Faculty Focus is a monthly publication documenting the activities, accomplishments, and honors of the University of Houston Law Center Faculty.
Richard Alderman has been busy this past month. He gave a paper on April 8th entitled "Mandatory Arbitration in the United States: The Destruction of Consumer Rights," at the Eighth Annual International Consumer Law Conference, in Auckland, New Zealand. He also published "Contracts for the Sale of Consumer Goods in Texas," 4 Texas J. Consumer L. 142 and published the spring supplement to "The Lawyers' Guide to the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act." He presented a paper on "Recent Developments in Commercial Law" at the State Bar of Texas "Litigation in a Changing Business World--Are You Ready?" and organized the latest session of the People's Law School, attended by over 600 people. He presented a half day program to the Women's Forum at the University of Houston West Houston Institute and produced and hosted four half-hour television shows for Channel 8 entitled "Know Your Rights!" He also gave speeches to the Association of Title Analysts, the Baylan AARP, the Argonauta, the Memorial Spring Branch Rotary Club, the Pasadena Rotary Club, the Spring Branch Men's Club, the West University Seniors and the Association of Administrative Professionals.
David R. Dow's article, "Fictional Documentaries and Truthful Fictions," has been published at 17 Constitutional Commentary 511 (2000) and his essay "Worst of All Choices in Airing McVeigh Execution," appeared in the Houston Chronicle on April 19. His letter, "Recorded Executions," appeared in the New York Times on May 5th and his essay, "Volunteering for Death" is forthcoming in the Index on Censorship. He was also a guest on public radio on May 15th discussing the delay in the McVeigh execution.
Meredith Duncan provided a CLE lecture to the partners of Baker & Botts, LLP on April 28th. The topic of the presentation was "Imputation of Conflicts of Interests and the Ethical Responsibilities of Partners and Supervisory Lawyers."
Steve Huber's article, "Consumer Arbitration in the United States Supreme Court, " has been published at 4 J. Tx. Consumer L. 267 (2001). Also in that issue is an article by Nathan White, a 3L at University of Houston Law Center, at 4 J. Tx. Consumer L. 275 (2001) entitled, " Federal Arbitration Act: The Makings for a Battle," an article originally written in Professor Huber's Alternative Dispute Resolution seminar.
Craig Joyce was named "Professor of the Year" by the Student Bar Association. He also accepted appointment, for the fourteenth year, to the Board of Editors of the Journal of the Supreme Court Historical Society, sponsored by the Supreme Court of the United States, and received an appointment to the newly created Centennial Committee of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, charged with assembling educational programs for next year's celebration of the court's first 100 years. In addition, he attended the Annual Meeting of the American Law Institute on May 13-17th in Washington, D.C. He has been a member of the ALI since 1993.
Douglas Moll'sarticle, "Shareholder Oppression in Close Corporations: The
Unanswered Question of Perspective" was selected as one of the 10 best corporate and securities articles published in 2000. As the correspondences states, "Teachers in corporate and securities law were asked to select the best corporate and securities articles from a list of articles published during 2000. This list reflects the choices of your fellow academic teachers in this area from more than 250 articles on these topics during 2000." The poll is an annual one and is conducted by the Corporate Practice Commentator.
Tom Oldham will chair a panel at the International Society of Family Law Conference in Kingston, Canada in June on "International Developments Regarding the Rights of Unmarried Partners."
Jon Schultz's Statutes Compared 2d edition has been published by William S. Hein & Co., 2001.
Robert Schuwerkgave presentations on "The Proposed New Confidentiality Rules" to the Advanced Evidence and Civil Discovery course in Santa Fe, New Mexico on April 6th, to a group of Houston probate lawyers on April 17th, and to faculty and professional staff of the UHLC on April 30th. He also spoke to the Second Annual Therapeutic Jurisprudence Conference in Cincinnati, OH on May 5th on his Personal and Professional Ethics course and other topics.
Ira B. Shepard spoke on "Recent Developments in Federal Income Taxation" at the educational program of the Tax Executives Institute in Houston on April 11th. He spoke on the same subject on April 24th at the American Petroleum Institute's tax educational program in Houston, and on the following day participated in an ethics panel at that program. He spoke (with Martin McMahon) on "Recent Developments in Federal Income Taxation" at the North Carolina Tax Institute in Chapel Hill on April 26th. He will speak on the same topic at the Wichita State University's Tax program on May 23rd. He also spoke to the Wednesday Tax Forum on "Current Developments" in April and May.
Sandra Guerra Thompson gave an interview for Channel 45 in Spanish on May 9th on the subject of the history and substance of the Texas concealed weapons law.
Stephen Zamora traveled to Washington, D.C. on May 16th to speak at a conference organized by the World Bank entitled, "Lawyers' Forum III: Meeting the New Challenges of the Legal Profession through Partnerships." At the conference he was on a panel discussing "The Role of Lawyers in Economic Restructuring and Legal Reform," dealing with the role of law schools and legal education as factors (or non-factors) in the development of societies undergoing major legal and economic reforms. In June, He will again lecture on "International Litigation in U.S. Courts," in Dallas at the Southwestern Legal Foundation's Academy of American and International Law. Each summer, this Academy brings to Dallas approximately 80 lawyers from around the world, who spend 6 weeks in courses, which are taught by U.S. judges, lawyers and law professors, covering the U.S. legal system and subjects of international law. This will be the 11th consecutive year in which he has been invited to lecture at the Academy.