Law School News

President Obama has selected Scott DeLisi ('80) to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Nepal, pending Senate approval, the White House announced Nov. 17, 2009. The career Foreign Service officer is currently Director of Career Development and Assignments for the State Department and oversees staffing at embassies in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other challenging posts.

Claims against the former Bolivian President and Defense Minister for crimes against humanity and extrajudicial killings are viable, ruled Judge Adalberto Jordan of the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida on Nov. 9, 2009.

Renowned psychologist and professor Andrea Braverman, PhD, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, will speak on “How the Internet is Reshaping Assisted Reproduction: From Donor Offspring Registries to Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing” at 11:30 a.m., Wednesday, November 18 at the University of Minnesota’s Coffman Memorial Union. Braverman’s lecture is the second in the 2009-10 Lecture Series on Law, Health & the Life Sciences on “How the Internet and Computers Are Changing Biomedical Practices and Policy” and is sponsored by the University of Minnesota’s Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences.

Danielle Bailey, a Law School-Humphrey Institute joint-degree student ('11), and Emily Van Vliet ('10) took first place at the Region 7 ABA Negotiation Competition at Drake University held November 6-8, 2009. A second team composed of Ben Tozer ('12) and Bobby Mir ('12) also competed against the 15 schools in Region 7.

United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Professor David Stras will co-teach a special one-credit seminar on Selected Fundamental Principles of Constitutional Law this spring. Some of the topics to be discussed include judicial review, separation of powers, the Commerce Clause, and federalism.

Ryan W. Scott ('05) was quoted in a Nov. 5 Wall Street Journal article examining disparity in sentences for similar crimes.

On Nov. 18, 2009, the Minnesota Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in a special session at the University of Minnesota Law School. Judges Lansing, Kalitowski, Johnson and Stoneburner will hear four cases.