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THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD 139
figures on open-source software); Sapna Kumar (2009) (an administrative-law-and-patent
specialist who will moderate IPIL’s 2013 National Conference); and Jacqueline Lipton (2012)
(indisputably the best lateral hire, by any law school in America, in 2012–2013).
24. Except as noted otherwise, all of the information contained in the following
subsection is drawn either from the personal recollections of this essay’s senior co-
author or from communications by the Editors in Chief of Boards 32 and 33, Robert J.
Sergesketter, Senior Counsel, Apache Corporation, and D’Andra Millsap Shu, Senior
Attorney, Morgan Lewis & Bockius, respectively. See e-mail from Sergesketter to
Craig Joyce, Andrews Kurth Professor of Law, University of Houston Law Center
(Feb. 2, 2013); e-mail from Shu to Joyce (Feb. 20, 2013); e-mail from Shu to Joyce
(Feb. 22, 2013) (all on file with Houston Law Review).
25. See, e.g., Joyce & Hoffman, Centered, supra, at 86–87.
26. Professors are always “young” to students when they are not older than the
students’ parents.
27. Unlike the by-then discontinued Butler & Binion Lectures. See Joyce &
Hoffman, Centered, supra, at 88, 91.
28. “The Birth of the Frankel Lecture Series,” Memorandum from Robert J.
Serkesketter to Craig Joyce (Jan. 29, 2013) (on file with Houston Law Review).
29. See Joyce & Hoffman, Boldly, supra, at 45.
30. See id. at 41–42.
31. See id. at 58 n.19.
32. They were, respectively, Professors John Coffee, Jr. of Columbia University,
Richard E. Speidel of Northwestern University, and Brandon Becker, Special Advisor
to the Chair of International Derivatives of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
33. Here is Shu’s report:
[T]he biggest challenge our board faced was pulling off the Frankel Lecture.
I had heard plenty about the Frankel Lecture as I prepared to take over as
Editor in Chief. Bob Sergesketter, the EIC who trained me, told me that the
“hard part” was taken care of because he and Professor Craig Joyce had
already lined up a great slate of speakers, with Dean Joel Seligman being
the keynote. “All” we had to do was set up the event. No one on my board
had ever organized anything like this, and unlike today, we had no model to
work off of or editor assigned to take care of it. So, among the many other
hats I wore as EIC, that year I also wore the “Frankel Organizer” hat. I
recruited anyone on my board with any time to spare, and we spent hours on
end working out every detail: from big ones, like where the lecture should be
held and where the guests would stay, to small ones, like whether to have
written programs and/or a welcome gift for the speakers. It seems like we
had some crisis or previously unthought-of issue on a daily basis. Like the
day we realized we had no idea how the speakers would get from the airport
to the hotel. One very helpful articles editor offered to use his Monte Carlo
and be Dean Seligman’s personal chauffeur!
All of our hard work paid off. The inaugural Frankel Lecture went off
without a hitch. . . .
These days, Shu adds, “the model for the Frankel Lecture is well established, and
they even have an editor whose job it is to organize the event. Lucky them! I look
forward to the Frankel Lecture every year and am honored to have been part of
establishing such a first-class event.” E-mail from Shu to Joyce (Feb. 20, 2013), supra
note 24.
34. In discussing later the inaugural lecture and his visit to the University of
Houston Law Center, Dean Seligman commented: “I thought it was great. The
panelists were extraordinary and it was a pleasure to participate in this. You have
some very talented professors here, and I enjoyed meeting people whose work I have
read and seeing old friends.” Dominic Corva, Potential Plaintiffs Must Be Accurately
Informed About the Arbitration Process, DAILY COUGAR (Feb. 5, 1996), available at