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Tulane Law Connection April 2017: From the Dean's Suite

April 17, 2017 4:49 AM

This month, on the same day, “60 Minutes” featured Tulane Law Prof. Pam Metzger’s work in freeing a wrongfully accused man from jail, and The Washington Post ran an op-ed by Prof. Marjorie Kornhauser describing her work with a team of Tulane Law students to promote basic tax literacy in the New Orleans public schools.

The “60 Minutes” episode focused on the crisis in indigent defense in Orleans Parish, using the case of Donald Gamble as a frightening example. After Mr. Gamble languished in jail for months without legal representation from the overtaxed public defenders office, a court appointed Prof. Metzger to step in.  It took her about five hours’ work reviewing the file to determine that Mr. Gamble could not possibly have committed the Bourbon Street armed robbery for which he was arrested. Charges were dropped, and he was freed the next day.

The Washington Post piece focused on the importance of basic public understanding of the tax system to democratic discourse on tax policy and reform. It spotlighted the work of Prof. Kornhauser and a team of Tulane Law students who have fanned out into New Orleans’ charter high schools to teach young people about the ways in which choices about tax policy shape their future opportunities. The goal of her first-of-its-kind “TaxJazz” initiative is to create a national model for integrating tax literacy into basic education.

These are just two examples of the ways in which Tulane Law faculty are reshaping the world through their research and public engagement. Whether it’s connecting the Tulane Corporate Law Institute, the world’s leading gathering of mergers and acquisitions lawyers, with a scholarly forecast of the future of securities regulation in the Trump era (as Prof. Ann Lipton led) or advising on financing options for a plan to save Louisiana’s coast (through a white paper authored by Prof. Mark Davis and Dean Boyer of Tulane Law’s Institute on Water Resources Law & Policy), Tulane Law faculty daily apply their expertise to help tackle society’s most pressing challenges.

It is a central reason why I am, every day, so proud of the amazing Tulane Law family.