Penn State Law

Dean McConnaughay named dean of Peking University's School of Transnational LawPhilip J. McConnaughay, dean of Penn State Law and founding dean of Penn State's School of International Affairs, has taken a position as dean of Peking University’s School of Transnational Law in Shenzhen, China. His new appointment is effective Aug. 1.

Symposium to consider potential outcomes of U.S.-Iran relationshipThought leaders Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett, authors of the new book Going to Tehran, will headline a symposium, “The U.S.-Iranian Relationship and the Future of International Order,” aimed at assessing the nature of current U.S.-Iranian relations and exploring how the two state’s strategic choices will affect the international order in the future.

Ramona E. Romero to receive Rambo AwardThe Women’s Law Caucus of Penn State University’s Dickinson School of Law will recognize Ramona E. Romero, Esq. as the nineteenth recipient of the Judge Sylvia H. Rambo Award during a ceremony on February 28, 2013, at Lewis Katz Hall, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Romero, general counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), will receive the Rambo Award in recognition of her exemplary contributions to the legal profession and to society as a whole.

PSU Board of Trustees elects Deviney as vice chair; honors RidgeAt its January 18 meeting, the Penn State Board of trustees elected Stephanie Deviney '97 as vice chair. The Board also selected the Honorable Tom Ridge '72 to receive the Distinguished Alumni Award.

Personal Statements: future lawyers share their storiesBy GPA and LSAT scores, the Class of 2015 is one of the most highly qualified to study at Penn State Law. Students Susanna Bagdasarova, Talal Al-Ufasian and Megan Wells agreed to share their personal stories that helped them stand out from the crowd. Look for more in the next issue of Lexicon, the Penn State Law alumni magazine.

International peace organization awards grant to study international mediation behaviorsSwedish-based organization the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA) has provided a $25,000 grant to Professor Scott Gartner of the School of International Affairs (SIA) and Penn State Law to conduct experiments in international mediation

Civil Rights Appellate Clinic files amicus brief with Third Circuit Court of AppealsMost cases handled by the Civil Rights Appellate Clinic are student-identified ones in which they think the clinic could play an important role. Not so in a case on appeal before the U.S. Third Circuit in which the clinic was appointed as amicus in a suit under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Interdisciplinary Journal features top scholars challenging conventional national security wisdomIn an effort to offer novel solutions to some of the most pressing global security challenges facing U.S. policy makers, the most recent issue of the Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs features articles from scholars known for their willingness to defy conventional approaches. “Essays from Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett, P.J. Crowley, Anne-Marie Slaughter, and other distinguished scholars challenge the standard policy talking points and propose unorthodox solutions to the security threats facing the world today and in the future,” said executive editor and Penn State Law Professor Amy Gaudion.

Law School remembers professor and alumnus D. Fenton AdamsD. Fenton Adams, a 1949 graduate of the Dickinson School of Law and a professor of law from from 1949 to 1965, died on December 13. His area of specialization included contract law. Fenton authored several works including, The FDIC at 25, while in the graduate program at Harvard Law School in 1960 and a definitive analysis of the Mississippi Uniform Commercial Code in the 1970s.

How lawyers shape the world: a study in legal semioticsLawyers may indeed shape the world, but how and why they do so is the subject of a new book by Penn State faculty authors Jan Broekman and Larry Catá Backer, who recently published Lawyers Making Meaning: The Semiotics of Law in Legal Education II (Springer 2012).