On the Record

On the cover: With their progressive pilot potentially on the chopping block, the OPD’s Neighborhood Defenders in Park Heights are defending not only their clients but their problem-solving approach. Also, Caryn Tamber talks to University of Maryland law professor Danielle Citron about her research into online gender harassment and the law.

In the news: An EPA official says the agency wants more weapons in its arsenal; Maryland’s top court upholds a sex-abuse conviction based on the testimony of a 6-year-old victim; Mike’s Train House is sued for infringement; and an offshoot of the “driving while black” case will be the subject of a rare Court of Special Appeals en banc hearing.

 Also:

• Verdicts & Settlements features the case of an HIV-positive teacher who was fired from his job at a private elementary school in Arnold.

• Before there was “The Power of Nice” or his success as a sports agent, there was the Modern Bar Review Course. In My First/Business, Ron Shapiro reflects on the lessons learned from his initial foray into commerce.

• In Opinion/Commentary, Jack L.B. Gohn weighs in on the narrowing difference between blogs and journalism, while Edward J. Levin points out a key requirement under a Maryland deed of trust: naming an individual as the trustee. 

• Catch up with our Week in Review and the Law Digest, this week with cases from the Maryland Court of Appeals, Court of Special Appeals and the Office of Administrative Hearings.

ON THE COVER: Life after Law — You’ve earned your J.D., passed the bar and taken the oath. But now you realize you no longer want to practice law. Caryn Tamber spotlights lawyers who have chosen alternative careers.

A consumer, saying the Gateway computer he bought at Best Buy is defective,  challenges the arbitration clause in the manufacturer’s warranty — and wins in the Court of Special Appeals. Find out how in Danny Jacobs’ report on Barrington D. Henry v. Gateway Inc., et al.

In Breaking News, former Nigerian presidential candidate Godson M. Nnaka, a Baltimore lawyer, runs afoul of the Attorney Grievance Commission — but is nowhere to be found; and the Maryland Comptroller owes Lenox Inc. a refund of more than $280,000 on taxes the china company paid on a product-handling system at its Hagerstown facility.

Upper Marlboro lawyer Rick Jaklitsch presides over the Terrapin Club, the University of Maryland’s booster group that raises money and provides scholarships for the more than 700 student-athletes on the 27 varsity teams at College Park.

In Verdicts & Settlements, a toymaker settles with its founder’s Hunt Valley consulting company over fees and royalties.

Guest columnist Linda D. Schwartz provides advice on what to do upon receiving a letter from Bar Counsel.

Stay up-to-date with our Law Digest, which includes cases from the Maryland Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court, Maryland.

Not mentioned in this AP story about Mark Sargent, the Villanova Law dean who resigned last week for “medical and personal” reasons after he was caught leaving a purported house of prostitution, was how close he came to being the current dean of the University of Maryland School of Law.

The timeline: In June 2008, Maryland Law Dean Karen Rothenberger said she would step down one year later. A search committee was formed to find her replacement.

That November, Sargent was intercepted at the Kennett Township, Pa., home whose owner recently pleaded no contest to running a house of prostitution. Sargent cooperated with the investigation and was not charged, police say.

This January, the search committee presented its list of five finalists for Rothenberg’s post. Sargent made the short list.

He took himself out of the running the following month, apparently telling Maryland his family would rather be in Philadelphia.

Last week, though, he resigned from Villanova. His involvement in the prostitution case was revealed by The Philadelphia Inquirer over the July 4th weekend.

Kind of makes you wonder how much the search committee knew, and when they knew it, doesn’t it?

p.s. The top spot at Maryland ultimately went to Phoebe A. Haddon, who started at the law school last week. Welcome, Dean.

An editor sent me this Wall Street Journal story from a couple of weeks ago, about how some law firms are sending employees to receive executive training. The idea is to either prepare them to step into management positions at the firm or help them better understand their business clients’ needs.

“‘When you have the kind of challenges we have right now, (you need) really well-trained, smart managers talking the same language,’ says Kevin Fitzgerald, a partner at Nixon Peabody LLP who was one of the first in his firm to attend an executive education program at Harvard University in 2007. The program is designed for employees of professional service firms, and includes training on how lawyer-managers can lead firms successfully.”

I was curious to see if any of the business schools here in Maryland offer such programs, but all of the schools I called said they don’t. Should they start? Is it worthwhile, especially in these hard times, to give more lawyers business training?

I was a student at the University of Maryland a few years ago when “Deep Throat” was shown at the Hoff Theater on campus. While I was surprised 530 students attended (The Apex on South Broadway probably would kill for that kind of turnout), I didn’t think much else of it.

So when I read Hoff was going to screen another porn earlier last week, I wasn’t too shocked. But then a funny thing happened: the movie became a political cause in more ways than one. Legislators threatened to withhold funding from the university if the film went on as planned, and an on-campus political party hosted a screening of part of the film days before the Student Government Association election. Today, the state Senate thankfully rejected a silly budget amendment that would have withheld construction funds at state schools unless they developed a porn policy. Not since Mary Carey ran for governor of California have porn and politics been so closely tied together. 

As an alum, however, what bothers me most about this whole episdoe was the university’s decision to cancel the screening in the first place. The independent campus newspaper The Diamondback, in a spot-on editorial, summarized my feelings about university administrators:

They have encouraged short-sighted state legislators to make empty threats to meddle with the very information the university distributes. We simply don’t believe state legislators would shut down the most productive source of education, a gem of the state, because Hoff showed some bouncing breasts. But potentially worse, administrators have declared in unequivocal terms they don’t need student input before regulating the content supported by this university.

The apparent endgame to this is the University System of Maryland, which oversees the public institutions in the state, will now develop a porn policy for all state campuses. A USM official called the porn controversy a “tragedy.” I call it a self-inflicted wound.

Happy blustery Monday! Here’s what’s new around the Web:

• After hearing from a dance scholar from the University of Maryland and watching videos of strippers performing, a New York judge held that pole-dancing is an art form, meaning it qualifies for a sales tax exemption. OK, there’s a lot I could say about this, but I’m going to limit myself to observing that this is probably the first time ever that someone has written the following sentence: “He told the New York Law Journal he sees similarities between objections to strip clubs and new Mormon temples.”
• The Post’s Sunday piece about the Baltimore cult-related death of a 16-month-old contains this terribly sad sentence about the child’s mother’s guilty plea: “Ramkissoon, 22, has agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge on one condition: The charges against her must be dropped if her son, Javon Thompson, is resurrected.”
• This blog on Maryland gangs appears to be new and worth checking out.
• A mathematician has developed a formula to predict whether newlyweds will stay married. I could see someone making a bunch of money off this–or maybe not. Some people may not want to know. HT: Maryland Divorce Legal Crier.
• “Could I get away with performing magic in the courtroom, or would that backfire on my client’s cause?” Jon Katz wonders. (He also holds forth on a gross-out stunt he performed at his son’s recent birthday party.)

Phoebe Haddon, currently of Temple University, is to be UM Law’s next dean, the school announced this morning. Reporter Danny Jacobs, who’s been following the story, is at a press conference on campus as I write this.

Haddon will be the law school’s first African-American dean and its second female dean (Karen Rothenberg, the first, is stepping down June 30).

Not yet familiar with her background? Check out Haddon’s LinkedIn profile.

On her visit to campus earlier this year, Haddon summed up her vision for UM Law in three words: “urban research institution.” She sees the clinics and programs at the law school being applied to problem solving in local communities.

She was chosen over the two remaining finalists, Wendy Collins Perdue (of Georgetown University Law Center) and Linda S. Mullenix (of the University of Texas School of Law).

Alumni and current students: do you agree with the selection committee’s choice? What advice would you give to Haddon as she prepares to take over on July 1?

The University of Maryland School of Law should consider itself fortunate to have found five finalists to become its next dean – at least two dozen other law schools across the country are also in the midst of dean searches, and some can’t even give the job away.

There’s a reason why, according to the National Law Journal:

[L]aw school deanships, once highly sought after, are now high-stress jobs, thanks in part to the economy. With fundraising plummeting, donors in short supply and state budgets being slashed, law school deans are finding themselves up to their necks in stress. Many have quit in the past year to go back to teaching, which still pays fairly well and has far fewer headaches.

The fact that none of Maryland’s finalists is currently with the law school also bucks a recent trend of hiring from within, NLJ reports. Internal hiring has been making a comeback after years of “hooking a dean or associate dean at a better law school, to give one’s school cachet,” according to NLJ.

“I think it’s healthy that more people are thinking of looking inside, particularly in tough times when there aren’t as many attractive things about the job,” Susan Prager, executive director and chief executive officer of the Association of American Law Schools, told NLJ.

For those looking to become a dean, positions are currently available at the University of Wyoming College of Law, the University of Miami School of Law and Golden Gate University School of Law in San Francisco, among others.

DANNY JACOBS, Legal Affairs Writer

As a University of Maryland alum, I’m feeling a little ashamed of myself and my fellow graduates now that the Council for Aid to Education’s report is out.

The CAE report reveals the total contributions raised by colleges and universities around the nation in 2007. Overall, contributions were up.

Here’s how some of Maryland’s higher ed institutions fared in 2007:

• Johns Hopkins - $430.4 million
• University of Maryland, College Park - $85.5 million
• University of Maryland-Baltimore - $46.2 million
• UMBC - $13.2 million
• Towson University - $7.8 million

And here’s how some of our neighboring state schools fared:

• Rutgers - $102.7 million
• New York University - $287.6 million
• Penn State University - $182.9 million
• University of Virginia - $282.6 million
• UNC-Chapel Hill - $246.9 million

Why do you think contributions to UMD fell behind what other nearby state universities received?

According to President Mote, over 6,000 students graduated in 2006 from the undergrad program alone, and the quality of applicants continues to rise. And UMD is ranked in the top 20 public research universities. So why can’t it even raise one-fourth of what JHU did? Or compete with UNC?

JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor

Can you imagine being held more than a month in jail and not even knowing what your charges are?

In Baltimore, detainees are brought before a court commissioner for a bail hearing within 24 hours of the arrest. But earlier this month in Baton Rouge, a handful of University of Maryland School of Law students spent their winter break working for the public defender’s office, preparing and interviewing detainees who had spent more than a month in jail without being charged.

The students were there as part of the school’s third annual law trip to volunteer in the Gulf Coast area affected by Hurricane Katrina and were the first student group to volunteer at the Baton Rouge jails.

Under Louisiana law, arrestees must be charged within 45 days for a misdemeanor and 60 days for a felony. They are not assigned a public defender until they are officially charged, according to third-year student Anne Deady.

“Another thing is that the Baton Rouge population doubled after Katrina,” said Deady, who helped organize the trip. “The government there was really worried there was going to be more crime so they beefed up the police force but not the PD’s office. So you had more people being arrested than before with fewer people to handle it.”

The public defender’s office is so strapped for resources that one PD currently has 850 cases — more than 10 times the American Bar Association’s recommended caseload, Deady said.

While Deady said the law students’ presence was “so welcomed” in Baton Rouge, there is only so much they can do. Is there anyone out there helping to lighten the load? If you’ve been down to the Gulf Coast to lend a helping hand — whether it’s in the legal system or the rebuilding effort — we’d love to hear about your experience.

LIZ FARMER, Legal Affairs Writer