For more information, please contact:
Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, (312) 906-5251
ADVISORY TO PRODUCERS, COLUMNISTS, AND ASSIGNMENT, LEGAL, BUSINESS, PLANNING, EDUCATION, CITY DESK, FEATURES AND DAYBOOK EDITORS
CHICAGO–September 18, 2007–Chicago-Kent College of Law and Stuart School of Business have experts available to discuss current issues. To reach any of our experts, call Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, at (312) 906-5251. Press releases and earlier advisories are available on our Web site: www.kentlaw.edu/news/advisory.
President Bush has named retired federal judge Michael Mukasey to succeed Alberto Gonzales as U.S. attorney general. Gonzales, whose resignation became effective September 17, was under fire for his controversial role in promoting a government eavesdropping program, the veracity of his statements before Congress, and the firings of U.S. attorneys. Chicago-Kent Dean Harold J. Krent says, “Attorney General Gonzales' conduct in office undermined the prestige and effectiveness of the Justice Department. Without a measure of independence, the department cannot exercise its historic responsibility to execute the law impartially and with integrity. His successor must strive to restore public confidence in the office.” Dean Krent, the author of Presidential Powers, is available for interviews.
General Motors and the United Auto Workers have resumed contract negotiations. Contracts covering hourly workers at the Big Three automakers expired September 14. General Motors is looking to cut costs to remain competitive. Professor Martin H. Malin, director of Chicago-Kent’s Institute for Law and the Workplace and the author of Individual Rights Within the Union, is available for interviews.
Chicago-Kent has received significant funding for diabetes research and legal advocacy through a $5 million award deriving from the 2007 settlement of a consumer class action lawsuit challenging the effectiveness of the diabetes drug Rezulin. Invoking the legal doctrine of cy pres, the court directed that a portion of the funds remaining after all the claimants had been compensated be awarded to Illinois Institute of Technology to further its diabetes research. The law school will share the funding with the university’s department of biomedical engineering, which, together with the law school, runs the Center for Diabetes Research and Policy. On the legal front, a portion of the award will be used to provide pro bono legal representation to individuals or groups of individuals who are denied access to medical treatment for diabetes and diabetes-related illnesses. Such cases, based on a broad variety of fact patterns, most frequently arise against insurance companies, the Social Security Administration, schools, employers, detention centers and prisons, where discrimination or lack of access to care or accommodations is alleged. Administrators and faculty are available for interviews.
The Harry Potter series ranks as the most challenged book series of the 21st century. A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Banned Books Week, observed the last week in September, was established in 1982 to call attention to freedom of expression issues related to banned and challenged books in America. Chicago-Kent experts are available to discuss censorship issues and provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act that allow the government to gain information about materials accessed by library patrons.
Jury deliberations will continue Thursday in the “Operation Family Secrets” trial. The jury will decide whether Joseph “Joey the Clown” Lombardo, James Marcello, Frank Calabrese Sr. and Paul “the Indian” Schiro were directly responsible for more than 18 murders--some of which occurred more than three decades ago. Professors Douglas Wm. Godfrey and Richard S. Kling are available for interviews. Professor Godfrey is a former prosecutor in the Kings County (New York) District Attorney's Office, where he served in the sex crimes and homicide bureaus. Professor Kling is a criminal defense attorney who teaches evidence and forensic sciences.
The 50th anniversary of “The Little Rock Nine.” In September 1957, nine African-American students attempted to attend classes at the previously all-white Little Rock Central High School. The desegregation of the high school was the first phase of a “gradual integration” plan presented in response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision three years earlier in Brown v. Board of Education, which prohibited racially segregated schools. Siding with the segregationists, Arkansas governor Orval Faubus deployed the state National Guard to block the black students’ access to the school. Little Rock mayor Woodrow Mann asked President Dwight D. Eisenhower to send in federal troops to protect the nine African-American students from the hundreds of protesters who gathered outside the high school. On September 24, the president sent the Army’s 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock and placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal control. Chicago-Kent Dean Harold J. Krent, the author of Presidential Powers, is available for interviews about President Eisenhower’s intervention in Little Rock.
“The Little Rock Nine” students completed the 1957-58 school year under federal protection. Ernest Green, the only senior among the group, earned his diploma in 1958. The following year, Gov. Faubus closed all public high schools in Little Rock, forcing the African-American students to take correspondence courses or go to out-of-state schools. The school board reopened the schools in the fall of 1959. Chicago-Kent experts are available to discuss the impact of Brown v. Board of Education and court-ordered efforts to desegregate schools.
Downtown Campus Events:
September 19: “MedImmune and SanDisk: Seeking a License Without Getting a Lawsuit” is the topic of the fourth annual Federal Circuit Clerk Roundtable. The roundtable, composed of former Federal Circuit clerks, is a discussion of current developments in patent law. Chicago-Kent professor Timothy R. Holbrook, who served as a clerk to the Honorable Glenn L. Archer Jr., former chief judge of the Federal Circuit, will serve as moderator. Other participants include Meredith Martin Addy of Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, Leonard D. Conapinski of McAndrews, Held & Malloy Ltd., Sasha D. Mayergoyz of Latham & Watkins LLP, and Michael R. Weiner of Marshall, Gerstein & Borun LLP. The program, which begins at 3 p.m., is free and open to the public. For more information, please call (312) 906-5128.
September 20: 25th annual Federal Sector Labor Relations and Labor Law Program. Keynote panelists John Gage, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO; Ronald J. James, assistant secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs; and Neil Anthony Gordon McPhie, chairman of the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, will address the topic “My Top Five Issues in Federal Sector Labor Relations.” Chicago-Kent professor Martin H. Malin, director of the Institute for Law and the Workplace, will serve as moderator. The Honorable Dwight Lewis, EEOC supervisory administrative judge, will provide an overview of the most current developments in federal sector EEO law and practice. Workshops include “Ethical Dilemmas in the Practice of Federal Sector Labor Relations and Labor Law” and “Winning Strategies in Advocating before the MSPB.” Sponsored by Chicago-Kent's Institute for Law and the Workplace, the program is the longest-running conference on federal sector and postal labor relations and labor law held outside of Washington, D.C. For more information, call (312) 906-5090.
October 30: Joseph T. Hansen, international president of the United Food and Commercial Workers, will deliver the 2007 Distinguished Labor Leader Lecture. Hansen has been active in efforts to confront the challenges of transnational corporations with global unionism. The lecture, which will begin at 1 p.m., is free and open to the public. It will be held in the Governor Richard B. Ogilvie Auditorium on IIT’s Downtown Campus. The Distinguished Labor Leader Lecture series is presented as a public service by Chicago-Kent’s Institute for Law and the Workplace and the Chicago Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. For more information, please contact (312) 906-5090 or visit www.kentlaw.edu/depts/cle.
–DTC–
|
