As he has since 2008, Frank Gulino served this year as a Brief Screener for the Scribes Brief-Writing Award competition.  The award is presented annually by Scribes, the American Society of Legal Writers, for the best student-written brief from among “Best Brief” award winners in regional and national moot court competitions.  For the 2012 Scribes competition, Frank also nominated the brief by Hofstra Law students that won a regional Best Brief Award in the prestigious National Moot Court Competition.  Awards will be presented at the Scribes Annual Luncheon in Chicago this summer.           

Miriam Albert and Jennifer Gundlach’s article, “Bridging the Gap: How Introducing Ethical Skills Exercises Will Enrich Learning in First Year Courses,” made SSRN’s top-ten list for articles on LSN: Legal Education .

Suits Over JPMorgan's $2B Loss Could Haunt Bank

By Keith Goldberg

May 16, 2012

Law360

EXCERPT:

The potential classes could include thousands of investors, which could add up to multimillion judgments and legal costs for JPMorgan if the investors prevailed at trial, according to Hofstra University law professor Ronald J. Colombo.

“In terms of damages exposure, in a [Rule] 10(b)5 claim, investors can recover full extent of their loss,” Colombo told Law360 Wednesday. “Whatever loss in share price they can show, they can recoup.”

To read the full article, visit law360.com.

Teaching International Humanitarian Law Workshop

November 2-3, 2012 in Atlanta, GA

Sponsored by the International Humanitarian Law Clinic at Emory University Law School and the International Committee of the Red Cross, this workshop is designed for law professors interested in teaching an IHL course or integrating IHL modules into their current courses.

Cost: $250 per person

For more information, contact Laurie Blank, Director of Emory IHL clinic at lbank@emory.edu.

For those faculty members attending SEALS:

The housing deadline has passed and there is still a waiting list at the Ritz, so there are three alternative options:

• If you really want to stay at the Ritz, there are rooms available for July 29 and August 1-3. Contact Michelle Caldwell at the Ritz to reserve these nights, and plan a backup reservation for the remaining nights.
• Accommodations are available at the Amelia Island Plantation. They offer a shuttle to the Ritz for a nominal daily fee.
• There are other hotels on the island, but not all offer a shuttle service.

Conference explores pitfalls of modern practice

By Kristen D’Andrea

May 9, 2012

Long Island Business News

EXCERPT:

Still, as Internet cloud-based apps and social media create endless possibilities for the treatment of patients, they raise disconcerting ethical and legal implications.

“How do we preserve the sanctity of the clinician-patient relationship in the context of smartphones, emails and texting when people don’t even meet to discuss their health-care concerns,” said Janet Dolgin, a professor at Hofstra University’s law and medical schools and co-director of the Hofstra Bioethics Center. The center recently hosted a symposium to address these issues knocking on the health-care industry’s door.

Dolgin said she came away from the conference, titled “The Ethics of Internet Cloud-Based Apps and Social Media in Health Care,” with an understanding that “we are, as a society, in the middle of a great transformation. Transformations always mean disruption, and this one if affecting our health-care system.”

“As we move from one era to another, people are picking up and running with this technology with no idea what the implications are,” she said. “I find it to be very troubling.”

To read the full article, visit libn.com.

Timing Will Be Everything For JPMorgan As Probes Begin

By Ian Thoms

May 11, 2012

Law 360

EXCERPT:

Credit default swaps were largely blamed for exacerbating the 2008 financial crisis and the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The swaps are often used to mitigate risk, but they're also used to speculate. JPMorgan insists it was hedging, but some said the size of the bets indicate the bank was trying to make money with them.

"Of course, it's not a crime to lose a lot of money," said Ronald J. Colombo, a professor at Hofstra Law. "But if they hid these risks, then they're in trouble."

To read the full article, visit law360.com.

Professor Amy R. Stein is serving as a brief judge in The Scribes Best Brief Writing Competition. The Scribes Brief-Writing Committee solicits winning briefs from national moot-court competitions and selects the finest of those winning briefs.  The winning author or authors will be recognized at the Scribes Annual Meeting.

Ashira P. Ostrow’s paper, “Cooperative Federalism and Wind: A New Framework for Achieving Sustainability,” was listed on SSRN's Top Ten download list for ERN: Economics of Networks & Institutional Change.

On May 5, Ashira Ostrow presented her paper, “Land Law Federalism,” at the University of Minnesota's workshop titled, “New Directions in Environmental and Energy Law, Policy, and Geography.”

Professor Haber presented his paper entitled “Local Occupations and the General Assemply Model: New Directions for Community Economic Development.” The paper presents the Occupy Movement in the context of major theoretical critiques of CED, and explains how the Occupy Movement, while imperfect, presents important new ways to overcome these challenges.