For more information, please contact:
Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, (312) 906-5251
ADVISORY TO PRODUCERS, COLUMNISTS, AND ASSIGNMENT, LEGAL, BUSINESS, FOOD, BOOK, SPORTS, POLITICAL, PLANNING, CITY DESK, FEATURES AND DAYBOOK EDITORS
CHICAGO–February 23, 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.
Illinois congressmen Peter Roskam (R-6) and Mark Kirk (R-10) are proposing legislation that would prevent companies from withholding unfavorable food testing results from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The proposal will give the FDA the power to order firms to recall dangerous food products from the marketplace. Food recalls currently are voluntary. 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 FDA has asked the Justice Department to look into allegations that workers at the plant knowingly distributed tainted peanuts due to worry over lost sales. 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 contributed $3 million to the justice's 2004 campaign for a seat on the 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.
The makers of Hendrix Electric, a specialty vodka named after singer-guitarist Jimi Hendrix, have been ordered to stop production of the drink, pull existing product from the shelves, cancel advertising and marketing campaigns, and pay Hendrix's estate $3.2 million in damages for infringing on trademarks and licensing rights. The purple-tinted bottle includes Hendrix's likeness and signature. Hendrix died in 1970 of drug- and alcohol-related asphyxiation. Professor Mickie Voges Piatt, executive director of Chicago-Kent's Program in Intellectual Property Law, is available for interviews.
Downtown Campus Events:
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/.
March 4: 2009 Chicago-Kent College of Law Centennial Lecture. William N. Eskridge, Jr., the John A. Garver Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School, will address the topic "Administrative Constitutionalism." Professor Eskridge is the author of Dynamic Statutory Interpretation and a co-author of Legislation and Statutory Interpretation. He is the co-author of two casebooks: Cases and Materials on Legislation: Statutes and the Creation of Public Policy and Cases and Materials on Constitutional Law: Themes for the Constitution's Third Century. The lecture, which begins at 3 p.m. in the Judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Courtroom, is free and open to the public, but reservations are requested. For more information, or to R.S.V.P., please contact Insa Blanke at (312) 906-5003 or iblanke@kentlaw.edu.
March 6: Forum on Same-Sex Marriages featuring William N. Eskridge, Jr., the John A. Garver Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School. From 1990-95, Professor Eskridge represented a gay couple suing for recognition of their same-sex marriage. Since then, he has published a field-establishing casebook, three monographs, and dozens of law review articles. The historical materials in Professor Eskridge's book Gaylaw: Challenging the Apartheid of the Closet formed the basis for an amicus brief he drafted for the Cato Institute and for much of the U.S. Supreme Court's (and the dissenting opinion's) analysis in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), which invalidated consensual sodomy laws. His most recent book is Gay Marriage: For Better or For Worse (co-authored with Darren Spedale). The forum, which begins at 2 p.m. in the Judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Courtroom, is free and open to the public, but reservations are requested. For more information, or to R.S.V.P., please contact Insa Blanke at (312) 906-5003 or iblanke@kentlaw.edu.
March 24: Internationally renowned labor economist Richard B. Freeman will deliver the 31st annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture addressing the topic "Return of the Public: Why Market Fundamentalism Failed and What Labor Can Do About It to Save the World." Professor Freeman's lecture will analyze the impact of the current economic downturn on the U.S. labor market and discuss how organized labor can effect positive change by being a collective voice of workers. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Chicago-Kent's Gov. Richard B. Ogilvie Auditorium. The annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture is sponsored by Chicago-Kent College of Law's Institute for Law and the Workplace. It is presented by the Kenneth M. Piper Endowment, established by a gift from Mrs. Kenneth M. Piper in memory of her husband. Mr. Piper was a distinguished executive with Motorola Inc. and Bausch & Lomb Inc., who made important contributions in human resources and labor relations for more than two decades. No reservations are required. Attorneys who attend are eligible for 1.25 hours of Illinois Minimum Continuing Legal Education credit. For more information, visit www.kentlaw.edu/depts/cle on the Web or call (312) 906-5090.
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