DeanWuBlog

Blogs

I am pleased to announce that our Law School website now has a list of all our faculty blogs. The URL is: http://www.law.wayne.edu/faculty/blogs_faculty.html.

The blogs include the following. The descriptions have been prepared by the respective faculty bloggers.

Professor Derek Bambauer

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/

Info/Law is a blog written by Professors Tim Armstrong (University of Cincinnati College of Law), Derek Bambauer (Wayne State University Law School), and Bill McGeveran (University of Minnesota Law School). It covers information law - the convergence of intellectual property doctrine, communications regulation, First Amendment norms, and new technology.

Professor Linda Beale

http://ataxingmatter.blogs.com/tax/

A Taxing Matter is a blog that primarily addresses U.S. federal income and payroll taxes and related budgetary matters. The blog discusses how our tax system works, who pays and who doesn't pay taxes, and the use and politicization of information about taxes. The focus is primarily on ordinary Americans in the middle and lower income distribution, but the blog also addresses corporate tax issues, tax shelters, the intersection of ethical and statutory requirements for tax practitioners, tax legislation, and interesting court cases. Blog postings also present brief summaries of current scholarship on taxes.

Professor Peter Henning

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/whitecollarcrime_blog/

The White Collar Crime Prof Blog is part of the Law Professor Blog Network. The focus is on current developments in a wide range of criminal prosecutions and law enforcement investigations at the federal and state level, including corruption, securities fraud, perjury, corporate misconduct. The authors are Professor Peter Henning and Professor Ellen Podgor of Stetson University.

Professor Michael McIntyre

http://www.law.wayne.edu/tad/

Professor McIntyre has recently designed and created a website (Taxation and Development) where a group of international tax specialists post materials of interest to tax officials in developing countries and to researchers unterested in taxation and development. The web site collects, inter alia, primary tax reform documents, representative tax treaties, and recent academic research.

I also have started a blog.

http://deanwublog.classcaster.org/blog/

Enrichment Schedule, Winter 2007

MEMORANDUM

To: WSU Law School Faculty, Administrators, and Staff
From: Frank H. Wu, Dean; frankhwu@wayne.edu
Date: February 13, 2007
Re: Upcoming Enrichment Activities

I am pleased to announce some upcoming enrichment activities. These events will contribute to the life of the community and offer opportunities for civic engagement. We will distribute information on the details of each activity as they become available. Additional events are likely; this is a list in formation. All events listed below are scheduled to occur at the Law School, unless otherwise indicated. (Groups of more than 10 individuals, including WSU classes, are welcome; they are asked to RSVP to Event Coordinator Ms. Robin Dortenzio at robind@wayne.edu.)

January 31, 6:00 p.m. Faculty-Student Mixer. This event, one of three for the academic year, is supported by the Izumi Family Fund. The hosts of this “Open Mic Night” are Professors Dana Roach, Lance Gable, and Jocelyn Benson. This event was a spectacular success; everyone appreciated the participation of all performers.

February 8, 6:30 p.m. Trial Lawyers Event. Members of the American College of Trial Lawyers (David Hayes, Ken Mogill, and William Sankbeil) have conducted a workshop for students.

February 12, 12:15 p.m., Faculty Lounge. Professor Greg Robinson of University of Quebec will deliver a talk entitled “Frontiers of Citizenship: Historical Perspectives on Race and Same-Sex Marriage.” RSVP to Ms. Dortenzio requested. Supported by the Izumi Family Fund.

February 22, 4:00 p.m. I. Goodman Cohen Lecture. Professor David Scheffer of Northwestern University will speak on litigation strategies in international criminal tribunals. This annual event, named for I. Goodman Cohen, is supported by an endowed fund.

February 26, 11 a.m., Ziemba Memorial. This memorial service will honor the late Carl Ziemba, an alumnus and distinguished criminal defense lawyer who has left a bequest that is the largest single private gift benefiting the Law School, and it will be the official announcement of the creation of the Carl Ziemba Scholars program. By invitation only; contact Ms. Dortenzio for further details.

February 26, 12:15 p.m., Faculty Lounge. Wayne-Windsor Exchange. Professor Marcia Valiante of University of Windsor will speak on Ontario’s Experience with Protecting the Environment through Managing Sprawl.” RSVP to Ms. Dortenzio requested.

March 8, 5:30 p.m. Driker Forum for Excellence in Law. This biennial event will be constituted as a panel discussion on the internet and law featuring Professors Oren Bracha of University of Texas, Diane Zimmerman of New York University, and Hannibal Travis of Florida International University. This event is supported by private gifts honoring Eugene Driker.

March 22, 2:00 p.m. Journal of Law in Society Symposium. This annual symposium will be a discussion of health law, specifically Michigan’s proposed new standard of care for emergency medical physicians.

March 24, 5:30 p.m. Treasure of Detroit. This annual event, at which our alumni are honored for professional accomplishments, will be held at Gem Theater. Honorees are the Honorable Damon J. Keith, Elizabeth Hardy, and Steven Victor. Black tie/traditional dress optional. By invitation, all law faculty, staff, administrators, librarians, alumni, and students welcome; contact Ms. Dortenzio for additional information.

March 26, 2:00 p.m. Edward Wise Endowed Symposium. This annual symposium will be a discussion of comparative law featuring Professors Ken Anderson of American University Washington College of Law, Madeline Morris of Duke University, and Steve Ratner of University of Michigan. It is support by an endowment honoring the late Professor Edward Wise.

March 29, 6:00 p.m. Law Review Alumni Reception. This annual event will be held at Mario’s Restaurant. Attendees are law review members, law review alumni, law faculty, and invited guests.

May 11, 1:00 p.m. (tee time). Alumni/Student Annual Golf Outing. This annual event will be held at Fox Hills Banquet Center in Plymouth. Tickets required, all law faculty, staff, administrators, librarians, alumni, and students welcome. Contact Ms. Dortenzio for additional information.

Thank you very much.

Mistakes

Oscar Wilde once said that experience is the name we give our mistakes. People have sometimes asked me how I have achieved what I have done at what seems to them an early age. My reply is usually that I have made mistakes faster than my peers. I’m only half-joking.

Everyone makes mistakes, ranging from trivial misstatements to serious misjudgments. It is no less true for being a cliché: the more you try, the more you will fail. As is true with individuals, the companies that have cultivated a willingness to take risks have done better than those that have preferred to remain static. Apple Computer, for example, has had failures such as the Lisa and the Newton, as spectacular as its successes with products that create markets such as the iPod and iTunes.

Of course, I recognize that as professionals who are entrusted to represent other individuals, or even to take leadership roles, we should strive to make as we few mistakes as humanly possible. However, I believe that making fewer mistakes requires treating each mistake as an opportunity to learn. My goal is to be confident enough in general to be contrite when necessary.

As a manager, I try to remind myself that it is best to assess blame primarily for the purpose of promoting improvement. To me, the difference between the best employees and the average employees is that the former are more reliable. Ironically, they are more reliable because their positive attitude about mistakes has earned them my trust even as it has fostered their own professional development.

In teaching the ethics course for law students, I have been struck by how many cases that ruin an attorney’s career begin with a mistake which if acknowledged could have been remedied early enough to have been an embarrassment and not much more. Yet the individual involved, perhaps through delay or pride, or, worse, because of denial or a cover-up, aggravates the original problem and turns it into a disaster.

Thus, a person’s attitude after making a mistake may be more important than his attitude before making it.

Keith Collection

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Dana Roach as Director of the Damon J. Keith Collection. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College and University of Michigan Law School, she joined us this year as a Clinical Assistant Professor and she has developed the new Small Business Enterprises and Nonprofit Corporations Clinic. The Director of the Keith Collection, a position funded by the endowment for the Keith Collection, oversees not only the Keith Collection (the archives, the exhibits, and programming such as the biennial lecture) but also assists with the advancement activities for construction of the Keith Building and Center for Civil Rights. Professor Roach will continue to fulfill her responsibilities as a member of the faculty. I look forward to working with Professor Roach in this new role.

Invitation to Students

I write to invite you to “Whack Wu, Part II.” Over the past year, I have been taking fencing lessons. I have arranged to host personally a group beginners’ fencing lesson for approximately a dozen attendees (spectators also welcome). You as well as your partner/spouse or child (minimum age seven years) also are welcomed as participants. Two experienced coaches/instructors will explain the basics of fencing, using a foil as the weapon, and I will then be pleased to accept challenges for bouts from any participant. This will occur at the Renaissance Fencing Club in Ferndale, Michigan, on Tuesday, February 20, 2006, from 7 pm to 10 pm. All safety gear will be provided (men may wish to wear an athletic protector; women will be provided with a breastplate); note a liability release form must be signed in advance.

If you are interested, please RSVP (indicating the total number of participants and spectators, respectively, and whether the participants are right-handed or left- handed) to Ms. Teryn Kennedy (terynkennedy@wayne.edu or 313-577-3933), by 5 p.m., February 12. Only the first five respondents will be accepted as participants. A liability release form, available from Ms. Kennedy, must be signed in hardcopy and returned to Ms. Kennedy by 5 p.m., February 12.

I look forward to this event.

Lifelong Learning

I believe that every educator must be a lifelong learner to be effective. A teacher who is a student as well, who experiences a role reversal from time to time, not only develops knowledge of another field or better understanding of his chosen specialty but also benefits from new pedagogical techniques that may be applied in his own classroom.

For the past few years, I have enjoyed American Sign Language (ASL) lessons. For most people, it is difficult to learn languages later in life. Of course, ASL uses a very different medium of communication.

Since starting lessons with a private tutor, Ms. Lynn Sedlacko, who previously taught ASL at Wayne State University, I have become a much better conversationalist. We have been joined by a 3L student, Ms. Hayley Rohn, who has proven much more adept at acquiring signs as a beginner than I have ever been.

After our sessions, I am reminded of the value of education. I envy the students the opportunity to devote several years of their lives to the intensity of legal education. As scholars, our ideal is to offer more than ideas and doctrines; it is to inspire a passion for intellectual development through constant challenge.

Jewlsh Law Students Association

From time to time, I meet with different student groups to discuss the state of the law school on an informal basis and address any concerns. This Tuesday, I enjoyed lunch with the board members of the Jewish Law Students Association (JLSA), joined by several faculty members with an interest in meeting them. I was very much impressed with the JLSA’s involvement with the Law School, including an interest in working with other student groups, including the Muslim Law Students Association, on projects such as volunteering with Habitat for Humanity later this semester. Their commitment to the Law School, along with their level of civic engagement, is admirable and deserves appreciation.

I was troubled, however, to learn that there is a perception among students as well as the community in general that our campus is not welcoming to Jewish students or may even foster anti-Semitism. I already had a sense that there were issues that I needed to be aware of, and my discussion convinced me that the feelings are widely and deeply held, formed on the basis of various occurrences at Wayne State University in the recent past. I have always believed in the importance of welcoming all students whatever their respective backgrounds, even as each of them may be challenged in the classroom and on campus to consider opinions with which they disagree and to which they should respond. Although some of the activities that were described to me likely are protected by the First Amendment, or are not directly within the responsibility of the Law School, it is nonetheless important for me to offer my own remarks in reassurance and to take responsibility for the overall environment that affects learning here. Whatever the exact cause, there is something wrong if a significant part of the population believes that they face hostility due to their identity. It is crucial for us to work together to form the sense of community that allows vigorous discussion while ensuring participants in that discussion are respected as equals. I look forward to continued dialogue in fulfillment of our shared ideals.

Meetings

As a Dean, much of my time is spent chairing meetings, attending meetings, planning for meetings, and following up on them. Accordingly, I have made an effort to study meetings and I have prepared a set of goals for meetings. I share these in an effort to make our decision-making processes transparent, and because they may be of general interest. This memorandum discusses best practices for meetings such as administrative staff meetings. Meetings should be called with explicit goals and agendas prepared in advance. If there are not explicit goals and an agenda prepared in advance, at the outset of the meeting a set of explicit goals and an agenda will be identified. Specific topics for discussion will be numbered. Each topic for discussion should be identified, if possible, as: (a) informational only; (b) for discussion; (c) for decision; or (d) for planning of next actions. The time constraints, and the urgency of a decision, should be specified. All materials needed to make a conduct a discussion, make a decision, or plan next actions should be brought; in particular, the underlying data or documents should be available and preferred to oral summaries. For any issue to be addressed, potential resolutions should be identified in advance. For every decision that is made, the following should be memorialized: (a) the individuals with responsibility for managing the project as well as the individuals with responsibility for staffing it; (b) the budget; (c) the funding source; (d) the timeline; and (e) the strategic goals supported by the decision. Notes should be taken at all meetings. Thank you very much.

Pride at Work

I am disappointed by the decision of the Michigan Court of Appeals in National Pride at Work v. Granholm. As Dean of Wayne State University Law School, I filed a declaration in this litigation. I stated that I was attracted to the opportunity to return to my hometown in this role, in part because I knew that I was coming back to a place that respected the equality of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT). Furthermore, I stated, our ability to compete in the national marketplace for faculty, administrators, and staff is significantly enhanced by the provision of benefits to partners who are same-sex.

I would like, then, to take this opportunity to declare that I will continue to do whatever is possible, appropriate, and effective, to ensure we protect the civil rights of our LGBT colleagues, friends, and students. Our status as a member of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) requires no less. The AALS By-Laws set forth a standard of “diversity and affirmative action.” By-Law 6-3 mandates that “a member school shall provide equality of opportunity in legal education for all persons” and it lists numerous grounds of impermissible discrimination, including “race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability,” or of significance in this context, “sexual orientation.” This provision explicitly applies to “hiring, continuation, promotion, and tenure” of “faculty and employees.” The AALS is a group to which the best law schools belong, and we are proud of our status as an AALS law school since 1946.

Perhaps the greatest challenge for an individual who has the honor of leading a public institution is ensuring that he acts in the best interests not of himself but the institution. Accordingly, it is important to make statements that reflect not personal beliefs but institutional policies. Yet a dean has the responsibility as well to lead, presenting a vision of positive change, turning rhetoric into reality. In some instances, that makes controversy inevitable and criticism likely; it requires a willingness to take risks.

This is such a case. Wayne State University, with the other research universities in this great state, have publicly supported the provision of benefits to domestic partners, and we have made efforts to persuade the courts that the voter initiative passed two and a half years ago, as its supporters said repeatedly, was not meant to affect the benefits issue. For me, it would be a failure of character to fail to stand up and speak out on behalf of the many persons in committed relationships that happen to be of the same sex. Ours is a profession that respects the rule of law, indeed that depends on the very rule of law, but it is a profession that, at its best, offers the possibility that justice will be realized through the law.