Crandall Melvin Professor of Law Shubha Ghosh contributed an expert analysis article to Law 360. In the article, Meta Monopoly Ruling Highlights Limits Of Market Definition, Ghosh writes:
“What may once have been monopoly power for Meta in the social networking market, now is cured with competition pressure from social media platforms. The logical conclusion, as Judge Boasberg writes in his 89-page opinion, is there cannot be monopolization by Meta if Meta does not possess monopoly power.”
Professor of Law Cora True-Frost G’01, L,01, Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence 2024-2027, recently provided disability inclusion training to the National Agency for Social Protection of Uzbekistan.
True-Frost discussed disability inclusion in social services, supported decision-making, equality, stereotypes, and discrimination of persons with disabilities. This is part of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which focuses on person-centered planning.
The National Agency for Social Protection of Uzbekistan is the main government organization in social services and social assistance delivery in the country. The training was funded by the United Nations Development Programme.
Board of Advisors Distinguished Professor of Law Nina Kohn has contributed the column “One Conversation Every Family Should Have This Thanksgiving” to Forbes.
Kohn writes, “If you’re looking for something real to talk about at your Thanksgiving gathering, start a conversation that can actually make a difference: ask your family members about what they want their final years to look like.”
Jen Berrent, CEO of Covenant, led a conversation on how artificial intelligence is transforming legal practice and reshaping the future of law firms. Berrent, drawing from her experience as both a lawyer and CEO, provided insights into the evolving AI landscape and discussed its implications for lawyers, clients, and the delivery of legal services in the coming years.
Berrent discussed the progression of AI tools and how machine-learning systems are helping lawyers analyze large datasets faster and, at times, more accurately than ever before. She also addressed the shifting role of an attorney as work moves from document review to higher-level strategic advising and client counseling. Berrent highlighted the growing need for tech-literate lawyers who can collaborate with AI ethically and effectively.
A significant portion of the discussion focused on how Berrent’s firm, Covenant, is restructuring around AI-driven workflows, including smaller teams, the use of integrated AI tools, and more affordable and flexible billing models. Berrent also predicted a major rise in the role and strategic importance of in-house counsel as companies adopt AI more deeply.
Berrent emphasized that, even as AI grows more powerful, it remains essential to develop human-centric legal skills that technology cannot replace. The next generation of lawyers will need to bridge the gap between legal reasoning and data-driven insight, combining technological fluency with judgment, empathy, and communication.
The overarching takeaway of the session was that AI is not a threat but a catalyst for transformation in the legal profession.
Professor Aliza Milner’s article, Written Opinions in State Intermediate Appellate Courts: Current Landscapes and the AI Horizon, was published in volume 38 of the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics. Milner is the Director of Legal Communication and Research at Syracuse Law.
The article surveys the rules that states have developed about when and what their intermediate appellate courts write. It also considers why states limit the writing of their intermediate appellate courts.
The article highlights why rules about appellate court writing matter, how AI may influence those choices, and what writing means for accuracy, transparency, and the future of state court appellate justice.
Aliza Milner, Written Opinions in State Intermediate Appellate Courts: Current Landscapes and the AI Horizon, 38 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 273 (2025).
Professor Katherine Macfarlane’s essay Self-Accommodation has been published in the University of California Health Humanities Press collection “Legal Determinants of Health: From Incarceration to Accessibility,” edited by Brian Dolan and Juliet McMullin. The online, open-access version of the book is available here.
The “Legal Determinants of Health: From Incarceration to Accessibility” brings together six cutting-edge essays that expose how legal systems—through incarceration, detention, disability law, tort doctrine, and human subjects research—profoundly shape health outcomes and perpetuate structural inequality.
Professor Macfarlane serves as Director of the College of Law’s Disability Law & Policy Program and is a leading expert in reasonable accommodations.
Professor Dan Traficonte’s Article “Government Research” was published in Volume 135, Number 1 of The Yale Law Journal. The Article examines the convergence of innovation, policy, and law.
The Article analyzes government research from an innovation-law perspective by outlining the basic institutional design of government research and, using case studies of the National Institutes of Health Intramural Research Program and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, shows how it works in practice.
Traficonte identifies a particular niche in which government research has clear comparative advantages: high-risk, high-reward projects that require massive scale, interdisciplinary collaboration, and long-term funding. He also explores normative justifications for government research beyond efficient knowledge production, including the building of state capacity for developmental policy and a more equitable distribution of the gains from innovation.
By integrating government research into this broader institutional framework, the Article reaffirms the state’s indispensable role in innovation law and policy and reasserts the values that ought to guide its future development.
Professor Todd Berger’s online Trial Practice course was recognized by the Syracuse University Center for Online & Digital Learning at its recent Digital Spotlight event, which celebrated collaboration in online course design and development.
The Trial Practice course, offered to students in Syracuse Law’s JDinteractive hybrid online J.D. program, features lectures on the actual skills used in trial practice followed by demonstrations of the skills in action. For example, students might hear a lecture on impeachment by prior inconsistent statement and then see a demonstration of the classic three-step impeachment process.
“The demonstrations help make abstract descriptions more concrete and help students understand how to perform the skills themselves,” said Berger, director of the College of Law’s Advocacy program.
The demonstrations are conducted by trial team members, following scripts created for the class. The demonstrations feature on-screen indicators identifying the essential components of each skill set as it is performed.
“Empirical research supports the benefits of demonstration as an effective pedagogical tool to enhance student learning,” said Berger. “Or said differently, a picture is worth a thousand words.”
A study notes that, “demonstration can benefit verbal recall of instruction sequences through the engagement of visuo-motor processes that provide additional forms of coding to support working memory performance.” Allen RJ, Hill LJB, Eddy LH, Waterman AH, Exploring the effects of demonstration and enactment in facilitating recall of instructions in working memory. Mem Cognit. 2020 Apr;48.
Professor Emeritus William C. Banks discussed the history, original meaning, and Constitutional aspect of the Insurrection Act on the We the People podcast. The Insurrection Act authorizes the president to deploy the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement purposes.
On Friday, September 19, Professor Katherine Macfarlane will participate in the Federal Reach, Academic Speech: The Legal Limits of Executive Authority in Higher Education symposium at Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Professor Macfarlane will participate in the Executive Authority, Equal Opportunity, and the Fate of DEI Programs panel.
