Faculty News
Three Capital Law Faculty Members Named to Endowed Positions
Capital University Law School announces the appointment of three faculty members to newly endowed faculty positions. Susan M. Gilles has been named the Professor Emeritus John E. Sullivan Designated Professor of Law; Dennis D. Hirsch has been appointed as the Geraldine W. Howell Professor of Law; and Bradley A. Smith has been named the Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law. “With the adoption of the Law School’s strategic plan in 2006, a major focus was made on enhancing faculty resources to support teaching and scholarship which informs their teaching,” said Dean Jack A. Guttenberg. “In three short years, with the generosity of our alumni and donors, we have accomplished one of our philanthropic goals in the strategic plan by the creation of these named professorships, which are an investment in the future of the Law School and in the excellent education we provide our students. ” “Named academic positions are designed to honor, help retain and recruit outstanding teachers and scholars who bolster the faculty, enhance the learning environment for students and contribute to the Law School’s growing academic reputation. Professors Susan Gilles, Dennis Hirsch and Bradley Smith are three outstanding teachers and scholars and it gives me great pleasure to be able to recognize them for their many contributions in the classroom and to legal scholarship and service,” added Guttenberg.
Gilles, who joined the law faculty in 1990, teaches civil procedure, torts and media law. She is a noted scholar on Constitutional law and First Amendment rights and her scholarship is frequently cited by other authors and has been referenced in such law journals as Stanford, Columbia and Georgetown, as well as three casebooks. She is a frequent speaker for the Ohio Judicial College and an invited presenter for a variety of law school symposia. Gilles is a former attorney with Baker and Hostetler, where her practice focused on media law and litigation, and she is a former chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Mass Communication. She holds her LL.M., from Harvard University, where she was a John F. Kennedy Memorial Scholar and a LL.B. from the University of Glasgow, Scotland.
A member of the faculty since 1998, Hirsch teaches environmental law, information privacy law, property law and appellate litigation and directs Capital’s concentration program in environmental law. He is the author of the prize-winning textbook, “Environmental Law Practice: Problems and Exercises for Skills Development,” which has been adopted by more than 50 law schools. Hirsch serves as counsel to the law firm of Porter Wright Morris & Arthur; he has served as vice chair of the ABA ’s Environmental Committee on Innovation, Management Systems and Trading and he co-founded the Central Ohio Sustainability Roundtable. Hirsch was recently awarded a prestigious Fulbright Senior Professorship to teach and conduct research on information privacy law in the Netherlands during the spring 2010 semester. He earned his J.D. from Yale Law School and received his B.A. from Columbia University.
Smith, one of the nation’s leading authorities on election law and campaign finance, is a former member and chairman of the Federal Election Commission. He is frequently invited to testify on Capitol Hill and his writings have appeared in leading law journals and popular print publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, and USA Today. He has been on the Capital Law faculty since 1993 and teaches election law, administrative law, jurisprudence and law and economics. A frequent guest lecturer, he has spoken at many of the nation’s colleges and universities and his national media appearances include ABC, NBC, PBS, MSNBC, Fox, C-Span and CNBC. Smith holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. from Kalamazoo College.
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Mayer’s Articles on Liberty of Contract Published by Mercer and Hastings Law Reviews
Professor of Law David N. Mayer has published two articles addressing the U.S. Supreme Court during the “Lochner” era, which spanned 40 years between the Court’s decision in Allgeyer v. Louisiana (1897) and its decision in West Coast Hotel v. Parrish (1937). Specifically, the articles discuss the Court's protection of liberty of contract as a fundamental right during the Lochner era and lay out how the right of privacy has roots in this era. “The Myth of `Laissez-Faire Constitutionalism’: Liberty of Contract during the `Lochner Era’” (36 Hastings Const. L. Q. 217 (2009)) synthesizes the best of the new scholarship on the Lochner era, while also making original points not discussed elsewhere. The article explains liberty of contract jurisprudence on its own terms, distinguishing it from true “laissez-faire constitutionalism.” Mayer’s second article about the Lochner era, “Substantive Due Process Rediscovered: The Rise and Fall of Liberty of Contract,” (60 Mercer L. Rev. 563 (2009)) discusses liberty of contract in the context of the history of substantive due process. Both articles are part of a larger project, the book Liberty of Contract: Rediscovering a Lost Constitutional Right (to be published by the Cato Institute in 2010). The book examines the Supreme Court’s early-20 th-century liberty of contract jurisprudence, tracing its origins (in well-established principles of constitutional law), its heyday during the so-called “Lochner era,” and its demise to the emergence of the post-1937 “double standard” in constitutional law.
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Campaign Finance Law Expert Prof. Brad Smith Testifies Before Congress
Nationally recognized campaign finance and election law expert Brad Smith, the Josiah H. Blackmore II /Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law, was invited to testify on July 30, 2009, before the U.S. House Administration Committee hearing on HR 1826 and the Public Financing of Congressional Campaigns. From 2000 to 2005, Smith served as Commissioner of the Federal Election Commission, which oversees the public financing system for presidential elections, and he served as Chairman of the Commission in 2004. To watch the hearing or read Professor Smith’s testimony, click here. Also, Smith and seven other former FEC Commissioners, appointees of Presidents Carter, Reagan, Clinton and Bush, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Their brief calls for the reversal of two Supreme Court decisions that have restricted public speech due to complex and burdensome regulations. The Court has scheduled the case for re-argument in a special September session, to consider overruling a major precedent in the field. Read the press release: Former FEC Chairmen and Commissioners Call for Reversal of |
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Other Faculty News | ||||
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Sept. 16, 2009, Mike Distelhorst was a speaker for the Ohio Courts of Appeals Judges Association Fall Meeting sponsored by The Supreme Court of Ohio Judicial College. The title of his presentation was “Substance Abuse: The Growing Incidence of Combined Alcoholism, Drug Abuse, and Anxiety/Depression Disorders in the Legal Profession: The Advent of a Distressed Lawyer Model.” |
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Appearances include being a guest on NPR’s “To the Point” on Sept. 9; an op-ed in the Sept. 2 New York Post; a talk at the Cato Institute, with Jamin Raskin of American University Law, on Sept. 8 and being quoted in the Sept. 5 and 6 Washington Post and the Sept. 11 Wall St. Journal, National Journal and Human Events. Smith's recent articles also include an op-ed in the Sept. 8 New York Post regarding New York ethics scandals and he wrote a column for Politico’s Arena. Additionally, Smith on NPR on Thurs., Sept. 10. Listen to this segment on corporate speech. |
Professor David Mayer 
