Associate Dean John E. Corkery (right) prepares to present Leo Melamed, '55, (left) with the hood that honors him with a doctorate in humane letters. Dean Robert Gilbert Johnston (center) assists in the ceremony at the June 1998 commencement.

The discoveries in the 21^st century will revolutionize life as we know it, despite the somewhat formidable challenges that lay ahead, Leo Melamed told June graduates.

The 1955 John Marshall alumnus gave the commencement audience at McCormick Place a glimpse of 20^th century history. In 1899, few could have fathomed the remarkable changes they would see. The horse and buggy era gave way to cars; the Wright brothers first flight in 1904 revolutionized travel; the first motion picture, "The Count of Monte Cristo" was produced in 1908; Freud's and Einstein's theories evolved; we enjoyed a cultural enlightenment; man walked on the moon in 1973; the atomic theory and the discovery of DNA have revolutionized science.

The century has had its downfalls," Melamed said. Two world wars, the Holocaust and today's repeated ethnic and religious fighting continues to blur our visions for peace. But man has been able to overcome communism, which Melamed called "an unmitigated failure." And it managed to do it because of a 1947 discovery - the transistor - that has brought us to the Digital Age.

"Modern telecommunications capabilities fostered instant mass informational flows in total disregard of internal prohibitions or national boundaries," Melamed reminded the audience. "This proved to be the common denominator for the dramatic upheavals we witnessed. Modern telecom

munications gave everyone the ability to make a stark, uncompromising comparison of political and economic systems. The truth could no longer be hidden from the people."

The Digital era will impact the 21^st century as the industrial revolution did the 19^th and 20^th centuries, Melamed believes.

Now the world is faced with a new phenomenon _ globalization. Melamed predicts people around the world will be wired for constant information and immediate access to business. How we will develop a global society and who will be the United States' competitors remains to be seen. Melamed believes the gap between the "haves" and "have-nots" will widen. "Ultimately, this could produce an explosive condition."

Yet Melamed doesn't hesitate to cross the threshold to the 21^st century. "It would be grand to tell you that we have learned from our mistakes, that we will not repeat them, that only enlightened times await us, but I am afraid that would be a bit pollyannaish," he said. "Still, there has been great progress and the future looks brighter than it ever was, even if somewhat formidable. Indeed," he continued, "if what lies ahead sounds a little scary to you, then you are realistic and have learned well.

"And if as lawyers you see vast challenges and great opportunities, then John Marshall has done a good job. Congratulations and good luck."

The Summer 1998 issue of John Marshall Comment has recently been published .

The Spring 1998 edition of John Marshall Comment is the recipient of the 1998 Chicago Women in Publishing Award for Academic/Literary Journals. The edition will become part of the CWIP's permanent collection, housed at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The magazine's editor-in-chief, Judy Giannetto-Adams, was presented with a Certificate of Excellence at the 25th Annual Awards Reception on Wednesday, June 17. Chicago Women In Publishing's annual awards competition recognizes the achievements of women in the fields of writing, design and production. CWIP is a non-profit professional organization serving Chicago-area women and men in publishing and allied fields. The mission of CWIP is to provide a forum to recognize and promote the advancement of women in all fields of the evolving publishing industry.

The John Marshall Law School has become the first law school in the country to offer an LL.M. degree in Employee Benefits.

The new 24 credit-hour program is designed to help attorneys focus on the design and qualification of employee benefits plans, regulations effecting benefits and tax laws, and legal approaches underlying employee benefits. The program is designed for full-time or part-time students. Lawyers and qualified non-lawyers will be eligible for this program.

The LL.M. is offered under the auspices of The John Marshall Law School's Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits. The American Bar Association acquiesced to the establishment of the LL.M. in Employee Benefits program.

"Due to the continued complexity of employee benefits law, the gap between the knowledge required to succeed and the skill available has expanded," said John Marshall Professor Kathryn Kennedy, who will direct the LL.M. program. "The focus of our LL.M. program in employee benefits is to meet the demand for high quality, yet practical, knowledge required in this area of law."

Professor Kennedy has been teaching employee benefits courses at John Marshall since 1988. Before joining the faculty on a full-time basis in 1996, Kennedy was associated with the employee benefits department of McDermott, Will & Emery and with the actuarial consulting firm of Towers Perrin. She is both an attorney and an actuary.

The John Marshall Law School's Chicago location places the institution in the center of the business district and enables the law school to bring in experts as adjunct professors to share their working knowledge with the graduate students. Teaching in the program will be adjunct professors Joan Brophy of Mayer, Brown & Platt; Martin J. Campanella of McBride, Baker & Coles; Nancy DeBruin of McDonald's Corp.; Steven R. Lifson of McBride, Baker & Coles; and Gregory Stull, formerly with the Internal Revenue Service and now in private practice.

Course offerings will include retirement plan issues; welfare plan issues; executive compensation plans; specialized employee benefits plans; and employee benefits litigation. Classes will be offered both days and evenings, and on Saturdays.

The new LL.M. degree in Employee Benefits will be launched with the Fall 1998 semester beginning Aug. 20. For general information contact Professor Kathryn Kennedy at (312) 427-2737, extension 515. For admission requirements or an application, contact Kathy Winiczay at the Center for Tax Law & Employee Benefits at (312) 987-2380.

Professor Michael Closen

Publications

His article "The Decade of Supreme Court Avoidance of AIDS: Denial of Certiorari in HIV-AIDS Cases and Its Adverse Effects on Human Rights" has just been published in 61 Albany Law Review 897 (1998). It is 90 pages long. Its 690 footnotes set a personal record for Professor Closen.

His casebook, Notary Law and Practice, (1997) received a very favorable review in the ABA's Law Practice Management (Vol. 24, p. 58), where the reviewer variously wrote "to describe the book as complete would be a gross understatement" and the book "is the most comprehensive work ever produced on notary law.

Prof. John D. Ingram

Publications

His article, co-authored with Lynne R. Ostfeld `85, titled "The Distinction Between Accidental Means and Accidental Results in Accidental Death Insurance", 12 Fla. St. U.L. Rev. 1 (1984) was cited in 27 U. of Memphis L. Rev. 745.

Professor Donald Reynolds

Activities

He was invited and participated as a speaker and moderator at a conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, held from June 4-7, 1998. The subject was Intellectual Property in Central and Eastern Europe: The Creation of Favorable Market Preconditions. The co-directors of the Conference were a Professor from the Free University of Berlin and a Member of the Lithuanian Parliament who was formerly the Prime Minister of Lithuania. Professor Reynolds spoke on some relevant aspects of U.S. patent law as they related to Eastern Europeans. There were three U.S. patent lawyers at the Conference and one U.S. businessman. Most of the participants were not lawyers. Those listed as participants included ambassadors from Turkey and Poland and several heads or deputy heads of Patent and Trademark Offices. All of the formerly Iron Curtain countries were represented except for Yugoslavia and its divisions. The major formerly Soviet republics were represented: Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine. One of the workshops included an opportunity to visit a factory manufacturing drugs using biotechnical methods. The printed program gave special thanks to an additional sponsor, Holstein Breweries, makers of premium beer imported from Germany.

Scholarship Winner Congratulated

Mrs. Lee T. Sprague (left) receives special thanks from Kimberly Jo Anderson of The John Marshall Law School who was named the first recipient of the Lucy Sprague Public Service Scholarship. The $25,000 award will help Anderson pay off her law school loans. The Sprague family established the scholarship as a memorial to their daughter who was pursuing her law degree and planning to practice law in the public sector at the time of her murder in December 1996.

Father Accepts Posthumous Law Degree

Judge George R. Sprague (right) accepts the law school diploma of his late daughter, Lucy, from John E. Corkery, associate dean of academic affairs at The John Marshall Law School. The faculty gave its unanimous support to awarding a posthumous degree to Lucy who was murdered in her Chicago apartment in December 1996.