New York City Bar Association Podcasts -NYC Bar

A discussion of various legal issues related to preparing for and producing fashion shows and presentations, including intellectual property, employment, contractual and financing concerns.

Moderator: Marc Lieberstein, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton

Speakers: Christopher Chase, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz; Anne Marie Bowler, Gabay-Rafiy & Bowler; Tanya D. Hicks, Associate General Counsel, Global Brands Group; Amy F. Melican, Proskauer Rose; Lois F. Herzeca, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher; Kenton Selvey, Chief Brand Strategist, Selvey Brand Consulting; Doreen Small, Marquart & Small, LLP

Sponsored by: Committee on Fashion Law, Marc Lieberstein, Chair

This program will examine the impact of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Report on Torture on the ongoing prosecutions and habeas proceedings in the military commission system at Guantanamo and address the ongoing debate on its closure.

This is a follow-up to programs at the Association with Brigadier General Mark Martins, the Chief Prosecutor of the Military Commissions, and with James Connell and Commander Walter B. Ruiz, Jr., Learned Counsel for 9/11 defendants in the military commission proceedings at Guantanamo.

Moderator: Karen Greenberg, Director, Center on National Security, Fordham Law School

Speakers: Cliff Sloan, former Special Envoy for Guantanamo closure at the U.S. Department of State; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Baher Azmy, Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights; James Connell III, criminal defense attorney who represents Ammar al Baluchi, one of the 9/11 defendants in the military commission proceedings at Guantanamo; Walter B. Ruiz, Jr., criminal defense attorney who represents Mustafa Al Hawsawi, one of the 9/11 defendants in the military commission proceedings at Guantanamo

Sponsored by: Committee on Military Affairs & Justice, Michael Richter, Chair

The purpose of this seminar is for members of the legal community to help address concerns that have been raised over NYPD policies and practices. The goal is to offer policymakers recommendations from members of the legal community who are interested in preventing future conflicts and increasing public confidence in the police force.

Moderator: Brett Nomberg, Brand Brand Nomberg & Rosenbaum, LLP; Chair of Tort Litigation Committee, New York City Bar

Speakers: Robert Gangi, Director, Police Reform Organizing Project; Lawrence Byrne, NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Legal Matters; Eugene O'Donnell, Professor, John Jay School of Criminal Justice; Former NYPD Officer; Richard H. Abend, Abend & Silber, PLLC; Shelley Rossoff Olsen, JAMs mediator; Eric Adams, Brooklyn Borough President; Former NYPD officer; Susan Shah, Vera Institute of Justice; Hon. Darcel D. Clark, Associate Justice, Appellate Division, 1st Department, NYS Supreme Court; Adjunct Professor- Monroe College School of Criminal Justice; Xavier Donaldson, Metropolitan Black Bar Association; Hon. George A. Grasso, Supervising Judge – Arraignments, Criminal Court of the City of New York

Sponsored by: Committee on Tort Litigation, Brett J. Nomberg, Chair; Committee on Civil Rights, Sebastian Riccardi, Chair; Committee on Criminal Justice Operations, Risa B. Gerson, Chair; Committee to Enhance Diversity in the Profession, Sheila S. Boston & N. Nate Saint-Victor, Co-Chairs; Committee on New York City Affairs, Cathleen A. Clements, Chair

Co-sponsored by: National Bar Association

The Institute of International Commercial LawPace Law School, the Pace Law Library, and the Arbitration Committee of the City Bar presented CIETAC Arbitration and the CISG podcast, a round-table discussion moderated by Kathleen Scanlon, Chair of the City Bar's Arbitration Committee, with Professors Albert H. Kritzer and Mark R. Shulman of the Pace University School of Law. The podcast provides information on the UN Convention for the International Sale of Goods ("CISG"), China's relationship with the CISG, the results of the Institute's study of over 300 CIETAC (China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission) arbitral awards on the CISG, and Prof. Shulman's paper, The Diligent will be Shown the Path to Heaven: China's Implementation of the UN Sales Convention, co-written with Lachmi Singh, to be published this winter in 48:2 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law. The podcast has been provided by the Pace Law Library Podcast Site.

Public attitudes and laws governing the use of cannabis have been changing fast and creating challenges and opportunities for policymakers at the state and local level.

The changes in New York State during 2014 were especially great. A new statute legalized certain limited uses of cannabis for medical purposes and the Department of Health has released draft regulations for public comment. After attempting in 2012 to convince the State legislature to expand the scope of New York's cannabis decriminalization statute, New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance endorsed the de Blasio administration's announcement that the New York City Police Department will issues summonses for possession of personal-use amounts of cannabis open to public view instead of making arrests. Earlier, Kings County District Attorney Kenneth Thompson announced that his office will not prosecute first-time offenders for possession of personal-use amounts.

Meanwhile, if proposed legislation that would regulate cannabis like alcohol succeeds, it will require adjustments to state and local law far broader than those necessary to create the newly legalized medical-use-only cannabis market.

Join the Committee on Drugs and the Law and the New York City Affairs Committee for an open discussion of the past, present and possible futures of cannabis law in New York City.

Panel: Stephen Levin, New York City Council, District 33; Jumaane D. Williams, New York City Council, District 45; Nitin Savur, Deputy Chief of Trial Division in Charge of Criminal Courts, Office of the New York County District Attorney

Moderator: Patricia Salkin, Dean and Professor of Law, Touro Law Center

Sponsors: Committee on Drugs and the Law; New York City Affairs Committee

North Korea is engaged in ongoing, widespread and systematic violations of the human rights of its own citizens. Hundreds of thousands have attempted to flee across the border into China; many are turned back. This panel will examine the status of North Korean refugees in China, relevant international and domestic laws, and China's domestic considerations in formulating and implementing its refugee policies.

Moderator: Thomas T. Papain, Ahmuty, Demers & McManus.

Speakers: David Hawk, Adjunct Professor, Hunter College, City University of New York; Author, North Korean human rights report "The Hidden Gulag"; Elisabeth Wickeri, Executive Director, Leitner Center for International Law and Justice; Adjunct Professor of Law, Fordham Law School; Executive Director, Committee to Support Chinese Lawyers; Angus Fei Ni, Debevoise & Plimpton. Has worked with U.S. missionaries in South Korea and China, planning routes and transporting North Korean border crossers from Northern China to Laos.

Sponsored by: Committee on Asian Affairs Committee; Committee on International Human Rights

The self-proclaimed "Islamic State," ISIS or ISIL, has framed its legitimacy on its interpretation of 1400 year old principles of Islam that originally supported the unprecedented swift conquest of lands reaching from what is now southern France to Pakistan within 100 years of the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Our panel of distinguished experts will discuss both the validity of these theological arguments and the modern legal issues applicable to a militarily successful theocratic entity that disregards virtually universally accepted international norms of humanitarian behavior and yet claims to be entitled to the rights and recognition of sovereignty.

Moderator: Robert E. Michael, Chair, Committee on Middle Eastern and North African Affairs

Speakers: Jeremiah S. Pam, Visiting Scholar at the Saltzman Institute for War and Peace Studies, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University – Is ISIS a State?; Prof. Mohammad Fadel, Associate Professor & Canada Research Chair for the Law and Economics of Islamic Law at the University of Toronto – The Caliphate in Islamic History and Theology; Abed Awad, Awad & Khoury LLP; Adjunct Professor, Rutgers & Pace Law Schools – Jihad and Apostasy in Islamic Law; Prof. Bernard K. Freamon, Professor of Law and Director, Program for the Study of Law in the Middle East, Seton Hall Law School – Slavery and the Treatment of Captives and Prisoners in Islamic Law; Miles P. Fischer, Senior Attorney, Wohabe Law Offices LLP – The US and International Law that Applies to Asymmetric Warfare

Sponsored by: Committee on Middle Eastern and North African Affairs, Robert E. Michael, Chair; Council on International Affairs, Bettina B. Plevan, Chair; International Law Committee, Caline Mouawad, Chair; Military Affairs & Justice Committee, Michael P. Richter, Chair

Does gender impact choices of outside counsel? What mistakes do women (and men) make when they try to get business from in-house lawyers? How can women rise to higher levels in law firms and companies? These are just a few of the questions our esteemed panelists will answer at this not-to-be-missed event.

Moderator: Bettina B. Plevan, Proskauer Rose LLP

Speakers: Jane E. Booth, General Counsel, Columbia University; Lynn Gonzalez, VP of Business and Legal Affairs, Universal Music Group's Shared Label Services; Elizabeth I. Hooke, Director & Associate General Counsel, Citigroup Inc.; Marina O. Lowy, Senior Associate General Counsel, The Mount Sinai Health System; Sheila Murphy, Associate General Counsel, MetLife

Sponsored by: Committee on Women in the Courts Task Force, Rebecca Berkebile, Chair; Committee on Women in the Legal Profession, Lori Pines, Chair

On the eve of the UN Secretary-General's Climate Summit, the President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, joined by the Committee on International Environmental Law of the New York City Bar Association, and Columbia University's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, co-hosted a public conversation on climate change with Pacific Island leaders.

Featured Speakers: President Christopher J. Loeak, Republic of the Marshall Islands; President Manny Mori, Federated States of Micronesia; President Tommy Remengesau, Republic of Palau; President Baron Waqa, Republic of Nauru; Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi, Independent State of Samoa; Foreign Minister Taukelina Finikaso, Tuvalu; Prime Minister Siale'ataongo Tu'ivakanō, Kingdom of Tongo; Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, Marshallese poet; Michael B. Gerrard, Professor at Columbia Law School, Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This program is sponsored by the Bioethical Issues Committee and will focus on the expanding and dynamically changing role of ethics committees in institutions, as well as in community-based care, featuring an interdisciplinary panel of experts from law, medicine, nursing, social work, and bioethics. The historical and legal underpinnings of ethics committees will be reviewed including new mandates under the Family Health Care Decisions Act. Discussion will center on diverse approaches to negotiating conflict within the context of ethics committees (e.g., mediation, reflective practice models), and interaction between ethics committees and palliative care teams.

The program is interdisciplinary and targets all professionals including attorneys, physicians, nurses/nurse practitioners, social workers, ethicists, as well as health care managers.

Moderators: Christopher P. Comfort, MD, Medical Director, Calvary Hospital; Mary Beth Quaranta Morrissey, Ph.D., Chair, Subcommittee, Palliative Care

Speakers: Christopher P. Comfort, MD, Medical Director, Calvary Hospital; Nancy Neveloff Dubler, LL.B., Consultant for Ethics, New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation; Professor Emerita, The Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Bruce Jennings, MA, Director of Bioethics, Center for Humans and Nature, and Senior Advisor, The Hastings Center; Joseph Lowy, MD, Director, Palliative Care Service, NYU Medical Center; Mary Beth Quaranta Morrissey, Ph.D., Chair, Palliative Care Subcommittee, City Bar Committee on Bioethical Issues; Kenneth Prager, MD, Director of Clinical Ethics, Columbia University Medical Center; Mathew C. Varughese, Associate General Counsel for Health and Research Affairs, Yale University

Sponsored by: Committee on Bioethical Issues, Wendy Luftig, Chair

Co-Sponsored by: Public Health Association of New York City, New York Academy of Medicine