St. John's University Law Faculty Blog

On Law Day (May 1), Professor Jennifer Baum, together with faculty from La Universidad de Puerto Rico and the University of Colorado, led a multi-national group of clinical law professors in an immersion experience at the local courts in San Juan, Puerto Rico during the annual AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education.

Professor Baum and her colleagues escorted two dozen clinical law professors from the continental United States and abroad through San Juan criminal, civil, and family court, and observed Spanish-language court cases using simultaneous translation through headsets.  The visit culminated in a discussion on the role of court observation in graduating practice-ready law students.

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Professor Jeremy Sheff’s article, Self-Replicating Technologies, gets a mention in an IPKat post on the Supreme Court’s recent decision on patent rights in Bowman v. Monsanto.  Here’s an excerpt from the post:

In an interesting paper entitled ‘Self Replicating Technologies’, Professor J. Sheff highlighted that ‘not all self-replicating technologies are identical, and a categorical rule exempting them from exhaustion doctrine is unwarranted’. Although the Supreme Court did not go as far as identifying a criterium [sic] for modulating the patent exhaustion doctrine, as suggested in the paper (according to which, ‘the application of the exhaustion doctrine should depend on the patentee’s ability to charge supracompetitive prices in its primary market where consumers are able to substitute secondary-market embodiments’), its final clarification appears to be a step in the right direction.

 

Professor Janai Nelson was named to the Lawyers of Color’s 50 Under 50 list of minority professors making an impact in legal education.  The list is published in LOC’s “The Law School Diversity Issue”  which was released today.

The world’s largest international insolvency organization, INSOL International, the International Association of Restructuring Insolvency & Bankruptcy Professionals, has named Professor G. Ray Warner course leader of its Global Insolvency Practice.  To be eligible to take the course, practitioners must have at least five years of practice and experience in transnational cases.  The course  includes training in the insolvency regimes of major nations and the international insolvency law that applies to cross-border cases.  Students who complete the course become Fellows of INSOL International.

Professor Jeff Sovern’s study on the pros and cons of law students’ in-class laptop use was referenced in an article on Slate.com yesterday.  The article  summarized several important academic studies on student classroom learning while multitasking on computers and smart phones.

The American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) presented G. Ray Warner, Associate Dean for Bankruptcy Studies and Professor of Law, with its prestigious Annual Service Award during the ABI’s Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C. The ABI’s highest membership award, the Annual Service Award is presented to the ABI member whose contributions over the past year have been extraordinary, as determined by the ABI’s Advisory Board of past presidents.

Professor Lyndon co-authored a letter on April 1 on behalf of ten law professors to the the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission in support of the Commission’s proposed fracking regulations.  The regulations would require corporations to disclose trade secret information, like chemical ingredients, used in fracking activity in Alaska.  The letter presents arguments that trade secrecy claims should not impede access to information considered critical to discussion of important public concerns. You can read the letter here.

Some of you have no doubt noticed that the Faculty Scholarship Blog has been quietly lately. I am pleased to announce that Professor Jeff Sovern has graciously volunteered to help keep the blog up to date. Welcome aboard Jeff and thank you for pitching in.