Professor Chris Sagers

Professor Chris Sagers was singled out for praise in a January 20 statement by FTC Commissioner Thomas Rosch.  Sagers had submitted an amicus brief on behalf of the American Antitrust Institute in Federal Trade Commission v. Lundbeck, Inc., the Eighth Circuit’s consideration of an FTC merger matter.  Commissioner Rosch, dissenting from the Commission’s decision not to seek certiorari from the Lundbeck decision (in which the Commission and the AAI as its amicus lost the case), began by recognizing the AAI for its work and, in particular, Sagers’ part in it.  In his published statement, Commissioner Rosch praised the AAI’s briefs and said, “One of the authors of those briefs, Professor Chris Sagers of the Cleveland–Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University, rhetorically asked, ‘Why, God, Why? What really has the world come to when a merger to monopoly followed by a 1300% price increase survives Section 7 challenge? … [I]f there were need for proof that antitrust has gone completely haywire, this [case] is it.”  Commissioner Rosch is referring to a blog post by Professor Sagers in Antitrust Connect.

To read the brief, see: http://www.antitrustinstitute.org/~antitrust/sites/default/files/AAI%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf

To see Commissioner Rosch’s statement, see: http://www.ftc.gov/os/closings/publicltrs/120120lundbeck-rosch.pdf

To see Commissioner Rosch’s dissent, see: www.geoffmanne.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/ca8_op.pdf

To see the quoted blog post, see: http://www.antitrustconnect.com/2011/08/23/ftc-v-lundbeck-why-god-why/

Professors Milena Sterio and Michael Scharf (Case) at Ideastream studio

Professor Milena Sterio appeared on WCPN’s Sound of Ideas radio show on Tuesday, January 31, 2012, to discuss piracy in the 20th century.  She and Professor Michael Scharf (Case), discussed the problem of modern piracy and their work supporting the prosecution of Somali pirates in the courts of the Seychelles and other countries in that region.  Sterio, along with her C|M|LAW students, provides legal research support to the government of the Seychelles as they work to prosecute pirates.  (Please see earlier posts describing that work: https://cmlawfaculty.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/sterio-serves-on-piracy-delegation-to-the-seychelles/)

To listen to the radio show, please click here http://www.ideastream.org/soi/entry/44912

Dennis Keating’s review of Harvard University Professor Susan
Fainstein’s THE JUST CITY appears in the January, 2012 issue of URBAN AFFAIRS REVIEW: Vol. 48, No. 1: 138-140. Professor Fainstein keynoted an October, 2010 Levin College Forum honoring the equity planning work of Professor Norm Krumholz.  Professor Fainstein’s THE JUST CITY (Cornell University Press, 2010) looks at three cities: Amsterdam, London and New York. She argues that three principles conceptualize the just city: democracy, diversity, and equity. She poses four questions for her case studies, looks at major redevelopment policies and projects, and concludes that inequality has increased in the latter two cities, while Amsterdam offers more hope for progressive urban policies. Fainstein offers her own ideas for specific policies to promote more just cities, while acknowledging that national policies and global factors limit the possibilities for independent reforms at the municipal level.

You may access this article by downloading it through Ohio Link at: http://journals.ohiolink.edu/ejc/article.cgi?issn=10780874&issue=v48i0001&article=138_brtjc

As previously discussed in this space (see: https://cmlawfaculty.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/sterio-serves-on-piracy-delegation-to-the-seychelles/), Professor Milena Sterio traveled to the Seychelles as part of a small delegation of lawyers sent by the High Level Working Group on Piracy to assist the Seychelles with the prosecution of pirates.  Her work, along with Professor Michael Scharf (Case), was the subject of an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.  The article, Cleveland Law Professors Helping with Prosecution of Somali Pirates, by James Ewinger, appeared on Monday, December 19, 2011.

See http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/12/cleveland_law_professors_helpi.html

Serena Mayeri's Reasoning from Race

Professor Lolita Buckner Inniss reviewed Serena Mayeri’s Reasoning from Race on Dicta.   Dicta is a project of the Texas Law Review and, according to its website, “Dicta, at its simplest, is a place to share thoughts, reactions, and recommendations on legal books. The site features short and accessible pieces covering any and all recently published books that are of interest to the legal academy.”  According to Inniss,  Reasoning from Race is a great read for those interested in the history of feminist legal strategy and in the ways that the feminist movement deployed legal approaches from the the Civil Rights movement.  She writes that “Reasoning from Race is about how feminist legal theorists incorporated into the “woman question” legal theories drawn from the black (formerly, the Negro) question,” and that the book “makes manifest that race and sex remain inexorably linked and that together they help to form the basis of what one commentator has called a “perspectivist aesthetic.”  Inniss states, in conclusion, that “Mayeri succeeds admirably in addressing the diverse but closely allied strands of legal strategizing about feminism premised on race.”

See, Lolita Buckner Inniss, Reasoning from Race: Feminism, Law, and the Civil Rights Revolution, Texas Law Review Dicta (2011), http://www.texaslrev.com/sites/default/files/Inniss.pdf.

Professor Chris Sagers

Professor Chris Sagers was quoted in the L.A. Times on December 10 for his views in AT&T’s unprecedented merger bid to acquire rival wireless service provider T-Mobile.  The merger, which would reduce  the U.S. wireless service marketplace to only three competitors, and in virtually every major U.S. city would give AT&T market share dramatically above the levels normally challenged by federal antitrust enforcers, appeared to be in jeopardy after the Federal Communications Commission announced its intent to investigate it through adversarial proceedings and the U.S. Justice Department sought to prolong its in-court antitrust challenge to the deal.  Asked why AT&T what events portended for the merger, Sagers observed that the parties likely had no real expectation of consummating anything like their initially planned transaction, and instead were probably negotiating with regulators and with each other over their most mutually palatable means of exit.  (After this article appeared in December 10, AT&T chose to abandon the merger entirely.)

To view the full story, click here:  http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/10/business/la-fi-att-deal-20111210]

On December 6, 2011, Professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich gave a presentation on federal criminal practice at the Federal Court Training Seminar for the Northern District of Ohio.  The Federal Bar Training course is required for admission to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

Professor Sterio and Professor Michael Scharf (CWRU) at the Supreme Court of the Seychelles

Professor Milena Sterio traveled to the Seychelles this week to participate in meetings with the Seychelles’ Attorney General and members of the judiciary about the ongoing Somali pirate prosecutions in the Seychelles’ courts.  Sterio served on a delegation representing the Public International Law & Policy Group, which recently began work in the area of Somali piracy, through the creation of its Piracy Working Group.  The mission to the Seychelles had two specific goals.  The first goal was to present the Seychelles Attorney General with copies of eighteen legal memoranda, addressing various legal issues related to Somali piracy.  Topics covered in the memoranda include the applicability of 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea and customary law to piracy incidents off the coast of Somalia, to more specialized discussions on, for example, relevant international regimes related to the freezing both of piracy financiers’ assets and of financial gains derived from piracy.  The group hopes this legal research will assist the Seychelles in the prosecution of Somali pirates in the Seychelles courts.  Second, the delegation entered into an oral agreement through which the Seychelles Attorney General’s office will continue to request and obtain legal research from PILPG on piracy topics as issues arise in their future prosecutions of pirates.

To read a description of the Piracy Working Group and its work with the government of the Seychelles, click here:   http://intlawgrrls.blogspot.com/2011/12/in-seychelles-in-pursuit-of-pirates.html

Legal Writing Professor Karin Mika spoke on Legal Research Using Free Internet Resources at the Legal Writing Institute Regional Workshop at Chicago-Kent Law School on December 2.   In addition, Professor Mika will be serving as one of approximately 20 Articles Editors for the upcoming edition of 2011, Year in Review, published by the Immigration and Naturalization Section of the American Bar Association.

Professor John Plecnik and Associate Dean Mark Sundahl gave a joint presentation on October 28, 2012, at the Shaker|LaunchHouse, the new business accelerator in Shaker Heights.  The presentation, “C Corps, S Corps and LLCs…Oh, My!  Choosing the right business entity for your start-up“, was part of the Global Gateway Lecture Series jointly organized by CSU’s Monte Ahuja College of Business Administration and C|M|LAW.  The Shaker|LaunchHouse is a new public-private partnership that fosters entrepreneurial success and job creation through seed capital, education and innovation.

For more information about the Shaker LaunchHouse, see: http://www.launchhouse.com

For more information about the Global Gateway Lecture Series click here: http://www.csuohio.edu/business/global/gateway