Professor Todd Berger, director of Advocacy Programs, was quoted in the Newsweek article “The 3 Qualities of Trump’s Ideal Jurors, According to Lawyers.” Although a trial date is unknown, the article covers aspects of seating prospective jurors.
Professor Berger explains that in criminal cases, prosecutors often seek out jurors from the white, working-class with conservative views who are law and order oriented. However, Trump’s case might see a role reversal, in which the defense is seeking conservative working-class jurors.
SYRACUSE, N.Y., April 3, 2023 — Syracuse University College of Law has announced that Rob Beard, senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Micron Technology, will deliver the 2023 commencement address.
“The College of Law is proud to have Rob as our 2023 commencement speaker. As Syracuse and the surrounding area welcome Micron to our community, I am excited to build a truly symbiotic relationship with Micron, to help it accomplish its ambitious goals and to advance our mission, our students, and our surrounding communities,” said College of Law Dean Craig M. Boise. “We look forward to Rob’s perspective as a C-suite leader of one of the world’s largest semiconductor companies, and the important impact the law has on global business and innovation.”
“I am honored to deliver the commencement address to the 2023 graduating class at Syracuse Law,” said Beard. “These talented lawyers will be the leaders who help move our world forward in sustainable ways, greatly contributing to the communities where they work and live.”
The College of Law commencement will take place on Friday, May 5, at 11 a.m. in the JMA Wireless Dome. Visit the College of Law commencement website for updates and details.
“Rob is among the many members of the Micron team that were instrumental in bringing this transformational company to our region,” says Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud. “His experiences and accomplishments will be valuable lessons for our graduates as they make their way in the professional world. It is especially fitting that Rob will speak at this year’s law commencement, the first since Micron announced its $100 billion investment that will revitalize Central New York and its economy, and impact lives for generations to come.”
Beard is the senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Micron Technology. He was involved in Micron’s plans to invest more than $100 billion over the next 20-plus years in Clay, New York, and led the team that negotiated a historic incentive package with Empire State Development. Beard also promoted the CHIPS & Science Act and now co-heads Micron’s CHIPS grant application process. His team of around 100 lawyers and legal professionals at Micron spans 11 sites globally, including the United States, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, and European Union.
Beard joined Micron in 2014 to work with the company’s corporate development team on a wide range of strategic transactions.
Before joining Micron, Beard was an associate at Weil Gotshal & Manges in London and New York, where he focused on M&A and capital markets transactions, and at Shearman & Sterling in London, where he focused on debt capital markets transactions. He has also taught at the University of Illinois College of Law and the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, and clerked for the Honorable Judge N. Randy Smith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is a member of the New York State Bar.
Beard graduated from the University of Utah with a bachelor’s in political science and received his J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law (summa cum laude). He was a college athlete and continues to be active today through mountain biking, skiing and other outdoor activities.
Professor Emeritus William Banks spoke with WAER on the indictment of Former President Trump by the Manhattan District Attorney.
“The Constitution provides that a president can be impeached while in office for high crimes and misdemeanors,” Banks explained. “And the Constitution also explicitly says that upon the end of his term, or her term, the President is amenable to the law, like all the rest of us may be prosecuted and convicted for crimes as a regular citizen.”
In this Associated Press article, Professor Michelle Schenandoah comments on the recent development of the Vatican rejecting the “Doctrine of Discovery” that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of Native lands and form the basis of some property laws today.
“This goes beyond land. It really has created generation upon generation of genocidal policies directed towards Indigenous peoples. And I think that it’s time for these governments to take full accountability for their actions.”
Distinguished Lecturer Luca Arnaudo, along with co-author Gabriella Muscolo (partner and head of the Antitrust Department at Franzosi Dal Negro Setti with Muscolo in Milan and Rome), won the Best Business Articles, Intellectual Property category at the 2023 Antitrust Writing Awards. The paper, Patent Settlements: An Overview of US, EU, and National Case Law, focuses on patent settlement practices in the bio-pharmaceutical industry from an antitrust perspective.
The paper appeared in 1 September 2022, e-Competitions Patent Settlements, Art. N° 108344.
Arnaudo teaches “Big Pharma & Biotech: Life Science Law & Economics” in the JDinteractive program.
The Best Antitrust Writing Awards competition is held annually by Concurrences Antitrust Publications and Events.
Luca Arnaudo with the certificate with co-author Gabriella Muscolo to his left.
Professor Gary Pieples, director of the Criminal Defense Clinic, has joined more than 100 law professors from every law school in New York in opposition to Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed changes to the current bail reform law.
In the Daily Orange, Pieples said Hochul’s plan would regress to a time when judges had complete discretion, before the 1960s when lawmakers began to revise the law. He emphasized in line with the letter that the sole legal purpose of bail is to ensure the defendant returns to court, and this must remain the standard for evaluation.
“None of these people have been convicted, and they’re being accused of something. Nobody’s determined whether they’ve done it, and the system is based on the belief that all of these folks are innocent until the government can prove otherwise,” Pieples said. “Partly, it’s just undoing that general idea that ‘oh, well, you’re dangerous and we’re going to put you in jail because of that.’”
“The main risks for a failed bank acquirer are being able to operate the failed bank’s assets profitably, and paying too much for the loan portfolio,” said Germain.
Crandall Melvin Professor of Law Shubha Ghosh was interviewed on WSYR about the security and data privacy issues surrounding TikTok.
“There is a concern about the use of personal information to try to sway opinion or promulgate false information. Those are the kind of concerns in terms of how the information is used to profile users, target users, or even proselytize users, however, that might go. But those concerns are not limited to TikTok,” says Ghosh.
Professor Gregory Germain provided several media outlets with comments on the recent bank failures and consumer concerns.
At Nasdaq.com and Money, Germain says, “As long as the FDIC is doing their job of assuring that banks are adequately capitalized and properly managed, there is no reason for this mini-panic to have a significant impact on our economy.”
On WRVO FM, he explains the circumstances around SVB’s failure pertained mostly to business accounts that exceeded the FDIC’s $250,000 deposit guarantee. “Because those deposits were not guaranteed and ensured by the F.D.I.C, as soon as there was any whiff of financial problems at the bank, everyone rushed to take their money out and they had a traditional bank run.”
A third-year law student draws on her STEM training to help entrepreneurs bring ideas to market.
Some people spend years deciding what to do with their lives. Cecily Capo L’23, a third-year student in Syracuse University’s College of Law, knew in an instant.
It was the spring of 2021, and, like most college students at the time, Capo was making the most of remote learning. Truth be told, she felt listless, disconnected from her law studies.
Salvation came in the form of a virtual open house for Syracuse’s Innovation Law Center (ILC), an experiential learning program for students interested in technology commercialization. One of the presenters was a silver-tongued attorney named Jack Rudnick L’73, the face of the 30-year-old center for more than a decade.
