Law School News

In the Media

• June 30, 2009
  Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of White Firefighters - NPR
  UW law professor Eric Schnapper said of the US Supreme Court ruling in Ricci v. DeStefano: "This case could be the Fred Thompson of the court's term: much anticipated but quickly forgotten." Because most agencies don't promote solely on the results of test scores anymore, it will make a big difference in a small number of cases.
• June 28, 2009
  Consumers Opt For Debit Over Credit Cards - NPR
  Americans' preferred form of plastic is now the debit card. UW law professor Anita Ramasastry, says debit cards have caught on partly because they look so similar to familiar old credit cards. But the fraud protections for the two types of cards aren't necessarily the same.
• June 25, 2009
  Lawyer off case for city - Spokesman-Review
  UW law professor Robert Aronson discusses the ethics of Spokane City Council's paying a private attorney who longer represents them.
• June 23, 2009
  Reports Fan Flames of Speculation Over Steve Jobs' Health - MacNewsWorld
  UW law professor Sean O'Connor on the issue of Steve Jobs' health and Apple's legal woes: "What you have, basically, is a company that doesn't have a duty to disclose just anything the shareholders would want to know. But once it does start disclosing something that is material to the shareholders, it can't do it halfway and can't do anything that misrepresents the truth."
• June 14, 2009
  Access to DNA Testing - KPLU
  The Washington State Supreme Court rejected a request in a case involving DNA testing. UW School of Law Professor Jackie McMurtrie and Innocence Project Northwest director points out that more than 200 people nationwide have had their convictions overturned through DNA testing.
• June 2009
  Testy Tapped As New UW Law Dean - KCBA Bar Bulletin
  University of Washington Provost Phyllis Wise has announced that Kellye Testy, who currently is dean and professor of law at Seattle University, will become dean of the UW School of Law, effective Sept. 1.
• June 2009
  UW Law Launches Health LL.M. - KCBA Bar Bulletin
  The UW School of Law has unveiled a new graduate program in health law that harnesses the assets of the university’s internationally known schools of law, medicine, health and public policy.
• June 2009
  Face Time: Doing What Needs To Be Done - Columns
  Since 1997, when UW law professor Jackie McMurtrie established the Innocence Project Northwest Clinic at the UW School of Law, she and her students have helped exonerate 13 wrongfully convicted people. She spoke about the project with Columns Co-Editor Eric McHenry.
• Coverage of Three Degrees: The Law of Climate Change and Human Rights Conference
  Think of the children, or think of your ski trip: Two ways to tell the climate story - Grist
  Using Human Rights Law to Address Climate Change - WorldChanging
  Can human rights be the climate movement's moral guide? - Grist
  Conference examines human-rights side of climate change - The Daily
  The UW School of Law hosted Three Degrees May 28 and 29, a UW law student-led effort to develop a legal system addressing the impacts of climate change on human rights.
• May 28, 2009
  Diabetes stem-cell treatment looks to cell capsules - Nature
  UW law professor Sean O'Connor talks about the intellectual property dispute between two companies over stem cell patents.
• May 14, 2009
  UW picks new law school dean - Seattle Times
  Seattle U law dean moving to UW - Seattle P-I
  New law school dean chosen after 2-year search - The Daily
  Deans appointed at Univ. of Washington and St. John's University - National Law Journal
  Testy named new University of Washington law school dean - Puget Sound Business Journal
  Seattle University dean to be UW Law School dean - Tacoma News Tribune
  After a search lasting two years and spanning North America, the University of Washington has finally picked a new law dean — and she comes from right across town. Kellye Testy, Seattle University's law dean since 2005, was as UW dean of the law school by the university's Board of Regents. She is the first female dean in the 110-year history of the UW School of Law.
• May 11, 2009
  Brieant Fellowship Awarded to UW Law Student Hai-Ching Yang - New York State Bar Association
  Hai-Ching Yang, a student at the UW School of Law, has been chosen as the inaugural Hon. Charles L. Brieant, Jr. Fellow. The fellowship is administered by The New York Bar Foundation.
• April 20, 2009
  Religious right not united in push to repeal benefits for gay couples - Seattle Times
  Peter Nicolas, a UW law professor, said Washington senate bill 5688, which extends to same-sex couples all the state-given benefits of marriage previously reserved for opposite-sex couple, would not help same-sex couples legal argument in court — but might hurt it.
• April 27, 2009
  Was Brooke Astor Competent When She Changed Her Will? - AARP
  What was the mental condition of Manhattan socialite and philanthropist Brooke Astor when she changed her will in the final years of her life? The burden of proof will be on her son, Anthony Marshall, to prove that his mother hadn't slipped into extreme dementia when changes to her will favoring him, says Karen Boxx, chair of the American Bar Association's Elder Law group and a professor at the UW School of Law.
• April 20, 2009
  Not guilty? Experts seek post-conviction DNA reviews - seattlepi.com
  As the state Supreme Court prepares to issue a decision that could allow for more post-conviction evidence review, a group of Washington legal minds is calling for greater efforts to prevent wrongful convictions. Advocates often cite the case of Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, who spoke at the UW School of Law as part of the Gates Public Service Law Program.
• April 7, 2009
  AP Throws Down Gauntlet to Online News Aggregators - eCommerce News
  The Associated Press says it will pursue legal action again on-line news aggregators. "This is a business model battle," said UW School of Law professor Kate O'Neill.
• April 7, 2009
  Some car company offering payment assistance plans - KING5
  A number of car makers are offering to make your car payments if you lose our job. UW School of Law professor Steve Calandrillo says the plans he reviewed helps consumers feel confident enough to buy a car.
• April 3, 2009
  Obstacles challenge proposals to create an income-tax on the wealthy - Seattle Times
  A 1933 Washington State Supreme Court ruling says income tax must apply equally to everyone, rich or poor. The ruling said income is a form of property and therefore an income tax is essentially a property tax, said Hugh Spitzer, a UW School of Law affiliate law professor. "The state constitution says that property taxes have to be uniform on every class of property, and property taxes cannot exceed 1 percent of the value of property," Spitzer said.

In the Media Archive >

News Releases

• May 19, 2009
  UW Hosts Panel Discussion on Piracy
  The University of Washington will host a panel discussion, The Challenge of Piracy Near the Horn of Africa, May 27 at 7 p.m. Panelists include faculty from the UW School of Law and the Jackson School of International Studies.
• May 15, 2009
  UW Law School Hosts Korean Constitutional Court President
  The UW School of Law will the Hon. Kang-Kook Lee, president of Korea's Constitutional Court on May 18.
• May 14, 2009
  UW Selects First Permanent Female Law School Dean
  UW Provost Phyllis Wise has announced that Kellye Testy, who currently is dean and professor of law at Seattle University, will become dean of the UW School of Law, effective Sept. 1, 2009.
• May 7, 2009
  Spokane Falls to flow full-time, thanks to Berman Environmental Law Clinic
  A settlement that the Berman Environmental Law Clinic helped negotiate means that after nearly a century, water will once again flow year-round at a historic site in Spokane.
• May 5, 2009
  Students Work Pays Off as Juvenile Record Protection Bill is Passed
  Four years of work by students in the Legislative Advocacy Clinic to help hundreds of young adults seal their juvenile records pay off as Washington HB 1954 was signed into law by Gov. Christine Gregoire on April 25, 2009.
• April 22, 2009
  Ramasastry to be Installed as Gittinger Professor of Law
  Anita Ramasastry will be installed as the as the Wayne & Anne Gittinger Professor of Law Thursday, April 30 at 4 p.m. in William H. Gates Hall.
• April 23, 2009
  UW School of Law Holds Position for Rankings
  US News and World Report has ranked the UW School of Law at 30, holding the same position as the previous year, in the magazine's annual look at America's best graduate schools.
• April 22, 2009
  UW School of Law Announces 2009 Gates Scholars
  The UW School of Law is proud to announce the newest recipients of the Gates PSL Scholarship: Joan Altman, Mike Felton, Ariana Flores, Hilary Hammell, and Katherine Kirklin.
• April 16, 2009
  UW Middle Eastern Law Students Host Discrimination Talk
  The Middle Eastern Law Students Association of Washington will host a panel discussion on discrimination post 9/11 Monday, April 27 from 4-6 p.m. in William H. Gates Hall Room 133.
• April 14, 2009
  Washington Supreme Court to Hold Session at UW
  As part of the "Court in the community" program, the Washington State Supreme Court will visit the UW School of Law May 19, 2009.
• April 10, 2009
  UW School of Law Conference Addresses Climate Change and Human Rights
  The UW School of Law will host Three Degrees: The Law of Climate Change and Human Rights Conference May 28 and 29, a UW law student-led effort to develop a legal system addressing the impacts of climate change on human rights.
• April 8, 2009
  Event Presents Personal Accounts of Eyewitness Identification Perils
  In 1984, Jennifer Thompson-Cannino testified that Ronald Cotton was the man who raped her. Eleven years later, DNA evidence cleared him of the crime. The UW School of Law presents Picking Cotton: Our Story of Injustice and Redemption, where Thompson-Cannino and Cotton will discuss their experience, April 20 at 4 p.m.
• April 8, 2009
  Mariners President Chuck Armstrong Speaks to UW Law Students
  Chuck Armstrong, the president of the Seattle Mariners, will speak to UW School of Law students about the legal issues of running a multi-million dollar sports franchise April 20 at 12:30 p.m.
• April 1, 2009
  Professor Ron Whitener Receives Clinical Legal Education Award
  The UW law school's Director of the Tribal Court Public Defense Clinic and Assistant Professor Ron Whitener '94 has been awarded the M. Shanara Gilbert "Emerging Clinician" Award from the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Clinical Legal Education.

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Law School Calendar

Upcoming law school events:

• 2009 Law School Alumni Association Board Retreat
  Friday, July 10, 2009 , 8:45 AM - 3:00 PM , Intellectual Ventures
• Washington Lawyers for the Arts Summer Clinic
  Monday, July 13, 2009 , 5:00 PM - 9:00 PM , 115
• CASRIP Summer Institute (July 16-July 31)
  Thursday, July 16, 2009

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