Juan Soto – Page 7 – University of Baltimore School of Law Magazine

Posted on November 11, 2022September 10, 2024 by Juan Soto in Features, Features 2022

By Hope Keller

In 2017, on the day the consent decree between the U.S. Department of Justice and the city of Baltimore and its police department was filed in court, then-U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch spoke at the University of Baltimore School of Law.

She began by noting that she took her oath of office on the day Baltimore erupted over Freddie Gray’s death in police custody.

“It was clear that here in Baltimore – as in so many American cities – deep-seated feelings of mistrust and hostility had gone unaddressed for too long,” Lynch said on Jan. 12, 2017. “And it was clear that in order to repair the social fabric, those issues had to be dealt with honestly, comprehensively and immediately.”

Against this backdrop, the UBalt School of Law this year launched the Center for Criminal Justice Reform (CCJR). Created with a $3 million gift from alumnus Samuel G. Rose, LL.B. ’62, the center supports community-driven efforts to improve public safety and address the harm and inequity caused by the criminal legal system. (A companion Criminal Defense and Advocacy Clinic, which begins in Spring 2023, was also created thanks to Rose’s bequest.)

Heather Warnken, executive director of the center, said it is engaging in a range of programming meant to address the mass incarceration crisis, and to reimagine public safety across the country. Part of this work means rethinking the definition of “crime victim” to build a more inclusive infrastructure of care.

“Historically, the idea of ‘crime victim’ [conjures] certain images and does not include the experience of Black men and youth who, by exponents, experience the most homicide and nonfatal gun violence in this country, including in Baltimore,” Warnken says, “yet are more likely to be criminalized than supported in the aftermath of that violence.”

Prof. David Jaros, the center’s faculty director, said he and Warnken sought to break down the “false dichotomy” between crime victims and the defendants who disproportionately wind up enmeshed in the criminal legal system.

“In fact, these are all the same people,” Jaros says. “Our system tends to divide [people] up into communities worthy of protection and respect for their rights and communities that don’t get the resources or protection of the legal system.”

Moreover, trauma begets more trauma, notes Warnken. “For people who experience violence and harm in their communities, especially in the absence of meaningful, humane, dignified responses that support them — the likelihood that they will be a victim or they will harm others is greater,” Warnken says. “Being serious about public safety means embracing what we know actually works in interrupting cycles of harm — and the systemic racism that perpetuates it.”

‘The Web of disparities’

Warnken and Jaros say the CCJR will regularly convene community and government stakeholders to identify challenges and recommend solutions to the deeply entrenched inequities in the national and local criminal legal systems.

Before coming to the law school, Warnken spent five years as a visiting fellow at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she was co-affiliated with the Bureau of Justice Statistics and Office for Victims of Crime in the first-ever position dedicated to bridging the gap between research, policy and practice to improve the response to individuals and communities impacted by crime victimization.

In that role, Warnken led an assessment of how people impacted by violence are treated in Baltimore. The report authored by her and her team — which examined the experiences of underserved survivors, focused on Black men and youth affected by gun violence — was released by the City of Baltimore in August, along with a formal response.

The report made clear that to improve public safety in Baltimore, the legacy of racism in policing must be confronted head-on.

The historical role that law enforcement played in maintaining slavery through slave patrols came up in multiple interviews, according to the report.

“It is obvious to many that Black and brown bodies have been historically viewed as a threat by law enforcement and, in society more broadly, less worthy of compassion in the wake of harm if worthy at all,” the report said in its first chapter. “These persistent attitudes undergird the web of disparities found throughout public life, including a sense of continued impunity for disparate or dehumanizing treatment from BPD.”

At a center event in February, former DOJ Inspector General Michael Bromwich, who led a two-year investigation into the Baltimore Police Department’s disgraced Gun Trace Task Force, presented his team’s findings. The video of the event had been viewed more than 11,000 times as of late October, no doubt thanks to “We Own This City,” the HBO series about the GTTF adapted from Baltimore crime reporter Justin Fenton’s book of the same name.

For years, members of the elite police unit robbed Baltimore residents and planted guns and drugs. They were arrested in 2017 and ultimately convicted on charges of racketeering, robbery, extortion and overtime fraud.

Saying the scandal was emblematic of deeper, systemic challenges in policing, Warnken says the CCJR will look into the role of judges and other key actors in responding to police misconduct.

“We’re really interested in the role of judges, who make decisions every day in their courtrooms — interpreting evidence and [determining] the truthfulness and reliability of officers — reliability that is often given great weight,” Warnken says.

The center is also involved in projects examining equity in public safety grantmaking, including how federal criminal justice grants are spent, Warnken adds.

“State and local governments get a tremendous amount of money from the Department of Justice and other federal agencies,” says Warnken. “Are they relying on police and prosecution, or are they meaningfully investing in community-based programs and alternatives to incarceration? There’s so much discretion at the state and local levels, but not enough support or transparency on how those dollars get spent.”

Benefactor Samuel Rose said in a University of Baltimore School of Law news release that the center would benefit reform efforts locally and nationally.

“It’s both exciting and gratifying to support efforts to improve the lives of individuals — the wrongly accused and the excessively punished — while working more broadly to influence local and national policy around violence prevention, mass incarceration, juvenile justice and more,” he said.

Dean Ronald Weich said the Center for Criminal Justice Reform was a logical outgrowth of the law school’s longstanding involvement in criminal justice matters.

“Some of the best defense lawyers are UB graduates, half of the state’s attorneys in Maryland are UB graduates,” Weich said. “This is a more comprehensive way of addressing issues related to criminal justice, from policing to sentencing to victims’ rights.”

And, he said, the law school is a perfect place for such a center.

“If you want to work on improving criminal justice, the University of Baltimore is the place to do it,” Weich says. “We are proud to support community-driven reform efforts in Baltimore and beyond.”

Hope Keller is a writer based in Connecticut.

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A grassroots approach to diversity

Posted on November 11, 2022September 10, 2024 by Juan Soto in Features, Features 2022

By Adam Stone

It’s easy to feel helpless when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion. Big systemic changes are needed, institutional shifts that are outside most people’s job descriptions. Imoh Akpan, J.D. ’06, comes at it from another perspective.

“I take a grassroots approach to diversity,” he says. “It’s about being involved in volunteerism, being a mentor, being available to go to lunch. There’s a lot I can do as an individual to help diversify the legal profession.”

A partner in the Baltimore office of Goldberg Segalla, Akpan brings to bear this personal approach on a number of different fronts. He’s co-chair of the Diversity Committee of the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel, as well as a member of the Diversity Steering/Planning Committee of the Defense Research Institute. And he’s an active member of his firm’s diversity task force.

Akbar has also been active with the law school’s Fannie Angelos Program for Academic Excellence, which prepares students from Maryland’s historically Black colleges for admission to law school and helps them to excel and thrive throughout their legal careers.

“Imoh has been a real champion of DEI, not only in academic circles with his leadership of the Fannie Angelos Program annual gala, but also in the legal profession, with his efforts to diversify law firms by improving their hiring and promotion practices,” says UBalt Law Professor Mike Higginbotham.

Akpan’s dad was a lawyer, as was his older sister. “I saw some of the struggles she faced as a Black woman trying to rise up in larger law firms,” he says. As he thought about how people might overcome similar challenges he evolved his grassroots approach to DEI, largely from his own personal experience.

A mentor who is now a partner at D.C. law firm Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell “made himself available to me on an individual basis. He kind of gave me very direct, targeted advice that applied to me. I could bounce ideas off of him,” Akpan says. That individual attention “helped me so much just by giving me context, perspective.”

Now he brings the same philosophy to his own DEI efforts. “I want to highlight the importance of those personal, individual interactions, particularly in building and promoting the network of diverse attorneys,” he says. “Having a connection with someone who has already done it before, getting advice from someone who has faced those challenges before. That can be invaluable.”

With his professional work and extensive efforts around diversity, not to mention a wife and two children, he’s got a pretty full plate. How to keep it all in balance? He says the key ingredient is passion.

“You can say it’s a scheduling thing, but to me it’s really an effort-and-energy thing,” Akpan says. “I like the job that I do. I obviously love my family. And the work that I do on diversity is important to me.

“If you like what you’re doing, it doesn’t actually seem as hard. You can find time for all of this, if what you’re doing is meaningful to you.”

Adam Stone is a writer based in Annapolis.

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Professor Emeritus Byron L. Warnken, Lovingly Known as ‘Mr. UB,’ Dies at 76

Posted on November 11, 2022September 10, 2024 by Juan Soto in Baltimore Briefs, Baltimore Briefs 2022

Prof. Byron L. Warnken indulges in a favorite activity, engaging with students.

Professor Emeritus Byron L. Warnken, who for decades colorfully personified the University of Baltimore School of Law, passed away on Sept. 5, 2022, after a valiant struggle with a neurological disorder. He was 76 years old.

A native Baltimorean, Warnken was a scholarship student at McDonogh School, where he won a school-wide oratory competition in high school and played the lead in the school production of “Billy Budd.” He graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1968.

After being discharged from the Army, he attended the University of Baltimore School of Law as an evening student, graduating cum laude in 1977. While in law school, Warnken worked full-time as a law clerk, first with a law firm and then with the Hon. Basil A. Thomas, on the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. He was president of the Student Bar Association.

Soon after graduation he began to teach at the law school, first as an adjunct professor and eventually as a tenured professor. He was a member of the law faculty for more than 40 years before retiring in 2018, at which time we named the moot courtroom in his honor. A tribute video was made at the time, and Baltimore Law magazine published this article about him.

A memorial service was held at the law school on Sept. 17.

“Byron Warnken was a legendary teacher of criminal law and procedure, and author of the three-volume treatise Maryland Criminal Procedure,” says Baltimore Law Dean Ronald Weich. “He developed and led the school’s nationally known moot court program and established the EXPLOR program, which guarantees students the opportunity to work in judicial chambers and law offices after their first year of law school. Above all, Warnken was a devoted mentor to generations of UB Law students. Because he embodied the spirit of our law school, Byron Warnken was widely known as ‘Mr. UB.’”  

Warnken won numerous awards throughout his career from organizations such as the Bar Association of Baltimore City, the Women’s Bar Association, the Maryland State Bar Association, the University of Baltimore and the University System of Maryland.

In addition to the countless law students he launched into the legal profession, Warnken’s legacy includes his wife Bonnie, a UB Law alumna; his son Byron B. Warnken, a UB Law alumnus; and his daughter Heather, who is the executive director of the school’s Center for Criminal Justice Reform.

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In the wake of Scotus Dobbs decision, law students work for reproductive rights

Posted on November 11, 2022September 10, 2024 by Juan Soto in Features, Features 2022

By Adam Stone

Carita Tarter was working as a summer legal intern in the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project when the Supreme Court negated the constitutional right to abortion with its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. “Then it was like: We know what we have to do now,” she says. “Now it’s crunch time.”

Across the School of Law, students and school organizations have been on the front lines of the fight to preserve reproductive rights. Students say the June 2022 Dobbs decision has, if anything, put new energy into their efforts.

“I definitely feel disappointed and saddened, like the justice system has failed us. But it’s reassuring to work with other people who share a passion for this, who to be solution-oriented and to keep moving forward. It makes me hopeful,” says Tarter, a 3L.

Marcella Labellarte is in her second year of law school. Prior to attending UBalt Law, she worked for the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, where she helped formulate policy around reproductive rights. She says she’s feeling “very motivated” to continue that work in the wake of Dobbs.

“Now is the time for the legal profession to step it up and come to the aid of people who are seeking this care,” she says.

That might mean “representing people directly, in states where women are being criminalized. It might mean doing pro bono work, making sure they are properly represented,” Labellarte says.

Engagement by the legal community might include helping companies do the paperwork to shift their headquarters into states where female employees still have access to abortion. It could also include the kind of policy work that Labellarte was doing for the OB/GYN association.

“The ABA should be taking a very strong stance on this,” she says. “One of the most important parts of our system was just blatantly disregarded, and that cannot be ignored. Lawyers need to be out there saying, “We have a big problem with this, we think the Supreme Court got it wrong.’”

It’s not just law students who are working on the front lines of reproductive rights. The law school has long been active on these issues, for example through its Center on Applied Feminism.

Center co-directors Prof. Michele Gilman and Prof. Margaret Johnson serve as faculty advisors to If/When/How, the law students’ reproductive rights organization. “We’re supporting them in their activities, and we also have been organizing and will continue to organize educational events that explain and contextualize the recent decision by the Supreme Court,” says Johnson, who is director of the Bronfein Family Law Clinic and associate dean for experiential education.

“We held a teach-in at the end of the semester when the decision came down, and we’ll be holding an event this fall with different faculty members talking about the Dobbs decision based on their areas of expertise,” she adds.

In the family law clinic, Johnson works with students on policy and legislative initiatives in the area of reproductive justice. In the wake of Dobbs, she says, “They will be working with a coalition of policymakers and advocates to help get legislation passed in Maryland that provides more rights relating to abortion.”

The legal community should be all-in on its efforts to push back against Dobbs, Johnson says, adding the ruling could be used to undermine gay marriage, the right to contraception, and other rights as well.

“This is a structural issue,” she says. “We know that women were able to grow into professional roles in part because they controlled their contraception, their ability to conceive. If we take that away, it has a structural impact on who can enter the workplace. It’s an issue of gender justice.”

The abortion fight going forward likely will play out state by state, and much will come down to the ways in which the states formulate their specific laws. In Tarter’s view, that means the lawyers need to be engaged in the conversation at all levels.

“There are a lot of things lawyers can do outside the courtroom,” she says. “As part of the community, lawyers can talk about this — because talking about abortion is still taboo, people don’t want to face the issue. Doing your part as a lawyer also means bringing it up, speaking up about it.”

Tarter said that despite the Dobbs decision, she still feels positive about the prospects for reproductive rights. “There is a lot of hope,” she says. “In my generation, I’ve only known the right to abortion, and before that there was no right to abortion. So just because it’s not open for us right now, that doesn’t mean we can’t turn it around again.”

Adam Stone is a writer based in Annapolis.

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CFCC holds symposium on family integrity

Posted on November 11, 2022September 10, 2024 by Juan Soto in Baltimore Briefs, Baltimore Briefs 2022

Keynote speakers Andrea James, at left, and Dorothy Roberts, at right, share the symposium stage with CFCC Faculty Director Shanta Trivedi.

This fall, the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts convened its first in-person event since 2019, the CFCC Symposium on Protecting Family Integrity. In her opening remarks, CFCC’s faculty director, Prof. Shanta Trivedi, shared her vision for the center. “CFCC will continue to use the expertise that we bring, in collaboration with the expertise in our community, to reduce harm and improve the lives of children and families through a wide range of activities,” Trivedi said. “On issues affecting children and families, we strive to be a place to exchange ideas, debate notions of justice and equity, and educate and learn from one another.”

To that end, CFCC welcomed nearly 250 guests from the community at the Sept. 29 event, including advocates, attorneys, social workers, representatives from nonprofits, law students, faculty, and people negatively impacted by legal systems. The symposium emphasized a critical issue that has risen to the forefront during discussions of race and criminal legal system reform since 2020—the separation of children from their parents by the child welfare and criminal legal systems.

The majority of the families separated by government intervention are racial minorities and the economically underprivileged. The symposium’s goal was to bring together advocates challenging these systems from different vantage points to discuss approaches to preventing separation, when possible, and minimizing harm to children when separation occurs.

In the keynote conversation, distinguished law professor Dorothy Roberts, and abolitionist, author and activist Andrea James led a keynote conversation, moderated by Trivedi. The speakers discussed their own experiences with carceral systems, described their decades of advocacy in this area, and described what James calls “what different looks like” — that is, how they envision a future without system involvement.

The keynote conversation was followed by a panel focused on the causes and impacts of family separations due to parental incarceration or juvenile detention. The afternoon panel explored separations due to interventions by what some refer to as the family regulation system. Panelists included impacted individuals, advocates for reform, and law professors. They discussed the devastating impacts of these separations on families and communities and challenged participants to look at the history of the criminal and child welfare systems in this country as context for how these systems cause harm today.

Participants on both panels shared an alternate vision in which families struggling with poverty and other challenges receive supportive interventions rather than punitive responses.

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expanding access to homeownership

Posted on November 11, 2022September 10, 2024 by Juan Soto in Features, Features 2022

By Hope Keller

Wendi Redfern-Curtis, J.D. ’07, has worked in affordable housing development for 20 years, first in Baltimore City and now in Washington, D.C., where earlier this year she became senior vice president of single-family programs at the District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency.

Redfern-Curtis now oversees several programs for current and potential homeowners that aim to expand access to home ownership in Washington.

The agency, part of the District of Columbia government, issues its own mortgages and helps buyers with down payments. In fiscal 2021, it issued more than 450 home loans worth approximately $130 million.

“I’m looking forward to making sure that our programs are speaking to the needs of individuals who are looking to plant their seeds by purchasing housing,” says Redfern-Curtis, calling home ownership a “wealth builder.”

Redfern-Curtis said that Washington’s housing market is more competitive than Baltimore’s – and that it can be especially difficult for lower-income people to afford a home there. “We have to make sure we are thoughtful about making sure people in certain income brackets have the opportunity also to have housing choice in a market that is thriving,” she says.

Redfern-Curtis started working for the Baltimore City Department of Housing and Community Development in 2002, after graduating from the University of Baltimore with a B.A. in jurisprudence. She stayed with the department throughout four years of attending law school at night, and, by 2017, had risen to deputy commissioner in the Land Resources Division.

Redfern-Curtis says her legal education prepared her well for her career.

“It had an on-the-ground application every day,” says Redfern-Curtis, who cited real estate classes with Michele Gilligan, now professor emerita, and constitutional law with Prof. Michael Higginbotham as formative experiences.

“Constitutional law was very impactful,” she says, explaining that her work for the city involved condemning properties, or using the governmental power of eminent domain. “Mike Higginbotham had a huge impact on my life.”

One of the biggest projects Redfern-Curtis worked on in Baltimore was Vacants to Value, a program launched in 2010 by then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to address a rising number of vacant buildings, often with absentee landlords.

While Vacants to Value was criticized for being unable to outpace the growth in citywide vacancies, Redfern-Curtis is proud of the work that was accomplished.

“I really feel it was a successful program,” she says. “We were able to abate thousands of vacant properties by getting people to rehabilitate properties and getting people to invest in Baltimore, using full-block outcome strategies.”

Regina Hammond, founder and executive director of the ReBUILD Johnston Square organization, praises Redfern-Curtis and calls her “a listener.”

“I always got good advice and guidance from her,” says Hammond, who met Redfern-Curtis when the latter represented the Department of Housing and Community Development in the rehabilitation of the Johnston Square neighborhood in east Baltimore.

When Redfern-Curtis later spent three years in the private sector, as chief operating officer for ReBUILD Metro Inc., she continued to work with Hammond on the Johnston Square project.

“She wouldn’t say a lot, she’d just sit back and listen to all sides of the issue and then just come out with this profound statement or guideline,” Hammond says. “Anything she can do to help you or guide you, she will do that.”

Hope Keller is a writer based in Connecticut.

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UBalt Law Welcomes six New Faculty

Posted on November 11, 2022September 10, 2024 by Juan Soto in Baltimore Briefs, Baltimore Briefs 2022

Ashlyn Anderson-Keelin is a clinical teaching fellow in The Bob Parsons Veterans Advocacy Clinic. She comes to UBalt Law from the University of Georgia’s Veterans Legal Clinic. There, she helped veterans and their families obtain valuable benefits and services from the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as discharge upgrades from the various military service branches.

While at UGA, she also played a leading role in organizing a yearlong project of statewide virtual outreach to veterans in Georgia during the pandemic, a project that served over 100 veterans in 96 Georgia counties.

Originally from Kentucky, Anderson-Keelin earned her J.D. from Notre Dame Law School and her B.A. in English literature and political science from Georgetown College in Kentucky.

Valeria Gomez joined the law faculty as assistant professor in 2022. She directs the Immigrant Rights Clinic and the Immigrant Justice Clinic. In the clinics, student-attorneys, under attorney supervision, represent low-income community members in immigration-related matters, including representation in removal proceedings and in applications for immigration relief for people seeking protection from persecution abroad; survivors of human trafficking, intimate partner violence, or other crimes; and noncitizen children who have been abused, abandoned or neglected. Gomez regularly speaks on issues related to asylum and immigration law.

Before joining UBalt Law, Gomez taught in the Asylum and Human Rights Clinic at the University of Connecticut School of Law and at the Immigration Clinic at the University of Tennessee College of Law. She earned her B.B.A., magna cum laude, from Belmont University and her J.D., cum laude, from the University of Tennessee.

Jay Knight joined the School of Law as a clinical teaching fellow in the Mediation Clinic for Families in 2022. Prior to joining UBalt Law, he was the director of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Division at the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. Knight and his team managed the operations of the division while also conducting over 300 appellate mediations, including contract, tort, estate, guardianship, foreclosure, real property, and domestic disputes and conflicts.

Prior to being promoted to director, Knight was a staff attorney-mediator at the ADR division. He came to the court from private practice, where he specialized in family law mediations for English- and Spanish-speaking clients and counseled clients on securities regulatory matters.

Since 1998 while a practicing attorney, Knight has been a mediator in over 400 cases for various circuit courts, specializing in child access and domestic/financial property cases. Knight received his B.A. in English from the State University of New York College at Fredonia in 1992. He earned a J.D. from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law in 1996.

Prof. Katie Kronick

Katie Kronick teaches constitutional criminal procedure and is director of the Criminal Defense and Advocacy Clinic. Students in the clinic, which will launch in spring 2023, will represent indigent individuals on misdemeanor cases in Baltimore City District Court. Kronick’s scholarship derives from her experiences as a former public defender and clinician, writing in the areas of forensic science, post-conviction litigation, sentencing, and intellectual disability.

Prior to joining the UBalt Law faculty, Kronick was a practitioner-in-residence in the Criminal Justice Clinic-Defense at American University Washington College of Law. In that role, Kronick supervised law students on misdemeanor cases in Montgomery County, Maryland and compassionate release cases in D.C. Superior Court. Before entering academia, she was an assistant deputy public defender with the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender, where she represented individuals charged with felony offenses, from drug distribution to homicide. 

She earned her B.A. at Claremont McKenna College and her J.D. and LL.M. at Georgetown University Law Center.

Peter Norman is a clinical teaching fellow at the Community Development Clinic. He joins UBalt Law from a varied private-sector career that included work in community development, project finance and renewable energy.

Before beginning his legal career, Norman worked with residents of low- and moderate-income communities to build the capacity of community organizations and secure public and private funding for childcare, job training and continuing education programs. As a lawyer, he was based for several years in East and Southeast Asia, focusing on renewable energy project development and finance. He received his B.A. in Philosophy from Yale University and his J.D., cum laude, from New York University School of Law.

Janice Shih joined the faculty in 2022 as a visiting professor and director of the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic. Prior to this, she was the director of the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic at Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service, the largest pro bono provider of civil legal services in the state of Maryland. While there, she elevated the visibility of the program, expanded the volunteer program to include Certified Public Accountants and Enrolled Agents, and engaged with community and government stakeholders to improve services for low income Marylanders. 

A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, Shih also holds an M.D. from the George Washington University, where she completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology. After several years in private practice, Shih left medicine, obtaining a Certificate in Pastry from L’Academie de Cuisine. She then opened a pastry shop, Tenzo Artisan, which employed individuals returning from incarceration. Through this experience, Shih saw firsthand the inequities of the system, and was inspired to return to law school at the University of Baltimore.

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Faculty Notes

Posted on November 11, 2022September 10, 2024 by Juan Soto in Baltimore Briefs, Baltimore Briefs 2022

John Bessler

The Death Penalty’s Denial of Fundamental Human Rights: International Law, State Practice, and the Emerging Abolitionist Norm (2023)

“The Philosophy of Punishment and the Arc of Penal Reform: From Ancient Lawgivers to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment and through the Nineteenth Century,” chapter, in The Palgrave Handbook on the Philosophy of Punishment, Matthew Altman ed. (2023)

The Gross Injustices of Capital Punishment: A Torturous Practice and Justice Thurgood Marshall’s Astute Appraisal of the Death Penalty’s Cruelty, Discriminatory Use, and Unconstitutionality, 29 Wash & Lee J. of Civ. Rts. & Soc. Just. 65 (2023)

“Scholars and Artists Discuss the Death Penalty,” presentation at Harvard Law School, Mar. 2023

Fred Brown

Should the Federal Government Help States and Local Governments Pay for Police Misconduct Through Tax-Exempt Bonds? Va. Tax Rev. (forthcoming)

Gilda Daniels

The Cambridge Companions Series, The History of Voting Rights in the United States, editor, Cambridge University Press, (forthcoming 2025)

“Language Assistance and Provisions,” chapter, Oxford Handbook of American Election Law, (forthcoming 2024)

“The Rule of Law in U.S. Elections,” panelist, Center for Civil Rights and Social Justice, Emory University School of Law, Sept. 2023

Michele Gilman

“How the Supreme Court Decision Limiting Abortion Access Will Harm the Economy and Women’s Financial Well-Being,” chapter, in Aftermath: Life in Post-Roe America (Elizabeth G. Hines, ed., 2022)

“Beyond Window Dressing: Public Participation for Marginalized Communities in the Datafied Society” presentation, AI on the Ground Reading Group, Data & Society, Jan. 2023

“Scholarly Writing in a DEI Frame,” presentation at Mid-Atlantic Regional Clinical Conference, George Washington Law School, Feb. 2023

“Surveilling Gender and Sexuality in the Age of AI,” presentation, Changing Women in a Changing Society at 50, University of Chicago Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality May 2023

Valeria Gomez

Geography as Due Process in Immigration Court, 2023 Wis. L. Rev. 1 (2023)

“It Takes a Village: Instilling a Sense of Student Ownership over Clinic Cases & Projects,” presentation, AALS Clinic Conference, San Francisco, CA, Apr. 2023

Sarah Gottlieb

Progressive Façade: How Bail Reforms Expose the Limitations of the Progressive Prosecutor Movement, Wash. & Lee L. Rev. (forthcoming 2024)

“Progressive Façade,” presentation, Mid-Atlantic Clinicians’ Writing Workshop, May 2023

Nienke Grossman

The ‘Invisible Court’: Gender and Nationality in Registries and Secretariats, chapter, Oxford Handbook on Women and International Law, Nienke Grossman, J. Jarpa Dawuni, Jaya Ramji-Notales & Hélène Ruiz-Fabri, eds., forthcoming)

Daniel Hatcher

Injustice Inc.: How America’s Justice System Commodifies Children and the Poor (2023)

“Debt and Extracted Wealth,” panelist, Poverty Law Conference, UC Berkeley School of Law, Mar. 2023

“How America’s Justice System Commodifies Children and the Poor,” book talk, Harvard Book Store, Mar. 2023

Margaret Johnson

Lawyers, Clients & Narrative: A Framework for Law Students and Practitioners, with Carolyn Grose (2023)

Title IX and “Menstruation or Related Conditions,” Mich. J. Gender & L., Marcy L. Karin, Naomi Cahn, Elizabeth B. Cooper, Bridget J. Crawford, & Emily Gold Waldman (forthcoming)

“Teaching Lawyering Skills and Values: Pedagogy and Methodology of U.S. Clinical Legal and Experiential Education,” presentation at Law Learning and Teaching Seminar, The University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia, Mar. 2023

“Confronting Menstruation,” at Feminist Legal Research Group, The University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia, Apr. 2023

Elizabeth Keyes

J. on Migration and Hum. Sec., reviewing scholar

Oxford Hum. Rts. Hub J., reviewing scholar

Duke University’s Conference on Climate Change and Migration, Washington, D.C., invited speaker, Apr. 2023

Dionne Koller

Identifying Youth Sport, Yale J. of L. & Human. (2023)

More Than Play: How Law, Policy, and Politics Shape American Youth Sport (forthcoming 2025)

“Amateurism, NIL, and the Jordan McNair Safe and Fair Play Act: What Athletes Should Know,” at Maryland State Bar Association Program on The Law on the Game (Apr. 2023)

The Commission on the State of U.S. Olympics and Paralympics: Our Mandate and Mission, session leader, Aspen Institute Project Play Summit, May 2023

“What the Commission on the State of U.S. Olympics and Paralympics Means for U.S. Youth Sport,” presentation, Aspen Institute Project Play Summit, May 2023\

Neha Lall

“Bellow Scholars Program Report on Projects,” presentation, 2023 Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Apr. 2023

“Show Me the $: Reasons, Data & Strategies to Enact Paid Externships,” 2023 Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Apr. 2023

Robert Lande

“The Prevalence and Injuriousness of Cartels Worldwide,” chapter co-author, in Elgar Research Handbook on Cartels (Peter Whelan ed., 2023)

Textualism As An Ally of Antitrust Enforcement: Examples From Merger and Monopolization Law, Utah L. Rev. (forthcoming)

Matthew Lindsay

An Unreasonable Presumption: The National Security/Foreign Affairs Nexus in Immigration Law, co-author, Brook. L. Rev. (2023)

The Right to Migrate, Lewis & Clark L. Rev. (forthcoming 2023)

Zina Makar

Per Curiam Signals in the Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket, 98 Wash. L. Rev. 427 (2023)

“Charting the Feedback Loop of the Shadow Docket,” presentation, Loyola Law Review’s Symposium on Judicial Developments, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, Mar. 2023

“The School to Prison Doctrinal Pipeline,” presentation, UB/UM Jr. Faculty Workshop, Apr. 2023

Robert Rubinson

Ethical Problems in the Practice of Law, co-author, sixth edition (2022)

Amy Sloan

“Researching the Law: Finding What You Need When You Need It,” (Aspen Publishers 4^th ed. 2023)

Plain English for Appellate Practitioners, presentation, Nassau County Bar Association Appellate Practice Committee, Jan. 2023

Tim Sellers

Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, (M. Sellers and S. Kirste, eds., 2023)

Handbook of the History of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, (M. Sellers, S. Kirste, and G. Zanetti, eds., 2023)

Janice Shih

“Tax Filing Tips with Taxpayer Advocate Service,” presentation, University of Baltimore, Jan. 2023

“Tax Tips for Immigrants,” presentation, Baltimore County Public Libraries, Feb. 2023

Matthew Sipe

Covering Prying Eyes with an Invisible Hand: Privacy, Antitrust, and the New Brandeis Movement, 36 Harv. J.L. & Tech. 359 (2023)

“Patent Law 101: I Know It When I See It,” presentation, Emerging Voices in Intellectual Property, AALS Annual Meeting, Jan. 2023

“The Implications of the FTC’s Proposed Ban on Noncompete Agreements,” presentation, Regulatory Transparency Project, Mar. 2023

Colin Starger

“Logic, Reasoning, and Legal Rhetoric,” presentation,t Illinois Judicial College CLE Series, Nov. 2022

“Techniques and Technologies for Collaboration and Teamwork in Clinical Legal Education Settings,” presentation, Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE) 11th World Wide Conference, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, Dec. 2022

Shanta Trivedi

“How will I get back?”: The Enduring Pain of Permanent Family Separation, co-author, Fam. Just. J. (2023)

Mandating Support for Survivors, Va. J. Soc. Pol’y & L. (2023)

Presentation: Shanta Trivedi, Mandating Support for Survivors at the Family Violence Roundtable, University of Virginia Law School, Charlottesville, VA (Jan. 20, 2023).

Presentation: Shanta Trivedi, Moderator, Is the Indian Child Welfare Act Unconstitutional? at UB Law in Focus, Baltimore, MD (Feb. 7, 2023).

“The Adoption and Safe Families Act Is Not Worth Saving: The Case for Repeal,” presentation, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, Mar. 2023

“Are Parental Rights Always In the Best Interest of Children?” presentation, Race, Gender, Sexuality and the Conflict Over Parental Rights, University of Connecticut, Hartford, CT, Mar. 2023

Angela Vallario

Don’t Let Death Be Your Deadline: Get A Will Before It’s Too Late: Expand Holographic-Wills Law to Incentivize Will-Making, The Elder L. J. (forthcoming)

Kimberly Wehle

How the Pardon Power Works and Why (forthcoming 2024)

The Stealth Posture of the Ninth Amendment: Could Federalism Swallow Unenumerated Rights? U. Md. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2023)

Sonya Ziaja

Mapping Ecosystem Benefits Flows to Normalize Equity, 54.3 Ariz. State L. Rev. (2023) (with Keith Hirokawa, Cinnamon Carlane and Karrigan Bork)

Secret Lives of Environmental Rights, Pace Env’t L. Rev. (2023)

How Algorithm Assisted Decision Making Is Influencing Climate Adaptation and Environmental Law, Env’t L. & Pol’y Ann. Rev. (2023)

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National Trial Team Places Second in Buffalo Niagara regional contest

Posted on November 11, 2022September 10, 2024 by Juan Soto in Baltimore Briefs, Baltimore Briefs 2022

Buffalo trial team competitors, from left: Audreina Blanding, Brice Litus, Amanda Sirleaf and Leah Dotter.

The National Trial Team placed second Oct. 16 in the Buffalo Niagara Trial Competition, earning them an invitation to the National Trial Competition, which takes place in Spring 2023. The law school’s team of four — Audreina Blanding, Leah Dotter, Brice Litus and Amanda Sirleaf —dominated the competition field, which started with 28 teams (including highly ranked Fordham, Pace and Hofstra), and out-performed competitors by earning perfect, and near-perfect, scores on their opening and closing statements, as well as their direct and cross-examinations.

Special recognition went to Sirleaf, who was named Best Overall Advocate. The team was coached by alumni Ashley Bond, J.D. ’16, and Annemarie Duerr, J.D. ’22, and supported by the Board of Advocates executive board.

Moot Court and Trial Team competitions provide students with the opportunity to get hands-on experience with oral arguments, appellate brief writing, cross-examination, witness examination, opening and closing arguments, and more. With the support of practicing attorneys, professors and former participants, Moot Court and Trial Team members commit approximately 200 hours to preparing and presenting their cases at regional and national competitions.

Although these competitions are academic in nature, their intensity and commitment mirror that of athletic competitions. Alexandria Hodge, UBalt Law Board of Advocates president, points out that due to the time, energy and effort that go into these competitions, “Many of our advocates feel like they’ve won a major championship game by the end of their competition!”

All UBalt Law students are encouraged to compete in competitions during their law school career, starting with annual Byron Warnken Moot Court Competition. That is the internal moot court competition that takes place over the summer. Exceptional competitors are invited to join one of the prestigious competition teams, and a devoted few will continue their commitment by becoming a member of the student-led Board of Advocates.

Alumni and faculty are always welcome to support competition teams as coaches and mentors. For more information on ways to support Moot Court and Trial Teams, or to follow their progress, follow the Board of Advocates page on Facebook.

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Faculty Celebrate Their New Books

Posted on November 11, 2022September 10, 2024 by Juan Soto in Baltimore Briefs, Baltimore Briefs 2022

Three law professors celebrated new books in 2022.

On Feb. 24, friends and colleagues gathered to hear about Prof. Jose Anderson’s book Genius for Justice: Charles Hamilton Houston and the Reform of American Law. Members of the Houston family attended the event.

The first general counsel of the NAACP, Houston exposed the hollowness of the “separate but equal” doctrine and paved the way for the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, outlawing school segregation. The legal brilliance used to champion other civil rights cases earned Houston the nickname, “The Man Who Killed Jim Crow.”

After serving in the segregated U.S. Army in World War I, Houston returned to the United States in 1919 and enrolled at Harvard Law School, where he was the first Black student elected to the editorial board of the Harvard Law Review. Later, as dean of the Howard University Law School, Houston expanded the part-time program into a full-time curriculum. He also mentored a generation of young Black lawyers, including Thurgood Marshall, who would go on to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

In  March, the law school hosted a virtual celebration for the third book written by Prof. Kim Wehle, How to Think Like a Lawyer — and Why: A Common-Sense Guide to Everyday Dilemmas. In this book, Wehle teaches laypersons how to think like a lawyer to gain advantage in their lives — whether buying a house, choosing healthcare, or negotiating a salary. She walks readers through the process of breaking down complex issues into manageable pieces for better decision-making.

Prof. John Bessler published two new books this past year, both of which were discussed at events featuring colleagues in the legal academy. The first, Private Prosecution in America: Its Origins, History, and Unconstitutionality in the Twenty-First Century, is the first comprehensive examination of a practice that dates back to the colonial era. Tracking its origins to medieval times and English common law, the book shows how “private prosecutors” were once a mainstay of early American criminal procedure. Private prosecutors—acting on their own behalf, as next of kin, or though retained counsel—initiated prosecutions, presented evidence in court, and sought the punishment of offenders.

Bessler’s most recent book, The Death Penalty’s Denial of Fundamental Human Rights, continues his scholarly exploration of capital punishment as an act of torture and a violation of basic human rights. A previous book on the subject, The Death Penalty as Torture: From the Dark Ages to Abolition (Carolina Academic Press, 2017), was a Bronze Medalist in that year’s Independent Publisher Book Awards.