Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons In Brief Law School Publications 1994 In Brief Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/in_brief Recommended Citation In Brief, iss. 62 (1994). https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/in_brief/61 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School Publications at Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in In Brief by an authorized administrator of Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. Kf /^7r inLaw Alumni News Bulletin briefSeptember 1994 in brief Number 62 Inside this issue ... Published three times a year by the Case Western Reserve University School of Law for alumni, students, faculty, and friends. Editor Kerstin Ekfelt Trawick Commencement 1994 Director of Publications Faculty Editor Wilbur C. Leatherberry Professor of Law Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Contributing Editor John M. Nolan Director of Alumni Services Topping Off Photographers Mike Sands Kerstin Ekfelt Trawick Focus on Phoenix Law School Administration Peter M. Gerhart (216) 368-3283 Dean Daniel T. Clancy (216) 368-3308 Associate Dean for External Affairs Wilbur C. Leatherberry (216) 368-3585 Associate Dean for Academic Affairs JoAnne Urban Jackson (216) 368-5139 1 A Eastwood ’96 Associate Dean for Student At on a Trip to China and Administrative Affairs Barbara F. Andelmcm (216) 368-3600 Assistant Dean for Admission and Financial Aid Debra Fink (216)368-6353 Director of Career Services Kerstin Ekfelt Trawick (216) 368-6352 Director of Publications 18 New Benchers Elected John M. Nolan (216) 368-3860 Director of Alumni Services Cheryl Lauderdale (216) 368-6363 Coordinator of Continuing Legal Education 1994 Alumni Weekend Betty J. Harris (216) 368-3280 Registrar ^\J and Building Dedication Ann Marcy (216) 368-6350 Director of Budget and Human Resources Cover: The building addition received its highest steel girder just about the time the Centennial Initiative Case Western Reserve Campaign reached its successful conclusion. University See page 6. A School of Law Copyright © Case Western Reserve University All rights reserved. Designed and manufactured by the Schaefer Printing Company, Cleveland, Ohio. Printed on recycled paper. The Dean Reports I write this time about change and boxes. Let me first give Law does not come in tidy packages. A client does not you the context. walk in and say; “1 have an environmental problem.” Even a problem that seems easy to label is usually wrapped up We are a law school blessed with great resources. Thanks in many other legal issues. Yet too often a law school to the generosity of alumni and friends, we have com­ curriculum is conceived as a series of boxes, or at least pleted our Centennial Initiative Campaign in grand style: students understand it that way. They take courses in as reported elsewhere in this issue, the $28 million we modules, without always understanding the connections raised exceeded our original goal by more than $13 between them. We require some of the modules and we million, and exceeded our “stretch” goal by $3 million. highly recommend others (business associations and tcix, for example), but in general we don’t highlight the Our faculty is energetic and talented; it is so loaded with relationships. stars that the loss of any one would not seriously dimin­ ish the constellation. It is large enough to give us the This is unfortunate. It has led to curricula that have lost flexibility we need to be intensive and comprehensive in focus. It has led to the proliferation of courses and the our J.D. program and at the same time advance the splintering of concepts. It exacerbates the move toward profession through scholarship and post-J.D. education. specialization and makes it harder to create what our law school should produce: generalists who can construct We have a beautiful environment in which to do our work, bridges between specialists. and it will be even better with the addition to Gund Hall. Our alumni base, now national in scope, is steadily Yet if there is one characteristic that underlies curricular gaining power and influence in the profession. Our staff changes at our law school, it is a movement to break out has grown to support a broader and richer mission. We of the boxes. We have seen this in our professionalism have all the excitement and opportunities of being in a program, which successfully integrated professional renaissance city. responsibility problems throughout the first-year curricu­ lum and created a comprehensive focus on professional­ We could, 1 guess, declare victory and take a rest. But ism. We have seen legal research leap the bounds of the with all of our resources comes a special responsibility. first-year program and make its way into significant Not ail law schools are as fortunate as we are. Some are portions of the upper-class curriculum. We have designed retrenching; some are hopelessly torn by internal warfare; our growing international programs around a comprehen­ others are rudderless. We have a special responsibility to sive, integrated theory of transnational methodology that rethink legal education precisely because we may be one is also beginning to inform many courses outside the of the few schools in a position to do so effectively. traditional international curriculum. That thought naturally brings me to the subject of The entire movement toward interdisciplinary studies is change. In my years as dean 1 have been primarily an attempt to break out of the box that would separate concerned with the growth of the law school—building law from allied disciplines. On this front our faculty have our endowments, expanding our physical space, adding been especially aggressive. Our course in Russia/U.S. to our faculty and staff, building our reputation, and Business Planning was team-taught by legal and business strengthening our alumni community. Now 1 expect that experts. Next year. Professor Dent will co-teach his my role will evolve from being an agent of growth to being Mergers and Acquisition course with a professor of an agent of change. That is, all the building that we have finance from the Weatherhead School of Management. done has not been an end in itself, but a means to the 1 could cite many other examples of ingenious interdisci­ improvement of legal education. We must now see how plinary teaching. we can use our resources to meet the demands of a changing profession. But even more significant box-breaking may be in store. This year four teachers—Chris Corcos, Mel Durchslag, It is the faculty who must be the agents of change; Andy Morriss, and Wendy Wagner—have crafted a curricular development and educational reform are their splendid new course that will give us new experience in domain. Fortunately, among our many assets is a faculty transcending boundaries. Its official title is Selected that wants to think seriously about how to keep our Problems in Environmental Law and Policy. It is a six- curriculum vital and progressive in a changing world. credit, two-semester megacourse that combines environ­ Over and over, we have seen the ingenuity of our faculty mental law, state and local government law, translated into real advances in legal education. This fall administrative law, international law, and legal research. It initiating a formal planning process to assess the will allow students to view the world from all of the additional change that may be necessary and to sculpt perspectives that a practitioner must have in order to new processes to manage it. address environmental problems for a client. It is a welcome example of how faculty can work together to Although it is premature to predict where that assess- transcend disciplines, learn from each other, and create ^ overarching theme is emerging and better courses for our students. wi 1 likely influence our future deliberations. And that orings me to boxes. And 1 think this is just the beginning. — Peter M. Gerhart September 1994 Commencement 1994 Two things were different about this The following graduates—the top 10 Elected to the Order of Barristers, a year’s Commencement Day; (1) it did percent of the class—were elected to national honor society recognizing not rain, and (2) the law school’s the Order of the Coif; excellence in advocacy, were; diploma exercises, held following the Bruce P. Batista Hugh D. Berkson university ceremony, were not at Keith Colton Lisa Coates Severance Hall, but at the landmark Bradley S. Corsello Keith Colton synagogue on Ansel Road known Cathryn C. Dakin Mark J. A. Demian simply as The Temple. Bradley 1. Dallet Melissa Doll Rebecca Frank Dallet Amanda M. Seewald There were 176 J.D. graduates in May Lisa Ruthann Duffett Nedra Shannon Shurbet 1994, and 8 LL.M. recipients. Joining Julie Erin Ginsberg Martha A. Stevens them for the ceremony were 15 Mark Griffin Seth Wolf January grads (14 J.D., one LL.M.) John Alan Hnat and 8 from August 1993 (6 J.D., 2 Kathleen D. Huryn Most winners of individual awards LL.M.). Of the year’s LL.M. recipients, Daran P. Kiefer and prizes are pictured on the pages three were from the taxation Eric E. Kinder following. Not pictured, however, are program. The rest were foreign Arthur H. Lundberg winners of the Sidney H. Moss Award lawyers—representing Canada, Lisa Marie Ruda in Evidence; Gregory Bays, Thomas Thailand, Russia, Papua New Guinea, Michelle R. Slack Cunniff, Jeffrey Kalinowski, and Eric Japan, Latvia, Indonesia, and the Mitchell S. Thompson Kinder. Czech Republic—who came to CWRU Lisa Lee Waltz for the LL.M. in U.S. Legal Studies.