The Nacchio Appeal and the University of Chicago Connection

This Tuesday (December 18), the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the appeal of Joe Nacchio, the former CEO of Qwest.  Nacchio was convicted of 19 counts of insider trading earlier this year.

The panel that will hear the appeal is the same that heard the bail appeal (and granted bail pending appeal):  Judges Kelly, McConnell and Holmes.  This is the same panel that already found, in granting the petition, that there was a "substantial question of law or fact" that could result in a reversal.  In a quote from the Rocky Mountain News in one of my less profound but nonetheless accurate moments, "Nacchio has to be very happy" with this announcement. 

We also note the strong University of Chicago presence in the case.  Judge McConnell graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1979, serving on the law review (ultimately rising to the rank of comments editor).  Maureen Mahoney, who is handling the appeal for Nacchio,graduated from the University of Chicago a year earlier, in 1978.  She also held a position on the law review, overlapping with Judge McConnell (and, as an associate editor, potentially supervising his work).  There is yet another University of Chicago connection.  One of the critical issues in the case concerned the exclusion of the expert testimony of Daniel Fischel, a professor and former dean at the University of Chicago (although not while Mahoney and Mitchell were at the school).  Fischel graduated from the University of Chicago in 1977 and served on the law review at the same time as Mahoney. 

If McConnell does know Mahoney from his days at the University of Chicago, he is probably aware first hand of her prodigious intellect.  But then you don't have know her to figure that out.