Suffolk University Law School Alumni Magazine, Spring 2015
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Suffolk University Digital Collections @ Suffolk Suffolk Law School Alumni Magazine Suffolk University Publications 2015 Suffolk University Law School Alumni Magazine, Spring 2015 Suffolk University Law School Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.suffolk.edu/slam Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Suffolk University Law School, "Suffolk University Law School Alumni Magazine, Spring 2015" (2015). Suffolk Law School Alumni Magazine. 24. https://dc.suffolk.edu/slam/24 This Magazine is brought to you for free and open access by the Suffolk University Publications at Digital Collections @ Suffolk. It has been accepted for inclusion in Suffolk Law School Alumni Magazine by an authorized administrator of Digital Collections @ Suffolk. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL ALUMNI MAGAZINE SuffolkLAWSPRING 2015 All Revved Inside the Accelerator Up! Launch | CONTENTS Suffolk Law Alumni Magazine Spring 2015 ▼9/10 MEET THE NEW LEADERS MARGARET MCKENNA starts her new role as president of the University, ▼22 JUMPING THE SHARK and ANDREW PERLMAN becomes dean of the Law School. When singer Katy Perry claimed rights over a shark figurine, for some at Suffolk Law it raised larger issues about IP law. ▼11 HAVANA NIGHTS Gritty. Charming. Surreal. These are just a few of the words students used to describe their experience at the University of Havana Law School. ▼28 ZEALOUS ADVOCATES With the military’s handling of sexual assault cases in the news and before Congress, two military women were called on to help change the system. ▼16 ALL REVVED UP! Students launch a high-tech law practice FROM THE DEAN 2 Quick Questions Dean Camille A. Nelson Dean Nelson is wrapping up her five-year term this summer. One of the critical elements of outgoing Dean Camille A. Nelson’s tenure has been her focus on technology. She spearheaded the Law School’s Top 10-ranked law tech program, which includes our first-in-the-nation Legal Technology and Innovation concentration, established the Institute on Law Practice Technology & Innovation and helped bring the Accelerator program into being (see article page 18). We spoke with her recently about the value of legal technology training. Q The ABA Journal published an an old-fashioned process to manage your A The supply-and-demand curves for opinion piece you wrote in their Legal casework, or you can use a project manage- legal services are misaligned given that there ORebels section about the need for law ment tool to make the process simpler. It’s a is a persistent demand for—yet a limited schools to embrace new legal technologies natural and predictable evolution. supply of—affordable legal services. It is rather than run away from them. There The students in our Accelerator program my hope and expectation that the ongoing may be a fear out there that students and in the Legal Tech and Innovation concen- technological revolution will help to bridge trained in new technologies will lack the tration are learning how to harness technolo- this justice gap. necessary background in legal doctrine. gy in the service of the law; they’ll be able to The basic idea is that the expert use of Is that fear reasonable? practice and/or run their businesses smarter, technology by attorneys allows them to more efficiently and effectively. Eventually, spend more time on the most significant A A well-rounded high school or college the types of legal technology solutions they areas and dynamics of legal matters, and less education today would be impossible without are becoming fluent in will be the profession- on aspects that can be handled or expedited knowledge of word processing and how to use al norm. They’ll be among the leaders and with technology. Similarly, if lawyers can the web. A few decades ago those skills were change agents who evolve the profession. devise technologies that make the delivery considered esoteric, and many people argued And they won’t be sacrificing their knowl- of legal services more accessible and faster, that tech skills took the focus off reading, edge of legal doctrine to gain that edge in ultimately moderate-income clients will have writing and arithmetic. But we’ve seen how, the job market; learning how to use or create better legal outcomes. over time, computers and the internet have software doesn’t mean you won’t learn Con For instance, new software tools for become as necessary in our professional lives Law or contracts. Instead, they will be on the intake of potential new clients present as pens and paper were a generation before. vanguard, as they will be able to combine access opportunities. These tools can help I think there’s a similar dynamic at play their technological and legal prowess. attorneys to quickly figure out whether when it comes to legal education. As an at- the potential client has a case that’s worth torney you can reinvent the wheel with each Q It may seem counterintuitive to some pursuing—that fits the firm’s skill set or contract you write, or you can use software readers, but you argue that the legal tech practice expertise. That kind of efficiency that allows you to expedite the process— revolution could help begin to address can drive down the cost of taking on a case. and then spend more time on the work the fact that so many low- and moderate- More efficiency means you can process cases only a trained lawyer can do, the analytical income people cannot afford an attorney faster and charge less per hour—and still be PHOTO CREDIT: LOLITA PARKER JR. PARKER LOLITA CREDIT: PHOTO brainwork of good lawyering. You can use in civil cases. a profitable concern. SPRING 2015 SUFFOLK LAW ALUMNI MAGAZINE 1 About Dean Camille A. Nelson / 5 Years, 10 Facts [2013-14] 4 National Rankings Success by the Numbers 97% increase in total dollars raised in outright gifts Elevated the Law School’s national reputation by and pledges to the Law School | 300% increase in maintaining four U.S. News specialty rankings in major gifts (gifts of $25,000+) | 46% increase in both the 2015 and 2016 rankings guides. annual fund NEARLY Making It Personal million Created Dean’s Public Citizenship Scholarship, $2 which has awarded over 25 scholarships to deserving Facilitated effort students/alumni. that brought in $1.9 million in HUD grants SOUTHERN Partners for our housing ⁄ The Law School gained discrimination testing MARSHALLING many new partners program. Marshall Brennan through the dean’s ⁄ Reenergized the Caribbean/Central Marshall Brennan American Initiative. Program. Our students Projects included: a DIVERSITY Pipeline teach Constitutional student intersession ⁄ Guided effort that Law classes to a diverse course at University brought in $300,000 group of teens in the of Havana Law LSAC 3-year grant; Boston, Chelsea and School; internships each summer the Leading the Leaders Cambridge public ZLWKWKH2IÀFHRIWKH school offered 20 Named co-president schools. The program Children’s Advocate fully funded spots to of the American culminates with in Jamaica; symposia freshman/sophomore Association of Law high school students in collaboration with college students of Schools’ section for Law participating in local the Central American diverse backgrounds School Deans (2014). and national moot court University; and a course who took classes at the Serving as a member competitions. at University of Puerto Law School. Markedly of the AALS National Rico’s School of Law. increased diversity of Steering Committee for student body, faculty, Law School Deans. and administration. st Indigenous Peoples Rights Clinic In 2011, launched the only such clinic on the East IN THE NATION Coast. In one project, students collaborated with the 6SHDUKHDGHGQDWLRQ·VÀUVW/HJDO7HFKQRORJ\ Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Judiciary to write the 1and Innovation concentration. Launched Top tribe’s new Rules of Civil Procedure. 10-ranked law tech program. 2 SUFFOLK LAW ALUMNI MAGAZINE SPRING 2015 | News and notes from the LAW BRIEFS headlines and hallways Saying No to the “Happy Prostitute” Thoughts on the Pretty Woman anniversary THE FACTS IN THE REAL WORLD of sex-for- been or are homeless, she writes, and 73 non-law enforcement partners, she is now pay don’t line up with the imaginary world percent of women in prostitution experience in college studying to become a teacher.” of happy, empowered prostitutes, argue physical assault. “Pretty Woman normalizes Sergeant Detective Donna Gavin JD’00 and something that destroys lives. It glamorizes THE FATE OF THOUSANDS OF Suffolk Law Professor Emerita Kate Nace prostitution and creates an illusion that pros- AMERICAN GIRLS Day. National media celebrations of the titution is a voluntary, desirable occupation. Asked about what spurred her documentary, 25th anniversary of Richard Gere and Julia The film suggests that prostituted people are Nace Day says, “Many people don’t know Roberts’ movie Pretty Woman, one of the knowledgeable and have other options they the facts about domestic sex trafficking— most successful romantic comedies of all might have chosen. The reality is that prosti- how young the girls are when they are first time, gave Sgt. Gavin the impetus to write tution and sex trafficking make up a harmful, enslaved, the violence used to keep them a March 23 editorial for the Boston Globe pervasive, illegal and violent criminal indus- enslaved. I hope that hearing directly from offering a reality check. try involving pimps and traffickers who are an American girl who was trafficked for sex Nace Day’s documentary A Civil Remedy tied to gangs, drugs and street violence.” in Boston will help people understand the gives first-person testimony from a teenag- She describes Jaclyn, a 20-year-old wom- fate of thousands of American girls and that er, an American sex-trafficking victim, here an from a town north of Boston who was more people will understand that these vic- in Boston.