Faculty News
Recent National Media Appearances by Capital Law Faculty
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review published Professor Mark Brown’s editorial, “Ganging up on Ralph Nader.” Brown, who serves as Capital’s Newton D. Baker/Baker & Hostetler Chair of Law, was a lawyer for the Nader 2004 campaign.
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New Legal Writing Faculty AppointedScott Anderson and Stacey Lemming Blasko have joined the Law School as two new professors in the Legal Research and Writing program.
Professor of Legal Research and Writing Scott Anderson brings 15 years of extensive legal experience to the law school. For the past six years, he has been staff attorney at the Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission and before that served as the Commission’s juvenile coordinator. His experience also includes prosecuting adult felony crimes for the Licking County Prosecutor’s Office before being promoted to managing attorney of the juvenile and civil divisions. Anderson also brings extensive teaching experience; he was a part-time instructor teaching contemporary ethical theory and the philosophy of law at The Ohio State University and has been a seminar instructor on a variety of legal issues for state agencies and the Ohio Judicial College. Anderson has been a member of the American Philosophical Association, the Committee on Juvenile Rights in the Justice System, and the Ohio Supreme Court Workgroup on Juvenile Defendant Access to Legal Counsel.
Prior to joining Capital as Professor of Legal Research and Writing, Stacey Lemming Blasko served as judicial clerk to The Hon. Roger L. Kline of the Fourth District Court of Appeals of Ohio for 10 years. Her legal research and writing experience also includes two years as an adjunct professor in the appellate advocacy program at the Ohio State University College of Law and as a member of the Legal Writing Institute. Blasko is a member of the American Inns of Court, Franklin Inn, is a board member and president of Midtown Parents and Kids and volunteers for the Victorian Village Society. |
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Visiting Professors Named for 2007-08
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Professors Jim Beattie and Mark Brown's op-ed about the recent Ohio Supreme Court ruling on the governor's veto powers was printed by the 
Professor Dan Kobil was quoted in the 
Capital’s and one of the nation’s campaign finance law experts, Professor Brad Smith, has had a busy summer. He appeared on Fox News Special Report with Britt Hume and on E&E TV in the segment “On Point: Developments in Campaign Finance Law.” He has recently had op-eds published by the 
Denise St. Clair, executive director of the National Center for Adoption Law & Policy at Capital, was 
The Economist quoted Trustees’ Professor Mark Strasser in its June 28 issue in the article “
Professor Angela Upchurch, Real Living Academic Director of the National Center for Adoption Law & Policy at Capital University Law School, appeared on the Live Desk with Martha MacCallum on Fox News Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007. MacCallum interviewed Upchurch about screening processes for parents who adopt from the foster care system.
Professor Floyd Weatherspoon’s editorial, “
Micah Berman |
Micah L. Berman, executive director of the Tobacco Public Policy Center at Capital University Law School, has been named a visiting professor this academic year. Berman will be teaching Torts and Public Health Law. Prior to joining the Center in February 2005, Berman served as political director for the Fingerhut for U.S. Senate campaign and as a litigation associate with the law firm of Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP. He was previously a trial attorney with the National Criminal Enforcement Section of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division.
Howard E. Katz |
Visiting Professor of Law Howard E. Katz has been an associate professor at Charlotte School of Law since August 2006. Professor Katz has an extensive and varied background as a law professor, director of strategic planning and policy, and prolific lecturer on topics such as urban development, business ethics, and socially responsible investing. He has been a visiting professor at Cleveland State University’s Marshall College of Law and the Senior Fellow at the American Architectural Foundation in Washington, D.C., where he recently coordinated content for the National Summit on School Design. From 1998 to 2004, Professor Katz served as Director of Strategic Planning and Policy for the Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Treasurer’s office where he oversaw a half-billion dollar fixed-income investment portfolio and insured the implementation of the treasurer’s reform agenda. Professor Katz has taught at several law schools, including George Washington, Tulane, Pittsburgh and Howard, and in two M.B.A. programs.
Michael L. Rich |
Since 2003, Michael L. Rich has been an associate in the Cincinnati, Ohio office of Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease LLP, where, among other things, he worked on a multi-million dollar civil False Claims Act trial, represented a county government in a civil rights class action lawsuit, and appeared before the Ohio Elections Commission on behalf of a candidate for U.S. Congress. Professor Rich is also a former law clerk to The Hon. Susan J. Dlott of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and a former associate at Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP in New York, NY.
Other Faculty News
Professor Mike Distelhorst has been named the new Executive Director of the Council for Ethical Leadership. The Council is an organization of businesses and professional firms which advocates the highest standards of ethical leadership in business and the professions.
He served as a member of the Ethical Leadership Panel for the Ohio Ethics Commission’s “Ethics Education Session for Senior Staff.” He also presented a program on Legal Ethics, Professionalism, and Substance Abuse in the Legal Profession for the Legal Department of Wendy’s International. The program included a presentation on Ohio’s New Rules of Professional Conduct, and was attended by members of the Wendy’s Legal Department and other attorneys from various outside law firms and corporations.
Professor Dennis Hirsch published a co-authored chapter in Climate Change and US Law (M. Gerrard, ed., 2007). The title of the chapter is "Emissions Trading -- Practical Aspects".
Associate Professor Rachel Janutis has been named the Director of Faculty Development for 2007-2008. In this role, Janutis is responsible for supporting and promoting teaching and faculty scholarship at Capital University Law School.
“I am impressed by the vibrant, diverse and supportive community of scholars and teachers we have at Capital,” said Janutis. “I look forward to the opportunity to work with the faculty to strengthen our intellectual exchange with one another and to enhance our engagement with the academic and legal communities at-large.”
Janutis said she plans to increase the opportunities for faculty to share ideas about teaching and scholarship through both formal and informal dialogues and continue to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of each of the members of Capital’s community. Additionally, she hopes to facilitate better distribution of faculty scholarship to the academic and legal communities through both traditional and alternative media and continue to bring other academic legal leaders to Capital to engage the faculty in discussion about pressing legal issues of the day.
Professor of Legal Research and Writing Risa Dinitz Lazaroff has been selected to participate in the Hadassah Leadership Academy (HLA), a two-year program that is "at the cutting-edge of Jewish Women's studies and leadership development." Hadassah is a Jewish women's organization with more than 80,000 members worldwide that supports the Hadassah Medical Organization in Israel and humanitarian efforts to provide war victims with medical care. Only 15 women were selected to participate in the HLA from the Columbus, Ohio region. The program includes monthly meetings, a visit to Washington, DC to lobby Ohio's congressmen on issues affecting Israel, attendance at the Hadassah's National Convention in Los Angeles, and a trip to Israel in spring 2009 to meet with officials of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. After completion of the program, Professor Lazaroff will be responsible for organizing a social action event addressing an issue of concern to Hadassah and its membership.
Professor David Mayer has joined the advisory board of the College of the United States, a new liberal-arts college being established by the Reason, Individualism, Freedom Institute.
Professor David Mayer presented two lectures – “Judicial Activism, Real and Imagined” and “Crime Through Time: The Joy of Historical Mystery Novels” – at The Atlas Society’s Summer Seminar at Towson University, in Towson, Maryland, July 9 & 10. Additionally, his essay “Thomas Jefferson, Man versus Myth,” which originally appeared on MayerBlog, Professor Mayer’s Web log, April 13, 2006 (link), has been published as a monograph by The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship at Rockford College, Rockford, Illinois.
Associate Dean and Professor Shirley Mays was a panelist at the ABA's Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA in August. The title of the session was "Deans' Panel Discussion - Communication with Administration" and the panel will address how successful communication among SBA leaders and law school administrators can enhance their credibility and advance their missions and goals.
Professor Lance Tibbles has been appointed to the Ohio Health Ethics Advisory Committee for Community-Based Services. This multi-disciplinary Committee is one of five Ethics Committees for Ohio Health (Riverside, Grant, Doctors West, & Grady Hospitals) and is made up of both employees and community members. The Committee serves the lines of service for HomeReach - hospice, skilled homecare, medical equipment, and infusion – as well as the Gerlach Senior Health Center for patients in non-acute settings.
Tibbles also continues to serve on the Honoring Wishes Task Force of the Ohio Hospice & Palliative Care Organization, the Capital University Institutional Review Board, and the Columbus Children’s Hospital Institutional Review Board
Tibbles was interviewed by Channel 10 news in Columbus, Ohio regarding an exhibit appearing in Columbus that features human bodies in such a manner as to reveal the muscles and internal organs. He raised questions regarding the relationship of a human being to the human body and body parts and suggesting moral and legal questions raised by displaying bodies in this manner.
