20th & H: GW Law Dean's Blog

Professor Carrillo with IHR Clinic students Alexandra Sánchez and Mark de Barros in 2011.

Our International Human Rights Clinic has taken a case all the way to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica, and we are looking forward to watching the hearings live tomorrow (Friday at 9am). The Clinic’s client, Richard Vélez, is a journalist who filmed human rights abuses in Colombia and was attacked, persecuted, and exiled from his country. He will have the chance to testify, and then Clinic Director and Professor Arturo Carrillo will present oral argument. The IHR Clinic and its students in recent years have been busy working on several cases involving human rights abuses in Colombia as well as cases ranging from addressing police brutality in Jamaica to issues of human trafficking and unpaid wages right here in the United States. The work is truly important, and the experience for students is extraordinary.

For more information on the Inter-American Court case and links to live-streaming video and archives, visit this GW Law News link.

Professor Jonathan Turley has written an op-ed in The Washington Post about the Supreme Court case United States v. Alvarez, which addresses whether a federal law that criminalizes false statements about receiving military honors violates the right to free speech. The case is one of the first and most interesting opportunities to examine the repercussions of the Stolen Valor Act. You can read the piece here.

The Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia (WBA) has selected Katia Garrett, JD ’85, as its 2012 Woman Lawyer of the Year. Katia currently serves as Executive Director of the DC Bar Foundation.

In announcing Katia’s selection, the WBA stated, “She has been deeply committed to justice and fairness throughout her entire legal career. The choices she has made, the directions she has taken, and the work she has done have had a consistent theme: pursuing ways to strengthen the justice system for women, minorities, and those without a voice.”  With “Re-envisioning the Path: Being a Woman Lawyer in the 21st Century” as its theme for this year’s award, the WBA also points to Katia as a role model for women in the profession who “looked for different ways to maintain a meaningful career and a strong family.”

We are proud to claim Katia as a member of the GW Law Community.  Congratulations to her from all of us on this honor.

Professor Steve Schooner and 3L Collin Swan discussed the role of contractors in the battlefield on WTOP2, Washington, on February 14.  (Audio clip in four parts, below.)  As I reported in an earlier post, Steve and Collin’s related article was referenced by the New York Times on February 11.

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On February 15, Jonathan Turley testified at the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary hearing on “Executive Overreach: The President’s Unprecedented ‘Recess’ Appointments.”  A copy of Jonathan’s testimony is available here.

Jonathan published an OpEd on this topic the day before the hearing on StatesmanJournal.com, and the National Law Journal later reported on his testimony.

In the February 11 New York Times article “Risks of Afghan War Shift From Soldiers to Contractors,” Professor Steve Schooner is quoted along with a reference to his article with 3L student Collin D. Swan, “Dead Contractors: The Un-Examined Effect of Surrogates on the Public’s Casualty Sensitivity.” Schooner also provides the Times Quote of the Day:

“By continuing to outsource high-risk jobs that were previously performed by soldiers, the military, in effect, is privatizing the ultimate sacrifice.”

Current student Steve Spitzer recently told me about his extraordinary experiences in an internship with the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor, where he was a law clerk for the Mine Safety and Health Administration Litigation Backlog Project. Here’s his description:

Steve at the Left Fork No.1 mine

In April, 2010, the Upper Big Branch mine explosion killed 29 miners, one of the deadliest mine disasters in recent history. One of the key reasons why more stringent penalties had not previously been assessed against the operator of the mine is that while 2006 legislation had increased the fines for operators that have repeat safety violations, if an operator contests a citation before an administrative law judge, that citation cannot be included as part of more serious repeat offender sanctions until the case is adjudicated. Additionally, violations can only qualify as part of a repeating pattern if they occur within a 24-month period. These restrictions have led major mine operators to contest nearly every citation issued to avoid increased penalties. Thus, the legislative efforts to enhance protection of mine workers and reduce the fatalities are fruitless if the enormous number of contested citation cases cannot be resolved.

The MSHA Litigation Backlog project was established in August 2010 on a temporary basis to address this obstacle and litigate these contested cases before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. Through the first year of the program, the project resolved approximately one-third of the existing case backlog.

I had the unique experience of attending an Introduction to Mining course at the National Mine Academy in Beaver, WV. In addition to learning about mining techniques and procedures, I was required to pass a test in a smoke filled simulator in order to be allowed to visit the mines. The test included demonstrating that I was able to put on a personal evacuation system within ten seconds and navigate out of the mine—almost as much pressure as a 1L Contracts exam! The day we were going underground, we were diverted from the mine we were scheduled to visit because they had experienced a cave-in, and so we visited another one instead, going several hundred feet underground and experiencing first-hand the rigors of working in a pitch black environment.

From a professional perspective, I worked with a very dynamic administrative agency whose mission is to enhance worker protection. I evaluated health and safety citations for possible prosecution under the Mine Act, drafted pre-hearing briefs, settlement motions and discovery requests, and assisting in preparing DOL personnel for expert witness depositions.

From a more personal perspective, the Backlog project fulfilled a broader commitment made to the families of the victims of these tragedies to provide safer working conditions for miners, and my internship gave me the opportunity to continue to contribute to that cause. I would like to work at an administrative agency after graduation, contributing to crafting and enforcing public policy. ~Steve Spitzer

This is just one of many stories our students could tell about their real-life law and policy experiences during their years at GW. Those experiences are at the core of what makes a GW Law education distinctive and energizing, no matter what field of law students choose.

I am thrilled to announce that 11 GW Law students have been selected as finalists for the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program.

Created more than 30 years ago by Executive Order, the PMF program is designed to develop potential leaders who will dedicate themselves to public service in government careers. Students are selected as finalists after a rigorous application process. According to the PMF website, the Office of Personnel Management “assesses each candidate on the following competencies: adaptability, integrity, interpersonal skills, motivation to serve, oral/written communications, and problem solving.” This year, more than 9,100 graduate students from across the nation applied to the program, with only 628 applicants selected as finalists. GW Law has historically had among the most, if not the most, PMF finalists of any law school in the country. This reflects, I believe, our ongoing emphasis on law in action and service at the highest levels of government. Congratulations to all the finalists!

I’d like to report on three recent successes in our Immigration Clinic.

In the first, clinic client R-M suffered religious persecution in Nepal that included threats, extortion, and a kidnapping attempt. Because R-M is a practicing minister he would have continued to be under threat if he had been forced to return to his native country. But student attorney Michael Hoffman helped R-M win asylum and now will begin the process of helping bring R-M’s wife and son to the United States.

Hoffman also represented G-A-A, from Ethiopia. G-A-A was arrested, beaten, and imprisoned twice on account of his peaceful political activity. After the hearing the immigration judge complimented Michael off the record, stating that Michael did such a good job that he “overwhelmed” the trial attorney. Credit also goes to Alexa McDonnell, Anam Rahman, and Jacqueline Laínez, who previously worked on G-A-A’s case.

Finally, Jason Boyd, another of the Clinic’s student–attorneys, helped his client, M-L-R, remain in the United States and apply for asylum. M-L-R was raped by the leader of a gang in her village in El Salvador, and suffered serious injuries as a result. The gang leader insisted that M-L-R stay in the village to become, in effect, his sex slave and threatened to kill her if she told anyone, including the police. A contrary finding in M-L-R’s case might have resulted in her almost immediate removed to El Salvador.

These are just three examples of how our students’ work in the Jacob Burns Community Legal Clinics can change, and sometimes even save lives. Congratulations to Michael, Jason, and all of our student–attorneys, as well as clinical faculty member Alberto Benitez and Clinic Interim Director Rachel Petterson.

An Arabic translation of Professor Dawn Nunziato’s book, Virtual Freedom: Net Neutrality and Free Speech in the Internet Age, has just been released. I understand that the Government of Qatar has ordered several thousand copies, with the Government’s Director of the Department of Studies and Cultural Research in the Ministry of Culture, Arts, and Heritage describing his overall goal in publishing translations as a desire to distribute “thought-provoking works from different parts of the world” in order to “enrich our literature and open new vistas of thought and reflection in the Arab world.”

Congratulations to Dawn. This is just one more example of the tremendous international reach of our faculty.