Faculty News

Professor Washburn published an Op-Ed in the Des Moines Register complimenting Iowa on its newly enacted state statute on the recognition of tribal courts judgments. Iowa’s new law provides that state courts should recognize valid tribal court judgments. The law will give prevailing litigants in tribal courts the unquestionable ability to enforce their valid judgments against assets in Iowa that are outside Indian reservations. The law is much clearer than a rule recently adopted in Minnesota by the Minnesota Supreme Court. State laws recognizing tribal court judgments are positive developments because they help provide seamless justice nationwide and prevent a losing litigant from successfully hiding assets away from the reservation to impede collection of a righteous judgment.

Read Kevin Washburn's Faculty Profile

Professor Prentiss Cox was quoted in the Wall Street Journal about yield spread premiums charged by mortgage brokers. Professor Cox also has been quoted recently in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, St Paul Pioneer Press, Minnesota Public Radio, KARE-11 television, Finance and Commerce, KTLK and WCCO regarding mortgage foreclosures, debt consolidation and other consumer law matters.

Read Prentiss Cox's Faculty Profile

Professor William McGeveran commented in the St. Paul Pioneer Press about a new Minnesota law--the first of its kind in the country--imposing liability on retailers for mishandling consumers' payment information such as credit card numbers. Professor McGeveran, a data privacy expert, said that the new law would benefit consumers because, although credit card issuers already impose strict security requirements by contract, the state's attorney general can now enforce them as well.

Read William McGeveran's Faculty Profile

Professor William McGeveran appeared on WCCO-TV News in a story about ReputationDefender.com, a service that attempts to help customers track their online reputations and get defamatory or unflattering content removed. McGeveran explained the federal law that immunizes many interactive web sites from liability for statements made solely by individual users.

Read William McGeveran's Faculty Profile

Professor Tom Cotter was quoted in an article by Steve Seidenberg, titled "Protecting Profits: Congress Prepares to Stop Drug Makers from Offering Exclusion Payments to Generic Manufacturers," appearing in the May 2007 issue of Inside Counsel magazine. Cotter states that pharmaceutical patent infringement settlements in which drug companies pay generic companies to stay out of the market should be subject to a rebuttable presumption of illegality under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Read Tom Cotter's Faculty Profile

Prof. Jane Kirtley appeared on a panel, "The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship? -- Privacy and Technology Intersect" at the 20th Annual Media and the Law Seminar A Media Lawyer's Guide to the Galaxy on May 4, 2007, in Kansas City, Missouri. The conference was sponsored by the University of Kansas School of Law, University of Kansas - Continuing Education, the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association and the ABA TIPS Media, Privacy and Defamation Law committee. Prof. Kirtley discussed emerging tensions between digital technology and the public right of access to judicial and executive branch documents.

Read Jane Kirtley's Faculty Profile