Nancy J. Thompson has accepted the position of assistant dean for Career Services at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago. She comes to the position with extensive law firm, corporate legal, and regulatory policy experience.

After graduating with honors from George Washington University's National Law Center in 1987, Thompson was an associate with the firm Reed Smith Shaw & McClay in Washington, D.C., where she was a member of the telecommunications practice group representing clients before the Federal Communications Commission, state commissions, federal courts and Congress.

She left that position to serve as a Congressional Fellow with Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg advising him on communications and other legislation. From 1993 to 1997, Thompson was an attorney for COMSAT Corporation, a global communications company headquartered in Bethesda, Md.

Before joining John Marshall's staff, Thompson was executive director, Merger Compliance, with SBC Communications Inc., following the SBC/Ameritech merger in 1999 and 2000. She had previously served as director, Regulatory Policy, for the cable, cellular and advertising services divisions of Ameritech.

Thompson is a member of the Federal Communications Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Association, and is a past forum co-chair of the Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia.

Guangliang Zhang, a judge at the Intellectual Property Tribunal of Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court in the People's Republic of China, earned an LL.M. degree in Intellectual Property Law at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago as a visiting scholar during the 2000-2001 school year.

The China Scholarship Council awarded him a grant to study intellectual property law in the United States for one year. In that time, he was able to complete John Marshall's nationally recognized LL.M. program, offered by the Center for Intellectual Property Law.

"The John Marshall Law School, and especially its IP program, is well known in the IP circle of China," Zhang said. "The professors here are excellent, the facilities are very good, and I really have learned what I expected. Thanks to the valuable help from Dean (Robert Gilbert) Johnston, the directors of the Center (for Intellectual Property Law), Dorothy Li, director of the library, and Professor Janice Mueller, my academic advisor, I could finish my program in two semesters and graduate with honors," he continued.

Zhang is the author of The English-Chinese and Chinese-English Intellectual

Property Protection Dictionary and Issues and Cases in Intellectual Property Enforcement, co-author of Analysis of Well-Known Intellectual Property Cases, and has had more than 50 articles and papers on intellectual property published in China.

Zhang earned a bachelor's degree in English language and literature from Anhui University in Hefei, China, in 1992. In 1994, he earned an LL.B. in intellectual property law at the People's University of China Law School. He is also a current candidate for a Ph.D. in intellectual property law at Peking University Faculty of Law.

He earned his bar qualification of the People's Republic of China in 1993, and his judge qualification in 1995.

Zhang is currently writing an article on remedies for patent, which he prepared for an independent study course at John Marshall. The completed article will be included in the newly established John Marshall Intellectual Property Law Review, an on-line publication presenting articles and papers on patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret law.

Professor Michael L. Closen

Publications

Three of his articles have recently been cited in 27 Rutgers Computer and Technology Law Journal at 1 (2001), and they are (1) "Document Authentication in Electronic Commerce," 17 John Marshall Journal of Computer and Information Law 833 (1999), co-authored with John Marshall alum John Anderson; (2) "Notaries Public Lost In Cyberspace . . .," 15 John Marshall Journal of Computer and Information Law 703 (1997), coauthored with John Marshall alum Jason Richards; and (3) "Conflicts of Interest in Document Authentication by Attorney Notaries in Illinois," 87 Illinois Bar Journal 320 (June 1999), coauthored with John Marshall alum Thomas Mulcahy.

Professor John D. Ingram

Publications

His article, "Puerto Rican Independence: Whose Choice? The People of Puerto Rico or the United States Government?" has been published by the Law Review of Michigan State University - Detroit College of Law.

His article, "Liability of an Attorney for Fees of Suppliers of Services", has been accepted for publication in the Illinois Bar Journal.

Professor Michael P. Seng

Activities

He was selected by the Fannie Mae Foundation to serve as a reader for the 2001 - 2002 Maxwell Awards of Excellence for the Production of Affordable Housing. Twelve persons active in the not-for-profit housing community from around the country met at the Foundation's offices in Chicago on July 9 to score applications submitted by housing developers from across the country for the Maxwell Award that honors not-for-profit corporations for their development of innovative affordable housing projects for low-income persons.

On July 12, he gave a three-hour lecture to twenty-nine municipal officials from Changchun, China about the American constitutional system. The group is visiting UIC for four months on an educational exchange program. Professor Seng also explained the American system of educating lawyers and compared it to the Chinese system.

On July 13, he and Clinical Professor Damian Ortiz met with Brazilian Judge, Dr. Jose Conti. The visit was arranged by the International Visitors Center of Chicago. Dr. Conti works with the Center for Integrated Social Services in Sao Paulo, which works to improve the access to justice for the disadvantaged. He is a former Assistant Professor at the University of Sao Paulo Law School. Professors Seng and Ortiz explained the operation of The John Marshall Law School Fair Housing Legal Clinic and how it provides access to justice for persons who suffer housing discrimination in the United States.

Jeffrey Catanzaro, a third-year student at The John Marshall Law School, has been appointed a member of the American Bar Association's Presidential Commission on Loan Forgiveness and Repayment.

The commission will examine law graduates' debt burdens and the extent to which debt impeded graduates' ability to pursue and remain in public service legal careers.

The commission will identify and consider various approaches to address the debt burden issue. One approach could include federal or state legislation extending support to law students who enter public service, as well as promoting law school and private sector support of loan repayment assistance programs.

Catanzaro, 7th Circuit Governor for the American Bar Association's Law Student Division, will be one of 10 committee members. The committee will meet between Sept. 1, 2001 and Aug. 31, 2002 hearing a full range of ideas about law school loan repayment and forgiveness.

July 25

Graduate Program in Real Estate Law Information Session, Room 1203, 5:30 p.m.

July 26

AIDS Foundation Program, Room 120, 9:00 a.m.