New Dean Advocates for Legal Jobs

The New York Law Journal has an article about newly appointed Brooklyn Law School Dean Nicholas Allard titled Brooklyn Dean Campaigns for Graduate Employment. The article says that Dean Allard lauds Brooklyn Law's faculty, alumni and student body and says the school is "financially sound." But he still must confront deeper problems faced by all law schools: What changes should be made to curriculum, where will graduates find employment and how to attract the best students from smaller applicant pools? Acknowledging that the legal profession faces tough economic conditions and the challenge of defining legal practice for the future, Dean Allard is prepared to be an advocate for graduating students as they go out into the work force.

Dean Allard, who earned his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School,  has extensive experience in a wide range of legal settings. From 2005 until his appointment as Dean, he was a Partner with Patton Boggs; from 1993-2004, he was a Partner with Latham & Watkins; from 1987-1992, he was a Partner with Fox, Bennett & Turner. He also served as chief of staff to U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan; Minority staff counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, an Associate with Kaye Scholer; and Law clerk to Judge Patricia Wald, U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit and to Chief Judge Robert Peckham, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. A list of Dean Allard's publications and presentations is available here.

Music and Copyright

The Brooklyn Law School Library New Books List for October 12 is out and among its 49 titles is Music & Copyright in America: Toward the Celestial Jukebox by Kevin Parks (Call # KF3035 .P37 2012). The ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law published the book in August. It is the first book to explore the history of music copyright from the early 19th century (with America’s first superstar of music, songwriter Stephen C. Foster) to the present. The author, an attorney, educator and entrepreneur, highlights the close relationship between new technologies and the evolution of music copyright, examining the historical debates and struggles over copyright that shape the industry today.

At 239 pages, the book’s Table of Contents is divided into seven parts (I - Music as American Commerce; II - The End of the World as We Know It (Part 1 Rolls, Cylinders, and Discs); III - Public Performance for Profit -- From Lüchow's to the La Salle Hotel; IV - Recordings and Recording Artists; V - Revolutions in the Air; VI - The End of the World, (Part 2); VII - Into the Cloud) and 49 chapters. See sample pages from the first four chapters from Part I: Music as Property — The Early Sheet Music Trade; Copyright in “Musical Compositions”; Music Goes to Court; and The First Superstar of American Song. Parks sheds light on how Americans have created and listened to music. Besides being rich in legal history, the book shows how individuals have created and shaped an industry. It is worthwhile reading for lawyers and law students, entrepreneurs and scholars, and anyone interested in the intersection of business, law, and culture.

Judge Block Book Talk

Judge Frederic Block of the Eastern District of New York (which covers Brooklyn and Long Island) has written Disrobed: An Inside Look at the Life and Work of a Federal Trial Judge, a 456 page book that offers a behind-the-bench look at some of the most newsworthy cases of the past 20 years. In the book’s three parts, Judge Block writes in Part I about how, as an outsider born in Brooklyn, he broke through the big-city establishment barrier and become a federal judge. Part II reflects on his early days as a federal court judge. Part III of the book comments on the death penalty, racketeering, gun laws, drug laws, discrimination laws, race riots, terrorism, and foreign affairs. Judge Block’s personal account of his experiences with noted cases from the last 20 years, (including the Kitty Genovese case, the trial of mob boss Peter Gotti, and his connection to the trial of Lemrick Nelson who was convicted of killing Yankel Rosenbaum during the Crown Heights riots) gives the average reader an understanding of the judicial system and the role that judges play.

Judge Block was appointed US District Judge for the Eastern District of New York in 1994. In 2005, he assumed senior status. Before that, he was a partner in a Smithtown, New York law firm and maintained his own general practice on Long Island. Judge Block will give a book talk at Brooklyn Law School’s Geraldo’s Café at Feil Hall at 6pm on Thursday, October 11, 2012. Thomson Reuters, the publisher of Disrobed, interviewed Judge Block about the book. A video of that interview is below.

Law Students Pro Bono

Earlier this month, New York State Court of Appeals Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman issued an Order making New York the first state to require would-be lawyers to perform free legal work as a prerequisite for admission to the bar. Any law student planning on practicing in New York State will be required to perform a minimum of 50 hours of pro bono work prior to filing an application for admission with the appropriate Appellate Division department of the Supreme Court. When the pro bono requirement was first announced in May, legal professionals thought that it would put an unfair burden on law school graduates with large student loan debt. Others were concerned that new attorneys might not be up to the challenges presented to them with so little experience. Regardless of these and all other opinions, the Order will cover students entering law schools as of January 1st, 2013. The rule applies to those admitted to the NY bar on or after Jan. 1, 2015, meaning students currently in their third year of law school will be exempt.

The pro bono work can be contributed to civil rights organizations, nonprofits, those who cannot afford personal legal services or any branch of the U.S. government. They can put in the hours at any point between completing their first year of school and when they apply for their New York State license. And as long as the law student is supervised by a judge, a faculty member or a currently practicing lawyer, they can perform the pro bono in any state or territory of the United States, the District of Columbia, or any foreign country. The Report of the Advisory Committee on New York State Pro Bono Bar Admission Requirements stated that the Committee consulted with deans and representatives of the 15 New York State law schools to understand the clinical and other programs that are available in law schools, the resources available to assist students in complying with this proposed rule, their experience in administering pro bono projects and their concerns about foreign-educated students in LL.M. programs. In addition the November 2011 Report of the Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services in New York found that “63 percent of New Yorkers are unrepresented at statutorily required settlement conferences in foreclosure cases, and 90 percent of the reports from civil legal services providers in New York documented that they had to turn away the same number or even more potential clients than they did just one year ago.”

The Brooklyn Law School Library has in its collection Private Lawyers and the Public Interest: The Evolving Role of Pro Bono in the Legal Profession (Call #KF299.P8 P745 2009). The book is a collection of essays by scholars examining the history, conditions, organization, and strategies of pro bono lawyering tracing the American Bar Association's campaign to hold lawyers accountable for a commitment to public service and to encourage public service within law schools. The essays investigate the evolving role of pro bono in the legal profession and in law schools.

Pardons and Deportation

Brooklyn Law School Professor Stacy Caplow has written a new article, Governors! Seize the Law: A Call to Expand the Use of Pardons to Provide Relief from Deportation. It is posted on SSRN and the abstract reads:

An obscure provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act allows an immigrant convicted of a wide range of crimes that are grounds for deportation to avoid this fate if pardoned by a chief executive. In the current era of expansion of the categories of crimes that constitute grounds for deportation and the shrinkage of equitable forms of relief, a pardon presents a vehicle for ameliorating these harsh effects. But few presidents or governors take advantage of this opportunity, even when the individual facing deportation is a long-term lawful resident whose transgression occurred long ago. During a few months in 2010, New York Governor David A. Patterson broke this trend to establish a pardon panel specifically to consider applications from immigrants. This article argues that Governor Patterson's resolute and courageous, but ephemeral example presents a model for governors in all states to exercise discretion on behalf of individuals who deserve the exercise of mercy and justice that a full and unconditional pardon confers, particularly when the permanent exile they face far exceeds their wronging and is disproportionate to their well-established character.

Borden and Reiss on REMICs

Brooklyn Law School Professors Bradley Borden and David Reiss have co-authored a new 14 page scholarly article Wall Street Rules Applied to REMIC Classification. In addition to being posted on SSRN, a shorter version of the article appeared in Thomson Reuters News & Insights earlier this month. The SSRN abstract reads:

Investors in mortgage-backed securities, built on the shoulders of the tax-advantaged Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit (“REMIC”), may be facing extraordinary tax losses because of how bankers and lawyers structured these securities. This calamity is compounded by the fact that those professional advisors should have known that the REMICs they created were flawed from the start. If these losses are realized, those professionals will face suits for damages so large that they could put them out of business.

The Federal Tax Glossary (available in the BLS Library subscription to CCH Intelliconnect - password required) defines a REMIC as an "entity that holds a fixed pool of mortgages and issues multiple classes of interests in itself to investors. An entity qualifies as a REMIC if it makes an election to be treated as a REMIC for federal income tax purposes and meets certain requirements as to its assets and investors' interests. An entity that qualifies as a REMIC is generally treated like a partnership with its income passed through to its interest holders. However, the REMIC is subject to tax on prohibited transactions, income from foreclosure property, and on contributions received after its startup date." SARA, the BLS Library catalog, links to BNA Bloomberg Tax Management Portfolio 741, REMICs, FASITs and Other Mortgage-Backed Securities which discusses the taxation of holders and issuers of Mortgage-Backed Securities and various tax reporting requirements.

Debate on Capital Gains Tax

Members of the House and Senate held a rare joint meeting of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee to hear testimony from business and academic experts on the capital gains tax. The current tax rate for capital gains is 15%. If Congress lets the Bush-era tax rates expire at the end of 2012, capital gains will be taxed at 25%. By comparison, ordinary income is taxed up to 35%. Capital gains have long been taxed at a different rate than ordinary income in order to encourage investment. Lawmakers are considering whether the capital gains tax rate should stay at 15 % or move closer to the tax rate imposed on ordinary income.

The BNA Daily Tax Report, Witnesses Split on Whether Capital Gains Tax Rate Should Be Raised or Left Low, available through the Brooklyn Law School’s subscription to BloombergLaw (password required), said that “some witnesses said the rate should be left low to help jump-start investment and job creation and others said keeping the rate low would require significant trade-offs elsewhere.” Witness testimony is available at the Senate Finance Commitee website. Syracuse University Professor Leonard Burman told lawmakers that the tax system needs to be relatively neutral. “Low capital gains tax rates are the main reason why many wealthy individuals pay lower tax rates than middle-class families,” he said adding that taxing capital gains at a lower rate than income can do more harm than good. The reduced capital gains rate is the single biggest factor behind individual income tax shelters and there is a whole industry devoted to making the compensation of high-income people into capital gains, he said.

Few issues in tax policy are as divisive as capital gains tax. Should capital gains - the increase in value of assets such as stocks or businesses - be taxed at all? If so, when should they be taxed, when are they earned, or when are they realized? Should taxes be adjusted for inflation? And should gains be taxed at both the individual and corporate levels? The Brooklyn Law School Library copy of The Labyrinth of Capital Gains Tax Policy: A Guide for the Perplexed by Leonard E. Burman (Call # HJ4653.C3 B874 1999) tries to present the facts about capital gains. Explaining the complex rules that govern the taxation of capital gains, it looks at the kinds of assets that produce them, and factors that can lead to gains or losses. It also reviews the effects of capital gains taxation on saving and investment and considers the arguments for and against indexing capital gains taxes for inflation, as well as other options for altering the current system.

A September 2012 report by the Congressional Research Service, Taxes and the Economy: An Economic Analysis of the Top Tax Rates Since 1945, concludes: "The results of the analysis suggest that changes over the past 65 years in the top marginal tax rate and the top capital gains tax rate do not appear correlated with economic growth. The reduction in the top tax rates appears to be uncorrelated with saving, investment, and productivity growth. The top tax rates appear to have little or no relation to the size of the economic pie. However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution."