On Wednesday, April 7, 2010, from 5:45–7:45 p.m., The Federal Bar Council is hosting, Securities Law: Primary Liability for Secondary Actors. The event will take place at Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, New York, NY, Ceremonial Courtroom. The program will be moderated by the Honorable Richard J. Holwell, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York. The panelists will include James C. Dugan, Esq., of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP; Robert J. Giuffra, Jr., Esq., of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP; Stanley M. Grossman, Esq., of Pomerantz Haudek Grossman & Gross LLP; and Professor Ronald J. Colombo of Hofstra University School of Law.

Professor Camille Nelson has been elected to The American Law Institute (ALI). To further its law-reform work, the Institute seeks individuals who reflect the excellence and diversity of today's legal profession. ALI membership is a distinct professional honor, and the number that can be admitted is limited to 3000. Professor Nelson joins her colleagues Professors Eric Freedman, Monroe Freedman, John DeWitt Gregory, Joanna Grossman, Eric Lane, Malachy Mahon, Alan Resnick, Andrew Schepard, Norman Silber, and Dean Nora Demleitner.

ALI’s 87th Annual Meeting will take place May 17-19, 2010 in Washington, D.C. On Monday, May 17, ALI will host a complimentary luncheon for new members.

Professor Norman I. Silber's paper, "Debts, Disasters, and Delinquencies: The Case for a Mandatory Force Majeure Provision in Consumer Credit Agreements, and for a Consumer Credit Insurance Fund," was recently listed as a top ten download on SSRN's list for Journal of Poverty, Income Distribution & Income Assistance eJournal.

On March 23, 2010, Professor Eric M. Freedman published his article, Guantanamo Bay and History: Will the Future Belong to Dick Cheney?, in The Huffington Post.

Guantanamo Bay and History: Will the Future Belong to Dick Cheney?
by Eric M. Freedman
March 23,2010

EXCERPT:

America's greatest strength is not military but consists in the moral force that comes from being an example to the world. A country that others justifiably want to emulate, one confident enough in its own values that it adheres to them in times of stress, is a country that will win the hearts and minds of people around the world and one that rightly will ultimately prevail in global ideological struggles.

Professor Alafair Burke has published her sixth novel, 212. The novel has received favorable reviews from Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, the Library Journal, and the Associate Press, which said, “The book is a page-turner, but Burke has more than entertainment in mind. This third novel in the Ellie Hatcher series explores culture clash between the superrich and the rest of us, considers the societal cost of the increasing commercialization of sex, and explores computer technology both as a source of mischief and as a tool for criminals and the public servants who investigate them. More than that, "212" is a story about love — what it looks like at its best and its worst and how it seduces people into behaving in ways that are both noble and abhorrent.”

Professor James Sample was quoted in the following New York Times article.

District Attorney’s Boycott of a Judge Raises Issues
By Michelle Quinn
March 19, 2010

EXCERPT:

“If this is taken to its logical conclusion, you are talking about criminal defendants’ appearing before the judge chosen by the D.A,” said James Sample, a professor at the Hofstra Law School and the co-author of a 2008 report on recusal reform from New York University’s School of Law. “It’s turning the scalpel of recusal into a chain saw to undermine judicial independence.”

Professor Eric M. Freedman was named “Professor of the Year” by the Hofstra Law Review at the Inter-Journal Banquet on March 18, 2010. The award was presented by Michael de Matos, Editor-in-Chief of Volume 38 of the Hofstra Law Review, who lauded Professor Freedman as a terrific friend to the Law Review.

Professor Freedman provided invaluable guidance with two legal history articles in Volume 38, including Professor William Nelson’s article on colonial New York law.

Professor Freedman also was the key figure in organizing the conference that ultimately led to Volume 36.3 of the Law Review, the Death Penalty Mitigation Guidelines issue.

“That issue has—for lack of a better term—gone platinum,” said de Matos. “This year alone, we have shipped out hundreds of copies of the issue to attorneys, academics, nonprofit organizations, and even death row inmates.”

Professor Scott Fruehwald has been appointed to the Nominating Committee of the AALS Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research. He has been a member of a committee of this section since 2005.

On March 13, 2010, Professor I. Bennett Capers presented his paper “The Unintentional Rapist” at UCLA Law School’s Critical Race Studies Symposium. His co-panelists included Professor James Forman of Georgetown Law and Professor Russell Robinson of UCLA Law. The topic of the panel was “Masculinities and the Law.”

Beginning on Tuesday, March 16, Professor Norman I. Silber has been the featured expert for The New York Times blog "Bucks: Making the Most of Your Money." Professor Silber is taking questions on the credit card law and other new consumer rules and regulations. Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of "Ask an Expert." Ask a question.

On Thursday, March 11, 2010, Professor J. Herbie DiFonzo presented a paper, “The Children of Baby M: Can Functional Norms Resolve Surrogacy’s Core Question?” at a panel dealing with the Impact of Assisted Reproduction on Families, at the Sixth Annual Wells Conference on Adoption Law, at Capital University Law School, Columbus, Ohio.

On Friday, March 12, 2010, Professor Camille Nelson delivered a keynote address, "On Whose Backs?: Assessing a Restitutionary Response to Medical Advancements," at Hamline University School of Law for the Symposium Opening Our Eyes to Health Disparities: A Look Through the Lens of Critical Race Theory Signature.

On March 10, 2010, Professor James Sample published his article, Roberts: Corporate $peech Good, Presidential Speech "Very Troubling," in The Huffington Post. The article has been linked and cited to on electionlawblog run by Rick Hasen at Loyola Law School, Howard Bashman's website How Appealing, and scotusblog.

Roberts: Corporate $peech Good, Presidential Speech "Very Troubling"
by James Sample
March 10, 2010

EXCERPT:

The numbers reflect what the public already knows. The political world prior to Citizens United was hardly lacking the corporate perspective. Do corporations have rights? Of course. But they are also creatures of the state, which is why Dahlia Lithwick aptly described Citizens United as the Supreme Court's "Pinnochio Project." Corporations don't go to jail; don't face execution; don't vote; do have eternal life; and are different from regular citizens in all sorts of meaningful ways, particularly when it comes to matters of political process. Perhaps, in light of the ongoing census, in the new civics paradigm, Delaware should have more congressional seats than California?

Professor Monroe H. Freedman was quoted in the following LA Times article.

A silly smear on the Justice Department
Editorial
March 8, 2010

EXCERPT:

This is a manufactured and silly "scandal." Providing legal representation even for the guilty is in the finest traditions of this country's legal system. And it's not at all uncommon for Justice Department lawyers to have worked in areas that overlap with what they do in government service. As legal ethicist Monroe Freedman has noted, it's no more improper for lawyers who represented detainees to join the Justice Department than it was for Thurgood Marshall, the legendary civil rights litigator and future Supreme Court justice, to serve President Lyndon B. Johnson as solicitor general. (Under ethics rules, Obama's appointees may not participate in particular matters involving previous clients.)

On Monday, March 29, Hofstra Law students will venture down to Panama to work with disadvantaged communities to develop and implement legal empowerment strategies alongside Panamanian legal professionals. The Hofstra students will be spending time in both the urban and rural regions. In Panama City, the students will focus on business licensing. In Cocle, students will learn organic and fair trade certification procedures and organize community workshops on alternative dispute resolution.

Law Brigades is one of Hofstra Law’s newest student organizations. Vivienne Nguyen is the current president and founder of Law Brigades at Hofstra Law and Professor Serge Martinez advises the organization.

SUPPORT
The Hofstra students are excited to be furthering the public interest spirit of the law school and are currently fundraising for this trip and for the sustainability of the program for future Hofstra law students. Any support would be greatly appreciated.

The following students are on this year’s Law Brigades team going to Panama:

1. Michael An (1L)
2. Matthew Berger (1L)
3. Nataliya Binshteyn (2L)
4. Gina Choe (1L)
5. Amanda Cully (2L)
6. Tyson Erdmann (2L)
7. David Greenberg (2L)
8. Elizabeth Lopez (2L)
9. Vivienne Nguyen (2L)
10. Nicholas Ruberto (2L)
11. Maayan Vodovis (1L)

For the third successive year, Hofstra Law Dean Nora V. Demleitner has been named among Long Island's Top 50 Most Influential Women in Business by the Long Island Business News.

The awards gala will take place on Thursday, May 20, 2010 from 6-10 p.m. at the Crest Hollow Country Club. As a third-time honoree, Dean Demleitner will be inducted by Long Island Business News into its Hall of Fame.

Professor Barbara J. Stark presented a paper, "At Last? Ratification of the Economic Covenant as a Self-Executing Treaty," at a Symposium on the Obama Administration and Human Rights at the University of Iowa College of Law on March 5th.

Professor Norman I. Silber wrote the following article for the website The Baseline Scenario.

Uncontrolled Lending to Consumers Spawned the Financial Crisis
by Norman I. Silber and Jeff Sovern
March 5, 2010

EXCERPT:

Zywicki is right that we need “simplified and streamlined regulation.” The problem is that the existing structure, with consumer protection split among an alphabet soup of agencies, such as the OCC, OTS, NCUA, FDIC, HUD, FTC, and, of course, the Fed, among others, is not likely to produce simplified and streamlined anything. We share Professor Zywicki’s concern that the Truth In Lending Act needs pruning, for example.

The best way to attain simplified and streamlined regulation is to simplify and streamline the agencies that produce it-by reducing them to one. Doing so would concentrate consumer protection expertise in one place and enable accountability. And, we assert, if it had been done a few years ago, the financial crisis might have been averted.

Professor Susan H. Joffe’s article, “Learning to Write or Writing to Learn?: Integration Efforts in Doctrinal Classrooms” has been published in The Learning Curve, a publication of the American Association of Law School section on Academic Support. The article describes a number of techniques for incorporating writing into doctrinal courses.

Professor Frank Gulino recently served as a Brief Judge in the National Moot Court Competition in Child Welfare & Adoption Law at Capital University Law School.

Professor Daniel J.H. Greenwood wrote the following article in Dissent Magazine.

Money Is Speech: Why the Citizens United v. FEC Ruling Is Bad for Politics and the Market
by Daniel J.H. Greenwood
March 3, 2010

EXCERPT:

If we allow markets to control the political process, we lose democracy. Moreover, we will lose our markets—since successful corporations will simply use money from their past success to buy legislation to guarantee them still more market power.

Professor Ronald J. Colombo joined several other securities law professors in signing an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case Morrison v National Australia Bank Ltd (filed Feb 26, 2010).

Professor Colombo and the amici argue that the jurisdictional reach of the primary antifraud provision of the 1934 Securities Exchange Act (Section 10(b)) does not extend to persons who purchase or sell securities outside the United States. The amici argue that both original intent and policy reasons support this more narrow reading of Section 10's jurisdictional scope.

On Monday, February 22, 2010, Professors Ronald J. Colombo, Daniel J.H. Greenwood, Julian G. Ku, and James J. Sample participated in a panel discussion entitled Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission: A step forward or a step backward for freedom and democracy?

On Friday, March 5th, Professor J. Scott Colesanti will be speaking at the St. John's University School of Law symposium, "The Fall of the Economy." Professor Colesanti will present a paper titled "In Favor of a 'Bail-In': How Government Money Might Better Be Used to Rescue a Stock Market" during a panel on the government responses to the economic crisis.

Professor Ashira Ostrow’s article, JUDICIAL REVIEW OF LOCAL LAND USE DECISIONS: LESSONS FROM RLUIPA, 31 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 717 (2008) was recently cited by a federal district court. See, United States v. Boender, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15716 (N.D. Ill. Feb. 23, 2010).

Calvin Boender, a real estate developer, was accused of bribing a city alderman (zoning official) as part of a scheme to have property rezoned. Several other alderman were subpoenaed to provide testimony on the zoning decision. The alderman asked the Court to bar inquiry into the question of why they voted for the rezoning (and other legislative matters) at trial, should they be called to testify.

The Court refused to bar inquiry into this matter, noting:

Ashira Pelman Ostrow, Judicial Review of Local Land Use Decisions: Lessons from RLUIPA, 31 HARV. J. L. & PUB. POL'Y 717, 727 (2008) (arguing against deferential judicial review of zoning decisions, in contrast to most economic regulation, in part because a combination of structural [*24] factors "leaves ample room for inconsistency and corruption in the zoning process").

Professor Norman I. Silber was quoted in the following Philadelphia Inquirer article.

Consumer 10.0: The 'small print' strikes again
by Jeff Gelles
February 28, 2010

EXCERPT:

Retailers' return policies are often minefields. To get an outside perspective on Sixth Avenue's, I contacted Norman Silber, an expert in consumer law at Hofstra University. Without endorsing its particulars, Silber said the policy "doesn't fail the smell test."

Silber says companies can limit customers' options, as long as they adequately disclose their policies and as long as those policies meet the law's essential purpose: that a buyer is entitled to get what he or she paid for, and to a reasonable remedy if the product falls short.

Professor Eric M. Freedman has been named as this year’s recipient of the Public Justice Foundation’s David A. Diamond Distinguished Public Service Award.

Professor Freedman will receive this honor during the live portion of PJF’s 21st Annual Auction on Thursday, March 4th. The live auction will take place in Room 308 from 6:30 - 10:00 PM.

Since its inception, Hofstra Law School has demonstrated a commitment to public interest law. The Public Justice Foundation ensures the continued viability of that commitment by funding public interest law fellowships for students each summer.

For more information about PJF and the auction, click here.