Wednesday, April 14, 2021, 1:00 pm EDT (DC), 7 pm GMT+2 (Poland)

Recording

Description

The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention) entered into force in August 2014 and now has been ratified by 34 Council of Europe member states and signed by 11 others and the European Union. The United Nations refers to it as the "golden standard” and uses it as a reference standard in its work on combating violence against women and girls.  The webinar will discuss how the standards adopted by the Istanbul Convention helped build the international framework aimed at combating gender-based violence and shape the direction of national legislation in most Council of Europe states and the EU, The Commenter will add a US perspective.

Katarzyna Wolska-Wrona (CUA LL.M. 2005), Chief Expert, European Affairs Committee, Prime Minister’s Chancellery, Republic of Poland

Katarzyna Wolska-Wrona has worked on the European Union decision-making process and protection of fundamental right concerning gender-based violence since 2009. She was a member of the Polish government’s delegation to the Ad Hoc Committee for preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (CAHVIO). In 2012–2014, she was the Poland’s legal expert responsible for coordination of the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (the Istanbul Convention). In her career in Polish public administration, she has worked in the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Chancellery of the Prime Minister. From 2018- 2020, she was  a Seconded National Expert for the European Institute for Gender Equality  (EIGE) in Vilnius, Lithuania, working in the gender-based violence program.  She received her LL.M. from CUA in 2005. Her Polish master’s degree in law is from Warsaw University.

Commenter: The Honorable Diane Kiesel, (CUA JD 1985), Acting Supreme Court Justice, Supreme Court, New York County, Criminal Term, New York City, NY

The Honorable Diane Kiesel was appointed to the New York City Criminal Court in 1999. Since 2004, she has been an Acting Supreme Court Justice for the Criminal Term, the criminal trial court that hears serious, felony-level crimes. For 15 years, Judge Kiesel sat in New York’s first Integrated Domestic Violence Court in Bronx County where she presided over criminal, family and matrimonial cases involving allegations of domestic violence.  Since January 2018, Judge Kiesel has presided in a felony trial court in Manhattan. Since 1992, Judge Kiesel has been an adjunct professor of law at New York Law School, where she has taught legal writing and domestic violence law. She has authored two editions of a law school text on domestic violence law. After receiving her JD from CUA in 1985, Judge Cahill clerked for two US federal district court judges, was an associate for the Wall Street law firm of Cahill Gordon & Reindel, and served as an assistant district attorney with the New York County District Attorney’s office where she prosecuted sex crimes, homicides, major felonies, and police corruption cases.  When appointed to the bench, she was Deputy Chief of the district attorney’s child abuse unit. Judge Kiesel was awarded CUA Law’s Distinguished Public Service Award in October 2020.

Tuesday, April 27, 2021, 1 pm EDT (DC), 7 pm GMT+2 (Poland)

Recording

Description

Systemic failures regarding the victimization of marginalized people and the institutional inability to respond to these failures is nothing new.   Sexual violence against women has a massive attrition rate for reporting, investigation, prosecution, civil litigation, and verdicts, which has resulted in women’s increased exposure to sexual harassment and assault.  Police violence disproportionately occurs against people of color, and, when reported, rarely results in sanctions or convictions.  Two movements respond to these realities.  The #MeToo movement calls upon the legal system to hold perpetrators of sexual violence responsible for their actions.  The Black Lives Matter Movement demands, not only an end to police violence, but also a significant change in how the legal system interacts with individuals of color, including those accused of crimes.  BLM calls for more restraint, limiting law enforcement budgets, and rethinking criminal liability.  At first glance, these two movements appear to be in tension.  One calls for increased state action and criminal accountability, the other for less state action and more limited law enforcement powers.  Professor Graw Leary offers a framework for coexistence and advancement of their shared priorities. 

Mary Graw Leary, Professor of Law

Professor Leary is a national and international expert in criminal law and procedure, victimization, exploitation, human trafficking, missing persons, technology, and Fourth Amendment (search and seizure) law and teaches related courses.  She is the lead author of Perspectives on Missing Persons Cases (Carolina Academic Press).  She has testified before the Senate and House and currently is Chair of the Victim Advisory Group for the United States Sentencing Commission.  Prior to joining the CUA faculty, Professor Leary was a federal and state prosecutor and worked primarily on abuse and exploitation of children and women, child pornography, sex trafficking, and family violence cases.

Commenter: dr hab. Aleksandra Kustra-Rogatka (IBTSLP 2004), Faculty of Law, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland

Aleksandra Kustra-Rogatka holds doctoral and postdoctoral degrees in law.  She is a University Professor of Law at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland, where she has taught in the Chair of Constitutional Law and headed the Department of Theory of Law and the State.  Her scholarly topics include non-governmental organizations dealing with democracy and rule of law, European integration on constitutional law, Polish judicial review, transitional justice, and rule of law in Europe.  From 2008 to 2017, she was a Law Clerk at the Polish Constitutional Court.  She has been a Visiting Researcher at prestigious universities in Göttingen, Germany, Berlin, and Rome as well as engaging in cooperative projects with universities in a number of other countries.  Recently she has been an Academic Fellow of re:constitution, a program of the Forum for Transregional Studies and Democracy Reporting International coordinated from Humboldt University in Berlin.  She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Comparative Law Review as well as an article reviewer for other distinguished journals and a member of preeminent scholarly associations in philosophy of law and constitutional law. She participated in the CUA-JU International Business and Trade Summer Law Program in 2004.

Wednesday, May 12, 2021, 1 pm EDT (DC), 7 pm GMT+2 (Poland)

Registration

Description

American federal income tax law includes provisions to promote various public policy concerns and relieve forms of personal hardship. These provisions, referred to as tax expenditures, have significant economic and social impact and reflect the societal belief that some activities are so important that they warrant public subsidies. Not surprisingly, much tax policy debate centers on what activities government should support, how tax subsidies should be structured, the extent to which financial support should be provided, and the effectiveness of tax-preferred social programs in achieving their goals. The US private retirement system is one of the nation’s largest tax expenditures.  This webinar uses an international human rights framework to challenge policymakers to consider solutions outside traditional economic theory in the ongoing pension reform debate.

Regina T. Jefferson, Professor of Law

Professor Jefferson is a nationally recognized expert in pension law, employee benefits, and tax law and teaches courses in those areas.  In 2015, she was appointed by President Obama to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s Advisory Committee and is now serving a second term.  She has testified before the U.S. Congress and briefed congressional staff on employee benefits and tax topics.  She has served as Dean of the Law School as well as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

Commenter: prof. UKSW dr hab. Elżbieta Karska, (IBTSLP 2000), Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law and Administration, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Warsaw, Poland

Elżbieta Karska holds doctoral and postdoctoral degrees in law. She is a Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, where she heads the Department of Human Rights Protection and International Humanitarian Law. She also directs the university’s Doctoral School. She is former Director of the Law Faculty’s Institute of International Law, European Union, and International Relations. Current and past positions in important European and international institutions include the following: member of the Council of Europe’s Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI);  member of the Management Board of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA); expert for the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights;   expert and working group member, including chairperson-rapporteur, of United Nations entities involved in human rights; and ad hoc judge of the European Court of Human Rights.  

She has written more than 100 publications on international law and European law, many of them on human rights law, as well as serving on editorial and advisory boards of several academic journals. She holds honorary doctorates from universities in Armenia, Georgia, and Ukraine. She participated in the CUA-JU International Business and Trade Summer Law Program in 2000.

Wednesday, June 2, 2021, 1 pm (EDT) (DC), 7 pm GMT+2 (Poland)

Registration

Description

The regulatory requirements for investment funds have changed considerably on both sides of the Atlantic in recent years prompted by concerns including requirements on measures against money laundering and financing of terrorism; information for investors on fund management decisions; and greater transparency regarding management fees, costs, and charges.  The webinar will compare developments in Europe and the United States and consider how such regulatory requirements have affected investment fund decisions and operations and impacted investors.

Wictor Furman (CUA LL.M. 2009)

Wictor Furman is a Stockholm-based lawyer specializing primarily in the banking and finance industry and real estate sectors. He is in his own firm after having worked previously at the Magnusson and Harvest law firms in Stockholm as well as for two major Scandinavian banks. His practice includes regulatory and legal matters, dispute resolution, and transactions for clients including fund companies, securities firms, credit institutions, insurance mediators, and real estate investors. He has co-authored articles on financial regulation in the Swedish law journal Ny Juridik.  Mr. Furman completed his law degree at the Stockholm University in 2008 and was admitted to the Swedish Bar Association in 2015. 

Commenter: James V. Catano, (CUA JD 2011), Partner, Dechert, Washington, DC

James V. Catano is a partner in the Financial Services practice of the Washington, DC office of the Dechert firm.  Dechert has more than 900 lawyers in 26 worldwide locations.  Mr. Catano has extensive experience counseling mutual fund complexes, investment advisers, and insurance companies on a wide range of securities, regulatory, corporate, disclosure, transactional, and other financial services matters.  These matters include complex fund reorganization transactions; preparation of registration and proxy statements; ongoing compliance and regulatory matters; and securing exemptive, interpretive and no-action relief from the US Securities and Exchange Commission or its staff. Mr. Catano also advises clients on the development, regulation, sale, and administration of a variety of investment products, including open-end and closed-end mutual funds, money market funds, exchange-traded funds, and variable and fixed life insurance and annuity products.  In addition, he advises boards of directors/trustees of US registered investment companies on fund governance and fiduciary matters. Prior to joining Dechert, Mr. Catano worked at another international law firm, as a law clerk at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and as a legal and regulatory policy fellow at the US Chamber of Commerce.  He holds JD and MA degrees from Catholic University as well as a BA degree from the University of Virginia.

Wednesday, October 21, 2020, 1 pm EDT (DC), 7 pm GMT+2 (Poland)

Recording

Description

This summer’s super-bankruptcy of fintech WIRECARD AG is considered Germany’s largest corporate scandal since World War II and sent investors, markets, auditors, supervisory bodies, and politics into shock. Although investigations necessary to fully understand how the obscure Munich fintech made its way into the country’s most prestigious DAX30 stock-index will take years, the most important features of this Enron 2.0 are known. This webinar will introduce the WIRECARD scandal focusing particularly on the shortcomings of the appointed auditors Ernst & Young (EY), failures of the supervisory body, and improvements needed in the regulatory scheme in Germany and the European Union.

Marc Liebscher, Ph.D., (CUA LL.M. 2006), Berlin Germany

Dr. Marc Liebscher specializes in banking, capital markets, and insolvency law, in particular the judicial representation of institutional and retail investors. He has organized and successfully litigated numerous mass actions by investors before German courts. Dr. Liebscher frequently is appointed to creditor committees in corporate insolvencies to process legal and economic issues regarding corporate and group transactions and by courts to chair general meetings regarding disputes between minority and majority shareholders.  He is a member of the expert group of the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV) on collective redress. He also has served as an expert to the German Bundestag on matters including capital market legislation and the introduction of class actions into German Civil Procedure Law, affecting matters like the Volkswagen diesel engine scandal.   He is spokesperson for the Berlin Bar Association’s working group on banking and capital market law and an appointed member of the Justice working group of Transparency International, Germany. Dr. Liebscher has written numerous publications on banking, insolvency, and capital market law and trains senior investigators of the Federal Criminal Police Office in financial and capital market matters.  

Commenter: Christopher D. Christian, (CUA JD 1998), Boston, MA

Christopher Christian is a partner in the Boston office of the Dechert firm and serves on the firm’s policy committee.  Much of his practice centers on advising US and European asset managers and investment funds and their boards of directors on compliance with US and European law as well as local law in jurisdictions around the globe. He is the architect of Dechert’s World Compass, a marketing compliance subscription service that offers investment firms advice in more than 100 jurisdictions.   Mr. Christian worked for several years in Dechert’s London office.  He is the former Chair of the International Bar Association’s Investment Funds Committee and recently was selected as Chair of the Irish Funds North America Distribution Working Group.  Chris is a 1998 JD graduate of our law school and a member of CUA Law’s Board of Visitors.

Wednesday, October 28, 2020, 2 pm EDT (DC), 7 pm GMT+1 (Poland)

Recording

Description

The 1991 U.S. Organizational Sentencing Guidelines signaled a major shift in U.S. criminal law toward holding entities, as well as individuals, liable for criminal conduct.  The Guidelines established the existence of an effective compliance program as a mitigating factor at sentencing, and, five years later, Delaware's landmark decision in the Caremark litigation focused attention on the potential liability of corporate directors for failure to implement corporate compliance measures.  The Enron, Worldcom and other corporate scandals of the early 2000s made it clear that effective compliance and ethics functions are integral to contemporary businesses, and Chief Compliance and Ethics officers began taking their places in the C-suites of major corporations,  Professor Duggin will explore the role that the compliance and ethics functions play in today’s business world, discuss how the CUA Program that she directs is part of a national curricular shift to expand offerings in this rapidly growing field, and consider the role of compliance and investigations in corporate responsibility.

Sarah H. Duggin, Professor of Law and Director, Compliance, Investigations, and Corporate Responsibility Program

Prior to coming to CUA, Professor Duggin was Vice President and General Counsel of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak).  She also had served as Chief Counsel of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and General Counsel of the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. and litigated complex civil and criminal matters as a lawyer and partner at Williams & Connolly, a noted Washington litigation firm.  She teaches and writes in the areas of corporate, compliance, constitutional and professional responsibility law.  

Commenter: Dr. Michał Rams, White Collar Team Leader, PwC, Warsaw, Poland

Dr. Michał Rams is the White-Collar Crime Team Leader and Legal Counsel at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Warsaw. He is a magister and PhD graduate of Jagiellonian University, concentrating in criminal law and particularly economic criminal law.  His experience includes complex criminal proceedings on tax and public procurement matters, advice on potential criminal liability of management board members, and internal investigations in criminal and penal fiscal law.  He is an Assistant Professor at Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw and the author of substantive and procedural criminal law publications including co-author of the Wolters Kluwer Commentary to the Polish Criminal Code.

Thursday, November 19, 2020, 1 pm (EST) (DC), 7 pm GMT+1 (Poland)

Recording

Description

Nonprofits are the backbone of civil society in the US with more than 1.3 million charities providing health care, education, religion, and social services. Yet while the pandemic has highlighted the importance of charities in American life, it has also exposed a sector at the edge of crisis: tax incentives for charitable giving are failing, philanthropy is becoming ever more plutocratic, and norms are eroding that could push charities more directly into the political sphere, undermining their nonpartisan nature. This webinar will provide an overview of the state of the charitable sector in the US, with a focus on charitable giving incentives and political activity.

Roger Colinvaux, Professor of Law and Director, Law and Public Policy Program

Professor Colinvaux teaches courses in Federal Income Tax, Property, Legislation, Nonprofits, and Civil Rights. From 2001-2008, Professor Colinvaux was Counsel at the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation in the U.S. Congress with responsibility for nonprofit tax legislation. Professor Colinvaux’s scholarship focuses on the nonprofit sector. He has testified about nonprofit tax reform before the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, advised the White House and the Treasury Department, and served as an advisor to the Urban Institute, the National Center on Philanthropy and the Law at NYU, and the Independent Sector. 

Commenter: Dr. Katarzyna Zdybska Przybysławska (JU-CUA ALP 2003), President, Halina Nieć Legal Aid Center, Kraków, Poland

After receiving her magister degree from Jagiellonian University, Dr. Przybysławska co-founded the Halina Nieć Legal Aid Center. The Center is a Kraków-based NGO dedicated to providing free legal aid to refugees and stateless people in Poland. The Center carries on the work of Dr. Halina Nieć, who established the Jagiellonian Human Rights Center in 1993 and the Human Rights Section of the Jagiellonian Clinic in 1997. Dr. Przybysławska received her magister from Jagiellonian in 2003, participated in the American Law Program in 2002-03, and completed her PhD at Jagiellonian in 2007 with a thesis focused on exclusion clauses in the 1951 Refugee convention and disfavored refugees.  She was a visiting fellow in the Oxford University Refugee Studies Center in 2005 and is the author of the 2009 book, UNDESIRED REFUGEES, published by the United Nations High Commissioner on for Refugees.  

Tuesday, November 24, 2020, 1 pm (EST) (DC), 7 pm GMT+1 (Poland)

Recording

Description

Until recently, the cloud was mainly storage for surplus holiday photos. Today, the cloud plays a vital role in commerce: allowing businesses to thrive in geographically distant markets, limiting operational costs, and enabling workplace flexibility for employees. These applications, though, bring sleepless nights for judges who try to apply existing law to a new reality.

This webinar will begin with a brief introduction to the cloud’s basics: where the cloud is located, what is stored there, and whether it is even possible to avoid the cloud in today’s business world. Then, the session will move to opportunities for lawyers to guide their clients through cloud regulations—highlighting the importance of legal education in cross-border legal concepts. Finally, the webinar will consider dispute resolution regarding cloud-based services. The webinar will consider Zoom, Apple Mail, Amazon Web Services, Oracle, and many other popular services as well as the Court of Justice of the European Union Schrems II decision and the US Cloud Act. 

Wojciech Jarosiński, (CUA LL.M. 2011), Warsaw, Poland

Wojciech Jarosiński is a partner at the Maruta Wachta law firm in Warsaw, Poland. He heads the dispute resolution practice group where he has led or supervised more than 200 technology litigations with a combined value of more than two billion USD and advised on execution of technology projects of the same magnitude. The Lawyer magazine (UK) has ranked Maruta Wachta as the Best Specialist Law Firm in Europe (2018), Best Polish Law Firm (2019), and Best Law Firm in Central Europe (2019). The most prestigious Polish legal ranking (Rzeczpospolita Daily) named Mr. Jarosiński  the top dispute resolution lawyer in Poland in both 2018 and 2019 and ranked the practice group he leads in the top five for dispute resolution in 2017, 2018, and 2019. National Jurist magazine (US) featured him in Who's Who of Foreign Attorneys in the fall of 2019.  Mr. Jarosiński received his law degree from Jagiellonian University and is a member of the advocates’ bar. In addition to law practice, he created and manages Vertical Shot Expeditions, which offers photography workshops in remote locations from the Arctic to the Antarctic. 

Commenter: Paul Nagle (CUA JD 1999), Director, International Government Relations, Alibaba, Washington, DC

Paul Nagle is Director of International Government Affairs at the Alibaba Group.  He received a JD from Catholic University Law School in 1999 with a certificate from CUA’s well-known Communications Law Institute, which considering changing technology is now called the Law and Technology Institute. Mr. Nagle’s more than 20-year career parallels the evolution of technology in communication, e-commerce, data storage, and the many other ways that web-based applications affect daily life. His work has included issues in trade, foreign investment, data privacy, intellectual property, telecommunications, and cybersecurity.  Mr. Nagle’s career spans both chambers of the US Congress, the executive branch, the corporate world, and private law practice.  He has served as Chief Counsel of the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection; Chief Counsel to the US Senate Committee on Science & Transportation; an Attorney Advisor at the Federal Communications Commission; in private law practice; and at a Washington DC government relations firm. 

Wednesday, December 2, 2020, 1 pm (EST) (DC), 7 pm GMT+1 (Poland)

Recording

Co-Presenter: Justyna Regan (Balcarczyk), Ph.D., (CUA LL.M. 2005), Chicago, Illinois

Justyna Regan practices in the Chicago office of Miller Canfield, specializing in European, US, and multinational business law, data privacy, intellectual property with particular expertise in software licensing, and cross-border defamation.  She has master of law, Ph.D., and habilitation degrees from the University of Wrocław in Poland. She also received a Fulbright Advanced Research Award for study at Chicago Kent College of Law and was a Visiting Fellow at the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg, Germany. She is the Chair of the Chicago Bar Association Cyber Law and Data Privacy Committee. She is admitted to the bar in Illinois and Poland. When in Poland, she worked for Studnicki Pleszka Cwiakalski Górski (SPCG), a major Polish firm.

Co-Presenter: Douglas G. Bonner (CUA JD 1983), Board of Visitors Member, Partner, Potomac Law Group, Washington DC

Douglas Bonner has more than 25 years of experience representing wireline and wireless providers, cable television, Voice over Internet Protocol providers, and broadcast companies in regulatory matters before the United States Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, Department of Commerce National Telecommunication and Information Administration, Department of Transportation National Highway Safety Administration, and other federal agencies, and in state regulatory proceedings, as well as in telecommunications-related litigation.  His practice has focused in part on privacy and data security issues under US law and helping clients comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation. He was Co-Chair of the Federal Communications Bar Association’s Privacy and Data Security Committee for three years and has been recognized by Chambers USA as a leading lawyer in Telecom, Broadcast and Satellite. He is a 1983 JD graduate of the Columbus School of Law of The Catholic University Law School and a member of the law school’s Board of Visitors. For more biographical information, see https://www.potomaclaw.com/professionals-douglas-g-bonner.

Description

In 2016, some US companies were stunned to realize that they were subject the European Union’s General Data Protect Regulation and could face the GDPR’s hefty fines.  Until then, US privacy law mainly comprised industry-specific laws protecting health-related or financial data. Now, individual American states have begun to act, but their differing requirements subject companies to a patchwork of inconsistent and sometimes conflicting legal regimes. The session will highlight difficulties in the current situation and consider the prospects for a US federal data privacy law that would preempt state law and provide a single regulatory scheme.

Wednesday, December 9, 2020, 1 pm (EST) (DC), 7 pm GMT+1 (Poland)

Recording

Description

The field of artificial intelligence or "AI" is rapidly advancing and has the potential to radically change society from an economic and cultural perspective. This program will explore how intellectual property law and policy in the U.S. and other parts of the world will influence AI innovation and technology in the coming years. 

Megan M. La Belle, Professor of Law and Co-Director, Law and Technology Institute

Professor La Belle teaches and writes about intellectual property, civil procedure, federal courts, and administrative law.  Prior to joining the faculty, Professor La Belle focused on intellectual property and complex civil litigation matters with the prestigious Los Angeles firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson.  Her scholarship engages topics in patent law as well as civil procedure and administrative law.

Commenter: Tytus Cytowski, (IBTSLP 2001, Harvard LL.M. 2005), Founding Partner, Cytowski & Partners, Silicon Valley, CA

Mr. Cytowski founded Cytowski & Partners in 2009 after working for a venture capital fund and as a financial service lawyer at the Dechert firm. Cytowski & Partners is a technology, new media, and business law firm concentrating on technology, startups, and venture capital. Based in New York City with offices in Silicon Valley and Warsaw, the firm works with entrepreneurs, emerging companies, angels and investors in the US and Europe helping businesses interested in working particularly in the Central European market and entrepreneurs interested in seeking investment capital from the US. Mr. Cytowski has a magister degree from Warsaw University and participated in the CUA-JU IBTSLP in 2001.  He received an LL.M. from Harvard Law School in 2005.

Wednesday, January 13, 2021, 1 pm (EST) (DC), 7 pm GMT+1 (Poland)

Recording

Description

COVID-19’s major impact on commerce suggests a wave of commercial negotiation and litigation as parties seek to enforce or avoid contractual obligations.  Force majeure clauses of pre-COVID contracts quite possibly included no language clearly applicable to the current situation. The webinar will explore arguments in civil and common law systems to address suspension or termination of performance obligations in commercial contracts with language drafted in pre-pandemic times.

Vincenzo Senatore (CUA LL.M. 2010)

Vincenzo Senatore is a partner in the London office of Giambrone & Partners LLP.  He heads the London corporate and commercial department as well as the firm’s international criminal law practice. In 2019, European Legal Awards ranked Giambrone & Partners as one of the top Merger and Acquisition firms, and Top Legal, the most prestigious Italian legal ranking, named Giambrone & Partners as the Italian Law Firm of the Year in 2018. Vincenzo is an Italian-licensed Attorney, a qualified Solicitor in England and Wales, and recently was admitted as Counsel before the International Criminal Court at The Hague. He is regularly retained in high-value commercial litigation and large international arbitration matters.  His practice includes company law, debt recovery, corporate and general commercial agreements, and other business law matters. Mr. Senatore also represents international English-speaking clients in cross-border criminal matters in Italy. In 2015, he was a fellow at the Stanford University (CA) Center for Biomedical & Ethics, working on contentious issues arising from stem cell research related to biotechnological inventions. His work has been published in the prestigious journal NATURE Biotech. He is an editorial board member of the International Academy of Financial Consumers, located at the Sungkyunkwan University of Seoul (South Korea). He is a frequent conference presenter and media commentator on cross-border matters between the UK and Italy. Vincenzo received his law degree from the University of Naples, Federico II, (IT). Read more

Commenter: Andrew F. Palmieri (CUA JD 1987), Board of Visitors Member, Partner, Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr, Washington, DC

Andrew Palmieri is a partner in the Washington DC office of Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP, a full-service law firm with 16 offices that serves businesses throughout the United States and internationally. The firm’s clients include recognizable names in corporate America, exciting start-ups, and an array of closely held and privately held companies, as well as nonprofits and governmental and educational entities. Mr. Palmieri represents real estate developers in the acquisition, development, finance, leasing, and disposition of national, regional, and local commercial real estate projects. Nationally, Mr. Palmieri is a Past Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Real Property, Trust, and Estate Law (2011/2012), and he currently serves as an officer of the American College of Mortgage Attorneys. Internationally, Andrew is a Trustee Emeritus on the Board of Trustees for The American University of Rome. In this capacity, Andrew has gained a unique perspective into the needs of higher education institutions and the global economy.   Mr. Palmieri received his CUA JD in 1987 and is a member of the law school’s Board of Visitors.

Wednesday, January 27, 2021, 1 pm (EST) (DC), 7 pm GMT+1 (Poland)

Recording

Description

This webinar will focus on how President-Elect Biden's approach to international law possibly will differ from that of his predecessor.  Topics will include international environment law and the Paris Climate Accord; participation in human rights treaties and human rights bodies such as the UN Human Rights Council; pandemic-related cooperation with international health organizations such as the WHO; arms control (Iran, North Korea, Russia); international trade (China, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Brexit); legal aspects of US policy in the Mideast (Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc.); and treaty-making more generally.

Geoffrey P. Watson, Professor of Law and Director, Comparative and International Law Institute

Professor Watson’s research interests focus on public international law, legal aspects of the Middle East peace process, and the history of American law.  In addition to these areas, he has taught contacts, criminal law, constitutional law, international human rights law, comparative law, and comparative constitutional law.  Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Watson was an attorney-advisor for the U.S. Department of State specializing in international criminal law and legal aspects of U.S. policy in the Middle East.  He authored the Oxford University Press book, The Oslo Accords: International Law and the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Accords.

Commenter: dr hab. Izabela Kraśnicka, (IBTSLP 1998), Faculty of Law, University of Białystok, Poland

Izabela Kraśnicka holds doctoral and postdoctoral degrees in law. She specializes in public international law, including law of international organizations, the legal system of the United States, and legal education. Recipient of the Boeing Scholarship and a Kosciuszko Foundation grant, she has many times visited the CUA Columbus School of Law. She is an author of over 70 publications in her interest fields. She is the Vice-Dean for International Cooperation and Development at the University of Białystok Faculty of Law. She participated in the 1998 International Business and Trade Summer Law Program in Krakow and taught the program’s course on the Law of the EU between 2006 and 2018.

Wednesday, February 10, 2021, 1 pm (EST) (DC), 7 pm GMT+1 (Poland)

Recording

Description

The European Union’s next seven-year budget is more than €1.074 trillion ($ 1.270 trillion), and the EU has decided to also borrow an additional €750 billion fund ($887 billion) for a COVID Recovery Fund.  Contentious issues, including progress on climate change and linking funding to respect for EU rule-of-law, values have swirled around the negotiations for the 2021-2027 multi-annual budget cycle.

The webinar will orient participants to the roles the European Commission, Parliament, and Council play in the complex process of EU decision-making and budget approval and update them on the current state of play.  The webinar’s commenter will explore the American state of play as the US faces counterpart challenges.

Katarzyna Stryjniak (CUA LL.M. 2012)

Katarzyna Stryjniak is a Legal and Policy Officer in the Directorate General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission, based in Brussels, Belgium. Her work focuses on the legal aspects of the European Union’s research and innovation programs. She also worked in the legal department of the Polish government agency National Center of Research and Development as well as at Domanski Zakrzewski Palinka in Warsaw, Poland, one of Poland’s largest law firms. Between 2012 and 2019 she was the JU-CUA LL.M. Program Coordinator. She received her law degree from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland in 2012 and joined the Warsaw bar in 2016. 

Commenter: Karen A. Tramontano, (CUA JD 1982), Chief Executive Officer, Blue Star Strategies, Washington, DC

Karen A. Tramontano is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Blue Star Strategies, an international consultancy that works to solve political, policy, investment, and resource challenges facing today's global businesses, governments, and organizations by engaging governments, the media, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders and allies. From 1997 to 2001, Ms. Tramontano served in the White House as deputy chief of staff to President Clinton. Her White House portfolio encompassed a wide range of issues, including international trade and transatlantic relations as well as economic and financial issues concerning the World Trade Organization, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund. In 2001, Ms. Tramontano served as chief of staff for President Clinton’s transition, where she established his office and presence in New York City. Ms. Tramontano is Founder and President of the Global Fairness Initiative, a nonprofit organization working to promote a more equitable and sustainable approach to globalization. She serves as a lecturer in the Executive Master of European and International Business Law program at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland and as a Senior Advisor to Guy Ryder, Director General of the International Labor Organization in Geneva. She received her JD from CUA in 1982.  

Wednesday, February 24, 2021, 1 pm (EST) (DC), 7 pm GMT+1 (Poland)

Recording

Description

Ten years ago, Congress considered the lessons of the 2008 financial crises and passed the Dodd-Frank Act in an effort to strengthen the U.S. financial system to withstand future threats. Reforms elsewhere in the world were implemented with the same goal in mind. This webinar will consider how these reforms prepared financial systems for the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, this session will consider how the pandemic will shape the future of financial regulation, especially with regard to the priorities of the Biden Administration.

Heidi Mandanis Schooner, Professor of Law

Professor Schooner’s writing focuses on challenges in regulating the financial services industry.  She co-authored Global Bank Regulation: Principles and Policies.  She teaches courses in regulating financial institutions, corporations, contracts, and commercial law.  Prior to joining the faculty, she worked for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a bank holding company, and in private practice. Read more

Commenter: Michał Bobrzyński, (JU-CUA ALP 2005, Harvard LL.M. 2009), Partner, Greenberg Traurig, Warsaw, Poland

Michał Bobrzyński is a partner in the Warsaw office of Greenberg Traurig, an international firm with more than 2200 attorneys in 40 offices in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East.  Mr. Bobrzyński advises financial institutions on regulatory and transactional issues, as well as domestic and international companies on corporate matters, bankruptcy & restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, and private equity transactions.  He received an LL.M. degree from Harvard Law School in 2009 and his magister degree from Jagiellonian University in 2005.  He is a member of the New York Bar and the Kraków Attorney-at-Law Bar.  Mr. Bobrzyński was a Research and Teaching Assistant at Jagiellonian from 2004 through 2015 and Coordinator of the American Law Program from 2010 through 2014.

Tuesday, March 2, 2021, 1 pm (EST) (DC), 7 pm GMT+1 (Poland)

Recording

Description

Professor Drinan will draw on her Oxford University Press book, The War on Kids: How American Juvenile Justice Lost Its Way, to talk about how the US invented the juvenile court model at the end of the 19th Century, exported it globally, and then abandoned it domestically to become the most punitive nation in the world regarding justice-involved youth. She then will focus on new directions in which the US could and should go.

Cara H. Drinan, Professor of Law and Director of Faculty Research

Professor Cara H. Drinan is a nationally recognized expert on the right to counsel, juvenile sentencing, and criminal justice reform.  Drinan, who teaches criminal law, criminal procedure, and criminal justice reform, among other courses, also serves as the law school’s Director of Faculty Research.  Her own research focuses on access to counsel, sentencing, and youth in the criminal justice system.  Since 2017, when she published her first book on juvenile sentencing in America, The War on Kids:  How American Juvenile Justice Lost Its Way (Oxford Univ. Press), she has been advocating nationwide for juvenile justice and sentencing reform. Read more

Commenter: prof. dr hab. Włodzimierz Wróbel, Chair of Criminal Law, Jagiellonian University, and Polish Supreme Court Justice

Włodzimierz Wróbel has been the Chair of Criminal Law at Jagiellonian University since 2012.  In 2011, he was appointed a judge in the Criminal Chamber of the Polish Supreme Court.  In addition to leading Jagiellonian’s Criminal Law Department, he heads the Department of Bioethics and Medical Law and directs Postgraduate Studies in both departments.  Professor and Judge Wróbel has published over 100 academic works in criminal law, constitutional law, and legal theory.  With Professor Andrzej Zoll, he co-authors the COMMENTARY ON THE POLISH CRIMINAL CODE.  In 2020, the Court Watch Polska Foundation named him Citizens’ Judge of the Year, citing his efforts in legal education, raising legal awareness in Polish society, and communicating directly with the public.

Wednesday, March 24, 2021, 2 pm (EDT) (DC), 7 pm GMT+1 (Poland)

Recording

Description

With increasing concern for global climate change and following the 2015 Paris Agreement obligations, the European Union adopted the Regulation on Sustainability-Related Disclosures in the Financial Services Sector (SFDR), which will take effect beginning March 10, 2021. The SFDR, along with draft regulatory technical standards and the EU’s Taxonomy Regulation, require from financial market participants to incorporate sustainability considerations in their governance frameworks as well as the preparation of disclosures and reporting to investors about environmental, social, and governance factors. The EU sustainable investment regime reaches US entities offering investment funds and financial services to European clients. The EU General Data Protection Regulation sent shock waves across the Atlantic and required many US lawyers and businesses to quickly become expert in GDPR requirements. The EU’s ESG requirements are likely to have a similar dramatic border-crossing impact. 

Gaspar Kot (CUA LL.M. 2012)

​Gaspar Kot is a markets, products, and structuring lawyer for UBS, the Swiss investment bank and financial services company with worldwide offices including more than 5000 employees in Poland. Mr. Kot heads the Asset Management stream of the legal department in the UBS Krakow office.  He also is the CUA-JU LL.M. Program coordinator in Poland. Mr. Kot received his law degree from Jagiellonian University and is a member of the attorneys-at-law bar. Currently, he is a PhD student at Jagiellonian University.

Commenter: Chris Concannon, (CUA JD 1994), President & Chief Operating Officer, MarketAxess, New York City, NY

Chris Concannon is the President and Chief Operating Officer of MarketAxess, a global electronic trading platform for institutional investors and dealers around the world.  In this role, Mr. Concannon oversees day-to-day operations, corporate development, long-term technology strategy, and global data strategy. Before joining MarketAxess, Mr. Concannon was the President and Chief Operating Officer of Cboe Global Markets Inc, where he was responsible for Cboe’s transaction businesses, including global derivatives, US and European equities, and global foreign exchange – as well as overseeing the company’s Technology, Operations, Risk, and Marketing divisions.  He also was Chief Executive Officer of Bats Global Markets, where he led the company’s initial public offering in 2016 and its acquisition by Cboe in February 2017. Mr. Concannon has more than 20 years of experience as an executive at Nasdaq, Virtu Financial, Instinet, and as an attorney at Morgan Lewis and Bockius and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Concannon holds both a JD and bachelor’s degree from Catholic University as well as an MBA from St. John’s University.