School Notes: Yale Law School
January/February 2009

U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals hears cases at Law School

The Yale Law School community and public were privileged to see an esteemed federal appeals court in action just before Thanksgiving. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit came to the Law School on November 25 for a rare sitting outside Manhattan. Yale Law School professor Daniel Markovits ’91, ’00JD, former law clerk to Second Circuit Court of Appeals judge Guido Calabresi ’53, ’58LLB, gave opening remarks on the historical connection between Yale Law School and the Second Circuit, and the nature of the Second Circuit as a court. Oral arguments in six cases followed, with judges Calabresi and John M. Walker Jr., and Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs presiding. Dean Harold Hongju Koh said, "This is a true occasion for thanksgiving: the first time in memory that this storied court has heard argument at a law school where it has myriad ties."

Law School mourns loss of professor

Yale Law School professor emeritus Jay Katz died November 17, 2008, at age 86. Katz was the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor Emeritus of Law, Medicine, and Psychiatry and the Harvey L. Karp Professorial Lecturer in Law and Psychoanalysis at Yale Law School. Professor Katz made profound contributions in the area of law, medicine, and ethics. He was a member of a committee that prepared the 1961 Connecticut law governing the privilege between patient and psychotherapist. He also served on the national panel that studied the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, which denied syphilis treatment to black men in order to study the illness. He was an outspoken opponent of the use of data obtained from Nazi experimentation. "As a doctor steeped in the law, Jay Katz illuminated better than anyone has, before or since, the complexity of medical, legal, and ethical choices that haunt the silent world of doctor and patient," said Dean Koh.

Professors receive named appointments

Yale law professor Akhil Reed Amar ’80, ’84JD, has been appointed Sterling Professor of Law. Amar is a scholar of constitutional law, the Bill of Rights, and criminal procedure. He is co-editor of a leading law casebook, Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking, and is the author of several books, including, most recently, America's Constitution: A Biography. He has written widely on constitutional issues for such publications as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, and he has testified before Congress on a wide range of constitutional issues. A 1980 graduate of Yale College, Amar earned his JD in 1984 from Yale Law School, where he was editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Yale law professor Heather Gerken has been named the inaugural J. Skelly Wright Professor of Law. Gerken is one of the country's leading experts on voting rights and election law, the role of groups in the democratic process, and the relationship between diversity and democracy. Her proposed "Democracy Index," calling for states to be ranked based on how well they run their election systems, served as the inspiration for election reform bills introduced by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton ’73JD. Professor Gerken holds a BA from Princeton University and a JD from the University of Michigan Law School.