Rabea Benhalim

ICYMI: Faculty Publications and Notable Mentions

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 17:29:45 +0000

ICYMI: Faculty Publications and Notable Mentions Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 02/07/2023 - 10:29

Widely recognized for its intellectual diversity and originality, the faculty at Colorado Law encompasses an array of prominent legal scholars who are widely cited, both in academia and throughout the national media landscape. We invite you to catch up on the latest faculty publications and media mentions with this weekly round up, provided by the extraordinary Wise Law Library.

Faculty Publications:

Rabea Benhalim, Oppression in American, Islamic, and Jewish Private Law, 94 U. COLO. L. REV. 149 (2023).

Markus Funk [Colorado Law adjunct], Rethinking Self-Defense (Hart/Bloomsbury, 2021).

Understanding the Role Values Play (and Should Play) in Self-Defense Law, 58 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 331 (2022).

Cracking Self-Defense's Intractable 'Difficult Cases,' 100 Neb. L. Rev. (2022).

What US Law Reformers Can Learn from Germany's Value-Explicit Approach to Self-Defense, 73 S. C. L. Rev. 195 (2022).

Scott Skinner-Thompson, Identity by Committee, 57 HARV. C.R.-C.L. L. REV. 657 (2022).

Notable Mentions:

[Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law and Policy Clinic student Xelef Botan], Colo. AG Office Fields Concerns on Draft Privacy Rules, Communications Daily, Feb. 2, 2023 (see highlighted text in attached PDF titled Communications Daily).

Violeta Chapin, Nicole C. Brambila, Immigrants’ rights advocates, experts discuss border crisis spilling into Denver, Denver Gazette, Jan. 31, 2023.

Markus Funk, The Houston Restaurant Self-Defense Shooting: Neutralizing a Threat v. Killing a Criminal, The Volokh Conspiracy, Jan. 11, 2023.

Markus Funk, China Data Privacy Laws, WeChat Muddy Cross-Border Inquiries, Bloomberg Law (October 27, 2022).

Markus Funk, US District Judge Virginia M. Kendall, & Andrew S. Boutros, Betraying the Bench: Could the SCOTUS Leaker Face Criminal Charges?, Washington Post, Bloomberg Law & ABA Criminal Justice Newsletter (May 2022).

Dean Buckner Inniss, BCBA/CWBA ��«��Ƶ Meet & Greet with Dean Lolita Buckner Inniss (Feb. 2, 2023).

Douglas Kenney, GWC, Robyn White, Could Drying Colorado River See Reservoirs Hit Dead Pool, Newsweek, Feb. 1, 2023.

Amanda Parsons, Cryptocurrency and the Law, Mini-Law School (Feb. 1, 2023).

Blake Reid, Silicon Flatirons Center, Nicole Mueksch, 7 things to know about the internet’s midlife crisis, CU ��«��Ƶ Today, Jan. 31, 2023 (SFC conference Feb. 5-6).

Scott Skinner-Thompson, Grace Mayer, A Standoff Over Transgender Rights: As conflict escalates between Biden and red-state conservatives, colleges and students are caught in the middle, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 31, 2023.

Mark Squillace, “Let’s cut the crap”: Colorado River plan still isn’t enough, experts say, and California isn’t on board, Denver Post, Feb. 1, 2023.

Ahmed White’s Under the Iron Heel: The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers (University of California Press, 2022) announced co-winner of the International Labor History Association’s 2022 “Book of the Year Award,” Jan. 30, 2023 (see attached PDF titled ILHA Book Awards 2022).

Ahmed White & Tom Mackaman, Interview with author Ahmed White on the historical significance of the Industrial Workers of the World, World Socialist Web Site, Feb. 1, 2023.

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ICYMI: Faculty Publications and Notable Mentions

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 20:36:00 +0000

ICYMI: Faculty Publications and Notable Mentions Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/11/2022 - 14:36

Faculty Publications:

Autumn L. Bernhardt [Getches-Wilkinson Center Affiliate Faculty], Kekek Jason Stark, Monte Mills, & Jason Robison, Re-Indigenizing Yellowstone, 22 Wyoming L. Rev.397 (2022).

Gregor MacGregor [Acequia Project], Water Law Perspectives from the West, Wisconsin Lawyer, July 29, 2022 (notable mentions for emeritus faculty Charles Wilkinson & GWC’s Anne Castle).

Notable mentions:

Rabea Benhalim, Zainab Iqbal, How divorced Muslim women in the US are fighting for what they’re owed, Middle East Eye, Aug. 3, 2022.

Casey Fiesler, Silicon Flatirons Fellow, Amanda Siberling, Netflix’s lawsuit again the ‘Bridgerton Musical’ could change online fandom, Techcrunch, Aug. 3, 2022.

Kristelia Garcia, Emma Camp, Netflix Files Copyright Lawsuit Against Creators of Unofficial Bridgerton Musical, Reason, Aug. 3, 2022.

Aya Gruber, Douglas Berman, “Sex Exceptionalism in Criminal Law,” Sentencing Law and Policy, Aug. 1, 2022.

Aya Gruber, Gruber on Sex Exceptionalism, CrimProf Blog, Aug. 3, 2022.

Lakshman Guruswamy,Ved Nanda, Sri Lanka’s collapse is the first sign of China’s corruption abroad, Denver Post, July 31, 2022.

Sloan Speck, Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review and Roundup: Speck Reviews Klein’s The Corporate Tax Paradox, TaxProf Blog, July 29, 2022.

Pierre de Vries, Silicon Flatirons, FCC Should Forget Receiver Rules, Focus on Voluntary Standards, Communications Daily, July 31, 2022.

Colorado Law #47, Paul Caron, Top 100 Law Schools Based on 5-, 10-, and 15-Year Rolling Average U.S. New Rankings, TaxProf Blog, Aug. 3, 2022.

If you have any problems accessing any of these articles, contact: lawfacultyservices@colorado.edu

Catch up on the latest faculty publications and media mentions with this weekly round up, provided by the extraordinary Wise Law Library.

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Legal Education in the Time of COVID-19

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 16:14:50 +0000

Legal Education in the Time of COVID-19 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/29/2020 - 10:14

Julia Roth

The Colorado Law community finds innovative ways to support one another during the coronavirus pandemic.

Student competitors at a socially distant and livestreamed Rothgerber Moot Court Competition on March 17, 2020.

Teaching With Heart

In 2008, Associate Professor Rabea Benhalim was preparing to graduate from law school in pursuit of a career in litigation. The financial crisis changed all that.

"I remember my classmates getting calls that their job offers had been revoked," she said. "I could remember the stress of it all, thinking, oh, my gosh, did I just take on all this debt that I can’t pay back? I remember the terror."

She was asked to defer her postgraduate associate position for a year and a half, and by that time there were no open positions for litigators at the firm. "The firm informed me that to work there, I needed to be a transactional attorney," she said. So she pivoted, never expecting that a decade later she’d be happily teaching Secured Transactions and Contracts.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Benhalim asked herself what she wished her law school professors had done for her during 2008 and 2009. She started with a student survey.

"I asked if students were experiencing any food or housing insecurity, and how they were doing generally," she said. "Once I had the survey results, I saw the range of student experiences—some were taking care of parents, others were in a one-bedroom apartment with children, some were potentially facing eviction. Others had full-time jobs waiting for them that were now in question. Recognizing students’ struggles in their own words was important.”

"My primary goal is that students have a really robust understanding of the law and they feel loved in that process."

Then, leveraging her own experience taking Zoom classes and connections made with law school faculty across the country, Benhalim adjusted her syllabus to be more conducive to online learning. This included new assignments to encourage engagement outside of class, in-class discussions through Zoom breakout rooms, and a class session devoted to secured transactions in the news.

Students selected and discussed articles about topics like home loans, the state of oil and gas markets and how those secured transactions worked during previous dips, and how big-box retailers have been impacted—all ways to connect the class to the present moment.

"One important part for students entering a competitive job market is to be able to speak intelligently in real time about what’s happening in the world," she said. "With secured transactions, there’s a lot happening in regard to foreclosures, loan rates, and renegotiation of terms."

For Benhalim, it was critical to recognize that students were going through a phenomenally challenging time.

"I tried to devote at least five minutes at the beginning of class to check in and see how they were doing," she said. “I created links on our class webpage to mental health resources and the Law Student Emergency Needs Fund. I talked to them about what members of my own family went through. I tried to reduce the stigma and let them know they’re not alone in feeling really challenged. It felt important for the students to know that I know they’re human beings."

And then there were farm animals. On the last day of class, and for some the last day of law school, Benhalim replaced her usual baked good- laden celebration with a surprise virtual visit with farm animals from Clover Brooke Farm in upstate New York. Students and their family members gathered around Zoom to visit with bunnies, goats, llamas, and alpacas.

"My primary goal is that students have a really robust understanding of the law and they feel loved in that process," she said. "This was my gift to them."

A virtual visit with farm animals on the last day of Professor Rabea Benhalim’s Secured Transactions class.

Changing Client Needs

The pandemic presented unique challenges to each of Colorado Law’s nine legal clinics, but changing client priorities and the need to find creative solutions was a constant thread.

"I am proud of the way Colorado Law students, even amid their own set of challenges, offered empathy and substantive help to entrepreneurs under distress."

As the pandemic spread, the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic became an exercise in helping clients navigate emergencies at a time when student attorneys’ lives turned upside down, too, said Associate Professor Brad Bernthal ('01).

"I am proud of the way Colorado Law students, even amid their own set of challenges, offered empathy and substantive help to entrepreneurs under distress," Bernthal added.

In the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law and Policy Clinic (TLPC), “almost everything we worked on was inflected with COVID-related issues,” said Clinical Professor Blake E. Reid ('10).

The TLPC continued its long-term work on closed captioning issues by working with federal officials on accessible emergency briefings. This effort including helping people who are deaf or hard of hearing report issues with the visibility of American Sign Language interpreters in livestreams presented by state governors.

Another major concern of TLPC clients was the accessibility of the shift to telework and telehealth for people who are deaf and hard of hearing.

"The experience of going to the hospital always raises accessibility issues. But during COVID, it can be even worse if you can’t get a qualified interpreter or access to the tools you need to communicate with doctors," Reid said. To help deaf and hard of hearing patients who need to go to the hospital or attend a telehealth appointment, the clinic helped draft consumer guides that were distributed nationwide.

The Sustainable Community Development Clinic’s work with mobile home owners also took a COVID-related turn. The pandemic put a damper on responses to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs’ recently launched dispute resolution program, intended to provide a mechanism for mobile home residents to address pent-up frustration with park owners.

The clinic planned on conducting information sessions around ��«��Ƶ County last spring to teach mobile home owners how to file complaints and address questions. Those sessions had to be canceled due to public health guidelines, and the clinic is now looking at other ways to collect community feedback.

The clinic also fielded questions from its small-business clients related to regulation of home school operations and evictions, particularly around the time that Gov. Jared Polis issued an executive order discouraging evictions and foreclosures for residential and commercial real estate properties, explained Professor and Director of Clinical Programs Deborah Cantrell. The clinic will continue to serve as a community resource as the situation develops.

Boot Camp Prepares Students for Burgeoning Practice Area

With the pandemic catalyzing a "tsunami" of expected consumer and business bankruptcy filings in the near future, Professor Erik Gerding recognized an opportunity to prepare Colorado Law students to meet the impending demand for high-quality legal representation in this area.

For six weeks over the summer, Colorado Law students and recent graduates got a crash course in bankruptcy law through a virtual brown bag series taught by legal experts and federal bankruptcy judges.

"There will be an incredible need for young lawyers, both litigators and transactional attorneys, to deal with this crisis . . . It also presents an opportunity for service to respond to what is becoming both an economic and a social justice emergency, as households and small business owners struggle to recover."

"The COVID-19 crisis will likely create a legal emergency, with a tsunami of bankruptcy filings from individuals and small businesses, as well as larger businesses," Gerding said.

"There will be an incredible need for young lawyers, both litigators and transactional attorneys, to deal with this crisis. This is an area with growing job opportunities. It also presents an opportunity for service to respond to what is becoming both an economic and a social justice emergency, as households and small business owners struggle to recover."

Nearly all of the federal bankruptcy judges in Colorado and New Mexico signed on to teach sessions, in addition to Colorado Law Associate Professor Nadav Orian Peer and law professors at Tulane, Brooklyn College, and the University of New Mexico. Topics ranged from the basics of bankruptcy law and general practices to major players and how to find a job in the field.

In the early stages of the pandemic, many lenders were able to work with their borrowers. But eventually the lenders themselves will come under pressure and then a domino-like wave of filings will occur, explained the Hon. Elizabeth Brown ('86), a judge for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado and Colorado Law adjunct professor who taught brown bag sessions. When it does, lawyers will need to transition into collection, insolvency, and bankruptcy work.

"Few law firms in the Rocky Mountain region have staffed bankruptcy departments these days. And there are even fewer young attorneys trained to assist in bankruptcy cases," Brown said.

"Today’s bankruptcy bar is an aging bar, with most attorneys at or nearing retirement age. This is a wonderful opportunity for new lawyers to step into this breach. We know that bankruptcy is a difficult area of law to learn on the fly, and we want to help train new attorneys."

Ryan Boepple ('21) was somewhat interested in bankruptcy law before this, but given the situation surrounding COVID-19, he said it now seems like bankruptcy will be an important area of the law to be familiar with as he enters practice in about a year.

"The bankruptcy brown bag series was a great way for students to be introduced to bankruptcy law by allowing us to hear firsthand from bankruptcy judges and professionals in the field. Most of us are either out of work or working remotely, so it was a welcomed opportunity for students to continue to learn and stay engaged during the summer months," he said.

Gerding hopes the boot camp will encourage students and recent alumni to seriously consider a career in bankruptcy law and serve as a pipeline to get students into the field.

"Lawyers are needed and still incredibly valuable and have a very important role to play,” Gerding said. "We want to show students that this is an area where they can make a difference."

Connecting During Crisis

Amber Paoloemilio ('20)

COVID-19 wasn’t the first time Amber Paoloemilio (’20) used service as a way to work through difficult emotions. As an LGBTQ organizer from Orlando during the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, Paoloemilio, who uses the gender-neutral pronoun "they," immediately sprang into organizing mode, seeing what people needed, and connecting with those grieving.

"I’m used to jumping into service in order to cope with emotions. It makes me feel more connected to people and what they’re going through," they said.

Something similar happened with COVID-19.

After classmate Ariel Amaru (’20) sent around an email with a few volunteer opportunities, Paoloemilio put them in a Google doc and thought their work was done.

"Suddenly, I found myself online, calling people, finding out who needed help, finding Facebook groups," they said. The culmination was a document brimming with opportunities to get involved, which they shared with the Class of 2020.

"It was a helpful way to cope. Not only was I seeing people asking for help, they were also mentioning how they were feeling about going through all of this," Paoloemilio said.

"It was a helpful way to cope. Not only was I seeing people asking for help, they were also mentioning how they were feeling about going through all of this."

The week of spring break, Paoloemilio planned to travel to El Paso, Texas, with the Immigration Law and Policy Society to work with asylum-seekers. When their trip was canceled, they redirected their energy to helping transgender women who were being released from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Aurora. Paoloemilio heard of a need for clothing for these women.

Together with Amanda Blasingame (’20) and Corian Zacher (’20), Paoloemilio collected six suitcases full of clothes, shoes, and other supplies from their classmates, which they delivered along with masks that Zacher made.

In coordination with the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, Paoloemilio also picked up transgender women released from ICE, bringing them to their next destination, often a hotel or the airport, or to Paoloemilio’s apartment for a meal and conversation.

"There’s something so powerful about learning from an individual who has been in a detention center for months or years. They are almost always fleeing something terrible and scary. Additionally, as someone who identifies as nonbinary myself, I relate to trans women personally. It was and is so powerful to hear their stories, and also frustrating and angering. It’s important for folks to see a friendly face when they are first released, and I am happy to be that person," they said.

As far as completing the last semester of law school under quarantine, Paoloemilio has taken it in stride. They’ve stayed balanced with the support of classmates and professors, noting that classmates have stepped up to share outlines and notes, and regularly called in to check in on each other.

"As stressful as COVID has been for my last semester, I am thankful to have finished the semester with all my classmates being helpful to each other and making sure everyone’s OK."

Together, Apart

Even under difficult circumstances, the law school community found ways to come together while maintaining proper physical distancing.

One welcome respite came in the form of a virtual trivia series, organized by Assistant Dean for Employer Relations and Outreach Marci Fulton (’04) and Professor Fred Bloom.

Nearly 300 students, faculty, staff, and loved ones tried their knowledge in categories spanning history, pop culture, and yes—the law. Thirty-five members of the incoming Class of 2023 also participated, providing a means of meeting fellow classmates and other members of the Colorado Law community before starting school.

Once the school went remote, Fulton started reading about the creative and interesting ways that others were using remote platforms to connect and was inspired to try putting something together for Colorado Law.

"Prior to COVID, I had talked to Matt Seligman (’21) about getting a law school trivia team together for the summer. I started thinking about how pub trivia might work in a remote format and got really excited about seeing if I could make it work. Once we got our excellent trivia master, Professor Fred Bloom, on board, everything else just came together. I actually didn’t realize how much I missed our community until I saw those faces in 125 screens on Zoom during our first event," she said.

Law students, faculty, and staff at virtual trivia night

With support from Dean S. James Anaya, Fulton also launched Colorado Law Cares, a community exchange that pairs volunteers in the Colorado Law community with those in need of assistance. This contactless volunteer network connected faculty, staff, and students willing to donate food and household supplies, run necessary errands, drop off collected items, advocate for those in need, or talk to people to help stave off feelings of isolation.

"I wanted a place where law students could come to seek support," Fulton said. "Colorado Law Cares provided a means of communicating specific volunteer opportunities and requests for assistance to an identified core of those willing to help."

The move to online events allowed Colorado Law to engage audiences from around the world. The Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law’s April Rothgerber Conference marking the centennial of women’s suffrage welcomed nearly 300 attendees, the most in the event’s history.

Colorado Law Talks have also seen a leap in attendance, with each lecture attracting as many as 400 participants from across the country and abroad. Recent talks have included timely discussions on immigration and citizenship, wrongful convictions, and leadership during a time of crisis.

Even moot court competitions transitioned to a hybrid format. The Rothgerber Moot Court Competition on March 17, normally held in Wittemyer Courtroom, relocated to the Colorado Supreme Court. Student competitors Paul Chin (’21), Aja Robbins (’21), Neil Sandhu (’21), and Danielle Trujillo (’21) argued before 10th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Allison Eid, Colorado Supreme Court Justice Richard Gabriel, and Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Jaclyn Brown during a livestreamed hearing—all while maintaining proper social distancing.

The Road Ahead

While the full economic and societal effects of COVID-19 are still unfolding, Colorado Law students are in as good a position as anyone to ride out the storm and find their way into different career niches.

"Colorado Law students are as well-versed as anyone can be at charting what the ‘next normal’ looks like,” Clinical Professor Blake E. Reid said. “Our graduates have long contended with and navigated their way through challenges and come out on the other side with a diverse range of interesting careers. We've always focused on supporting them in doing that. As new opportunities present themselves, our graduates will be in a good position to find their way, and we’ll be there to support them."

The Colorado Law community finds innovative ways to support one another during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Three New Faculty Members Join Colorado Law

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 19:56:30 +0000

Three New Faculty Members Join Colorado Law Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 08/23/2019 - 13:56

The University of Colorado Law School is pleased to welcome three new faculty members this fall, with expertise in commercial law, employment law, and the law of financial institutions.

Rabea Benhalim

Associate Professor Rabea Benhalim teaches Contracts and Secured Transactions. Prior to joining the Colorado Law faculty, she was the 2017-2019 William H. Hastie Fellow at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Her research focuses on comparative Islamic and Jewish Law. Benhalim’s recently published articles inside “The Case for American Muslim Arbitration" (Wisconsin Law Review) and "Religious Courts in Secular Jurisdictions" (Brooklyn Law Review).

Benhalim's prior work experience as a lawyer and policy expert includes positions at the Brookings Institution, Mayer Brown LLP, Maersk Oil, and the Carter Center. She holds a master’s of public policy degree from the University of Michigan and a JD from the University of Texas. She is a PhD candidate in Islamic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Zach Mountin (’10)

Colorado Law alumnus Zach Mountin ('10) joined the Clinical Education Program in June as associate clinical professor and director of the Civil Practice Clinic.

A native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Mountin earned a BA from Marquette University. He served in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Anchorage, Alaska, working as a case worker with runaway and homeless teenagers at Covenant House Alaska. His work with at-risk youth sparked an interest in the law and ultimately brought him to Colorado Law, where he served as editor-in-chief of the University of Colorado Law Review. Mountin also served as a law clerk for Justice Melissa Hart on the Colorado Supreme Court.

Mountin previously served as a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he focused his practice on employment and housing discrimination cases and litigated cases before a variety of administrative courts and coordinating with the Department of Justice on federal court litigation. He gave frequent trainings to both internal and external stakeholders on employment and fair housing issues.

Mountin is developing a new employment law component of the Civil Practice Clinic in which law students will represent low-income wage workers seeking compensation, workers facing discrimination, and government employees at risk of losing their jobs. These cases will allow students to develop their civil litigation skills while expanding access to justice for workers who would normally go unrepresented.

Nadav Orian Peer

Associate Professor Nadav Orian Peer’s research and teaching focus on the law of financial institutions, including banking, capital markets, derivatives, and community development. He will teach Financial Institutions, Bankruptcy, and Property, as well as a seminar titled Public Purpose Finance.

Orian Peer’s work studies the intense framework of governance and regulation that undergirds the day-to-day functioning of financial markets. The design and operation of this framework has profound implications for the distribution of credit and economic opportunity in society. His current research explores policy proposals to increase access to credit in the fields of fair housing and climate mitigation.

His recent articles include “Negotiating the Lender-of-Last-Resort: The 1913 Fed Act as a Debate Over Credit Distribution” (15 NYU Journal of Law & Business, 2019) and “Your Grandfather’s Shadow Banking: Clearing and Call Loans in Gilded Age New York” (forthcoming in Inside Money: Re-Theorizing Liquidity, (University of Pennsylvania Press, Christine Desan ed.). His current research explores policy proposals to increase access to credit in the fields of fair housing and climate mitigation.

Prior to joining Colorado Law, Orian Peer taught as a visiting assistant professor at Tulane Law School and worked as a business economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (Financial Markets Group). He completed an SJD at Harvard Law School, where he taught as a Byse Fellow, and an LLB at Tel-Aviv University. As a member of the Israel Bar Association, he also practiced commercial litigation, specializing in bankruptcy and secured transactions.

The University of Colorado Law School is pleased to welcome three new faculty members this fall, with expertise in commercial law, employment law, and the law of financial institutions.

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