlaff were impressive. Overall, the reunion classes Thomas P. Kennedy Michael R. Deland Douglas M. Myers Paul B. Smyth raised more than $2.3 million. The Class of 1979 Charles A. Lane Peter C. Edison Lora C. Pepi Margaret A. Sofio raised the most, with gifts and pledges totaling Robert P. Leslie John J. Egan $1,500+ Gerard A. St. Amand $1,094,295, while the Class of 1974 broke a T. Kenwood Mullare Leo F. Evans Joseph W. Downs Margaret N. St. Clair record for 40th reunions, raising $471,183. The Francis M. O’Boy Gary S. Fentin Paul A. Francis Christopher J. Sterritt Class of 1964 achieved the highest participation George M. O’Connor Paul C. Fournier Patricia C. Gunn Joseph G. Stiles with a rate of 42 percent. Donald Jude O’Meara Dana H. Gaebe Diane M. Kottmyer John W. Townsend Reunion 2015 planning is well under way. So Arnold W. Proskin Robert J. Glennon Paula Pugh Newett Brendan J. Vanston Frank J. Vavonese far more than 300 alumni have joined the “Hope Joseph J. Reardon John E. Glovsky Jeremy A. Stahlin Nelson G. Ross John R. Hicinbothem Leonard S. Volin to Go” list. If you are in a class ending in 0 or 5, David J. Shapiro Gerald J. Hoenig Additional Donors Edward R. Wirtanen please email [email protected] to add your Stephen W. Daniel E. Kleinman Wendy Kaplan Armour Louis C. Zicht name to the list today. If it is anything like my Silverman Raymond C. Lantz Howard B. Barnaby reunion weekend, you will enjoy a marvelous, James R. Skahan Alan M. Lestz Morrell I. Berkowitz fun-filled time that you will never forget. Felix E. Smith John J. Lorden Thomas J. Berry 1979 Joseph H. Spain Alan G. MacDonald Mark B. Brenner 35th Reunion Michael Fee ’84 Albert N. Stieglitz Lawrence E. Miller Stephen J. Buchbinder Class Gift Total: 30TH REUNION COMMITTEE Robert L. Surprenant Thomas R. Murtagh Richard J. Chin $1,094,295 DEAN’S ADVISORY BOARD William J. O’Neil Susan E. Condon Class Participation: 22%

64 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 * Includes a legacy gift designated to BC Law School $1,000,000+ Kevin W. Donnelly Lynn G. Weissberg $1,500+ Joseph H. Caffrey Betts Howes Murray Anonymous Mark R. Draymore Judy Willis Sylvia Chin Caplan Bennett A. Caplan Alan S. Musgrave $25,000+ William E. Dwyer Benjamin S. Wolf William R. Eddows Richard L. Carr Linda E. Neary Jo Ellen Ojeda Donald E. Hacker Norah M. Wylie Wilbur P. Edwards Paula M. Devereaux Eedy Nicholson Catherine Oliver Murphy Thomas Henry Hannigan David Fleshler Catherine M. Devine James B. Peloquin George J. Murphy John M. Horn Richard M. Graf Pasquale J. D’Orsi Barbara Zicht 1984 $10,000+ Kathleen A. Leary Leslie E. Harris Susan L.S. Ernst Richmond Lauren Stiller Rikleen Jeffrey T. Letzler 30th Reunion Susan A. Hays John F. Evers Angeles T. Rodriguez $2,500+ Dennis D. Leybold Class Gift Total: $360,565 Ellen Joy Kapinos Beth Rushford Fernald Valerie A. Ross Katherine M. Hanna Peter M. McElroy Class Participation: 36% Barbara A. O’Donnell Mark D. Fernald Steven Samalot Thomas D. Miller Matthew L. McGrath Scott W. Olson John D. Frumer Paula M. Sarro $1,500+ David D. Merrill $150,000+ DeWayne A. Powell Mary E. Gilligan Heidi A. Schiller Thomas F. Dailey Timothy Pryor Mulhern Brian J. Knez Evelynne L. Swagerty Carole Cattaneo Gori Daniel A. Seymour Anne Leary Hemelt James G. Noucas $50,000+ Alexander C. Tang Linda M. Clifford Hadley Karen Shaffer-Levy John Robert O’Brien Michael K. Fee William P. Hadley Gayle A. Smalley Additional Donors William H. Orrick $25,000+ Additional Donors James S. Harrington Virginia Stanton Smith Mark E. Aalyson Thomas P. Ricciardelli Michael J. Wilson Anne F. Ackenhusen Brian T. Hatch Lynne Spigelmire-Viti David Winthrop Bianchi Lloyd C. Rosenberg $10,000+ S. Kathryn Allen Stephen J. Hines Charla Bizios Stevens Jeffrey I. Bleiweis Howard S. Rosenblum Faye A. Florence Gail L. Anderson Ralph F. Holmes John E. Stoddard Jerry Boone Marian T. Ryan Debra Chervinsky Moll Sheila Lewinger Arons Marcia E. Jackson K. Lilith Stone Kathleen Colleary Bernadette L. Sabra Jonathan Lawrence Moll Dawn I. Austin Christopher M. Jantzen Christopher R. Vaccaro Marguerite A. Conan Richard M. Sandman M.J. Moltenbrey Elizabeth Barrett Kevin P. Kerr Helen C. Velie James R. Condo Cynthia L. Shupe Thomas A. Zaccaro Joel E. Benard-Cutler Susan F. Koffman Barbara von Euler Steven E. Cope Marilyn D. Stempler $5,000+ John P. Benson Donna J. Law Mark F. Weaver Carmen Cuevas- E. Gail Suchman William P. Gelnaw Benjamin Berry Patrick McNamara Valerie M. Welch Scripture Denis J. Sullivan James M. Kennedy Timothy B. Borchers Thomas K. Morgan Lisa C. Wood Susan Giroux Dee Maureen A. Varley Richard J. McCready Stephen W. Brice Charlotte S. Murphy Karin J. Yen Judith G. Dein Susan A. Weil Rosemary McCready Lyman G. Bullard Mark W. Murphy Anne M. Desouza-Ward Fred D. Weinstein Catherine K. Byrne Maureen Murphy

Illustration by JULIETTE BORDA Summer 2015 BC LAW MAGAZINE 65 ESQUIRE

The Reunion Giving Report 2014

1989 Anjali Jesseramsing Edward J. Carbone $1,500+ Anne I. Bandes Austin R. Evers 25th Reunion Michael Gordon Jones John D. Casais Stephen D. Riden David T. Beck Stas V. Gayshan Class Gift Total: $66,373 Darcy Kirk Karen Clark Claudia Ruth Tobler Nathalia A. Bernardo Kyle R. Junik Class Participation: 28% Jane P. Kourtis Brian J. Connor Karen Elizabeth Wozniak Adam D. Bovilsky Kelly E. Reardon Mary Elizabeth Langer William Dennis Cramer Anna Nicole Browand Jonathan B. Roses $10,000+ Joseph Lucci Carolyn D’Agincourt Additional Donors Nathaniel T. Browand Lee I. Sherman Kimberly L. Sachse Virginia Chung Lucci Kerry Dwyer Jessie Brescher Rachel S. Brown Michael A. Siedband $5,000+ Deirdre Watson S. Stephen Dwyer Jerome C. Buckley Rebecca L. Calvert Anne Rickard Jackowitz Martin Martin Scott Ebel Heather Boynton Cheney Elizabeth Costello Bae Additional Donors Denise Marie Parent Howard Wilbur Martin Barbara J. Epstein Marybeth Walsh Chung John M. Creedon Jonathan M. Agudelo Kathleen Street Robert John Masonis Stephen Evans Kevin Culhane Conroy Sarah J. Cutchins Beck Mark J. Andersen $2,500+ Alicia M. Milligan Wendy Falvey Michaela S. Dohoney Ben N. Dunlap Emily C. Barbour Kenneth G. Curran Richard Mirabito Ann M. Farrell Peter Andrew Dufour Jeremy A. M. Evans Tom Casazzone Anne O’Connor McCrory Kevin James O’Connell Jonathan Lee Feinberg Karen A. Fardig Brian C. Foley David H. Chen Kevin John Simard Carl Francis Patka Lorne M. Fienberg Matthew James Feeley Lawrence Gatei Myoung Soo Cho Linda Sandstrom Simard Michael R. Perry Maria Carroll Furlong Jackie Ann Gardina Kathleen M. Gillespie Janet C. Choi $1,500+ Bruce William Raphael Matthew Francis Furlong Philip H. Graeter Jessica R. Graham Adam T. Collicelli Peter A. Alpert Adam C. Robitaille Alice J. Gallin-Dwyer Meghan Monahan Hart Joshua R. Hanye Patrick J. Connolly Deirdre A. Cunnane Daniel Jay Rose Michelle Lyn Gouvion Young Soo Jo Katherine M. Hartigan Jill R. Damon Irene Raphael Good Paul E. Salamanca Lise Hamilton Hall Michael A. Krasnow Lisa K. Hurlbutt Arianna Evers Robert Emmett Julia Anne Sheridan Michael Heningburg Amy J. Krusius Christopher L. Jones Meg M. Feist McLaughlin Mark Andrew Spitz William S. Hewitt Kristin Laura Lentz Una Y. Kang Tara M. Fisher Mary Rose Migliazza Charles William Stavros Paul M. Joy Hilary Stamos Levin Kathryn C. Loring Jianming J. Hao John Francis Sylvia Rosa Kim Judith Marie Lyons Jeremy T. Marr Matthew G. Hoisington Additional Donors Doris Tennant Brian J. King Tara Jo Myslinski Jeremy C. McDiarmid Jennifer C. Itzkoff Mark Richard Allen Mark Joseph Warner Karen Ann Loin Patrick A. Nickler Katherine G. McKenney Lindsay T. Jansen Maria R. Baguer Audrey C. Louison Nancy Ellen Boudreau Dana M. McSherry Michael N. Javid Robert Jon Blackwell Christopher Mace Lucas Oliver Jane M. Mogavero Garrett T. Johnston Mitchell Scott Bloom 1994 Kelly Mulvoy Mangan David Osborne David E. O’Leary Nicole J. Karlebach Sharon Claire Boyle 20th Reunion Stephanie H. Masiello Gregory M. Brendan D. O’Shea Mariana Korsunsky Audrey Lewchik Bradley Class Gift Total: $111,473 Laura Jean McCollum O’Shaughnessy Tan H. Pham Stacie A. Kosinski Andrea Jane Brantner Class Participation: 23% Caitlin Mullin Yvette Politis Tracy Piatkowski Joshua Krefetz Lois J. Bruinooge Terrence J. Murray Christina Schenk- Mary Catherine Pieroni John A. Kupiec Leonardo J. Caruso $50,000+ Helen O’Rourke Hargrove Sarah Pray Plunkett Steven D. Lickstein Mark Mang Hung Elaine Shimkin Ventola Ann R. Parker Benjamin Walker Helle Sachse Benjamin O. Looker Cheung John F. Ventola Yolanda Williams Rabun Schuler Eliyahu S. Scheiman Adam J. McGovern Beverly Ann Chin $10,000+ Patrick Ratkowski James Michael Tierney Heather A. Sprague Timothy J. Mclaughlin Barbara Ciolino Bridget M. Bettigole Diane Cetrulo Savage Eric Pope Van Allen Sheila Bautista Toothill Seth A. Moskowitz Joseph P. Cistulli Kyle Bettigole Samantha L. Shepherd Douglas Eugene Wance Elizabeth Buckey Matthew Murphy Magda DeMoya Coyle Sandra Lee Missakian John Sheridan Jessica Wolff Vandesteeg Matthew Thomas Charlotte A. Crutchfield $5,000+ Anne Stuart David Joseph Yanotchko Geiza Vargas-Vargas Murphy Jeffrey A. DeMaso Nerre Shuriah Joon Hyun Sung Thomas A. Voltero James Nagelberg Cecile Garcia Desmond $2,500+ Salim Tabit Ashley H. Wisneski Bridget K. O’Connell Christopher James Susan Hanmer Farina Daniel G. Vatanaviggun 2004 Elissa G. Underwood John E. Oh Devlin $1,500+ Kimberly A. White 10th Reunion Matthew H. Parker Humberto R. Dominguez Kathleen F. Burke Class Gift Total: $24,564 Rebecca L. Pitman 2009 Mary Fahy Eugenia M. Carris Class Participation: 18% Bene I. Richardson 1999 Norma S. Freitas Cynthia Hallock Deegan 5th Reunion Jed S. Rosenkrantz Lynda Beth Furash David Hobum Hwang 15th Reunion $5,000+ Class Gift Total: $105,260 Charlene C. Saji David H. Ganz Kathryn L. Leach Class Gift Total: $28,885 Rita-Anne O’Neill Class Participation: 24% Michael Y. Saji Dyan L. Gershman John B. Livingston Class Participation: 15% $2,500+ Christine V. Sama Robert Godfrey Melissa Polaner Jeffrey Robert Moran $50,000+ Jeanne D. Semivan Bess Beikoussis Gorman Kathleen Alyce Waters $10,000+ $1,500+ Anonymous Seokyoung Shin Suko Gotoh Gregory Francis Corbett Brian C. McPeake $2,500+ Daniel C. Silverman Carolyn V. Grady Additional Donors Elizabeth Grace Moulds Carol Vasconcellos Caitlin Vaughn Glenn Anthony Gulino Andrea Attisani $2,500+ Additional Donors $1,000+ Michael Philip Visconti Judith Buckley Hayman Christine Maglione Jonathan Bryan Brooks Meredith L. Ainbinder David M. Biele Alexandra G. Watson Edmund Patrick Hurley Beniers Sandy M. Tarrant Ed Amer John P. Bjork Beth Muir Watters John J. Isaza Sarah Shoaf Cabot Thomas Ayres Marissa Dungey Matthew M. Yospin

66 BC LAW MAGAZINE Summer 2015 Seeking Law Day Nominations

We welcome your nominations for future Law Day awards. Please take a moment to think about a former student, friend, colleague, or member of the community who deserves consideration. The awards are:

ST. THOMAS MORE AWARD Recognizes a member of the legal community who represents the ideals of St. Thomas More. (Not limited to BC Law alumni.)

WILLIAM J. KENEALY, SJ, ALUMNUS/ALUMNA OF THE YEAR AWARD Recognizes graduates who have given of themselves to benefit the Law School community.

HON. DAVID S. NELSON PUBLIC INTEREST LAW AWARD Recognizes graduates who have made a noteworthy contribution to the public sector or in public interest law.

DANIEL G. HOLLAND LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Recognizes graduates who have made significant contributions to the Law School and/ or the community.

RECENT GRADUATE AWARD Recognizes the outstanding achievements of alumni who have graduated in the past five to ten years.

SPECIAL SERVICE AWARD Recognizes a faculty member (often at the time of retirement or movement to emeritus status) for extraordinary service to the Law School.

REGIONAL CHAPTER AWARD Recognizes graduates who have made significant contributions to the development of their regional BC Law Alumni Chapters.

To submit a nomination, please state the award(s) for which he/she is being nominated, include a short bio and description of why the nominee fits the specific award criteria, and submit to Director of Alumni Relations Christine A. Kelly ’97 at bclaw. [email protected] or call 617-552-4378. You can read more about our awards at www.bc.edu/lawday. In Closing

that it cannot distinguish between such expressions of hate and earnest public debate about race, then perhaps it is time we rethink what it means. Under current doctrine, the First Amendment tells us our remedy for expressions of hatred is not punishment but counterspeech. Those not targeted by the speech can recite how distasteful such racism (or sexism, or homophobia) is, and isn’t it too bad so little can be done. Meanwhile, those targeted by the speech are forced to speak out to reassert their right to be treated equally, to be free to learn in an environment that does not threaten them with violence. Ironically, the First Amendment’s reliance on counterspeech forces the most marginalized among us to bear the costs of bigots’ speech. Counter- speech is exhausting and distracting, but if you are the target of hatred, you have little choice. You can stay silent, but that internalizes the taunt. The First Amendment tells us that threats are punish- able, but only if they are targeted at specific individuals. Burning a cross on the front lawn of a family’s home can be a threat; burning one in a field outside of town is not. The secret of converting threats into protected speech, says the First Amendment, is to aim them at more people. The First Amendment asks African Americans to set aside their fear that white men cheerfully singing about lynching might end badly for someone, somewhere. In First Amendment doctrine, what matters is whether drunken frat boys intend to whip themselves into a mur- Is the First Amendment Working? derous frenzy then and there (not protected), or whether Protections can do more harm than good. BY KENT GREENFIELD they could wait awhile (protected). The way we interpret the First Amendment need not Every few months it seems we hear yet another example of hate be so empty of nuance. It is possible to believe, as the speech on campus. This past winter a viral video showed members Supreme Court unanimously held over eighty years ago, that some “words which by their very utterance inflict of a fraternity at the University of Oklahoma chanting that they’d injury … are no essential part of any exposition of ideas.” rather see a black student lynched than as a member of their clan. It is possible to be a staunch defender of full-throated Last year, fraternity members at Ole Miss placed a noose around discourse but still recognize the difference between dia- the statue of James Meredith, the courageous student who deseg- logue and vomitus. In fact, most western democracies are regated the campus in 1962. ¶ Both acts were roundly condemned much less protective of hate speech than we are. as abhorrent. But legal scholars came to the defense of the students We understandably worry about the over-regulation of speech. Yet is the slippery slope so slick that we can- in both cases, saying that public universities could not punish them not fathom any restrictions on the worst speech? Is the because doing so would violate the First Amendment’s commit- slope so steep that we cannot recognize harms flowing ment to “uninhibited, robust, and wide-open” discourse. ¶ These from screeches of hatred subjecting whole populations scholars are likely correct as a predictive matter. If this situation to fear of violence? were litigated before the Supreme Court, the hateful students would If this is what the First Amendment requires, I dissent. almost certainly win. ¶ But no one with a frontal lobe would mis- Kent Greenfield is Professor of Law and Dean’s Research take a drunken anthem or a noose as part of a robust debate about Scholar. This article is adapted from “The Limits of Free race relations. If the First Amendment has become so ham-fisted Speech,” which appeared in TheAtlantic.com in March 2015.

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