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Articles 1 - 30 of 56
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Legal Ethics Of Lying About American Democracy, Andrew M. Perlman
The Legal Ethics Of Lying About American Democracy, Andrew M. Perlman
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
Numerous lawyers contributed to the disinformation campaign that led to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Some of the lawyers filed lawsuits that questioned the legitimacy of the presidential election, and others spread falsehoods while acting as legislators or in similar high profile roles. This chapter explores the potential disciplinary consequences of their behavior and the larger implications of their conduct for American democracy. One theme of this chapter is that, when lawyers make claims about elections, the consequences of misinformation are severe and threaten to undermine trust in our democratic institutions. Given the stakes, the …
The Great Resignation Or The Great Joy In Higher Education: Emerging Lessons From The Pandemic, Kathleen Elliott Vinson
The Great Resignation Or The Great Joy In Higher Education: Emerging Lessons From The Pandemic, Kathleen Elliott Vinson
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
The Great Resignation, the Great Attrition, the Great Disengagement, and the Big Quit are a few of the names for the phenomenon occurring throughout different industries, including higher education.1 Higher education is not immune from this great exodus and is at a turning point as retention of faculty, administrators, and staff is more important than ever.2 What’s joy got to do with it?3 Can it drive those who work in higher education to stay, leave, or return?4 Money is not enough by itself to retain workers.5 Over the last two years, higher education, like other industries, is facing a fundamental …
The Medium Is The Message: A Summer Book Club On Abolition, Sarah J. Schendel
The Medium Is The Message: A Summer Book Club On Abolition, Sarah J. Schendel
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
This past summer, together with six law students and a fellow law professor, I participated in a small, informal book club around Mariame Kaba’s essential collection of pieces on prison and police abolition, We Do This 'Til We Free Us. Kaba’s probing, thoughtful critiques address privacy, civil liberties and surveillance; the limitations of “justice” within our current system; and the adultification of Black children, an issue with serious impact on family, education, and of course criminal law. Kaba's book is both accessible and deeply challenging; reading it led to powerful conversations about both the issues discussed and the limited way …
Discrimination Under A Description, Patrick S. Shin
Discrimination Under A Description, Patrick S. Shin
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
In debates about the permissibility of certain kinds of differential treatment, our judgments often seem to depend on how the conduct in question is described. For example, legal prohibitions on same-sex marriage seem clearly impermissible insofar as they can be described as a form of sex discrimination, less clearly so, at least under federal law, if described simply as sexual orientation discrimination, and arguably not discriminatory at all insofar as they constitute a universally-imposed disability on marrying within one’s own sex. It seems, in other words, that the prohibition of same-sex marriage constitutes legally impermissible discrimination under some descriptions but …
#Thisisme, Kathleen Elliott Vinson
#Thisisme, Kathleen Elliott Vinson
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
Students need to feel seen, heard, and included in their law school community. This timely article explains how a #ThisIsMe exercise can foster students’ engagement, well-being, inclusiveness, and learning. It provides students and faculty an intentional opportunity to develop connections, community, and trust. The article explains the logistics of the assignment as well as the challenges and benefits. Students create a #ThisIsMe introduction video or a PowerPoint slide presentation that they will share with the class, answering questions or prompts about themselves. Students may be surprised by how much they have in common with others, how much they will learn …
Life Admin When Life Turns Upside Down: A Book Review (Of Sorts), Sarah J. Schendel, Dyane O'Leary
Life Admin When Life Turns Upside Down: A Book Review (Of Sorts), Sarah J. Schendel, Dyane O'Leary
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
Prof. Elizabeth Emens is a law professor, a parent, and the author of Life Admin: How I Learned to Do Less, Do Better, and Live More - a book published in 2019. Life Admin made its way into our stack of “life improvement to-reads” (not to be confused with our stack of educational pedagogy to-reads, our parenting to-reads, our for-enjoyment to-reads, our legal education to-reads, or our political and non-fiction to-reads). As we face luxurious 10-30 minutes between Zoom classes, Zoom faculty meetings, Zoom student counseling, and Zoom parent-teacher council, we wondered in the context of a COVID Cares academic …
The Pandemic Syllabus, Sarah J. Schendel
The Pandemic Syllabus, Sarah J. Schendel
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
A syllabus is a contract, an introduction, a statement of values, a todo list, a plan. It is often the point of first contact between professor and student, or between student and an area of law. Beyond the technological challenges, for many professors Fall 2020 was also the first-time coming up with a camera policy or amending attendance expectations to consider a pandemic. For some, this is also the first time explicitly engaging in antiracist pedagogy in the classroom or considering practices like trauma informed teaching. This essay offers a practical, “nuts and bolts” walkthrough of promising practices for each …
Listen! Amplifying The Experiences Of Black Law School Graduates In 2020, Sarah J. Schendel
Listen! Amplifying The Experiences Of Black Law School Graduates In 2020, Sarah J. Schendel
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
Law students graduating in 2020 faced a number of unusual challenges. However, perhaps no students faced more emotional, psychological, logistical, and financial challenges than Black law school graduates in 2020. In addition to changes in the administration of the bar exam (including the use of technology that struggled to recognize Black faces) and delays in the administration of the exam that led to anxiety and increased financial instability, Black communities were concurrently being disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic led to increased care-taking responsibilities for many, concerns over the health of family members, and a lack of quiet …
What You Don't Know (Can Hurt You): Using Exam Wrappers To Foster Self-Assessment Skills In Law Students, Sarah J. Schendel
What You Don't Know (Can Hurt You): Using Exam Wrappers To Foster Self-Assessment Skills In Law Students, Sarah J. Schendel
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
“Where did I go wrong?” When we fail it’s tempting to forget it and move on. However, reflecting on poor performance and figuring out how to proceed is critical to being a successful student and lawyer. Unfortunately, when students receive a disappointing grade they often lack the ability to understand what went wrong and how to change. Creating self-regulated learners who can identify what they don't know and make a plan to improve is key to helping students succeed. In order to do so – and in order to produce ethical, productive lawyers – law schools should place a greater …
Under Pressure: How Incorporating Time-Pressured Performance Tests Prepares Students For The Bar Exam And Practice, Kathleen Elliott Vinson
Under Pressure: How Incorporating Time-Pressured Performance Tests Prepares Students For The Bar Exam And Practice, Kathleen Elliott Vinson
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
“Houston, we have a problem.” In 1970, an explosion on board the Apollo 13 spacecraft’s flight to the moon damaged the air filtration system, causing carbon monoxide to build up in the cabin. The astronauts on board would be dead in mere hours if the system could not be fixed or replaced. NASA’s Mission Control in Houston, Texas called for engineers, scientists, and technicians to work with a set of materials identical to those on the spacecraft to build a filtration system under extreme time pressure. The result may have been ugly, inelegant, and far from perfect, but it saved …
Fair Use And Machine Learning, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Fair Use And Machine Learning, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
There would be a beaten path to the maker of software that could reliably state whether a use of a copyrighted work was protected as fair use. But applying machine learning to fair use faces considerable hurdles. Fair use has generated hundreds of reported cases, but machine learning works best with examples in greater numbers. More examples may be available, from mining the decision making of web sites, from having humans judge fair use examples just as they label images to teach self-driving cars, and using machine learning itself to generate examples. Beyond the number of examples, the form of …
How Academic Support Professionals Can Better Support Lgbtq Law Students – And Why We Should, Sarah J. Schendel
How Academic Support Professionals Can Better Support Lgbtq Law Students – And Why We Should, Sarah J. Schendel
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
This short essay addresses the unique role that academic support professionals can play in supporting LGBTQ students.
Top Tens In 2017: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Top Tens In 2017: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
The Supreme Court loosened the grip of patentees on their products, holding that contractual restrictions on patented product are ineffective to preserve patent rights. The Court also loosened the grip of the Eastern District of Texas on patent cases, announcing a narrower standard that will send more cases to Delaware. The Federal Circuit cases piled up on applying the Alice standard to filter nonpatentable abstract ideas from patentable inventions. Meanwhile, even as the constitutionality of the Patent Trial and Appeals Board pends before the Supreme Court, hundreds of PTAB decisions on the validity of patents move onward to the Federal …
Writing Lockdowns: A Path To Mindful Writing, Kathleen Elliott Vinson, Samantha A. Moppett
Writing Lockdowns: A Path To Mindful Writing, Kathleen Elliott Vinson, Samantha A. Moppett
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
As is often said, lawyers are writers. Thus, good writing is critical for success in the law. Yet even the best writers sometimes struggle. The writing process may include peaks and valleys, starting out in the “forest of delusions of grandeur,” and then traveling into “crippling insecurity-ville.” Along the way, procrastination and writer’s block may contribute to feelings of being overwhelmed when writing efforts stall and deadlines loom. Layer on the fast-paced digital world of constant multi-tasking and hyperconnectivity to e-mail, social media, and text-messaging, and writers can be left feeling distracted and frazzled while their focus decreases and their …
Closing The Legal Aid Gap One Research Question At A Time, Kathleen Elliott Vinson
Closing The Legal Aid Gap One Research Question At A Time, Kathleen Elliott Vinson
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
Currently, two of the hot topics in legal academia are “access to justice” and experiential learning. The justice system’s failure to adequately serve all people irrespective of wealth and position has brought access to justice to the forefront. Experiential learning has made the headlines due to the recent changes in the American Bar Association standards regarding the incorporation of experiential learning into the law school curriculum. Despite being hot topics, these issues are often neglected or given short shrift in the law school curriculum, particularly in the first year. Law schools grapple with how to work towards closing the legal …
Reflections On The Future Of Legal Services, Andrew M. Perlman
Reflections On The Future Of Legal Services, Andrew M. Perlman
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
The following reflections on the future of legal services were part of an online symposium on Prawfsblawg. The symposium focused on two books: Richard Susskind & Daniel Susskind, The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts and Gillian Hadfield, Rules for a Flat World: Why Humans Invented Law and How to Reinvent it for a Complex Global Economy. The reflections contain three parts. The first part describes the Susskinds’ prediction that technology will drive dramatic changes to the delivery of legal services and concludes that, although the Susskinds’ predictions are probably close to the …
Some Thoughts On The Relevance Of Customer Behavior To Discrimination Law: Who Counts As A ‘Customer’?, Patrick S. Shin
Some Thoughts On The Relevance Of Customer Behavior To Discrimination Law: Who Counts As A ‘Customer’?, Patrick S. Shin
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
In their article, “Discrimination by Customers,” 102 Iowa L. Rev 223 (2016), Katharine Bartlett and Mitu Gulati challenge the law’s asymmetric treatment of “firms” and “customers.” In this brief response, I argue that the asymmetry makes sense if (1) discrimination law is primarily about distributive justice; and (2) customers are marketplace actors who lack institutional power to distribute jobs, incomes, or essential goods and services. While Bartlett and Gulati largely ignore the first assumption, they provide persuasive reasons for rejecting the second.
Top Tens In 2016: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Top Tens In 2016: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
The Supreme Court issued several rulings that affect incentives in patent law. The Court relaxed the standard for the award of treble damages, narrowed the damages awards for infringement of design patents, and upheld key parts of the new procedures for challenging the validity of patents before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. After numerous decisions holding claimed inventions to be outside patentable subject matter in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2014 Alice decision, the Federal Circuit rejected some challenges on those grounds, evincing a split among the circuit’s judges on the bounds of patentable subject matter. Several …
Treatment As An Individual And The Priority Of Persons Over Groups In Antidiscrimination Law, Patrick S. Shin
Treatment As An Individual And The Priority Of Persons Over Groups In Antidiscrimination Law, Patrick S. Shin
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
The Supreme Court has said that the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution and Title VII’s prohibition of discrimination require that all persons be treated as individuals and that the laws operate primarily to protect “persons, not groups.” This article shows that the legal requirement of individual treatment has two distinct components: a rule invalidating inferences about persons based on their membership in protected groups and a rule prohibiting disparate treatment for the sake of group interests or intergroup equality. The first rule is rooted in moral principles of respect for individual autonomy. The second rule is a principle that …
Top Tens In 2015: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Top Tens In 2015: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
The Supreme Court significantly affected the dynamics of patent litigation, holding that patent claim interpretation was not always reviewed de novo and that good faith belief that a patent was invalid was not a defense to infringement. The Federal Circuit potentially changed the approach to patent claim interpretation, holding that claims could be interpreted in light of the written description of the invention, even where the claim was not ambiguous. The Federal Circuit also addressed inducement of patent infringement, holding that it was not inducement to suggest consulting a physician who would likely prescribe an infringing treatment. The Federal Circuit …
Top Tens In 2014: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Top Tens In 2014: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
The Supreme Court decided more patent cases in 2014 than any previous year. It lowered the standard for awarding fees in patent cases, clarified that the patent holder carries the burden of showing infringement even in declaratory judgment actions, lowered the standard for invalidating patent claims as vague, and rejected the theory that infringement may occur by simply adding the actions of separate parties. The most important case, Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int'l, announced a test for patentable subject matter, especially for software and business method inventions, that was considerably more restrictive than case law to date. …
Some Speculation About Mirror Neurons And Copyright, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Some Speculation About Mirror Neurons And Copyright, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
The internet, a world-wide copy machine, caused some rethinking of copyright law. Cognitive science increasingly suggests that humans are smaller scale, more adaptable, copy machines. Copyright law may again change. V.S. Ramachandran’s "The Tell-Tale Brain" discusses how mirror neurons may enable imitation, detection of others’ intention, and empathy. Ramachandran suggests that mirror neuron circuits could provide the neural substrate for cultural transmission, language, and even consciousness. This essay speculates on the implications for copyright law. It’s not news that people copy. But if cognition and culture depend on the bottom-up imitation by mirror neurons, perhaps some of the central tenets …
Top Tens In 2013: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Top Tens In 2013: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
This paper discusses notable intellectual property law caselaw in the United States in 2013. The Supreme Court decided four patent cases, holding that isolated human DNA is not patentable; that lawsuits alleging legal malpractice in patent cases are to be litigated in state, not federal, court; that seeds grown from genetically modified patented seeds cannot be resold; and that reverse-payment settlements between brand name and generic pharmaceutical companies are subject to scrutiny under the anti-trust laws. The one trademark case the Court decided addressed an issue with more impact in the patent area: whether a rights holder can destroy jurisdiction …
The Gpl Meets The Ucc: Does Free Software Come With A Warranty Of No Infringement Of Patents And Copyrights?, Stephen M. Mcjohn
The Gpl Meets The Ucc: Does Free Software Come With A Warranty Of No Infringement Of Patents And Copyrights?, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
The GNU General Public License, known as the GPL, is the cornerstone of free software. The GPL has served as the organizing document for free software, providing a structure that has helped transformed the development of software and electronic devices. Software licensed under the GPL may be freely copied and adapted. The source code for the software is made available, to enable anyone to study and change it. The GPL does have "copyleft" restrictions, intended to keep the software free for others. If someone adapts and redistributes GPL’d software, they must likewise allow access to their source code. The GPL …
The Case Of The Missing Case: Stewart V. Abend And Fair Use Law, Stephen M. Mcjohn
The Case Of The Missing Case: Stewart V. Abend And Fair Use Law, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
Three Supreme Court cases dominate fair use: Sony, Harper and Row, and Campbell. One case has gone mysteriously missing. In Stewart v. Abend, the Supreme Court held that it was not fair use for the producers of Alfred Hitchcock’s film "Rear Window" to continue showing the film. Their rights had been terminated in the underlying story, "It Had To Be Murder," by an unanticipated shift in copyright case law. Stewart remains well known in copyright law for its lengthy discussion of a complex issue of copyright renewal, but Stewart’s short, sharp fair use discussion has gone by the wayside. At …
Top Tens In 2012: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Top Tens In 2012: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
back on the scope of patent subject matter in Prometheus, while according Congress great latitude in extending copyright protection in Golan. Prometheus was one of a number of cases in which the concept of functionality cut across the various areas of intellectual property. Prometheus cut back on patents on innovations that were not sufficiently functional, because they effectively claimed a law of nature. The Federal Circuit, in Myriad Genetics, by contrast, held isolated genes patentable (and the Supreme Court has decided to hear that case). The strongest rationale may be that isolated genes play different functions than their counterpart in …
Top Tens In 2011: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Top Tens In 2011: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
This paper discusses notable intellectual property law cases in the United States in 2011. Patent cases addressed such issues as the scope of patent subject matter (the patentability of human genes and methods for testing for genetic links to cancer), the standards for challenges to the validity of patents (such as where technology that was not considered by the patent office is put in evidence), and the breadth of patent protection (especially with respect to the scope of protection for software patents). Other cases tested the borders of trademark protection – distinctiveness, functionality, and the interplay between trademark law and …
Top Tens In 2010: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Top Tens In 2010: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
This piece discusses notable intellectual property decisions in 2010 in the United States. Viewed across doctrinal lines, some interesting threads emerge. The scope of protection was at issue in each area, such as whether human genes and business methods are patentable, whether a product idea may be a trade secret, and where the constitutional limits on copyright legislation lie. Secondary liability remains widely litigated, as rights holders seek both deep pocket defendants and a means to cut off individual infringers. The courts applied slightly different standards as to the state of mind required for secondary liability. Many of the cases …
Thirty Two Short Stories About Intellectual Property, Stephen M. Mcjohn, Lorie Graham
Thirty Two Short Stories About Intellectual Property, Stephen M. Mcjohn, Lorie Graham
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
In the United States, intellectual property law is usually viewed as serving economics, by providing an incentive for authors and inventors to create works. The incentive policy, however, ill fits the actual contours of intellectual property law and how artists and inventors use it. Adding other approaches offers a fuller explanation. Intellectual property plays a greater role than economic theory suggests in disclosing technology, and in serving to coordinate cultural values in technology. Intellectual property can serve human rights (similar to the moral rights approach in some jurisdictions), by allowing people to control the way that their works are publicly …
Leverage: Review Of Burk & Lemley, 'The Patent Crisis And How The Courts Can Solve It', Stephen M. Mcjohn
Leverage: Review Of Burk & Lemley, 'The Patent Crisis And How The Courts Can Solve It', Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
Dan L. Burk and Mark A. Lemley’s “The Patent Crisis and How the Courts Can Solve It” (The University of Chicago Press, 2009) is valuable for anyone interested in patent law. The book serves two goals. First, it suggests how patent reform in the United States can best be accomplished: not through Congressional amendment of the patent statute, but by judicial implementation of industry-specific reforms, in interpreting the existing act. Some jurisdictions, such as India, already differentiate between industrial sectors more explicitly in patent policy than the United States. Second, of interest to patent law worldwide, the book provides a …