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Millenial Feminisms: How the Newest Generation of Lawyers May Change the Conversation About Gender Equality in the Workplace
Get PDFMuch has been written about the Millennial generation and how they are re-shaping the modem workplace, including the legal profession. This body of literature ranges from heralding the Millennial generation as the vanguard for a new age of optimistic, creative team-players, to decrying Millennials as technology-obsessed, entitled, and lazy. Because Millennials have only recently begun to enter the legal profession en masse, the question of how Millennials will change the modem legal profession is still an open one-although one that has already attracted considerable attention. Less attention, however, has been paid to how Millennials unique approach to their professional lives will specifically affect gender equality in the workplace
Of Grids and Gatekeepers: The Socioeconomics of Mediation
Get PDFMediation scholars have long debated which mediator “style” or “model” is correct. The origin of the debate arises from a foundational piece of scholarship by Leonard Riskin. Riskin proposed a “grid” of mediator orientations comprised of what came to be known as “facilitative mediation” and “evaluative mediation.” A more recent addition to the grid—and one that is almost universally recognized as a distinct model—is “transformative mediation.” These three models are so embedded in the literature of mediation that they have been called “the big three.” The influence of Riskin’s work cannot be overstated. It has resonated within the community of mediation scholars and practitioners, suffusing discussions about what constitutes best practices in the field, scholarship, and law school texts. The debate is sometimes framed not as choices, but as what is “true” mediation.
There is, however, a radical disconnect between the rhetoric and reality of mediation. This disconnect has to do with the nature of mediation “on the ground” in contrast to the way a “typical mediation” is presented through scholarship, texts, and trainings
Why the Jolie-Pitt Divorce Won\u27t Be Like Kramer vs. Kramer
No full textThe only thing the public loves more than news of a celebrity romance is the prospect of its ugly disintegration. No sooner had news broken of Angelina Jolie\u27s intent to divorce Brad Pitt than headlines began to fly about the bruising and ugly court fight ahead. As a family law teacher and scholar, I expect that those anticipating a grisly courtroom showdown will be disappointed.
Angelina Jolie has filed for divorce from Brad Pitt in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. The brief length of their marriage and California\u27s community property laws will make the financial issues relatively easy to resolve. And Angelina has asked for joint legal custody — meaning she and Brad will share all major decisions regarding their six children
Grow Up and Get Over Your Hillary Hang-ups
No full textDo you recall as a child resisting when you were given two or more options, neither of which you found palatable? For example, do your homework now or no television tonight (insert digital device in place of television if you were born within 20 years of this millennium). If you were like me, you complained, perhaps even rebelled, when faced with such distasteful choices.
A funny thing happened to me in the last five decades, however: I grew up. Growing up means being confronted regularly with choices that you may not especially like, but have to make for the greater good — like choosing to work late, or spend Thanksgiving with your spouse\u27s family or forgo dessert.
Many people don\u27t like the choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election. I speak to those of you who complain regularly about the failings of these candidates, those of you who believe that she is dishonest and he is unfit to be president. Most respectfully, to you I say: too bad. Life isn\u27t easy; get over it. You need to make a difficult choice knowing that you will not be entirely satisfied with the person you vote for
Bail Reform Begins with the Bench
No full textBALTIMORE — Increased scrutiny of this city’s justice system has now expanded to include its sky-high bail amounts. Those accused of a crime may spend months in jail because they were assessed bail far beyond their means, even though nearly 45 percent of all misdemeanor and 30 percent of all felony cases here are ultimately dismissed.
It’s a nightmare for low-income families. While those accused of a crime are incarcerated waiting for their trial, their spouses and children suffer lost income and the absence of a parent. Even when a family can get enough money together to make a down payment to a bail bondsman, the resulting debt drains their finances for years.
But last month, the Maryland attorney general wrote that Baltimore’s bail system may not hold up constitutionally, and the public has been galvanized by a Baltimore Sun report about a circuit judge who admitted that she set high bail even though it meant more “poor people wind up in jail.”
Bail reform may finally be on the table. But the system isn’t unfair just because the bail set is often shockingly high. Defense lawyers have also long argued that the police reports that judges rely on to determine bail are vague and legally deficient. Many arrest statements do not describe the crime in question, and they often indicate that the police obtained evidence illegally
The Inequality of America\u27s Death Penalty: A Crossroads for Capital Punishment at the Intersection of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments
Get PDFWe live in a divided society, from gated communities to cell blocks congested with disproportionate numbers of young African-American men. There are rich and poor, privileged and homeless, Democrats and Republicans, wealthy zip codes and stubbornly impoverished ones. There are committed Black Lives Matter protesters, and there are those who—invoking Blue Lives Matter demonstrate in support of America‘s hardworking police officers. In her new article, Matters of Strata: Race, Gender, and Class Structures in Capital Cases, George Washington University law professor Phyllis Goldfarb highlights the stratification of our society and offers a compelling critique of America‘s death penalty regime—one, she notes, that is deeply affected by structures of race, gender, and class. With the number of death sentences and executions declining, Professor Goldfarb‘s article exposes the grim realities—miscarriages of justice, runaway arbitrariness, and persistent discrimination— that may ultimately lead to a judicial declaration that America‘s death penalty violates the U.S. Constitution‘s Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments
Bill of Rights Day: The Death Penalty and the Constitution
No full textDoes the death penalty violate the Constitution? John Bessler, editor of Against the Death Penalty (by Stephen Breyer) and Carol Steiker and Jordan Steiker, authors of Courting Death: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment, trace the unusual history of judicial regulation of capital punishment and offer their take on whether or not the death penalty violates the U.S. Constitution. Michael Gerhardt, scholar-in-residence at the National Constitution Center, moderates
Privacy as a Luxury Not for the Poor: Wyman v. James (1971)
No full textThe Poverty Law Canon takes readers into the lives of the clients and lawyers who brought critical poverty law cases in the United States. These cases involved attempts to establish the right to basic necessities, as well as efforts to ensure dignified treatment of welfare recipients and to halt administrative attacks on federal program benefit levels. They also confronted government efforts to constrict access to justice, due process, and rights to counsel in child support and consumer cases, social welfare programs, and public housing. By exploring the personal narratives that gave rise to these lawsuits as well as the behind-the-scenes dynamics of the Supreme Court, the text locates these cases within the social dynamics that shaped the course of litigation
Student Comment: TTIP: A Free Trade Agreement That Strengthens the International Trade Environment and Enhances the Regulatory Powers of the WTO
Get PDFThis comment discusses the Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP or the Partnership), a bi-lateral trade agreement between the United States and the European Union, in relation to the World Trade Organization (WTO). TTIP pushes the world towards greater trade liberalization, and if implemented, such a trade agreement would affect trillions of dollars in existing trade. When trade barriers are reduced, a significant amount of new possibilities open up, especially in regards to potential markets for exports, growth and improvement of competitive products, and reduction in the losses associated the border. Since its establishment, the WTO has sought to establish an agreement between its members to reduce tariffs and facilitate free trade. However, it has failed to fulfill its role as a rule-maker, particularly via trade agreements, due to multi-polarity and a decline in United States hegemony. The analysis provided discusses how the Partnership could advance the function of the WTO because the implementation of an international bilateral trade agreement removes the rule-maker duty from the WTO and, instead, allows the WTO to focus on the area of dispute resolution, thus taking on a more “softlaw” approach within international trade, and ideally, returning to its full potential
Emerging Issues: South China Sea Takeover: Destroying Fisheries and Creating Economic Dead-lands for Surrounding Coastal States
Get PDFChina’s rapid takeover of the South China Sea unequivocally goes against what the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas permits. China’s control has had, and will continue to have disparaging effects on neighboring countries in their shipment of supplies, food, and other materials. The reclamation of the island landmasses in dispute, the Spratly and Paracel islands, by China has grown about 50% since May 2015.1 Presently, China has built a 3,000 foot aircraft runway and reformed many of the coral reefs surrounding the islands into artificial islands for the “future” usage to place buildings and homes for future Chinese inhabitants.
The United States fears that if progress is continued, these islands will be utilized for military purposes and ultimately create instability in one of the prime commercial shipping routes.3 If China ultimately gains complete control of the South China Sea, they will control all trade and untampered access to all resources within and surrounding those islands; devastating the livelihoods of neighboring States such as the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam