By Gregory A. Weiss
In December, Pete Day cosponsored two one-and-a-half-day workshops entitled “Cross-Examination in International Arbitration,” hosted by the Beijing and Shanghai Arbitration Commissions. “We brought in instructors from the US, UK, Australia, Switzerland, China, and Hong Kong. The students were mostly young associates at large Chinese or international law firms—the majority Chinese, with a few Western lawyers working in China. While this type of course is relatively unknown in China, we received very good feedback from the students and hope to do similar programs in the future.”
A fascinating note from Denis Gray: “I thought this might make a little addition to the next class notes: ‘Two Yalies run the Associated Press Afghanistan operation at Christmas.’ I flew into Kabul the other day to help out while others take a greatly needed Christmas break. The only other foreign staffer left behind was Heidi Vogt. I noticed her unwrapping a Yale Alumni Magazine that had just arrived (‘It follows me everywhere,’ she said) and discovered she was a Yalie, class of 1999. So we have two Yalies, 33 classes apart, and some 25 Afghans reporting on the war over the holidays. I am based in Bangkok with the AP and have covered about a dozen conflicts, this being my fourth assignment in Afghanistan.”
A momentous year for Howie Moffat: He and Lois tied the knot in an “intimate, simple ceremony” on the shores of Squam Lake in New Hampshire in late August. They plan to “re-enact” the ceremony for Lois’s UK family and friends next August at Glenham Hall in Sussex. And, to make his life even more complex, Howie ran for the New Hampshire House of Representatives as a Democrat this past fall. With “lots of yard signs and two months of door-to-door campaigning every weekend … and many letters to the editor” he won election and was sworn in on January 2.
Gene Dattel published an interesting op-ed piece in the December 1 New York Times. In it he discusses how in three towns in the overwhelmingly African American Mississippi Delta, white mayors have been elected and are keeping their constituents happy.