Global Connections - Volume 1, Issue 1

LL.M. Program Turns 20, Welcomes Largest Class Ever

This year marked the 20th anniversary of the LL.M. program. To celebrate, the Law School hosted "The Big 20 in the Big Apple," a reunion for which the closing dinner was held at the famed Rainbow Room in Manhattan. The LL.M. program includes 1,140 graduates from 90 countries, and many of them attended the reunion to reconnect with old friends and meet new business acquaintances.

Fordham Law Dean William Michael Treanor toasted the program and the alumni, faculty, and staff gathered to celebrate its milestone. Professor Thomas H. Lee and Assistant Dean Toni M. Fine spoke about the future of the LL.M. program, including a new degree in U.S. & Comparative Law. Assistant Dean Estelle Fabian was honored for her commitment to the LL.M. program since its inception. View the event photo gallery.

In the fall, we welcomed 139 students from 44 countries, including some countries not typically represented in the LL.M. program, such as Bulgaria, Guyana, Haiti, Uganda, Slovenia, and Uzbekistan.

Meet Our New Faculty

A pathbreaking scholar in the field of comparative race relations, Professor Hernandez will strengthen the Law School's focus on Latin America, in addition to bringing 13 years of experience teaching in the vital areas of trusts and estates. In 2007, she was named one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the United States by Hispanic Business magazine. Before joining Fordham, she was a Professor at Georgetown University School of Law. Professor Hernandez received her A.B. from Brown and J.D. from Yale.

Professor Gelter is an expert in comparative corporate law and governance and thus will bolster Fordham Law's already strong presence in business law while augmenting the School's global perspectives. He received his law degree from the University of Vienna and was the Terence M. Considine Fellow and John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics at Harvard, where he earned his S.J.D.

The Law School's visiting professors include:

• Richard C. Goldstone, who recently led the U.N. Human Rights Council fact-finding mission on the 2009 Gaza War and who is respected and honored the world over for his pioneering work in international human rights, including in his native South Africa where he served on the South African Constitutional Court; this is his third visiting appointment at Fordham Law, and this academic year he holds the Bacon-Kilkenny Distinguished Visiting Professorship.
  
• Dominique Carreau, a distinguished scholar in international economic law who returns for his second visiting appointment at Fordham Law in spring 2010, when he will hold the William Hughes Mulligan Chair in International Legal Studies.
  
• Ari Afilalo, an expert in international trade and investment law, as well as constitutional aspects of free trade areas.
  

Summer Institute Brings the World to Fordham Law

One hundred fifteen foreign-trained lawyers, law students, and other legal professionals from around the world arrived at Fordham Law on July 13 for the Third Annual Summer Institute, an intensive three-week course that served as an introduction to the U.S. legal system and U.S. law.

The Summer Institute explored areas that are among the most important for U.S. and international lawyers in the 21st century, such as information technology, international arbitration, mediation, bankruptcy, contract drafting and negotiation, and the banking system and banking reform.  Courses included Bankruptcy Law, Civil Litigation, Constitutional Law, Contract Law, Corporate Law, Intellectual Property Law, Mergers and Acquisitions, Product Liability Law, and Trial Practice.

The program also featured legal English workshops, a visit to federal court, a tour of the United Nations, and a visit to New York City law firms.

The Summer Institute also provided participants with opportunities to establish friendships and professional associations around the world. Program participants came from 27 countries: Argentina, Austria, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Mexico, Nigeria, Panama, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and Venezuela.

Summer Institute instructors included Fordham Law faculty members and other leaders in U.S. law. Directors of the Summer Institute in New York City are Thomas H. Lee, Leitner Family Professor of Law, and Toni M. Fine, Assistant Dean.

The Fourth Annual Summer Law Institute in New York City is scheduled to take place from July 12–30, 2010.

Dispute Resolution Program for International Law Students

The group visited the Bronx Criminal Court for an in-depth look at the criminal justice system and spoke with two sitting judges, including Judge Ethan Greenberg, an adjunct professor at the Law School.  They also received briefings at the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services (JAMS).  All participants received a certificate at the closing ceremony and lunch.

The Second Annual Dispute Resolution Program will take place June 21–25, 2010.

International Judicial Research and Training Program Launched

In June 2009, Fordham Law hosted 38 judges, court clerks, and attorneys from Brazil for a new two-week judicial training program on a broad range of U.S. legal topics.  The schedule included sessions on Constitutional Law, Contract Law, the Subprime Mortgage Crisis and Proposed Legislative Reforms, Criminal Responsibility and Procedure, E-Commerce, Real Estate Transactions and Finance, Family Law, Tort Law, and Copyright Law.

In addition to classes held at Fordham by members of the Law School’s full-time and adjunct faculty, the group visited the New York State Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the federal prison in Brooklyn; the group also met with representatives of the New York City Police Department. The law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler hosted a cocktail reception in honor of the delegation, which included ten justices of the Supreme Court of Pernambuco, including Chief Justice Jones Figueiredo Alves, and the head of the judicial training institute, Justice Frederico Ricardo de Almeida Neves.

Participating U.S. judges included the Honorable Denny Chin ’78, the Honorable Ethan Greenberg, and the Honorable Eileen Bransten ’79. Fordham Law professors Thomas H. Lee, Whitmore Gray, Susan Block-Lieb, Robin A. Lenhardt, Benjamin C. Zipursky, and Hugh Hansen also participated. Attorneys included Stephen Younger of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler and Jeffrey Neuburger of Proskauer Rose.

“The Law School’s Program on International Judicial Research and Training  is an umbrella for our research and training programs for foreign judges and highlights the Law School’s activities with non-U.S. judges and court officers,” said Assistant Dean for International and Non-JD Programs Toni M. Fine, who directs the program.  “It was an honor and a pleasure to host this group of Brazilian judges as part of this program.  We look forward to hosting similar programs for other judges from Brazil and other countries.”

New Summer Internships Established

The new high court placements are at Argentina's Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nacion, Colombia's Corte Constitucional, Georgia's Constitutional Court, and Mexico's Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nacion.

"These new placements build on the enormous success of the high court placements we have already had in Ghana and Korea and will give our students additional opportunities to learn firsthand from distinguished judges in rapidly developing nations," said Associate Dean Sheila Foster. "These experiences will immeasurably enrich the J.D. experience of participating students."

Associate Dean Foster, who traveled to Latin America with Assistant Dean Toni M. Fine to establish these programs, said, "These opportunities will give our students the chance to work alongside some of the leading lawyers in private firm practice and in judiciaries in a region that is becoming increasingly important in the global legal marketplace."

Visiting Foreign Scholars, Research Fellows Abound and Present at New Seminar Series

Visitors over the past year included the following international legal professionals who presented at the seminar series for Visiting Foreign Scholars and Research Fellows:

• Charlotte Beaucillon (European University Institute, Italy)
  Economic Sanctions against Al Qaeda and the Taliban: Highlighting the EU Impact on UN Sanctions
  
• Heather Conway (Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland)
  It’s Your Funeral—Or Is It? Death, the Individual, and the Ties that Bind: Anglo-American Perspectives on Burial Instructions
  
• Tang Fei (Yangtze University, P.R. China)
  The Evolution of Compensation for Emotional Harm in China
  
• Mitia Gorguinpour (University of Padua, Italy)
  Bankruptcy Law and Crimes Against the Economy under U.S. Law
  
• Gocha Lordkipanidze (Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia)
  “Deficient” Acts of International Institutions
  
• Tommaso Luppino (University of Padua, Italy)
  A Comparative view of Money Laundering:  Perspectives on the Future of Global Regulation
  
• Alberto Muñoz Fernández (University of Navarra, Spain)
  Service of Foreign Process in the United States and on Foreign States under the Hague Convention
  
• Jose de Nanclares (University of Salamanca, Spain)
  The External Dimension of the European Area of Freedom, Security and Justice: The “Intricate” Relationship Between the European Union and the US
  
• Luigi Seminara (Universtiy of Pavia, Italy)
  Banks, Equity Investments and Non-Financial Affiliations:  Some Thoughts for a Comparative Study
  
• Yuki Shimizu (Japanese Patent Office)
  U.S. Patent Reform
  
• Felix Wendenburg (Max Planck Institute, Germany)
  Protecting the Weaker Party in Mediation

Summer Programs Abroad Span Three Continents

The Fordham Belfast/Dublin Summer School Program allows students to spend two weeks at Queen's University, Belfast, and two weeks at University College Dublin. The program features courses taught jointly by Fordham professors and other internationally recognized faculty members. Offerings include a range of courses on various aspects of international and comparative law, which were supplemented by group visits to courts and other government and legal sites in both cities. 

The Fordham-SKKU Summer Institute in International Law in Seoul is the second  largest summer study abroad program of any U.S. law school. Classroom instruction is supplemented by field trips to legal institutions and cultural sites. Some students also enroll in a basic Korean language class during the program and take advantage of 4-to-6 week internships with Korean multinational corporations, law firms, courts, government offices, and human-rights organizations after the program. 

The new Fordham-Ghana Summer Law Program in Accra, Ghana offers students the opportunity to study international and comparative law while witnessing the path of democracy and development first hand in this regional center of international business. Participants have the option of completing either an internship for two ungraded credits or a non-credit internship.