September 2011 Faculty Briefs

Dean Paul E. McGreal was interviewed by Voice of America and on Comics and Game Monthly’s website about the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, which struck down a California law that criminalized the sale of violent video games to minors. McGreal’s interview with Voice of America was featured on its website and broadcast through the “Special English” section, which is geared to those learning English and is one of VOA's most popular features. You can download the four-minute interview from the VOA website.

Associate Professor Thaddeus Hoffmeister testified before the Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee about allowing jurors to ask questions in civil trials.

Hoffmeister explained whether the "CSI effect" swayed jurors in the Casey Anthony trial in an opinion article published on CNN.com. He wrote that programs such as “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” are thought by many prosecutors and legal analysts to create unreasonable expectations for jurors deciding fates in the real world. Within the first six hours of being posted, the article received more than 290 comments and nearly 400 Facebook recommendations.

Hoffmeister is mentioned in an op-ed column in the Baltimore Sun, “Courts must be prepared for tech-savvy jurors,” and in a post, “Judges Come Down Hard on Wired Jurors,” on the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog. In addition, he is quoted in an article on NewJersery.com examining the impact the economy is having on juries, “Rough economy makes filling NJ juries more difficult, experts say.”

Susan Brenner, the NCR Distinguished Professor of Law and Technology, spoke at a workshop “Implanted Smart Technologies: Legal and Ethical Issues of ‘Enhancing’ the Standards for ‘Normal,’ ” on June 9 in Prague. The workshop was sponsored by the University of Edinburgh School of Law and brought together experts from the University of Edinburgh, the Universities of Twente and Tilburg in the Netherlands, the University of Manchester, the Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, the University of Bergen and Charles University in the Czech Republic.

Associate Professor Eric Chaffee cohosted the Midwest Corporate Law Scholars Conference at The Ohio State University Mortiz College of Law on June 15. During the conference, Chaffee also presented “The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act: A Failed Vision for International Financial Regulatory Reform” and moderated a discussion on “Current Topics in Comparative and International Business Regulation.” Buoyed by the conference’s success, Chaffee and his colleagues Barbara Black of the University of Cincinnati College of Law and Steven Davidoff of OSU plan to recast the event as the National Business Law Scholars Conference. The event will occur at University of Cincinnati College of Law and is tentatively scheduled for June 27, 2012.

Chaffee also participated in several conferences this summer: he discussed “Securities Regulation in Cyberspace: The Application of United States Federal Securities Law to Virtual Worlds" at the 11th Annual Intellectual Property Scholars Conference at DePaul University College of Law on August 11; and “New Frontiers in Securities Regulation: Creating a Coherent Regulatory Scheme for Securities Transactions in Virtual Worlds” at the Ohio Legal Scholarship Workshop at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law on June 23.

Denise Platfoot-Lacey, lecturer of law and a member of the externship faculty, presented “Self-Assessment, Millennials, & Learning Portfolios” at the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning’s 2011 Summer Conference “Engaging and Assessing Our Students” on June 2 at New York Law School.

Professor Vernellia Randall participated in a panel discussion on “Health Care Reform: A Comparative Look at Access and Quality Issues” at the annual meeting of the ABA’s August 5 in Toronto.

She also was quoted in a Dayton Daily News article examining reaction to the death of a 20-year-old black man while in police custody.

Julie Zink, associate professor of lawyering skills, has been named president of the Dayton Intellectual Property Law Association, a position she will hold until June 2013. As president, she is responsible for planning DIPLA's monthly CLE meetings. Zink has previously held positions as vice president, secretary and treasurer.

Jeff Morris, the Samuel A. McCray Chair in Law, is extensively quoted in an article on ESPN.com analyzing the status of a $1 billion lawsuit against New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon and family in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme.

Associate Professor Jeannette Cox is quoted in an Associated Press article, “Supreme Court bars mass sex bias case vs. Wal-Mart,” analyzing the court’s decision to halt a class-action lawsuit against retail giant in June.

Professor James Durham discussed the affects Watergate has had on the legal system and rules about legal ethics in an article, “Watergate figure discusses lessons learned in Dayton,” in the Dayton Business Journal. A subscription is required to read the article online.

Professor Harry Gerla discussed DPL Inc.’s planned merger with energy giant AEC Corp. in an article in the Dayton Daily News.

Professor Lisa Kloppenberg has been elected to the Board of Trustees of the Dayton Bar Association Foundation.

Maria Crist, director of the Legal Profession Program, and professor of lawyering skills, presented “Leadership in a Rocky Boat: Strategies in Changing Times” at the Association of Legal Writing Directors Conference in Sacramento June 2011.