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Editors’ Note: As each new 1L class begins its legal education, our thoughts often turn back to our own first few weeks of law school.  This post begins a new series on “What I Wish I Had Known When I Started Law School.”

I went to law school for all the wrong reasons. When I started in Georgetown’s part-time, evening division, I had been doing real estate development for four or five years. I was a client before I was a law student. I became quite annoyed that my attorneys seemed to be patronizing me. They spoke a language that was foreign to me. I decided to go to law school to find out what the mystique was all about and, hopefully, to emerge as a better developer.

About six weeks into law school, I realized that I was “turned on” by my studies. I told myself that I knew that I had played a lot as an undergraduate at Penn, but I had never before been intellectually excited by school. I told myself to slow down and enjoy the journey. I did just that

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The latest issue of the Marquette Law Review features a student comment by Ryan Parsons on the treatment of “temporary victims” under the federal sentencing guidelines.  In crimes such as bank fraud, individual accountholders that have been defrauded are often reimbursed by the bank and, therefore, made economically whole.  Such reimbursed accountholders are often ignored for purposes of sentencing enhancement, even though reimbursement may not occur without time and effort expended by these temporary victims.  Parsons describes how various courts have dealt with this phenomenon, as well as the Federal Sentencing Commission’s recent decision to include all such temporary victims in the enhancement calculation regardless of whether the defrauded accountholders even knew about the fraud.  Parsons argues that in order for a sentence to accurately reflect the severity of the crime, temporary victims should be taken into account to the extent that they suffered actual, monetizable losses (e.g., time spent pursuing mitigation).

This issue also includes Rachel Delaney’s comment analyzing the use of deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) in the corporate crime context, ultimately calling for congressional regulation of prosecutorial discretion.  

Tr

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In the past few days, several college-bound students in my local community have been contacted about a free seminar offered by Edifi. This company is in the business of providing services to help students and families for prepare for college, conduct college searches, and find funding for a college education.

Subsequently, these students have contacted me about the validity of the Edifi free seminar; I have directed them to the Better Business Bureau Complaint which includes the statement,

“Edifi has an unsatisfactory report with the BBB due to a pattern of complaints from consumers who report misleading sales practices and dissatisfaction with the service. The company responds to most complaints by offering an explanation of their services. Many consumers remain dissatisfied because the company will not, in most cases, cancel the contract after the company’s five day cooling-off period, leaving their complaint unresolved.”

You can read the entire Better Business Bureau complaint here.
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Congratulations to the editors of the Marquette Law Review on the publication of a new issue.  This issue features papers presented at the Criminal Appeals Conference here in June 2009.  All of the articles can be downloaded from the Law Review’s website.  Here are the contents:

• Criminal Appeals: Past, Present, and Future , by Chad M. Oldfather and Michael M. O’Hear
• Stories of Crimes, Trials, and Appeals in Civil War Era Missouri, Frank O. Bowman III
• Scottsboro, by Michael J. Klarman
• A Fair Trial, Not a Perfect One: The Early Twentieth-Century Campaign for the Harmless Error Rule, by Roger A. Fairfax Jr.
• Justice on Appeal in Criminal Cases: A Twentieth-Century Perspective, by Paul D. Carrington
• The Impact of Government Appellate Strategies on the Development of Criminal Law, by Andrew Hessick
• Death Penalty Appeals and Habeas Proceedings: The California Experience, by Gerald F. Uelmen
• Taking Strickland Claims Seriously, by Stephen F. Smith<

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August 23, 2010
For Immediate Release

Women around the world often face similar daily struggles – how to care for their families while maintaining their careers and personal lives. On Thursday, Sept. 2, Utah Valley University will host its annual Women’s Symposium, this year entitled “Women’s Perspectives from Around the Globe.” Women leaders from Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Brazil, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, and Malaysia will offer their perspectives on the unique challenges that women face in today’s world.

“These women are powerful leaders in their own right,” said Rusty Butler, associate vice president for International Affairs & Diplomacy at UVU. “They are former diplomats, professors, entrepreneurs and business women who put their lives on hold so that their husbands can serve their respective countries in senior diplomatic posts.”

The speakers, wives of current and former consuls general and ambassadors to the United States, will explore the challenges, choices and opportunities they face in juggling home, family, careers and diplomatic life.

Susan Madsen, an associate professor of management with UVU’s Woodbury School of Business and a noted international women’s leadership studies scholar, will join Tcholpon Akmatalieva, wife of former Kyrgyz Ambassador Baktybek Abdrisaev and a university professor, to moderate the symposium. In addition to particip

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