News

Professor Kat Macfarlane’s Forthcoming Article “Accommodations Discrimination” Quoted in Psychology Today

In the recent Psychology Today web post “Accommodations and Accessibility: What’s the Difference?”, Professor Kat Macfarlane’s forthcoming American University Law Review article on accommodations is quoted.

Macfarlane’s article Accommodations Discrimination is referenced in the Psychology Today article’s discussion of accommodations that a neurodivergent person may need in a work environment, quoting “Reasonable accommodations should be tools of equality yet can feel more like punishment than remedy.”

Valor Day is Saturday, November 4 at the State Fairgrounds

Saturday, November 4

9 a.m. – Noon

CNY Veterans Expo at the New York State Fairgrounds Center of Progress Building

Local attorneys will be available to meet with veterans and their family members.

Free simple wills, powers of attorney, and advance medical directives. Free legal consultations in many areas of the law, including Family Law, Veterans Law, Tenant’s Rights, Debt, Real Estate, and Housing.

Valor Day is sponsored by the Betty and Michael D. Wohl Veterans Legal Clinic, the Volunteer Lawyers Project of CNY, and Hancock Estabrook.

Click the link to hear Professor Beth Kubala, Executive Director of the Betty and Michael D. Wohl Veterans Legal Clinic, talk about Valor Day and the involvement of College of Law students.

Email for more information.

The U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals will be sitting at the College of Law on Tuesday, Nov. 7 in the Melanie Gray Ceremonial Courtroom

The hearing will begin at 12:00 p.m. for the case of U.S. v. U.S. Army Staff Sergeant (E-6) Daniel D. Herman.  The case concerns an Army soldier who was convicted of wrongfully broadcasting intimate visual images and making a false official statement.  Representing the appellant will be Major Mitchell Herniak and Mr. Jonathan Potter.  Representing the government will be Captain Stu Miller and Major Chase Cleveland.  The Court Commissioners are Captain Andrew O’Grady and Captain Alex Vanscoy.

The three-judge panel will consist of Appellate Military Senior Judge Colonel Elizabeth Walker, Associate Judge Colonel Tim Hayes, and Associate Judge Colonel LaJohnne Morris. 

Herman was tried at Fort Hood, Texas, before a general court martial appointed by Commander, III Corps and Fort Hood, Lieutenant Colonel Scott Z. Hughes, presiding.  On May 14, 2022, a military judge sitting as a general court-martial convicted Herman (the appellant), contrary to his pleas, of six specifications of wrongful broadcast of intimate visual images and one specification of false official statement in violation of Articles 117a and 107, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. §§ 917a and 907 [UCMJ].  The military judge sentenced Herman to reduction to the grade of E-1, confinement for 13 months, and a bad conduct discharge. On May 23, 2022, the convening authority approved the findings and sentence as adjudged. On June 13, 2022, the military judge entered judgment. 

Arguments will be heard on the following issue: “Whether the military judge erred by denying the appellant’s motion to suppress statements and derivative evidence.”  

Professor Beth Kubala who arranged the court’s visit added, “This hearing should appeal to a number of students at Syracuse Law.  The proceedings may be rooted in Military Law, but the matters the Court will discuss include issues pertinent to all law school students – constitutional rights, the privilege against self-incrimination, custodial interrogation, and even policy considerations.” 

More information about the case can be found at this link.

Following the hearing, there will be a question-and-answer session with the judges, as well as a reception with judges and representatives of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps from Fort Drum in the Levy Atrium. 

The History of the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals

Before the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), Army courts-martial were prosecuted using the Articles of War. The Articles of War were initially established in 1775 and amended most extensively in 1874. Military justice lacked uniformity and some sentences were excessive. There was no system of appellate review. The commander, as reviewing authority, conducted the only post-trial examination of the record of trial in peacetime.

 On Aug. 23, 1917, in Houston, Texas, African-American Soldiers of the 24th Infantry rioted, killing 15 white men, including civilians, police officers, and National Guardsmen. In November 1917, 63 African-American Soldiers were court-martialed in the largest murder trial in American history. Fifty-eight were convicted. Thirteen of the convicted Soldiers were sentenced to death. Article 48 of the Articles of War authorized the command to carry out death sentences without submitting the case for further review or confirmation. The 13 Soldiers were hanged the next day with no appellate review and no clemency.

The Houston riot and ensuing executions exposed the lack of appellate review in court-martial proceedings. Soon after the executions, the War Department promulgated General Order No. 7 on Jan. 17, 1918, requiring the execution of any sentence involving death or dismissal of an officer to be suspended pending review and a determination of legality by the Office of the Judge Advocate General.

The UCMJ was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1950 and took effect on May 31, 1951. Article 66 of the UCMJ gave The Judge Advocate General the power to create Boards of Review. The Boards could review all cases where the sentence approved by the convening authority affected a general or a flag officer, extended to death, a punitive discharge, or included confinement of one year or more. The UCMJ empowered the Boards to “weigh the evidence, judge the credibility of witnesses, and determine controverted questions of fact, recognizing that the trial court saw and heard the witnesses.” Boards of Review could set aside findings or sentences, order a rehearing or, where it found the evidence insufficient, order the charges dismissed. Significantly, the UCMJ created the United States Court of Military Appeals to provide civilian review of courts-martial.

 The Military Justice Act of 1968 changed the Boards of Review to the Courts of Military Review and made the board members judges. Though commanders initiated courts-martial, the emphasis shifted to attorneys conducting the proceedings under the watchful eye of a trial judiciary. The Act changed military justice practice to closely mirror the civilian court system, including a tiered system of appellate review.

 Major General Kenneth J. Hodson, serving as The Judge Advocate General of the Army, advocated for the Military Justice Act of 1968. After retiring as The Judge Advocate General, Major General Hodson was immediately recalled to duty as Chief Judge of the Army Court of Military Review in 1971. He also held the concurrent title of Commander, U.S. Army Legal Services Agency. Major General Hodson was the first general officer to serve as the chief judge.

 In 1994, the U.S. Army Court of Military Review was renamed the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals. The name change coincided with the renaming of the U.S. Court of Military Appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

Presently, the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals is composed of three judicial panels. Each panel includes three appellate judges (with one judge appointed as the senior judge of that panel) and a commissioner. The Chief Judge, while not assigned full-time to a single panel, sits on cases with judges from all three panels and is also assigned a chief commissioner. The Clerk of Court staff provides paralegal support to the Court.

Meet 2L Laurie Coffey, a U.S. Navy veteran who is drawing on her military experience as she navigates law school.

Sky High Ambitions

A second-year law student and Navy veteran draws on her military experience to inspire her legal future.

Any mention of the 2022 blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick brings a smile to the face of Laurie Coffey L’25, a second-year student at the Syracuse University College of Law. “I used to fly many of the routes in the movie,” says the retired U.S. Navy aviator. “Tom Cruise’s stunt pilot is a former Blue Angel, whom I’ve known for years. We went to flight school together.”

While Coffey’s military career is behind her, it still colors everything she does—from being a single parent to a full-time law student. “The Navy remains an important part of my life,” admits Coffey, who retired in 2019 as a highly decorated lieutenant commander. “It’s who I am.”

Numbers tell part of the story. Over a 20-year span, Coffey amassed more than 25 combat missions, 100 combat hours, 2,400 flight hours and 300 carrier landings (half of which were at night). She also was featured in the Emmy Award-winning PBS documentary Carrier, while deployed on USS Nimitz during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Trained on the coveted F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet, Coffey is Top Gun royalty. Ironic, considering that the term doesn’t stand for anything. “It’s a nickname for a naval aviation training program,” says Coffey, the recipient of a prestigious Air Medal for “heroic or meritorious achievement.”

What Hollywood rarely captures is all the training that goes into each flight. Coffey, who regularly flew six-hour missions, recalls that for every hour of flying there were four hours of planning and preparation. Each mission was then followed by a two-hour “debrief,” where the pilot analyzed anything that went wrong or not as planned.

“It’s exacting work,” admits the former flight instructor at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach. “Because it’s impossible to know all there is about combat flying, you’re always training. You never truly arrive.”

Continue to the full story.

Professor Shubha Ghosh Discusses the Music Industry’s Copyright Suit Against the Generative AI Company Anthropic

The music industry’s copyright lawsuit against generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) company Anthropic and its music lyrics chatbot “Claude” is noticeably different from an existing lawsuit from copyright holders against generative AI companies.

In the IPWatchdog article “Latest Copyright Suit against Generative AI Targets Anthropic’s ‘Claude’”, Crandall Melvin Professor Shubha Ghosh, director of the Syracuse Intellectual Property Law Institute says, “An important difference between the two lawsuits is that song lyrics are extensively licensed through existing websites while portions of fictions and non-fictions are readily available through sites modeled on the Google Book Project, which was found to not be infringing.”

Professor Gregory Germain Discusses Donald Trump’s Strategy in the Trump Organization Hearings

The Yahoo News article “‘Trial within a trial’: Trump’s strategy on verge of imploding” examines how Donald Trump is using the Trump Organization hearings in New York to affect public opinion in his campaign for president.

Professor Gregory Germain commented, “If this had been the case against Joe Blow, there would be no press there, there would be no people taking down this stuff. There would be no attacks on the court clerks and the judge. So that’s just the Hollywood nature of this crazy trial.”

3L Joseph Marchese and Thomas Daviau Prevail Over 2Ls Suzan Elzawahry and Reanna Hughes in the Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC Alternative Dispute Resolution Competition

The team of Joseph Marchese and Thomas Daviau prevailed over Suzan Elzawahry and Reanna Hughes in the 12th Annual Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC Alternative Dispute Resolution Competition. The Best Advocate Award went to Joseph Marchese.

The final round judges were Brian Butler L’96, Managing Member of the Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC Syracuse office, Professor Elizabeth August L’94, and Stephanie Hyde L’89, a business entrepreneur.

Twelve teams of two College of Law students participated in the competition with 10 volunteer judges evaluating the preliminary rounds.

The College of Law would like to thank all the judges, students, faculty, and staff who made the competition a success.

Professor Andrew Greenberg L’89 Receives a Volunteer Lawyers Project of CNY’s Pro Bono Champion Award

Professor Andrew Greenberg L’89 received a Volunteer Lawyers Project (VLP) of CNY’s Pro Bono Champion Award for his work with the VLP’s Immigration Law Program.

Since June of 2022, Greenberg has assisted several families from Afghanistan in Central New York in filing asylum applications with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. A number of College of Law students have also assisted Greenberg with the applications, earning valuable hands-on experience with real-world clients in need of representation. Both Greenberg and the students work with VLP’s experienced immigration legal staff to operate as a team.

During the week of October 16, Greenberg learned that one of the families he helped apply for asylum was granted this important legal milestone.

Greenberg continues to help families navigate the asylum process along with College of Law student volunteers. “The process is short enough for students to interview the clients, prepare written documentation, attend the interview session, and find out the result over the course of two semesters. They benefit from the experience of helping clients with compelling stories that are appreciative of their efforts,” says Greenberg.

There is urgent need for volunteer lawyers and volunteer students to provide legal support to new members of our community. Clinics are currently scheduled for November 8 and 29, 2023. Anyone interested should contact VLP volunteer coordinator Anna Porter (aporter@vlpcny.org).

About the Volunteer Lawyers Project

The Volunteer Lawyers Project of CNY, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit legal aid organization that provides free legal information, assistance, and representation in civil legal matters to low-income people in Central New York. Our services are provided by staff and volunteer attorneys with the help of paralegals and law students.

Services throughout Central New York include legal issues related to housing, family, elder, LGBT* rights, immigration, debt, and economic opportunity. 

Professor Jack Graves on Grayscale EFT Court Decision: It Mainstreams Bitcoin

A Bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF) may soon be approved after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with crypto management company Grayscale Investments over the Securities and Exchange Commission, mandating that the SEC review Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF proposal.

Professor Jack Graves spoke with KCBS Radio, stating that the decision “It mainstreams Bitcoin investments. It makes it simpler when you have people like Blackrock and Fidelity involved because there’s a high level of trust.”

Fulfilling His Hoop Dream

2L Derrick Morris has long held an interest in the operations side of professional basketball, whether it was the salary cap, rosters, or other aspects of running a billion-dollar franchise.  “Even as a little kid I paid attention to roster construction, salary cap, and more,” says Morris. Now he is well on his way to realizing his dream of being involved in the business side of professional basketball.

A key element of Morris’ path is his latest achievement: participating in the NBA Future Basketball Operations Stars Program (FBOS). FBOS provides trainees with opportunities to learn about various components of basketball operations, from industry experts and leaders.  Trainees are mentored by league office executives and participate in sessions designed to spark self-awareness and highlight behaviors and skills that contribute to success within the basketball operations ecosystem.

After a successful pilot program last season, the FBOS recruited potential candidates for the September 2023 – February 2024 session. And Morris didn’t let this opportunity slip through his fingers.

“I was unaware of the program and missed the application deadline last year by two days. I bookmarked it on my computer and reached out to a couple of participants from last year who went through the program to get their experiences with it. I applied, went through the interview process, and they awarded me the opportunity,” says Morris. More than 4,500 people applied for FBOS, with only 81 being accepted into the program, or about a 1.8% acceptance rate.

The FBOS participants meet weekly remotely to receive a detailed look behind the curtain of NBA basketball operations. “We receive presentations from the leaders of various aspects of the NBA. So far, we’ve heard from NBA G League operations, international basketball operations, and scouting. Each presentation is broken into different sessions and topics.” Just like law school, there are individual and group projects to be completed.

Take the Open Shot

The FBOS program is the latest in an upward trajectory Morris has put himself on stretching back to his undergrad degree in communications and sports management from Central Michigan University where he was Intern with the men’s basketball team and a women’s basketball practice player. During the summer of 2022, he was an intern with the NBA Summer League and Sports Business Classroom. This past summer he was a Legal and Business Affairs Intern with his hometown team, the Detroit Pistons. He describes the experience as “a dream come true.”

“I was mainly involved with drafting and reviewing contracts for corporate sponsorships, reviewing the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), watching how negotiations work in pro sports, and I met professionals on the business and basketball side throughout the organization. The arena is downtown, around the corner from my brother’s house. I have so many memories there and I enjoyed my time being back in Detroit and with the Pistons.”

Prior to the Pistons, Morris externed with Syracuse Athletics in their compliance department and before that, an internship with the SU Women’s basketball team.

Other stops on the hardwood trail were at the University of Kansas where he earned a Master’s in Higher Education Administration while managing the KU Men’s Basketball team dorm (McCarthy Hall).

Playing Zone

This winding path brought Morris to the Syracuse University College of Law in 2021 for his legal studies. “I always knew that I wanted to work in professional basketball. Coming here, I thought I wanted to be an agent. I’m still not ruling that out completely,” he says.

Even as a nearly full-time law student, Morris works full-time as a Residence Director on campus, managing three dorms with more than 700 students, and supervising 15 Residence Advisors. He also teaches a First Year Seminar Course on campus.

And he is the president of the Entertainment and Sports Law Society, where he’s had the opportunity to network with a wide range of professors and professionals.

How does he juggle so many responsibilities? “It is a challenge at times, but I have learned that sacrifice is necessary for my goal. It’s all about perspective and the way I see it, being a Residence Director has given me a lot of flexibility and the opportunity to do law school and the NBA program. You must manage your time really well and you have to use the times other people don’t think about like late nights and early mornings. It’s made me so structured with my schedule and has made me a better professional with my time management and handling a lot of different things at once. “

“There’s a previous law grad, David Wagner L’10, G’10, who uses his law degree to work in NBA G League operations. He spoke to the FBOS recently and hearing his story and background and how he’s applied what he learned at the College to his current position was impressive. The most important thing for me has been to remain open. I’m not ruling out a legal counselor role with a team or operations. This opportunity was so great that I wasn’t going to pass it up. It could change the trajectory of my career.”