Law School Professor Experts for Supreme Court's New Term

Press Contact: Sonia von Gutfeld, 212-854-1453, [email protected]
Public Affairs Office, 212-854-2650

October 6, 2008 (NEW YORK) – Columbia Law School faculty are available to discuss many of the cases scheduled for argument before the United States Supreme Court this fall. Their expertise includes voting rights, the environment, criminal law, pre-emption, discrimination, antitrust and asylum. Some faculty members also are involved in cases as amici curiae.

Reporters can contact faculty directly using the numbers below or set up interviews through Columbia Law School’s Public Affairs office at 212-854-2650.

Columbia Law School also has a TV and radio studio on campus equipped with IFB and ISDN lines. Reporters or producers wishing to schedule live or taped interviews can contact the Law School’s Public Affairs office at 212-854-2650.

Here are some of Columbia Law School’s scholars whose research gives them particular insight into the cases before the Supreme Court.

October 6
ALTRIA GROUP, INC. V. GOOD
·    Charles Fried ([email protected]), the Nathaniel Fensterstock Visitng Professor of Law at Columbia this year, served as a consultant to Altria in this case. Fried has been the Beneficial Professor of Law at Harvard University since 1999 and a member of the faculty since 1961. From 1985 to 1989, he served as United States Solicitor General, representing the Reagan Administration before the Supreme Court in 25 cases. From September 1995 until June 1999, Fried served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, while teaching constitutional law at Harvard as Distinguished Lecturer. Fried is a member of the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Law Institute. He has published extensively, including work in moral and political theory.

VADEN V. DISCOVER BANK
·    George Bermann (212-854-4258 or [email protected]) has extensive academic and professional experience in transnational litigation and international commercial arbitration, as well as in European Union law.  He currently serves as Chief Reporter of the American Law Institute's Restatement (Third) of the US Law of International Commercial Arbitration and as member of the Academic Council of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration. He is the Jean Monnet Professor of European Union Law (a chair conferred by the Commission of the European Communities), as well as the Walter Gellhorn Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, and director of the Law School's European Legal Studies Center. Having previously taught contracts and administrative law, his principal current courses and areas of scholarship are European Union law, comparative law, transnational litigation and arbitration, and WTO dispute resolution. He also teaches a first-year elective course on "Lawyering Across Multiple Legal Orders." Bermann is a member of the teaching faculty of the College d'Europe in Bruges, Belgium, and also regularly gives courses at the Universities of Paris I and Paris II and at the Institut des Sciences Politiques (Sciences Po) in Paris.
·    Ronald Mann (212-854-1570 or [email protected]) is an accomplished Supreme Court advocate who has argued ten cases in the Court.  His work on arbitration and credit cards gives him an incisive perspective on the issues presented here.  More generally, he is a leading expert on electronic commerce and the global credit card industry and has argued that current bankruptcy law creates a "sweatbox" of credit card debt. He is author of Charging Ahead: The Growth and Regulation of Payment Card Markets Around the World and casebooks on Electronic Commerce and on Payment Systems.

October 8
CRAWFORD V. NASHVILLE AND DAVIDSON COUNTY
·    Suzanne Goldberg (212-854-0411 or [email protected]) directs Columbia Law School’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic. Goldberg is an expert in women’s, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights issues, and in discrimination issues more generally.  Under Goldberg's direction, the Columbia Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic has worked extensively in local, national, and global fora on issues related to domestic violence, sexual harassment and numerous other areas.

October 14
BARTLETT V. STRICKLAND
·    Nathaniel Persily (917-570-3223 or [email protected]) filed an amicus brief in this case. Persily is Professor Law and Political Science and Director of the Center on Law and Politics at Columbia Law School. He has been a court-appointed expert for redistricting cases in Georgia, Maryland and New York, and has served as an expert witness or outside counsel in similar cases in California and Florida. Persily testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in their hearings concerning the 2006 reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act.

PEARSON V. CALLAHAN
·    Katherine Franke (212-854-0061 or [email protected]) worked with the National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights on an amicus brief in this case. Franke is Director of Columbia Law School’s Gender & Sexuality Law Program. She has written extensively on feminism and law, the politics of same-sex marriage, and the history of racial justice in the U.S. She co-directs the Feminist Theory Workshop and teaches Civil Rights Law and Critical Legal Thought. She was supervising attorney for the New York City Commission on Human Rights from 1987 to 1990 and founder of the AIDS and Employment Project in San Francisco.

OREGON V. ICE
·    Daniel Richman (212-854-9370 or [email protected]) teaches courses in criminal procedure, evidence and federal criminal law. He is former Chief Appellate Attorney and Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of New York (1987-92) and has consulted for the Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General (1997-2000). He also has served as chairman of the Local Conditional Release Commission for the City of New York (2004-05), and member of Governor Spitzer's Homeland Security Policy Advisory Committee (2006). Richman clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall and Chief Judge Wilfred Feinberg.

November 3
WYETH V. LEVINE
·    Charles Fried ([email protected]), the Nathaniel Fensterstock Visitng Professor of Law at Columbia this year, has been the Beneficial Professor of Law at Harvard University since 1999 and a member of the faculty since 1961. From 1985 to 1989, he served as United States Solicitor General, representing the Reagan Administration before the Supreme Court in 25 cases. From September 1995 until June 1999, Fried served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, while teaching constitutional law at Harvard as Distinguished Lecturer. Fried is a member of the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Law Institute. He has published extensively, including work in moral and political theory.
·    James Tierney (207-837-1877 or [email protected]) is director of the National State Attorneys General Program at Columbia Law School and served as the attorney general of Maine from 1980 to 1990. He served as Special Counsel to the attorney general of Florida during the contested 2000 presidential election. He has been working to develop mortgage foreclosure strategies with attorneys general across the country and their staffs.

November 5
NEGUSIE V. MUKASEY
·    Sarah Cleveland (212-854-2651 or [email protected]) is an expert in international human and the constitutional law of foreign relations. She co-directs the Law School’s Human Rights Institute. She has testified before Congress on the relevance of international law in constitutional interpretation and has been involved in human rights litigation in U.S. courts and before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

VAN DE KAMP V. GOLDSTEIN
·    Daniel Richman (212-854-9370 or [email protected]) teaches courses in criminal procedure, evidence and federal criminal law. He is former Chief Appellate Attorney and Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of New York (1987-92) and has consulted for the Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General (1997-2000). He also has served as chairman of the Local Conditional Release Commission for the City of New York (2004-05), and member of Governor Spitzer's Homeland Security Policy Advisory Committee (2006). Richman clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall and Chief Judge Wilfred Feinberg.

November 10
UNITED STATES V. HAYES
·    Suzanne Goldberg (212-854-0411 or [email protected]) directs Columbia Law School’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic. Goldberg is an expert in women’s, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights issues, and in discrimination issues more generally.  Under Goldberg's direction, the Columbia Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic has worked extensively in local, national, and global fora on issues related to domestic violence, sexual harassment and numerous other areas.
·    Daniel Richman (212-854-9370 or [email protected]) teaches courses in criminal procedure, evidence and federal criminal law. He is former Chief Appellate Attorney and Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of New York (1987-92) and has consulted for the Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General (1997-2000). He also has served as chairman of the Local Conditional Release Commission for the City of New York (2004-05), and member of Governor Spitzer's Homeland Security Policy Advisory Committee (2006). Richman clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall and Chief Judge Wilfred Feinberg.

MELENDEZ-DIAZ V. MASSACHUSETTS
·    Daniel Richman (212-854-9370 or [email protected]) teaches courses in criminal procedure, evidence and federal criminal law. He is former Chief Appellate Attorney and Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of New York (1987-92) and has consulted for the Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General (1997-2000). He also has served as chairman of the Local Conditional Release Commission for the City of New York (2004-05), and member of Governor Spitzer's Homeland Security Policy Advisory Committee (2006). Richman clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall and Chief Judge Wilfred Feinberg.

December 1
14 PENN PLAZA LLC V. PYETT
·    George Bermann (212-854-4258 or [email protected]) has extensive academic and professional experience in transnational litigation and international commercial arbitration, as well as in European Union law.  He currently serves as Chief Reporter of the American Law Institute's Restatement (Third) of the US Law of International Commercial Arbitration and as member of the Academic Council of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration. He is the Jean Monnet Professor of European Union Law (a chair conferred by the Commission of the European Communities), as well as the Walter Gellhorn Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, and director of the Law School's European Legal Studies Center. Having previously taught contracts and administrative law, his principal current courses and areas of scholarship are European Union law, comparative law, transnational litigation and arbitration, and WTO dispute resolution. He also teaches a first-year elective course on "Lawyering Across Multiple Legal Orders." Bermann is a member of the teaching faculty of the College d'Europe in Bruges, Belgium, and also regularly gives courses at the Universities of Paris I and Paris II and at the Institut des Sciences Politiques (Sciences Po) in Paris.

December 2
ENTERGY CORP. V. EPA
PSEG FOSSIL LLC V. RIVERKEEPER, INC.
UTILITY WATER ACT GROUP V. RIVERKEEPER, INC.
(consolidated)
·    Edward Lloyd (212-854-4376 or 212-854-4291 or [email protected]) is one of the counsel representing Riverkeeper in this matter. Lloyd directs the Law School’s Environmental Law Clinic. He was staff attorney and executive director of the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group from 1974-83 and still serves as general counsel. He was a founding director of the Rutgers University Law School Environmental Law Clinic, and co-founder and co-director of the Eastern Environmental Law Center. He has been a member of the New Jersey Pinelands Commission since 2002.

FITZGERALD V. BARNSTABLE SCHOOL COMMITTEE
·    Suzanne Goldberg (212-854-0411 or [email protected]) directs Columbia Law School’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic. Goldberg is an expert in women’s, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights issues, and in discrimination issues more generally.  Under Goldberg's direction, the Columbia Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic has worked extensively in local, national, and global fora on issues related to domestic violence, sexual harassment and numerous other areas.

December 8
PACIFIC BELL TELEPHONE CO. V. LINKLINE COMMUNICATIONS
·    C. Scott Hemphill (212-854-0593 or [email protected]) focuses on antitrust, intellectual property, and regulation of industry. Hemphill is a member of the American Law and Economics Association and term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia and Judge Richard Posner.

December 10
AT&T CORP. V. HULTEEN
·    Suzanne Goldberg (212-854-0411 or [email protected]) directs Columbia Law School’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic. Goldberg is an expert in women’s, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights issues, and in discrimination issues more generally.  Under Goldberg's direction, the Columbia Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic has worked extensively in local, national, and global fora on issues related to domestic violence, sexual harassment and numerous other areas.

Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, stands at the forefront of legal education and of the law in a global society. Columbia Law School joins traditional strengths in international and comparative law, constitutional law, administrative law, business law and human rights law with pioneering work in the areas of intellectual property, digital technology, sexuality and gender, and criminal law.