GEORGETOWN LAW Res Ipsa Loquitur Spring/Summer 2013 Strategic Planning Rethinking the Future of Legal Education A Special Report Letter from the Dean t’s hard to ignore the challenges confronting legal Ieducation and the legal profession these days. De- clining demand for law school graduates and layoffs at law firms, a drop in law school applications, and what some see as a fundamental shift in the way firms conduct business — these trends concern us all. But they also present real opportunities for change. So when we realized that we would be undertaking our five-year strategic planning process right in the midst GEORGETOWN LAW Spring/Summer 2013 of this, it seemed the perfect time to widen our net ANNE CASSIDY and seek your opinion in a variety of ways. Editor Editorial Director As you will see from this issue’s special report (page 26), we have done just that. We recently concluded an alumni survey to help us better understand what’s ANN W. PARKS Staff Writer on your mind. We conducted a series of employer roundtables focused on large BRENT FUTRELL firms, small firms, government and international work. Our Board of Visitors mem- Director of Design bers formulated “vision statements” to address initiatives in the areas of academics, INES HILDE Designer experiential learning, student development, financial administration and academic support. And our Law Alumni Board members provided their own feedback at ELISSA FREE Executive Director of Communications their spring meeting. KARA TERSHEL We also invited 60 alumni — representing law firms, businesses, the govern- Director of Media Relations ment and public interest worlds — to come to campus and share their ideas on NAFEES AHMED, LISA BUCKLEY, AMANDA FROST, MIDGE GARDNER, CHRISTINE HAMMER, SAM KARP, LAURA legal education. We brainstormed for eight hours a day and talked about every- MACRORIE, SARAH MYKSIN, RICHARD SIMON, thing from the law firm of the future to the importance of business literacy skills. ERIN SPENCE, DAVE STONE, EMILY WOOLF Contributors The take away: While there is always room for improvement, Georgetown Law is NORA KANTWILL already on the cutting edge, and the best way to move forward is to build on our Executive Director of Development strengths — our rich menu of courses, our outstanding clinical program, our Jesuit MATTHEW F. CALISE Director of Alumni Affairs heritage of service (one example of which is our Public Interest Law Scholars pro- gram, profiled on page 38), and of course our scholarship and teaching. KEVIN T. CONRY (L’86) Vice President for Strategic Development and External As the process continues, the strategic planning committee (co-chaired by Pro- Affairs fessors Jane Aiken and Mitt Regan) will be assimilating all the ideas we’ve received WILLIAM M. TREANOR Dean of the Law Center from alumni, faculty, students and staff — and producing a new five-year plan for Executive Vice President, Law Center Affairs the faculty to approve by year’s end. Front cover: Photo by Hilary Schwab Georgetown Law has always been a thought leader — and never more so than Back cover: Photo by Sam Hollenshead now. As always, thanks for all you do to support, strengthen and engage your alma We welcome your responses to this publication. Write to: mater. We wouldn’t be here without you. Editor, Georgetown Law Georgetown University Law Center 600 New Jersey Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20001 Sincerely, Or send e-mail to: [email protected] Address changes/additions/deletions: 202-687-1994 or e-mail [email protected] Georgetown Law magazine may be found online at www.law.georgetown.edu William M. Treanor Copyright © 2013, Georgetown University Law Center. All rights reserved. Dean of the Law Center Executive Vice President, Law Center Affairs GEORGETOWN LAW Res Ipsa Loquitur Spring/Summer 2013 26 Strategic Planning: Rethinking the Future of Legal Education A Special Report What skills and ideas best equip new lawyers for practice? Should law schools change their curriculums? If so, how? As part of its five-year strategic planning process, Georgetown Law is asking these questions — and more. By Anne Cassidy 38 25 Years of PILS 26 Approximately 250 Public Interest Law Scholars have graduated and moved on to distinguished careers in government, public interest, prosecutors’ offices, legal aid and other positions. Here are five of their stories. By Ann W. Parks 50 Faculty Article: On Constitutional Disobedience What would the Framers make of multinational corporations, nuclear weapons or gay marriage? The country they led differs greatly from our own, yet we still obey the Constitution they produced more than two centuries ago. It’s time for a change. By Louis Michael Seidman 50 2 Faculty Notes 26 Features 6 Lectures & Events 58 Alumni 58 ALUMNI NOTICES 69 ALUMNI CALENDAR 67 CLE CALENDAR 78 ALUMNI EVENTS 69 IN MEMORIAM 80 ALUMNI ESSAY FACULTY NOTES Spann is New Denny Professor of Law BILL PETROS Professor Girardeau Spann delivers his inaugural address. James and Catherine Denny, left, with Kevin Conry, vice president for strategic development. On December 5, Professor Girardeau Spann became the second Seidman noted that Spann, when he’s not creating scholar- James and Catherine Denny Professor of Law. He succeeds the late ship “in alarming abundance” or chairing an important committee, Professor Steve Goldberg, the first holder of the chair. The chair is has been known to step in for a colleague when needed, even made possible through the generosity of James Denny (L’60) — a if it means taking on a third large section of first-year students former member of Georgetown University’s Board of Directors as (and grading roughly 350 exams over the holiday break). “By well as the Law Center’s Board of Visitors — and his wife Cathe- honoring Gerry, we keep our entire community alive, vibrant rine Denny. The Dennys attended the event, as did members of the and meaningful.” Goldberg family and scores of faculty and staff. In his inaugural address, Spann considered the pending “This chair reminds all of us of the values that Gerry embodies: Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas. If the Court integrity, decency, modesty and courage — and, I suppose, meeting should strike down affirmative action, he said, let it do so com- our deadlines and keeping our offices clean,” said Professor Louis pletely. Not that Spann wants to see an end to affirmative action. Michael Seidman, who introduced Spann. And he wasn’t predicting that the Court will take such a step in 2 spring/summer 2013 • georgetown Law FACULTY NOTES Fisher, which was argued on October 10. Spann, in fact, foresees a narrow holding — Daniel Halperin is First Holder one that will, for the moment, affect only the University of Texas admissions plan at of Martin D. Ginsburg Chair issue. But if the High Court does in fact choose to invalidate the Texas affirmative action plan in Fisher, Spann hopes that it will also “expressly overrule” the 2003 affir- mative action case of Grutter v. Bollinger, which held that a university may consider race as part of an individualized, holistic admissions process tailored to achieve a diverse student body. Why would Spann, a proponent of racial justice, choose to overrule Grut- ter? “I would prefer that the Court openly announce its preference for shutting the door on affirmative action, rather than disin- RD genuously allowing the light of false hope A EINH R to seep through the cracks in the doorway,” ICK R he said. “If the Supreme Court closes the Professor Daniel Halperin at his installation, which was also attended by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. door completely, the political process can learned more from him than any other react directly to the Court’s racial ideology, n January 23, Visiting Professor teacher or colleague I’ve ever known.” rather than continuing to be distracted by ODaniel Halperin became the first Halperin has worked in private practice the Court’s coquettish conception of racial holder of Georgetown Law’s Martin D. and in government, serving as deputy assis- equality. … With any luck, that will put Ginsburg Chair in Taxation, and during tant secretary in the U.S. Treasury during the future of affirmative action back in the Halperin’s installation, Professor Stephen the Carter Administration. His 1986 law hands of the political branches, which of Cohen took the opportunity to honor two review article on taxing the time value of course is where it belonged to begin with.” giants in the field. money “profoundly altered our fundamental Spann’s speech, delivered in the Gewirz “Marty Ginsburg was without question understandings” of the subject and made Student Center, was an inspiring reminder the greatest expert ever on the law of cor- him one of the leading academic minds of of “the very best that Georgetown has to porate taxation,” Cohen said of his late col- his time, Cohen noted. offer,” said Dean William M. Treanor. league, who taught tax law to Georgetown Halperin’s own speech was a personal The ceremony was also a tribute to Law students for three decades before his and professional tribute to Ginsburg and Goldberg, who died in 2010. Seidman read death in 2010. his abilities as a lawyer and professor. aloud Goldberg’s own tribute to Spann, “Tax lawyers continue to treat his inter- “Marty had no equal as a tax planner,…” he written for Georgetown Law’s Community pretations of the tax law as authoritative said. “The gold standard in drafting tax leg- of Scholars publication several years ago. — perhaps even more authoritative, with islation as expressed by generations of gov- The two “were the best of friends,” he said. apologies to Justice [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg ernment lawyers was to design a rule that “This is a well deserved honor for Gerry, [Marty’s wife] — than the pronouncements Marty could not find a way to avoid.” and I know it’s particularly meaningful for of the Supreme Court,” Cohen joked.