On The Record - Columbus School of Law

FACULTY NewsProfessional Activitiesofficers about legal "friction points" in militarycoalition operations.Father Raymond O’Brien spoke at theCatholic Business Network breakfast inNovember and continues to serve at hisparish, St. Elizabeth's in Rockville, Md. Fortwo months during the summer he taughtfamily law at Georgetown University LawCenter and represented CUA law school atthe Boston Law School Admissions CouncilRecruitment Forum in September.Professor Antonio Perez made a presentationon Oct. 7 to the U.S. StateDepartment’s Advisory Committee onPrivate International Law about developmentsin the OAS Specialized Conferenceon Private International Law. The meetingwas held at George WashingtonUniversity’s School of Law. Earlier, on July15, Professor Perez presented the OASJuridical Committee’s Report to theInternational Law Commission of theUnited Nations in Geneva. Perez is amember of the Inter-American JuridicalCommittee of the Organization ofAmerican States.Professor Heidi Schooner was an invitedpanelist on the “Future of MortgageLending Regulation,” held by the Office ofThrift Supervision’s National HousingForum on Dec. 8. She was also a discussanton the subject "How Do Mutual FundsVote Their Proxies?" sponsored by theAmerican Enterprise Institute on July 10.On June 25, Schooner addressed the"Regulation of Financial Institutions" atthe Federal Trade Commission’s Divisionof Financial Practices Academy.Professor Marin Scordato’s article“Federal Preemption of State Tort Claims,”35 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1 (2001), was cited bythe Product Liability Advisory Council in itsbrief to the Supreme Court of the UnitedStates in the case of Wyeth v. Levine. His article“Free Speech Rationales after September11th: The First Amendment in Post-WorldTrade Center America” (with co-authorPaula Monopoli) published in the StanfordLaw & Policy Review in 2002, was cited in themost recent edition of the Yale Law Journalby Matthew C. Stephenson in his article,“The Price of Public Action: ConstitutionalDoctrine and the Judicial Manipulation ofLegislative Enactment Costs.”Professor Lucia Silecchia currentlyserves as the 2008-2009 chair of theConference on Catholic Legal Thought.The Columbus School of Law will host thegroup's 2009 conference in the spring. InDecember, Silecchia attended a New YorkState Bar Association Conference on "HotTopics in Real Property Law andPractice."Professor George Smith was a visitingfellow at the Australian NationalUniversity Law School in Canberra duringJuly 2008, and in August he was a visitingfellow at The Center for Health LawGovernance and Ethics at The Universityof Sydney Law School. While in residenceat the center, Smith presented apaper at the center titled ”Toward aUniversal Right to Health, Health Care orHealth Protection?” at a faculty seminar.The following month, in September,Smith was invited to participate in a 50thanniversary program celebrating BostonUniversity’s health law program. Headdressed the issue of “Palliative Care inEnd-Stage Illness” in a paper that he presented.Professor William Wagner was theorganizer of a workshop at the Canon LawSociety of America’s annual meeting inKansas City on Oct. 11 and 12, 2008. Thesubjects covered were “Due Process andthe Right of Defense” and “Statutesof Limitation/Prescription.” He alsodesigned and ran a plenary session at theUniversity of Notre Dame’s NanovicInstitute for European Studies on“Church-State Relations and ReligiousLiberty: Comparative Perspectives” fromSept. 22 to 23, 2008.Community ServiceProfessor Catherine Klein, in her positionas director of Columbus CommunityLegal Services, has continued to providelimited assistance to pro se parties inD.C. Superior Court throughout thesemester. She has also provided technicalassistance to pro bono lawyers onfamily law and domestic violence advocacyissues.Professor David Lipton coordinated thelaw school’s hosting in July of a group ofrising high school students who wereparticipants in the Washington, D.C.,area’s Horizons program. The nationalprogram partners with local schoolsacross the country to provide opportunitiesto inner city students to learn aboutwhat it means to go to college. Thedozen or so high schoolers spent the dayin the law school and on the CUA campus.Among other highlights, theydelighted in the opportunity to put onjudicial robes and pose for pictures in theWalter S. Slowinski Courtroom.Professor Faith Mullen has devotedtime as a volunteer at the District ofColumbia Probate Resource Center. Shealso drafted and submitted a report to theD.C. Office of Administrative Hearing onimproving access to justice for pro se parties.Mullen submitted a letter to the D.C.City Council as a follow-up to her report.Professor Suzette Malveaux served asthe moderator on Sept. 25 for “Robes in42CUALAWYER /Fall–Winter 2008