Mitchell on Law
Winter 2008WILLIAM MITCHELL COLLEGE OF LAW MAGAZINE SAINT PAUL | MINNESOTA
New Minds at Mitchell
By Lisa Harden
PDF, 4 pages
Mitchell welcomed seven new full-time faculty members this fall
One studies lawyers at work, another explores the parameters of acceptable deviance, another researches the legalities of emerging reproductive technologies, another brings years of experience as a tough negotiator, another is a global patent expert, one possesses practical criminal law wisdom, and another is a connoisseur of the written word.
Family Law and Reproductive Rights
Professor Mary P. Byrn teaches an area of law so cutting-edge that what was science fiction just a decade ago is now a reality.
Byrn is an expert in reproductive rights, an emerging legal field fueled by rapid-fire advances in assisted reproductive technology (ART), which includes in-vitro fertilization, artificial insemination, surrogacy, cryo-preserving eggs, and pre-implantation genetic diagnoses.
“Significant changes in technology happen every six months to a year,” she said. “Five to 10 years ago, cryo-preserving eggs was almost science fiction. Now it is marketed to women in their 20s and 30s.”
Legal system changes, however, have not kept pace with technological changes. “New cases are coming down state by state, but broad sweeping law to create predictability for adults and their children in the world of ART is decades behind,” Byrn said.
For Byrn, the challenge is applying archaic legal language to new situations. “It is a cutting-edge area,” she said. “To be teaching in an area that is so new and underdeveloped means that I have to help students learn how courts apply existing family or contract law to the latest technology.”
Byrn earned a B.A. in political science from Loyola University in Chicago and a J.D. from the University of Minnesota.
Criminal Law
When is a speed limit sign not a speed limit sign? When it’s a PAD.
“Our government goes to great trouble and expense to post speed limit signs every few hundred yards along our roadways. And yet, government and citizens alike know that what’s on the sign is not the ‘real’ speed limit, that is, the one that the state will enforce,” said Professor Mark A. Edwards, who studies the construction and operation of unspoken ‘parameters of acceptable deviance,’ or PADs (a term he coined), around law.
Edwards posits that PADs are formed through the interaction of formal law and a community’s normative sensibilities. “Over time, communities develop a strong but unspoken sense of how much deviance around a law is acceptable to them,” he said. “And, usually, the state accepts that standard and enforces it rather than the actual law.”
With a B.A. in English from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Edwards studies the law and social relationships. Society’s unwillingness to acknowledge PADs leaves certain groups of people vulnerable to selective enforcement, he said. “For example, the police may unlawfully target drivers because of their race, but can immunize their unlawful motivation by claiming the driver’s behavior was formally illegal, even though it may be well within the community’s PADs (driving 67 mph in a 65 mph zone, for example),” he said. Similar problems arise in the enforcement of zoning ordinances, the current focus of Edwards’ research.
Legal Profession and Civil Justice System Research
To thrive as a non-lawyer among a sea of lawyers, you have to have a good sense of humor. Leading legal researcher Professor Herbert M. Kritzer knows how to poke fun at himself and his subjects.
Kritzer has been studying lawyers for more than 30 years. He has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina; did civil litigation research; and taught at the University of Wisconsin from 1977 to 2007. He always knew he wanted to study lawyers, not practice law.
“I wanted to focus on lawyers, and the best data comes from interviews with lawyers,” he said.
Kritzer has talked to lawyers about almost every aspect of their profession, from contingency fees to caseload to advocacy.
He has observed lawyers in law offices and in hearing rooms, and he has conducted systematic surveys of lawyers on issues such as Rule 11 and contingency fee work. Kritzer has collected hard data on the challenges lawyers face simply making a living.
Mitchell can help prepare lawyers for these challenges by simply creating awareness, he said. Kritzer is teaching a new course to help students reflect on the practical experience they receive in externships, as well as teaching Statistics for Lawyers and Politics of Legal Policy classes.
Legal Writing and Advocacy
Teaching allows Professor Mehmet Konar-Steenberg to express his duality as an award-winning writer and a hard-working lawyer.
The co-director of Mitchell’s Writing & Representation: Advice & Persuasion (WRAP) program graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in journalism and won a prestigious Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists Page One Award for a Minnesota Law & Politics cover story that one judge said “should be required reading at every law school in the country.”
He earned his J.D. from Georgetown University; served as a Minnesota assistant attorney general; practiced with a private law firm; and spent five years supervising one of the legal teams responding to administrative appeals in one of the largest civil rights settlements in history.
Konar-Steenberg chose to teach at Mitchell because the law school puts legal writing on the same level as the doctrinal program. “I can teach writing, which I love, and administrative and constitutional law, which I love,” he said. “A lot of the practice of law is teaching. Trying a case is teaching a judge or jury. Writing a brief is teaching, persuading a panel. It’s a nice way to bring together my writing and legal background.”
Criminal Law
As a consultant to one of the country’s top appellate criminal attorneys, Professor Ted Sampsell-Jones has worked with a who’s who of newsmakers: a former Ukrainian prime minister appealing his multi-million dollar extortion and money laundering conviction, a former San Diego mayor sentenced for accepting campaign contributions and cash from a Las Vegas strip club owner to loosen the city’s no-touch laws, and a member of the “West Memphis Three” sitting on Arkansas death row.
Sampsell-Jones worked as an appellate criminal defense attorney with Dennis Riordan in California and in Minnesota for four years representing clients from all walks of life. He still takes cases for indigent defendants on appeal as a special assistant public defender for the Minnesota Appellate Defender’s Office and recently won a case before the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Sampsell-Jones has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of the legal system. He brings those insights into the classroom teaching Evidence and Civil Procedure.
“Working in the criminal justice system, I can see that it’s a very complicated system for victims, defendants, lawyers, and judges,” said Sampsell-Jones, who received his J.D. from Yale Law School. “It’s hard to learn all of the legal rules and understand how the system works. It’s emotionally difficult as well. I want to prepare students to face tough emotional issues and follow complicated rules. This is important because there is so much at stake for everyone.”
Intellectual Property
Professor Jay Erstling’s favorite boyhood hang-out was the United Nations coffee shop in New York City. “I liked seeing all the people in their national dress,” he said. “My dream was to work in an international setting.”
Erstling’s dream came true, but not in the way he expected. The former director of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and advisor to the director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) never thought he would become a global intellectual property expert. After earning his J.D. from Cornell University, Erstling worked as a labor law associate for Thorp, Reed and Armstrong in Pittsburgh. He has a B.S. from Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He began his international legal career as a legal officer for the International Labor Organization in Geneva. He later transferred to WIPO, where he learned “on the job.”
Erstling was a very quick study and thrived in the dynamic international environment. He oversaw the PCT’s move to a paperless office and dramatic growth in international filings. He is a much-sought-after presenter and has worked as a consultant for the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. State Department all over the world.
Erstling taught at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul from 1986 to 2003 and practiced at Fredrikson & Byron in Minneapolis.
Business and Corporate Law
Professor Thuy-Nga T. Vo earned a reputation as a tough and effective business negotiator because she knows when to stand firm on a position and when to back down.
“Based on my business and legal experience,“ she said, “it is about achieving the common good. The reality is that business people do not value lawyers who are deal breakers and who continually say ‘no, no, no,’ instead of trying to find the common ground for various parties.”
Vo, who was the director of finance and senior counsel at Land O’Lakes Inc., and a corporate and securities attorney at Dorsey & Whitney, is committed to serving the common good in business and society.
She was born in Vietnam, and her family immigrated to the United States. Every Sunday during the school year, she teaches Vietnamese at the Chua Phat An Vietnamese Language School. “Teaching at the Vietnamese school allows me to share my knowledge of the Vietnamese language and culture,” she says. “It also allows me to participate in and contribute to the Vietnamese community in Minnesota.”
In the classroom, Vo uses real-life examples of business issues. She may talk about actor Kevin Costner’s troubles with his business partner or the expansion of a shopping mall not far from the college. “I want to show students that the business concepts they learn in school do occur and apply to real situations,” she added. “My goal is to help students make the connection between life and classes.”
Play Professor Vo's interview video
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