Faculty in the News: July 1 - July 15, 2017

Columbia Law School Clip Report, July 1–15, 2017

The Telegraph—July 1, 2017
US Grenfell Tower cladding firm faces lawsuit from shareholders as market value falls
There was some debate on whether the class action on behalf of shareholders would succeed. John Coffee of Columbia Law School in New York, an expert in class actions sounded a note of caution.

Observer-Dispatch—July 3, 2017
Monday Morning Conversation: Utica helped shape Guerrero’s view of life
Columbia Law School’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic has been an integral part of my professional development as a lawyer. I had the chance to represent asylum seekers in court while I was still in law school. My professor Elora Mukherjee is an incredible advocate for immigrants’ rights and learning from her has been invaluable.

Note: This article featured Columbia Law School 2017 graduate Daily Guerrero.

The Wall Street Journal—July 5, 2017
Brooklyn Coffee Shop Locks Unicorn Horns With Starbucks
Jane Ginsburg, a Columbia Law School professor, said if Starbucks was aware of Montauk Juice's latte, that could influence some judges' decision making because using the name could be seen as bad faith.

The Faculty Lounge—July 5, 2017
Robert A. Ferguson (1942–2017)
I am very sad to report on the passing of Robert A. Ferguson, who was the George Edward Woodberry emeritus professor at Columbia Law School.

Note: This tribute was written by alumnus Alfred Brophy.

The National Constitution Center—July 6, 2017
The Deceptively Clear Twenty-Fifth Amendment
By David Pozen.
The Twenty-Fifth Amendment may look like a model of constitutional clarity…On closer inspection, however, the clarity of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment fades—at least with regard to its lengthiest and most controversial component, Section 4.

Bloomberg—July 6, 2017
SEC Looks Into Fake News Producers (Audio)
John Coffee, a professor at Columbia Law School, speaks about how the SEC is investigating fake news producers for manipulating stock prices. He speaks with June Grasso and Michael Best on Bloomberg Radio’s "Bloomberg Law.”

Lawfare—July 5, 2017
A Primer on Debates over Law and Ethics of Autonomous Weapon Systems
By Matthew Waxman
For Lawfare readers interested in law and regulation of autonomous weapon systems (AWS), we’re pleased to note our new essay, recently posted to SSRN, “Debating Autonomous Weapon Systems, Their Ethics, and Their Regulation Under International Law.”

First Things—July 5, 2017
Administrative Law
Columbia Law School professor Philip Hamburger's The Administrative Threat makes a powerful case that the executive branch has assumed “absolute power,” albeit in a “soft” form. It is entirely unConstitutional.

The Washington Post—July 6, 2017
Would the Trump administration block a merger just to punish CCN?
“This idea that we would somehow punish CNN for political reasons by blocking a merger is just … it would be highly unusual and something that would be very hard to contemplate that it would happen,” said Columbia Law School professor Anu Bradford. But her bigger concern was about the precedent that would be set.

Law Newz—July 6, 2017
‘Illegal’: Trump Actually Can’t Interfere With Merger Just Because He Hates CNN
Professor Jeffrey N. Gordon, who teaches a course on mergers and acquisitions at Columbia University Law School, explained how this could play out. “It’s not whether Justice will ‘approve’ the merger, but whether it will ‘challenge’ the merger by seeking an injunction to block it.”

The Village Voice—July 7, 2017
Manhattan D.A. Gives Turnstile Jumpers a Choice: Enroll in a Program or Face Prosecution
“We’ve been here before,” says Jeffrey Fagan, a professor at Columbia Law School who focuses on criminal justice issues, and who notes that diversion programs are already a feature of specialized courts for drug offenders and sex workers.

Huffington Post—July 7 2017
Has Your Attention Been Sold?
Columbia Law School’s Tim Wu writes in his book, The Attention Merchants, that: “We’ve already seen the attention merchant’s basic modus operandi: draw attention with apparently free stuff and then resell it.”

Business Insider—July 7, 2017
Attention merchants: How advertising distracts us
How much attention do we really have to spare? According to Tim Wu, the author of "The Attention Merchants," 168 hours a week.

Time—July 10, 2017
James Comey's Friend Disputes President Trump's Classified Memo Accusation
Columbia University law professor Daniel Richman says the one memo whose substance was revealed to news organizations in May was not classified.

CNN—July 10, 2017
Anatomy of anti-Comey talking point: the Trump-Fox feedback loop in action
Columbia Law School Professor Daniel Richman, Comey's friend who received the memo and shared it with the Times, told CNN that the document "was not classified at the time and to my knowledge is not classified now."

NBC—July 10, 2017
Comey Friend Responds to Trump Tweet About ‘Illegal’ Leaks
Richman said that to his knowledge, nothing in the one memo that he described to reporters was or has been deemed classified.

MSNBC—July 11, 2017
Campaign Collusion? (Video)
MSNBC interviews Jennifer Rodgers, Executive Director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity at Columbia Law School, about Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer.

Vice—July 11, 2017
These are the laws Donald Trump Jr. might have broken
It is illegal to “solicit, accept, or receive a contribution or donation…of money or other thing of value” from a foreign national in connection with a federal election. “The law refers to ‘thing of value,’ but it doesn’t have to be money; it could be a benefit,” said Richard Briffault, a professor in campaign finance at Columbia Law School.

City & State NY—July 11, 2017
Back to the source: An interview with the man who coined “net neutrality”
We spoke with Tim Wu, a former adviser to state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and former candidate for lieutenant governor, who coined the phrase “net neutrality” back in 2003, about the importance of a free and open internet and what a rollback on net neutrality could mean for the future of the web.

BBC—July 12, 2017
Did Donald Trump Jr. break the law?
Whether or not damaging information about Mrs Clinton, the former Democratic presidential candidate, could be considered a "thing of value" is a legal grey area, according to Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Law School, and will be key to any future legal consequences for Mr Trump Jr. "Is providing information covered by this? That's not clear," says Professor Briffault. "I don't know if there's any specific rule or past case that includes information itself."

NBC—July 12, 2017
Did Trump Jr. Break Laws When He Met Russian Lawyer Veselnitskaya?
Richard Briffault, a law professor at Columbia University who specializes in campaign finance, appeared to fall somewhere in the middle. He said it's an "open question" whether information about Clinton qualified as a "contribution" — but the statute itself, he went on to say, is "clearly not limited to money."

The Southampton Press—July 13, 2017
Hamptons Tea Dance Marks Silver Anniversary
“‘United States vs. Windsor’ is a tremendously important case in the American Civil Rights landscape,” said Suzanne Goldberg, a professor at Columbia Law School and former senior staff attorney at Lambda Legal, the country’s first legal organization focused on achieving full equality for lesbian and gay people.

City & State NY—July 13, 2017
Should Sheldon Silver be celebrating?
Jennifer Rodgers, executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity at Columbia Law School, also thinks that Silver will likely be convicted when the retrial goes forward and a jury has been “properly instructed” of the definition for an official act.

Financial Times—July 13, 2017
Why ‘The Brussel Effect’ will undermine Brexit regulatory push
“The incentives for UK companies to continue to comply with EU regulation will be overwhelming,” says Anu Bradford, a law professor at Columbia University in New York. “For all the talk of the EU economic model being in trouble, the Brussels effect is getting stronger.”

New York Law Journal—July 13, 2017
In Next Silver Trial, Prosecutors Will Have Narrower Road, Lawyers Say
Jennifer Rodgers, executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity at Columbia Law School, also said that she sees the ruling overturning Silver's conviction impacting the Skelos case.

Evening Standard—July 14, 2017
Resigning may be the best way out of this mess for Donald Trump
By Philip Bobbitt
Where would be the endgame of such a crisis?

Huffington Post—July 14, 2017
Trump’s Lawyer Probably Won’t Be Disciplined For ‘Watch Your Back, Bitch’ Emails
“The insults and threats strike me as reprehensible, but not all reprehensible behavior by lawyers involves legal ethics violations,” said William Simon, a law professor at Columbia University.

The New York Times—July 15, 2017
Please Prove You’re Not a Robot
By Tim Wu
Robots are getting better, every day, at impersonating humans. When directed by opportunists, malefactors and sometimes even nation-states, they pose a particular threat to democratic societies, which are premised on being open to the people.

# # #

This report shares mentions of Law School faculty cited in print, broadcast, and online news outlets. It is not intended to be inclusive of every media mention. Faculty members who are featured in the media are encouraged to send their clips to [email protected] for possible inclusion in our Clip Report. Faculty members seeking assistance in placing an op-ed, promoting scholarship, facilitating interviews, event coverage, or media training, are encouraged to email us at [email protected] or call us at 212-854-2650

Posted July 25, 2017