Washington Lawyer - September 2016 - 5

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Welcome to our new-look magazine WORTH READING MEDIA BYTES Where the law intersects with culture and lifestyle. By Sarah Kellogg A POWER VACUUM DRAMA UNFOLDS ON TV & GOVERNMENT GAVEL By Jeffery Leon LET'S CLEAR HURDLES TO VENDING LICENSES to pull themselves Vending is an amazing way for people their American up by their own bootstraps and achieve from Dream. That's why generations of immigrants, have become before the Founding Fathers up to today, One of the biggest vendors upon arriving in this country. in D.C. is hurdles would-be vendors currently face the Between maze. regulatory navigating the Affairs, Department of Consumer and Regulatory of the Department of Health, and the Department must Transportation, these fledgling entrepreneurs go to multiple offices and secure numerous and permits, all while receiving confusing makes contradictory information. That labyrinth it really difficult, if not impossible, for people who to get licensed, particularly immigrants impact may not speak English. The economic of street vending in D.C. is huge, and the District can further encourage opportunity its in the vending industry by streamlining all regulatory culture. This would benefit entrepreneurs, including those who are recent immigrants. Robert Frommer Institute for Justice "That [regulatory] labyrinth makes it really difficult, if not impossible, for people to get licensed, particularly immigrants who may not speak English." 12 RAISE H1-B VISA CAP TO MEET face in bringing A problem that immigration attorneys U.S. is the H-1B highly skilled foreign professionals to the the regular cap visa cap of only 85,000 spots (65,000 for with a U.S. and an extra 20,000 for foreign nationals simply not enough. master's or doctoral degree), which is visa cap was H-1B the years fiscal In six of the last 10 which necessitated reached in the first five business days, have worked for a lottery. Some foreign national chefs Cordon Bleu, 3-Michelin star restaurants, trained at Le but they cannot or been mentored by world-class chefs, not selected enter the U.S. because their petition was increase in a random lottery. Congress needs to highly skilled the category to meet the demand for nationals. foreign selecting Immigration attorneys also struggle with an occupation in the Department of Labor's which Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH), the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services references to decide whether a bachelor's particular a for required is degree occupation. There are several non-traditional or uncommon food service occupations that do not fall under the OOH. For instance, according to the OOH, a "food service manager" does not require a bachelor's degree and is, therefore, DEMAND an H1-B. In these not a specialty occupation eligible for must help types of cases immigration attorneys degree is the employers prove that requiring a bachelor's the industry employer's normal business practice and specialized and standard, or the specific duties are so degree or complex that only someone with a bachelor's analyze the higher can perform the duties. USCIS should 8 CFR criteria for H-1B petitions itemized in statute OOH. 214.2(h)(4)(iii)(A) instead of relying on the Dawn C. Sequeira Legacy Immigration THIS MONTH IN LEGAL HISTORY Laurence Leamer What follows is a battle over the presidential succession process set in place by the Founding Fathers, and a fascinating debate about who can and should inherit the White House after a tragedy of this magnitude. SEPTEMBER 25, 1981 Sandra Day O'Connor is appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first female associate justice on the Court. In fighting domestic terrorism, Laurence Leamer's hero makes SEPTEMBER 24, 1789 the Klan pay - literally By Ronald Goldfarb A constitutional crisis even more devastating than 2000's Bush v. Gore cuts through the new ABC TV series Designated Survivor. The opening episode launches this fall with an explosion that kills the president, vice president, all but one member of the Cabinet, and the Congress during the State of the Union address. MEMBER SPOTLIGHTS The Judiciary Act of 1789 is signed into law by President George Washington, establishing the federal judiciary of the United States. The act also created the position of the U.S. attorney general. There were 3,959 racial terror lynchings in 12 southern Governor George Wallace and the extraordinary states from 1877 to 1950, but none for more 17, 1787 than a SEPTEMBER leadership of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Dees' story quarter century thereafter. Then, on March 21, 1981, lessUnited familiar.States He was a local boy who seemed unlikely The Constitution ofisthe in Mobile, Alabama, a 19-year-old black man was found to grow into a heroic figure. He came from a rural signed during the Constitutional tortured and dead, hanging from a tree. is How and background, supreme easily among the denizens of his local in Philadelphia. Thelived why this act of terror was committed by aConvention group of culture, and focused on making money and cruising defines the branches countryon the man violent racists in response to the acquittallaw of aofblack his motorcycles. He went to law school and gradually of states. the rights by a mostly (11-1) black jury for the murder and government of of a white revolted from the segregationist society around him. police sergeant is the incident Laurence Leamer uses Dees wanted a way to close down the KKK rather than to introduce the life story of Morris Dees, the white merely cope with its individual violent acts of terrorism lawyer who pursued the murderers and bankrupted through individual criminal trials. To do so, he would the Klan, leading to the evolution of the now renowned have to prove a pattern of violence by the United Klans Southern Poverty Law Center. of America, whose "customs, practices and policy was Young readers will learn about some of the notable to advance the goal of white supremacy through events of those times - the rise and fall of Alabama violence," Leamer writes, and that the murder at the What drew you to the food industry practice? for "Some foreign national chefs have worked Cordon 3-Michelin star restaurants, trained at Le SEAN MORRIS Bleu, or been mentored by world-class chefs, @MorrisEsq their because U.S. the enter cannot they but SOLO PRACTITIONER, lottery." RESTAURANT AND petition was not selected in a random SEPTEMBER 2016 * WASHINGTON LAWYER * Actor Keifer Sutherland (Jack Bauer from 24) portrays Tom Kirkman, the Cabinet member (described in the ABC press release as a "low level" secretary) who serves as the "designated survivor" in the event something happens. And something certainly does. Never elected, and fired by the president hours before the attack, Kirkman becomes president to the dismay of his friends and enemies. The set-up sparks an intriguing combination of constitutional quandary, family drama, and global terror conspiracy. (ABC, Wednesdays this fall, 10 p.m.) center of the book the natural consequence of the Klan's practices. In doing so, Dees bankrupted the Klan in a civil trial - something the prosecutions of individuals in criminal trials could never have accomplished. It was an innovative strategy that even Dees' team of lawyers thought unlikely to succeed. But Dees believed in the power of the law. Surrounded by security to guard him and his family, Dees proved himself to be a brilliant legal tactician. The trial gives tremendous insight into our judicial system - both past and present - as it provides a vivid history of racial conflict in America. Ronaldgoldfarb.com DON'T MISS A BEAT: LAWYERING AND RIFFING AT NEW MUSEUM, A PLACE FOR HEALING AMID STORIES OF PAIN Most of us can only dream of being in a rock band, but not the attorney-musicians playing in the annual Law Rocks DC, an epic battle of the bands crewed by D.C. lawyers. Now in its second year, Law Rocks DC is part of the annual conference of the International Bar Association (IBA), raising funds for the IBA Human Rights Institute and local nonprofits. "I think there's a lot of carryover in terms of the skill sets for musicians and lawyers, but, obviously, totally different end products," says Benjamin Christoff, lead guitarist for Buzzard Point Caucus and an associate with McKool Smith. "Both take discipline and practice." Buzzard Point Caucus will play when the fundraising concert lights up the 9:30 Club on September 22. Law Rocks also will stage events in Boston, Istanbul, San Francisco, Sydney, and Tokyo. (lawrocks.org) With the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture on September 24, the slow march toward freedom for African Americans - and the legal and constitutional efforts used to thwart that freedom - is fully on display. The $500 million, 400,000-square-foot museum, located on the National Mall, is designed as a space for healing and reconciliation, but it is also a repository of the nation's constitutional history of tolerating slavery and the fraught aftermath of its rejection. The museum illustrates the tragedy of slavery, its elimination, and the struggle toward freedom through its vast collection of artifacts, from records of slave trades to the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that abolished slavery and the Emancipation Declaration, both signed by President Abraham Lincoln. MICHA EL T. ROBERTS @UCLAFood The museum's 11 exhibitions go beyond the tragic and painful history of slavery in America to explore the profound contributions of African Americans in FOOD U.S. history, politics, culture, AND and war. LAW (nmaahc.si.edu) Designated Survivor Preview Law POLICY PROFESSOR, LOS ANGELES I grew up working on my grandparents' farm, and my dad was a produce broker. The food business was very much a part of my life. I was interested in food as a social issue, and later I got to thinking about it as a legal issue. I got into [food law] before there was a food movement. I had a tremendous amount of pressure from law partners, well-meaning friends, and peers who thought I had lost it. My clients then were high-tech companies, so when I started talking about food, people were looking at me like, "You are crazy." At times, I did think I was. It was very lonely initially. There were times when it became very difficult to stay the course in pursuing food law, a lot of pressure from various walks of life to give all this up, but you have to have a little bit of stubbornness. That's what makes it fun. It's more rewarding when something good happens. Want to know more about Michael? Visit dcbar.org. "At any point you can get that sort of legal running start before going into a law firm and paying $350 or $400 an hour, which is really nice. "That clinic experience gave us an understanding of some of the questions we should be asking when it came time to seek counsel and pay for it." Al Goldberg, founder of the membership-based culinary incubator Mess Hall JOAN McGLOCKTON 36 WASHINGTON LAWYER * SEPTEMBER 2016 * Photo: courtesy of William Morrow * WASHINGTON LAWYER * SEPTEMBER 2016 37 NONPROFIT EXECUTIVE, HEALTHY CHILDHOOD OBESITY, WASHINGT EATING AND ON, D.C. I really fell in love with the whole hospitality world, the service industry. It provides a breadth of sophisticated legal work. There's real estate work. There's employment. There's litigation. There's operations. The people you're serving, you're helping them build memories and have good experiences. For me [at the National Restaurant Association, and now at the Better Business Bureau], being able to help shape how the restaurant industry goes about addressing the childhood obesity issue in a voluntary manner is an exciting opportunity. Children are the future of this country, but look at the statistics saying that children may die before their parents. I'm a parent of two daughters. I want the best for my children and for everyone's children. It's become very meaningful to me to try to make a difference in this arena. BUSINESS LAW, BETHESDA, MARYLAND * WASHINGTON LAUREN BECKER Through college, graduate school, throughout my pre-law school days, I always worked in restaurants. I washed dishes. I tended bar. I bussed tables. I waited tables. I've worked in kitchens. 13 I've been a solo LAWYER * SEPTEMBER 2016 practitioner for six years now, and when I was trying to decide what to focus on I came back to this industry because I knew it, because I loved it. It's an industry where there are a lot of good people working really hard who could use just a little bit of help, particularly from someone who knows their business. GOVERNMENT REGULATORY ATTORNEY AGRICULTURE AND FOOD, WASHINGT , ON, D.C. Aside from people thinking it's funny that I have a cauliflower question and a packaging grapes question on my desk at any given time, I like being a part of where our food comes from, being a part of the process of how farmers operate and how the government supports growing food in our country. Providing fresh food is something that's important to me. It's the role of our government to provide safe, nutritious food for people, and I think that can best be accomplished through regulation. We make sure that the food that gets to grocery stores and restaurants is of a good quality for people to buy. 30 WASHINGTON LAWYER * SEPTEMBER 2016 * Photo: by Tim Coburn * WASHINGTON LAWYER * SEPTEMBER 2016 It all started with you, the D.C. Bar member. You told us you wanted to connect with us and other members in our legal community. You also wanted us to engage you and address key content areas. You wanted to read more member stories in a format enhanced by digital content. The result is the newly redesigned Washington Lawyer magazine in your hands, our first cover-to-cover makeover in more than a decade. Our new visually impactful magazine is rich with information you can use in your practice. Flipping through the pages, you'll immediately notice a change in how we are communicating, from our enhanced visual appearance and bolder design to our more member-centric, digestible content that links to our website and social media channels where we provide more video and audio substance. Recognizing that we have Bar members in all 50 states and more than 80 countries, we set our sights on engaging you wherever you live and work, as well as enhancing the overall value of being a member of the D.C. Bar. The new Washington Lawyer offers interactive features and encourages your input. Put plainly, we want to hear from you through all of the Bar's channels - in our magazine (dcbarvoices@dcbar.org), on our website (dcbar.org), and on social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube). With more than 100,000 D.C. Bar members, it was important for us to talk to you, listen to your needs, and create a magazine that puts you - the member - at the forefront. New sections such as "Our Membership," "Government & Gavel," "Member Spotlights," and "Partners' Perspective" are just a few of the avenues where we feature you and your compelling stories. Other new sections offer tips and news helpful to you and your practice. Our revamped books section, now known as "Worth Reading" and "Media Bytes," has been expanded to cover other mediums such as television, music, radio, and the web. Overall, our new magazine offers a better connection between the printed page and our digital platforms. 31 Cover to cover, we hope you enjoy an enhanced reading experience with our new features and expanded coverage of the D.C., national, and global legal community. We'd love to hear what you think of our new look. Victor Velazquez Chief Operating Officer Jenny L. Martin Editor-In-Chief Contact Us: dcbarvoices@dcbar.org dcbar.org * WASHINGTON LAWYER * SEPTEMBER 2016 5 http://www.dcbar.org http://www.dcbar.org http://www.dcbar.org http://www.dcbar.org/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Washington Lawyer - September 2016