University of Pittsburgh School of Law Faculty Blog

On October 23^rd Professor Harry Gruener was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award by the Pitt Law Alumni Association at its annual reception at the University Club.  Professor Gruener joined prior recipients Senator Orrin Hatch, the Honorable Richard Thornburgh, the late Justice Ralph Cappy and other notable alumni as a recipient of this coveted annual award.

Professor Pat Chew and her co-author, Professor Robert Kelley of the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, published “Secrets of the Stars: Looking Outside the Legal Profession for Inspiration” in the November 5, 2009 issue of The American Lawyer. A sample:

Like every other enterprise hit by the meltdown, law firms need to rethink their entire business model. Doing so could be the key to making it through the crisis. For particularly forwardthinking firms, this recession could be an opportunity to adopt a new business model that helps them thrive.

So although lawyers are not accustomed to it, they need to look beyond their current business practices to innovative approaches outside the law firm world that can help them gain a competitive advantage. They should begin with the presumption that their traditional business practices are not good enough anymore.

One of us (Pat Chew) is a law professor, and the other (Robert Kelley) has, along with his company, spent 25 years studying what separates stars from average performers in intellectual-capital jobs at such companies as Hewlett-Packard Company and 3M Company. Law firms could use this business research to get higher productivity from their partners. Instead of firing less productive partners, get a higher return on your investment in them by teaching them how to become star performers. Instead of being satisfied with your current solid-performing partners, improve their productivity even more.

Success is not just about having expert knowledge on a legal subject, managing clients’ work well, or bringing in business. These things are a partner’s baseline job. Instead, partners need to learn how to perform these basic functions with optimal outcomes. This requires an understanding of the work strategies that star performers use.

Abigail Salisbury, Pitt Law ‘07 and Executive Director of JURIST, the award-winning legal news site published by Professor Bernard Hibbitts, has published a new article titled “Skills without Stigma: Using the JURIST Method to Teach Legal Research and Writing” in the most recent issue of the Journal of Legal Education, the official scholarly publication of the Association of American Law Schools.

Max Miller, Director of Pitt Law’s Innovation Practice Institute and an adjunct faculty member, has been recognized by the ABA Journal as one of fifty “Legal Rebels,” whom the magazine describes as “some of the profession’s leading innovators.”

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Professor John Burkoff was quoted by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in connection with the possibility that individuals arrested during the recent G-20 summit in Pittsburgh might pursue police misconduct charges.

“If you’re convicted of something, you have to explain that to a judge or a jury in a civil case. It makes it more difficult to be successful,” said University of Pittsburgh law professor John Burkoff. “If you’re acquitted it makes it easier.”

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The judges in the Luzerne County corruption case are probably immune from civil liability, Professor Arthur Hellman told the Wall Street Journal Law Blog. The account begins:

We checked in with Pitt law professor and expert on the judiciary Arthur Hellman to talk about this strange notion of judicial immunity.

Hellman indeed backed the notion that the plaintiffs might end up high and dry. He said that while the immunity isn’t absolute, it extends to actions taken while judges were engaged in a judicial function.

Hellman explained that the Supreme Court in 1978 upheld the notion of judicial immunity in a case in which an Indiana judge ordered the forced sterilization of a woman, a naked breach of state law. Because the judge was acting under his stautorily granted jurisdiction, he was covered by the immunity. The rule does not, Hellman continued, apply to judges working in official but non-judicial capacities. For example, a judge would not be immune from suit if he or she fired an employee for discriminatory reasons.

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On Friday, October 16, 2009, Pitt Law hosted a day-long symposium titled “The Past, Present, and Future of the SEC,” planned and hosted by Professors Douglas Branson and Peter Oh. The event was co-sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Law Review and the SEC Historical Society. Scholars from Boston College, Georgetown University, Vanderbilt University, University of Indiana, the College of William and Mary and the University of Minnesota, among others, presented papers. Also presenting papers were the recently retired Secretary of the SEC as well as three former Chief Economists of the SEC and the General Counsel for NASDAQ. Commissioner Troy Parades of the SEC delivered the Keynote Address. Chancellor Mark Nordenberg attended portions of the program and introduced Commissioner Paredes. Approximately 200 academics, area lawyers and law students attended the program.

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On October 16, 2009, Professor Douglas Branson presented a paper at a conference hosted by the University of Pittsburgh School of Law (“The Past, Present, and Future of the SEC”). The title of his paper was “Trekking Toward an Uber Regulator: Meaningful Change for SEC Enforcement?’ The paper will be published by the University of Pittsburgh Law Review, along with other papers presented at the conference.

Professor John Burkoff was quoted recently in the Tarentum (PA) Valley News Dispatch on tactical questions facing criminal defense attorneys whose clients are called to testify before grand juries. The context is a corruption investigation aimed at the Pennsylvania legislature.

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On October 23, 2009, Professor Ronald Brand co-chaired a panel on “Federalism Issues in the Implementation of Private International Law Treaties at the International Law Weekend held in New York City concurrent with the 88th Annual Meeting of the American Branch of the International Law Association. The panel included Rex Blackburn, General Counsel, Idaho Power, and Chair of the NCCUSL Drafting Committee for the Uniform Choice of Court Agreement Act; Avril Haines, Assistant Legal Adviser for Treaty Affairs at the U.S. Department of State; The Honorable Sydney Stein, Federal District Judge, Southern District of New York; Richard Van Duizend, Principal Court Management Consultant, National Center for State Courts; and Janet Whittaker, an attorney with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in New York. Professor David Stewart of the Georgetown University Law Center was the other co-chair for the panel. The panel considered the often conflicting desire to retain certain matters as state law when treaties include rules in areas such as domestic relations, commercial law, judicial cooperation, choice of court agreements, and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments.

Professor Brand also participated in annual meeting of the Executive Committee of the American Branch on October 24.