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The Hiscock Legal Aid (HLA) Society has awarded Beheshta Rasekh LL.M’22 the Afghan Legal Fellowship for the coming year.

As part of the Fellowship, Rasekh will provide legal counsel and representation to Afghan clients seeking lawful status in the United States.

“Beheshta arrived at Syracuse and began her LL.M. studies very soon after the Taliban re-took control of Afghanistan, originally planning to return to her country and serve her people, but unaware of the sudden political changes in her nation. She has continually excelled against these great odds and this latest achievement offers a further demonstration of the dedication, talent, and potential of this amazing woman,” said Andrew Horsfall, Assistant Dean of International Programs.

Rasekh was one of two Fulbright students from Afghanistan and received two CALI awards for academic excellence, presented to the student with the highest grade in the class, in her Evidence Law and International Business Transactions courses. In the summer of 2022, she began working for the City of Syracuse with Leah Witmer L’10, Chief Administrative Law Judge. She will begin her Fellowship this fall and work for the HLA through September 2023.

Founded in 1949, HLA is a non-profit agency located in Syracuse serving as a primary provider of legal services to low-income individuals in Central New York. HLA promotes the right of every person to equal justice under the law by providing high-quality legal assistance to individuals and families in need.

Syracuse University’s College of Law and Martin J. Whitman School of Management Launch New Graduate Level Certificate of Advanced Study (CAS) in Technology Law & Entrepreneurship

July 19, 2022 – Syracuse University’s College of Law and Martin J. Whitman School of Management (Whitman) are launching a new Certificate of Advanced Study in Technology Law & Entrepreneurship (CASTLE).  This program leverages areas of strength at each of the schools that equip students with an advanced, marketable designation as they seek careers at the intersection of law, business management, and technology.

The CASTLE curriculum consists of a minimum of 12 credits, including a foundational course in entrepreneurship offered at Whitman and an applied capstone course offered at the College of Law through its Innovation Law Center (ILC). The ILC offers a unique, interdisciplinary experiential learning program for students interested in the commercial development of new technologies.  It is also the designated New York State Science & Law Technology Center by Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology, and Innovation (NYSTAR).  Under the leadership of Director Brian Gerling L’99, ILC students and faculty provide research, information, and advisory and support services to the more than 30 universities and research centers in New York State supported by NYSTAR as well as New York State entrepreneurs and companies with new technologies. 

Students enrolled in CASTLE can choose from courses in the areas of intellectual property, patents, venture capital, and start-up advising, among others. CASTLE is open to graduate and law students enrolled at Syracuse University, State University of New York (SUNY) – Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY), and SUNY Upstate Medical College.

“The College of Law’s Innovation Law Center has a twenty-plus-year track record of preparing law students to drive growth in tech-related industries, including emerging medical, pharmaceutical, robotics, computing, and manufacturing technologies, by combining real-world practical experience and academics, including courses at Whitman. CASTLE formalizes this interdisciplinary approach with an advanced credential that employers will immediately recognize as a value-add in candidates,” says Dean Craig M. Boise.

Whitman School Interim Dean Alexander McKelvie says “We are delighted to be able to launch this new program with the College of Law. We have a long history of working collaboratively and this new program formalizes our joint work in support of technology entrepreneurs and innovators. This new program is a major benefit to students as they learn both business and legal skills, like how to do market sizing, competitive analyses, and commercialization, as well as intellectual property law and how to do patent searches.”

Students interested in the CASTLE can apply at any time during their graduate programs. College of Law students should apply in the Spring of their 1L year. Tuition follows the current tuition rate per school and course.

For more detailed information about this Certificate of Advanced Study, please visit the College of Law’s Certificates of Advanced Study web page. Current College of Law students interested in the certificate should contact the ILC at 315-443-8933 while prospective law students should contact College of Law Admissions. Whitman students should contact Christopher Wszalek, Executive Director of Graduate Admissions and Student Recruitment.

Rising 3L Hayley Rousselle Takes Second Place in AEJMC Writing Competition

Rising third-year law student Hayley Rousselle has won second place in a writing competition organized by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Law and Policy Division, the accreditation group for communications and journalism schools and colleges. Rouselle will present her paper—“Social Media and the Economy of Hate.”—on an Aug. 4, 2021, panel during AEJMC’s virtual conference.  

“Hayley wrote her paper for my Media Law 737 class last fall and we worked pretty closely getting it ready for the competition,” says Professor Roy Gutterman L’00, Director of the Tully Center for Free Speech. “The law division has some of the top media law scholars in the country. The competition is pretty tight.”

Rouselle explains that her paper addresses Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which grants social media companies immunity in making good-faith efforts to regulate content on their platforms. 

“However, this legal norm does nothing to encourage transparent, consistent, or effective regulation of harmful content such as hate speech,” Rouselle observes. “Instead, Section 230 has left social media companies in a position where they can go unchecked in profiting from the harmful content they often claim to prohibit.” Her article examines how Congress can amend Section 230 to best incentivize social media companies to enforce their policies that prohibit hate speech.

Carey Ng G’02, L’02 Elected Vice President of the Syracuse University Alumni Association

Carey Ng L'02

The Syracuse University Alumni Association (SUAA) has elected Carey Ng G’02, L’02 as a Vice President. Ng is an assistant district attorney in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office who joined the SUAA Board in 2020.

Ng received the College of Law’s Law Honors Award in 2021 and served as Vice President from 2014 to 2016 and President from 2016 to 2018 of the Syracuse University Law Alumni Association.

Read more about SUAA’s new board members here.

ABA Law Student Podcast Interviews Vice Dean Keith Bybee on Dobbs Decision

Vice Dean Keith Bybee

Though much has been said about the prematurely leaked draft decision of Dobbs, there’s a great deal to unpack now that the final opinion has been issued. ABA Law Student Podcast host 3L Meg Steenburgh welcomes back Vice Dean Keith Bybee to explore the reasoning of the opinion as well as the newly released concurring and dissenting opinions. 

“The tone of the opinion is very strong,” Bybee says. It is as if the concurring justices believe “there is no other way other than overturning Roe and Casey outright, because they are so egregiously in error.”

Steenburgh raises an issue with the historical context continuously referenced by the court, saying that the right to abortion is not listed specifically in the 14th amendment. Women didn’t have a right to vote at that time, however, and it was the first time that the word “male” was inserted into the Constitution. Steenburgh believes that the clear knowledge of this information made the court’s arguments both disingenuous and dishonest. 

Bybee explains, “in its decision making, the court will often shape the evidence and arguments that it brings forth so they’re completely consistent with the conclusion that it reaches. There’s a way in which, you could call it calibration, between the evidence and arguments presented and the conclusion reached. And there is certainly that going on here.”

The Center for Public Integrity Interviews Professor Nina Kohn on Guardianship Reform

Professor Nina Kohn, a white woman with brown shoulder-length hair, wearing a black blazer over a tan sweater, with gold necklaces and earrings, smiles in front of a window. She is holding a dark blue book.

A number of high-profile cases lately, from Britney Spears to Wendy Williams, have led to growing calls for reform of financial guardianship and conservatorship systems. According to a National Council on Disability Report, there were an estimated 1.3 million active guardianship or conservatorship cases nationwide as of 2018. People with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the elderly and those who have experienced traumatic brain injuries are among those who are most likely to have guardians appointed. 

The Center for Public Integrity interviewed Professor Nina Kohn about her take on abuse in conservatorships, reform efforts, and how people can protect themselves. 

According to Kohn, “Historically, guardianship has been treated almost like a rite of passage for young adults with intellectual disabilities, who were assumed to be incapable of making decisions for themselves. Increasingly, today there is recognition that that’s not proper and that even individuals with substantial cognitive and intellectual disabilities can make decisions for themselves, especially with support.

Another category of people you often see this with are people with dementia who have progressive cognitive decline that’s making it harder and harder for them to manage their own affairs. And then a third primary category is individuals who are experiencing some level of mental illness or non-progressive cognitive challenge acquired later in life, and that could be through a traumatic brain injury.”

Kohn explains that the United States has seen efforts in place to try to improve guardianship since the early 1980s. Through her work, she focuses on trying to realign incentives so that it’s easier to do the right thing and harder to do the wrong thing.

“If these issues concern you, I really encourage people to reach out to their state legislature,” Kohn said. “I think we’ve seen enough problems to know that we need to fix the systems, and we need to change the incentives so that individuals aren’t stripped of their basic liberties unnecessarily. To the extent that seeing some of these horror stories can be a call to action, maybe there’s a silver lining.”

Professor David Driesen Discusses Supreme Court Ruling on Climate Action in The Hill

Professor David Driesen

Prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling on climate action last week, Professor David Driesen discussed how the ruling on climate regulation could stunt the EPA’s ability to prevent climate change from worsening in The Hill.

The case, focusing on the scope of the EPA’s powers to enact climate regulations, was brought by several states and led by West Virginia, seeking to preemptively block the Biden administration from setting standards that are likely to result in a shift away from coal plants and towards those powered by cleaner energy sources.  

Driesen said he worried that the decision could lead the court to try to explicitly block the closure of power plants.  

“If they put in broad rhetoric about not closing power plants and not restructuring industry, that could make it not impossible but very hard to use EPA regulation to address global climate disruption effectively,” Driesen explained.  

Professor Shubha Ghosh Meets with Jeffrey Cross L’75 to Discuss Proposed Antitrust Reform Bill

Professor Shubha Ghosh

In a podcast run by the College of Law’s Intellectual Property Law Institute and the Innovation Law Center, Professor Shubha Ghosh, director of the Syracuse Intellectual Property Law Institute, meets with Jeffery Cross L’75 to discuss the proposed antitrust reform bill originating from Senator Klobuchar. 

Cross is a partner in the Chicago law firm of Freeborn & Peters, LLP, who wrote “Amending the Antitrust Laws to Address Big Tech”, a column forthcoming in the July issue of Today’s General Counsel.

Professor of Law Emeritus William Banks Featured in January 6th Hearings Lawyer 2 Lawyer Podcast

Professor William Banks, a white man white short white hair, wearing a brown suit jacket over a white collared shirt, smiles.

The January 6th hearings, a series of five scheduled hearings investigating the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by the United States House Select Committee, is currently underway. In a Lawyer 2 Lawyer podcast on the Legal Talk Network, Professor of Law Emeritus William C. Banks discusses the hearings with host Craig Williams. 

Williams and Banks consider the purpose of the hearings, the goals of the January 6th Select Committee, the potential criminal referrals to the DOJ by the committee, and whether there could be possible criminal prosecution due to the information revealed in these hearings.

During their discussion, Williams draws a parallel to the January 6th insurrection and the Watergate scandal. 

“One of the starkest contracts between Watergate and January 6th is that the principal players in Watergate agreed to abide by the rule of law once their activities were exposed, and indeed it was the rule of law that caused many of them…to come clean,” Banks said. “And indeed for the president to concede once the Supreme Court had ruled that he had to turn over tape recordings of the cover-up, that he himself was culpable and needed to resign the presidency.  So, a more humble president than Donald Trump to be sure, even though President Nixon clearly violated the law.  He did so and then when he was caught red-handed so to speak, he said, ‘Okay, you got me.  I can’t sustain the presidency in the face of having participated in a cover-up of Watergate.’ But it pales in comparison to the activities that were undertaken surrounding the 2020 election.” 

Banks states that the main takeaway from the hearings is their contribution to history. 

The vast compilation of multimedia shown by the video includes what Banks refers to as “incredible video footage, some of it deeply disturbing and all of it nearly illuminating that is going to be around to stand the test of time and to teach again our children, grandchildren and other generations about this threat to democracy. So I think that’s the value. That’s the takeaway from the hearings and whatever else happens there, a worthwhile endeavor for that reason.”

In Honor of Juneteenth, Professor Paula Johnson Participates in Two Symposia on Matters of Race and Law

Professor Paula Johnson (Center of Photo) at the Franklin H. Williams Commission’s Race and Law Symposium

Earlier this month, Professor Paula Johnson participated in two symposia on matters of race and law in honor of Juneteenth. The first event was the Franklin H. Williams Commission’s Race and Law Symposium. The full-day event took place on June 16th and centered on illuminating modern systemic racism’s roots in slavery and legally codified racial discrimination, including two panel discussions with leading legal academics, practitioners, and historians. 

Johnson moderated the panel, synthesizing multiple complex legal perspectives into an informative and thought-provoking session.  

Later that day, Johnson served as the keynote speaker for the Juneteenth commemoration for the Capital District Black and Hispanic Bar Association and the Montgomery County Bar Association.

In a talk entitled Claiming Freedom: Triumphs and Travails of Emancipation Lawsuits, Johnson examined the efforts of enslaved and formerly enslaved persons of African descent to secure their freedom and legal rights through the court system. Johnson focused her discussion on notable efforts such as Sojourner Truth’s successful New York State lawsuit in 1828, to free her son, Peter, who had been illegally sold in Alabama. This litigation made Truth the first Black woman to successfully sue a White man for a family member’s freedom.  

The discussion also focused on the triumphs and challenges of seeking freedom and other legal rights through the court system during Antebellum and Postbellum periods. Examination of these cases aims to compare the relationships between past and present demands for liberation and equality as a multifaceted and constant struggle, which can lead toward a free and informed future.