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

Professor Chris Sagers’ paper, Legal Boundaries as Political Economy:  The Scope of Antitrust and a General Theory of the Competition-Regulation Dichotomy, was selected for the NYU Next Generation of Antitrust Scholarship Conference, to be held in January 20, 2012 at NYU.  The event is co-sponsored by NYU, the AALS, and the ABA Antitrust Section.  The paper was selected through a competitive process by a panel senior scholars in antitrust.

Professor Kermit Lind

Clinical Professor Emeritus Kermit Lind was interviewed for the Washington Post article Good business for bad times:  Mortgage field services, by Brady Dennis, Friday, October 28.  The article addresses the surge in businesses that service the mortgage foreclosure industry.  In particular, the article focuses on a Cleveland-area business, Safeguard Enterprises, that cares for foreclosed upon properties.  Safeguard fixes broken windows, mows lawns, repairs pipes, etc.  Business is booming and critics contend that Safeguard’s founder is “a shill for the banks whose mortgage abuses helped create and exacerbate the crisis.” Lind was asked about the paradoxical situation of Safeguard’s founder — as a businessman making a fortune out of the foreclosure crisis, or as a businessman serving the needs of his clients by caring for their properties. “He’s an apologist of the first order” for mortgage servicers, says Kermit Lind, a housing expert and former Cleveland State University professor. . . “[a]nd why not? They are the ones who are making him rich.” But, Lind adds, “To his credit, he’s tried to position himself as a mediator between the banks and the public. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”

To read the full article, click here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/good-business-for-bad-times-mortgage-field-services/2011/10/24/gIQA2FTlPM_story.html