Intelligator,
Michaelson Top Oralists; Hardacre Wins Best Writer in Annual
Intramural Moot Court Competition
 Following
thoughtful arguments that covered a range of thorny legal issues, Sarah
A. Intelligator was named Best Oralist in Southwestern’s 2005
Intramural Moot Court Competition held on Saturday, April 2. Lindsay
J. Michaelson, who was also Intelligator’s moot court partner
in Professor Gharakhanian’s legal writing class, took the second-place
oralist title. The final bench of leading jurists included Hon. Louis
B. Butler, Jr., Justice of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin; Hon. Rives
Kistler, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Oregon, Hon. Steven
Levinson, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii; and Hon.
Albert Rosenblatt, Associate Justice, New York Court of Appeals. After
the winner
was announced,  Judge
Levinson commented, “If you only
knew how you both stack up in terms of the aptitudes that you exhibited
in this argument – against lawyers who do this for a living and
have been doing it for years – you would be very proud of yourselves.” In
the writing competition, Colin Hardacre (pictured, right) took
the Best Writer Award.
In earlier competition, Brian P. Cruz and Marisa C. Maclennan took
the Semi-Final Oralist titles. Judges for the Semi-Finals included
Justices J. Gary Hastings ’72 and Paul Turner of the California
Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District; Judges Samuel L. Bufford
and Erithe A. Smith, of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District
of California; and Judges George Schiavelli and Andrew J. Wistrick
of the U.S. District Court, Central District of California. Both
the final and semi-final rounds were held at the Richard M. Chambers
U.S. Court of Appeals in Pasadena. Quarter-finalists were Philip
D. Audette, Vyshnavi Chandrasekaran, Richard J. Coghill and Jason
Joyal. Octafinalists were Aylin Algan, Diana Diskin, Todd A. Fertig,
Colin A. Hardacre, Michelle M. Holmes, Menely Y. Larijoni, Tara D.
Rose and Kendall C. Swanson.
Receiving awards in the Best Writer category, in addition to Hardacre,
were in order of ranking: Kendall Swanson, Georgia Chudoba, Jessica
Trotter, Zigmas Woodward and Marisa Maclennan. Other finalist writers
were: Philip D. Audette, Debra J. Black, Anna L. Cole, Michelle M.
Holmes, Stephen C. Horbelt, Helyn C. Lau, Angela P. Miller, Homan
Mobasser, Christopher Petersen, and Susanna N. Seekins. Alternate
writers were Nicole M. Charney, Jason G. Clouse, Richard J. Coghill,
Jon E. Decker, Diana Diskin, Avital Ferd, Vered Golan, Danielle J.
Greene, Zeina Jafar, James R. Motter, Raelynn Napper, Autumn N. Puro,
Sumithra Rao, Martin Regehr, Natasha M. Saltz and Jack C. Sung.
Alternate oralists were Torsten Bassell, Joelle A. Berle, David L.
Bodnariuk, Howard I. Chernin, Jason G. Clouse, Jon E. Decker, Joel
E. Elkins, Mia V. Floisand, Angela V. Fresquez, Mariel A. Gerlt,
Yan Gershfeld, Sarah D. Gorrell, Allison R. Gray, Danielle J. Greene,
Alastair F. Hamblin, Tessa King, John C. Lackner, Simon R. Lamb,
Jessica M. Mandelberg, Angela P. Miller, James R. Motter, Raelynn
Napper, Gerralynn Owen, Christopher Petersen, Sumithra Rao, Martin
Regehr, Tracy Valencia and Sarah R. Wolk.
In the hypothetical appellate advocacy problem written by Professor
Dennis Yokoyama, set in the mythical state of Westmoreland, advocates
were asked to argue whether to adopt a cause of action for loss of
filial consortium when a child suffers severe yet nonfatal injuries
and whether the wrongful death statue applies to the death of a viable
fetus. In his final observations, Judge Rosenblatt remarked that
Professor Yokoyama “always does such a wonderful job in getting
issues that are close and arguable on both sides, so that the best
skills
can be generated.”
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Professor,
Students Help Make ‘Adoption Day’ a Success
Putting
their new skills to practice in the real world, Southwestern
students in the course “Children
and the Law” facilitated the legal union of 46 foster
children with their adoptive families at a ceremony on Thursday,
April 21 at Los Angeles Children’s Court in Monterey Park.
The event, now in  its
third year, was part of the course curriculum designed by Adjunct
Professor Amy Pellman (pictured, right), legal director
of the Los Angeles-based Alliance
for Children’s Rights.
Earlier in the semester, Professor Pellman assigned each student to a single
child. Students spent several weeks working with the children and their families
to wade through the legal procedures necessary to move the adoption forward.
On Adoption Day, the students worked side-by-side with the Alliance’s pro
bono attorneys, leading the children and their families through the final legal
step in the adoption process. As evidenced by the warmth and gleeful smiles that
filled the court, many students developed close bonds with their “clients,” while
receiving hands-on training in juvenile law.
 “It’s
one thing to learn about the law,” said student Maryam Assadi, “but
to actually see what the law can do, especially for the children, is really exciting
and rewarding.”
Professor Pellman, who received the 2003 Child Advocacy Award from the American
Bar Association and was recently honored with Southwestern’s 2005 Adjunct
Excellence in Teaching Award (see
accompanying story), said the students played a crucial role in ensuring
that the adoptions are successful. “They identified legal issues that could
be obstacles,” she said. “There really is lawyering and advocacy
involved.”
 The
Alliance, which was founded in 1992 to provide legal services to foster, low-income
and disabled children, has been instrumental in streamlining the adoption process
and promoting adoption as a viable opportunity for parents and families. The
organization helped establish Los Angeles’ “Adoption Saturday” program
in 1988, which has facilitated the adoptions of 6,500 children. In 2000, the
Alliance created “National Adoption Day,” an annual one-day event
in which more than 3,000 children are adopted across the United States.
Southwestern
Welcomes New Adjunct Faculty
Experts
in disability rights, religion and the law, jurisdiction, legal practice,
music
publishing and media law have joined Southwestern’s
adjunct faculty for Summer and Fall 2005.
 Sande
Buhai, a Clinical Professor and Faculty Public Interest Law Director
at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, will teach Disability Rights
Law during the summer session. Professor Buhai
received her B.A. Degree from UCLA and her J.D. degree from Loyola
Law School, where she was note and comment editor of the Loyola
International and Comparative Law
Journal.
From
1982-84,
she
served
as research attorney
for the
Los Angeles Superior Court. Appointed to the position of deputy attorney
general for the State of California, she served in the civil licensing
section for five years. She has been member of the Loyola faculty
since 1989.
 Perry
Dane, Professor of Law at Rutgers School of Law, will teach Religion
and the Law
during the summer session. He received his B.A.
summa cum laude and his J.D. from Yale,
where he was note editor of the law journal. After law school, he
clerked for Judge David Bazelon of the U.S. Court of Appeals and Justice
William
Brennan of the U.S. Supreme Court. Professor Dane has written landmark
articles on choice of law, religion and law, and jurisdiction. He
teaches courses in contracts, conflicts of law, constitutional law,
American
Indian law, jurisdiction, and law and religion, and seminars on 'legalism'
and 'religion and the State in cross-national perspective.' In January
1997, Professor Dane was a distinguished visiting professor at the
University of Toronto Faculty of Law, teaching an intensive course
on religion and the law. During 2001-01, he was a faculty fellow
at the Center for the Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture at
Rutgers-New
Brunswick, participating in the Center’s program on secularism.
Josh
Wattles, an attorney in private practice whose clients include Internet
and
entertainment
companies, will teach the course on the music publishing
industry during the summer session. He received his B.A. with honors
from Mills College and his J.D. from George Washington University.
A former member of the general counsel’s office of the American
Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Professor Wattles
also served as senior vice
president and deputy general counsel of Paramount Pictures Corporation,
where he supervised The Famous Music Publishing Companies, the largest
independent music publisher in the U.S. A past president of the Los
Angeles Copyright Society, Professor Wattles has taught entertainment
law as an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School.
 Roger
Lowenstein, founder and executive director of the Los Angeles Leadership
Academy, a public charter school, will teach Political Trials
Seminar during the fall semester. He earned his B.A. from the University
of Michigan, his J.D. from Harvard, and is a veteran of
more than 25 years
as a trial attorney in New Jersey, where he served in both the civil
and criminal areas as a state public defender, a prosecutor and with
his own firm. In 1973, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals appointed
him the first Federal Public Defender for the District of New Jersey—a
post held until 1978. In addition to law practice, Professor Lowenstein
was an adjunct professor at Newark’s two law schools, Seton
Hall, where he created the media law program, and Rutgers-Newark.
He also taught at Occidental College and at USC’s
Annenberg School for Communication.
In 1990, he moved to Los Angeles where he wrote and produced programs
that included L.A. Law, Equal Justice, The Great
Defender and several
other
shows with legal themes. Professor Lowenstein established the Los Angeles
Leadership Academy in the city’s
Wilshire Center area in 2001 with the help of grants from the
California Department of Education, the National Council of La Raza
and other funders. The school’s
mission is to create public sector leaders by preparing inner-city
students
in
grades
6-12 for
college and graduate school. He was elected to Southwestern’s
Board of Trustees in 2004.
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