Penn Law Journal Summer 2021

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pennsylvania
carey law school
Spring 2022
In three-quarters of civil cases, at least one party shows up in court without an attorney.
What can be done?
university of pennsylvania
carey law school
Spring 2022
In three-quarters of civil cases, at least one party shows up in court without an attorney.
What can be done?
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Editor
Larry Teitelbaum

Design
Landesberg Design

Senior Contributing Writer
Lindsay Podraza

Contributing Writers
Blanche Helbling

Photography
Sameer Khan
Erika Lansner
Colin Lenton
Stephen Voss

Website
law.upenn.edu/alumni/alumnijournal/

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Corrections
Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy. We offer our sincere apologies for any typographical errors or omissions. Please forward any corrections to the attention of:

Larry Teitelbaum
Editor, Penn Law Journal
University of Pennsylvania
Carey Law School
3501 Sansom Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Telephone 215 573 7182
Fax 215 573 2020
Email alumnijournal@law.upenn.edu

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The University of Pennsylvania values diversity and seeks talented students, faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds. The University of Pennsylvania does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected class status in the administration of its admissions, financial aid, educational or athletic programs, or other University-administered programs or in its employment practices. Questions or complaints regarding this policy should be directed to the Executive Director of the Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Programs, Sansom Place East, 3600 Chestnut Street, Suite 228, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6106; or (215) 898-6993 (Voice) or (215) 898-7803 (TDD).

Vol. 57, No.1 Spring 2022
Arrow
Drones are viewed as a rapid, efficient product delivery system. Katie Thomson L’90 developed an expertise in this futuristic mode of transportation before leaving Amazon for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Photo: Courtesy of Amazon
22
The civil justice system in America is broken, betraying our ideals and the promise of equal justice for all. Prescriptions for change abound with the Law School and alumni adding their voices to the debate.
30
A dynamo, Katie Thomson l’90 goes from one big job to another, leading Amazon’s drone delivery project and now the federal government’s far-reaching infrastructure plan.
36
The Power of Penn campaign brought deep and enduring benefits to the Law School in financial aid, scholarship, experiential learning, cross-disciplinary curriculum, public interest and faculty.
Letters

From The Dean

Photo: Sameer Khan / Fotobuddy
Theodore Ruger, Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law

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.

#pennLaw

someone using the keypad at an ATM

Professor Sandy Mayson calls out the flaw in assuming that former defense attorneys don’t have the capacity to serve as neutral judges pennlaw.news/3oc7d1K

Upcoming Penn Law Review article about auto safety in the age of the SUV by John Saylor L’22 cited in the @newyorker piece about electric vehicles: bit.ly/3omzkvw

Dean Ted Ruger smiling

An unintended consequence of regulation requiring opt-in for overdraft fees is that banks target low-income customers, @NatashaRSarin of @pennlaw argues. bit.ly/34wrnMX

Ford truck

Dean Ted Ruger, former law clerk to Justice Breyer, discusses the retiring Justice’s legacy and the future of the Supreme Court on @whyy bit.ly/34woGej

Professor @allisonkhoffman warns that pop-up COVID-19 testing sites may not be regulated: nbcnews.to/3AQ1unD

Professor Cynthia Dahl lauds Taylor Swift’s re-recording songs as a smart move to regain copyrights: reut.rs/3siH17c

“Regulators have to catch up to it, and just as the wave with omicron in the last weeks was so intense that it outpaced demand, so quickly that regulators are trying to follow what is happening in such a rapid way that I think it does leave the regulator scrambling a little bit.”

Allison K. Hoffman
Professor of Law

#pennLaw

someone using the keypad at an ATM

An unintended consequence of regulation requiring opt-in for overdraft fees is that banks target low-income customers, @NatashaRSarin of @pennlaw argues. bit.ly/34wrnMX

Dean Ted Ruger smiling

Dean Ted Ruger, former law clerk to Justice Breyer, discusses the retiring Justice’s legacy and the future of the Supreme Court on @whyy bit.ly/34woGej

Ford truck

Professor Sandy Mayson calls out the flaw in assuming that former defense attorneys don’t have the capacity to serve as neutral judges pennlaw.news/3oc7d1K

Upcoming Penn Law Review article about auto safety in the age of the SUV by John Saylor L’22 cited in the @newyorker piece about electric vehicles: bit.ly/3omzkvw

“Regulators have to catch up to it, and just as the wave with omicron in the last weeks was so intense that it outpaced demand, so quickly that regulators are trying to follow what is happening in such a rapid way that I think it does leave the regulator scrambling a little bit.”

Allison K. Hoffman
Professor of Law

Professor @allisonkhoffman warns that pop-up COVID-19 testing sites may not be regulated: nbcnews.to/3AQ1unD

Professor Cynthia Dahl lauds Taylor Swift’s re-recording songs as a smart move to regain copyrights: reut.rs/3siH17c

Follow @PennLaw on Twitter for more

Opinion
At Issue Department
At Issue Department
ILLUSTRATION: DAVID POHL
a graphic of a race car driving the lines of a human brain

The Secret to Success in Law and Life

By Dan Solin L’65

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.

News & Events
IN SESSION
Pocket size American Flags

New Alumni Group Aims to Provide Civilian Foxhole for Veterans

As a pilot in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, Denny Shupe L’89 studied whenever and wherever he could. He cracked casebooks on cargo planes, on the base, and at home between overseas transport missions.

Shupe, who had a decidedly different law school experience than most of his classmates, retired in 1999 as a lieutenant colonel after 23 years of service. He has spent the years since working with veterans, including those at the Law School, to ease their transition to civilian life.

“As a military officer, I naturally slipped into an advisory and mentoring role with many of my classmates, just as I had with the junior officers and enlisted personnel with whom I had served,” said Shupe, a Senior Partner at Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis who returned to active duty for the Persian Gulf War during which he evacuated wounded soldiers and flew in weapons and personnel.

Headshot of Stephen A. Cozen

Philadelphia Civic and Legal Leader Stephen A. Cozen C’61, L’64 Proud to Enter Best of the Bar Hall of Fame in His Hometown

In recognition of his illustrious legal career spanning nearly six decades and a lifetime commitment to the community, Stephen A. Cozen C’61, L’64 was inducted into the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Best of the Bar Hall of Fame in October 2021.

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.”

News & Events
Evidence

Law School Firsts

1
First pro bono project, the “Legal Aid Dispensary,” formed by a student club.
American Law Institute founded at the Law School.
Dean Michael A. Fitts convenes first-ever U.S.–China Law Deans Summit in Beijing.
1893
1894
1923
1969
2011

First endowed chair, Biddle Professorship, established at the Law School.

First woman, Martha Alschuler Field, joins the faculty.
First pro bono project, the “Legal Aid Dispensary,” formed by a student club.
1893
First endowed chair, Biddle Professorship, established at the Law School.
1894
American Law Institute founded at the Law School.
1923
First woman, Martha Alschuler Field, joins the faculty.
1969
Dean Michael A. Fitts convenes first-ever U.S.–China Law Deans Summit in Beijing.
2011
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News & Events
Exhibit

Beautiful Baskets

Coretta Owusu L’14, founder and creative designer of Design Dua, works with traditional basket weavers in Ghana to make and sell a variety of handwoven bassinets, changing baskets for infants, and dog beds made from the native elephant grass. A lawyer, advocate, and entrepreneur, Owusu created the company to help sustain West African artisans.

STEM Club Members Lean on Each Other in Law School

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.

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News & Events
Service

Targeting a Provision of the Common Decency Act, Karen Chesley L’09 Helped Put Sex Traffickers on the Run

Handcuff illustration with @ symbol
ILLUSTRATION: ADAM McCAULEY
2018 was a catastrophic year for American sex traffickers. In February, the FBI took down a major advertiser of online sex trafficking, and Congress passed sweeping legislation against the crime. In April, then-President Donald Trump signed the bills into law. The website Backpage.com ran a wide variety of classified ads, but reports showed the site’s cash cow was involvement with human sex trafficking, particularly of children. Backpage, reportedly, was involved in a large percentage of the country’s sex trafficking. In a direct response to those revelations, Congress enacted the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA). The new legislation made websites liable for knowingly facilitating sex trafficking.

“It really shut down the incentive for there to be a Backpage 2.0,” said Karen Chesley L’09, who had a direct hand in the victories against American sex trafficking as a pro bono attorney for Legal Momentum.

She recalls a feeling of horror when she discovered the prevalence of human sex trafficking — particularly of children — in the United States.

Infusion of Talent with Five New Faculty Members

The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School welcomed four distinguished scholars and teachers to the standing faculty for the 2021-22 school year. A fifth will join in Fall 2022. They are Lisa Fairfax, Jasmine Harris, Sandra Mayson, Jennifer Rothman and Shelly Welton (fall semester).

These new hires are in addition to the eleven standing faculty members who have joined the Law School in the previous five years. They each bring a wealth of scholarly and experiential expertise and embody a range of diverse perspectives and methodologies in their teaching and research.

Lisa Fairfax

Lisa M. Fairfax joins the University of Pennsylvania as a Presidential Professor and Co-Director of the Institute for Law & Economics, teaching Corporations along with other business law courses at the Law School.

Before coming to Penn Law, Professor Fairfax was the Alexander Hamilton Professor of Business Law at George Washington University Law School, where she taught courses in the business arena, including Corporations, Contracts, and seminars covering topics in securities law, corporate transactions, and corporate governance. Additionally, she was the Director of the GW Corporate Law and Governance Initiative.

Lisa Fairfax smiling with a blue background

Lisa Fairfax

Presidential Professor; Co-Director, Institute for Law and Economics
News & Events

Citation

Citation Department
The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America’s Story Cover

The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America’s Story

Kermit Roosevelt III, David Berger Professor for the Administration of Justice

University of Chicago Press

There’s a story we tell ourselves about America: that our fundamental values were stated in the Declaration of Independence, fought for in the Revolution, and made law in the Constitution. And American history, we like to think, is a process of more fully realizing those founding values. In this eye-opening reinterpretation of the American story, Kermit Roosevelt argues that none of these things is true. Our fundamental values come not from Founding America but from resistance to it. They were stated not in the Declaration but in the Gettysburg Address, fought for not in the Revolution but in the Civil War, and made law not in the original Constitution but in the very different Reconstruction Constitution. Reconstruction, he argues, was not a fulfilment of the ideals of the Founding but rather a repudiation: we modern Americans are the heirs not of Founding America but of the people who overthrew and destroyed that political order. This different understanding of the source of American values and identity opens the door to a new understanding of ourselves and our story, and ultimately to a new America.
Beyond Imagination? The January 6 Insurrection Cover

Beyond Imagination? The January 6 Insurrection

Ted Ruger, Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law, contributed a chapter

West Academic Publishing

The book is a scholarly response to an unprecedented American attack on the Capitol. Fourteen deans from leading law schools examine the event and provide a legal perspective in the hope of moving the nation towards healing and a recommitment to the rule of law and the Constitution.

Dean Ruger contributed a chapter titled “The Primacy of Electoral Politics and Our Outdated Checks and Balances.” He analyzes the actions of state attorneys general and the untoward role of ideology in the administration of elections.

In addition, there are chapters on leadership, racism, the weakening of civics education, and the potential legal consequences for lawyers who promoted election conspiracies.

In the wake of the attack, the authors believe there is a need for new law school classes and the development of continuing education for lawyers that address the issues arising from the insurrection.

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News & Events
Discovery
Photo: Erica Lansner

When America Turns 250, Joe Daniels L’98 Will Be Leading the Observance

9/11 shook New Yorker Joe Daniels L’98 to his core. On his way to visit a client near the World Trade Center, he watched in disbelief as the Twin Towers, engulfed in flames, crumbled, taking nearly 3,000 lives.

It was a galvanizing moment for the country and for Daniels, launching him into what he calls “patriotic philanthropy.” Before long, he led the effort, as President and Chief Executive Officer, to build the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. Following that multiyear project, Daniels served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Texas-based National Medal of Honor Museum, spearheading the effort to create the United States’ first-ever institution dedicated to preserving the legacies of the recipients of the country’s highest award for valor in combat.

And now, he’s poised to tackle another extremely challenging project: He’s been named President and CEO of the America250 Foundation. As such, he’s charged with organizing a rousing and meaningful commemoration in 2026 that, as the announcement of his appointment noted, will “unleash the American spirit” and “demonstrate the lasting durability” of America. Tall order.

Caleb Greene
Harvey Lou
Up Arrow Caleb Greene L’24 (left) and Harvey Lou L’24 had eye-opening experiences as Weil Legal innovators.
Up Arrow Caleb Greene L’24 (top) and Harvey Lou L’24 had eye-opening experiences as Weil Legal innovators.

Weil Legal Innovators Program Helps Students Pave Legal Career Paths

As a charter member of the Weil Legal Innovators program, Caleb Greene L’24 spent his gap year before law school filling gaps in his life experience. He engaged in thought-provoking conversations about systemic racism and consoled a teenager who had lost both parents to COVID-19.

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.

Civil Injustice

Civil Justice title with a breaking concrete beam
The ABA adopted the Model Rules of Professional Conduct in 1983, setting standards for ethical behavior and recommending a church-and-state-like separation between lawyers and nonlawyers. The Rules came well before the technology boom and the worsening of the civil justice gap. Is it time to reconsider them? The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School has a voice in the debate.
By Larry Teitelbaum
Here, in the world’s leading democracy, something has gone terribly wrong.

Civil Injustice

Civil Justice title with a breaking concrete beam
The ABA adopted the Model Rules of Professional Conduct in 1983, setting standards for ethical behavior and recommending a church-and-state-like separation between lawyers and nonlawyers. The Rules came well before the technology boom and the worsening of the civil justice gap. Is it time to reconsider them? The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School has a voice in the debate.
By Larry Teitelbaum
Here, in the world’s leading democracy, something has gone terribly wrong.
In three-quarters of civil cases, at least one party shows up to court without an attorney. Unable to afford a lawyer, defendants may lose their homes, face domestic violence without court protection, and even lose custody of their children.

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.

Roadblock
roadblock typography
Katie Thomson L’90 uses her expertise to make the trains and other modes of transportation run on time.
By Lindsay Podraza
Remover
remover typography
Photo: Stephen Voss
Editor’s Note
In January of this year, Katie Thomson L’90 left Amazon to return to the U.S. Department of Transportation as the Director of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Implementation.
W dropcap
With its ever-popular Prime subscription, Amazon.com Inc. has single-handedly created the expectation of a swift two-day delivery guarantee or faster — for nearly any product under the sun — to roughly 200 million members.

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.

Campaign Update
Advocates for a New Era department
Advocates for a New Era department
White quotes
The support from donors has completely changed my life. I absolutely would not be here, where I’m at today, if it weren’t for [donor] support.
Leticia Salazar C’18, L’22, GEd’22
First Generation Professionals Fellow and Editor-in-Chief of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review
PHOTO: COLIN LENTON

Campaign
Close

Historic fundraising and engagement campaign solidifies and enhances ‘The Power of Penn Law’
The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School recently marked the conclusion of “The Power of Penn Law,” the Law School’s most successful fundraising and engagement effort to date.

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.

Class Notes

Fine Print

Fine Print title

1960s

H. Robert Fiebach W’61, L’64 was named a Best Lawyer for the twenty-eighth consecutive year in a row. Fiebach, who serves as Senior Counsel at Cozen O’Connor’s Philadelphia office, was recognized for his work in Commercial Litigation, Legal Malpractice Law – Defendants, Litigation – Real Estate, and Litigation – Securities.

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.

illustration of globe made of thought bubbles
Illustration: Michael Austin

Legal Trouble Abroad? Call Dick Atkins L’62

Dick Atkins L’62 recalls the case of a 72-year-old doctor on a trip to India with his wife. The visit had gone well until the end, when the man was suddenly arrested at the Kochi airport and about to be thrown into the local jail.

His crime was using a satellite cell phone during his travels, which was a cheaper and easier option to use in India. The phones had been banned in the country after terrorists used them to communicate during the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The doctor had been unaware of this law until his arrest.

“The prisons in India are so dismal and so dangerous and horrible,” said Atkins, who is a principal and legal counsel for International Recoveries LLC, which assists travelers who find themselves in legal trouble abroad. “Not many would have survived this.”

Atkins’ company operates a 24/7 hotline for insured travelers experiencing problems.

Through his connections, Atkins prevented incarceration. “He got his passport back, and the case is still open in absentia,” Atkins said. “He and his wife got back safely.”

In Memoriam
2022

In Remembrance of Lani Guinier, Former Law School Professor and Pioneering Civil Rights Advocate

T

he Law School remembers and honors the legacy of Lani Guinier, who taught here from 1988 and 1998 and passed away on Friday, January 7, 2022.

With heavy hearts, the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School joins others in legal academia and the profession as a whole in mourning the passing and honoring the remarkable legacy of Lani Guinier, a brilliant and influential scholar and lawyer.

Guinier was a faculty member at the Law School for 10 years, from 1988 to 1998, and inspired students in our classrooms as she produced some of her most authoritative scholarship.

Dean Emeritus Colin Diver, who served as the dean of the Law School from 1989 to 1999, recalls Guinier’s unequivocal commitment to civil rights and racial justice.

“During Lani’s 10-year tenure at Penn Law, Lani pushed the envelope in many important and constructive ways: advocating for alternative voting methods, such as cumulative voting, questioning the implicit expectations of law school faculty that female students behave like ‘gentlemen,’ or proposing alternative methods for evaluating and selecting applicants to the Law School,” Diver said. “As a scholar, teacher, and public intellectual, she made immense and lasting contributions.”

ADJOURNED

The LLM Class of 2021 will never forget its American sojourn. In December, after a year buffeted by the COVID-19 pandemic, 39 graduate students gathered in Fitts Auditorium for commencement, followed by a champagne toast in the courtyard. And now, on to new challenges.

Photo: Sameer Khan / Fotobuddy

ADJOURNED

The LLM Class of 2021 will never forget its American sojourn. In December, after a year buffeted by the COVID-19 pandemic, 39 graduate students gathered in Fitts Auditorium for commencement, followed by a champagne toast in the courtyard. And now, on to new challenges.

Photo: Sameer Khan / Fotobuddy
UPenn Students graduating
Penn Law Journal logo
Thanks for reading our Spring 2022 issue!