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Law School Satisfies Student Cravings With New Amenities


The UpTowner Café, open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., is a convenient snack shop.

Claire Duggan

Looking to enhance student life, the Law School recently opened a food store and an upscale student conference center as part of its seven-year renovation plan.

Caffeine-weary students can now get their java fix just a few doors down from class at The UpTowner Café, GW Law’s premier food venue that opened in January on the first floor of Lisner Hall. The small deli-style shop offers a full coffee station and dishes out sushi, pastries, salads, sandwiches, and snacks from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., serving as a convenient stop for the early-riser or the night student.

Senior Associate Dean Thomas A. Morrison says the plans have been in the works for several years and came into fruition with the school’s extension to Lisner Hall last winter.

“We expanded, we built student space, and we wanted to bring that sense of community to the school,” Morrison says.

Students can linger with their latte at the café tables or grab a cup of joe to go. The shop also offers a tasty pre-exam favorite: the Dean Morrison sandwich, featuring turkey, pastrami, Swiss cheese, and spring mix piled onto rye bread with honey Dijon.

“I’m definitely a fan,” says Morrison, who spearheaded the negotiations for the food site.


UpTowner Café owners Eunjoo Park and Paul Park share a cup of joe with SBA President Sam Jammal and Dean Frederick M. Lawrence.

Claire Duggan

Law students are also getting use out of the new student conference center on the second floor of Lisner Hall. The center includes drop-down screens, projectors, and microphones for working conferences, and cherry wood tables and chairs for receptions. The space was modeled after the Michael K. Young Faculty Conference Center, which was increasingly booked during the academic year, Morrison says. It opened last fall.

“These venues really will change the Law School. We now have a campus,” says Sam Jammal, president of the Student Bar Association for the 2006-07 academic year. “Aside from easing some of the crowding on the lounges, they offer new places to study and socialize. I think we will start seeing the life of the school shift more toward Lisner with each new class.”

In yet another first, the Law School has taken over The Aston, a 116-unit residential building, to offer as housing for mostly first-year students as early as fall 2008 after a yearlong renovation is complete.

The building is located just six blocks from the Law School at 1129 New Hampshire Ave., N.W., and has one-person efficiency apartments furnished with a twin bed, kitchen, closet and drawer space, and wall-to-wall carpeting.

The building, a former undergraduate dorm, is the only residence hall on campus exclusively reserved for law students. Morrison says the housing will be a major advantage to attracting students from around the world.

“Not having to fight the D.C. housing market is a big plus,” he says.

All of the utilities, including electricity, water, gas, cable television, high-speed Internet access, and individual phone lines are also included. Morrison says renovations are planned during the summer months over the next three years.

—Jaime Ciavarra

Government Procurement Colloquium Discusses Evolving Issue


Senior Associate Dean Steven L. Schooner; Adjunct Professor and Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Government Accountability Office Daniel I. Gordon; featured speaker and University of Paris Professor Laurence Folliot-Lalliot; and Professor Christopher Yukins, co-director of the Government Procurement Law Program.

Jameka Roberts

In December 2006, the World Trade Organization published proposed revisions to the Government Procurement Agreement, the cornerstone to free trade in procurement among the WTO’s industrialized nations. China’s likely accession to the GPA in the coming years will have a profound effect on procurement, here and abroad. In January, Professor Laurence Folliot-Lalliot of the University of Paris, accompanied by GW Law Professors Daniel I. Gordon and Christopher Yukins, spoke at a public colloquium to discuss how these recent developments may touch procurement on both sides of the Atlantic.

 

 

 



photo
Claire Duggan

 

Paddock Named Environmental Dean

In March, Dean Frederick M. Lawrence announced that Lee Paddock will join GW Law this summer as associate dean for environmental studies. Paddock is director of environmental legal studies at Pace Law School. He also consults for the Tellus Institute and the Environmental Integrity Project. Prior to joining Pace, Paddock was a senior consultant to the National Academy of Public Administration and worked on environmental justice, Clean Air Act, and enforcement issues. He also held a visiting scholar position at the Environmental Law Institute and worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on innovation issues, including its Performance Track program.

From 1978 until 1999 Paddock was an assistant attorney general with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, where he served as director of environmental policy for 13 years, as manager of the office’s agriculture and natural resources division, and as a member of its executive committee. He has served on numerous national panels, including the Aspen Institute’s Series on Environment in the 21st Century and the American National Standard Institute’s ISO 14000 Environmental Management Systems Council.

Paddock served as a law clerk to Judge Donald Lay of the U.S. 8th Circuit Court
of Appeals.

Paddock also is on the board of the National Association of Environmental Law Societies.

Research Team Says “Social Contract” Needed to Combat AIDS

A GW research team that studied the AIDS epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa says wealthy countries and corporations have an ethical responsibility to help combat the deadly virus.

The report, released in February by the Law School’s Creative and Innovative Economy Center, outlines 11 critical steps to building a “social contract” needed for a sustained and organized intervention.

“The burden of this crisis needs to be shared by all of the stakeholders,” says CIEC Director Michael P. Ryan.

Ryan and his team carried out field research in Burkina Faso, Botswana, and Uganda to examine how access and treatment programs, specifically the AIDS slowing antiretroviral drugs, are delivered.
Nearly 26 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa are HIV positive.

“AIDS activists declare that the drug companies must take immediate action to stem the crisis,” Ryan says. “But drug company leaders assert that African governments are responsible for the health of their peoples. This report asks who is responsible to do what and why regarding antiretroviral drug innovation and access in Africa.”

To combat the crisis and avoid an overall pandemic, Ryan and his team recommend that specific responsibilities be laid out. Among their suggestions, the team says that wealthy countries should
invest in basic medical science in African countries, African governments should provide patent rights to encourage private drug development, and The World Health Organization should ensure that all ARV suppliers meet good manufacturing practices. The team also says that ARV drug innovators should license production to developing country manufacturers, donate and discount drugs, and teach about drug distribution and logic.

The entire 11 recommendations and the full report of The AIDS Social Contract in Africa are available online at the CIEC’s Web site, www.law.gwu.edu/ciec.

“There are no quick fixes to this health crisis,” Ryan warns. “Each government must articulate comprehensive strategies and recruit partners with know-how and financial resources who are committed to sustaining programs over many years.”

Showing Their Service Pride


Photo Courtesy of Nicole Alfred

Alumni Will Wilder, JD ’06, Shani Gholston, JD ’06, and Joe Hardy, JD ’06, (back row in blue GW hats) join other volunteers and President George W. Bush, who is flanked by GW Law 2Ls Nicole Alfred and Adrienne Lawrence, at City Year D.C.’s annual MLK Day Service Project. The event was held this year at Cardozo High School in January. During the day of service, more than 500 volunteers assisted in completing 59 mural and other painting projects at the D.C. school.

Bazos Receives Roger Boyd Scholar Award


Claire Duggan

Professor Emeritus Frederick J. Lees; Professor Emeritus Ralph C. Nash Jr.; Adelicia Cliffe Taylor, JD ’06; Professor Christopher Yukins; and Senior Associate Dean Steven L. Schooner present 3L Peter Bazos with the Roger Boyd Scholar Award during the annual Government Contracts Luncheon, held at the Omni Shoreham in February. The scholarship is named in honor of late Crowell and Moring Partner Roger Boyd, who passed away in 2003. It provides a stipend to the editor-in-chief of the Public Contract Law Journal. Taylor was the 2006 recipient.

Frederick Douglass Awards Gala




Claire Duggan

For the second year, benefactors of the Southern Center for Human Rights invited GW Law students and faculty members to attend the annual Frederick Douglass Awards Gala in Washington, D.C. Back row, from left: Professor Anne K. Olesen; Jonathan Rapping, JD ’95; Douglas G. Robinson, JD ’69; and Professor Jennifer P. Lyman. Front row, from left: Brenda Huneycutt, JD ’06; 3L student Sarah H. Kimberly, 2L student Morgan Macdonald; and Associate Dean Susan Karamanian.

Guests at the gala heard from attorneys being honored for post-Katrina work and the fight against lethal injection.

Rapping, who currently works in the New Orleans Public Defenders Office, was recently awarded the U.S. Justice Fund’s 2007 Soros Justice Fellowship to develop the Southern Public Defender Training Center at the Southern Center for Human Rights. The program will train public defenders across the southeastern United States to represent indigent defendants in a more responsive and effective way.

Human Rights Clinic Supports ex-Peruvian Leader’s Extradition

The GW Law International Human Rights Clinic is supporting the extradition of a former South American leader wanted for human rights violations.

The clinic recently submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Chilean Supreme Court to request that former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori be returned to Peru, where he is facing corruption charges and indictments for serious human rights violations. The brief, written on behalf of 20 U.S. law professors, is in formal support to Peru’s 2005 extradition request.

Fujimori is believed to be behind two killings by paramilitary death squads in the early 1990s in Peru, including the gunning down of 15 people in the Barrios Altos massacre, and the kidnapping and murder of nine students and a professor at La Cantuta University.

“The idea behind the brief was to contribute an international law perspective on ex-President Fujimori’s liability for international crimes and serious human rights violations,” says Arturo Carrillo, GW Law professor and director of the clinic. “We wanted to make sure that the Court took into account its international duty to ensure that Fujimori be brought to justice for his crimes.”

The amicus brief is an expert submission that focuses on the international law dimensions of the extradition proceedings, especially Chile’s obligations under international criminal and human rights law. It concludes that to honor its international legal commitments, Chile must extradite Fujimori to Peru so that he may face the criminal charges pending against him. The brief was prepared by Thomas Antkowiak, a visiting scholar at GW Law School and IHR Clinic supervising attorney, with student input and support.


Jessica McConnell

Triple Play

GW Law alumnus and Washington Nationals owner Ted Lerner, AA ’48, LLB ’50, (right) joins Baltimore Orioles Manager Sam Perlozzo, BS ’73, (left) and New York Yankees President Randy Levine, BA ’77, (center) during a January forum at GW on the future of baseball. The three GW graduates also were inducted as the first members of the GW School of Business Sports Executives Hall of Fame. The trio discussed issues such as escalating free-agent salaries in front of a standing-room-only crowd in GW’s Jack Morton Auditorium.

GW Grads Popular Among Big Firms

GW’s Law School ranked among the top 20 schools most often tapped by big law firms in 2006, according to The National Law Journal. About 39 percent of the 626 GW students who earned JDs last year were hired at these big firms, which range in size from 172 attorneys to 3,535 attorneys,
The National Law Journal reports. GW was ranked number 17 in the poll. Columbia Law School and University of Pennsylvania were first and second, respectively.

Lawyers Have Heart 10K Run / 3K Fun Walk

Date: Saturday, June 9, 2007


Join the GW Law School Team of students, alumni, and faculty and staff members for this Washington, D.C., event benefiting the American Heart Association. Participants will be invited to take part in a pasta dinner the week preceding the race and receive a GW Law Team T-shirt!

Walk or Run: To participate as a walker or runner (volunteers see below) please visit active.com, click on “Register Now” and choose the “Team Registration” option. Select “The George Washington University Law School” from the list. Registration is $30.Participants will be invited to the Pre-Race Pasta Dinner and will receive a GW Law Team T-shirt.

Race Day Volunteers: There is no registration fee for volunteers. To register as a team volunteer please contact mdevine@law.gwu.edu or 202-994-7862.

For more information about the race, please visit http://www.runlhh.org/. For information about the GW Law Team, please contact Maureen Devine at mdevine@law.gwu.edu or 202-994-7862.

GW hosts “San Francisco on the Potomac”

Reception brings together faculty, friends during national law convention

GW co-hosted a reception with Georgetown University for faculty members and friends following the annual Association of American Law Schools Convention in Washington, D.C. The January event, which focused on “Expanding Knowledge and Serving Our Communities,” drew law faculty from around the country and gave GW a chance to showcase its newest Law School additions. Visitors toured the expanded Lisner Hall, including the new student conference center, and were able to view the school’s rare book room. The convention was scheduled to take place in San Francisco but was moved to Washington, D.C., because of labor difficulties at the Bay Area’s major convention hotels. So as not to disappoint those looking forward to the West Coast trip, GW created the theme of “San Francisco on the Potomac,” with some of the city’s most famous landmarks replicated around the Law School. Guests noshed on Chinese food near the Chinatown Gate, Italian treats near Coit Tower, and Mexican dishes near the Mission Dolores. Nearly 1,000 full-time and adjunct faculty members of the two law schools were invited.


GW and Georgetown faculty members chat near Chinatown Gate. From left to right, William Bratton of Georgetown, GW professors Cynthia Lee, Brad Clark, and Jonathan Siegel.

GW Law Dean Frederick M. Lawrence with Rutgers-Camden Professor Tanya Hernandez and Yale University Associate Dean Mike Thompson. Hernandez is scheduled to join GW’s faculty in the fall.


Professor Roger Trangsrud, Steve Schooner, Tanya Hernandez, and Naomi Cahn under the watchful gaze of George Washington.


Dean T. Alexander Aleinikoff of Georgetown University and Dean Frederick M. Lawrence in front of a replica of the Transamerica Pyramid, the tallest skyscraper in San Francisco. The convention was slated to be held in San Francisco but moved to Washington due to labor difficulties at the Bay Area’s major convention hotels.

GW professor Dan Solove, Boston College Associate Dean Lawrence Cunningham, and GW Associate Dean Steve Schooner. Cunningham is scheduled to join GW’s faculty in the fall.


Photos by Claire Duggan