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Dean From Northwestern Picked to Lead New School
Law School News |
2010/09/01 23:24
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| pThe trustees of the New School, an eclectic university in downtown Manhattan, selected David E. Van Zandt, dean of the Northwestern Law School, on Thursday to be its eighth president. /ppDr. Van Zandt, 57, will replace Bob Kerrey, a former Nebraska senator and presidential candidate, whose nine-year tenure was characterized by a huge expansion of the university, but also by student sit-ins and criticism from the faculty over what his detractors said was an autocratic leadership style. /ppMr. Kerrey, who will be 67 on Friday, announced in May 2009 that he would step down when his contract expired in July 2011. He will instead stay on through the end of December 2010. /ppThe contrasts between the two leaders are immediately apparent. Dr. Van Zandt is an academic, not a politician, and has a reputation for driving change through low-key, data-driven discussion and consensus. Mr. Kerrey is the first to admit he loves controversy and welcomes passionate debate. /ppDr. Van Zandt will be charged with further integrating the disparate pieces of the New School, which has eight academic divisions, including the well-known Parsons the New School for Design and the less-known Eugene Lang College the New School for Liberal Arts. (Among the things Mr. Kerrey was criticized for were those awkward names, part of a branding effort in 2005 that aimed to improve cohesion. Indeed, Dr. Van Zandt said that when he was contacted about the job, he did not know Parsons was part of the New School.) /ppMr. Kerrey centralized much of the university’s administrative and operational functions, but said there was still work to be done to integrate the academic divisions. “It is no longer is a confederation, though there are people who think it should be,” Mr. Kerrey said Thursday. /ppMichael J. Johnston, the chairman of the board of trustees, said the search committee and board were attracted to Dr. Van Zandt’s record of change at Northwestern. “He stood out as a person of balance — not only an academic and someone who loves order and process, and not only a teacher with a passion for learning, but someone who spent 15 years as a really good agent of change at Northwestern.” Mr. Johnston said. /ppHe said the search committee was originally concerned that Dr. Van Zandt’s leadership experience — at a law school — was too narrow, but as the interviews progressed, it was clear he had the breadth they sought. /ppa href=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/06/BA6U1F7B6E.DTL#ixzz0yp2uH1MJ/a /p |
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Stanford team's law books help Afghan students
Law School News |
2010/09/01 23:23
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pIn fall 2007, Afghanistan had a new Constitution and eager students lining up to learn its laws. What it didn't have was law books./ppSeven thousand miles away, two students at Stanford University's law school thought they could help./ppStanford law Professor Erik Jensen smiled as he recalled the two law students, Alexander Benard and Eli Sugarman, standing in his office doorway, asking him to help them write textbooks for law students in Afghanistan./ppI gave them a few ideas, wished them luck and turned back to my computer, he said. But, in the end, I have a hard time looking commitment in the eye and saying no./ppThat year, Jensen, Benard, Sugarman and a handful of classmates formed the Afghan Legal Education Project. They gave themselves a crash course in Afghanistan's laws, politics and history and began writing their first textbook, An Introduction to the Law of Afghanistan, an online version for use at the American University in Afghanistan, a fledgling school in Kabul that was introducing a law program.
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DOJ's elite Public Integrity unit gets new leader
Topics |
2010/08/30 08:23
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pThe Justice Department's Public Integrity Section has a storied 34-year history of pursuing corruption in government and safeguarding the public trust./ppThat trust was breached, however, when some of the unit's prosecutors failed to turn over evidence favorable to the defense in their high-profile criminal trial of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who died earlier this month in a plane crash./ppNow Jack Smith, a 41-year-old prosecutor with a love for courtroom work and an impressive record, has been brought in to restore the elite unit's credibility./ppBefore Stevens, Public Integrity's renown was built on large successes — like the prosecution of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and convictions of federal and state judges, members of Congress and state legislators, military officers, federal lawmen and bureaucrats and their state counterparts over the years./ppBut its stumble — not disclosing exculpatory evidence as Supreme Court precedent requires — was equally large. It was so serious that Attorney General Eric Holder, one of Public Integrity's distinguished alums, stepped in and asked a federal judge to throw out Stevens' convictions./ppAt the time of the Stevens debacle, Smith was overseeing all investigations for the international war crimes office at The Hague in the Netherlands. He'd read about the Stevens case. Offered the chance to take over Public Integrity, he couldn't stay away.
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Thousands sign on for $10 billion BP suit
Headline Topics |
2010/08/30 08:23
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| pThe revelation that BP's Texas City refinery emitted toxic benzene for more than a month has ignited a furor in the port community that has suffered its share of deadly industrial accidents and toxic spills./ppThousands of residents who fear they may have been exposed to the known carcinogen released at the oil refinery from April 6 to May 16 have been flooding parking lots and conference halls where local trial attorneys hosted information sessions and sought clients for class-action lawsuits against the oil giant./ppBP faces the new challenge just as it is reaching a key milestone in another crisis — plugging the Gulf of Mexico well that blew out in an oil spill disaster that is costing the company billions of dollars./ppOn Wednesday, more than 3,400 people lined the hallways and sidewalks around the Nessler Center to sign on to a $10 billion class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday in Galveston federal court by Friendswood attorney Anthony Buzbee. /ppThe lawsuit alleges the release of 500,000 pounds of chemicals - including 17,000 pounds of benzene - has jeopardized the health and property values of people who live and work in the area. At the nearby College of the Mainland, a separate town hall meeting drew a crowd of 600. /p |
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