This Special Edition of the Monday Morning Message is called CSU/LAW Faculty/Staff Focus. We are very fortunate to have outstanding full-time, adjunct, and emeritus faculty, leaders-in-residence, and staff. I am pleased to share regular updates on their excellent scholarship, presentations, teaching, and service.
Faculty
Professor Debbie Hoffman spearheaded the effort to bring FIN 493: Mortgage Origination and Processing to Cleveland State University in partnership with the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and major industry leaders, including Rocket Mortgage and Union Home Mortgage. Offered through the Monte Ahuja College of Business, it is the first accredited undergraduate course in the U.S. focused exclusively on residential mortgage lending. Professor Hoffman now leads the course as its instructor. More details can be found in the MBA’s press release and a recent HousingWire feature.
Professor Laura Hoffman presented at the AALS 2025 Meeting/Conference on Wednesday, January 8th for a panel she also planned as the Program Chair of the AALS Section on Law and Mental Disability titled "Legal Solutions to Combatting America’s Mental Health Crisis." Professor Hoffman focused her contribution to the panel on the mental health needs of the aging population. Professor Hoffman has since been promoted to Chair of the Section of Law and Mental Disability for 2025-26. She has also been made the Chair-Elect for the Section on Law Professors with Disabilities and Allies. She also has been appointed to the Executive Committee for the AALS Section on Children and the Law.
Professor Christa Laser presented a chapter of her work-in-progress book, Intangible: How Intellectual Property Affects Our Lives from Drugs to Startups to Taylor Swift and Why Recipe Blogs Are So Darn Long, at AALS. The chapter focuses on how we can adapt laws for approval of drugs to incentivize high-efficacy non-novel compounds as much as novel, patentable compounds. She also presented her work Scientific Educations Among U.S. Judges, which is forthcoming this spring in American University Law Review. A draft is available here: https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=4764194
Professor Brian Ray co-authored an Op Ed in Crain’s Cleveland Business on the ways that Cleveland State University Faculty are incorporating AI into teaching and research. He also appeared on the National Public Radio program LAist to discuss legal and policy issues related to the TikTok ban and was quoted extensively in a news article discussing the recent cyber attack on several national grocery store chains owned by Ahold Delhaize.
Professor Milena Sterio participated as an expert in the peace negotiations and mediation training for a cohort of Kenyan Foreign Ministry Affairs diplomats in Nairobi, Kenya, from January 20-24. The training program is financed by the U.S. Department of State; this was Professor Sterio's third trip to Nairobi. The training focused on international law issues related to negotiating and mediating peace agreements. Professor Milena Sterio also was cited in two media articles about the threat of U.S. sanctions against the International Criminal Court by the new Trump Administration: "Can the ICC Survive the U.S. Sanctions? (Part I)" and "Can the ICC Survive the U.S. Sanctions? (Part II)" The articles discuss the likelihood that President Trump will impose sanctions against the ICC. Professor Sterio also was quoted extensively about her role as co-plaintiff in a lawsuit which had challenged the first Trump Administration's imposition of sanctions against the ICC back in 2020 (Professor Sterio and her co-plaintiffs were successful in their lawsuit as they won a preliminary injunction against the first Trump Administration in early 2021; the first Trump Administration's sanctions were revoked by the Biden Administration in 2021 and the lawsuit was dismissed).
Dean Lee Fisher was named President of Baldwin Wallace University. He will continue to serve as Dean of CSU Law until June 30, and will start his new position on July 1, 2025. He wrote a column, The Secret Sauce of Economic Success: The Talent Dividend, in Community Leader, a publication of Cleveland Magazine. Sonali Wilson, VP of Legal Affairs & Compliance, General Counsel and Board Secretary at Cleveland State University interviewed Dean Fisher in the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association (CMBA) Bar Journal about how the 2023 Supreme Court Case, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, has affected CSU Law. See page 16 in the digital version: JanFeb25_BarJournal. Dean Fisher was appointed to the Marshall Project Cleveland Advisory Committee. The Marshall Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that covers the US criminal justice system.
Dean Fisher released a new episode of his podcast, Living Justice, Living Leadership Podcast: Marc Morgenstern, author, The Soul of the Deal. In January 2025, as Chair of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) Section on Leadership, Dean Fisher spoke on a panel, The Courageous Intersection of Leadership Education, Professional Responsibility, and Professional Identity Formation, at the AALS Annual Meeting. On February 11, he spoke at the Portrait Dedication Ceremony of retired Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Brown ’79 at the Ohio Supreme Court. On February 14, Dean Fisher moderated a panel discussion at the Cleveland City Club about the economic, cultural, and social importance of American cities with the authors of The Case for Cities. Dean Fisher wrote the foreword of the book. See The Case for Cities | The City Club of Cleveland | February 14, 2025. On February 25, Dean Fisher spoke at the Annual Meeting of United Cerebral Palsy (UCP). Each year for the past 35 years, he has presented the Boots Fisher Awards, named after his late mother, at the UCP Annual Meeting. On February 28, he spoke about leadership to the Leadership and Innovation Fellows for Transformation (LIFT) of the Cleveland State University Beth E. Mooney Center for Transformative Leadership.
Leaders-in-Residence
Legal Educator-in-Residence Howard E. Katz participated on a panel sponsored by the Section on Property at the AALS Annual Meeting held in San Francisco in January. The session was titled “Property Pedagogy – Stuff You’ll Want to Steal.” Howard was selected to serve on the executive committee of the Section on Teaching Methods; he also continues to serve on the executive committees of the Section on New Law Teachers and the Section on Property.
Emeriti Faculty
Professor April Cherry, Professor Lauren Collins and Senior Legal Writing Professor Claire C. Robinson May were appointed emeritus faculty by the Cleveland State University Board following their retirements from the law faculty in December.
Adjunct Faculty
Adjunct Professor Matthew Fitzimmons has been selected as an Ohio Super Lawyer in Business Litigation for 2025.
Adjunct Professor Douglas H. Meal published the article, Booing Bohnak: How the Second Circuit Dropped the Article III Ball in Analyzing Standing in Class Actions Arising from Cyberattacks, 16 Case W. Res. J.L. Tech. & Internet 1 (2025). This article examines the Second Circuit's decision in Bohnak v. Marsh & McLennan Cos., which represents a pivotal development in the interpretation of Article III standing in the context of cyberattack class actions. The court's principal ruling, which held that mere unauthorized access to personal information by reason of a cyberattack constitutes a concrete injury sufficient for standing, marks a significant departure from prior jurisprudence and misinterprets the Supreme Court's seminal Article III decision in TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez.
Adjunct Professor Gary C. Norman had his article, Conversation in my Parlor About Climate Change and the Call to Thoughtful Service by Lawyers with Disabilities, accepted for publication by the Cleveland State University Journal of Law and Health. He spoke at the journal’s healthcare law symposium that took place on January 17, 2025, proposing a long-term study of the heart health of female law students, and as a specific sub-focus, female law students with disabilities. He also has an entry on service animals and the law that will be published later this year in a global encyclopedia on animal law. Professor Norman also co-spoke at the annual conference held on January 22, 2025, by the Institute for Wellness in Law.
Have a great day. Have a great week.
The views and opinions expressed in my Monday Morning Message are solely my own and do not reflect the views and opinions of the law school or the university.
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My best,
Lee