Law faculty's research and expertise shape pandemic response and debate

In 1834, Tulane University was founded as a medical college in the midst of the Spanish flu epidemic. Twelve years later, Tulane Law School opened, and shut down only once, rebuilding in the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

In each circumstance, the Tulane Law community has been proven globally adapted to take on the challenge of the pandemic, and that the knowledge and expertise of its faculty plays a significant role in rising to meet the challenges.

The law school faculty’s expertise and research was front and center this spring addressing the complex crisis at home and abroad, even as our colleagues across the city in the medical school were providing timely advice to stop the spread of the virus.

Some of the more notable efforts included Prof. Kristin Johnson’s warnings that the algorithms of artificial intelligence have the potential to impact the poor disproportionately in the pandemic, both in financial markets and in how basic life-saving treatments are administered.  She was the featured speaker at a Tulane “Plug-In” a series of webinars addressing issues surrounding the pandemic.

"Artificial Intelligence and Pandemic Tracing Technology: Public Health and Human Values" addressed how scientists and policymakers everywhere are looking to Artificial Intelligence to help stop the COVID-19 pandemic.  While AI offers promising new tools for detecting the virus, forecasting its spread, and identifying cures and vaccines, it also has immense power to track those who may have been exposed, to allocate scarce medical supplies, and even to crunch data to decide which patients should receive priority life-saving care. AI raises profound questions of ethics, equity, and privacy. (link)

Prof. Martin Davies, the Director of the Tulane Maritime Law Center has been a global expert addressing liabilities of the cruise industry and shipping companies in the pandemic. As cruise ship passengers fell ill in the early days of the pandemic, Davies was the go-to expert in maritime issues, and his comments appeared across the global spectrum in publications like USAToday and NBCNews. 

He was called on to provide context in cases where passengers wanted to sue cruise lines for negligence after they became ill. His advice: It is unlikely that those seeking damages from cruise lines would be able to prove companies failed to meet the "reasonable care" standard set forth in Supreme Court precedents.

Professor Stephen Griffin, a constitutional law expert, has been busy addressing the role of the federal government and the states in the wake of a pandemic.

Griffin, a constitutional law scholar who, during post-Katrina, wrote about the relationship between the federal government and states in the context of a national crisis, was a sought-after expert all spring to address executive powers issues and the Trump administration’s response.

Griffin wrote a seminal piece on federalism and the COVID pandemic addressing these issues in April. 

“The United States has the highest number of Covid-19 related deaths. Due to the ‘dual’ conception of US federalism and the reluctance of the Trump administration to take the lead, responses have varied across states. This fragmented institutional and policy response raises questions on whether the virtues of federalism conceived for ‘ordinary’ times may be its vice in emergencies, which necessitate an alternative regime with the national government taking a leading and coordinating role,” he posed.

Prof. Gabe Feldman, Director of the Tulane Sports Law Program, was a frequent expert on national media outlets addressing cancelled sports seasons and the issues leagues face in any future reopening plans.

Feldman is one of the leading voices nationally in the area of sports law, routinely speaking on everything from the equal pay for women’s soccer to the compensation of college athletes (he was recently appointed Reporter for the Uniform Law Commission Study on College Athlete Name, Image, and Likeness Issues, which will address the need of states' legislation to protect these young athletes). But this spring, his expertise focused on how the era of social distancing would have broad and ever-changing implications for the sports industry.

He spoke to The New York Times of how the NFL will have to attempt to build teams in the era of social distancing. 

Would the teams demand too much of players?

“Teams try to get every competitive advantage they can get,” Feldman said. “The players may have too much time on their hands, but also the teams could load up the players with too much work.”

Prof. Joel Friendman, Director of Online Legal Programs, launched a partnership with alumna Sarah Robertson (L’89), a veteran employment lawyer now working in San Francisco, to create a series of “pop up” webinars addressing the legal rights of workers affected by the pandemic. Those are geared to help non-lawyers in business manage the crisis.

Prof. Elizabeth Townsend Gard rallied her “quilting army” to mobilize a national effort to make protective masks for health workers and anyone in need. To date, the group she established with a truck driver from Indianapolis built a community of 1,700 crafters and small enterprises all contributing masks to their communities. She held a virtual Homemade Mask Conference over the summer that drew hundreds of participants over two days to address the mask phenomenon and preserve it for history.

Closer to home, Tulane’s legal clinics and clinical faculty have been racing to serve the most vulnerable, from domestic violence victims, to those facing housing discrimination, to protecting children in abusive situations, and offering guidance to those communities affected by air pollution, now tied to higher COVID-19 death rates.

Even as courts closed, clinical faculty continue to devise a path forward to provide timely access to justice for clients.

Prof. Laila Hlass and Immigration Clinic Director Mary Yanik, through an existing immigration law practicum, have been working with students to protect immigrants who have been victims of crime or threatened with deportation. This summer, long-time client of the practicum activist Jose Torres won permisison to stay in the U.S. with his family, and a path to citizenship with their help.