Professor Heidi Gorovitz Robertson travelled to Ireland with the Irish-American Law Society of Cleveland to participate in the group’s 2022 Law and Business Symposium.  Events took place in both Dublin and Cork and included visits to The Honorable Society of King’s Inn, Four Courts of Dublin, Blackhall Place, Cork City Hall, and University College-Cork’s Center for Executive Education. 

Robertson worked with Professor Owen McIntyre of UCC-Cork to plan and present a seminar on environmental law that included presenters on EU law, Irish law, and American law.  Robertson and McIntyre were joined by Joanne Spalding, Acting Legal Director and Chief Climate Counsel for the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program, and Mr. Fred Logue, a prominent Irish environmental litigator.  Robertson presented Systemic Issues in the U.S. Legal System Effecting Enforcement of US Climate Regulation.  This talk followed Spalding’s presentation on the history of US climate litigation efforts and focused on the recent West Virginia v EPA case as well as Congress’ responses to that case in the Inflation Reduction Act.  Following presentations on United Nations, European Union, and Irish approaches to human rights to a clean environment, she presented US Approaches to Environmental Rights: Focus on Sub-National and Local Initiatives.

Ohioans travelling to and participating in this event included many C|M|Law alumni including Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, and Justices Melody Stewart and Michael Donnelly.

Robertson is the Steven W. Percy Professor of Law at C|M|Law and Professor of Environmental Studies at the College of Education and Public Affairs.

Legal Educator-in-Residence Howard E. Katz made three presentations about law school teaching at the University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law on Sept 23. He conducted sessions on “Strategies and Techniques to Improve Our Teaching” and “Constructing and Grading Exams,” as well as a session specifically for those who teach first-year students.

Professor Chrisa Laser was cited in an article on Law360 titled “Justices Asked To Look Into Apple’s Estoppel Challenge.” The article discusses Professor Laser’s Supreme Court amicus brief regarding estoppel in patent cases. The amicus brief was filed in the Apple v. California Institute of Tech. case.

Professor Karin Mika has published an article in the University of Dayton Law Review titled “A Stitch in Time Saves Nine:  How the State of Ohio Can Save Money and Distress Through Legal Training for Pre-Service Teachers.” Professor Mika co-authored the article with her daughter Christine Mika, C|M|LAW class of 2021. The article discusses how Ohio teachers need more required education in aspects of the law that relate to the classroom, including First Amendment Law, Fourth Amendment Law, Disabilities Law, and Employment Law.

The citation is 47 Univ. Dayton L. Rev. 383 (2022).

On Yom Kippur, Wednesday October 5, Clinical Professor of Law Doron Kalir was invited to speak before Congregation Kol-HaLev about the Dobbs opinion and its aftermath. The presentation included a historical review of the Court’s right-to-privacy opinions (“how did we get here”); a quick description of both the majority and dissenting opinions of the Dobbs decision itself (“what just happened”); and, finally, an examination of current freedom-of-religion lawsuit, filed by Jewish (and other) religious organization, challenging Dobbs on freedom-to-exercise basis. More than 50 congregants were in attendance.

Professor Karin Mika presented at the Western Regional Legal Writing Conference, held at the University of Oregon on October 7-8. Her presentation was titled, The Concept of Lists in Legal Drafting, and discussed structuring organized lists in drafting contracts, leases, and other legal documents that make the document more readable.  

Professor Heidi Gorovitz Robertson attended the Vermont Environmental Legal Scholarship Colloquium on September 23 and 24 at Vermont Law and Graduate School in S. Royalton, Vermont.  The colloquium is designed to draw environmental law scholars from around the country to present and obtain feedback on works-in-progress.  Robertson presented Irrationalizing the Local Role in Energy Deveopment: Oil and Gas v Wind and Solar in Ohio.

Robertson is the Steven W. Percy Professor of Law at CM Law and Professor of Environmental Studies at the College of Education and Public Affairs.

Professor Brian Ray was quoted in the article “Cleveland Has Spent Millions on Police Cameras. Why Are the Locations a Secret?” published by the Marshall Project in Scene magazine. Ray and Professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich advised on a report and recommendation from the Cleveland Community Police Commission urging the City to adopt a community oversight process for surveillance technologies to provide greater transparency and accountability over their use by police and civilian agencies.

Ray also is one of two faculty from Cleveland State and Case Western Reserve Universities’ Internet of Things Collaborative (IoTC) who plans to work on a privacy-protective solution for illegal dumping powered by artificial intelligence for the City of Cleveland recently approved by Cleveland City Council. Ray is a founding member of the IoTC, which has received over $3 million in funding from the Cleveland Foundation.

On September 17, 2022, Professor Heidi Gorovitz Robertson was an invited guest speaker at the National Association of Royalty Owners 2022 Convention at the Pritchard Laughlin Center in Cambridge, Ohio.  Her presentation, entitled Forced Unitization, Who Decides and at What Cost in Ohio?described the hows, whens, and whys of forced pooling and unitization in Ohio.  It explained the rights holders’ role — and the various stumbling blocks and pitfalls of the Ohio unitization process from the perspective of landowners and rights holders.  

Robertson is the Steven W. Percy Distinguished Professor of Law at the College of Law, and Professor of Environmental Studies at the College of Education and Public Affairs, Cleveland State University.

Professor Karin Mika has published an article titled Obergefell v. Hodges—and the Use of Oral Argument and Storytelling to Reinforce Competencies in the Legal Writing Classroom. The article describes how having first year students listen to Supreme Court arguments on meaningful contemporary legal issues reinforces skills learned in Legal Writing and humanizes the otherwise mundane task of learning legal analysis. The article also references how the background “human” stories that brought litigants to the courtroom increases empathy.

The citation is: Karin Mika, Obergefell v. Hodges—and the Use of Oral Argument and Storytelling to Reinforce Competencies in the Legal Writing Classroom, 29 Persps. 36 (2022).