Summer Law Programs > Rome
Faculty
Professor Lucia Ann Silecchia, Director
Professor of Law
The Catholic University of America
silecchia@law.edu
Professor Silecchia received her B.A. degree summa cum laude from Queens College (C.U.N.Y.) in 1987 and her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1990, where she was a senior editor of The Yale Law Journal, a current topics editor of The Yale Law & Policy Review, and a Francis Coker teaching fellow. Following her graduation from law school, she practiced law in the litigation department of Rogers & Wells (now Clifford, Chance) in New York City.
Professor Silecchia has taught at Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law for twenty years. From 1991 – 1993, she served as the assistant director of the Lawyering Skills Program. After two years with the Lawyering Skills Program, she became an assistant professor in 1993 and an associate professor in 1997. She has been an ordinary professor since 2004, and served as the law school's Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in 2004 and 2005. She was one of the founding director of Catholic University’s new International Human Rights Summer Law Program in Rome.
She teaches or has taught Environmental Law, Property, Trusts and Estates, Corporations, Advanced Legal Research and Writing, Comparative Property, Environmental Crimes, Lawyering Skills, and Law Journal Writing. During her 2000-2001 sabbatical, she spent the fall semester as a Visiting Scholar at Yale Law School and the spring term in Rome conducting research on environmental ethics issues from the perspective of Catholic social thought. Her 2007-2008 sabbatical saw travel to Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Portugal, Spain, and Italy.
In April 2007, Prof. Silecchia was one of nine Americans to participate in a Vatican conference on Climate Change and Development, organized by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. She also serves on the executive board of the Association of Religiously Affiliated Law Schools, and was the 2008-2009 chair of the Conference on Catholic Legal Thought, with which she has been involved since its founding in 2006.
Professor Silecchia has written in the areas of environmental law and ethics, Catholic social thought, legal education, law and literature, and legal writing. Professor Silecchia has given presentations at national and international conferences for legal educators, law librarians, lawyers, religious groups, students, and environmental professionals. She has also participated in projects of the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace, advised the Environmental Justice Project of the U.S. Catholic Conference, assisted the American Bar Association's CEELI Project in critiquing draft business association laws for Estonia, taught in Catholic University's cooperative programs at Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland, and lectured in Portugal as part of Catholic University's U.S. - Portuguese Law Initiative at the University of Lisbon. She was named one of three national "Persons of Distinction" by the Association of Legal Writing Directors and was Catholic University's "Mirror of Justice Scholar" in 1996. She has also been a member of the teaching faculty for the international law students in the Washington D.C.-based Institute for United States Law.
Professor Silecchia is admitted to the bars of New York, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Professor Roger Colinvaux
The Catholic University of America
Colinvaux@law.edu
At CUA, Professor Colinvaux teaches course in Federal Income Taxation, Legislation, and Property. From 2001-2008, Professor Colinvaux was Legislation Counsel with the Joint Committee on Taxation and played an important role in the charitable giving and reform provisions in the Pension Protection Act of 2006. He is an expert on tax matters relating to nonprofit organizations, including requirements for tax-exempt status, the deductibility of charitable contributions, the unrelated business income tax, political activities of exempt organizations, tax shelters involving nonprofits, and private foundations, among others.
Prior to joining the Joint Committee staff, Professor Colinvaux was a tax associate at Arnold and Porter. He was also an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he taught about the political and lobbying activities of nonprofits.
Professor Donna Gregg
Clinical Associate Professor, Catholic University of America
Gregg@law.edu
202-319-6299
Donna Coleman Gregg joined the law school as a visiting faculty member for 2009-2010, teaching Electronic Mass Media Policy and Regulation in the fall and Administrative Law and FCC Practice and Procedure in the spring. Professor Gregg has extensive experience providing business, regulatory and government relations representation to media and communications companies. She served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as the senior policy advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to the 2007 World Radiocommunication Conference. In addition, she has been chief of the Federal Communications Commission Media Bureau and vice president of legal and regulatory affairs and general counsel of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Prior to entering public service, Professor Gregg was a partner at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Wiley, Rein & Fielding. Professor Gregg is a member of the American Law Institute, Co-Chair of the Federal Communications Bar Association Law Journal Committee, and a Senior Adjunct Fellow of the Free State Foundation. A 1974 graduate of Duke University School of Law, she has been an adjunct professor on its faculty and is a member of its Board of Visitors. Professor Gregg received her undergraduate degree in 1971 from the University of Michigan.
Professor Karla W. Simon
The Catholic University of America
Professor of Law 
simon@law.edu
Karla W. Simon (J.D. (Duke), LL.M. (NYU)) is Professor of Law at the Columbus School of Law, Catholic University of America. She is Co-Director (with Dr. Frederick Ahearn) of the Center for International Social Development, also at CUA. Professor Simon is also an Affiliated Scholar with the U.S.-Asia Law Institute at New York University School of Law. She was previously a member of the faculties of the law schools at Seton Hall University and the University of San Diego, and she served as a visiting professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, Peking University, the University of Bologna, and Central European University.
Simon’s scholarly interests include comparative civil society law, with focus principally on China. Her many articles have been published in the Journal of Chinese Law, the Journal of Japanese Law, the Fordham International Law Journal (on laws affecting civil society in China), the International Journal of Civil Society Law, the University of Miami Law Review, the Boston University International Law Review, and the Tax Law Review (where she published her first article on tax exemption for racially discriminatory schools, which was cited by the Supreme Court).
She has authored more than ten books and book chapters, most focusing on legal issues affecting civil society. Prof. Simon is currently working on a book entitled "Civil Society in China: A Legal Analysis From Ancient Times to the New Reform Era” (Forthcoming, Oxford University Press, 2013). Previous books include “Outsourcing Social Services to Civil Society Organizations in China and Around the World” (with Wang, Salamon & Irish 2009), “Charity Law and Social Policy” (with O’Halloran & McGregor-Lowndes 2008) and “Guidelines for Laws Affecting Civic Organizations” (with Irish & Kushen 2004). She blogs on civil society in China at http://philanthropynews.alliancemagazine.org/.
Prof. Simon is also the founder and manager of the China Civil Society listserv. She is co-founder (with Dr. Leon Irish) of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL, 1992, and she served as its first President from 1992-1996) and of the International Center for Civil Society Law (www.iccsl.org, 2003). She works with ICCSL and its affiliates on various projects funded by private foundations in her capacity as Chairperson of the Board of Directors.
Simon is fluent in German and has good knowledge of both written and spoken French; she is learning Mandarin. Her SSRN page is http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=625439. Simon’s full biography, including all publications and academic affiliations, can be found here
Dr. David Dawson Vasquez
Director, CUA in Rome
dawsonvasque@cua.edu
Dr. Dawson has been teaching theology in Rome since 2001. He graduated from University of Dallas in 1986 with a BA in Psychology and then went on to do an MA in Systematic Theology at Boston College and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology at The Catholic University of America. He currently directs CUA's Rome Global Education Program. His theological interests center around the relationship between faith and reason, the role of liturgy and the experience of God in theology, and the importance of the body for Christian thought. His dissertation studied the role of the experience of God in the theology of the Orthodox Churches. He lives year-round in Rome with his wife, Susan, and daughter, Magdalena. Site: http://www.romestudy.org/