Law Commons^™

A Conversation With Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Brett M. Kavanaugh, J. Joel Alicea

Catholic University Law Review

On Thursday, September 26th, 2024, the Center for the Constitution and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition at The Catholic University of America hosted a conversation between Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and Professor J. Joel Alicea. This was the inaugural event of the new Center. The conversation covered topics such as constitutional interpretation, the separation of powers, religious liberty, and the Catholic intellectual tradition. This is a transcript of the conversation, and the text appears substantially as it was delivered. The video of the event may be found at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sKvSwzkmqo.

Judge Edward T. Gignoux — A Personal Appreciation, Frank M. Coffin

Maine Law Review

Most occasions for encomia about judges occur when the subject has departed the scene of his accomplishments. Happily, the subject of this issue of the Maine Law Review is still with us and likely to be so for a long time. He also happens to measure up precisely to the overused word "paragon." I use it in the original Latin sense of "whetstone," something to sharpen against or to compare oneself with. My thesis is that Judge Gignoux gives observers of any age, but particularly the young, an inspiring role model. This volume is felicitously dedicated. The ever-present problem is …

The New Glass Ceiling, Andrea K. Schneider, Abigail R. Bogli, Hannah L. Chin

Articles

Until the last decade, gender inequality in the legal profession was selfevident. Law school classrooms and law firm offices were overwhelmingly filled with men. In recent years, women have outnumbered men in law school classes and reached parity with men among first-year associates. These developments have created the misperception that gender equality has been achieved. In this Article, we challenge this complacency. We present new evidence from a detailed case study of law firms in a midsize city, showing that women remain underrepresented in leadership roles and underpaid relative to their colleagues. We then show how the limited opportunities and …

2024 Sprizzo Award Program, James D. Herschlein, Robert A. O’Hare Jr., Richard P. Donoghue

St. John's Law Review

On June 18, 2024, the Manhattan Chapter of the St. John’s University School of Law’s Alumni Association awarded the 2024 Sprizzo Award, named for the late United States District Judge John E. Sprizzo ’59, to Richard P. Donoghue ’92, former Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General of the U.S., former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and now a partner in Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.

The program began with introductions by James Herschlein and Robert O’Hare, followed by remarks by Richard Donoghue. They have been lightly edited for publication here.

Clark Memorandum: Fall 2024, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Byu Law School Alumni Association, J. Reuben Clark Law Society

The Clark Memorandum

• No Room for Compromise: Religious Polarization in the United States
• A Banking Lawyer’s Perspective on the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Company
• Hope in Dark Times
• Becoming a Master of Your Thoughts

Cancellation Of Removal For Inadmissible Non-Citizens, Anna Vanbuskirk

Law Student Works

Cancellation of removal is a defensive application for non-citizens in immigration removal proceedings. It is often colloquially referred to as “42B cancellation of removal” based on the form number of the associated application. This Pathfinder research guide provides an overview of cancellation of removal for inadmissible non-citizens. Those who satisfy the criteria in INA § 240A(b)(1) and successfully petition an immigration judge for 42B cancellation of removal are eligible for adjustment of status to lawful permanent residence.

This guide navigates the researcher through an overview of the cancellation of removal criteria and how to find the relevant federal statutes, applicable …

Developing A Professional Identity: Lessons For Women, Bipoc, And First-Generation Law Students From The Canaries In The Coalmines, Christine M. Venter

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This Article explores the concept of professional identity formation in the law, particularly as it pertains to women and lawyers of color. The topic of professional identity formation is an understudied area in legal education, despite the ABA’s new Standard 303(b)(3), which requires law schools to provide substantial opportunities for the development of professional identity. In the legal field, professional identity is often conflated with professionalism, which leads to confusion about how law schools should best prepare their students for their professional lives, and fails to fully equip students to join the profession.

Studies from other professions have shown that …

Book Review: Transformative Negotiation: Strategies For Everyday Change And Equitable Futures, Peter R. Reilly

Faculty Scholarship

This volume makes an immense contribution to the field of negotiation and to dispute resolution more generally. The book covers a vast amount of ground, effectively connecting theory to practice and harnessing large amounts of research to support its arguments and advice. Perhaps most importantly, this reviewer found reading the book to be—as the title suggests—a transformative experience.

Reshaping Intellectual Property Scholarship From Within, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

Written for the Symposium collecting papers from the Race + IP 23 Conference, this article explores intellectual property scholarship that has been either overlooked or marginalized. Because scholars of color are often outsiders looking in, the article identifies opportunities to reshape intellectual property scholarship from within. Even though the focus of this article was chosen with readers of this Symposium in mind, its insights will be relevant to all scholars.

This article begins by calling on scholars to develop a deeper appreciation of the intrinsic motivations of authors and inventors. It then discusses the oft-overlooked inequalities of creativity and innovation …

Georgia’S Law Of Rules: Textualism And A Survey Of The Canons, Matthew P. Cavedon

Mercer Law Review

Before a travel guide can be written, there has to be a map; before treatises can be written, there have to be surveys. This Article is a survey of Georgia textualism and every canon the Supreme Court of Georgia has recognized in its 180-year history. I begin with a general overview of textualism: the priority of plain meaning, legal context, and legal history (Part I). If there is no ambiguity, “our search for [legal] meaning is at an end.”

But of course, this frequently fails to be the case, so I have read nearly 4,000 cases in search of the …

Issues Arising Out Of Mass Arbitrations & Solutions To Combat Them, Diana Pogosyan

Utah Law Review

Arbitrations have been around for thousands of years. The benefits derived from arbitrations are numerous, as they provide individuals with a more efficient and cost-effective way of disputing their claims. Importantly, arbitrations provide consumers with a network to dispute claims they may not otherwise litigate in civil court. However, within the last few years, the rapid spread of mass arbitrations throughout the nation has contributed to various ethical issues within our justice system.143 Combatting the issues presented with mass arbitration is crucial to maintaining and creating a more efficient adjudication process. To address the issues associated with mass arbitrations, companies …

Rwu Law Alumni Association Holiday Reception December 4, 2024, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Rwu Law Alumni Newsletter December 2024, Roger Williams University School Of Law, Pbn Connect, Edward Fitzpatrick, Danna Lorch

RWU Law

No abstract provided.

Regulating Compliance Officers, Jennifer M. Pacella

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Compliance officers are currently an unregulated body and, unlike the legal profession, are not subject to any particular set of professional guidelines that guide their behavior. The lack of a distinct compliance officer profession creates risks relating to heightened potential personal liability and the possibility of merging with another profession that is not exactly compatible with the compliance function. To mitigate these risks, this Article proposes the creation of a professional regulatory system for compliance officers that is industry-specific and self-regulated and discusses the various benefits that would stem from such a system.

The Enduring Relevance Of Congress Despite The Court's Shift To “Ordinary Reader” Statutory Interpretation, Abbe R. Gluck, Laila M. Robbins

Journal of Law and Policy

Has Congress become irrelevant to statutory interpretation? The dominant theoretical and doctrinal paradigm in American statutory interpretation has always been the conversation between Congress and the courts. Today, however, the Court’s new, second-generation textualists claim they have left Congress behind. They argue they have changed textualism’s perspective, from an “insider” perspective focused on Congress’s textual choices, to an “outsider” perspective based on how “ordinary people” read statutes. The Court’s self-professed shift away from a legiscentric approach, if true, would be a seismic shift in the conception of the judicial role. Whereas judges and scholars—including first-generation textualists—had for a century focused …

The Broad Church Of Modern Textualism, Nicole Steitz, Brian G. Slocum, Kevin Tobia

Journal of Law and Policy

Nearly thirty years ago, Justice Scalia’s Tanner lectures branded Holy Trinity Church v. United States (1892) as the anti-textualist archetype, a decision trumping the text’s plain meaning with a suspect judicial investigation of the law’s purpose or spirit. And so Holy Trinity seemed, until Gales and Solan’s groundbreaking empirical study supported an alternative reading of the key statutory term (“labor or service”) that would avoid this conflict between text and purpose. Taking inspiration from Gales and Solan, we reconsider Holy Trinity using the precepts of modern textualism, with its increased emphasis on context, pragmatics, anti-literalism, legal meaning, holistic meaning, non-compositionality, …

The Pet Fish Canon, William N. Eskridge Jr.

Journal of Law and Policy

Inspired by the work of the late Professor Larry Solan, this article proposes that judges recognize as one of the textualist canons of statutory construction a “pet fish” canon. Such a canon would posit that when an ordinary reader would understand two or more words to yield a meaning that is different than the sum of the two words defined separately, the statutory interpreter should not disaggregate them. The Roberts Court has already followed such a linguistic precept in some statutory cases, and this article proposes that the Court recognize this as a canon considered at least as seriously as …

Grammar & Syntax Arguments On The Roberts Court, Anita S. Krishnakumar

Journal of Law and Policy

In his excellent book, The Language of Judges, Professor Solan demonstrates how judges use grammatical or linguistic arguments to avoid acknowledging statutory ambiguity—and how they often get the grammar or linguistics wrong. Since his book was published, textualism has become the dominant interpretive approach on the U.S. Supreme Court—and we have seen increasingly prominent battles involving grammatical devices and rules. This comment takes Professor Solan’s analysis as a jumping off point to evaluate how grammar and linguistic arguments are employed on the modern Supreme Court, in the age of textualism. The comment offers a brief empirical and doctrinal assessment of …

The Prosecutor Vacancy Crisis, Adam M. Gershowitz

Faculty Publications

There is a prosecutor vacancy crisis in the United States. Prosecutors are quitting in droves and there are few applicants to replace them. In Houston and Los Angeles, more than 15% of prosecutor positions are open. In Detroit, the vacancy rate exceeds 20%. In Alameda, 25% of prosecutor positions are empty. And in Miami, a staggering 33% of prosecutor positions are unfilled. The situation is equally dire in many large and small counties across the nation.

Drawing on data and interviews from more than two-dozen district attorney’s offices, this Article documents how low salaries, massive caseloads, lack of remote work …

Roger Williams University 2024 President's Report: A Message From President Miaoulis, Roger Williams University

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Law School News: Disrupting Legal Education For Equity 11-19-2024, Danna Lorch

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Paying For Performance? Attorneys' Fees In Fraud Class Actions, Stephen J. Choi, Jessica M. Erickson, Adam C. Pritchard

Articles

This paper studies whether plaintiffs' lawyers matter in securities class actions. We use inverse propensity score weighting (IPW) to compare the results in cases led by top-tier firms against those brought by lower-tier firms. This technique addresses case selection effects by using all of the cases led by a top-tier firm and then weighting the cases led by lower-tier firms based on how similar these cases are to the cases led by top-tier firms. We do find that top-tier lawyers obtain better outcomes for shareholders in a subset of securities class actions, specifically the cases against the larger (although not …

Integrating Doctrine And Diversity Speaker Series: Echoes Of Slavery: A Deep Dive Into The Citing Slavery Project 11-6-2024, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

2024 Esther Clark Moot Court Competition 10-28-2024, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Law School News: Rwu Receives $750,000 Gift From Hassenfeld Family Foundation To Strengthen Law School's Regional Impact And Reputation 11-13-2024, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Implications Of Chatgpt For Legal Services And Society, Andrew Perlman

Michigan Technology Law Review

On November 30, 2022, OpenAI released a chatbot called ChatGPT.1 To demonstrate the chatbot’s sophistication and its potential implications, both for legal services and society more generally, most of this paper was generated in about an hour through prompts within ChatGPT. Only this abstract, the preface, the outline headers, the footnotes, the epilogue, and the prompts were written by a person. ChatGPT generated the rest of the text with no human editing. To be clear, the responses generated by ChatGPT were imperfect and at times problematic, and the use of an AI tool for law-related services raises a host of …

Criminal Juror Challenges And Csli: A Rule 16 Revision To Maintain Impartial Juries, Ivy Kaplan

Northwestern University Law Review

The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees criminal defendants “the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State.” Voir dire, the procedure during which the prosecution and the defense may challenge prospective jurors for cause or exercise peremptory challenges, purports to uphold this right. When the prosecution has access to cellular geolocation data on prospective jurors that the defense lacks, however, it may jeopardize the defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights.

This Note proposes a solution to that problem in the form of an addition to Rule 16 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. …

Law School News: Exploring Law From Classroom To Courtroom 11-08-2024, Andrew Clark

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Accountability In Preserving Judicial Independence: Examining The Ethical Infrastructure Of The Federal Judicial Workplace, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

After news reports of sexual harassment allegations involving federal judges, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts asked the Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts to assemble a working group to address concerns related to misconduct in the federal judicial workplace. Following the working group’s report, the judiciary adopted recommendations relating to discrimination and harassment in the federal judiciary. Using the ethical infrastructure framework, this article reviews what changes have been made and what is missing. It explains how the steps taken largely focus on formal aspects of communicating and monitoring standards of conduct. Notably missing are …

Rwu Law Alumni Association Breakfast & Annual Meeting 6-13-2024, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.