Dear students,

On behalf of all faculty and staff: Welcome back to NDLS! As we start a new academic year, here is an update on new people, programs, and activities at the Law School.

Faculty News
First, although she is not new to us, Professor Veronica Root is assuming a new role as an associate professor. For the past two years, Professor Root was a visiting assistant professor, having left her practice at Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher in Washington, D.C., to come to NDLS…

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Islamic State (ISIS) militants who beheaded American journalist James Foley in Syria this week reportedly had demanded $132.5 million in ransom for his release.

Collecting ransom payments is a principal source of funding for ISIS, according to terrorist financing expert Jimmy Gurulé, professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, who says making such a payment is a federal crime.

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Working pro bono, Charlie Weiss,’68 JD, and fellow Bryan Cave attorney Thor Mathison have won the freedom of Alonzo Martin, who had been jailed in 2007 and later committed without a trial to Missouri state psychiatric hospitals.

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Brian M. Murray ’11 J.D. has accepted an Abraham L. Freedman Teaching Fellowship at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law.

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Mary Shepro, who will be a 3L this fall, has been named a 2014 Distinguished Bankruptcy Law Student by the 2014 Midwest Regional Bankruptcy Seminar.

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Vinodh Jaichand ‘88 LL.M.,’96 J.S.D. began to study law because the South African thought it could be a tool for dismantling the system of apartheid. But after he arrived at the University of Notre Dame, he realized that the law may well be part of the problem.

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Notre Dame Law School has approved a new Program of Study in Environmental Law, Dean Nell Jessup Newton announced July 11.

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In an important recent decision, U.S. v. Cannon (2014 WL 1633160), the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit relied heavily upon the work of Notre Dame Law School Professor Jennifer Mason McAward in interpreting the scope of Congress’s power to enforce the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Section Two of the Thirteenth Amendment empowers Congress to enforce the prohibition on slavery and involuntary servitude by addressing the “badges and incidents of slavery.” The court used Professor Mason McAward’s article, Defining the Badges and Incidents of Slavery (published in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law), to understand the scope of that constitutional provision.

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The Business on the Frontlines course began in 2008, and in 2010 was named one of Forbes Magazine’s ten most innovative business classes. Each class is comprised of students from the Mendoza College of Business, NDLS, and the Kroc Institute for Peace Studies.

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Brian Murray ’11 J.D. and Jessica Howton ’11 J.D were the first two Public Interest Fellows at Notre Dame. Since 2011, nine Notre Dame Law graduates have served as Shaffer Fellows. Their experiences have taken them around the country and into a variety of legal areas.

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An international interdisciplinary law and finance workshop co-sponsored by NDLS and spearheaded by NDLS Professor Colleen Baker will bring together legal academics, financial economists, policymakers, and legal practitioners at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago June 16-17.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday (June 2) released its Clean Power Plan, a long-awaited proposal that seeks to cut carbon emissions from existing power plants by 30 percent by 2030.

“These power plants account for about one-third of all such emissions within the U.S., and more importantly, they have historically escaped the brunt of regulation by the EPA, which generally focuses instead on newly constructed plants,” according to Bruce Huber, associate professor of law at the University of Notre Dame.

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Richard A. Nussbaum II ’74, ’77 J.D. received the Rev. Edward Frederick Sorin, C.S.C., Award from the Notre Dame Alumni Association at Reunion. The award is presented annually to a Notre Dame graduate who has rendered distinguished service to the University.

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Kate E. Maternowski, ’12 J.D., was named Pro Bono Attorney of the Year for 2013 by Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren S.C. in Milwaukee.

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The Notre Dame Law School Research Program on Law and Market Behavior announced the addition of Stephen Yelderman, Associate Professor of Law, as one of the Program’s Faculty Fellows. Read more

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Washington state Governor Jay Inslee appointed Judge Mary Yu to the Washington state Supreme Court.

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NDLS Professor Richard Garnett appeared on ABC Nightly News with Diana Sawyer contributing to the segment on Prayer in America regarding the Town of Greece U.S. Supreme Court decision on May 5.

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Each year several third-year students on the NDLS Moot Court Board write briefs and conduct oral arguments in appointed cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

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Veronica Root will join NDLS as an associate professor of law, Dean Nell Jessup Newton announced today. Professor Root came to NDLS in 2012 with a two-year appointment as a visiting assistant professor from the Washington, D.C., office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where she practiced in the firm’s Litigation Department. She will assume her new tenure-track position at NDLS on July 1.

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NDLS Professor A.J. Bellia Jr. has been honored by the Virginia Law Review for co-authoring (with George Washington University Law Professor Bradford R. Clark) one of the most influential articles published by the Virginia Law Review in the past 100 years.

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