There is a quiet crisis in this country, one that one that escapes the attention of many Americans. And it goes to the core of our justice system. In America today, at least one party is unrepresented in three-quarters of civil cases.

As a result, an unacceptable number of our most vulnerable citizens — often poor and unaware of their options — find themselves with no protection in matters such as the daily threat of domestic violence and housing eviction that play out in courts every day.

The situation is so dire that, astonishingly, America ranks near the bottom worldwide in access to and affordability of civil justice. In this issue of the Penn Law Journal, faculty and alumni affiliated with our Future of the Profession Initiative, which is driving discussion on reform and innovation, diagnose the problem and they and others recommend potential solutions.

It all comes down to regulatory reform.

Despite having one of the highest per capita lawyer-to-population ratios in the world, there is no incentive structure — and not enough help — to meet the needs of all the people who can’t afford legal services.

I was a commercial litigator for over 30 years in New York City. I thought I knew a lot about communications and interpersonal relationships. I understand the value of meticulous research and preparation.

What I didn’t appreciate was the gaping hole in my knowledge of peer-reviewed studies from the fields of psychology and neuroscience. If I had known about them, I would have been a better lawyer, a more effective mediator, and a far more skilled communicator. As a collateral benefit, all my relationships — personal, social and business — would have been immeasurably enhanced.

Here’s what I wish I had known.

The Journal’s Editor-in-Chief Ryan Sharrow called Cozen’s selection “a clear choice,” and University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Dean Ted Ruger and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law echoed that sentiment.

“From even before I was Dean, Steve Cozen impressed me as the very model of a brilliant, ethical, civic-minded attorney — a role model for all of us in today’s legal marketplace,” Dean Ruger said. “My admiration has only increased exponentially since working closely with him these past many years on pressing issues facing legal education, our profession, and our democracy itself. I’m pleased to know and have learned from Steve and can think of no one more deserving of this high honor.”

At first, law school can be a stretch for STEM students.

They’re wired and trained to think visually, not to read volumes of text.

So says Karen Joo L’23, co-president of the Penn Law STEM Club, formed to help law students with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics make the transition to a new study and learning regime.

“We don’t study well off just texts,” Joo said. “We tend to learn better from pictures.”

And apparently from each other. The STEM Club has more than doubled in membership since its founding in 2019. It has gone from nearly 30 members to 61 at present, 23 of whom are new this year. According to the Law School Admissions Office, STEM students make up approximately 20 percent of the student body.

The idea for the group stems from an experience that classmates Emily Losi L’21 and Maria Tartakovsky L’21 had when they were studying together for final exams their first year. Both realized they had different study habits than many of their peers.

Tartakovsky, who majored in biology with a concentration in computer science at the University of Florida, said she was accustomed to searching for the right answer in college only to find that law school exams were not about the best answer but rather a test of your ability to sort through issues and explain your thought process.

Confronting death and racial injustice was a real eye-opener for a guy from a two-stoplight, white, middle-class town named Liberty, Indiana: population 2,000. The new Weil Legal Innovators (WLI) program, sponsored by Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, gave Greene this growth opportunity during its first year of operation. The philanthropic initiative provides funding for students at participating law schools to defer their first year of study to work at one of WLI’s partner nonprofit organizations.

Greene chose the Aspen Institute, a venerable organization committed to change through the Aspen Challenge and the Aspen Young Leadership Fellows (AYLF) program. Through the Aspen Challenge, the Institute invites speakers to challenge high school students in a particular city to undertake projects for civic betterment. In Miami this past year, for instance, students were charged with cleaning up beaches, improving financial literacy, and creating a mental health app. In the Fellows program, college students receive resources and technical assistance to design initiatives that address pressing issues and foster community change.

It is not a matter of poor and middle-income people and small business owners falling through the cracks; the chasm is more like a sinkhole — a situation that Jim Sandman L’76, Distinguished Lecturer and Senior Consultant to The Future of the Profession Initiative (FPI) at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, finds intolerable. He is deeply disturbed by how far the country has strayed from the promise of justice for all.

For years, he led Arnold & Porter, one of the most storied law firms in America, and lived and worked at the center of power in Washington, D.C., where he counseled corporate power brokers, oversaw the influential District of Columbia Bar, and sat on important law committees. Yet, by his own account, he had no idea how broken the civil justice system had become in America, calling it an “invisible” issue that eludes the attention of most Americans and most lawyers.

Then he became President of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), the largest funder of civil legal aid programs in the United States, and he quickly realized the magnitude of the problem. Today, he advocates for root and branch reform of the civil legal system.

But Amazon, which employs more than 1.3 million workers worldwide and operates 110 fulfillment facilities in the United States, is not resting on its Prime laurels. The company is setting its sights on a loftier delivery-time goal: a half-hour turnaround by drone delivery.

In December 2016, Amazon successfully completed its first trial delivery by autonomous drone from its test site in England. The GPS-guided electric drone, which flies below 400 feet and can carry up to five pounds, landed and deposited a package in the bucolic backyard of an Amazon customer. Video footage shows the Cambridgeshire customer picking up his box, which contained dog biscuits and an Amazon Fire TV remote, from the yard with ease.

Katie Thomson L’90, the former Vice President and Associate General Counsel of Worldwide Transportation and Sustainability at Amazon (see Editor’s Note), said the company aims to make ubiquitous drone delivery a reality.

This transformative campaign solidified the Law School’s position at the vanguard of elite legal education, with landmark gifts from the W. P. Carey Foundation and the Robert and Jane Toll Foundation propelling the historic effort. These contributions, combined with the support of alumni and friends from across the Law School community, have uniquely positioned the Law School to forge a new brand of legal education by expanding cross-disciplinary opportunities, increasing access through financial aid, broadening pathways to service for students who will change the world for the better, and recruiting a diverse cohort of faculty engaged in cutting-edge legal scholarship.

“Thanks to The Power of Penn Law and the generosity of the W. P. Carey Foundation, the Robert and Jane Toll Foundation, and our committed and engaged Board of Advisors and alumni, the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School is fostering an innovative educational environment to train the lawyers and changemakers of tomorrow,” said Ted Ruger, Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law.

Fine Print

1960s

Betsy Cohen, L’66 founder of FTAC Athena Acquisition Corp., a blank check company, agreed to merge with business services firm Pico. The deal valued the company at $1.75 billion. The special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) is also raising $200 million of equity to support the Pico transaction. Pico provides market data and analytics to financial services companies including banks, exchanges, hedge funds, and other financial technology providers. FTAC Athena Acquisition raised $250 million in its IPO in February. The vehicle focused on finding targets in technology or financial technology, according to its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The combined company will trade on Nasdaq once the deal closes. Additionally, FTAC Emerald Acquisition Corp, which is another SPAC Cohen is backing, plans to raise up to $220 million through an initial public offering in the United States. The blank-check company, known earlier as Emerald ESG Acquisition Corp, is offering 22 million units at $10 each, and Cohen will chair its board. Emerald ESG Sponsor, a firm managed by Cohen and a backer of FTAC Emerald, has committed to buy 890,000 units at $10 each in a private placement.

Bruce Hermelee L’66 was honored at a 50-Year Member and Senior Counselor Recognition Luncheon in Orlando held by the Florida State Bar. Honorees were recognized both for their good standing and for practicing for 50 years in the Florida Bar or having cumulative legal practice with the Florida Bar and other United States jurisdictions for a total of five decades. Hermelee was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1971.