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Vermont Public Radio, “David Johnson on the new virtual headquarters law”
Interview By Jane Lindholm
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
New York Law School Professor David Johnson was interviewed by VPR about a bill recently signed into law by Vermont Governor Jim Douglas that will allow companies to set up virtual businesses in the state. Vermont is the now the first state to have such a law. In the interview, Professor Johnson, creator of the law, discusses the benefits of the law to the state of Vermont and the virtual companies.
To listen to the interview, visit:
http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/81528/
Reuters, “Sordid Details on Offer In Celebrity Divorce Cases”
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Richard Sherwin
Subject: Celebrity Divorce
“…New York is the only U.S. state where parties in a contested divorce have to show fault in order to split. And battling spouses' efforts to prove cruel or inhumane treatment, abandonment or infidelity have provided valuable fodder for tabloids, Web sites and television shows.
‘It's the ultimate evisceration of the public/private distinction,’ said New York Law School professor Richard Sherwin, who writes about law and pop culture. ‘Everything that is private is now public.’
‘…The field in which (celebrities) operate involves their own self-interest and unfortunately they're not seeing how kids are injured in the process,’ Sherwin said.”
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Seattlepi.com, “Schultz sticks with Sonics suit”
By Greg Johns
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Marc Edelman
Subject: Legal action to reclaim Sonics basketball team
“While many are ready to dismiss the notion that Howard Schultz has any chance of unwinding the sale of the Sonics to Clay Bennett, the attorney for the Starbucks coffee mogul says there is good reason his client didn't take part in last week's settlement with the Oklahoma City ownership group.
…Schultz's suit is the lone legal weapon left that could bring the former Sonics club back to Seattle. A class-action claim by several Seattle fans still must play out in King County District Court as well, though that suit seeks financial damages instead of challenging the franchise's move.
…Marc Edelman, professor of sports law at New York Law School, said he doesn't believe there has been a single case where a team was ordered to reverse course after being allowed to play games in a new city at any level of professional sports.
‘It's extraordinarily difficult,’ Edelman said. ‘The biggest challenge is not the claim, but the remedy. It's extremely unconventional to unwind a transaction that has been closed for over two years, where the buyer of the team has already substantially performed by paying the purchase price of the team…’”
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CFO, “Vermont Wants to Be the ‘Delaware of the Net’”
By Alan Rappeport
Monday, June 30, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor David Johnson
Subject: Vermont on the edge for newer tech companies
“A bill signed into law earlier this month positions [Vermont] as a leader in incorporating so-called virtual firms — those without a physical headquarters, actual paper filings, and directors' meetings (they're all online.) If it succeeds, it could emerge with the nation's first virtual tech corridor.
…David Johnson, a professor at New York Law School and head of the Virtual Company Project has lobbied for Vermont to change its rules for Limited Liability Companies (LLC) as a way of adapting corporate structure to the Internet age.
‘People are coming together online to create valuable things,’ says Johnson. ‘They do that for social reasons or reputational reasons, but they find it difficult partly because of traditional barriers in corporate law.’”
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Computerworld, “eBay backs off controversial PayPal-only plan in Australia”
By Linda Rosencrance
Friday, June 27, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Marc Edelman
Subject: Australia’s competition agency forces eBay to pull PayPal-only plan
“EBay Inc. has, for the moment, backed off a plan that would force sellers in Australia to only use PayPal, which eBay owns, as their online payment method.
…Whether or not such a plan would pass regulatory muster in the U.S. is not so cut and dried, said Marc Edelman, a law professor at New York Law School and a former antitrust lawyer.
…‘If there are companies out there that compete with PayPal and provide the same services, and they feel that this would preclude them from having a real opportunity to compete in the market because eBay is requiring PayPal only, it will be interesting to see if they bring a challenge,’ he said.”
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Metro, “Should psychiatric hospital patients be permitted to have sex?”
By Harlan Spector
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Michael Perlin
Subject: Supervision of psychiatric hospital patients tread on human rights
“A Cuyahoga County court case involving a patient who had multiple sex partners at a psychiatric hospital highlights what one lawyer called ‘one of the most threatening issues’ facing mental health officials.
It may be inevitable that patients engage in sexual relations, particularly in state hospitals where they may live for months or years. But it represents a clinical and legal minefield.
Michael Perlin, a New York law school professor and legal-rights advocate for the mentally ill, argues that ‘the fact someone is in a psychiatric hospital is in itself not reason to rob them of their sexual autonomy.’”
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Managing Intellectual Property, “Peer-to-patent increases prior art submissions”
By Eklavya Gupte, London
Monday, June 23, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Beth Simone Noveck and Mark Webbink, Executive Director of the Center for Patent Innovations
Subject: Peer-to-patent project
“The USPTO’s peer-to-patent project has led to a big increase in prior art submissions but has failed to bring in fresh patent applications in its first year, according to a report.
…Mark Webbink, executive director of the Center for Patent Innovations at the New York Law School, who was also one of the authors of the report, said it revealed some pleasing statistics.
‘The level of users was very satisfying. The sheer volume of prior art that was being generated showed that people were actively engaging in the pilot. We were very happy to get a good response from people outside of the US like the UK, Canada, Europe, and even in Japan. It was good to know that people outside of the US were paying attention to this development,’ he said.
…Beth Simone Noveck from the New York Law School, who helped launch the project with the USPTO, said: ‘As the first example of harnessing public knowledge to improve a government process, the first year of peer-to-patent was an unquestioned success.’”
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Weekly News Digest, “Peer-to-patent Pilot Releases Report on Pilot Project”
By Paula J. Hane
Thursday, June 19, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Beth Noveck
Subject: Peer-to-Patent
“Peer-to-Patent (www.peertopatent.org), the web based government social networking project, has released a report on the results of its 1-year pilot. Peer-to-Patent seeks to improve patent quality by connecting the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to an open network of scientific and technical experts to enhance the patent examination process.
Launched on June 15, 2007, by New York Law School Professor Beth Noveck together with a network of corporate and academic collaborators and in cooperation with the USPTO, Peer-to-Patent is the first networking project with a direct link to decision-making by the federal government…”
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The Wall Street Journal, “Notes From China: Legal Education Playing Catch-Up, in a Hurry”
By Ashby Jones
Thursday, June 5, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Brandt Goldstein
Subject: Legal Education in China
“Editor’s Note: Brandt Goldstein, a visiting associate professor at New York Law School and author of the book, Storming the Court, is on a Ford Foundation travel grant speaking at several Chinese universities. He will file occasional dispatches with the Law Blog during his journey. Below is his first.”
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Cybercast News Service, “High Court Unlikely to Settle ‘Gay Marriage’ Issue, Experts Say”
By Pete Winn
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Albert Leonard
Subject: Supreme Court on Gay Marriage
“Last week’s decision by the California Supreme Court establishing homosexual marriage there has raised a number of questions, one of them being whether the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually take up the issue. Some of the nation’s top legal experts disagree on whether that will happen.
…New York Law School professor Albert Leonard, editor of Lesbian/Gay Law Notes, meanwhile, told Cybercast News Service that marriage is almost always regarded as a question of state law, and the Supreme Court is unlikely to pass judgment on the California’s court’s decision.
‘If the secretary of state out there in California certifies the initiative that has been submitted to amend the state constitution, and it goes on the ballot in November and it passes, it could be challenged as a violation of the federal constitution,’ Leonard said.”
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New York Post, “Groveling For Office”
By R.B. Bernstein
Sunday, May 25, 2008
NYLS Faculty: R. B. Bernstein
Subject: Presidential Candidates Sacrifice Dignity for Votes
“It's hard to say what it takes to be president, but it's easy to figure out one thing you don't need: Shame.
From Hillary Rodham Clinton's and John McCain's stilted appearances on "Saturday Night Live," to Barack Obama's reading the "Top 10 list" on Dave Letterman, this campaign season is less Lincoln-Douglas than torch council on "Survivor." Is anything beneath a candidate in these pop culture-obsessed times?
R. B. Bernstein, distinguished adjunct professor of law at New York Law School, is completing his new book, ‘The Founding Fathers Reconsidered.’”
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The National Law Journal, “New York Law School creates Center for Financial Service Law”
By Leigh Jones
Thursday, May 22, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Ronald H. Filler
Subject: Center for Financial Service law
“New York Law School has created a Center for Financial Service Law, led by Ronald H. Filler, managing director of Lehman’s Brothers’ capital markets prime services division.
…Filler, who joins the law school as a professor of law, will serve as the center’s director.”
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The Boston Globe, “Access to excess”
By Ross Kerber
Thursday, May 15, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Jeffrey Haas
Subject: Fidelity traders receiving gifts for business
“New government documents filed this week detail the extent to which financial firms jostled to win the lucrative trading business of mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments of Boston.
‘There seems to be a historic tradition of broker-dealer firms engaging in these types of an old-boy system of compensation that loses sight of who the ultimate client is,’ said Jeffrey Haas, who teaches mutual fund regulation at New York Law School.
The filings also suggest how routine the practice was at the time. Haas, the New York Law School instructor, said the large number of firms vying for Fidelity's business may explain why Jefferies was so aggressive in dispensing benefits, to stand out from competitors.
‘It sounds like Jefferies calculated that because others are doing it, that this was going to be a cost of doing business,’ Haas said.”
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The New York Law Journal “The Next Big Thing: Young Attorneys Envision Golden Future in Virtual Law”
By Thomas Adcock
Friday, May 16, 2008
NYLS: Institute for Information Law & Policy, Adjunct Professor S. Gregory Boyd, and 2L Brian Pyne
Subject: Virtual Law
“‘Virtual Law,’ as specialists call it, is not your father’s law. And according to some aspiring lawyers, it is the next big thing.
…To that end, Mr. Pyne, a second-year student at New York Law School, works at the campus Institute for Information Law and Policy. He has also secured a summer associate job with Drakeford & Kane, a small Manhattan firm with a growing practice in virtual law.
…Among Mr. Pyne’s mentors is S. Gregory Boyd, a 34-year-old associate at Davis & Gilbert…
‘These numbers tell a story greater than the interest in the virtual world among most attorneys,’ said Mr. Boyd, an adjunct professor of intellectual property law at New York Law.”
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The New York Law Journal, “The Next Big Thing: Young Attorneys Envision Golden Future in Virtual Law”The New York Times, “The Serene Life of a Fighter for Civil Liberties”
By Robin Finn
Friday, May 16, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Nadine Strossen
Subject: Leaving the ACLU
“Even before she exercised her civil liberties and resigned this week as president of the American Civil Liberties Union after an 18-year incumbency – somewhat spoiled by internal sniping in the past two years – an ‘On Golden Pond’-ish serenity was inescapable in Nadine Strossen’s weekend house at the Sedgewood Club, a bucolic 92-home enclave tucked into a Putnam County hillside.”
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New York Daily News, “DA boosts ranks of boro’s litigators”
By Nicole Bode
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Subject: New York Law School Alumni Named as New Prosecutors in Queens.
“The Queens District Attorney’s office has added a slate of new prosecutors to its staff.
…‘It’s a kind of whirlwind,’ said Regan, a 2006 graduate of New York Law School.
…Dmochowski, a 2005 New York Law School grad, worked as an attorney for the NYPD.”
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Computerworld, “Sizing up Microsoft and Yahoo: Did anybody win?”
By Linda Rosencrance
Sunday, May 4, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Marc Edelman
Subject: Microsoft/Yahoo
“Microsoft gave up its effort to acquire Yahoo because the software company decided it wasn’t worth the cost and potential negative publicity involved with a proxy fight, said Marc Edelman, a law professor at New York Law School and a former antitrust lawyer, in an e-mail. Either that, or Microsoft figured it couldn’t win in a proxy fight, he said.”
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American Lawyer Daily, “Shearman Eliminates General Counsel Post”
By Susan Beck
Friday, May 2, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Elizabeth Chambliss
Subject: Elimination of Position at Shearman & Sterling
“Elizabeth Chambliss, a law professor at New York Law School who has written about law firm general counsel, says that Shutkin’s ouster surprised her, especially since so many firms are creating general counsel positions. ‘They’re swimming against the tide to some extent. It’s clear that the full-time professional model [for a general counsel], where it’s a separate job, is taking hold.’ Chambliss notes that Shutkin was respected in the law firm general counsel community and that the elimination of his job ‘raised eyebrows.’”
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National Law Journal, “Program allowing public review of patent applications on Net speeds the process” By Sheri Qualters
Monday, April 14, 2008
Subject: Peer-to-Patent
“The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced that a pilot program involving public review of patent applications over the Internet has helped it quickly reject claims that are obvious or not novel in more than a quarter of the pilot’s patent applications.
The USPTO has issued non-final rejections of at least one claim in five out of the first 19 patent applications in the…Peer-to-Patent pilot program, which it launched last June with New York Law School.”
Subscribers to the National Law Journal may view the article in full by visiting:
BNA, “Peer-to-Patent Project Has Already Produced Results, Sponsors, PTO Say”
Monday, April 28, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Beth Noveck
Subject: Peer-to-Patent
“Prior art and commentary submitted by members of public under the nine-month old Peer-to-Patent examination project have already weeded out five patent applications that might otherwise have been mistakenly allowed, according to an April 25 statement by New York Law School, which initiated the project in cooperation with the Patent and Trademark Office.”
This article is only available by subscription to BNA.
Privacy & Security Law Report, “Class Complaint Alleges Blockbuster Violated Video Privacy Act in Facebook Data Sharing”
By Susan Pagano
Monday, April 28, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor James Grimmelmann
Subject: Lawsuit against Blockbuster
“New York Law School intellectual property and Internet law associate professor James Grimmelmann told BNA April 22 that he has expected lawsuits like Harris’ to be filed and was eager to see Blockbuster’s reply to the complaint.
…Grimmelmann said that when an individual rents or buys a movie from Blockbuster online, ‘Blockbuster sends a message to your computer that causes your computer to tell Facebook that you rented that movie.’ He said that ‘Facebook will then send an announcement to your friends that you rented or purchased this movie.’
‘I am still puzzled as to what Blockbuster’s defense is going to be,’ Grimmelmann said. He did not see anything in the text of the Video Privacy Protection Act that would ‘give them an out.’”
This article is only available by subscription to Privacy & Security Law Report.
The New York Times, “The Verge of Expulsion, the Fringe of Justice”
By Adam Liptak
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
NYLS: The New York Law School Law Review
Subject: Federal Immigration Caseload
“…the Second Circuit is struggling with the output of prolific immigration lawyers like Frank R. Liu. In the last three years, Mr. Liu has filed more than 50 appeals in federal courts, most of them to the Second Circuit, in New York.
…Other immigration lawyers handle even more preposterous caseloads than Mr. Liu. Seven small immigration firms each had more than 100 appeals pending in the Second Circuit in the spring of 2005, according to a study published in The New York Law School Law Review. One of them had more than 300. These appeals are part of a yet larger phenomenon. In recent years, the number of immigration appeals has more than quintupled, a consequence of revisions to the way immigration cases are handled.”
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Government Executive, “Senator urges agencies, Congress to hire more disabled employees”
By Alyssa Rosenberg
Monday, April 14, 2008
Subject: Fourth Annual Tony Coelho Lecture in Disability Employment Law and Policy
“The federal government must hire more people with disabilities to meet its obligation as a model employer, said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., in a Monday lecture at New York Law School.
‘We should show employers by example why it makes good sense to hire and promote people with disabilities,’ he told students and professors during the fourth annual Tony Coelho Lecture in Disability Employment Law and Policy in New York.
…‘Congress, we should look at ourselves,’ he said. ‘We honestly don’t know how many people with disabilities work in Congress. In the Senate, each office is its own little kingdom. There is no central effort to engage more people with disabilities.’”
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The New York Law Journal, “Toward a Progressive Green Policy”
By Thomas Adcock
Friday, April 11, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor David Schoenbrod
Subject: Breaking the Logjam Conference
“More than 40 attorneys from across the country, drawn from academia as well as government and private practice, assembled in Manhattan for a recent symposium aimed at urging next year’s new president and Congress to end partisan squabbling and enact fresh policy for addressing a host of environmental problems from climate change on down.
The symposium, titled ‘Breaking the Logjam: an Environmental Law for the 21st Century,’ was held at New York University Law School, in cooperation with New York Law School and the NYU Environmental Law Journal.
…A ‘big fat book’ aimed at ‘an intelligent public,’ according to New York Law School Professor David S. Schoenbrod, will follow next spring, with the intent of stoking public demand for policy progress.
‘The current structure of environmental law is anti-innovation because so much is based on centralized, highly restrictive controls,’ said Mr. Schoenbrod, who as a staff attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council in the 1970s led efforts by the nascent environmental bar to force restriction of lead in gasoline.
The symposium last month, said Mr. Schoenbrod, was ‘about finding ways of protecting the environment, while at the same time liberating the private sector to find smarter ways of making things.’
He added, ‘We think a law-making moment is coming.’”
New York Law Journal subscribers may view the article in full by visiting:
Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports, “New York Law School on the Move: Bonfield, Chused, and Tracht”
By Brian Leiter
Thursday, April 10, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professors Lloyd Bonfield, Richard Chused, Marshall Tracht
Subject: New Hires at New York Law School
“In addition to Gerald Korngold from Case Western, New York Law School has also made (or recently made) tenured hires of…”
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Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “Other Web giants crowd Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo”
By Todd Bishop
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Marc Edelman
Subject: Bid for Yahoo
“Microsoft Corp.’s bid to acquire Yahoo Inc. has suddenly become a lot more competitive, or at last a lot more crowded.
…It’s not uncommon for one acquisition bid to spark a wave of industry consolidation, said Marc Edelman, a New York Law School professor. What’s unusual about this situation, he said, is the array of companies and markets involved in the possible alliances – including online services, Internet and social networking markets.
‘The net effect of all of this is going to be very complicated, and something presumably the Department of Justice, as well as possibly the Federal Trade Commisssion, is going to need to take a very close look at,’ he said. ‘It’s going to take very detailed economic analysis – more so than your traditional two-companies-into-one merger.’”
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The American Lawyer, “Commentary: There Are Only Two Kinds of Law Schools”
By Cameron Stracher
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Cameron Stracher
Subject: Law School Rankings
“What’s in a number? For law schools – and the students who love/hate them – everything. We’re talking rankings, and from the attention paid to the annual lists (the most prominent of which is U.S. News & World Report’s), it would appear that the only thing better than attending a school in the single digits is a U.S. Supreme Court clerkship.
But do the numbers really matter? Put in a different way, will it change your life to claw a few more rungs up the rankings ladder?
…It turns out there are really only two tiers of law schools – those where students decide which firms they want to interview at and those where the firms decide. Most law schools belong to the latter group.”
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Washington Internet Daily, “Law School Project Seeks to Bridge E-Government, Grassroots Sites”
By Louis Trager
Wednesday, April 8, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Beth Noveck
“A Chicago civic-improvement site, meant as a model for bridging e-government and complaint sites, is planned this year by the creator of Web 2.0 collaboration tools for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and Libya’s Gaddafi Foundation. Beth Noveck, the director of the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School, said she’s raising money to start the site within six months. She spoke Friday at a Stanford University seminar on human-computer interaction.
Noveck said she wants to use advanced visualization technology and social-psychology concepts in the planned Green Chicago site. Those elements would make it an example of how much more effective online civic efforts can be if they break down the separation of government and activist work, she said.
Noveck’s work is based on principles of open-source software, she said: Groups are smarter than individuals, open processes work better than closed ones—so collaboration is preferable to people voting and commenting individually as in conventional civic action.”
New York Times, “Cleaning up the Environment in D.C.”
By John Tierney
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professors David Schoenbrod and Ross Sandler
Subject: Breaking the Logjam Conference
“…That message comes from scholars who met at the New York University School of Law last weekend for a conference titled “Breaking the Logjam.”
…Similar reforms of the Clean Air Act was proposed at the conference by David Schoenbrod and Ross Sandler of New York Law School, who represented the Natural Resources Defense Council in its lawsuit to take lead out of gasoline three decades ago, and by Joel Schwartz of the American Enterprise Institute, who was formerly with the Clean Air Coalition.
“We call for building on the parts of the Clean Air Act that have been most successful in reducing pollution,” Mr. Schoenbrod said. “All involve Congress taking responsibility for direct federal regulation of important sources with the sources given flexibility on how to achieve congressional targets.”
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New York Law Journal, “Ruling Says Divorce Available for Lesbian Canadian Union”
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
By Noeleen G. Walder
NYLS Faculty: Professor Arthur Leonard
Subject: Same-sex marriage
“A woman’s claim that her partner could not divorce her because their same-sex marriage was void under New York law has been rejected by a Manhattan judge.
The court also held that the woman’s partner, who was neither the biological nor adoptive parent to two children born right before and during the couple’s marriage, was entitled to a hearing on her continuing custodial rights.
Arthur S. Leonard, a New York Law School professor and expert in lesbian and gay legal issues, said that to his knowledge this case is the first time a same-sex couple married in Canada has attempted to invoke jurisdiction of the New York courts in a divorce proceeding.”
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Daily News, “Law students help small investors”
Monday, February 18, 2008
By Phyllis Furman
NYLS Faculty: Professor Howard Meyers
Subject: Securities Arbitration Clinic
“For years, Jacoby did nothing until she heard about free legal advice offered by New York Law School’s securities arbitration clinic.
Teams of third-year law students supervised by the clinic’s co-director, Howard Meyers, they took on her case. Recently, they reached a settlement with brokerage firm that sold Jacoby the annuity, and a check arrived in the mail.
…Over the last two months as the Dow has tanked, the clinic at New York Law School has seen inquiries surge by 50%.
‘It’s a great feeling to apply what you have learned and help someone out,’ said third-year New York Law student Lucas Charleston, 26, of Red Bank, N.J., who worked on Jacoby’s case.
…The clients of New York Law School’s arbitration clinic generally earn less than $75,000 a year. The damages in their cases often range from $5,000 to $75,000, though there are no limits.
‘We evaluate each client on a case by case basis,’ Meyers said. ‘We’re extremely cautious – we won’t take frivolous suits.’”
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Omaha World-Tribune, “New lethal injection protocol is possible”
Sunday, February 10, 2008
By Henry J. Cordes
NYLS Faculty: Professor Robert Blecker
Subject: Lethal Injection
“As Nebraska now considers moving from electrocution to executing its convicted killers by lethal injection, it could be trading a legally rejected form of execution for a legally suspect one.
…New York Law School professor Robert Blecker is a strong death penalty supporter. He has no problem with painful executions, asking, ‘can’t some killers deserve a quick but painful death?’
But even Blecker accepts that the way states are administering lethal injection today ‘is replete with problems.’ ‘It really does require a lot of skilled and trained personnel to administer,’ he said, ‘and there are so many ways it can be botched.’” To view the article in full, visit:
The New York Times, “Always on the City’s Side in Court, and Without a Good Nickname”Friday, February 8, 2008
By Clyde Haberman
NYLS Center: The Center for City Law
Subject: City Law event
“…The reason for bringing this up is that the department commanded the limelight at a symposium the other day at New York Law School, in TriBeCa. The occasion was the publication of “Fighting for the City,” by William E. Nelson, a law professor at New York University. His book is a history of the law office, written with its cooperation and published by the New York Law Journal.
The main event was a panel discussion among seven men who served the last four mayors as corporation counsel, the cumbersome title assigned to the chief city lawyer, reflecting the fact that he represents the city in its capacity as a corporate entity.”
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The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, “We Do, Says NY Appellate Court”
Monday, February 4, 2008
By Ryan Thompson
NYLS Faculty: Professor Arthur Leonard
Subject: Gay Marriage
“New York must recognize same-sex marriages that are legally performed outside the state, according to one state appellate court. And perhaps most interesting, the appellate court that decided this on Friday sits in Rochester, not in New York City.
…“It’s interesting that it’s unanimous,” said New York Law School Prof. Arthur Leonard. “The Fourth Department in general tends to be more conservative.”
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The New York Times, “Ask About Tenant-Landlord Issues” Thursday, January 24, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Adjunct Professor Lucas A. Ferrara
Subject: Tenant-Landlord Issues
“Lucas A. Ferrara, a partner at Finkelstein Newman Ferrara, is taking questions from readers through Jan. 30 on tenant-landlord issues. Readers are invited to submit their questions using the comment box below.
…In 2002, Mr. Ferrara was appointed an adjunct professor of law at New York Law School.”
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Tucson Citizen, “Noteworthy new paperbacks”
Thursday, January 24, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor James F. Simon
Subject: His book, Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession, and the President’s War Powers’
“Simon, a professor at New York Law School and the author of six previous books, examines the passionate struggle that existed between these two men during the worst crisis in American history, the Civil War.”
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National Post, “Real life economic woes come to Second Life” By Craig Offman
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor James Grimmelmann
Subject: Second Life
“While the bricks-and-mortar world reels from the subprime mortgage crisis, the imaginary universe of Second Life is suffering from its own easy-money schemes.
…‘This is just another phase in the site’s maturity where it’s affecting the real world,” said James Grimmelmann, a professor at the New York Law School and an expert on internet law. ‘There is now enough money flowing through that it shows that is significant. If it were Monopoly money people were losing, no one would care.’”
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By Palash R. Ghosh
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Jeffrey Haas
Subject: Tracking Stocks
“Tracking stocks, once a popular innovation on Wall Street during the halcyon 1990s, now appear to be on the verge of extinction.
Jeffrey Haas, a professor at New York Law School, estimates that at their peak there were about 40 tracking shares in the late 1990s.
‘The demise of tracking stocks is closely related to the demise of the dot-com boom,” Mr. Haas said. ‘Many of the trackers established back then were designed to take advantage of the tremendous valuations foisted upon anything related to dot-coms. So, any traditional conglomerate that had some kind of Internet-related business—whether an online brokerage or online travel—wanted to exploit the incredible price multiples that the market was giving to these unproven businesses.”
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National Journal, “Legal experts, labor leaders decry e-mail ruling”
By Aliya Sternstein
Monday, January 7, 2008
NYLS Faculty: Professor Carlin Meyer
Subject: Labor Law
“A recent ruling by the National Labor Relations Board that lets employers block employees from using company e-mail for ‘non-job-related solicitations’ flies in the face of a labor law meant to protect democracy in the workplace, some professors argue.
New York Law School professor Carlin Meyer said the board’s finding contradicts the labor act, which was supposed to guarantee a fair shot at unionizing. ‘This is one more decision that tilts against that goal and creates even more employer-dominant workplaces,’ Meyer said.”
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The Wall Street Journal, “School Rankings That Matter”
By Cameron Stracher
Monday, December 31, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Professor Cameron Stracher
Subject: Law School Rankings
“But leaving aside the merits and methodology of these particular rankings, we might wonder whether rankings matter at all and, more importantly, if they should.
…consider another set of rankings…that didn’t garner as much attention: bar-exam passage rates. The school at which I teach—New York Law School—jumped to fifth on the list of New York area law schools (with an all-time high passage rate of 90%), while Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School at Yeshiva University leapfrogged to third, behind only NYU and Columbia.
Cardozo, however is ranked 52nd by U.S. News among all law schools (fourth in New York), while New York Law School is ranked in the ‘third tier’ of law schools (along with Albany, Hoftstra, Pace and Syracuse). So which ranking matters?...”
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The New York Law Journal, “Law Schools Report Record Gains in Bar Exam Pass Rate” By Thomas Adcock
November 30, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Dean and President Richard A. Matasar
Subject: Bar Exam Pass Rate
“A third consecutive and significant gain was registered by graduates of New York Law School, whose 296 students this year achieved a 90 percent pass rate, up from 84 percent in 2006 and 74 percent in 2005. This year, New York Law surpassed Fordham University School of Law, which dropped to 89 percent, one point down from last year.
Richard A. Matasar, dean of New York Law, said this year’s graduates were the second class to have gone through the school’s ‘comprehensive curriculum’ program, which monitors students from their first day’s classes throughout their campus career. At the front end, underperforming first-years are required to take extra course work. At the back, 3-Ls undergo ‘a heavy dose of exam-taking and essay writing,’ said Mr. Matasar.
‘You never know scientifically what causes anything,’ he added, ‘but we did see substantial improvement last year, which coincided with the first class that went through [comprehensive curriculum].’
Last year’s New York Law graduates scored an 84 percent pass rate, 10 points over 2005. This year’s 90 percent score, said Mr. Matasar, is ‘all the sweeter.’”
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CFO Magazine, “Debt in Disguise” By Vincent Ryan
November 28, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Associate Professor Ken Kettering
Subject: Boundary between Securitizations and Loans
“WESCO International Inc….a $5.3 billion distributor of electrical products, has a high-quality customer base and a robust IT platform for tracking the performance of receivables, capabilities demanded by banks and credit-rating agencies.
…‘What interests me is how this product got so big, when its legal underpinnings are arguably shaky,’ says Ken Kettering, an associate professor at New York Law School.
…But even securitization’s detractors admit it is probably here to stay. In the judgment of New York Law’s Kettering, this form of structured finance is too big to fail. If there were ever a ruling in the bankruptcy courts that nullified the structures of true sale and bankruptcy-remote SPEs, the rating agencies would have to downgrade all trade-receivables securitizations to the credit quality of the originators, he says.
‘A court aware of the stakes is very unlikely to make such a ruling,’ says Kettering, ‘and should that event occur, Congress would bail out the product.’”
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The New York Times, “A Low-Tech Writer With a High-Tech Appetite”
By Corey Kilgannon
November 26, 2007
Subject: Writer who borrows computers to get work done
“Alan Flacks…He puts out a regular e-mail newsletter called The Flacks Report: dispatches from the West Side to in-boxes in Albany and Washington bearing information about the latest judicial selection or Democratic club meeting, or, at this time of year, a list of politicians’ holiday parties.
Perhaps more interesting than his postings is how he manages to write them without owning a computer.
A favorite is New York Law School, from which he sent the following e-mail message to a reporter recently, about an appearance by the executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority:
‘I am on their guest computer. Nice. Air conditioned room, I.T. tech to help, fast p.c.’”
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The New York Times, “New Jersey Senator Urges Delay on Repeal of Death Penalty”
By Jeremy W. Peters
November 21, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Professor Robert Blecker
Subject: New Jersey Death Penalty
“The leading social conservative in the New Jersey State Senate, Gerald Cardinale, accused Democrats…of trying to rush a bill repealing the death penalty through the Legislature without sufficient deliberation.
Mr. Cardinale, of Bergen County, appeared at the state Capitol on Tuesday with Prof. Robert Blecker of New York Law School, a prominent death penalty supporter.
‘There’s no emergency here,’ Professor Blecker said. ‘As everybody knows, New Jersey hasn’t executed anybody in decades.’”
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The National Law Journal, “Fine-tuning eyed for student debt program” By Vesna Jaksic
November 19, 2007
NYLS Staff: Susan Gross, Senior Director of Admissions and Financial Aid
Subject: Debt relief program for law students
“Now that a debt relief program for law students has finally become a reality, the real work can begin.
The American Bar Association (ABA) Student Division plans to lobby legislators in order to change two financially burdensome components of the new law.
…Susan Gross, senior director of admissions and financial aid at New York Law School, said she was optimistic about the law’s intent to help those interested in public sector jobs. ‘Now I can sit with a student and say, “Yes you’re borrowing a lot of money, you’re borrowing through a federal loan program and this is what you can do to be able to follow your passion and work in public interest law,”’ she said. ‘The conversation was very different beforehand; it’s gotten easier now because of the law.’”
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The New York Times, “Prosecution’s Best Pitch is Precision, Experts Say”
By Alan Schwartz
November 17, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Professor Robert Blecker
Subject: Barry Bonds
“…Robert Blecker of New York Law School pointed out that the United States Supreme Court, in the 1973 decision of Bronston v. United States, held that a witness’s answer to a question, even if intentionally misleading or evasive, does not constitute perjury as long as the defense can prove that it is literally true.
Blecker cited Bonds’s answer of ‘no’ to the question, ‘And were you obtaining growth hormone from Mr. Anderson?’ Blecker said that Bonds’s defense could claim that Bonds did not obtain the substance, in the willful sense, but merely received it.
‘President Clinton defended statements that appeared false to most people by saying, “I wanted to be legal without being particularly helpful,”’ Blecker said. ‘There are many ways to interpret what truth is, and, unfortunately, the prevailing legal one is very literal.’”
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The American Lawyer, “Commentary: Guerilla Tactics Can Help You Survive the Recruiting Jungle” By Cameron Stracher
November 9, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Professor Cameron Stracher
Subject: Finding a Job
“The leaves are falling, and so are your job prospects. So you didn’t score an on-campus interview? Don’t despair. The best jobs don’t always grow on trees, and finding them often requires a nose like a bloodhound and teeth like a cheetah. It takes pluck and imagination to land the job of your dreams, especially when you’re out by your lonesome in the middle of the jungle – a place where the recruiters don’t call and can’t find you.
Here are a few suggestions to find that dream job when it doesn't come looking.”
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Bloomberg.com "U.S. Cuts Back on Executions as It Debates Lethal Injections"
By Greg Stohr
Thursday, November 1, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Professor Robert Blecker
Subject: Lethal Injections
“The U.S. Supreme Court fight over lethal injections, a dispute that has halted executions nationwide, is highlighting a decade-long trend away from capital punishment.
The justices will consider whether lethal injections create an unnecessary risk of suffering…
‘This is a blip,’ said Robert Blecker, a professor who specializes in the death penalty at New York Law School. A ruling banning the three-drug protocol ‘can be easily remedied.’
Whether the trend will lead to abolition is far from clear. Blecker, an advocate of the death penalty for especially egregious offenses, says he doubts that will happen.
‘I don’t see the master trend away from the death penalty; I see a master trend toward more careful consideration,’ he said. ‘The people are in favor of it because, when you get right down to it, some people deserve to die.’”
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PreLaw, “Debt Smart”
By Karen Dybis and Michelle Weyenberg
Fall 2007
NYLS Faculty and Staff: Susan Gross, director of admissions and financial aid and Professor Karen Gross
Subject: Debt Education for Law Students
“New York Law School sits in the mecca of the legal world. Manhattan employs more lawyers than any other city in the world and the city’s largest firms set the standard for salaries—currently paying $160,000 to first-year associates.
And yet, the private law school, just blocks from Wall Street has found that its graduates need debt help.
‘We learn about sex education in third grade, but we don’t learn how to balance a checkbook,’ said David Friedman, public interest fellow for the Coalition for Debtor Education at NYLS.
…Some schools, including NYLS…are taking the lead in debt and finance education.
‘It’s important for people to realize that even a financially literate culture cannot eliminate all the problems,’ said Susan Gross, director of admissions and financial aid at NYLS. ‘New York Law School stands out as a model for how to do this well.’
…Susan Gross of NYLS says if you can successfully grab students as they step in the door, a school is heading in the right direction.
…Beginning with first-year orientation, law students at NYLS are getting educated with sessions on managing costs in law school…But to reach the overall needs of the course, Gross said they have conducted some additional workshops on credit scores, consolidation and budgeting, which have all been successful.
…Karen Gross, president of Southern Vermont College and a professor at NYLS says studying student debt loads helped her come to appreciate the financial difficulties that both undergraduate and graduate students encounter.
“It’s very easy to be tempted by poor financial products,” she said.
To view the article in full, pick up a Fall 2007 edition of preLaw.
NPR, “Transgender Woman, IRS Fight over Tax Deduction” By Tovia Smith
Thursday, October 23, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Professor Arthur Leonard
Subject: Transgender Legal Affairs
“A Massachusetts transgender woman is suing the IRS for the right to claim her sex-change operation as a medical deduction on her income taxes.
‘There has been an incredible amount of litigation, but the law is all over the place,’ said Arthur Leonard, a professor at New York Law School. ‘It all comes down to the sort of fundamental question of whether the law will accept what transgender people say is their reality. And that requires us to rethink our concept of a dimorphic world where everything is ‘x’ and ‘y.’ Here’s something that’s sort of in the middle’”
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EETimes, “IP experts call for new patent pathway” By Rick Merritt
Monday, October 22, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Professor Beth Noveck
Subject: Intellectual Property/Peer-to-Patent
“The most promising of the arrivals may be peertopatent.org, launched four months ago by Beth Noveck, a professor at New York Law School. The site provides a structured format for reading new patent applications, and finding and evaluating prior art for them.
‘The theory is that more eyeballs make for a stronger application,’ she said. ‘Inventors don’t always have the resources or incentives to do good searches.’
Applicants who use the service as part of a trial with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office get an expedited review that can cut waiting time from a typical 44 months down to seven, Noveck said. Participants hone their skills and get an early look at pending patents. So far, 1,500 registered users have reviewed 15 applications and found 88 pieces of prior art. Companies including HP, Microsoft, Oracle, Red Hat, Sun and Yahoo are participating in the project, which is backed by foundation grants.”
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Daily News, “Ex-fiance: Gimme back 38G ring” By Jose Martinez
Thursday, October 18, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Professor Carlin Meyer
Subject: Dispute over Engagement Ring
“A Manhattan man is suing his ex-girlfriend for refusing to relinquish her grip on the $38,000 platinum engagement ring he bought her last year.
‘As long as it was given as a true engagement gift, he has a very good chance of getting it back,” said Carlin Meyer, a professor at New York Law School.”
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New York Press, “Who Will Be Bloomy’s Veep?”
By Edward-Isaac Dovere Wednesday, October 17, 2007 Subject: Sidney Shainwald Public Interest Lecture with Senator Chuck Hagel “Ballot laws would let presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg hold off on picking a running mate until late summer…The name most often mentioned by insiders is Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Republican who has become one of the leading critics of the Iraq War and President George W. Bush’s management of the military. Speaking at Cooper Union September 25, Bloomberg offered this general insight: ‘This country’s in big trouble and somebody’s got to pull it out. We’ve lost our relationships with the world,’ he said. ‘Somebody’s got to go out and rebuild those relationships.’ Hagel echoes those themes when he spoke at New York Law School October 11 about the need to do just that.” Associated Press, “NY Trial Highlights Sexual Orientation”
By David B. Caruso
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Professor Arthur Leonard
Subject: Sexual Orientation/Hate Crime
“Michael Sandy’s killing had all the hallmarks of a hate crime: a gay man ambushed by a group of men, then chased into the path of a speeding car.
…The man who first suggested going after a gay target says he may be gay too.
…Brooklyn prosecutors argue that Fortunato’s sexual orientation is irrelevant. Under New York law, they said, defendants can be convicted of a hate crime even if they bear no actual hatred for their victim.
‘The issue in the case is, why did they select this guy, as opposed to some other guy? They selected him because he was gay,’ said Arthur Leonard, a professor at New York Law School who has been following the case. Therefore, he added, it doesn’t matter whether they actually hated him or merely thought he would be weak and vulnerable.”
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Global Arbitration Review, “BIICL forum draws a crowd”
Friday, September 14, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Professor Tai-Heng Cheng
Subject: Investment Arbitration
“The annual London forum on investment arbitration drew a crowd of more than 170 lawyers today.
…Earlier speakers had included Tai-Heng Cheng of New York Law School…Cheng argued that a tendency to follow prior decisions conferred legitimacy on the international legal system.”
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Winston-Salem Journal, “Plea is no easy deal: Hayes’ situation shows pitfalls of insanity defense”
By Dan Galindo and Bertrand M. Gutierrez
Sunday, September 30, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Professor Michael Perlin
Subject: Pitfalls of insanity defense
What they switched was upon whom the burden of proof falls. Before Hayes, prosecutors had to show that they defendant should remain confined. Today, a defendant is presumed mentally ill and dangerous, and must show that at least one of those presumptions is not true. Such difficult requirements are why the insanity defense is rarely used, legal experts say. It is used in less than 1 percent of criminal cases, said Michael Perlin, a professor at New York Law School and the author of The Jurisprudence of the Insanity Defense.
It is successful only about 25 percent of the time, Perlin said, and the overwhelming majority of those cases are ones in which prosecutors agree that the defendant is insane.”
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Washington Post, “Negotiating a Market Where ‘Everything’s Negotiable’” By Sandra Fleishman
Saturday, September 29, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Professor Andrew Berman
Subject: Real Estate Market
“Even though buyers have more leverage than in the hyper-competitive market of two years ago, they can still turn off sellers if they push too hard, warned Andrew R. Berman, director of the New York Law School Center for Real Estate Studies.
‘If they’re asking $800,000 for the property and you offer $300,000, then you’re just going to irritate the sellers unless there are unusual aspects to the property that would make such an offer reasonable,’ Berman said. ‘The general rule of thumb is if you make an offer that’s more than 10 percent less than the asking price, no one’s going to take you seriously.’
One extenuating circumstance could be that the property has been on the market for months at the same price, Berman said. Another would be if the property is in poor condition.”
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amNew York, “Advocates: Time to get .nyc domain name”
By David Freedlander
Friday, September 28, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Professor David Johnson
Subject: “.nyc” domain name
“Is it time for the big city to start cornering a piece of the Internet?
Experts say the effectiveness of a dot nyc address will depend on how it gets implemented on the Web.
‘Ideally, this will enable people to use the Internet more effectively and bring citizens together,’ said David Johnson, a cyberlaw professor at New York Law School. ‘It’s an untested theory, but what’s the harm in trying.’”
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The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Giving in to the CEO model”
By Chris Mondics
Monday, September 24, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Professor Elizabeth Chambliss
Subject: Law-firm management
“…Managing partners were inevitably part time, mediating disputes among fellow lawyers and representing the firm at charity balls and other events. They left much of the day-to-day management to paid administrative staff who labored in the shadows.
Not anymore. At the biggest firms, the job of the lawyer who is also chief executive has evolved into something approaching a corporate CEO, with much of the same clout and responsibility.
‘Law firms have prided themselves in the past for not adopting corporate-style hierarchies,’ said Elizabeth Chambliss, a law professor at New York Law School, who focuses her research on law firm management. But, she says, ‘the resistance to the full-time CEO model is fading.’”
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Bennington Banner, “Fashion exec: It’s about creating wants as quickly as possible” By John Waller
Thursday, September 27, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Dean and President Richard A. Matasar
Subject: Dean to speak at Southern Vermont College
“The next installment in the lecture series is a speech on the legal profession by Richard Matasar, the president and dean of New York Law School, on Oct. 18 at 4:30 p.m. Other speeches include one by the president of a steel company, one by a lawyer and one by a leadership consultant.”
Philadelphia Daily News, “CN8 to fight fine for promo use”
By Ellen Gray
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Professor Michael Botein
Subject: FCC fining cable program
“Michael Botein, a professor at New York Law School who’s worked with the FCC in the past, said yesterday that the agency has more authority over cable than most people realize.
‘They have the power, but a number of years ago…they decided that because cable was a medium of choice, that it was not like radio or TV,’ and it didn’t need to be treated the same way, he said.”
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The Wall Street Journal, “Hard Case: Job Market Wanes for U.S. Lawyers”
By Amir Efrati
Monday, September 24, 2007
NYLS Faculty: Dean and President Richard A. Matasar
Subject: Job Market for Lawyers
"A law degree isn’t necessarily a license to print money these days. For graduates of elite law schools, prospects have never been better. Big law firms this year boosted their starting salaries to as high as $160,000. But the majority of law-school graduates are suffering from a supply-and-demand imbalance that’s suppressing pay and job growth. The result: Graduates who don’t score at the top of their class are struggling to find well-paying jobs to make payments on law-school debts that can exceed $100,000. Some are taking temporary contract work, reviewing documents for as little as $20 an hour, without benefits. And many are blaming their law schools for failing to warn them about the dark side of the job market. …Many students ‘simply cannot earn enough income after graduation to support the debt they incur,’ wrote Richard Matasar, dean of New York Law School, in 2005, concluding that, ‘We may be reaching the end of a golden era for law schools.’"
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