Professor Lauryn Gouldin recently spoke with KNX Radio (Los Angeles, CA) on the federal charges against Hunter Biden. He faces two false statement changes and a possession charge in violation of a federal statute that forbids drug users or people with addiction from possessing firearms.
“One of the things that make this an easy case for prosecutors is that there is a signed form that they want to use to prosecute him. When I think of the strategies for the defense, I see that Biden’s defense attorneys seem to be raising questions about who had actually filled out the form in question. I am not sure where that will go,” says Gouldin. “Some of it may turn on what it means under the statute to be an addict or user so there may be some effort to argue that he didn’t know that he would fit those definitions. His memoir and text messages are part of the prosecution’s case against him. I think it’s an uphill battle for the defense.”
Syracuse University today announced that Terence J. Lau L’98 has been named the 13th dean of Syracuse University’s College of Law. The appointment, which begins Aug. 5, was approved by the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees.
Erica Sujin Kang L’25 is quick to speak up and doesn’t mind being cold-called in class. For her, that’s all part of the learning experience at the Syracuse University College of Law. Kang hopes those skills will come in handy as she works towards being a lawyer who can speak up for others.
Kang had a successful career before deciding to go to law school. After graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a degree in linguistics, she went to South Korea, where she has family, with the intention of serving others through the context of international relations. During this time, she worked as an international relations specialist for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) of Korea, providing international relations strategy and working as an advisor to the MOLIT minister and the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. Later, she was an external relations assistant translating for the United Nation’s Green Climate Fund (GCF), which serves the Paris Agreement by fighting climate change and investing funds into developing countries.
“Syracuse Law has developed my thinking skills and helped me see the potential of the legal field. And, I draw so much strength from my classmates.”
Erica Sujin Kang L’25
While her career was going well, she had always wanted to attend law school. Kang had seen many lawyers looking to the U.N. for planning and decision making, and she had also been instilled by her father and grandfather (who worked with the president of So. Korea in a role comparable to a mayor in the U.S.) with the importance of public service, She knew studying law would advance her career, and it seemed the time was right.
Wanting to take the bar exam in New York State, she began researching Syracuse Law. Kang was drawn to its relatively close proximity to New York City and also admired the prestigious faculty and alumni, including President Joseph R. Biden L’68. Kang also noted that Syracuse Law had a strong public service presence through various law clinics and activities, as well as a number of classes on national security law and constitutional law. She applied and received a scholarship, and in 2022 Kang headed back to the U.S. to attend Syracuse Law.
Erica Kang points to a photo of College of Law alumni President Joseph R. Biden L’68 as she gives a tour of Dineen Hall.
As part of her commitment to service, she became an academic mentor for the Asian-American Pacific Law Student Association—something she really enjoys. “I think we are still a minority at law schools, and I like helping 1L students in particular who can get overwhelmed or need help with study skills,” Kang explains. “I’ve been a 1L, and I understand it can be challenging, so I talk with them and give them a chance to vent out their stress, so they feel supported.”
Kang has taken advantage of not only her classes and on-campus activities but also internships opportunities that further her legal expertise. During the summer after her first year, she was a legal intern at Hiscock Legal Aid Society in Syracuse, New York, learning how to litigate court trials, advocate for clients, provide legal representation and negotiate with opposing counsel. She also worked as a law clerk remotely for the U.S. Department of Commerce with a focus on commercial law development programs in the Asia Pacific Region that help developing nations have an effective international arbitration center for foreign investors.
As she completes her second year at Syracuse Law, Kang has decided she’d like to become a litigation trial lawyer. “I like speaking up in class, and I want to go to court and speak up for my clients,” she says.
This summer, Kang has lined up an internship with the Department of Homeland Security as a trial attorney. She is hopeful that the experience, along with her work with the U.N. and the skills she’s learned at Syracuse Law, will make her an outstanding job candidate after finishing her law degree.
Kang says, “Syracuse Law has developed my thinking skills and helped me see the potential of the legal field. And, I draw so much strength from my classmates,” Kang says. “I love the law. Being here gives me so much pride.”
Professor David Driesen provided commentary to Newsweek’s coverage of Donald Trump’s hometown newspaper’s editorial on the unanimous verdict in the hush money trial. The Palm Beach Post’s editorial read in part “Defendant Donald Trump is now a ‘convicted felon.’ He becomes the first former president and presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee to earn that historic but ignoble label. He now has a criminal record, a damning complication for any candidate seeking political office, much less the presidency of the United States.”
Driesen said the unanimous verdict reached by independent citizens does not in any way implicate Judge Juan Merchan or the prosecution.
“This was a fair trial,” Driesen said. “Trump’s baseless attacks on prosecutors and judges are scandalous and the willingness of many Republican politicians to back up his nonsense dangerous and despicable.”
To arrange an interview with Professor Germain, please email Rob Conrad, College of Law Director of Communications and Media Relations.
Professor Gregory Germain spoke with Spectrum News 1 in the wake of a New York jury finding Donald Trump guilty of all 34 charges in the hush money case. He provided an analysis of the charges, what can happen on appeal, possible sentencing outcomes, and his current presidential campaign.
Germain noted that “There are very difficult legal issues in this case, some of which the judge preempted them [Trump’s defense] from arguing and others they should have emphasized the fact, for example, that the business records were modified or falsified after the election. How could the records have been falsified in order to defraud the voters when the records were falsified after the election?”
On the topic of sentencing, expected for July 11, Germain said “The rules say the sentence should be between one and four years in jail, but it can be less than one year at the discretion of the judge for a first-time offender. What happens now is we get the presentencing report from the probation department making a recommendation for the sentence and I would be shocked to see any recommendation of any jail time in a case like this, in a Class E first time-felon, the lowest felony you can be charged in New York.”
In a Fox News story, Germain said observed that it was “a terribly risky strategy for Trump to focus on Michael Cohen’s credibility rather than focusing on the convoluted legal basis for the claims.”
“It’s not clear to me what they expected the jury to believe – that Michael Cohen paid $125,000 of his own money to Stormy Daniels without Trump’s knowledge and promise of reimbursement? They did not present an alternative theory that makes any sense, so of course they believed Cohen,” Germain said.
He claims that “a much better argument” would have been “that the records could not have been falsified to defraud the voters in the 2016 election because the records were falsified in 2017 after the election was over, and the records were not public or known by the public.”
Syracuse Law’s nominations for the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) 2024 Outstanding Clinic Team Award and Outstanding Externship Student Award were recently featured by CLEA on the Clinical Law Prof Blog.
Outstanding Clinic Team: Christopher Foreman L’24 and 3L Chezelle McDade
In the Betty and Michael D. Wohl Veterans Legal Clinic, the student attorney team of Christopher Foreman L’24 and 3L Chezelle McDade worked together to lead a class of students who submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Van Dermark v. McDonough.
Outstanding Externship Student: Thomas Sheffield L’24
Sheffield demonstrated excellence in his externship placements and seminar components through his efforts in taking placements that specifically focus on public interest and advocacy for underserved or marginalized populations, and through his conscientious attendance, reflection, and participation in the accompanying externship seminars.
To arrange an interview with Professor Germain, please email Rob Conrad, College of Law Director of Communications and Media Relations.
In this Mirror story, Professor Gregory Germain comments that “So, even though only one juror is necessary for Trump to obtain a mistrial, and even though it’s a very flawed case, I predict that the jury will convict him.” Despite this, the professor did highlight possible flaws in the prosecution’s case.
He said: “I think the DA and the Judge are fully invested in obtaining a conviction. I think the judge will gloss over the legal issues in the jury instructions to allow a conviction by defining the legal issue around the propriety of paying hush money rather than the legality of paying hush money and how that relates to the documents charges.”
Professor Germain also spoke with Al Jazeera Network, pointing to “the two essential elements” of the indictment: “Where’s the fraud and where’s the [secondary] crime?”
Professor Jack Graves spoke with Marketwatch for the article “SEC Moves Closer to Blessing Ether ETFs, Cheering Crypto Fans” regarding opening the door for trading of securities based on ether, a form of cryptocurrency. Many experts expect this to soon open the door to ether exchange-traded funds (EFTs.) This would be done through traditional investment methods rather than a crypto wallet.
Ether works a little differently from bitcoin, coin transactions are verified by a subset of the people who hold them. That may have made the SEC uncomfortable, said Graves. “I think there have been concerns about potential control or manipulation,” he said.
Crandall Melvin Professor of Law Shubha Ghosh spoke with USA Today regarding the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and Live Nation.
Ghosh notes that if the company is broken up, “This could give consumers more options on where to buy tickets and which companies’ venues to visit and, in turn, make tickets more affordable.”
Professor Katherine Macfarlane’s article Accelerated Civil Rights Settlements in the Shadow of Section 1983, 2018 Utah L. Rev. 639 (2018) was cited by District Judge Carlton W. Reeves of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi in a ruling in Green v. Thomas, denying a motion to dismiss malicious prosecution and false arrest claims on the grounds of qualified immunity. In his decision, Judge Reeves cites Professor Macfarlane’s article on Section 1983, a law that was passed originally as part of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, and its historic role in civil rights litigation, writing:
The Ku Klux Klan Act “established a new legal order that contemplated direct federal intervention in what had been considered to be state affairs, a system in which federal courts were to enforce newly created federal constitutional rights against state officials through civil remedies and criminal sanctions.” Katherine A. Macfarlane, Accelerated Civil Rights Settlements in the Shadow of Section 1983, 2018 Utah L. Rev. 639, 660 (2018) (quotation marks and citation omitted).
In conclusion, Judge Reeves writes:
“Desmond Green has suffered two injustices. The judiciary should not impose a third. If qualified immunity would do that, closing the courthouse doors to his claims, then the doctrine should come to its overdue end. The motion to dismiss is denied. This case is stayed so that Detective Thomas can exercise her right to an immediate interlocutory appeal. If she declines to timely appeal, the case will proceed into discovery as to this defendant. Detective Thomas can exercise her right to an immediate interlocutory appeal. If she declines to timely appeal, the case will proceed into discovery as to this defendant.”
Judge Reeves also cited Professor Macfarlane in his 2020 decision in Jamison v. McClendon.
