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Bring your lunch to the Rich Room on Wednesday March 5 at 12:10 to hear World Intellectual Property Organization Deputy Director Rama Rao. Dr. Rao is a Senior Counsellor in the WPO and one of the world's foremost experts in intellectual property. Don't miss this unique opporunity!
"Lunch and Learn" is co-sponsored by the Student Intellectual Property Association and the Student Bar Association.
Professor Buzz Scherr recently chaired a retreat for the American Civil Liberties Union's Patents and Civil Liberties Committee. Professor Scherr is the chair of the committee and the New Hampshire representative to the ACLU's Board of Directors. Other members of the Committee include three more current or former ACLU Board members, a patent law professor, a genetics and law professor, the ACLU's science advisor, and a senior staff lawyer.
Some readers may be thinking: copyrights and trademarks can raise First Amendment concerns, but what do patents have to do with civil liberties? There are significant free speech, equal protection, and privacy issues raised by the way certain patents have been used or could potentially be used. Because patents give the owner the right to exclude others from making or using the patented invention, even in a non-commercial sense, any patent can be used to suppress scientific inquiry during its lifetime. Some patents create further issues.
For example, the use of the heart drug Bidil specifically on African-Americans is patented, which brings up a possibility of discrimination. However, not everyone believes tailoring drugs to demographic groups is discriminatory. Some have welcomed it as a change from the more traditional focus on developing medicine with only the needs of Caucasian men in mind.
In Laboratory Corp. v. Metabolite Laboratories, free speech concerns were raised by a patent on the correlation between an amino acid called homocysteine in the blood and a vitamin B deficiency. Under the patent owned by Metabolite, doctors could be liable for patent infringement just for making use of the correlation in their treatment decisions.
Other thorny questions about patents and civil liberties include the creation of transgenic creatures which have human genes. The Patent and Trademark Office has stated that it will not patent any "invention" which is human, but the threshold for being human is unclear, and a patent on a too-human invention would amount to slavery. Genetic databases, human experiments, and organ donation are also areas the Committee is keeping track of. The ACLU takes 2-3 years to form an official position on an issue, and has not yet reached a position on any of the questions being examined by the Patents and Civil Liberties Committee.
The Entertainment Law Society will be having a general meeting at 12:15 to 12:45 PM in Room 205. All are welcome. For more information, contact the Entertainment Law Society.
The purpose of the Entertainment Law Society is to promote an understanding and appreciation of the legal structure of the motion picture, music, and theatrical industries.
The Entertainment Law Society intends to familiarize law students with the intellectual property rights and contractual relationships between the media producers, distributors, and authors of these industries as well as the deal making and advising aspects of practice in the greater entertainment field.
The Entertainment Law Society hopes to accomplish this by sponsoring extracurricular programs such as guest lectures from experts in entertainment law, career planning seminars to aid students entering this field, and forums for interaction and communication between current students, faculty, and alumni from various backgrounds in intellectual property law.
Plan on being at the Jury Box Wednesday afternoon at noon for a delcious pasta lunch! For $3, you a get a bowl of pasta with your choice of sauce and a slice of tasty garlic bread! Proceeds will benefit the Significant Others and Spouses Organization (SOSO). SOSO sponsors community-building activities for students and their families. So bring your husband, wife, boyfriends, girlfriends, and children for a great lunch!
3 semester down, 3 semesters to go!
All 2L's are invited to celebrate with their fellow members of the Class of 2009 in the Atrium and Jury Box from 6 to 8 p.m. with music, dinner, drinks and lots of good conversation.
Congradulations to all the 2L's! Keep up the good work!
In celebration of March being "Women's History Month", the Women's Law Student Association will be hosting a panel of practicing female attorneys to talk about "How to negotiate work/life balance issues" in our careers. The panel will include Superior Court judge and Pierce Law Alumni Diane M. Nicolosi '86, as well as several prominent female attorneys.
The event is open to everyone regardless of gender. It will take place on Monday March 10 at 6:30pm in the Board Room . If you have any questions, please contact the Women's Law Student Association.
Professor Bill Hennessey is in Ghana for a UNAIDS HIV/AIDS Summit this week. He will introduce and deliver 36 copies of the "IP Management Handbook in Health and Agricultural Innovation" that Stanley Kowalski helped compile, and which was published with the support of Pierce Law, with contributions from Karen Hersey and Karl Jorda. He is a member of the Board of Patrons of the Handbook.
Daylight Savings Time begins: clocks spring forward one hour at 2 a.m.
Put your best face forward! Photographer Tom Kates will be on campus today and tomorrow. He and his assistant will be taking pictures to provide imagery for admissions and the web site. Tom will be working in classrooms, hallways, the library, Jury Box, and throughout the school, helping us to capture the friendly, close-knit environment of Pierce Law. Please extend them a warm welcome.
Red Cross Blood Drive: The Red Cross is in URGENT NEED of blood! Severe winter weather conditions have taken a considerable toll on the states blood supply. There is less than one day supply of some blood types.
The need is real! Please give blood! 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Jury Box and Room 101.
A big welcome to Richard "Rich" Mechaber, the new Database Administrator for Franklin Pierce Law Center. Rich's duties initially will be to get the new upgrade to CAMS installed and running smoothly, interfacing with all departments making sure their CAMS needs are met. You can find Rich next to Marc and Paul in the Computer Services office on the third floor.
Welcome also to Mary Magoon, our new Admissions Coordinator, who starts today in the admissions office.
A panel discussing work/life integration will interest our future and current attorneys. 6:30 pm in the Board Room.
Teaching Effectiveness and Technology Committee meeting, Faculty Lounge, 3:15 p.m.
The Vis Moot arbitration team is heads to Vienna, Austria for its third participation in the William C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot.
The Graduation elections for student speakers are held from 12-12:30 p.m. today through Friday in the Jury Box. Contact Erik Moskowitz for more info.
Nominees for 3L speaker are:
Nominees for MIP speaker are:
Happy π Day! It also happens to be, appropriately, Albert Einstein's birthday.
The Registrar's office will demo electronic bluebook software in Room 205, 9 a.m.
Got news for the next Next Week @ Pierce Law? Send your events and notices to pbyfield@piercelaw.edu no later than 12 noon on the previous Wednesday. NW@PL is produced by the Pierce Law Communications Office and distributed to faculty, staff, and students towards the end of each week.
President-elect of the New Hampshire Bar Association Ellen Arnold JD '77 is honorary Chair of this year's Public Interest Coalition (PIC) Auction, a Pierce Law tradition that brings together members of the NH legal community to support public interest endeavors. She writes about the value of the event in this week's New Hampshire Bar News:
"In our quest to provide access to justice, this event is an opportunity to get together with colleagues, make a personal contribution, and afford students the opportunity to perform pro bono legal work for non-profit organizations in New England and throughout the United States.
Last year, the auction raised $56,000 which supported 12 student fellowships for pro bono work. It supported legal services to a diverse variety of public interest groups, including New Hampshire Legal Assistance, the Federal Public Defenders’ office in Nashville, Tennessee and “Save our Wild Salmon” in Portland, Oregon. Other beneficiaries included the New Hampshire Public Defender’s Office, New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, New Hampshire National Education Association, Disabilities Rights Center, and NH Civil Liberties Union. These fellowships provide valuable legal services and opportunities for students to learn and, hopefully, continue to commit their energies and skills to the public interest."
Arnold also lifts the curtain on a few of the items on auction this year, including Red Sox tickets and coffee with Governor John Lynch.
To learn more about the Public Interest Coalition Auction, see www.piercelaw.edu/auction.
Returning from the International Conference on the Future of Legal Education that was recently held at the Georgia State University College of Law, Professor John Burwell Garvey took a few minutes last week to tell us about his presentaton to the conference on the Daniel Webster Scholar Honors Program.
Describing the the conference as an eye opener, Prof. Garvey said the participants represented over 10 law colleges from different countries. He said he was energized by seeing there is a great international movement taking place that will improve the quality of legal education, and ultimately, the quality of justice.
Prof. Garvey was asked to speak about the Webster Scholar Honors program as a specific example on transformation taking place in existing curriculum that represents the future now. Prof. Clark D. Cunningham, Director, Effective Lawyer-Client Communication at Georgia State University College of Law, described Pierce Law's program as “what people see as the step ahead.” Though the program is still at the pilot or the experimental stage, it is a concrete example of what can be done, Garvey said.
Other participants at the conference responded positively. Our Webster Scholars program was said to be a model that demonstrates what the future of legal education holds. As Prof. Cunningham puts it: “this is one of the most promising innovations in the legal education currently taking place in the United States. The curriculum being developed resembles published report of the Carnegie foundation for fundamental changes in American legal education.”
The Daniel Webster Scholar Honors Program is much more intensive and interactive than typical law school curricula. Pierce Law emphasizes practical courses, of course, yet this program requires an even higher degree of commitment from both professor and student.
The hallmark of the program is its focus on making law students client-ready. "There is so much judgment involved in the legal practice -- interpersonal skills, understanding the client, negotiating skills, client representation, to be able to put yourself in the shoes of your client -- that the students must know how to lay more emphasis on the client," explained Garvey.
Students are recruited after completion of the first year of law school and undertake this course along with the normal subjects. Completion of program constitutes passage of the New Hampshire Bar. The program seeks students who want more than is normally taught in any law school, who want to work as a team, and are willing to work all-out to excel in the law.
Judging by the feedback obtained from the students, it seems worth the extra effort. Students in the program report that during their internships in law firms they felt more experienced than other interns, they were better equipped at understanding the contexts and the practical aspects and got better offers than students from other law schools. The lawyers and judges who worked with Webster Scholars felt that these students seemed well ahead of students from other law schools.
The first class of Webster Scholars will graduate in May. Professor Garvey will be following them to see how they perform after graduation, with the aim of tightening up the program and making it more accessible to all qualified students.
IDEA: The Intellectual Property Law Review and the Pierce Law Review will be hosting a student symposium April 17, 2008. Any student who wishes to include their work in the symposium must submit their paper by Monday March 17 at 11:55 pm.
The Student Symposium is a great opportunity for any Pierce Law student to share their written work with the community. A committee, including Justice Duggan from the NH Supreme Court and Judge Tina Nadeau of the NH Superior Court, will judge the submissions and award a top prize of $350. Student papers may be published in IDEA or the Pierce Law review.
Papers must be original and should be thoroughly researched, well written, and appropriately cited. They may cover any topic and do not have to be in final publishable form, but must be substantially complete. For more information contact, the Student Symposium Committee.
Dean John D. Hutson joins a distinguished group of leaders calling for "No Torture. No Exceptions" in a new special issue of the Washington Monthly. The contributors
"include a former president, the speaker of the House, two former White House chiefs of staff, current and former senators, generals, admirals, intelligence officials, interrogators, and religious leaders. Some are Republicans, others are Democrats, and still others are neither. What they all agree on, however, is this: It was a profound moral and strategic mistake for the United States to abandon long-standing policies of humane treatment of enemy captives. We should return to the rule of law and cease all forms of torture, with no exceptions for any agency. And we should expect our presidential nominees to commit to this idea."
"Support for the rule of law and human rights is our most effective weapon. Our greatest strength isn't our military might, it is our ideas and our ideals. That's how we won the cold war. We don't have enough bombs or bullets to ensure a military victory over the enemy we now face. Nor can terrorists defeat us militarily.
"However, we could commit national suicide by relinquishing our greatest weapon—our ideas and ideals. In an asymmetric war, the winning strategy is to match your strength against the enemy's weakness. This enemy's weakness is that he is bereft of ideas; all he has is terror. If we discard 225 years of American history—and the core of our identity—by engaging in enhanced interrogations, we essentially disarm ourselves.
"The world knows that the rule of law does not exist if it is only applied when convenient. Human rights don't exist if they are applied to some humans and not others. This is not the time to waiver. Plato said, 'Only the dead have seen the end of war.' Indeed, this is not the worst war we have ever fought; it is just the present war. We don't need to torture prisoners in order to win it. In fact, torturing prisoners is precisely how we can lose it. We must remain true to ourselves and to the heritage earned by the blood, sweat, and dedication of Washington, Lincoln, and Eisenhower."
BLSA will be holding its montlly general body meeting on Friday, the 14th at 6p.m. in Room 101. All are invited to attend.
The Black Law Student Association is a professional, nationally-affiliated organization of black law students dedicated to improving opportunities in legal education.
The purpose of the organization is to support, guide and direct Black students in academic, professional and social endeavors. For more information, send an e-mail to BLSA@piercelaw.edu.
Dean Hutson popped down to New York yesterday for an Oxford-style, three-on-three debate on the motion, "Tough interrogation of terror suspects is necessary." His team, arguing against the motion, persuaded the audience flip its initial opinion and vote the motion down.
The debate was one of a series sponsored by Intelligence Squared, an initiative of the The Rosenkranz Foundation. The organizers announced:
A sold out audience at Asia Society and Museum, New York City voted 40% for the motion and 53% against at the conclusion of the debate. 7% were undecided.
Intelligence Squared U.S. polls its audience on each motion before and after the debate. At the start of Tuesday's debate, the audience voted 46% for the motion that "Tough interrogation of terror suspects is necessary," with 35 % against and 19% undecided.
Speaking for the motion were David Rivkin, partner in the Washington office of Baker & Hostetler LLP, a visiting fellow at the Nixon Center, and a contributing editor of the National Review and National Interest, Rick Francona, Retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel who has served with the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency, and Heather Mac Donald, John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor to City Journal. Speaking against the motion were Jack Cloonan, a 25-year veteran of the FBI and an internationally respected security expert, John D. Hutson, a retired Rear Admiral, having served as the Navy's Judge Advocate General from 1997 to 2000 and current president and dean of Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, New Hampshire, and Darius Rejali, professor of political science and chair of the political science department at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon and 2003 Carnegie Scholar and the author of "Torture and Democracy."
"It's the challenge of any debate to affect the opinions of the audience and our debate did just that," said Robert Rosenkranz, chairman of The Rosenkranz Foundation. "With the president vetoing a bill on tough interrogation techniques just last weekend, this could not have been more timely a topic."
The complete audio of the debate can be heard on the NPR/Intelligence Squared web site.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Admissions Open House for prospective students.
Adjunct Professor Dan Crean is in Phoenix, Arizona today and tomorrow for the Spring Conference of the Association of Governmental Risk Pools. He will be speaking on "Subrogation and Governmental Risk Pools" today and on "Public Employee Privacy, Speech, and Blogging" tomorrow.
Cyberpunk writer William Gibson is 60 today.
Annual PIC Auction: doors open at 5:00! Come one, come all for fun, for bidding, for cool auction items donated by friends who support Pierce Law fellowships for public interest work! See www.piercelaw.edu/auction for more information.
Spring is here! Really! Tell someone a story about a dream -- it's World Storytelling Day.
We're betting Professor Grimes will have something ready for the occasion of World Poetry Day. It is also the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Wash your hands for public health: Did you know 2008 is the International Year of Sanitation? Today is World Water Day, an observation seeking to accelerate progress for 2.6 billion people world wide who are without proper sanitation facilities.
Got news for the next Next Week @ Pierce Law? Send your events and notices to pbyfield@piercelaw.edu no later than 12 noon on the previous Wednesday. NW@PL is produced by the Pierce Law Communications Office and distributed to faculty, staff, and students towards the end of each week.
Any student interested in applying to the Intellectual Property Law Review or the Pierce Law Review can sign up in the Registrar's office to obtain an anonymous applicant number.
Applications will be available on March 21, and will be due on April 7. The law review application also requires students to submit a waiver to the Registrar authorizing the release of your Legal Skills grades and overall decile class ranking.
If you have any questions, please contact Kevin DeJong.
The 2008 Public Interest Coalition Auction will be held THIS Thursday at the Courtyard Marriott in Concord. There are many good items up for bid this year including Janet Smart's homemade jam, coffee with Governor John Lynch, and a private performance by Pierce Law's favorite band "The Tortfeasors." Everyone is encouraged to attend, BUT you must reserve a ticket. For more information, please contact Adam Muller at SBA-Treasurer@piercelaw.edu.
Take a break from studying to have fun, support a great cause, and to show off your bidding skills!
In hearing Washington DC v. Heller this week, for the first time in decades the US Supreme Court has the chance to define once and for all “the right to bear arms.” The case stems from a controversial ban on guns in D.C., which has made its way through court after court. And now, groups on both sides of the gun issue eagerly await the Justices’ ruling expected in June.
NPR asked Professor Albert "Buzz" Scherr to help put the case, and the Second Amendment, in context, in an appearance on The Exchange, hosted by Laura Knoy.
The text of the Second Amendment reads: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Why does the amendment open with the clause about the necessity of a miliitia? What did the founders mean by the word militia? Who, exactly, were they referring to with the word people? Did the founders intend to protect an individual's right or a state's right from being superseded by federal authority?
Listen to the program at NHPR to find out.
Eric Moskowitz was elected by the class of 2008 to be the JD student speaker at this year's graduation ceremonies and the Pierce Law Reporter's very own Arshdeep Sidhu (woo hoo!) was chosen as the Graduate student speaker.
Professor Buzz Scherr gets the nod as faculty speaker and Christine Boisvert continues her well-deserved streak as recipient of the staff recognition award.
Congratulations all!
Easter Sunday.
Professor Ellen Musinsky travels to Miami, FL to host Alumni for cocktails and conversation at the Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay.
Professor Sophie Sparrow joins Kirk Dorius JD '04 to host alumni in Austin, TX at a reception in the offices of Fish & Richardson P.C.
The American Constitution Society (ACS) meets to nominate and elect new officers for the coming academic year, Room 202 at 12 noon.
IIPO Presents "IP Legislation in the Andean Community," a talk by Cristina Galavis-Sucre (LLM '08)
12:10 PM in Room 200. This is an SBA-sponsored event.
Professors Karl Jorda and Susan Richey are in New York today for the 2008 UNITAR/WIPO Seminar on International Intellectual Property. Professor Jorda gives a talk on "Basic Principles of Patents" and Professor Richey talks on "Basic Principles of Trademarks."
Professor Mary Wong is in New York, speaking at the 5th Annual Asian IP Law & Policy Day: The Developing Legal Ecosystem for IP in Asia, and the 16th Annual Fordham International IP Law & Policy Conference, both at the Fordham Law School, today through Friday. The conference draws 139 speakers from 19 countries (including judges, government officials, academics and practitioners from the United States, Europe and Asia) and a total of 375 participants from 31 countries. This year, Professor Wong will be delivering a paper on comparative national implementations of Articles 6 & 8 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty, and will also be on two panels: one on copyright models in a Web 2.0 world, and the other on copyright infringement cases against individual peer-to-peer downloaders.
The Women's Law Student Association presents Ms. Marjorie Lewis, who will lead a "Practicing Effective Communications Skills Workshop" in Room 229 at 6:30 p.m. Please RSVP to WLSA@piercelaw.edu by March 25th.
Let' Get Clinical: Yes, you, as a student, can experience real cases, interview clients, and appear in court, all while earning credit. Learn about Pierce Law's clinical programs in this special event in the Rich Room at 11:45 a.m. Choose from eight clinics offered this summer and next fall:
You'll discover the types of law each clinic teaches, the types of court and client representation you will experience, how many credits you receive for the experience, and the pre-requisites. If that doesn't convince you, come for the free pizza and soda!
Cold weather making you crazy? Wishing for sunny days? Lambda Law invites you to go South of the Border without leaving Concord for fun, sun, music, drinks and some muy delicioso Mexican Cuisine! 7-10 p.m. in the Jury Box. This is an SBA sponsored event.*
Got news for the next Next Week @ Pierce Law? Send your events and notices to pbyfield@piercelaw.edu no later than 12 noon on the previous Wednesday. NW@PL is produced by the Pierce Law Communications Office and distributed to faculty, staff, and students towards the end of each week.
1Ls, are you stressed out about your Legal Skills memo? Are you tense about all the money you spent at the PIC auction? Come down to Room 101 on March 24 or Tuesday March 25 3:00-4:30 and receive a massage from licensed physical therapist Bridget Anderson. Massages are only $10 for 15 minutes. What a bargain!!!! Don't miss out!!!! First come, first serve!!!!
Yes, you, as a student, can experience real cases, interview clients, and appear in court, all while earning credit. Learn about Pierce Law's clinical programs in this special event Friday in the Rich Room at 11:45 a.m. Choose fromeight clinics offered this summer and next fall:
You'll discover the types of law each clinic teaches, the types of court and client representation you will experience, how many credits you receive for the experience, and the pre-requisites. If that doesn't convince you, come for the free pizza and soda!
April 15th is only a few weeks away. Are you really eager to do your own taxes this year? Or do you want someone to prepare them for you? The Reporter is here to help!
No, preparing taxes isn't our sideline. After a thorough search of the Pierce Law community for someone to help you, we discovered, (thanks to the source of all knowledge, Jan Neuman) Pierce Law Alumna Dawn E. Whiting JD '94, who has been preparing tax returns for more than 25 years.
Whiting has worked for banks, CPA firms, and been self-employed, so she's handled many kinds of tax situations. She tells us her tax work now consists primarily of personal returns, gift tax returns, fiduciary and estate returns. Prior to her law degree, she earned two bachelors degrees, one in medical technology and another in microbiology, and an MSB with a concentration in taxation.
To contact Dawn for more information about her tax preparation services, call either 796-2464 or 496-2753. If she is unable to answer the phone, be sure to leave a message.
The Women's Law Student Association will be hosting a workshop on Wednesday March 26th on effective ways to communicate. Everyone is invited to attend this informative workshop. For further information or to RSVP, please contact the Women's Law Student Association at WLSA@piercelaw.edu.
The presenter at the workshop will be Ms. Majorie Lewis Dwyer. She is a graduate of Suffolk Law School. She worked as an associate at Ropes &Gray in Boston and then at Goulston & Storrs in Boston. She left Goulston & Storrs for an in house counsel position at Marshall's. Marshall's was bought by TJX and she continued to work for TJX after the acquisition. She was then hired by CVS as their national labor and employment counsel. Most recently she moved to New England Business Systems where she was an in house lawyer and then general counsel. NEBS was purchased by Deluxe Corp and Marjorie decided not to move to Minneapolis where the company is now headquartered.
This is an SBA sponsored event.
Lambda Law is hosting a "South of the Border Fiesta" on Friday March 28 from 7-10pm in the Jury Box. All our invited! Take break and enjoy delicious food, music, and muchas cervezas.
Lambda Law is an all-inclusive, Gay/Straight network at the Franklin Pierce Law Center. All our invited to discuss events and activites for the semester. If you have questions, e-mail lambda@piercelaw.edu.
This page contains all entries posted to Pierce Law Reporter in March 2008. They are listed from oldest to newest.
February 2008 is the previous archive.
April 2008 is the next archive.
Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.