Boston University School of Law

Brian J. Foley

Education

Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
A.B., cum laude, 1987

  • Honors in English major
  • Citation for top performance in English upper-level seminar
  • Class of 1846 Latin Prize
  • Carl and Effie Ellis Endowed Scholarship
  • French study in Toulouse, France
  • Writing Tutor, Department of English Composition Center
  • Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Gnosis, Dartmouth's Undergraduate Academic Journal
  • Intercollegiate Rowing and bicycle racing

Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley
J.D., 1993

  • Associate Editor, California Law Review
  • Legal writing instructor
  • Prosser Prize in Torts

JUDICIAL CLERKSHIP

Honorable Edmund V. Ludwig
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Judicial Law Clerk, (September, 1993 - September, 1994)

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

Boston University School of Law, Boston, MA
Visiting Associate Professor of Law, ( 2008-present)
Courses: Evidence, Criminal Sentencing, Criminal Procedure(Adjudications), Professional Responsibility

Drexel University College of Law, Philadelphia, PA
Visiting Associate Professor of Law, (2007-2008)
Courses: Criminal Procedure (Investigation), Evidence
Received Drexel Law’s teaching award at inaugural commencement in May, 2009

Florida Coastal School of Law, Jacksonville, FL
Associate Professor of Law, (2007-2008)
Assistant Professor of Law, (2004-2007)
Courses: Advanced Criminal Procedure, Civil Dispute Resolution (Civil Procedure), Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Evidence, Federal Courts (took over second half of semester when professor became ill)
Committees: Academic Standards, Admissions

Touro College Law Center, Huntington, NY
Visiting Associate Professor of Law, (2003- 2004)
Courses: Business Associations I and II, Civil Procedure I and II

Widener University School of Law, Wilmington, DE
Legal Methods Professor, (1999-2003)
Director of CLE Programs,(2000-2001)
Courses:  Legal Methods I, II, & III, Advanced Brief Writing, Property II
Committees: Admissions, Curriculum, Faculty Development

Summer Teaching

Rutgers School of Law - Camden, Camden, NJ

  • 2009: Evidence
  • 2008: Criminal Procedure (Investigation)
  • 1999 and 2000: Advanced Brief Writing

TEACHING AREAS

Primary: Evidence, Criminal Procedure (Investigation and Adjudication)
Secondary: Criminal Law, Civil Procedure, Sentencing

  • Have taught Business Organizations, Federal Courts, Legal Methods, Moot Court, Professional Responsibility (Spring 2010), and Property
  • I consistently receive excellent student evaluations

ATTORNEY EMPLOYMENT

Connolly Epstein Chicco Foxman Engelmyer & Ewing, Philadelphia, PA
Litigation Associate, (1996-1997)

  • Represented prisoner at trial in U.S. District Court on Eighth Amendment claim
  • Argued and won appeal in Pennsylvania Superior Court reversing lower court for abuse of discretion

Dechert Price & Rhoads, Philadelphia, PA
Litigation Associate, (1994-1996)

BAR ADMISSIONS

  • Pennsylvania

OTHER LEGAL EXPERIENCE

The Defender Association of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Pro Bono criminal defense, (2005 – present)

  • Co-counsel in appeal arguing against constitutionality of life without possibility of parole sentences as applied to juveniles

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia, PA
Arbitrator, (2001-2003)

Consulting

Co-created co-presented in-house training programs for attorneys and summer associates at:

  • Reed Smith Shaw & McClay, LLP, Philadelphia, PA (Summers 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, Fall 2003) (legal writing and persuasion)
  • Budd Larner Gross Rosenbaum Greenberg & Sade, Short Hills, NJ (Summer 1999) (legal writing)
  • Connolly, Bove, Lodge & Hutz, Wilmington, DE (Summers 2001 (legal writing) and 2003 (negotiation)

OTHER EMPLOYMENT

The Keene Sentinel, Keene, NH
Staff Writer, (1988-1990)
Reported on local governments, police and courts, and wrote investigative stories and feature articles for this award-winning, independent, daily newspaper.

Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, Department of English Composition Center
Coordinator, (1987-1988)
Oversaw and expanded Peer Tutor and Writing Assistant programs to address student writing across the Dartmouth curriculum. Trained tutors and writing assistants.

St. Paul’s School, Concord, NH
Intern Teacher, Advanced Studies Program, (Summer 1986)
Taught Literature and Composition under supervision of Master Teacher.

Publications

Law review articles

Policing from the Gut: Anti-Intellectualism in American Criminal Procedure, 69 Maryland L. Rev. __ (2010) (forthcoming)

The Mass Incarceration Crisis as an Opportunity to Rethink Blame, 9 Conn. Pub. Int. L. J. ___ (2009) (forthcoming) (invited - symposium)

Until We Fix the Labs and Fund Criminal Defendants: Fighting Bad Science With Storytelling, 43 Tulsa L. Rev. 397 (2007) (invited - symposium)

Applied Legal Storytelling, Politics, and Factual Realism,14 Leg. Writ. 17 (2008) (symposium issue for July, 2007 conference in London that I co-organized). Selected as lead article

Connie de la Vega & Michelle Leighton, Sentencing Our Children to Die in Prison: Global Law and Practice, 42 U.S.F  L. Rev. 984 (2008) (co-authored Appendix of 50-state survey of juvenile life without parole sentencing law)

Guantanamo and Beyond: Dangers of Rigging the Rules, 97 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 1009  (2007) Abstract posted on Professor Lawrence B. Solum’s Legal Theory Blog

Avoiding a Death Dance: Adding Steps to the International Law on the Use of Force to Improve the Search for Alternatives to Force and Prevent Likely Harms, 29 Brooklyn J. Int’l L. 129 (2003). Submitted pursuant to Call for Papers

Brian J. Foley & Ruth Anne Robbins, Fiction 101: A Primer for Lawyers on How to Use Fiction Writing Techniques to Write Persuasive Facts Sections, 32 Rutgers L.J. 459 (2001)
Reprinted:

Book chapters:

Reforming the Security Council to Achieve Collective Security, in Progress in International Law (Martinus Nijhoff 2008) (invited, peer reviewed) available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1202882

M.G. Piety & Brian J. Foley, Their Morals Are Ours, in Leading to The 2003 Iraq War: The Global Media Debate (2006)

Conference papers:

Indicted Men and Women Tell No Tales: When Criminal Laws Do Not Let Defendants Tell Their Stories, Proceedings, Emory University School of Law, Feminism and Legal Theory Workshop, Storytelling and the Law:  A Retrospective on Narrative, Ethics and Legal Change, October 27-28, 2006  

Recent (Indecent) Exposures: Impact on International Law of U.S. Policies Toward Iraq and North Korea, Proceedings of the Conference on U.S. Nuclear Policy and Counterproliferation, February 26, 2003 http://www.lawyersagainstthewar.org/legalarticles/foleyexposure.html

Avoiding War: Using International Law to Compel a Problem-Solving Approach, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Terrorism and Human Rights, Cairo, Egypt, January, 2002

Briefs

Co-authored with the Defender Association of Philadelphia and the Juvenile Law Center the following briefs arguing that life-without-possibility-of-parole sentences are unconstitutional when applied to minors:

  • Brief for Appellant, in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania vs. Edward Batzig, Superior Court of Pennsylvania Sitting in Philadelphia, EDA 2005, No. 1711
  • Brief of Amicus Curiae Defender Association of Philadelphia and Juvenile Law Center on Behalf of Aaron Phillips, in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Aaron Phillips, Pennsylvania Superior Court, Eastern District, EDA 2005, No. 2729
  • Brief of Amicus Curiae Defender Association of Philadelphia and Juvenile Law Center on Behalf of John Pace, in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. John Pace, Pennsylvania Superior Court, Eastern District, EDA 2006, No. 921

Commentary (selected)

9/11 and the Road Not Taken, Jurist, September 11, 2007 http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2007/09/911-and-road-not-taken.php

Policy in Guantanamo Won’t Thwart Terrorism, The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 23, 2007

Challenging Gitmo, The National Law Journal, June 26, 2006 (bookreview of Joseph Margulies, Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power (2006)) http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1151053520696

Limiting War by Process: Congress, the UN, and Iran, Jurist, May 25, 2006  http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2006/05/limiting-war-by-process-congress-un.php

The Real Danger of Presidential Spying, Jurist, January 30, 2006 http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2006/01/real-danger-of-presidential-spying.php. Selected as the “Spotlight” article on Antiwar.com for February 1, 2006.

Playing With Fire – Congress and Executive Power, Jurist, January 9, 2006 http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2006/01/playing-with-fire-congress-and.php

The Graham-Levin Amendment and Due Process at Guantanamo, Jurist, November 16, 2005 http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2005/11/graham-levin-amendment-and-due-process.php. Written at request of Jurist’s editor, Professor Bernard Hibbitts.

Why Americans Don’t Care About GTMO, and Why They Should, Jurist, November 1, 2005 http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2005/11/why-americans-dont-care-about-gtmo-and.php

Guantanamo Process as a Public Danger, Jurist, October 11, 2005 http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2005/10/guantanamo-process-as-public-danger.php. Written at invitation of Jurist’s editor, Professor Bernard Hibbitts, Selected for Yahoo! News Full Coverage.

I Gave My Copy of the Constitution to a Pro-War Veteran, Antiwar.Com, October 1, 2005 http://www.antiwar.com/orig/foley.php?articleid=7467

The Profit-driven War, CounterPunch, September 15, 2005 http://www.counterpunch.org/foley09152005.html. Selected by the War Resisters League as the introduction to anti war-profiteering project.

Don’t Tread on Me: Act Now to Save the Constitution, CounterPunch, December 27-28, 2003 www.counterpunch.org/foley12272003.htm

Power to the Purse! Common Dreams, September 18, 2003 http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0918-13.htm

No Iraqi Surprise: Look Now, Not Later, at the Dangers of War, CounterPunch, August 12, 2002  http://www.counterpunch.org/foley0812.html

Legal Analysis: U.S. Campaign Against Afghanistan Not Self-Defense Under International Law, CounterPunch, Nov. 6, 2001 http://www.counterpunch.org/foley1.html. Translated into French and Spanish, Selected for Yahoo! News Full Coverage

SCHOLARLY CONFERENCES ORGANIZED

Once Upon a Legal Time, Chapter 2: Applied Storytelling in Law Lewis and Clark Law School, Portland, Oregon, July 22-24, 2009 (co-organizer).

Once Upon a Legal Time: Developing the Skills of Storytelling in Law, City Law School, Gray’s Inn, London, England, July 18-20 (co-organizer).  This was the first-ever“Applied Legal Storytelling” conference.  There were almost 90 participants representing 11 countries. Link: http://www.city.ac.uk/law/vocational/storytelling_in_law_.html  My article from this conference was chosen as the JOURNAL OF THE LEGAL WRITING INSTITUTE symposium issue lead article.

PRESENTATIONS

Academic Conferences

2009 Once Upon a Legal Time, Chapter 2: Applied Storytelling in Law, Lewis & Clark Law School, Portland, Oregon, July 24, 2009

  • Presented “Helping Criminal Defendants Tell Their True Stories of Actual Innocence”

2009 Spring Symposium, Connecticut Public Interest Law Journal, The Road to Prison Reform: Treating the Causes and Conditions of Our Overburdened System, February 6, 2009, University of Connecticut School of Law, Hartford, CT (invited)

  • Presented “The Mass Incarceration Crisis as an Opportunity to Rethink Blame”

2008 Association of American Law Schools Conference on Evidence 

  • Presented on how to use YouTube footage of crimes and torts in Evidence class

2008 Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, New Voices in Human Rights 

  • Presented “This is an Emergency: Re-seeing the Jus ad Bellum Through a Human Rights Lens”

City Law School, Gray’s Inn, London, England, Once Upon a Legal Time: Developing the Skills of Storytelling in Law Conference, July 18-20, 2007

  • Presented “What’s Going on Here? Is Applied Legal Storytelling Political?”

2006 American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division Annual Meeting

  • Commentator on a panel on Criminal Law, December 27-30, 2006, Washington, D.C. (invited)

Emory University School of Law, Feminism and Legal Theory Workshop, Storytelling and the Law:  A Retrospective on Narrative, Ethics and Legal Change, October 27-28, 2006 

  • Presented paper, “Indicted Men and Women Tell No Tales: When Criminal Laws Do Not Let Defendants Tell Their Stories”

2006 Southeastern Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting

  • Presented “Challenging the Changing Paradigm of Article II” (invited)

University of Gloucester (U.K.), The Power of Stories: Intersections of Law, Culture & Literature, July 24-26, 2005 

  • Presented “Indicted Men Tell No Tales”

University of Idaho College of Law, 2005 Idaho International Law Symposium, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho 

  • Presented “Reforming the Jus ad Bellum to Prevent War” (invited)

2000 Legal Writing Institute Conference, Seattle University

  • Co-presented "Creative Ways to Teach Persuasive Facts Sections"

1998 Legal Writing Institute Conference, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

  • Presented “Using Creative Writing Workshop Techniques in the Classroom”

Presentations to Law Faculties

Boston University School of Law, “Indicted Men Tell No Tales,” April 13, 2009 (developing idea workshop presentation)

Boston University School of Law, “Legal Storytelling,” January 27, 2009 (invited presentation to all Trial Advocacy professors and students)

Boston University School of Law, “Policing from the Gut: Anti-Intellectualism in American Criminal Procedure,” December 11, 2008 (presentation and discussion of draft article)

Florida Coastal School of Law, “Slaying the Monster at Home: A Proposal to Return the Constitutional War-Making Powers to Congress,” Faculty Workshop, April, 2005

Touro College Law Center, “Why the U.S. Invasion of Iraq was Not a Humanitarian Intervention,” March 17, 2004

Rutgers School of Law – Camden, “Stepping Back from the Abyss: Going Beyond the UN Charter to More Realistic and Workable Rules on the Use of Force,” September 30, 2002 (invited)

Widener University School of Law, “The Legality of the U.S. Campaign Against Afghanistan," Wilmington, Delaware, November 29, 2001

University-wide Presentations

Drexel University College of Law, International Law Society, Guantanamo, April 14, 2008 (invited panelist)

  • Presented on history of Guantanamo and how government-favoring procedural rules impede intelligence gathering

Drexel University College of Law, International Law Society, “Re-seeing the Jus ad Bellum as a Human Rights Issue,” December 17, 2007 (invited)

Drexel University, The Road From Guantanamo: Returning to the Rule of Law and Sound Policy, January 12, 2007 (invited panelist)

  • Presented on how government-favoring procedural rules impede intelligence gathering

University of Pennsylvania, Penn Teach-In on the Occupation of Iraq, sponsored by Penn Faculty and Staff Against War on Iraq, September 20, 2006 (invited panelist)

  • Presented “U.S. Civil Rights Erosion - A Cost of the U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Iraq”

Public Debates

“Resolved: The NSA Spying Program is a Legal and Important Tool in the War on Terror,” Florida Coastal School of Law, September 7, 2006

  • Debated the negative, against Dr. Roger Pilon of the Cato Institute

“Is the U.S. War Against Afghanistan Justified Under International Law (and Does It Matter)?” Widener University School of Law, April 24, 2002 

  • Debated Doug Bandow of the Cato Institute

Civil Society/Public Affairs Conferences

2008 Deerfield Beach, FL Progressive Forum, Deerfield Beach, FL, March 1, 2008 

  • Presented “The Nature of U.S. Imperialism” (invited)

2005 Association of World Citizens Conference, San Francisco, CA

  • Presented “The Profit-Motive in the U.S. War Against Iraq” (invited)

2004 International Association of Educators for World Peace Conference, Atlanta, Georgia

  • Presented “Regulating U.S. Political Decision-making Concerning the Use of Military Force”

Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Center for Defense Information, U.S. Nuclear Policy and Counter-proliferation, Washington, D.C., February 26, 2003

  • Presented “Recent (Indecent) Exposures: Impact on International Law of U.S. Policies on Iraq and North Korea” (invited)

Cairo Institute of Human Rights, International Symposium on Terrorism and Human Rights, Cairo, Egypt, January 27, 2002

  • Presented “Avoiding War: Using International Law to Compel Rational Problem-Solving”

The Sixth International Conference on Philosophy in Practice, Oslo, Norway, July 25, 2001

  • Co-presented “Traditional Therapy Gone Wrong: In the Counsel of the Wicked” (discussed psychotherapeutic malpractice)

 

CLE Programs

The Rule of Law Today: The War on Terror; Immigration Reform, Pennsylvania Bar Institute Law Forum, Philadelphia, PA, April 3, 2008

  • Presented on questioning the necessity of the sweeping legal changes after 9/11, including Guantanamo

“The Art of Persuasion,” Widener University School of Law, Wilmington, Delaware, September 29, 2001

“Storytelling for Lawyers: How to Use the Most Powerful Tool of Persuasion to Win Your Cases,” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 27, 2001 (co-presenter)

“Facts from Fiction: Using Fiction Writing Techniques in Writing Facts Sections,” Widener University School of Law, Wilmington, Delaware, October 14, 2000

“How to Write Winning Briefs,” New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education, Mount Laurel, New Jersey, November 13, 1999 (co-presenter)

“Practical Brief Writing Skills,” New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education, New Brunswick, New Jersey, March 6, 1999 (co-presenter)

MEDIA APPEARANCES

Law Blog

Guest Blogger, PrawfzBlawg, Feburary 2009

Radio

Featured Guest, Newstalk 93FM, Kingston, Jamaica, The Evening Edition, July 13, 2009

  • Discussed whether President Obama should seek to prosecute Bush Administration officials for crimes such as torture

Featured Guest, KPFK, Los Angeles/Santa Barbara, The Jerry Quigley Show, April 27, 2007

  • Discussed expansion of presidential power

Featured guest, ,WWRL, New York City, The Morning Show, co-hosted by Sam Greenfield and Armstrong Williams, May 15, 2006

  • Discussed the implications of the National Security Agency’s reportedly obtaining all phone call records from three major U.S. phone companies

Featured Guest, KCPW, Utah NPR station, Midday Utah, February 7, 2006

  • Discussed U.S. Senate hearings on the National Security Agency spying issue 

Featured guest on the following radio programs discussing the issue of executive power in the context of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings for Hon. Samuel Alito in January, 2006:

  • The Charles Goyette Show, Air America Phoenix
  • The Jerry Quigley Show, KPFK, Los Angeles/Santa Barbara
  • WZBC, Boston
  • KGNU, Boulder, CO

Featured Guest, The Ron Smith Show, WBAL AM 1090, Baltimore, MD, August 20, 2002

  • Discussed proposed war against Iraq

Featured Guest, The Rick Jensen Show, WDEL AM 1150, Wilmington, DE, December 26, 2001

  • Discussed legality of U.S. war against Afghanistan under international law

Television

Featured Guest, Philly LIVE - Your International Connection, WYBE TV, Philadelphia, PA, November 18, 2002

  • Discussed November 8, 2002 UN Security Council Resolution 1441 on Iraq

Newspapers

Recently quoted in

  • Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
  • The Huffington Post
  • Op-Ed News
  • Inter Press Service (IPS)

Interviewed by New York Timesfor Editorial, A Shameful Record, N. Y. TimesFebruary 6, 2008 (discussing life-without-parole sentencing for minors)

In Books

Chalmers Johnson, Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (2007)

  • Quotes my commentary, “The Graham-Levin Amendment and Due Process at Guantanamo,” Jurist, November 16, 2005 on pages 266-67

Two books by Terrence Edward Paupp:  Exodus from Empire: The Fall of America’s Empire and the Rise of Global Community (2006), and The Future of Global Relations: Crumbling Walls, Rising Regions (2009)

  • The 2009 book discusses my article Avoiding a Death Dance: Adding Steps to the International Law on the Use of Force to Improve the Search for Alternatives to Force and Prevent Likely Harms, 29 Brooklyn J. Int’l L. 129 (2003) on pages 234-36
  • The 2009 book is dedicated to Larry Birns, Richard Falk, and me
  • I wrote back cover blurbs for these two books

MISCELLANEOUS

Pennsylvania Bar Association, Philadelphia Minority Law Day, Drexel University College of Law, April 12, 2008.  Presented “Law as a Tool for Social Justice.”

Invited Participant in national two-day strategy session to combat juvenile life without parole sentences, Open Society Institute, New York, NY, February 11 – 12, 2008 (invited)

Completed “Building Trial Skills” Workshop, National Institute for Trial Advocacy, Boston, MA, December 3 – 8, 2007

PRE-PUBLICATION BOOK REVIEWS

I have done reviews for:

  • Criminal Justice Policy Review
  • Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors