For more information, please contact:
Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, (312) 906-5251
ADVISORY TO PRODUCERS, COLUMNISTS, AND ASSIGNMENT, LEGAL, BUSINESS, FOOD, BOOK, HEALTH, POLITICAL, PLANNING, CITY DESK, FEATURES AND DAYBOOK EDITORS
CHICAGO–February 16, 2009–Chicago-Kent College of Law and Stuart School of Business have experts available to discuss current issues. To reach experts on IIT's Downtown Campus, please call Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, (312) 906-5251. Press releases and earlier advisories are available on our Web site: www.kentlaw.edu/news/advisory.
Former vice president Dick Cheney's disagreement with former president George W. Bush's decision not to issue a full pardon to Scooter Libby has gone public. In an interview last month with the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard, Cheney said he strongly believed Libby "deserved a presidential pardon." According to a recent New York Daily News story, Cheney "was still trying the day before [President] Obama was sworn in" to get Bush to issue a pardon. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who served as Cheney's former chief of staff, was convicted in March 2007 of obstructing justice and lying to a grand jury related to the investigation of "leaks" of information about CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison and given a $250,000 fine. President Bush commuted Libby's prison sentence three months later--just hours after a federal court of appeals panel unanimously upheld a lower court ruling that Libby should not be allowed to delay going to prison until all his appeals were exhausted. Chicago-Kent Dean Harold J. Krent, the author of Presidential Powers (New York University Press 2005), is available for interviews.
Nine people have died and nearly 600 more have been sickened by a nationwide salmonella outbreak linked to a Peanut Corporation of America plant in Georgia. More than 2,000 products have been recalled. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has asked the Justice Department to look into allegations that workers at the plant knowingly distributed tainted peanuts due to worry over sales. Plainview Peanut Company, a subsidiary of Peanut Corporation of America, last week suspended operation of its Texas processing facility while the state health department and the FDA complete their investigations of the plant's procedures and food safety records. Adjunct professor Eric F. Greenberg, who teaches food and drug law, is available for interviews.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next month in Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal. At issue is whether the refusal of a Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia justice to recuse himself from participating in the appeal of a $50 million jury verdict--even though the CEO of the lead defendant in the case provided "more than 60 percent of the total amount spent" in the justice's 2004 campaign for a seat on court--violated the plaintiff's due process rights. Aspects of the case mirror the plot in John Grisham's novel The Appeal (Doubleday 2008), in which a corporate head seeks to "buy" a seat on the court that will hear his appeal of a multimillion dollar jury verdict. Chicago-Kent experts are available for interviews.
Downtown Campus Events:
February 17: Third annual U.S. Supreme Court Review. IIT Distinguished Professor and constitutional scholar Sheldon H. Nahmod will discuss key cases and decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court's 2007-08 term. Topics include gun control laws, equal protection and public employment, First Amendment issues, habeas corpus and the war on terror, and voters' rights. This program, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Chicago-Kent chapter of the American Constitution Society. A question-and-answer period will follow the discussion, which begins at noon. For more information, please contact Julia Ellis at jellis@kentlaw.edu.
February 25: Phi Alpha Delta Judges' Night. Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan will be honored by Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity.The program is co-hosted by the Chicago Alumni and William Blackstone chapters of Phi Alpha Delta Fraternity and Chicago-Kent College of Law. For more information, please call (312) 263-1360, ext. 20.
February 27: "Using Technology to Organize and Present Cases." This one-day seminar for litigators will explore how technology is used to present information to juries and mediation panels and how it may be used to manage complex commercial litigation. The program includes an interactive discussion of ethical concerns for practitioners dealing with digitized discovery. Participants will see demonstrations of innovative technology in opening and closing argument presentations, direct examination of expert witnesses, and mediation presentations. Presenters include Gera-Lind Kolarik, former television producer and president of Evidence Video; Kathy Reilly of ImageMaker Creative Studio; Illinois Appellate Court justice and Chicago-Kent adjunct professor Warren D. Wolfson; David A. Erickson, associate director of Chicago-Kent's Trial Advocacy Program and director of its Program in Criminal Litigation; trial consultant Patricia F. Kuehn; and Chicago-Kent adjunct professor Michael Rogers, president of Ronin Consulting Ltd. and the author of Litigation Technology: Using Sanction, PowerPoint at Trial and Litigation Technology: Becoming a High-Tech Trial Lawyer. To register or for more information, call (312) 906-5090 or visit www.kentlaw.edu/depts/cle/.
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