News

Professor Lauryn Gouldin Addresses New IL Law and “Safe-T Act” with AP News

On January 1, 2023, Illinois will become the first state to test out a new law ending cash bail, or payments imposed by a judge, as a condition of a person’s release pending trial. This law is a part of the “Safe-T Act”, a wide-ranging criminal justice bill Illinois lawmakers passed in 2021. 

Professor Lauryn Gouldin addressed the new law with AP News, explaining that it doesn’t create a new classification of “non-detainable” offenses. Suspects can still be jailed on pretrial if they are considered a public safety risk or likely to flee to avoid criminal prosecution.

The new law states, “Detention only shall be imposed when it is determined that the defendant poses a specific, real and present threat to a person, or has a high likelihood of willful flight.”

Visiting Professor Michal Krotoszyński Presents “From ‘Legal Impossibilism’ to the Rule of Law Crisis” 

Visiting Professor Michal Krotoszyński from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland presented a lecture to College of Law students last week, “From ‘Legal Impossibilism’ to the Rule of Law Crisis: Transitional Justice and Polish Counter-Constitutionalism.” 

Since 2015, Poland’s Law and Justice political party has significantly altered the composition of the Polish Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, and the National Council of Judiciary; and expanded the power of the executive branch in relation to the courts. This process – commonly referred to as a period of ‘anti-constitutional populist backsliding’ (Sadurski 2014) – also has a transitional justice dimension. Krotoszynski posits that the cornerstone of this counter-constitutionalism is a myth of ‘legal impossibilism’: a belief in strict constitutional constraints supposedly stopping the parliamentary majority from introducing crucial reforms, including transitional justice measures.

Alumni Return to Campus to Enrich 2022 Orientation and Summer Residency Programs

Thank you to alums and friends who took time out of their schedules to participate in our August Orientation and JDi Residency programs.  The line-up included:

  • In a Fireside Chat moderated by Assistant Dean of Career Services Lily Hughes, Nazak Nikakhtar L’02, G’02 discussed her career path and the opportunities that led her to her current post. 
  • Kim Wolf Price L’03 and Stephanie H. Fedorka L’17 led a panel on “DEI in Practice”.
  • Michael Kiklis L’93 and his business partner, Kimani Clark, visited students at the Innovation Law Center (ILC) and shared their wisdom and words of advice with the incoming JDinteractive (JDi) class. 
  • Katherine Martin L’99, Managing Director at Rock Creek Global Advisors LLC moderated a discussion with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce as the keynote event of the Crypto and Digital Assets Class.
  • Leadership Greater Syracuse Representative Ronnie White L’13, SULAA Board President Colleen Gibbons L’17, President and CEO of Visit Syracuse Danny Liedka, Volunteer Lawyers Project of CNY Representatives Mary John and Adam Martin L’20, and Onondaga County Bar Association Executive Director Jeff Unaitis welcomed the incoming classes and shared the many ways in which students can get involved in our Syracuse community.
  • Four panels of alumni welcomed the JDi Class of 2026, offering advice on law school and work/school balance and exchanging stories of their journeys.

Syracuse University College of Law Welcomes New Students at its 2022 Convocation

“Only once in American history has one school had its graduates serving simultaneously as the local mayor, the state’s governor, its member of Congress, and as President of the United States. That school is Syracuse University in 2022.”

Chancellor Syverud

On Aug. 15, 2022, Syracuse University College of Law welcomed 241 new students at its Opening Convocation ceremony held at the National Veterans Resource Center on the Syracuse University campus. The NVRC represents SU’s steadfast and long-standing commitment to cultivate and lead innovative academic, government, and community collaborations positioned to empower those who have served in defense of the United States.

The new student body includes 144 students in the residential juris doctor program (Class of 2025); 95 students in the online JDinteractive program (Class of 2026); 22 LL.M. students from eight different countries (Class of 2023), three S.J.D. students from Brazil and India (Class of 2025), four visiting scholars, three-semester exchange students, and three international students in the two-year J.D. program. 

The students heard from Syracuse University Chancellor and President Kent Syverud, College of Law Dean Craig M. Boise, and the Honorable Nazak Nikakhtar L’02, G’02, Partner at Wiley Rein LLP, Chair of the firm’s National Security practice, and Co-Chair of the Foreign Investment practice (CFIUS/Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States). Nikakhtar specializes in international trade national security law, global competition policy, and supply chain resilience.  

As we emerge from the global pandemic, returning to old norms and learning to live with new ones, Chancellor Syverud highlighted the historical fact that “only once in American history has one school had its graduates serving simultaneously as the local mayor, the state’s governor, its member of Congress, and as President of the United States. That school is Syracuse University in 2022. And, for the first time, this University is simultaneously welcoming four new Tillman Scholars – three of them College of Law students. The Tillman Scholarship is the most prestigious scholarship award for US service members, veterans, and military spouses. Our large number of Tillman Scholars, like our large enrollment of veterans in this college, reflects our University’s tradition and mission to be the best University in the nation for veterans and military-connected students.”

Addressing the students, Dean Boise advised, “Now is an appropriate space to reflect on your ’future moment.’ For there are many unprecedented challenges — and opportunities — that await your bright minds, sharp skills, and a deep sense of justice: climate change and human security, threats to public health and community wellness, justice for communities of color, and the rights of vulnerable populations, the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II, and its impact on our planet and our nation, supply chain challenges and global trade imbalances, and the respect for the rule of law and democracy abroad and here at home. And, of course, the challenges and opportunities that come with economic prosperity, innovation, and technological advances, such as artificial intelligence and drones.

“Our faculty are leading experts in these topics … and more! They, and the laws that impact them, will come alive for you in the classroom. I know, that at Syracuse Law, we will inspire you, prepare you, and help you gather and hone the tools to shape lives and change the world. That is our commitment to you because we know that’s why you are here.”

The class of incoming J.D. students has an undergraduate Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.55 for the 50th percentile, which is the highest seen at the College of Law in over 10 years. The 75th percentile GPA of 3.75 and 25th percentile GPA of 3.21 are also higher than the incoming class of 2021. The incoming class is comprised of 25 veterans/active duty military members, 10 more than the incoming class of 2021.

Nikakhtar offered words of encouragement from the perspective of a graduate, saying, “Syracuse will give you a wonderful, top-notch education. It will train you to master the law, it will teach you how to write persuasively, think analytically, and it will teach you grit. Embrace it. You will have good days and challenging days and they will all pass. Learn, learn as much as you can, because one day you will draw from the information you’ve acquired over these few years. 

“Whether you want to be law partners, professors, judges, politicians, career diplomats, business executives, stay-at-home parents, or part-time anything. Whatever you want to be, you will develop important building blocks here. The foundation of modern democracy is based on the American legal system, and it is the greatest legal system in the world. It may not be perfect, but when you learn it, you can fix it. Fundamentally, the knowledge of the law is one of many things that will enrich you as a person. And it’s something that will stay with you forever.” 

Overview of Incoming J.D. Students*

Class size: 241

  • J.D. Residential: 144
  • JDinteractive: 95
  • J.D. Residential Transfer: 2 
  • J.D. Two-Year: 2

LSAT Scores

  • 75th: 160
  • 50th: 157
  • 25th: 154

Undergraduate GPA (uGPA)**

  • 75th: 3.75
  • 50th: 3.55***
  • 25th: 3.21

Higher Degrees

  • Master’s Degrees: 47, including in business, education, and nursing
  • Ph.D.s: 4
  • 1 Doctorate of Nursing
  • M.D.s: 4

Diversity

  • Average Age: 28
  • Gender: 100 male, 133 female
  • Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC): 31% (75 students)
  • First-Generation Students: 67

Military-Affiliated

  • Veterans/Active Duty: 25****

Geography

  • States Represented: 33
  • Countries Represented Other than US: 10 (the Northern Mariana Islands, and ten other nations: Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Germany, Greece, India, Saint Lucia, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates)

Overview of Incoming LL.M. and S.J.D Students

  • 22 new LL.M students from 8 different countries: Brazil, China, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, and Pakistan
  • 3 S.J.D. students from Brazil and India, one of whom is an alum of the LL.M. program
  • 3 exchange students from the University of Florence and the University of Rome (Tor Vergata), Italy
  • 4 visiting scholars from Brazil, Poland, and South Korea

*Statistics are as of August 17, 2022

**The Undergraduate GPA numbers are all higher in 2022 compared to 2021 numbers

***A median GPA of 3.55 is the highest average in over 10 years

****10 more Veterans than the incoming class of 2021

NSF Invests in the College of Law’s Innovation Law Center Through Five-Year, $15 Million Grant

The Innovation Law Center at Syracuse University College of Law has been selected as a part of a $15 million, five-year investment by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The investment is designed to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in STEM programs in rural, economically underserved regions. Syracuse University joins nine other colleges in the newly awarded grant, NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps): Interior Northeast Region Hub (IN I-Corps). The grant will help the ILC continue to foster innovation and entrepreneurship.

The grant captures activities taking place across the Syracuse University campus, including at the College of Law’s Innovation Law Center; the College of Engineering and Computer Science and its Center for Advanced Systems and Engineering; and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

Gretchen Ritter, vice chancellor, provost and chief academic officer, says the University is excited to partner with the NSF and other colleges to boost entrepreneurism and contribute academic programming and curriculum development in that field.

For more information, reference SU News.

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.”