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Comings and Goings at the School of Law: September 2007

This year we have two new full-time faculty members in our midst, as well as several distinguished visitors and adjunct faculty members teaching courses here for the first time. Below are the details, along with a summary of other significant faculty and staff transitions at the Law School in the last year.

New full-time faculty

The Law School is delighted to welcome Hillary Greene, who joins the faculty as an associate professor this fall. Professor Greene will direct the IP Clinic as well as teach Patent Law and Antitrust. A rising scholar in these fields, her recent publications include Guideline Institutionalization: The Role of Merger Guidelines in Antitrust Discourse, published in the William and Mary Law Review, and a co-authored book chapter on Policy Implications of Weak Patent Rights. She comes to us from the faculty of the S.J. Quinney School of Law at the University of Utah, where she taught for two years following year-long visitorships at Harvard Law School and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Prior to law teaching, she served for three years in the Office of the General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission, in Washington, D.C., first as acting deputy assistant general counsel for policy studies and then as project director for intellectual property. She also previously worked as a litigation associate at the law firm of Cahill, Gordon & Reindel in New York City. Professor Greene earned a B.A. in economics and political science, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Yale College, and her J.D. degree from Yale Law School, where she was an articles editor for the Yale Journal on Regulation.

We are also pleased to welcome Perry Bechky, who joins the faculty as an assistant visiting professor. Professor Bechky is teaching International Business Transactions this fall and will offer a new seminar in International Investment Law next spring. He joins us fresh from a distinguished 14-year practice career, most of it spent as an international lawyer and litigator with the firm of Shearman & Sterling in Washington, D.C. He also previously served for two years an Honors Attorney for the U.S. Department of the Treasury. While in practice, Professor Bechky has written several articles for leading trade journals and has taught courses at the University of Virginia School of Law, the George Mason University School of Law, and the Howard University School of Law. He earned an A.B. in history, with honors, from Stanford University, and his J.D. degree from Columbia University School of Law, where he was managing editor of the Journal of Chinese Law Also joining the faculty since the last "Comings and Goings" report are John Tomich and Don Ghostlaw, who came aboard last January as assistant clinical professors to teach and supervise the brand-new IP Clinic. Professors Tomich and Ghostlaw are already well-known to this community but deserve further recognition here, along with Professor Bill Breetz, for the outstanding job they did last spring in getting a new clinical program up and running successfully in next to no time.

Other New Faculty Faces

We are privileged to have two eminent members of the Storrs faculty teaching seminars here next spring. Richard Wilson, Professor of Anthropology, holder of the Gladstein Distinguished Chair of Human Rights, and Director of the Human Rights Institute, will teach Human Rights and Post-Conflict Justice. He is the author of numerous works on human rights, truth commissions and international criminal tribunals, including books on The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa (Cambridge University Press 2001) and Maya Resurgence in Guatemala (University of Oklahoma Press 1995), and has edited or co-edited five other books. Professor Wilson earned both B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and taught at the University of Essex and the University of Sussex in England before joining the faculty at Storrs in 2003. Professor Wilson directs the graduate certificate program in human rights, developed jointly last year with the Law School and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS).

Also teaching a seminar here next spring, on Latinos/as and the Law, will be Blanca Silvestrini, Professor of History and former director of the Institute of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at Storrs. Professor Silvestrini's research focuses on social and cultural change in the Caribbean during the period 1880-1940, as well as gender history, the history of public health and tropical medicine, and law and society issues. She is the author of numerous works, including books on Violencia y criminalidad en Puerto Rico, 1898-1973 (University of Puerto Rico Press 1980) and Historia de Puerto Rico: Trayectoria de un pueblo (Ediciones Cultural Panamericana 1991), and has edited or co-edited two other books as well. Professor Silvestrini earned a B.A. and J.D. from the University of Puerto Rico, both magna cum laude, a J.S.M. from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Albany. Before joining the UConn faculty in 1998, she taught at the University of Puerto Rico, serving as vice president for academic affairs from 1994-97, and has also been a visiting professor at the Stanford University School of Law.

Finally, we are privileged to have the following new adjunct faculty members teaching courses this year:

• The Honorable Julia Aurigemma '78, a Superior Court judge, is teaching a section of Evidence this fall. Judge Aurigemma was appointed to the bench in 1990, was one of the original five judges to serve on the newly-formed Complex Litigation Docket in 1998, and currently serves as chief administrative judge for the Middlesex Judicial District. She was a member of the committee that drafted the Connecticut Code of Evidence (under the guidance of Professor Colin Tait) and has served on several other important state committees and commissions. She earned a BA, with distinction in all subjects and Phi Beta Kappa, from Cornell University, and her JD from this institution with honors.
• Karen DeMeola '96, the Law School's assistant dean for admissions and student finance, will teach Critical Identity Theory this fall. A stalwart member of our administrative staff since 2000, Dean DeMeola previously served as assistant director of admissions at Western New England Colllege School of Law. She also practiced law for several years in the Hartford area, focusing on employment discrimination and other civil rights matters, as well as family law and estate planning. Dean DeMeola earned a BA in psychology, as well as her JD, from UConn.
• Paul Eddy '80 will co-teach Regulation of Insurance Transactions (with Michael Wilder) next spring. Attorney Eddy is a former General Counsel at St. Paul-Travelers, where during the past 25 years he has supervised numerous major corporate transactions, including the merger of Travelers and Solomon Smith-Barney, the acquisition of Aetna's property-casualty operations, the creation of Citigroup, the spin-off of Travelers from Citigroup, and Travelers' merger with St.Paul. He earned a BA from Ohio Wesleyan University in politics and government, and his JD from this institution, where he was managing editor of the Connecticut Law Review.
• Michael Gailor '87 and James Turcotte are co-teaching the State's Attorneys' Externship Clinic this fall, after a successful inaugural run of this brand-new clinical program last spring. Attorney Gailor has been a prosecutor in the Office of the Chief State's Attorney for 14 years and currently serves as an executive assistant state's attorney. He previously clerked for U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Smith and was a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Hartford. He received a BA from Cornell University and his JD with honors from this institution. Attorney Turcotte has been a state prosecutor for more than 20 years and currently serves as a supervisory assistant state's attorney, managing the prosecutors' office in the Meriden. He earned a BA with honors from Boston University, and his JD from the Western New England College School of Law.
• Elena Gervino, a vice president for claim services at the Travelers, is co-teaching Insurance Litigation this fall (with Jeffrey Vita and Mark Gurevitz). She has worked at Travelers for 11 years and previously was a litigation associate at both Hebb & Gitlin and Day, Berry & Howard (now Day Pitney). Attorney Gervino also clerked for Justice Alfred Covello of the Connecticut Supreme Court. She earned a BS from the University of Rhode Island and her JD with honors from the Western New England College School of Law, where she was a notes editor of the law review.
• Erik Lohr '02 is teaching Street Law this fall in the absence of Professor Robin Barnes (see section 4 below). Attorney Lohr is a deputy assistant state's attorney in the Office of the Chief State's Attorney, where in four short years his talents already have landed him in double figures in cases tried as well as appeals argued. He previously was a litigation associate with Tyler Cooper & Alcorn LLP here in Hartford. An honors graduate of this institution, he earned a BS in applied nuclear engineering from Thomas Edison State College in New Jersey, before which he served as a nuclear reactor operator aboard a U.S. Navy fast-attack submarine.
• Umar Moghul, a lawyer in the Hartford office of Murtha Cullina LLP, is teaching Islamic Law this fall. Attorney Moghul's practice encompasses banking & finance, private equity, mergers & acquisitions, as well as Islamic finance and Islamic law generally. He has twice taught this course to strong reviews at nearby Western New England College School of Law. He earned a BA in history, as well as an MA, from the University of Pennsylvania, and his JD from Temple University.
• Louis Ricciuti '93 is teaching Reinsurance this fall. Attorney Ricciuti is currently counsel to the reinsurance unit at the Hartford Financial Services Group and has worked as a lawyer in the insurance industry for 11 years. He previously was an associate at Day, Berry & Howard (now Day Pitney) and clerked for Chief Judge Antoinette Dupont of the Connecticut Appellate Court. He earned a BA in history, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Boston College, and his JD with honors from this institution, where he was a notes and comments editor of the Connecticut Law Review.
• Bonnie Roswig, a former managing attorney for Connecticut Statewide Legal Services, is teaching a section of Lawyering Process this fall. She also co-taught Consumer Protection Law and Advocacy (with Professor Anne Goldstein) last spring, a new course that included a practicum in which students provided debt counseling to actual clients. Attorney Roswig has been a legal services lawyer in Georgia and Connecticut for nearly 20 years, after earning a BA from Bennington College and her JD from Antioch School of Law.

Faculty Members Returning from Leaves

Several faculty members who were away all or part of last year have returned to campus this fall. Professors Paul Berman and Laura Dickinson were both fellows last year in Princeton University's prestigious Program in Law and Public Affairs (LAPA) (in which Professor Peter Lindseth is a fellow this year; see below). Professor Berman is teaching Civil Procedure in both the day and evening divisions this year, while Professor Dickinson is teaching International Human Rights in the fall and co-teaching (with Professor Mark Janis) the brand-new International Law and Human Rights Clinic in the spring. Returning from spring-semester research leaves or sabbaticals last year are Professors Jon Bauer, Tom Morawetz and Peter Siegelman. Professor Bauer is once again co-teaching the Asylum and Human Rights Clinic (with Professor Michelle Caldera), as well as Employment Discrimination Law in the spring. Professor Morawetz is teaching Criminal Law, Law and Literature, and Contemporary Legal Theory in the fall, and Law and Literature of Crime in the spring. Professor Siegelman is teaching Contracts and Employment Discrimination Law in the fall, and Law and Economics, as well as Economics of Insurance, in the spring.

Faculty Leaves, Visitorships and Departures

As noted above, Professor Peter Lindseth is visiting at Princeton University this year as a fellow in its Program in Law and Public Affairs. Professor Robin Barnes is visiting all year at the University of Colorado School of Law. Professors Kaaryn Gustafson, Alexandra Lahav, Patricia McCoy, and Susan Schmeiser are all on research or sabbatic leave this fall. Professors Timothy Everett and Kurt Strasser will be on leave in the spring.

Several veteran adjunct faculty members have decided to yield the podium, at least for now. The Honorable Thomas Bishop, a judge of the Connecticut Appellate Court, has taught courses on alternative dispute resolution and, more recently, judicial independence, for 20 years. His availability to students, as a teacher, mentor, scholar, and sheer example, will be hard to replace. The Honorable Barbara Quinn, a Superior Court judge, has taught Alternative Dispute Resolution for the past four years but concluded she could no longer take the time to do so upon being appointed deputy chief court administrator. (Judge Quinn has since been appointed the state's chief court administrator.) Michelle Strickland, a lawyer in private practice who has taught Immigration Law for the past three years, relocated with her family to Alabama. John Tannenbaum, who has taught Tax Court Advocacy for the past three years, succumbed to the heavy time demands of his private law practice. In addition, Bill Rubenstein, who stepped in on short notice last year to teach Antitrust when Professor Kurt Strasser was appointed interim dean, can once again devote full attention to his demanding law practice as a partner with the firm of Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP. The Law School is deeply grateful to these individuals for their generous, devoted and distinguished service to their students and the school.

Finally, Mark Dubois '78 has taken his leave after a six-year association with the Law School's Lawyering Process program, first as an assistant clinical professor and then—after he was appointed chief state disciplinary counsel (for legal ethics enforcement)—as a member of the adjunct faculty. Professor Dubois also devoted a great deal of time and energy to helping students develop their trial advocacy skills, and was the inspiration for, and later faculty advisor to, the student Mock Trial Society. The Law School thanks him for his enormous contributions over the years and hopes that he will remain a resource for students as well as a presence at the Law School.

Staff Transitions

The Law School's staff—a remarkably talented, dedicated and hard-working collection of people—underwent relatively few changes last year.

Lawyering Process program:

Jennifer Doyer was hired as the program assistant for the Lawyering Process and Moot Court Interterm programs last spring. She takes over from Claudia Norsworthy, who last year became the Law School's director of special projects. That position was previously held by Blanche Capilos, in addition to her duties as deputy director of international legal programs.

Library & Technology:

In acquisitions/serials, Marta Pawlik left in last spring and Becky Lewbel joined us in July. In administration, Dorothy Thibault left in late summer 2006 and Sofiya Leja joined us last May. Josh LaPorte joined the access services team in November 2006. Nedra Abbruzzese-Werling shifted from career services to information systems last June.

University of Connecticut Police Department:

Officer Kurt Hoffler transferred to the Law School campus last spring from the Waterbury campus and is working the evening shift.

Please join me in welcoming the newcomers (and relative newcomers) to our community and extending fond well-wishes to those who have moved on.

Paul Chill
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
and Clinical Professor of Law