Faculty Profile: Mike Cassidy
New Professors Bring Expertise
Other Faculty Highlights
THE LITIGATOR'S WAY
Bringing The Courtroom To The Classroom
Michael Cassidy, BC Law's outgoing associate dean for administration, says
it was fate that brought him to the campus in 1996. Then-criminal bureau chief
in the Massachusetts Attorney General's office, Cassidy managed a staff of more
than 100, had a lot of say about litigation strategy, and briefed the attorney
general on pending legislation. A respectful but firm courtroom presence-he
stands just a hair under six feet, five inches-he also tried headline-making
cases. "I loved every minute of it," says Cassidy, who decided on
a law career early in life, after reading To Kill a Mockingbird. "I
was impressed by the power of advocacy to influence people," he explains.
There was only one problem with working for the AG: raising two children on
a state salary. As a man whose family is his first priority, he was not interested
in an eighty-hour work week, so he resisted the pull of the big law firms. Then
he heard about the BC job. "I was a manager in a law office," he says,
"and they were looking for someone with management skills in a legal environment."
The fateful match was made.
Those skills came in handy, he adds, in a job where "you juggle 500 balls
a day." As associate dean he managed admissions, financial aid, career
services, public relations, and finance. He also had to oversee the construction
of the East Wing. He came in with no construction background, but learned fast,
a skill he developed as a litigator. "Every time you try a new case, you
have to absorb a new set of facts. It's like learning a new field," he
says.
When he arrived at BC Law, he was concerned he'd miss the courtroom and fighting
for justice, but, he says, "I've learned that lawyers can contribute in
so many other ways." He has, for example, edited the Massachusetts Law
Review and served in unpaid positions on numerous panels and committees, including
the state ethics commission. He brings to the latter task a longtime prosecutor's
well-developed sense of rectitude and his experience with public corruption
cases. "It is not a very glorified or glorious job, but someone has to
do it," he says. "I took the job because it's important to have an
enforcement arm that holds government officials accountable."
This fall, Cassidy becomes a full-time associate professor teaching criminal
law, evidence, and professional responsibility. In the classroom, he doesn't
tell old war stories, but he does draw on an encyclopedic knowledge of the criminal
statutes and the courts. And then there's his style of addressing a class, which
is not so different from the way he pitched a case to a jury. "In litigation,"
he observes, "a certain premium is placed on clarity. A final argument
in a courtroom is a lot like teaching."
-David Reich
NEW PROFESSORS BRING BUSINESS EXPERTISE
Specialists Deepen Curriculum
The Law School is closer to its goal of an enhanced business law curriculum
with the addition of Lawrence A. Cunningham and Renee M. Jones to the faculty.
Professor Cunningham is part of the new initiative to develop programs involving
students from the Law School and the Carroll School of Management. "This
is a tremendous opportunity and I am just delighted to be part of a top law
school working with a top business school," he said.
Cunningham was Director of the Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Center on Corporate
Governance at the Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School of Yeshiva University before
coming to BC Law as a visiting professor last year. He's taught at Columbia,
George Washington, Fordham, and St John's universities. The author of several
books and scores of articles, Cunningham received international acclaim for
Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, and made the
bestseller list with How to Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren
Buffett. He also wrote the popular textbook, Introductory Accounting
and Finance for Lawyers. Cunningham is a regular contributor to Aspen Law
& Business and was editor of the treatise, Corbin on Contracts, from
1994 to 2001.
Assistant Professor Jones, as an associate at Hill & Barlow in Boston, concentrated
on corporate and securities law, including venture capital financing, mergers
and acquisitions, and securities regulation. She was a summer associate at Wilmer,
Cutler & Pickering in Washington, DC, and at Sidley & Austin in Chicago.
In 1986, she received her bachelor's degree from Princeton University and in
1993, her J.D. from Harvard University. She has worked for WGBH-TV, United Asset
Management Corporation, J. P. Morgan Securities, and the Lirhembe Girl's Secondary
School in Khayega, Kenya.
Jones has published in the Harvard Law Review, served in the House of
Delegates for the American Bar Association (ABA), and worked on the editorial
board of Human Rights Magazine. A member of the Board of Overseers for
the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Historical Society, she is an active
member of the New England Committee of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Her research
interests include securities law issues as they relate to corporate governance
and shareholder activism.
Jones is pleased "to be joining such a vibrant academic community and sharing
what I have learned in corporate law practice with the Law School students."
She will teach Corporations and Securities Regulation.
The hiring of Cunningham and Jones comes on the heels of the announcement last
fall that Professor Paul R. McDaniel, one of the world's leading tax theorists,
is returning to the Law School faculty.
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OTHER FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS
Professor David Wirth has been named by Dean John Garvey to the newly created
position of Director of International Programs. Wirth will be responsible for
coordinating numerous projects, including the London Program, Jessup International
Moot Court, the International Law Society, the International and Comparative
Law Review, and the creation of externship-based courses. The appointment
is part of an initiative to build the size and quality of the Law School's international
programs.
***
Three Law School professors received the University's highest accolades at Faculty
Day in May. All three won the awards for which they were nominated, beating
competitors from throughout Boston College. R. Michael Cassidy received the
Distinguished Service Award, Ingrid Hillinger won the Distinguished Teaching
Award, and Aviam Soifer accepted the Distinguished Senior Research Award.
***
Ingrid Hillinger and Judy McMorrow have been promoted to full professor. Their
appointments become effective in the 2002-2003 academic year.
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