School Notes: Yale Law School
March/April 2009

Law School salutes new secretary of state

U.S. senator and former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton ’73JD, recently selected by Barack Obama to serve as America's 67th secretary of state, is among the latest YLS graduates to reach high public office. "Senator Clinton has deep foreign policy understanding, universal name recognition, and a profound commitment to restoring the United States' reputation in the world for respect for human rights and the rule of law. It is most fitting that she will be the first Yale Law School graduate to serve as secretary of state since Cyrus Vance," said Yale Law School dean Harold Hongju Koh.

YLS graduate named to U.S. Senate

Denver Schools superintendent Michael Bennet ’93JD was chosen by Colorado governor Bill Ritter to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Ken Salazar, who was appointed interior secretary in the Obama administration. Bennet, a Democrat, will serve until 2010, when the seat comes up for reelection. Bennet was appointed superintendent of Denver Public Schools in June 2005. He previously served for two years as chief of staff to Denver mayor John Hickenlooper. He also worked for six years as managing director of the Anschutz Investment Company in Denver and was counsel to the deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration. Bennet earned his bachelor's degree in history from Wesleyan University; at YLS he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal.

YLS Supreme Court Clinic wins its first case

Yale Law School's Supreme Court Advocacy Clinic reached a milestone in late January, earning its first victory before the High Court in the case Fitzgerald v. Barnstable School Committee. The case concerned a lawsuit against a school district brought by parents who claimed their kindergarten daughter was being sexually harassed. The court agreed with the clinic when it ruled Title IX did not preclude lawsuits against public schools for sex discrimination.

The clinic, begun in 2006, allows students to work on real-life public interest cases pending before the court. Charles Rothfeld of Mayer Brown, a clinic supervisor who argued the Fitzgerald case, said, "The clinic really has come into its own as a successful operation that is having a real impact on the work of the Supreme Court. This year, we will have argued three cases and written the briefs for parties in four cases. The students are getting more experience in the court than many practicing lawyers do."