The issue includes:

Articles

• "Losing the Forest for the Trees: Syria, Law, and the Pragmatics of Conflict Recognition," by Laurie R. Blank & Geoffrey S. Corn, 46 VAND. J. TRANSNAT’L L. 693 (2013)
• "Proportionality in Military Force at War’’s Multiple Levels: Averting Civilian Casualties vs. Safeguarding Soldiers," by Ziv Bohrer & Mark Osiel, 46 VAND. J. TRANSNAT’L L. 747 (2013)
• "Civil Actions for Acts that Are Valid According to Religious Family Law but Harm Women’s Rights: Legal Pluralism in Cases of Collision Between Two Sets of Laws," by Benjamin Shmueli, 46 VAND. J. TRANSNAT’L L. 823 (2013)

Notes

• "Is Seasteading the High Seas a Legal Possibility? Filling the Gaps in International Sovereignty Law and the Law of the Seas," by Ryan H. Fateh, 46 VAND. J. TRANSNAT’L L. 899 (2013)
• "Solving “The Gravest Natural Resource Shortage You’ve Never Heard Of," Applying Transnational New Governance to the Phosphate Industry," by Chelsae Rose Johansen, 46 VAND. J. TRANSNAT’L L. 933 (2013)
• "A Behavioral Economic Approach to Nuclear Disarmament Advocacy," by Alexander S. Rinn, 46 VAND. J. TRANSNAT’L L. 969 (2013)

"Vanderbilt places a strong emphasis on experiential learning, and our students secured an impressive array of externships where they will gain extremely valuable on-the-job experience as well as insight into how various aspects of the legal system work," said Susan Kay, Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, who oversees Vanderbilt's externship program.

Students are pursuing externships for course credit with the following legal employers:

Federal Government

• U.S. Copyright Office, Washington, D.C.
• Department of Education, Office of the General Counsel, Washington, D.C.
• Department of Environmental Protection, Southcentral Regional Office, Office of the General Counsel, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
• Department of Housing and Urban Development, Nashville, Tennessee
• Department of Justice, Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch, Washington, D.C.
• Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Appellate Section, Washington, D.C.
• Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Fraud Section, Washington, D.C.
• Securities & Exchange Commission, Enforcement Division, Boston Regional Office, Massachusetts

Senators

• Senator Charles Grassley, Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, D.C.

Judicial Chambers

• Judge Sharon Blackburn, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Birmingham
• Judge John Ott, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Birmingham
• Judge David R. Proctor, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Birmingham
• Judge Gary Allen Feess, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Los Angeles
• Judge Margaret Mann, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of California, San Diego
• Judge Kristin L. Mix, U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, Denver
• Judge Roy B. Dalton, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Orlando
• Judge James S. Moody Jr., U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa
• Judge Charles Kahn, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Pensacola
• Judge John J. O’Sullivan, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Miami
• Judge Karen Caldwell, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Lexington
• Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, New Orleans
• Judge Sean Cox, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Detroit
• Judge E. Richard Webber, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, St. Louis
• Judge James C. Mahan ’73, U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, Las Vegas
• Judge Michael H. Watson, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Columbus
• Judge Joy Flowers Conti, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh
• Judge William J. Haynes, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville
• Judge E Clifton Knowles, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville (2)
• Judge John T. Nixon, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville (2)
• Judge John T. Fowlkes Jr., U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, Memphis
• Judge David Alan Ezra, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, San Antonio
• Judge Jeff Bohm, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston
• Judge Patricia Gorence, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
• Justice Cheri Beasley, Supreme Court of North Carolina, Raleigh
• Justice William Koch, Tennessee Supreme Court
• Judge David P. Sterba, Illinois Appellate Court, Chicago
• Judge Tim Philpot, Fayette County Family Court, Lexington, Kentucky
• Judge Janet J. Berry, Second Judicial District, Court of Nevada, Reno
• Judge David R. Workman, Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas, Pennsylvania
• Judge James G. Martin II, Circuit Court, 21st Judicial District, Franklin, Tennessee

U.S. Attorneys’ Offices

• U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama, Birmingham
• U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, Criminal Division, Phoenix
• U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Washington
• U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado, Denver
• U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Appellate Division
• U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia, Savannah
• U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi, Oxford
• U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York, Albany
• U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville (2)

State and City Attorneys’ Offices

• Office of the State Attorney, Jacksonville, Florida
• Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, Felony Division, Florida
• Illinois Attorney General’s Office, Chicago
• Iowa Attorney General’s Office, Criminal Appeals Division, Des Moines
• Office of the New York State Attorney General, New York
• Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, Nashville (2)
• San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, California
• Office of the Dekalb County District Attorney, Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit, Decatur, Georgia
• Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, Atlanta, Georgia
• City of Chicago Department of Law, Illinois
• Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, Juvenile Division, Pennsylvania
• Travis County District Attorney’s Office, Family Justice Division, Austin, Texas
• Office of the City Attorney, Compton, California

Public Defenders

• Federal Public Defender’s Office, Nashville, Tennessee (2)
• State Appellate Defender Office, Detroit, Michigan
• Office of the Public Defender, Ninth Judicial Circuit, Orlando, Florida
• District Public Defender’s Office, Clarksville, Tennessee
• Public Defender’s Office, 21st Judicial District, Franklin, Tennessee
• Metro Public Defender’s Office, Nashville, Tennessee

State Agencies

• Department of Children’s Services, Office of General Counsel, Nashville, Tennessee (2)
• Supreme Court of Tennessee, Administrative Office of the Courts, Nashville
• Tennessee Department of Health, Nashville (2)

Corporate/Finance

• Christie’s Art Law Group, General Counsel’s Office, New York, New York
• Diageo North America Inc., Norwalk, Connecticut
• Turner Broadcasting, Atlanta, Georgia
• Nashville Predators, Office of General Counsel, Nashville
• The Martin Companies, Nashville, Tennessee
• Wealth Access, Nashville, Tennessee

International

• Justice Studies Center of the Americas, Santiago, Chile
• Shanghai Intellectual Property Academic, China
• Kuehne & Nagel Limited, Shanghai, China

Advocacy

• American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, Nashville
• Farmworker Justice, Washington, D.C.
• Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, Tulsa
• Legal Aid of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, Tullahoma
   

Four members of the Class of 2013—Hunter Branstetter, James P. Danly, Tracy Hancock and Seamus Kelly—participated in the Appellate Clinic’s representation of Wayne Earl LaFountain. LaFountain filed a case in the Eastern District of Michigan alleging that prison officials retaliated against him after he filed administrative grievances and successful lawsuits challenging prison conditions.  When the district court dismissed LaFountain’s case with prejudice for failure to state a claim, he appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

According to Alistair Newbern, who teaches the Appellate Clinic, LaFountain’s victory in the case is significant in that it reversed a Sixth Circuit rule established in McGore v. Wrigglesworth, a case decided in 1997 that addressed the rights of indigent people to file federal cases in light of the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1996.

“The PLRA instituted new procedural rules for how both prisoners and poor people who are not in jail bring federal cases in forma pauperis—without paying the filing fee,” Newbern said. “In McGore, the Sixth Circuit held that if you’re indigent and file a complaint, you can’t amend it to avoid having your case dismissed. That’s a right everybody else has under Rule 15 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Basically, the McGore decision meant that if you’re too poor to pay the filing fee, you don’t get the same procedural rights as everyone else.”

Over the next 10 years, similar cases in the 11 other federal circuits were all decided in favor of allowing indigent clients the same rights to amend federal cases as all other litigants. In 2007, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in Jones v. Bock that clearly stated that if the Prison Litigation Reform Act did not specifically change a rule of procedure, normal procedure applied. The Appellate Clinic team challenged the dismissal of LaFountain’s case by arguing that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Jones invalidated the Sixth Circuit precedent established by McGore. “Normally, the Court of Appeals can’t revisit a prior decision without the whole court sitting en banc,” Newbern said.  “But when an intervening Supreme Court decision calls the prior decision into doubt, the Court may reverse itself."

Shortly after the clinic team filed in LaFountain’s case, the issue made its way to the United States Supreme Court. “A few months after we filed our case in LaFountain, another attorney petitioned for certiorari  on behalf of an indigent client who had not been allowed to amend his complaint under McGore," Newbern said. "The Supreme Court granted cert in that case, Burnside v. Walters, and the case was scheduled to be heard in the October 2013 term.”

Shortly after Burnside appeared on the Supreme Court’s docket, the Sixth Circuit decided LaFountain, holding that McGore was no longer good law. The Supreme Court then remanded Burnside to the Sixth Circuit in light of the Vanderbilt Appellate Clinic’s victory on behalf of LaFountain. “Because the Sixth Circuit’s decision…in LaFountain was a published one, it is now the law of the Sixth Circuit—and means that Burnside would now prevail there,” commented Amy Howe in SCOTUSblog. “LaFountain was great work by the Vanderbilt Law School’s Appellate Litigation Clinic, spearheaded by Alistair Newbern."

The LaFountain case was a year-long team effort. Kelly, Hancock and Danly briefed the case, and in March 2013, Kelly argued it to the Sixth Circuit with Branstetter sitting second chair. “Seamus and Hunter spent a snowy spring break in Cincinnati, preparing for argument," Newbern said. "Happily, their hard work really paid off.”

Kelly found working on the case "the most challenging and rewarding experience of my life. Trying to squeeze three meaty legal arguments into a 13-minute argument and 2-minute rebuttal knowing that an actual person's access to the courts was at stake was daunting," he said. "I practiced the argument three times a week for two months while Professor Newbern and Hunter peppered me with questions, and each night I'd watch a video of the argument and figure out how to answer their questions more succinctly."

"The amount of work that went in to making Mr. LaFountain's appeal, from briefing to preparing the argument, was an amazingly educational and humbling experience that has given me a tremendous amount of respect for litigators," Kelly continued. "I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to contribute to winning Mr. LaFountain's appeal on the merits and restoring the rights of indigent people throughout the Sixth Circuit." 

Summer stipends, which are sponsored by Vanderbilt Law School and the Vanderbilt Legal Aid Society, help defray the travel and living expenses of students who serve in unpaid legal internships with government or non-profit organizations. Students may only receive stipend support for work for which they do not receive course credit or pay.

“Vanderbilt Law students are working pro bono and gaining invaluable experience in many areas of law with support from stipends funded by the law school and by the Vanderbilt Legal Aid Society," said Susan Kay, Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs. "Their work experiences will enrich their careers and their legal education and, for many, will help them decide on a career path."

Students received Vanderbilt Law stipends to support their legal work with the following organizations:

Federal Government

• Department of Energy, Assistant General Counsel for Labor & Pension Law, Washington, D.C.
• Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights, Washington, D.C.
• Department of Homeland Security, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Compliance Branch, Washington, D.C.
• Department of Housing & Urban Development, Office of the General Counsel-Enforcement, Washington, D.C.
• Department of Justice, Madison, Wisconsin
• Department of Justice, National Courts Section, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, Washington, D.C.
• Department of Justice, U.S. Marshals Service, Office of General Counsel, Washington, D.C.
• Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of General Counsel, Nashville
• Federal Communications Commission, International Bureau, Strategic Analysis and Negotiations Division, Washington, D.C.
• Federal Communications Commission, Telecommunications Access Policy Division, Washington, D.C.
• Internal Revenue Service, Office of Chief Counsel, Nashville, Tennessee
• Judge Advocate General's Corps, Fort Bragg, North Carolina - Army
• Judge Advocate General's Corps, Mayport, Florida- Navy
• Securities and Exchange Commission, Washington, D.C.
• Securities and Exchange Commission, Atlanta, Georgia
• Securities and Exchange Commission, Boston, Massachusetts
• Transportation Security Administration, Office of Chief Counsel, Arlington, Virginia

U.S. Attorneys’ & Federal Public Defenders’ Offices

• US Attorney's Office, Central District of California , Los Angeles
• U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Columbia, Washington
• U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville (2)
• US Attorney's Office, Western District of Texas, San Antonio             
• Office of the Federal Public Defender, Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville (2)

State Attorneys General

• Illinois Attorney General's Office, Chicago
• Iowa Attorney General's Office, Des Moines
• Office of the New York State Attorney General, New York
• North Carolina Attorney General's Office, Health & Public Assistance Section, Raleigh
• Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, Nashville (2)

Judicial Chambers

• Judge Oswald Parada, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Los Angeles (DLA)
• Judge Kristen L. Mix, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Washington
• Judge Clarence Cooper, U.S. District Court for Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta
• Judge Jane R. Roth, Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Judge John Bryant, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee
• Florida First District Court of Appeal, Chief Judge's Workers' Compensation Unit, Tallahassee
• Judge Gary Andrews, Georgia Court of Appeals, Atlanta

International

• Federal Ministry of Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Abuja
• Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, The Hague, Netherlands
• International Legal Institute - African Center for Legal Excellence (ILI-ACLE), Kampala, Uganda
• International Justice Mission, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
• Irish Centre for Human Rights, Galway, Ireland
• United Nations Legal Affairs, Department of Field Support, New York
• World Legal Forum, International Criminal Legal Network, The Hague, Netherlands

City & District Attorneys’ Offices

• Office of the City Attorney, Compton, California
• Chicago Department of Law, Employment Litigation Division, Chicago, Illinois
• Worcester County Office of the District Attorney, Massachusetts
• Clark County District Attorney's Office, Las Vegas, Nevada
• The School District of Philadelphia, Office of General Counsel, Pennsylvania
• Department of Law, Metro Government of Nashville & Davidson County
• District Attorney General, 20th Judicial Circuit, Nashville, Tennessee
• Travis County District Attorney's Office, Family Justice Division, Austin, Texas
• District Attorney's Office, Harris County, Houston, Texas

Public Defenders’ Offices

• Office of the Primary Public Defender, Juvenile Delinquency Division, San Diego, California
• Office of the Public Defender, 9th Judicial Circuit, Orlando, Florida (2)
• New York County Defender Services, New York, New York
• Public Defender's Office, Metro Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee (2)
• Office of the Public Defender, 21st Judicial District, Franklin, Tennessee

State Agencies

• Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, Nashville (2)
• Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Nashville (DLA)
• Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, Nashville (DLA)

Advocacy and Non-Profit Organizations

• Advocacy and Benefits Counseling for Health, Madison, Wisconsin
• American Bar Association, Center for Human Rights, Washington, D.C.
• American Civil Liberties Union, Phoenix, Arizona
• American Civil Liberties Union, LGBT & AIDS Project, New York
• Americans for Immigrant Justice, Miami, Florida
• Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Georgia
• The Bronx Defenders, Bronx, New York
• Missouri Coalition for the Environment, St. Louis (DLA)
• Neighborhood Justice Center, St. Paul, Minnesota
• Sierra Club Environmental Law Program, San Francisco, California
• Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, Nashville
• Volunteer Lawyers and Professionals for the Arts, Nashville (2)

Fardon's nomination was announced by the White House on May 23.

“Today, I am honored to nominate this highly respected legal professional as a United States Attorney,” President Obama said in the White House release. “Zachary Fardon will be unwavering in his commitment to justice, and I am confident he will serve the people of Illinois with excellence.”

Fardon is a partner at Latham & Watkins in Chicago, where he currently serves as chair of the litigation department.  He had previously served as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Middle District of Tennessee from 2003-06 and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois from 1997 to 2003. 

He began his legal career working as an assistant public defender in the Nashville Metropolitan Public Defender’s Office from 1996-97 and as an associate at King & Spalding from 1992-96. 

Fardon received his B.A. in 1988 from Vanderbilt University before earning his J.D. at Vanderbilt in 1992.

Articles:

Sean J. Griffith & Alexandra D. Lahav, "The Market for Preclusion in Merger Litigation," 66 Vanderbilt Law Review 1053 (2013).
Adam J. Kolber, "Against Proportional Punishment," 66 Vanderbilt Law Review 1141 (2013).
D. Theodore Rave, "Governing the Anticommons in Aggregate Litigation," 66 Vanderbilt Law Review 1183 (2013).

Notes:

Amy E. Sanders, Note, "A Gap in the Affordable Care Act: Will Tax Credits Be Available for Insurance Purchased Through Federal Exchanges?," 66 Vanderbilt Law Review 1259 (2013).
Andrew Tunnard, Note, "Not-So-Sweet Sixteen: When Minor Convictions Have Major Consequences Under Career Offender Guidelines," 66 Vanderbilt Law Review 1309 (2013).

Interested in writing an online response to one of these pieces? Contact Senior En Banc Editor William Weaver.

“It may indeed be time to embark on the process that will give us the ‘Next Great Copyright Act,’ as was done three times in the past in the Copyright Acts of 1790, 1909 and 1976,” Gervais said in prepared testimony. “So much has happened since 1976 when personal computers, the Internet, the digitization of music and the phenomenon of social media were not yet realities.

Gervais testified before the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet of the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives.

“America is at its best when it produces and exports intellectual property,” he testified. “As the transition to the digital realm continues, it is absolutely essential to get copyright policy right.”

Copyright should allow professional creators to get a fair return on their creative investment when their work is successful in the marketplace, in Gervais’ view. “It should also allow many sustainable business models to flourish in producing, exporting and providing access to U.S. copyrighted material around the world,” he said.

It is urgent for the U.S. to be a leader in discussions about global copyright, which has come to look more like a patchwork of rules than a coordinated strategy of laws, Gervais said.

The full version of Gervais’ prepared testimony is available at Gervais' website, www.tripsagreement.net. Video of the testimony is available at the Vanderbilt News and Communication website.
 

- Jim Patterson, Vanderbilt University Public Affairs

Kurtz, who is the J. Alton Hosch Professor of Law, specializes in criminal law and family law. Active in legislative issues throughout his career, he was reporter for the Georgia Supreme Court's Indigent Defense Reform Commission, the driving force behind landmark legislation enacted in 2003. He served on Georgia’s 11-member Public Defender Standards Council, which is responsible for delivering indigent criminal defense services within Georgia’s criminal justice system, from 2003-09. He was also instrumental on the Public Interest Loan Repayment Task Force, which wrote legislation creating a state fund for this cause passed by the Georgia Legislature in 2002. Kurtz has also represented Georgia on the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and was a member of the NCCUSL’s drafting committee of the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act. He is a member of the American Law Institute and served as adviser on the ALI Project on Principles of Family Dissolution in 1998-99.

Kurtz clerked for Chief Judge Harry Phillips of Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and then taught at the law schools of Boston University and Boston College before joining UGA. In addition to his J.D. from Vanderbilt, Kurtz holds an LL.M. from Harvard.

Brown, who specializes in civil procedure and legal ethics, holds UGA’s A. Gus Cleveland Distinguished Chair of Legal Ethics and Professionalism. Since joining UGA Law in 2002, he has received the Student Bar Association’s Professionalism Award six times as well as the Ellington Award for Excellence in teaching. He has served as a Senior Teaching Fellow at UGA and is a member of the UGA Teaching Academy. As the inaugural Administrative Fellow in UGA’s Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost in 2007-08, he was exposed to the inner workings of academic administration.
He is also very active in the broader legal community, serving on the Drafting Committee for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam and on the State Bar of Georgia Formal Advisory Opinion Board. Additionally, he was recently selected by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia as the principal substantive consultant for the court’s Local Rules Revision Project.

Before joining UGA’s law faculty, Brown was an assistant professor of law at the University of Illinois and a visiting assistant professor at Vanderbilt. After earning his J.D., he clerked for Judge William C. O'Kelley of the Northern District of Georgia and then practiced law for eight years as an associate and a partner at Alston & Bird in Atlanta. “I am humbled to follow in Paul’s footsteps,” Brown said. “He has been a wonderful colleague and friend to me over the years, as well as the very embodiment of all that is good about our law school. I hope that I can live up to his example and carry on his tremendous legacy.”

“I am delighted to be succeeded by my longtime friend and colleague, Lonnie Brown,” Kurtz said. “He has been a tremendous teacher and scholar and I know he will be a wonderful associate dean. The fact that he and I share the tie to Vanderbilt is simply icing on the cake to me.”

Kurtz is the general chair of the 45th reunion of Vanderbilt University’s Class of 1968 this fall. His work as fundraising chair for the 40th reunion of the law school’s Class of 1972 reunion in 2012 resulted an overwhelming response from his class. “Paul has long served Vanderbilt as an enthusiastic volunteer, and his classmates say Paul is the glue that has held his class together,” Scotty Mann, associate dean for alumni relations and development, said. 

Fujimori's conviction for directing the killings of 25 people in 2009, which came after a 15-month trial, was the first time a democratically elected Latin American leader was found guilty of human rights abuses in his own country. In 2010, Peru's Supreme Court upheld Fujimori's 25-year sentence for ordering security forces to carry out killings and kidnappings--one of four sentences the former Peruvian president received for human rights violations.

Now Newton, with the support of Practice Lab students, is working with members of the Peruvian high courts to support their efforts to hold lower level commanders responsible for committing killings and kidnappings on Fujimori's orders. "Efforts to hold lower level commanders responsible for countless forced disappearances have been stymied in Peruvian courts due to misunderstandings regarding the doctrine of command responsibility," stated Brittany Benowitz, chief counsel for the American Bar Association's Center for Human Rights.

An expert in international criminal law and the law of war, Newton worked with members of Peru's Supreme Court and its National Penal Court to provide comprehensive advice on the evidence needed to sustain charges based on the theory of command responsibility and the complex body of underlying criminal law. "This outreach was organized under the auspices of the Peruvian Supreme Court, but it would not have been possible without the assistance of Professor Newton, who has a unique expertise litigating high-level cases of command responsibility," Benowitz said.

The discussions that Newton led were a follow-up to a series of Practice Lab projects Vanderbilt Law students completed during 2012-13 to support judicial and criminal code reforms in Peru. “For several years, Practice Lab students have supported ongoing judicial system reforms in Peru with various projects, including an amicus brief we are filing in the InterAmerican Commission of Human Rights,” Newton said. “Peru is facing a wave of difficult human rights cases as a result of the Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path, terrorism of the 1990s, and its government is also in the midst of reforming the country’s criminal code to move toward an adversarial model. We've been asked to work with the Peruvian courts to develop a broader outreach and education program for lower level judges."

The recent efforts to support the work of Peruvian judges are based on an analysis by Molly Hall ’13, as well as a project by Jean O’Friel Quigley ’13 and a Peruvian student, Silvia Leon Galdos, LL.M. ’13.  Newton and his Practice Lab students will continue working with the ABA's Center for Human Rights on pending cases concerning the rights of indigenous persons in Peru and the application of humanitarian law to social protests. "The students of the Practice Lab who have participated in this work have had an opportunity to engage directly in cutting edge human rights issues," Benowitz said.

Newton will return to Peru during the 2013-14 academic year at the request of its Supreme Court to offer additional consulting support to its judiciary.

“The Frederick Lane Award is the highest honor the college can bestow," said ACREL President Jonathan R. Shils. "The Lane Award has previously been given only seven times since the college was founded in 1978  to honor the  career contributions of distinguished  real estate  lawyers who have selflessly served  the profession, the college and their  community. In honoring Wayne Hyatt with the Lane Award, the college affirms these values by recognizing such a  worthy recipient with this accolade from his peers.”

Hyatt served as president of ACREL in 2004. His prior service to the organization included terms as vice president, secretary and member of its board of governors; chair of the Bylaws, Common Interest Ownership and Affordable Housing committees; and membership and leadership participation in more than a dozen committees. He was the driving force behind establishing ACREL Cares, the organization's community service program. He also served as a governor and past chair of the Anglo-American Real Property Institute.

Hyatt endowed the law school's Hyatt Student Activities Fund, which provides grants to student organizations to bring in outside speakers, and he periodically returns to lecture on legal ethics to first-year law students.

ACREL was founded in 1978 as a non-profit organization of lawyers who have gained distinction in the practice of real estate law. The group devotes its efforts to improving the practice of real estate law around the country, and it has become the nation's most prestigious peer-selected organization for practicing real estate lawyers. Admission to ACREL is by invitation only. 
 

Reder’s appointment to Vanderbilt’s law faculty was announced by Dean Chris Guthrie. He currently serves on the law school’s adjunct faculty and on its alumni Board of Advisors. “I am happy to announce that Bob Reder will join our law faculty as a professor of the practice of law this fall,” Dean Guthrie said. “He has made a valuable contribution to the law school as a member of our adjunct law faculty, and his students will benefit greatly from his depth of expertise in corporate governance and his years of corporate transactional experience at Milbank Tweed.”

Reder has 33 years of experience in transactional practice as a New York-based partner at Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy, where he practiced in the firm’s mergers and acquisitions and corporate groups from 1978 until his retirement in 2011. He became a partner in the firm in 1987 and was co-leader of the firm’s global corporate practice group from 2005-09, representing clients from a variety of industries in mergers and acquisitions and capital market transactions and advising them on corporate governance matters.

In addition to teaching as a member of Vanderbilt’s adjunct law faculty, Reder has also taught transactional and corporate governance courses at the Columbia and Fordham law schools. During spring 2013, he taught Current Issues in Transactional Practice at Vanderbilt and made frequent appearances as a guest teacher in a mergers and acquisitions course at Columbia. He is an editorial advisor and a frequent contributor to The Corporate Counsel, a professional journal, and to BNA Corporate Accountability Report. He is a member of the American and New York State Bar Associations.

Reder earned his law degree at Vanderbilt in 1978, graduating Order of the Coif. He earned his undergraduate degree at Williams College in 1975.
“Bob Reder is a brilliant transactional lawyer and an excellent teacher,” said Randall Thomas, who heads Vanderbilt’s Law and Business Program. “I am glad to have a lawyer of his stature and experience joining the Law and Business faculty and look forward to working with him as a colleague.”

Founded in 1874 as one of Vanderbilt University’s first professional schools, Vanderbilt Law School has trained excellent lawyers for careers throughout the United States and around the world for more than 135 years. Located on the Vanderbilt University campus in Nashville, Tennessee, the law school offers three degree programs—J.D., an LL.M. program for foreign attorneys, and a Ph.D. in Law and Economics—four student-led scholarly journals, and eight academic programs that allow upper-level students to focus on specific areas of law.
 

Cheek is a senior partner at Bass Berry & Sims in Nashville, where he will maintain his national corporate and securities law practice.

“We are delighted Jim is going to deepen his involvement at the law school,” said Vanderbilt Law School Dean Chris Guthrie. “He is a nationally renowned attorney whose teaching and mentoring here and practice at Bass Berry & Sims have had a positive impact on the lives and careers of generations of lawyers. This new position will enable him to enhance his role as an educator of law students about the practical aspects of law practice while maintaining his active practice.”

Cheek has held a number of leadership positions in the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association, serving as chair of the section and of its Federal Regulation of Securities Committee and its National Task Force on Corporate Responsibility. He has also served as chair of the Legal Advisory Committee of the New York Stock Exchange (1989-92), the Legal Advisory Board of the National Association of Securities Dealers (1996-98), and the San Diego Securities Regulation Institute (2001-04).

Cheek is well known for representing large public company clients and their boards in high-profile corporate and securities law engagements, and his clients have included HCA, Genesco, The New York Stock Exchange and the Audit Committee of Bank of America, among many others.

Cheek holds a B.A. from Duke University, a J.D. from Vanderbilt, and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School

“Jim is a remarkable practitioner with particular skill in advising corporate clients and boards with respect to governance, securities, mergers and acquisitions, shareholder activists and corporate crises. While he will continue to serve our clients and provide leadership to the lawyers in our Corporate and Securities group, we also recognize this is a terrific opportunity for him to inspire more students and for us to continue our firm’s long association with Vanderbilt Law School,” said Todd Rolapp, managing partner of Bass, Berry & Sims. 

Founded in 1874 as one of Vanderbilt University’s first professional schools, Vanderbilt Law School has trained excellent lawyers for careers throughout the United States and around the world for more than 135 years. Located on the Vanderbilt University campus in Nashville, Tennessee, the law school offers three degree programs—J.D., an LL.M. program for foreign attorneys, and a Ph.D. in Law and Economics—four student-led scholarly journals, and eight academic programs that allow upper-level students to focus on specific areas of law.

She will receive her award on June 3 at a gala event at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Law schools may enter only one article per year in the prestigious Burton student writing competition. Moody’s note was selected for entry in the competition after being recommended by Michael Vandenbergh, who co-directs the Energy, Environment and Land Use Program and directs the Climate Change Research Network at Vanderbilt University. “Nicky’s article does an excellent job of exploring the relationship between legal regulations governing international trade and voluntary systems that reward compliance with environmental standards,” Vandenbergh said.

Moody’s article examines a gap in international trade governance related to private environmental standards that seek to promote goods produced in an environmentally or socially responsible manner, such as MSC-certified seafood, Fairtrade coffee or Rainforest Alliance chocolate. “Demand has prompted firms, non-governmental organizations… and private foundations to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to support the creation of such systems,” Moody observes in her article. “But the increase in privately administered labels is not beneficial to all. In particular, these systems often disadvantage firms that lack the resources or technical expertise to achieve compliance with environmental standards, barring them from access to the labels.”

Some exporting countries have filed suit in the WTO opposing voluntary environmental certification systems, a trend Moody believes is likely to increase as private labeling becomes more widely used. In her article, Moody proposes a narrow framework in which the WTO could claim jurisdiction over a private environmental certification and labeling system for the purposes of addressing trade disputes. “Trade law is frankly one of the most influential areas of international law, and trade and environmental objectives often conflict,” Moody said.

Moody served on the editorial boards of both the Vanderbilt Law Review and the Environmental Law & Policy Annual Review during 2012-13. She earned her undergraduate degree at Brown University, holds a master’s degree in East Asian studies from Columbia University, and then was a Fulbright scholar in Shanghai, China, before entering law school. She will join Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York as an associate this fall.

Angela Lee Bergman was awarded the Founder’s Medal, signifying first honors in Vanderbilt Law School’s Class of  2013, at the university’s commencement ceremony. Bergman also received the Law Review Editor’s Award, which goes to the third-year editorial board members who make the most significant contributions to the Vanderbilt Law Review.

Thomas Wilfrid Watson received the Archie B. Martin Memorial Prize for Scholarship, awarded to the student of the first-year law class who earned the highest general average for the year, awarded to 2010-11, and the Junius L. Allison Legal Aid Award, which goes to the graduate judged to have made the most significant contribution to the work of the Vanderbilt Legal Aid Society during his tenure at Vanderbilt. Watson is a native of of Boise, Idaho.

Seamus Timothy Kelly received the Philip G. Davidson Award, presented each year to the student who has demonstrated dedication to the law and its problem-solving role in society, and who has provided exemplary leadership in service to the law school and the greater community, and the Carl J. Ruskowski Clinical Legal Education Award, which goes to the student who, in his or her representation of clients in the law school’s clinical program, demonstrated excellence in practice of law and best exemplified the highest standards of the legal profession. Kelly is from Churchville, Pennsylvania.

Ann-Marie Mikkelsen received the Weldon B. White Prize, awarded to the graduate who submitted the best paper in fulfillment of the law school’s advanced writing requirement. Mikkelson is from Nashville

Margaret Tanzman Artz received both the G. Scott Briggs Transnational Legal Studies Award, awarded to the third-year student who has exhibited a high degree of scholastic achievement in transnational legal studies and who has made the most significant contribution to the development of international legal inquiries while a student at Vanderbilt, and the the Grace Wilson Sims Prize for Excellence in Student Writing in Transnational Law, awarded for sumbmitting the best Note for publication in the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law. Artz is from Millville, Utah.

Wyatt Gregory Sassman received the Bennett Douglas Bell Memorial Prize, awarded to "the student of the senior law class who is not only well-versed in the law, but who shows the highest conception of the ethics of the profession." Sassman is from Franklin,Tennessee.

David J. Goldberg received the Stanley D. Rose Memorial Book Award for submitting the best legal writing in the field of jurisprudence or legal history in fulfillment of the law school's advanced writing requirement. Goldberg is from Buffalo Grove, Illinois.

Molly Flynn Mullican Chen received the Grace Wilson Sims Medal in Transnational Law, which goes to the editorial board member, other than the editor-in-chief, judged to have done the most outstanding work on the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law during the academic year. Chen is a native of of Gillette, New Jersey.

Alexander Schaan Rinn received the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law Outstanding Editor Award, which goes to the member of the third-year staff selecting as having done the most outstanding work on the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law during the academic year. Rinn is from Cold Spring, Minnesota.

Michael Fitzgerald Dearington received the Chris Lantz Memorial Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law Outstanding Service Award, which goes to the student, other than the editor-in-chief, who has made the most significant contribution to the advancement of the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law. Dearington is from Madison, Connecticut.

Mary Gale Hall received the National Association of Women Lawyers’ Outstanding Law Student Award, which goes to the student whose law school involvement best fulfills the goals of contributing to the advancement of women in society and promoting women’s issues in the legal profession, and “who has exhibited tenacity, enthusiasm, and academic achievement while earning the respect of others.” Hall is from Alexandria, Virginia.

Tayler Mayly Owings received the Morgan Prize for submitting the most outstanding piece of student writing to the Vanderbilt Law Review during her second year. Owings is from Nashville.

Samuel John Hershey Beutler received the Jordan A. Quick Memorial Award, awarded to the student judged to have made the greatest contribution to the quality of life at the law school through leadership with the Vanderbilt Bar Association. Beutler is a native of Lincoln, Nebraska.

Justin Philip Gunter received the Richard Nagareda Award, awarded by the Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program to recognize extraordinary achievement in the study of litigation and dispute resolution. Gunter is from Wiggins, Mississippi.

Gibreault Cooper Creason received the K. Harlan Dodson Moot Court Staff Award, which goes to the senior member of the Moot Court staff, other than the chief justice, who has rendered the most outstanding service throughout the previous year in all aspects of the Moot Court program. Creason is from Cordova, Tennessee.

Daniel Horwitz received the Damali A. Booker Award, which is presented each year to the third-year law student who has a keen dedication to legal activism and a demonstrated commitment to confronting social issues facing both Vanderbilt Law School and the greater Nashville community. Horwitz is from Los Angeles, California.

Niels John Melius received the Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law Student Writing Award, which goes to the graduate who submitted the most outstanding piece of student writing for publication in the journal. Melius is a native of Wilton Manors, Florida.

Katherine Byrnes Horton received the Thomas C. Banks Award for the Outstanding Jessup Moot Court Team Member, awarded by the competition team to the members who have made the greatest contribution to the overall success of the team during the previous year. Horton is from Littleton, Colorado.

Two J.D./Ph.D. candidates were also honored with awards which were announced this spring:

Caroline Cecot, who will earn a J.D./Ph.D. in law and economics in 2014, received the Robert F. Jackson Memorial Prize, awarded to the member of the second-year class who maintains the highest scholastic average during the first two years of law school, in 2011-12. Cecot is from Brooklyn, New York.

Virginia Blair Druham, who will earn a J.D./Ph.D. in law and economics in 2015, received the Myron Penn Laughlin Note Award, which goes to the student, other than the winner of the Morgan Prize, who contributed the best student Note published in the Vanderbilt Law Review, and the Law Review Candidates Award, awarded by the second-year Vanderbilt Law Review staff to the third-year student, other than the editor-in-chief, who has made the most significant contribution to the development of Law Review staff members. Druhan is from Mobile, Alabama.

Articles:

• Joshua Chao, "Tax Incentives for Innovation in a Modern IP Ecosystem," 15 Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law 753
• Daniel Gervais, Ph.D., "The Derivative Right, or Why Copyright Law Protects Foxes Better than Hedgehogs," 15 Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law 785
• Rick Sanders, "Will Professor Nimmer’s Change of Heart on File Sharing Matter?," 15 Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law 857

Notes:

• Erin R. Frankrone, "Free Agents: Should Crowdsourcing Lead to Agency Liability for Firms?," 15 Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law 883
• Shannon U. Han, "Pay-to-Delay Settlements: The Circuit-Splitting Headache Plaguing Big Pharma," 15 Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law 913
• Zachary Loney, "Bowman’s Beanstalk: Patent Exhaustion in Self-Replicating Technologies," 15 Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law 949
• Jeffrey W. Sheehan, "Late Fathers’ Later Children: Reconceiving the Limits of Survivor’s Benefits in Response to Death-Defying Reproductive Technology," 15 Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law 983

JETLaw is currently accepting article submissions for consideration, as well as guest blog posts on jetlaw.org.

Articles:

Daniel Abebe & Aziz Z. Huq, "Foreign Affairs Federalism: A Revisionist Approach," 66 Vanderbilt Law Review 723 (2013).
Kent Barnett, "Resolving the ALJ Quandary," 66 Vanderbilt Law Review 797 (2013).
Anna di Robilant, "Property: A Bundle of Sticks or a Tree?," 66 Vanderbilt Law Review 869 (2013).

Notes:

Wesley C. Jackson, Note, "Life on Streets and Trails: Fourth Amendment Rights for the Homeless and the Homeward Bound," 66 Vanderbilt Law Review 933 (2013).
Benjamin J. McMichael, Note, "Constitutional Limitations on Punitive Damages: Ambiguous Effects and Inconsistent Justifications," 66 Vanderbilt Law Review 961 (2013).
Emilie Winckel, Note, "Hardly a Black-and-White Matter: Analyzing the Validity and Protection of Single-Color Trademarks Within the Fashion Industry," 66 Vanderbilt Law Review 1015 (2013).

Interested in writing an online response to one of these pieces? Contact Senior En Banc Editor Matthew Chiarizio.

Sassman's paper is based on an analysis of the Supreme Court's 2012 decision in Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which gave Michael and Chantell Sackett the right to challenge an EPA order that they had built their new home on a wetland before the agency enforced the order with penalties.

The Sacketts successfully argued that inability to immediately challenge the order violated their due process rights, though such claims routinely had been rejected by lower courts.

Sassman argued that by reversing decades of court rulings, the Supreme Court "stuck a wrench in a much larger enforcement scheme" as administrative compliance orders "are one of EPA's most utilized enforcement tools" not only in wetlands cases but in a wide range of environmental laws. After looking at federal precedent, congressional intent and the constitutional foundations of administrative law, Sassman concluded that administrative orders do not violate due process rights and federal agencies should be free to use them without judicial interference. In the article, he urges policy makers to recognize the broader impact of the court's decision and take steps necessary to restore the traditional role of administrative orders.

The writing competition, sponsored by the TBA Environmental Law Section, is a juried competition for the best legal writing on a topic of Tennessee or federal environmental law and is open to law students enrolled in a Tennessee law school. It is held each year as a way to promote a dialogue on important environmental issues and to strengthen relationships among environmental law professors, students and practitioners in the state. Entries are judged by a panel of environmental law practitioners, members of the judiciary and/or professors selected by the section.

Sassman received a $1,200 cash award, and his article will be published in an upcoming issue of the section's newsletter.

The competition is named for Jon E. Hastings, a founding member of the section who practiced in the Nashville office of Boult Cummings Connors & Berry until his death of cancer at age 45.