Faculty

You can achieve the LLM in Transnational Business Practice degree in three different ways. One is through two semesters of study on the Pacific McGeorge campus in Sacramento; another is through the collaborative program that entails one semester of study at Pacific McGeorge and one semester at the University of Salzburg; and the third is through a semester of study in Sacramento, coupled with an internship semester consisting of six weeks of pre-internship seminars in Sacramento, and a ten- to twelve-week internship with an international law firm in one of about 40 countries.

Because there are three tracks leading to the same degree, there are also three different groups of distinguished international faculty. These include the international faculty at Pacific McGeorge; the international faculty at the University of Salzburg; and the pre-internship faculty, which consists of distinguished practitioners, academics and judges from a variety of countries. The backgrounds and achievements of the various professors who teach in each of these three tracks are shown below.

Pacific McGeorge Sacramento International Faculty:

Linda E. Carter
Professor of Law, University of the Pacific
B.A. University of Illinois
J.D. University of Utah College of Law

Professor Carter has taught criminal law courses at Pacific McGeorge for 20 years. She is a well recognized expert in domestic and international criminal law and criminal procedure. In the last few years, her research has mainly focused on international issues. Professor Carter’s research took her to Rwanda in July 2005, where she studied the Gacaca proceedings that are lay tribunals hearing genocide cases. The following month she lectured at a workshop on the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. In January 2006, Professor Carter was a Co-Director of the Brandeis Institute for International Judges that held a program on Complementarity and Cooperation: Challenges for International Justice held in Dakar, Senegal. Immediately following the Institute, she participated in a Brandeis-sponsored colloquium for judges from West African countries, leading a session on international law and the death penalty. And in April 2006, she was moderator of a panel on the application of international models in a conference on wrongful convictions in Los Angeles. In addition, Professor Carter is an active member of the Globalizing the Law School Curriculum effort. She is co-authoring GLOBAL ISSUES IN CRIMINAL LAW as part of the “Global Issues” series of book published by Thomson- West, which will be available in early 2007. Before joining Pacific law faculty 20 years ago, Professor Carter worked for two and a half years as a trial attorney for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department. She then spent four years as a trial attorney with the Salt Lake City Legal Defender Association, trying a wide variety of criminal cases from theft to murder.

 

Omar Dajani
Assistant Professor of Law
B.A., Northwestern University
J.D., Yale Law School

Omar M. Dajani's legal, political, and diplomatic skills have placed him squarely in the center of one of the world's most troubled regions: the Middle East. As advisor to United Nations Special Envoy Terje Roed-Larson from 2001 to 2003, Professor Dajani was intimately involved in a range of multilateral initiatives to foster peace in the region, including the Middle Wast Roadmap. He also played a lead role in marshalling and organizing international efforts to support Palestinian legal and political reforms, and represented the U.N. in donor groups supporting Palestinian elections, the development of rule of law, and civil society mobilization. Prior to joining the UN, Professor Dajani was Senior Legal Advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team in peace talks with Israel. In that capacity, he gained unique experience in preparing and negotiating complex agreements covering a variety of contested matters including borders, security, law enforcement, trade and financial issues. Professor Dajani's private sector experience includes work at the Washington, D.C. offices of Sidley & Austin and Steptoe & Johnson. In 1997 he clerked for Judge Dorothy Nelson of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, in Pasadena, Calif. At Yale Law School, Professor Dajani was General Director of the Lowenstein International Human Rights Law Project.

Courses: Foreign Investment and Development, International Organizations, and Immigration & Nationality

 

Marjorie Florestal
Associate Professor of Law
B.A., J.D., New York University

Marjorie Florestal brings her considerable talents and scholarship to bear on one of the most difficult challenges in the world trade arena: the economic development of Africa. Most recently, she served as Senior Legal Advisor working with the Cape Verde government to prepare that country to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). She has been a Visiting Researcher in Africa, lecturing at a number of institutions, working with the African Development Bank to mainstream trade issues in their lending practices and to train African trade officials on substantive aspects of WTO law, and publishing a variety of articles on international trade issues. At the invitation of the State Department, Professor Florestal has designed and implemented programs in Nigeria and Ethiopia working with those governments on good governance issues and integrating developing countries into the world trading system. Previously, Professor Florestal was Managing Attorney for Africa in the Commercial Law Development Program at the U.S. Department of Commerce. There she administered a multimillion dollar technical assistance program in North and West Africa implementing a range of training programs on commercial legal reform and the WTO Agreement. From 1998 to 2000 she was Assistant General Counsel in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, where, as lead attorney and head of the U.S. delegation for safeguards measures, she presented arguments before WTO dispute settlement panels.

Courses: EU law, and Advanced International Trade Law

 

Franklin A. Gevurtz
Distinguished Professor and Scholar, University of the Pacific
B.S., University of California, Los Angeles
J.D., University of California, Berkeley

In addition to his teaching and writing as a Distinguished Professor and Scholar at Pacific McGeorge, Professor Gevurtz is the Director of the Pacific McGeorge Institute for Global Business - part of the Pacific McGeorge Center for Global Business and Development. In this role, he is spearheading a revolutionary effort to “globalize” the curriculum throughout legal education in the United States. This includes acting as the Series Editor for the “Global Issues” series of books published by Thomson-West, which are designed to facilitate the introduction of international and comparative law issues in core law school courses. Professor Gevurtz’ principal area of scholarship and teaching is in corporate and business law. His treatise, CORPORATION LAW, is widely read and cited both in the United States and abroad. He is also well-known for authoring the casebook, BUSINESS PLANNING (now in its third edition) - which is by far and away the dominant book used to teach this course in law schools throughout the United States. Merging his background in corporate law, with global business, Professor Gevurtz authored the book, GLOBAL ISSUES IN CORPORATE LAW as part of the Global Issues series. Professor Gevurtz also has written numerous law review articles, including on topics of foreign corruption, and comparative corporate and securities laws. He has taught or lectured in Athens, London, Nancy (France), Salzburg and Seoul, and has been a visiting professor at the law schools of the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall), and the University of California, Davis. Prior to joining the Pacific McGeorge faculty in 1982, Professor Gevurtz practiced with the internationally recognized law firm of O’Melveny and Myers in Los Angeles.

Courses:   Antitrust, Agency and Unfair Trade Practices

 

Thomas Orin Main
Professor of Law
B.A. Grinnell College
J.D. Northeastern Univ. School of Law

Professor Main is an expert in the field of domestic and international civil procedure with numerous publications including Civil Procedure: Doctrine, Practice, and Context (Aspen), a leading casebook in the field that is now in its second edition. A second book, Global Issues in Civil Procedure (West), is the first of a series of books intended to globalize the law school curriculum. In addition, he is co-authoring a book with Professor Stephen McCaffrey, Transnational Litigation in Comparative Perspective, which will be published by Oxford University Press. Professor Main has taught domestic and international procedure courses at Pacific McGeorge since 2000, and has also taught as a visiting professor at law schools at the University of Salzburg, Florida State University, Yeshiva University (Cardozo), and University of California, Davis. Prior to his academic career, Professor Main was a litigator in the trial department at Hill & Barlow in Boston, Massachusetts, and was the Associate General Counsel at Platinum Equity. He clerked for Judge Ruggero J. Aldisert of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

 

Dr. Michael P. Malloy
Distinguished Professor and Scholar, University of the Pacific
J.D., University of Pennsylvania
Ph.D., Georgetown University

An internationally recognized expert on bank regulation and on economic sanctions, Dr. Malloy received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. from Georgetown University. He has served as a Research Associate at the Institute of International Law & Economic Development in Washington, D.C., as an attorney-adviser with the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control and with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and as Special Counsel (Disclosure and Enforcement Policy) at the Securities and Exchange Commission. In 1982, he entered law teaching as an assistant professor of law at New York Law School, and later served as professor of law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Seton Hall University School of Law. From 1987-1996, he was professor of law at Fordham University School of Law, where he also served as Director of Graduate Studies. He joined the Pacific McGeorge Faculty in 1996. In May 2000, the University of the Pacific honored him as its Distinguished Faculty of the Year. Malloy is a frequent consultant to the federal government on issues involving bank regulatory policy and international economic sanctions. In addition to his many scholarly articles, he has authored or edited over 70 books and book-length supplements in such fields as banking regulation, economic sanctions, international banking and public international law.

Courses: International Banking, International Trade

 

Christine Manolakas
Professor of Law, University of the Pacific
B.A., University of Southern California
J.D., Loyola University, Los Angeles
LLM in Taxation, New York University

Professor Manolakas has been teaching tax law at Pacific McGeorge for more than 20 years. Her recent scholarship has focused on issues relating to international tax law, the interpretation of tax treaties, and a comparison of the tax systems of the NAFTA countries. Most recently, she has co-authored five articles with Catherine Brown, a law professor at the University of Calgary. Other publications include articles on federal tax law and chapters in two treatises: Tax Factors in Real Estate Operations and Family Law in the United States. She oversees the off-campus tax law externships for students with the Internal Revenue Service, the Franchise Tax Board, the State Board of Equalization, and the state Attorney General's Business and Tax Division.

Course: Taxation (U.S.) of International Transactions

 

Stephen McCaffrey
Distinguished Professor and Scholar, University of the Pacific
B.A., University of Colorado
J.D., University of California, Berkeley
Dr. iur., University of Cologne, Germany

Professor McCaffrey, one of the world's foremost experts on international water resources law, is a former chairman of the International Law Commission. As the ILC's "special rapporteur" for international watercourses, he guided the ILC's work that formed the basis of the 1997 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational uses of International Watercourses. The treaty is designed to ensure the equitable use of waters shared by more than one country. Professor McCaffrey currently serves as legal consultant to the Nile River Basin Cooperative Framework, a UN-sponsored project to forge a multinational agreement on utilization of the Nile's water resources. A frequent international traveler, McCaffrey has argued in front of The World Court, taught environmental law courses in German at Swiss universities, advised the State Department, and represented foreign governments in river-use disputes. A member of the Pacific McGeorge faculty since 1977, he has published several books and more than 50

Courses: Conflict of Laws, International Water Resources Law Seminar, The Law of Treaties, Transnational Litigation

 

Gregory S. Weber
Professor of Law
A.B., Williams College
J.D., University of California, Hastings

Professor Weber has two principal research interests: dispute resolution processes and natural resources law. Much of his current work looks at the intersection of those two research interests. At McGeorge, he co-founded and heads the Institute for Sustainable Development, a program focused on transnational natural resources issues. Greg is also an associate mediator with the Center for Collaborative Policy, where he has helped mediate complex natural resources disputes. As an environmental law advisor, he has studied forestry disputes in Mexico for the World Wildlife Fund and in Canada for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Currently, he is leading a project to revise the FSC dispute resolution protocol which he wrote while on academic sabbatical in Oaxaca, Mexico. He is also researching the Friendly Settlement practices in the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter American Court of Human Rights. He has trained Chilean prosecutors and defenders in negotiation skills. Before joining the McGeorge faculty, he clerked for Justice Edmond Burke, Alaska Supreme Court, practiced with a leading California water resources law firm, and was a senior attorney for the California Court of Appeal. He is a co-founder of the California Water Law and Policy Reporter. Greg has published more than a half-dozen law review articles, mostly on water resources law. He has also co-authored four books, including one on civil pretrial procedure, two on Water Resources Law and one on the Law of Hazardous Wastes and Toxic Substances. Greg speaks and reads Spanish.

Course: Alternative Dispute Resolution

 

Kojo Yelpaala
Professor of Law, University of the Pacific
B.L., LL.B., University of Ghana
M.B.A., Bowling Green State University
Msc., S.J.D., University of Wisconsin

Professor Yelpaala is an expert in international business law who is fluent in three languages. He was a state attorney for three years in his native Ghana. Professor Yelpaala was a lecturer in law at the University of Wisconsin before coming to Pacific McGeorge in 1981. Professor Yelpaala has edited books and law review articles in such topics as the Lome Conventions, foreign direct investment, licensing agreements, drafting and enforcing contracts, international conflicts of laws, global product distribution and several other topics. At Pacific McGeorge, he has been an advisor to International Moot Court and The Transnational Lawyer. Professor Yelpaala is a consultant on various aspects of international business transactions and industrial policy to several foreign governments.

Courses: Advanced International Business Transactions, Antitrust, Transnational Litigation, Conflict of Laws, Foreign Investment and Development

 

University of Salzburg International Faculty who regularly teach in the collaborative LLM in Transnational Business Practice program (Please note that our faculty could change before the semester begins.)

Dr. Thomas Eilmansberger
Professor of Law, University of Salzburg
J.D., DPh., University of Salzburg
MAES, College of Europe

Professor Eilmansberger is head of the Institute for European Law at the University of Salzburg and member of the Austria's Federal Procurement Review Commission. Before returning to the Law Faculty in Salzburg in 2000 he was a Fulbright Scholar visiting professor at Southwestern University School of Law. Professor Eilmansberger also served as resident counsel for the international law firm Bruckhaus Westrick Heller Löber (now Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer) in Brussels, where he represented the European Commission in a number of cases before the European Court of Justice. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on European economic law and has taught for several summers in Pacific McGeorge's Institute on International Legal Studies in Salzburg.

Course: European Law III

 

Dr. Josef Azizi
Professor of Law, University of Vienna
Senior Lecturer, Vienna School of Economics
B.A., J.D., DPh., University of Vienna

Professor Azizi has served as a judge at the Court of First Instance, the European Court of Justice's junior court, since 1995 following Austria's admission to the European Union. He was formerly Ministerialrat and Head of Department at the Austrian Federal Chancellery. He is a member of the Steering Committee on Legal Co-operation of the Council of Europe. He has served as representative ad litem before the Verfassungsgerichtshof in proceedings concerning the scrutiny of legislation. Professor Azizi is the coordinator responsible for the adaptation of Austrian Federal law to Community law.

Course: European Law I

 

Dr. Peter Oliver
Legal Advisor, EC Commission
B.A., J.D., Ph.D., Cambridge University

Professor Oliver has spent nearly all his professional life in the Legal Service of the European Commission, where he has worked in a number of fields (free movement of goods, agriculture and fisheries, external relations, structural funds and, currently, competition). He also spent three years as legal assistant to Sir Gordon Slynn, the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice. Professor Oliver has published nearly 50 works on Community law, notably the free movement of goods. His most well-known publication is Free Movement of Goods in the European Community (4th .ed., 2002).

Course: Common Market Law

 

Dr. Kurt Heller
B.A., J.D., DPh., University of Vienna
Justice, Austrian Constitutional Court

Honorary Professor Heller has been Justice of the Austrian constitutional Court since 1979. He is a former partner in the Vienna international law firm of Heller & Löber, now Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. The author of numerous books and articles with emphasis on constitutional law and arbitration, he teaches at the Universities of Linz and Vienna. Honorary Professor Heller also was past president and member of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law, past member of the Austrian delegation to the Commission on International Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, member of the Board of The International Arbitral Centre of the Federal Economic Chamber in Vienna, and member of the Board of the Association of Comparative Law.

Course: Economic Fundamental Rights

 

Dr. Gudrun Zagel
Assistant Professor of Law, University of Salzburg
J.D., Ph.D, University of Salzburg; LLM, Texas School of Law

Dr. Zagel is Assistant Professor at the Department of International Law at the University of Salzburg. She received her legal education from the University of Salzburg, Law School as well as from the University of Texas, School of Law at Austin, where she was a Fulbright Scholar. In 1998, she was working as consultant at the Office of the Legal Advisor of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dr. Zagler is a member of the Austrian delegation at the Ad hoc Committee for the Negotiation of a UN Convention against corruption and consultant editor for the second edition of Smith/Herzog, "European Union Law". She is the author of a treatise and numerous articles on international economic law and has taught for several years at the University of Salzburg, School of Law and at Pacific McGeorge's Institute on International Legal Studies in Salzburg.

Course: International Trade Law

 

Dr. Michael F. Lagler
Attorney at Law
J.D., Ph.D., University of Salzburg; LLM, Pallas Consortium (Netherlands)

Dr. Lagler is a practicing attorney with the firm Schoenherr & Partner in Vienna. He graduated from the University of Salzburg and holds a master degree in European Business Law from Pallas Consortium, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Dr. Lagler was admitted to the Austrian bar in 2001 and specializes in mergers & acquisitions; corporate takeovers, landlord and tenant law, and real estate law.

Course: International Mergers and Acquisitions (with a special focus on Eastern Europe), together with M. Ebner

 

Martin Ebner
Attorney at Law
J.D., University of Salzburg; LLM, Pallas Consortium (Netherlands)

Martin Ebner practices law with Schoenherr & Partner in Vienna. He was admitted to the Austrian bar in 2002. His practice focuses on banking, structured finance, project finance, capital markets, and derivative financial instruments. Martin Ebner co-authored a handbook on co-operation and investment concerning the Czech- and Slovak Republics, as well as several articles on Energy Law.

Course: International Mergers and Acquisitions (with a special focus on Eastern Europe), together with M. Lagler

 

Dr. Michael Sedlacek
Attorney at Law
Ph.D., University of Vienna

Dr. Sedlacek is a practicing attorney with Freshfields since 1999. His areas of practice include tax-related corporate law and investment fund law. He specialises in structuring national and international M&A transactions, corporate tax planning and group reorganisations, financial instruments, their tax-driven structures, investment funds, high net worth individuals, foundations, trusts, EC tax litigation and taxation of e-commerce. Dr. Sedlacek was born in Vienna and received his legal education at the universities of London, Innsbruck and Vienna. He is the author of a number of articles and publications on tax and EC law issues and lectures at the University of Vienna. Michael is a Member of the IBA, IFA, the Austrian Bar Association and the International Academy for Estate and Trust Law.

Course: International Tax Law

Practitioners, academics and judges who regularly teach in the Pre-Internship Seminars portion of the LLM in Transnational Business Practice program:

Concepcion (Cani) Fernandez
J.D., University of Zaragoza; License Special en Droit Europeen, University of Brussels; Partner, Bufete Cuatrecasas, Barcelona, Spain and Brussels, Belgium.

Eric M. Fogel
J.D., University of Michigan; Partner, Schuyler, Roche & Zwirner, Chicago, Illinois.

Gordian Hasselblatt
LL.B., University of Hamburg; LLM, University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law; Partner, Gaedertz Rechtsanwalte, Cologne, Germany.

Alexander Klauser
J.D., University of Vienna, Austria; Partner, Brauneis, Klauser & Prandl, Vienna, Austria.

Keith E. Pershall
J.D., Santa Clara University; LL.M., University of the Pacific, McGeorge; LL.M. Attorney & Counselor at Law

Thomas J. Salerno
J.D., University of Notre Dame; Partner, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, Phoenix, Arizona.

Winfried van den Muijsenbergh
J.D., University of Leiden; Partner, Loyens & Loeff, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.