Connected Minds,Connected Cultures:\ Connected Minds

TOMORROW’S AlumniWhat’s New with CUA Law StudentsRising 1D Bryan Clark was the subjectof a story posted on Washingtonian.comfor a series called “Love Stories.” Thearticle recounted the tale of his creativemarriage proposal to his wife, Audra, inJune 2004.Rising 2D Stephen Landman’s researchpaper on bank liability for transferringmoney to terrorists was published on theWeb site of the International Assessmentand Strategy Center on Feb. 2, 2008.Rising 2D Camilla McFarlane is thefirst recipient of the Norman DorsenFellowship. Created by New YorkUniversity law professor NormanDorsen, the fellowship allows forstudent support of the Society ofAmerican Law Teachers. SALT is acommunity of law professors dedicatedto assisting faculty and students to developlegal institutions of greater equality,justice and excellence. A student in theCUA general practice clinic, McFarlaneis also a member of the school’s Law andPublic Policy program, CommLawConspectus: Journal of CommunicationsLaw and Policy, and serves as communityservice coordinator for the Black LawStudent Association.Rising 2L Elena Schwieger won firstprize in the Mendes Hershman StudentWriting Contest for the 2007–2008academic year, an annual competitionsponsored by the American BarAssociation Section of Business Law.Very Rev. David M. O’Connell (center) hostedmembers of the law school’s Student BarAssociation for a dinner on March 26, 2008,at the president’s residence.Moot Court SuccessesCatholic University’s 2008 Vis Moot Court team continued its impressive climb inMarch in one of the world’s toughest moot court competitions. Competing for onlythe third time in the annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Mootin Vienna, Austria, the Columbus School of Law’s nine-member squad advanced tothe elimination rounds for the first time. By the end of the grueling competition,CUA’s students placed 27 th overall out of 204 teams. They bested nearly 180 otherlaw schools and advanced as far as any other D.C.-area law school.The three-student team representing the Columbus School of Law in the 33 rdAnnual Irving R. Kaufman Memorial Securities Law Moot Court Competition heldin New York City March 7 through 9 bested 15 of the 19 participating teams whileadvancing to the semi-finals. Tiffany Yeselski (2E) was recognized as the “BestPreliminary Round Speaker,” which is a first for a CUA law student. The team’s briefwas also cited for excellence.Catholic University’s team reached the quarterfinals and ultimately placed 7 th in a 24-team field at the 2008 Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition’s Mid-Atlantic Super Regional, hosted this year by George Washington University LawSchool from Feb. 28 to March 2. Associates Nikki Kennedy (3D), Cliff Borjeson(3D), Andrew Lopez (3D) and Andrew McAllister (2E) were paired against GeorgeMason University, the No. 2 seed in the competition, during the quarterfinal round.Borjeson and Lopez were ranked the 3 rd and 7 th best oralists respectively, out of apool of approximately 100 students.Catholic University’s team of Tyler Van Voorhees and Patrick Halley advancedto the final round and finished second overall to Southwestern University in the2008 National Telecommunications Moot Court Competition, held Feb. 1–2 atCatholic University.Rising 3E Alejandro Valencia is theauthor of “Inequitable Results inTransnational Patent InfringementLiability: Closing the MethodLoophole,” which was published in theIntellectual Property and TechnologyForum, a journal from Boston CollegeLaw School.Four Catholic University law studentswere selected as the 2008 recipients ofthe Charles and Louise O’BrienFellowships. Each of the fellows receives$6,000 in financial support while workingin a pro-bono legal capacity duringthe summer. The fellows are rising second-yearstudent Robert Jasinski andrising first-year students Julie Verratti,Kelly Van Buskirk and Laila Leigh.A paper published in the CatholicUniversity Law Review was the subjectof a Feb. 21, 2008, story by Newsweekonline. “Thou Shalt Not Steal? The surprisingcorrelation between paydaylenders and conservative Christians”examined the work of professorsChristopher Peterson and StevenGraves, which found a correlationbetween the geographic density of “payday”lenders and the political clout ofconservative Christians.58CUALAWYER /Spring–Summer 2008