2002-2003: World Bank Fellows Complete year-long project

World Bank Fellows 2003: Jennifer Tomich, Kathleen Cantania, Ruth Yacobozzi

Under the direction of Professor Robin Paul Malloy, three law students worked on a year-long project for The World Bank in Washington, D.C. The students were Ruth Yacobozzi, Kathleen Cantania, and Jennifer Tomich.  All were 3L student members of the Law Review and each brought interdisciplinary skills to the project. The project involved an assessment of valuation issues related to matters of cultural heritage. Students considered this problem in the context of development induced dislocation and resettlement of populations. The World Bank estimates that 10 million people each year are forced into resettlement as a result of major economic development projects. Students combined work in law, anthropology, economics, and public administration in working on the project. They also researched law in several countries covering both civil and common law legal systems.

2001-2002: SU law students do research as part of unique partnership with World Bank

Sean Gruver, Judy Goepp, Kevin Whittaker and Prof. Malloy at the World Bank, 2002.

World Bank Fellow—not many students get to call themselves that, but three students at SU's College of Law are among them. They have been conducting research for the Land and Real Estate Initiative (LARI) of the World Bank since last fall. This month they will present and field questions on their findings in front of a group of experts at the institution's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The students—Judy Goepp, Sean Gruver and Kevin Whittaker, all third-year students—were chosen by Prof. Robin Paul Malloy to take part in the World Bank project as part of the College of Law's Program in Law and Market Economy. While the World Bank, one of the world's largest sources of development assistance, has a number of research partners, including the Urban Institute, the International Union for Housing Finance and the United Nations Meeting of Officials on Land Administration, SU's is the only law school with such a connection.

That connection came about in 1999 when Malloy, an expert on land use and real estate law, gave a lecture at the World Bank. Malloy was interested in getting his students involved in a project beyond the usual law school curriculum; the LARI program was looking for research partners.

Syracuse students Judy Goepp, Sean Gruver, and Kevin Whittaker with Dr. Ivan Velev of the World Bank.

"We had decided the expertise at the World Bank in land use and property rights was insufficient," says Ivan Velev, an operations officer with the Private Sector and Infrastructure section. Since most of the World Bank's money goes to to fund projects in developing countries, it doesn't conduct much research itself. Therefore, it looked for partners that would also benefit from the research. This is the fourth year the SU College of Law has done a project for LARI.

The current group of students has been researching how to value the loss of cultural habitat. When a country undertakes a large development project, such as building a dam, it often results in the displacement of native peoples. The government may pay to move the people elsewhere, but in the process a culture may be destroyed. How can this be taken into account when the costs of a proposed project are toted up?

"We have been investigating using land-use principles to act as cultural preservation mechanisms," says Whittaker. The students have explored legal mechanisms used to protect values that are difficult or impossible to value in economc terms, such as aesthetics, wetlands and endangered species. Then they looked at ways of extending such mechanisms to protect critical and unique cultural habitats.

Malloy looks for students who are interested in real estate law and market economy to be World Bank Fellows. Usually he chooses about four, but because of the complexity of this year's project, he recruited just three highly motivated students. For Whittaker, working on the LARI project was a natural followup to a project on dislocation and relocation he researched for Prof. Hilary Josephs last year. Goepp applied for one of the fellowships so she could work with Malloy, her favorite professor.

The students spent the fall semester researching their topic and writing a first draft of the report. Over the winter, they have revised it, with input from Malloy, and created a PowerPoint presentation of their findings.

"It's been wonderful," says Goepp. "I've gained a lot in terms of learning to set goals and time frames, and having to be self-disciplined."

Syracuse students Judy Goepp, Sean Gruver, and Kevin Whittaker with Dr. Omar Razazz and Dr. Ivan Velev of the World Bank.

On April 16, they present to World Bank officials. Whittaker says the prospect is more than a little nervewracking. "You're talking about research we've done for the past six months, which we'll be presenting to a group of people whose expertise is in this area," he points out.

Students from previous years say the World Bank presentation was a high point of their law school careers. "I thought the World Bank personnel would come to the meeting and be sipping coffee and looking over other papers. Instead, they were totally engaged in our presentation and well-informed on the issues," says Denise Campbell '00, now a real estate lawyer for Rosen and Livingston in New York City. Her project was on long-term leasehold estates.

Warren Goodworth '01, who researched above surface, surface and subsurface rights, says, "We got a lot of good feedback. They were very interested in what we had done."

"They treat the students as professionals," Malloy says.

Goodworth, who is now a tax lawyer for Testa, Hurwitz and Thibeault in Boston, also found that his experience as a World Bank Fellow has been valuable in the professional world. "It helped me develop my writing and research skills, gave me an opportunity to present my findings to an administrative body," he says. "I learned to do a lot of the things that I now do professionally."