Public Service
Click a faculty member's name to learn about his/her public interest activities.
Professor Susan Akram supervises law students in their representation of indigent clients in immigration and refugee cases as a clinical instructor for the Civil Litigation Program. Professor Akram previously served as Former Deputy Director and Interim Director of the American Council for Nationalities Service in Saudi Arabia. She also has served as Executive Director of the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project, as a staff attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services and as Directing Attorney of the Immigration Project in the office of Public Counsel in Los Angeles. She was awarded the Fulbright Senior Scholar Teaching and Research Award for the 1999/2000 academic year and used the grant to research and write recommendations for a durable solution for Palestinian refugees in light of the 1993 Oslo Talks, as well as to teach at the Palestine School of Law at Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem.
Professor George Annas has done appellate work regarding such issues as the rights to abortion, the refusal of treatment and assisted suicide. He provided congressional testimony on new reproductive technologies and the procurement of organs for transplants. Professor Annas is the cofounder of Global Lawyers and Physicians, a transnational professional association of lawyers and physicians working together to promote human rights and health. He is the former director of the Center for Law and Health Sciences at BU School of Law and has taught graduate courses in the School of Public Health, the Medical School and the School of Law.
Professor Michael Baram devotes his time to various non-profit agencies, including the Conservation Law Foundation—the largest non-profit environmental advocacy organization in New England. He assists the foundation with issues pertaining to environmental law, including protecting water resources and promoting sustainable agriculture. Professor Baram also devotes his time to Belmont Citizen's Forum and Belmont Land Trust, which both focus on environmental and transportation issues in Belmont and neighboring towns.
Professor Jack Beermann acts as a Harry Elwood Warren Scholar. At the University of Chicago School of Law, he participated in the Legal Aid Clinic and his courses include Civil Rights Litigation and Municipal Law.
Professor Daniel Berman served as Legislation Counsel to the Joint Committee on Taxation of the U.S. Congress as well as the Deputy International Tax Counsel at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He has developed and drafted legislation, prepared economic reports, advised members and staff of the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Committe on Finance with respect to international tax legislative issues. In regards to tax treaty issues, Professor Berman has advised members and staff of the Senate committee on Foreign Relations.
Clinical Associate Professor David Breen supervises students in the Prosecutor Program in Quincy District Court and serves as a member of the board of directors of Fenway Community Health, a non-profit inner city health care organization. Before joining BU Law, he served as Assistant Corporation Counsel for the city of Boston’s Office of the Corporation Counsel, Assistant Attorney General for Massachusetts and Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan.
Clinical Professor Constance Browne supervises students who represent clients in special education, unemployment, divorce, disability and housing cases. Professor Browne also volunteers with Professors Robert Burdick, Judith Diamond and Lois Knight at St. Francis House through the Lawyers Committee on Affordable Housing of the Boston Bar Association. St. Francis House provides shelter and rehabilitative services for the poor and homeless in Boston.
Clinical Professor Robert Burdick volunteers with Professors Connie Browne, Judith Diamond and Lois Knight at St. Francis House through the Lawyers Committee on Affordable Housing of the Boston Bar Association. St. Francis House provides shelter and rehabilitative services for the poor and homeless in Boston.
Professor Daniela Caruso is a former member of the Work Group on Autism in the Special Education Planning and Policy Department of the Massachusetts Department of Education.
Professor Mary Connaughton has a Master of Social Work degree and teaches in the Civil Litigation Clinic. In the past, she has worked as the Assistant Attorney General to Massachusetts in the Government Bureau.
Clinical Professor Judith Diamond volunteers with Professors Connie Browne, Robert Burdick and Lois Knight at St. Francis House through the Lawyers Committee on Affordable Housing of the Boston Bar Association. St. Francis House provides shelter and rehabilitative services for the poor and homeless in Boston. She teaches in the Civil Clinical Program supervising students as they represent clients in civil cases ranging from landlord/tenant matters to domestic relations and child custody cases.
Lecturer in Law Jeffery Donohue sits on the board of directors of Raise the Sky, Inc., a non-profity that uses skydiving as a promotional tool to raise funds for humanitarian and charitable causes.
Professor Ward Farnsworth is the former Legal Advisor to the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal.
Professor Stan Fisher is a founding member and participant in the New England Innocence Project, which examines cases in which criminal defendants may have been wrongfully convicted. He also supervises BU Law students involved in case screening at the Innocence Project. Professor Fisher's current scholarship has explored the rights of criminal defendants and of innocent persons who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes. In recognition of his contributions to improving the criminal justice system in Massachusetts, Professor Fisher was presented the 2003 Thurgood Marshall Award by the Committee for Public Counsel Services. Professor Fisher is the first recipient of the annual Boston University School of Law Faculty Public Service Award, which he received in April 2007.
Visiting Associate Professor Brian J. Foley is currently involved as counsel of record in litigation arguing that life without the possibility of parole sentences are unconstitutional when applied to juvenile offenders. He has co-written appellate briefs in the Pennsylvania Superior Court and overseen a group of law students who worked with him to reserach the law of all 50 states on this issue. He has also handled several cases for prisoners claiming abuse under the Eighth Amendment.
Massachusetts Appeals Court Adjunct Professor, The Honorable Joseph Grasso, Jr., serves as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the Administrative Division and on the Conservation Commission of the town of Andover.
Professor Virginia Greiman has served in a number of positions: Deputy Director/Chief Legal Counsel in the Department of Economic Developemnt for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Chief Deputy Counsel and Risk Manager for the Central Artery/Tunnel Project in Boston, Special Assistant Attorney General and United States Trustee for the U.S. Department of Justic in Washington, D.C., and much more.
Associate Dean for Graduate Programs Ernest Haddad serves as a board member for the Boston Bar Foundation and director of the New England Legal Foundation and the International Institute of Boston. He served as the first general counsel and secretary of Partners HealthCare System, Inc. in 1995, when MGH joined Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He also worked as secretary and general counsel of MGH, general counsel of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts and assistant secretary general counsel of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services.
Professor Michael Harper spent three years as a full-time public interest lawyer at the Center for Law and Social Policy in Washington, D.C.
Director of the Graduate Program in Banking and Financial Law, the Morin Center and Professor Cornelius Hurley serves as advisor to the student staff of the Review of Banking & Financial Law. He is a director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston. He also serves as a director of the YMCA of Greater Boston and of the Oak Square YMCA (Brighton, MA). He is an active member of the Banking Committee of the American Bar Association and former chairman of the Lawyers Council of the Financial Services Roundtable, Washington, D.C. He is the founder and a faculty member of Investment Management Basics and a faculty member of Banking Law Basics, both joint institutes between the law school’s Morin Center and the ABA. Previously, he held executive positions with Shawmut National Corporation (bank holding company) and was Assistant General Counsel to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, D.C.
Visiting Professor Ilana Hurwitz has handled many political asylum cases in the United States, in addition to her past service as director of the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project, commissioner of the Newton Human Rights Commission and chair of the Schools/Education Subcommittee and Newton Explores Diversity initiative. She also volunteered in the Legal Clinic division of the Common Ground Collective Relief Organization in New Orleans. She was formerly a fellow at the Legal Resources Centre in Johannesburg, the only independent public interest law facility in South Africa at the time. She trained paralegals to provide legal advice to people living in Soweto and other black townships in the Johannesburg area and handled legal cases regarding black housing matters, labor, consumer and resettlement issues.
Clinical Associate Professor Wendy Kaplan supervises students doing criminal defense work in the Boston Municipal and Boston Juvenile courts. She is a former member of the board of delegates of the Massachusetts Bar Association and currently serves on the board of directors of Suffolk Lawyers for Justice, Inc., a non-profit organization providing legal services to indigent criminal defendants; and the board of directors of Children’s Legal Services, Inc. She also devotes her time to the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education and the Committee for Public Counsel Services’ zealous advocacy training program. Before joining the faculty of BU Law, she worked as an attorney for the Massachusetts Defenders Committee, performing criminal litigation in the state’s public defender organization.
Clinical Associate Professor Sean Kealy's research interests include criminal law and procedure, federal and state constituional law, and legislation and criminal justice issues. In lieu of those interests, he has served as counsel on the Joint Committees on Revenue and Criminal Justice within the Massachusetts General Court, as well as Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the Insurance Fraud and Victim Compensation Divisions.
Professor Michael Kendall sits on the Board of Trustees of KIPP Academy Lynn, a KIPP charter school in Lynn, MA. He boasts experience as Pro Bono Counsel for New Profit, Inc., in Cambridge, MA, in addition to the Newark Charter School Fund, Inc. New Profit, Inc., deals with a venture philanthropy fund, while the Newark Charter School Fund, Inc., works as an education non-profit to support the quality and sustainability of Newark's charter schools.
Lecturer in Law Robert Kinscherff's membership spans a plethora of committees, organizations, and task forces--from the Task Force on Medical and Mental Health Care in Child Welfare to the Committee on Substance Abuse and Mental Health to the Board and Editorial Board of the Society for Terrorism Research. He participated in drafting an Amicus Brief filed by the American Psychological Association in the U.S. Supreme Court on the juvenile death penalty. Professor Kinscherff currently works as the Senior Forensic Psychologist in the Boston Juvenile Court Clinic.
Adjunct Professor Todd Klipp, VP and General Counsel at Boston University, takes part as a member in organizations based in Lexington, MA. He currently serves as a member on the Board of Trustees of Lexington Christian Academy, a private Christian secondary school serving 350 students, and on the Board of Directors for Leadership Transformations, Inc.,a ministry devoted to the spiritual growth and development of church professionals and lay leaders.
Director of the Clinical and Trial Advocacy Programs and Clinical Professor Lois Knight is a former VISTA volunteer and staff attorney for Legal Services for Cape Cod and the Islands. She is a current member of the Clinic Oversight Committee composed of repressentatives of the various Boston law firms who take cases pro bono. She also volunteers with Professors Connie Browne, Robert Burdick and Judith Diamond at St. Francis House through the Lawyers Committee on Affordable Housing of the Boston Bar Association. St. Francis House provides shelter and rehabilitative services for the poor and homeless in Boston.
Professor David Lyons has been active in civil rights and anti-war activities since the 1940s. He acts as a member of both the BU Faculty for a Humane Foreign Policy and BU Inter-Faculty Human Rights Consortium. His teaching and research interests include democratic theory, the history and theory of political resistance, the nature and moral appraisal of law, and race, ethnicity, and the development of American law.
Professor Tracey Maclin has written numerous amicus curiae briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court on issues related to the constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, including cases before the Supreme Court. He also served as the former President of the Board of Directors of the Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts.
Professor Wendy Mariner is the legal director of the BU School of Public Health project on Health Reform Legislation in the Russian Federation, which is funded by USAID. She has also served on numerous national and international committees, including the WHO/CIOMS Steering Committee on International Ethical Guidelines for Research Involving Human Subjects, the National Institute of Health’s AIDS Program Advisory Committee and the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association.
Professor Linda C. McClain, a Paul M. Siskind Research Scholar, currently participates as a family law professor in court briefs in constitutional litigation about access by same-sex couples to civil marriage. In prior years, she has served on the Civil Rights and Women in the Profession committees in the City of New York. Additionally, while an associate at Cravath, she worked on an academic freedom case.
Lecturer in Law David K. McHaffey is currently employed as an Associate Immigration Attorney at Baker, Epstein, & Losocco. In 2009, he brought a group of Boston University School of Law students to Harlingen, TX, during Spring Break to volunteer for ProBar, which represents detained individuals in immigration court proceedings. He serves as Vice President for the Board of Directors. as a mentor, and as a Pro Bono attorney for the PAIR Project (Political Asylum/Immigration Representation).
Professor Frances Miller, an N. Neal Pike Scholar, serves as a Trustee for Mount Holyoke College and a member of the Board of Directors for both the Joslin Diabetes Center as well as the Adolescent Consultation Services, Inc.
Lecturer in Law J. Charles Mokriski served on the Board of Commissioners for the Hartford Housing Authority, as Chair on the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford Due Process Tribunal, and on the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Opera Association. He currently participates on the Board of Directors for the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (APRL) and was President-Elect in 2007.
Professor Nancy Moore is working with the American Civil Liberties Union on her proposed testimony before the Rhode Island Legislature in support of a bill allowing lawyers to share fee awards with non-profit organizations. She is a member of the ABA Joint Committee on Lawyer Regulation and advises states considering whether to adopt the ABA's proposed amendments to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which deals with the ethical obligations of lawyers.
Lecturer in Law David Nersessian serves as Vice President and General Counsel for St. Catherine's College (Oxford) Foundation. During prior legal practice as a litigation attorney, he has represented low income clients on a pro bono basis in landlord-tenant disputes, consumer matters, and claims for employment benefits. Professor Nersessian, in the past, has offered law school seminars on public international law and international criminal law. He takes part in extensive ongoing publication, public speaking, and education on human rights, international criminal law, and genocide.
Clinical Associate Professor Eva Nilsen supervises 3L’s as they defend indigent clients in felony and misdemeanor cases. She has authored a number of critical articles on state and national drug policies. As an E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow, she tried criminal cases and supervised law students who represented indigent criminal defendants at Georgetown University.
Lecturer in Law Donald T. Nowill currently acts in the capacity of Treasurer and Board Member of The National Tourette Syndrome Association.
Associate Professor Kevin Outterson currently serves on the board of the PPC and coordinates with several international NGOs active in global access and innovation movement. He consults with a group of states, the U.S. Congressional committee staff, and a foreign government on pharmaceutical policy issues, supporting consumer access to patented drugs.
Professor William Park serves as an arbitrator on the Appeals Tribunal of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (the Eagleburger Commission), established in London to adjudicate disputes over life insurance policies owned by victims of Nazi persecution. He is also a member of the NAFTA Chapter 14 Financial Services Roster, which hears controversies that might affect the soundness and integrity of financial markets in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Professor Daniel Partan works to settle disputes under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), has served on bi-national appeals panels regarding NAFTA disputes and has appointed BU Law students to serve as his law clerks. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and formerly served as a consultant to the ABA, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the U.S. State Department, the U.N. Development Programme and the U.N. Fund for Population Activities.
Visiting Professor Andrew Perlman is currently working with a small team of lawyers who are representing a death row inmate in federal post-conviction proceedings in Alabama. He is also serving as the chair of the Jury Access Sub-Committee of the Judicial Administration Section Council of the Massachusetts Bar Association. He coordinates an effort to seek clarification or modification of Rule 3.5, which governs attorney contact with jurors after trial. He also examined whether there is a need to revise the Massachusetts Rule of Professional Conduct 3.5 while serving as a member of the Massachusetts Jury Communications. He offered pro bono assistance while at Chicago firm Schiff Hardin & Waite and served as an investigator for the Public Defender Service of Washington, D.C.
Professor Mark Pettit served as a Clinical Fellow and Staff Attorney at the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic of the University of Chicago Law School.
Visiting Professor Arnold Rosenfeld is currently a member of the board of the Committee for Public Counsel Services and was formerly a member of the Supreme Judicial Court Standing Advisory Committee on the Rules of Professional Conduct. He administered a disciplinary system for lawyers in Massachusetts as chief bar counsel on the Board of Bar Overseers of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. He also served as chief counsel for the Committee for Public Counsel Services, a state agency that oversees all public defender services in cases involving civil matters in which there is a question of child custody and mental health commitment.
Professor David Rossman is a reporter to the advisory committee to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on the rules of criminal procedure. He also works with the Innocence Project, which examines cases of persons who may have been wrongfully convicted of crimes. He has served as Director of the Criminal Law Clinical Programs since 1978.
Lecturer in Law Bette Roth trains high school students in mediation, dispute resolution, and communication skills. Occasionally, she mediates for parties on a Pro Bono basis.
Adjunct Professor Ann Seidman’s distinguished public service extends to the international domain. She served as a co-consultant for the Iraqi constitution, a project to strengthen the legislative drafting capacity in Afghanistan, a Kyrgystan workshop on drafting defensively against corruption, a Vietnam workshop to strengthen legislative drafting capacity and a United Nations mission to Kazakhstan to help develop a program to strengthen the capacity of the Parliament. She is also the co-president, along with Professor Robert Seidman, of the International Consortium for Law and Development. In another collaborative effort with Professor Robert Seidman, she served as the co-director of the BU Law program on Legislative Drafting for Democratic Social Change.
Professor Robert Seidman’s extensive experience in the field of law and development, with a focus on international law, is reflected in his record of public service. He co-directed a program, along with Adjunct Professor Ann Seidman, for training drafters from SADCC countries. Seidman served as a consultant for the Zimbabwe Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rural Development and Ministry of Home Affairs. He was the consultant and principal drafter at the SWAPO conference on a proposed constitution for Namibia.
Professor David Seipp currently, and for many years, serves as a member of the American Law Institute, Seldon Society American Society for Legal History, and Ames Foundation. He previously represented the Developmental Disabilities Law Center in litigation against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on rights of the developmentally disabled.
Professor Katharine Silbaugh wrote an amicus curiae brief, in consultation with the Gay and Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, for a case before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court dealing with the right of persons of the same sex to marry in Massachusetts.
Professor Robert D. Sloane serves as chairman of the Board of Directors of Tibet Justice Center, a non-governmental organization devoted to legal advocacy on behalf of Tibet and the promotion of human rights and self-determination for the Tibetan people. In this capacity, he carries out and supervises human rights fact-finding missions to Nepal and India; furnishes expert affidavits, testimony and other assistance to Tibetans seeking asylum in the United States; and prepares submissions for U.N. human rights institutions and treaty bodies. He has also served as a consultant to Human Rights Watch; participated in human rights litigation brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act; and, as an associate at Debevoise & Plimpton, helped to litigate a pro bono case on behalf of Mexico before the International Court of Justice, challenging the convictions and sentences of more than fifty Mexican nationals on death row on the ground that the U.S. had failed to comply with the consular notification provisions of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Recently, he coauthored a commissioned study for the government of Puerto Rico, appraising its continuing right to self-determination under both international and constitutional law and examining its prospects for enhanced political and legal autonomy.
Adjunct Professor Robert Stewart advises the Wellspring House in Gloucester, which conducts a shelter and education program for women. He also sits on the Board of Directors of Pathway for Children, the largest child care charity on the North Shore. Professor Stewart has his own private pratice.
Professor Jay Wexler has served on the Public Service Subcommittee of the Career, Planning, Placement and Clerkships Committee at BU Law since September of 2005. Before joining the faculty of BU Law, he served as an Attorney-Advisor for the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he reviewed pending legislation for constitutionality, advised justice department components and executive agencies on constitutional and statutory matters, wrote legal opinions on issues of administrative and constitutional law and reviewed attorney general and executive orders for form and legality.
Professor Charles Whitehead currently participates on the Board of Directors for the U.S.-Japan Bridging Foundation. Before his position on the Board of Directors, he worked on the Japan Advisory Board for that same Foundation. He has taken part on the Board of Trustees for Junior Achievement Japan and the Board of Governors for Temple University Japan.
Adjunct Professor, The Honorable Lewis Whitman currently serves as a member on the Governor's Domestic Violence Policy Commission as well as on the committee that drafted the Massachusetts Policy for Law Enforcement Response to Domestic Violence. He currently acts in the capacity of co-chair at the Massachusetts Domestic Violence Roundtable. Professor Lewis is a Trustee for both Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston and Hebrew College in Brookline, MA. In previous years, he has served as President of Jewish Family and Children's Service and the Temple Beth Abraham, as well as Director of Canton Scholar Dollar Foundation.
Professor Larry Yackle volunteers his expertise doing pro bono work for the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. Yackle also has written more than two-dozen amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the ACLU, NAACP and other advocacy groups.