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Temple Alumni Host International Students for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving celebration with Brooke Banville FOX ’09 This Thanksgiving, Temple alumni opened their homes—and hearts—to students in the Master of Laws (LLM) for Foreign-Trained Lawyers program. Joana Gaizelyte-Lacy JD ’09, Brooke Banville FOX ’09, and Temple friend Tricia Neff each hosted international LLM students at their homes to experience the quintessential American holiday. Thunvath Thorng LLM ’23, reflected on his visit with Joana Gaizeyte-Lacy: Frankly, it was a delightful experience to have a Thanksgiving Feast with a local Philadelphia family, especially a Temple Law alum. This American unifying holiday is where family members gather, indulge in a wide range of cuisines, interactively exchange stories, laugh, and more. This exquisite and well-decorated dinner celebration allows me to realistically see and dive deep into American culture and tradition. I sincerely appreciate the alum’s effort in hosting this event, and hopefully, there will be more for next year, and even years ahead. It surely is one of my most memorable nights in America, as an LL.M. student at Temple. Along with Thunvath, other international LLM students spent Thanksgiving …

Why You Should Be Learning More About Compliance & Ethics Right Now

What is compliance & ethics? As a law student, it is impossible to know every legal career path, and compliance and ethics is one path that may seem particularly abstract. As one NYU law professor explains, “The compliance function consists of efforts organizations undertake to ensure that employees and others associated with the firm do not violate applicable rules, regulations or norms. It is a form of internalized law enforcement which, if it functions effectively, can substitute for much (although not all) of the enforcement activities provided by the state.” [1] Put simply, employees in a compliance and ethics role at different organizations work to ensure that their organization and its constituents comply with the applicable laws and regulations. This may entail establishing and enforcing corporate policies to address federal and state laws, holding compliance training sessions for employees at all levels within the organization, and creating an infrastructure for anonymous reporting of violations. Although such a process may resemble what in-house attorneys do, companies are increasingly compartmentalizing the compliance and ethics function into its …

Professor Kenneth Jacobsen Hosts Italian Executives on Philadelphia Cultural Tour

As the fall semester got underway, Professor Kenneth Jacobsen took advantage of the cooling temperatures to host twelve executives from northern Italy on a cultural tour of Philadelphia. They started with a private tour of the National Constitution Center, followed by a private audience with the Honorable Cristiana Mele, the Consul General of Italy in Philadelphia, with whom they discussed strategies for expanding business from their region in Italy to the Philadelphia metropolitan area and other parts of Pennsylvania. The group also enjoyed a presentation by the Honorable Felipe Restrepo, Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, at the US Courthouse on Market Street, on the differences between the state and federal judiciaries in the American legal system. The afternoon was spent on a private guided trolley tour of Philadelphia, with stops at the Art Museum, the Italian Market, the Comcast Tower, and more. The group rounded off their visit at a private meeting with Mayor Kenney in City Hall’s ornamental Reception Hall. The afternoon was spent at the Phillies game, where …

Temple Law Makes History by Designating Election Day as a Day of Civic Service

The American Constitution Society (ACS) is the premiere Progressive Legal Network, with over 200 law school chapters and fifty lawyers’ chapters nationwide. ACS organizes forward-thinking law students and legal professionals to use the law as a force for positive change Did you know that Temple Law students have Election Day off this year? As we all know, democratic institutions in America and around the world are facing unprecedented challenges. It is our duty, and our right, as citizens to rise to face this challenge. The scope of the difficulties can seem overwhelming at times, but the beauty of Democracy is that it rests on the strength of The People as a whole, not any one of us individually. All that Democracy requires to thrive is enough people making a small positive contribution. Our contribution at the American Constitution Society Temple Law Chapter (ACS) in spring, 2022, was leading a campaign to give every Temple Law student the day off on Election Day. We wanted to make it easier for students and faculty to vote, volunteer, …

Alumni Spotlight – Matteo Smacchi LLM ’11, Head of Legal & Compliance, SDA Express Courier, Poste Italiane

Italian alumnus Matteo Smacchi LLM ’11 has long been committed to professional and personal service. After earning the Professor Samuel Gyandoh Award for rendering outstanding service to Temple Law upon his graduation, Matteo has gone on to a distinguished career in the public and private sector. Matteo currently serves as the Head of Legal and Compliance for the SDA Express Courier services within Poste Italiane—one of Italy’s largest companies with over 120,000 employees. He is directly responsible for all legal and compliance oversight of the express courier business unit and distribution activities. In his role, he particularly appreciates the unique opportunity to engage in strategic decision-making for the company and the ability to interact with other professionals who lack legal backgrounds. Prior to his current role at Poste Italiane, Matteo spent eight years working for large, international law firms in Philadelphia and Rome. He then made the decision to transition out of law firm practice. Playing the role of in-house counsel, Matteo first served as the Head of Corporate Affairs at both Banca Generali and …

In their own words: Law students praise Temple Rome summer program

Upon the conclusion of the 4-week study abroad program in Rome, students from Temple University Beasley School of Law, as well as other participant students from partnering law schools, reflected on their personal, professional, and academic experiences in Rome. Among the major benefits of the program, students attested to the professional advantages gained by enrolling in international law courses, arriving at Temple’s Rome campus each morning for class lectures, and living in the “Eternal City.” Emphasizing the value of networking with professors and guest lecturers, Alison Maser (a 2L Temple student) mentioned, “I feel like I have gained invaluable mentors through this experience.” Mariah McGuirk from Albany Law School articulated the intrinsic benefits of studying law abroad, as she experienced advantages inside and outside the classroom: “regardless of what the content is in the classes that we take, the skills we are developing and learning will help us through the rest of our educational career as well as our professional careers.” During the summer term, students engaged with guest lecturers, completed written assignments, delivered oral …

Temple Law Commencement 2022 – Keynote Speaker Leonard Barrack

May 19, 2022 marked the commencement activities for the Class of 2022 and, returning after nearly two years, the Class of 2020. In his keynote remarks, Leonard Barrack LAW ‘68, chair of the law school’s Board of Visitors and member of the university’s Board of Trustees, congratulated the graduates and their families and shared some words of wisdom. I greet you all here today with a special kind of joy and pride. I greet you as a first generation American whose own father came to this country in 1923 from Ukraine with $25 in his pocket. He had so many dreams. Yes, as Emma Lazarus said, he was among those “huddled masses yearning to be free.” Had he not had those dreams – and yes, that courage – I would surely not be standing here before you today. But he did and here I am. Had he not, he would almost certainly have been shot and buried in a mass grave as his own mother and sisters were for the ‘crime’ of being Jewish. So …

Faculty in the Media

In the wake of a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion indicating that the historic Roe v. Wade ruling could be overturned, Temple Law faculty and staff lend their expertise to national media conversations surrounding this unprecedented development. Interim Dean Rachel Rebouché | Rolling Stone | If the leaked opinion overturning Roe becomes law, it “will have bent the moral arc of the universe backward,” writes interim Dean Rachel Rebouché and co-authors David S. Cohen and Greer Donley in Rolling Stone. Click to read. Interim Dean Rachel Rebouché | Bloomberg Law | Justice Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs would subject laws regulating abortion to rational basis review. Interim Dean Rachel Rebouché explains what that means and how it might apply. Click to read. Interim Dean Rachel Rebouché | Washington Examiner | Returning abortion regulation to the states will invite laws that disrupt longstanding interstate cooperation, says interim Dean Rachel Rebouché. Click to read. Professor Craig Green | The Philadelphia Inquirer | Justice Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs may have roots in his very first opinion, a …

Shannon McGuire LAW '21 stands in front of a large waterfall

Studying Abroad at Del Rosario University in Bogotá, Colombia

In Fall of 2018, Shannon McGuire LAW ’19 completed a semester-long study abroad program at our Temple Law partner school, Del Rosario University in Bogotá, Colombia. I went to Rosario with an interest in seeing how Colombia was handling the Venezuelan refugee crisis, to learn more about human rights law, and to improve my Spanish language skills. I left Bogota having achieved each of those goals but also having made lifelong friends, having acquired an addiction to arepas de yuca and yellow dragon fruit, and having gained a deeper understanding and admiration for a peace process that transitioned a country from decades of internal conflict to a new horizon that aimed to uphold the rule of law while rehabilitating offenders and giving victims a voice. I cried seeing exhibits of paramilitary slaughters of Colombian villages. I debated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with my classmates in my Anthropology of Violence and Conflict class. I hid my face every time we learned about yet another Latin American country where the U.S. meddled in their domestic affairs during the Cold War era (and …

Photo of a woman, Angela Sanchez, sitting at a desk with a book smiling

Angela Sánchez LLM ’03 – How Temple Law Shaped Her Career

After practicing in Colombia for nearly a decade, I attended Temple’s LL.M. program in 2003 and specialized in taxation. I passed the New York Bar exam in 2006 and am now a tax partner in PricewaterhouseCooper’s Tax & Legal Services Department in Colombia. In the past several years, legal professionals in Colombia are expected to have earned an LL.M. in the United States. I now understand why. Earning an LL.M. at Temple was a key professional and personal challenge for me, and it enabled me to prove to myself that I could adapt to a different educational style and then practice law in the global context. The professors’ teaching style is excellent and unlike any that I had experienced in Colombia. I now use my LL.M. degree to advise on a wide range of international tax matters. After graduation, I first worked at Deloitte in New York City, an opportunity I never would have had without the LL.M. International tax matters require an understanding of the different tax law systems, which I was able to …