Faculty News

Professor Nancy Cook was the closing plenary presenter at the Center for Excellence in Law Teaching's inaugural conference, held at the Albany Law School. The focus of the conference was on setting and assessing learning objectives in the law school curriculum.

Read Nancy Cook's Faculty Profile

Professor Jane Kirtley was a guest on BBC Radio 5's "Up All Night" show, discussing cameras in the courts. Existing laws in England and Wales prohibit cameras in trial courts, but changes to allow cameras in sentencing proceedings are expected to be announced in May. Kirtley described the U.S. experience with cameras in courts, the Minnesota pilot project, and the rationales for permitting camera coverage in trial proceedings.

Read Jane Kirtley's Faculty Profile

Professor Ralph Hall was quoted in a Law360 article, entitled "FDA Sheds Light On Medical Device Risk Reviews," regarding the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recent guidance defining how the agency will assess the risks and benefits of medical devices. Because all devices and drugs carry some risk, balancing product risks and benefits is the key regulatory decision made by FDA.

Read Ralph Hall's Faculty Profile

Professor JaneAnne Murray was quoted in a Thomson Reuters article on the Supreme Court ruling last week that defendants had a constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel in the context of plea bargaining, given that well over 90% of criminal cases end in a plea bargain. Murray was quoted saying, "Competent advice of counsel in the plea bargaining process is essential, but let's not scapegoat defense lawyers in a process dominated by the government's immense investigative resources and charging power." She also stated, "I hope that Frye and Lafler signal a deeper commitment on the part of the Supreme Court to scrutinize all parties' behavior and transparency in this pivotal but generally unregulated arena of the criminal justice system."

Read JaneAnne Murray's Faculty Profile

Professor Richard Painter spoke on Access Minnesota on the ethics of investment banking. The issues discussed on the radio show included: the history of federal regulation of banks, the difference between investment and commercial banks, core functions of investment banking, the Great Depression, the 2008 economic crisis, personal liability, the Glass-Steagall Act, and the Dodd-Frank Act.

Read Richard W. Painter's Faculty Profile

Professor Susan Wolf will be interviewed on Minnesota Public Radio on Thursday, March 22, at 10:00 a.m., about an article appearing in this week's Genetics in Medicine. The article provides breakthrough recommendations on whether to offer back to individual research subjects incidental findings and individual research results discovered in large-scale genomic research involving biobanks. The article is part of a large symposium issue edited by Wolf with Professors Brian Van Ness and Frances Lawrenz. The work was supported by a grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health.

Read Susan M. Wolf's Faculty Profile

Professor Tom Cotter was quoted in a Star Tribune article on the Supreme Court's decision in Mayo v. Prometheus, which held unpatentable, a process for treating patients suffering from autoimmune disorders by adjusting their drug dosages based on naturally occurring correlations between the level of certain metabolites in the blood and the need for an increase or decrease in the dosage. Cotter stated that the case boils down to what steps are necessary to add to laws of nature to make them patentable, and that despite concerns from some in the biotech industry he believes innovation will proceed.

Read Tom Cotter's Faculty Profile

Professor Richard Painter was quoted by Senator Al Franken in a Senate floor speech in opposition to provisions of the JOBS Act that reduce investor protection by creating additional exemptions from the requirements of the federal securities laws. Franken states, "Don't take it from me-take it from securities law experts. I have heard from Richard Painter, a professor of corporate law at the University of Minnesota, a former Associate Counsel to President George W. Bush, and Chief White House Ethics Lawyer from 2005 to 2007. Here is what he said about this debate: 'I strongly support these amendments to the JOBS Act. Reckless and fraudulent conduct in connection with the offer and sale of securities is a large part of what got us into our present economic difficulties. Lowering the bar for the offer and sale of risky securities to the public is no way to get us out. If Congress changes the securities laws at all in this Act, these amendments should be included.'"

Read Richard W. Painter's Faculty Profile

Professor Myron Orfield was quoted in MinnPost.com article entitled "House GOP Floats Plan to Restructure Regional Planning." Orfield commented on the proposed changes to the regional government system. Orfield and then Rep. Pawlenty co-sponsored the Metropolitan Reorganization Act of 1994, which some legislators now seek to limit.

Read Myron Orfield's Faculty Profile

Professor Richard Painter was quoted in several news stories on the 29 Wisconsin state judges who had signed a petition for an election to recall Governor Scott Walker. Painter questioned why judges would expose themselves to criticism and a potential perception of bias by signing the recall petition, though he acknowledged there might be wiggle room within the judicial code allowing judges to sign. "For judges to be getting involved in the question of whether the governor ought to be recalled I think is highly inappropriate," said Richard Painter, who served as chief ethics lawyer in President George W. Bush's administration. "Whether it violates an ethics rule or not in Wisconsin, I think it's very inappropriate."

Read the SheboyganPress.com article.
Read the Duluth News Tribune article.
Read the Huffington Post article.
Read The Republic article.
Read the MinnPost article.
Read the Beaver Dam Daily Citizen article.

Read Richard W. Painter's Faculty Profile

Professor Richard Painter was cited in a Thomson Reuters story on the appeal to the Second Circuit of an order by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff refusing to approve a settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Citigroup. As both parties urged approval of the settlement, the Second Circuit asked Judge Rakoff to suggest a lawyer who would argue against approval of the settlement, an arrangement that Painter likened to other situations in which a court appoints a lawyer or other "special master" to assist the court with its analysis of a case. "He is not Judge Rakoff's lawyer. He is a lawyer for the judicial circuit to present one side of the argument," says Painter. "We don't have a system where trial judges go before the court of appeals to defend their opinion. They make their case in the opinion."

Read Richard W. Painter's Faculty Profile

Professor Gregory Shaffer was selected to be Co-Chair of the Program Committee for the annual meeting of the Law and Society Association, which will be held in Boston in late May 2013. The LSA is a group of scholars from many fields and countries, interested in the place of law in social, political, economic and cultural life.

Read Gregory Shaffer's Faculty Profile

Professor Jane Kirtley spent the week of March 12 in Thailand, delivering a series of lectures on libel and slander law in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Chonburi. In addition to speaking to journalists and academics at Chiangmai, Assumption, Valaya Alongkorn and Burapa Universities, as well as the Asia Institute at Ramkanhaeng University, she also conducted a workshop on criminal libel for 30 police officers of the Chiang Mai Provincial Police. Kirtley's program was sponsored by the U.S. State Department.

Read Jane Kirtley's Faculty Profile

Professor Eugene Borgida was interviewed on WBEZ, the National Public Radio affiliate in Chicago, on cameras in the courtroom. On the station's "848" show, Borgida discussed the Illinois Supreme Court's order in January 2012 involving extended media coverage in the circuit courts of Illinois.

Read Eugene Borgida's Faculty Profile

Professor Stephen Cribari will teach a one-credit, one-week course entitled, "Law and Cultural Heritage," at the University of Arkansas from March 12-16, 2012. The course is a condensed version of one taught here at the Law School and at Notre Dame Law School London Law Programme. Special guest lecturer will be Maj. Corine Wegener (U.S. Army Res., Ret.), associate curator in the Department of Decorative Arts, Textiles, and Sculpture for the Minnesota Institute of Arts.

Read Stephen J. Cribari's Faculty Profile

Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin has been nominated for the 2013 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order for her latest book, On the Frontlines: Gender, War, and the Post-Conflict Process, co-authored with Dina Francesca Haynes and Naomi Cahn (Oxford, 2011). The distinguished award honoring powerful ideas that could lead to a more just world order was first given in 1988. On the Frontlines explores whether recent attention paid in the peace-making process to issues of sexual violence and discrimination has improved the lives of women in post-conflict states who have suffered the consequences of violence and gender oppression. Award will be announced at the end of 2012.

Read Fionnuala Ní Aoláin's Faculty Profile

Professors David Weissbrodt and Jennifer Green participated in an online discussion on PointofLaw.com of the pending Supreme Court case, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, about whether the Alien Tort Statute provides jurisdiction over multinational corporations complicit in human rights violations.

Read Jennifer Green's Faculty Profile
Read David Weissbrodt's Faculty Profile

Professor Gregory Shaffer was interviewed on international intellectual property law and developing countries by the Latin American School of Social Sciences (FLACSO) Chair in Buenos Aires where he was their distinguished visitor. Shaffer addressed the relation of multilateral and bilateral trade and investment agreements for developing countries. Click here to read the interview.

Read Gregory Shaffer's Faculty Profile

Professor Tom Cotter served as one of several contributors in an online symposium regarding a new book, Creation Without Restraint: Promoting Liberty and Rivalry in Innovation (Oxford University Press 2012) by Herb Hovenkamp and Christina Bohannan. The symposium was held on University of Florida Professor Danny Sokol's blog Antitrust and Competition Policy blog.

Read Tom Cotter's Faculty Profile

Professor Richard Painter co-authored a letter for the New York Times Sunday Dialogue section with Professor Michael Gerhardt of the University of North Carolina Law School. They addressed Senate filibusters of judicial nominees and suggested a compromise that would allow a substantial minority of senators to delay, but not permanently block, a Senate vote on a nomination submitted by the President. The letter was republished in the Sunday, March 4, 2012, paper with reader responses and a reply from Painter and Gerhardt.

Read Richard W. Painter's Faculty Profile

Professor Richard Painter was quoted in a Politico article on an apparent violation of the Hatch Act by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius who endorsed a candidate for governor of North Carolina in an official speech. Painter pointed out that this type of thing has happened before in other administrations and that it is an illustration of why cabinet officers and other high ranking executive branch officials should not be permitted to engage in work for partisan political campaigns.

Read Richard W. Painter's Faculty Profile

Professor William McGeveran was quoted in a Bloomberg Business Week article entitled "Netflix Wants Everyone to Know What You're Watching." The article explains that Netflix wants to amend the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act, "which prevents companies from releasing video rental records without a criminal warrant or unless the customer tells a company it?s all right to do so."

Read William McGeveran's Faculty Profile