GEORGETOWN LAW Res Ipsa Loquitur Fall/Winter 2011 Can the Government make You eat BroCColi? InsIde the health Care debate Our Faculty Weighs in, page 28 Letter from the Dean n the year since I became dean, I am often asked what Ihas surprised me most about Georgetown Law. My answer is that, while I knew from the outset the Law Center’s presence in Washington, D.C., is an impor- tant asset, I had not fully appreciated how much being in Washington contributes both to the academic work being done here and to the educational experience of our students. Washington is a magnet that draws faculty interested in questions of policy, government and, more broadly, the regulatory state. The city enriches research, facilitates an ongoing dialogue about funda- mental issues and gives faculty members an opportunity to help shape the most GEORGETOWN LAW important debates of our day. Students are drawn here by that faculty. They are Fall/Winter 2011 drawn here, as well, by the opportunities to learn in the clinics and classes that ANNE CASSIDY Editor could only take place in Washington, by the opportunities for externships and ANN W. PARKS experiential learning classes that give them the chance to witness, study and Staff Writer be part of government in operation, and by what our Admissions Dean Andy BRENT FUTRELL Cornblatt refers to as the “charisma” of the city. From the vantage points of MEGAN McCARTHY Designers both faculty and students, Washington has compelling attractions that no other ELISSA FREE city can match. Executive Director of Communications Our cover story illustrates this “D.C. difference” as it looks at our place KARA TERSHEL Director of Media Relations in the current health care debate. Georgetown Law professors have figured prominently on both sides of the debate as the Affordable Care Act has been MEGAN FARMER, MIDGE GARDNER, MARGARET GARIGAN, STEVEN GREENSTREET, CHAS McCARTHY, SARAH MYKSIN, contested in court. We have here some of the leading advocates for the bill and RICHARD SIMON, DAVE STONE, CHRISTINE STURGES, JACQUELINE TEMKIN, DWAYNE TRAYLOR one of the most thoughtful voices against it. As the country awaits final court Contributors decisions on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, you can read MATTHEW F. CALISE Director of Alumni Affairs about the Law Center’s very own health care debate (page 28) — a spirited exchange that may shed some light on this complicated subject. KEVIN T. CONRY (L’86) Vice President for Strategic Development and External The seriousness with which our faculty has participated in the health care Affairs debate also illustrates our shared commitment to using law in the service of WILLIAM M. TREANOR Dean of the Law Center others; that commitment animates the educational experience of our students, Executive Vice President, Law Center Affairs as well. Beginning on page 36, you can read how a group of students drafted We welcome your responses to this publication. Write to: an International Migrants Bill of Rights — a most international experiential Editor, Georgetown Law learning project. And beginning on page 44, you will meet five alumni who, Georgetown University Law Center 600 New Jersey Avenue, N.W. inspired by the Street Law program, have started schools that defied the odds. Washington, D.C. 20001 The combination of our Washington, D.C., location and our dedication to Or send e-mail to: others is a remarkable one. It has truly been a privilege to share in that com- [email protected] mon work this past year, and it has been a privilege, as well, to get to know so Address changes/additions/deletions: 202-687-1994 or many members of this community. A new year is beginning here, and I know e-mail [email protected] that this year will be as exciting and as rewarding as the first. As I begin my Georgetown Law magazine may be found on the Law Center’s website at www.law.georgetown.edu second year at Georgetown Law I look forward to meeting more of you — at Copyright © 2011, Georgetown University Law Center All rights reserved reunion weekend October 14-16, at alumni events in your area, or right here on campus. Until then, I wish you all the excitement that a fresh start can bring. Sincerely, William M. Treanor Dean of the Law Center Executive Vice President, Law Center Affairs GEORGETOWN LAW Res Ipsa Loquitur Fall/Winter 2011 28 Can the Government Make You Eat Broccoli? Our faculty weighs in on the health care debate. By Anne Cassidy 36 Global Law Scholars Make Their Mark Their story is the ultimate in experiential learning. 36 By Ann W. Parks 44 The Schools That Law Built Why turn down a big law firm offer to spend the day with ninth-graders? These alumni have the answer. By Ann W. Parks 44 52 Faculty Article: In Defense of Bailouts By Professor Adam Levitin 2 Faculty notes 28 FeAtures 10 Lectures & events 60 Alumni 60 Alumni notices 74 Alumni cAlendAr 66 Alumni Profiles 75 In memoriAm 69 CLE cAlendAr 78 Alumni events faculty Notes New Faculty Join the Law Center ssociate Professor John R. (Jake) the major tax deductions and credits. One ABrooks comes to Georgetown from project examines the design of “floors” Harvard Law School, where he was a and similar devices in the tax code that Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law are used to limit the availability of certain for the past two academic years, teaching tax preferences. He points out that such legal research and writing to first-year law floors are rarely designed in an efficient and students. Brooks’ academic specialty is tax coherent way. In another project, he takes a d A e H law and policy, and the Columbia Journal novel approach to examining the empirical of Tax Law recently published his article, responses to certain deductions, so as to m Hollens sA “Doing Too Much: The Standard Deduc- better understand to what degree average tion and the Conflict Between Progressivity taxpayers are motivated by tax incentives. John R. BRooks and Simplification.” The article explains He also does research at the intersection the conceptual incoherence of the stan- of taxation and finance, with particular at- A.B. 1998, J.d. 2006 dard deduction of the federal income tax. tention to taxation and risk-taking. Finan- Harvard One purpose of the standard deduction is cial economics, and behavioral finance in eXPerience And AffiliAtions to establish a “zero bracket amount,” that particular, provide some important insights climenko fellow and lecturer on law, Harvard olin fellow in law and economics, Harvard is, some amount of income that will be that have yet to be fully integrated into tax law clerk for Judge norman H. stahl of the u.s. court of untaxed. Another purpose is to serve as a law research. Taxpayer behavior in the face Appeals for the 1st circuit simplified substitute for itemized deduc- of investment risk and uncertainty can be courses tions. Brooks’ article points out that these complex, and Brooks’ work aims to bring taxation purposes are often in stark conflict, and it more understanding of such behavior into current issues in tax law and Policy seminar proposes a series of reforms to eliminate the design of tax and retirement income rePresentAtive PuBlicAtions the tension between these competing goals. policy. “doing too much: the standard deduction and the conflict Between Progressivity and simplification,” 2 colum. J. tax. l. Brooks’ other research in progress en- From 2007 to 2009, Brooks was an 203 (2011) compasses a number of innovative projects. associate, practicing tax law, at the firm Several projects continue to examine some of Ropes and Gray in Boston, Massachu- of the themes he raised in his Columbia setts. Prior to joining Ropes and Gray, Journal of Tax Law article, namely the he clerked for Judge Norman H. Stahl mismatched policy goals behind some of of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st 2 Fall/winter 2011 • Geor G e t o w n l a w F a c u lt y n o t e s Circuit. Brooks graduated from Harvard tai Grinberg brings broad experience, published articles (“Implementing a Pro- Law School, magna cum laude, in 2006. Ihigh energy, and unbounded enthusiasm gressive Consumption Tax: Advantages of He previously received his A.B. degree in to his new career in legal academics. In Adopting the VAT Credit-Method System” applied mathematics from Harvard College the decade since he completed law school, and “Where Credit is Due: Advantages of in 1998. Itai has practiced tax at one of the nation’s the Credit-Invoice Method for a Partial Re- Between finishing Harvard College leading law firms, advised a bipartisan placement VAT”) demonstrate the superior- and starting Harvard Law School, Brooks presidential commission on tax reform, and ity of the credit-method value-added tax to was a magazine writer and editor (for Let’s served in a key tax policy position at the other forms of national consumption taxes. Go publications and Outside magazine), a U.S. Treasury Department. This strong pro- Itai’s time with the presidential advisory software developer (for, among others, the fessional background has prepared him to panel did not exhaust his interest in public New York Times) and an emergency medical make a major contribution to Georgetown. service. In 2007, he became an attorney- technician (still licensed). He and his wife, One might have predicted early that adviser for the Office of International Tax Michelle Brooks (a private equity investor), Itai would develop the interest in interna- Counsel in the U.S. Treasury Department’s have four-year-old twins, a boy and a girl.