With apologies to Professor Shepard and others for omissions in the previous (Summer) Faculty Focus issue - my first as editor - and, with thanks for their patience, we give them lead billing in this issue:
Professor Ira B. Shepard spoke to the American Institute on Federal Taxation on "Recent Developments in Federal Income Taxation" in Birmingham, Alabama, in June; and Prof. Shepard spoke on the same topic to the Denver Tax Institute in July (as he has each July since 1980). In August, Prof. Shepard debated arch-liberal Paul Asofsky of Weil, Gotshal & Manges on "Taxation and Morality" for the Spirit Systems of Texas Group in Houston.
Prof. Shepard’s 2000 Recent Developments outline (co-authored by Professor Martin McMahon of the University of Florida Law School) was published in 5 Florida Tax Review 109-247 (No. 2, 2001), a copy of which was sent to all law school tax professors. This outline will be used this Fall by other speakers at the University of Texas Tax Conference, the Arizona CPA Society Tax Institute, and the Mississippi Tax Conference.
Prof. Shepard’s plans for the Fall include speaking at the State Bar of Texas’ Advanced Tax Course in Dallas, the Southern Federal Tax Institute in Atlanta, the Tulane Tax Institute in New Orleans, the Lewis & Clark Tax Institute in Portland, the Tennessee Tax Conference in Nashville, and the William & Mary Tax Conference in Williamsburg. Prof. Shepard speaks each month on Current Tax Developments to the Wednesday Tax Institute.
Prof. Shepard will also present a paper on "Risks and Realities of Multi-Disciplinary Practice in Estate Planning" at the South Texas College of Law’s Wills & Probate Institute in September.
Prof. Shepard continues to serve on the Council of the Houston Bar Association’s Tax Section and now also serves on the Association’s Professionalism Committee.
I think we omitted Professor Oldham’s activities too, so ....
Professor Thomas Oldham wrote a symposium article for the Notre Dame Law Review on the regulation of unmarried partners, an article for the Duke Journal of Law & Gender on the ALI Family Dissolution Project, and was the issue editor of the Summer 2001 issue of the Family Law Quarterly.
Prof. Oldham participated on a panel at the International Society of Family Law Conference in Kingston, Canada in June 2001 (and has been asked to be one of the organizers for the 2003 International Society of Family Law meeting). Professor Oldham was quoted on the New York Times front page in an article about post-marital agreements.
Last but certainly not least among these omissions from last month’s Faculty Focus, and proof that all errors and omissions are equal opportunity, the Dean’s contribution!
Dean Nancy Rapoport will publish another essay, entitled “Of Cat-Herders, Conductors, Fearless Leaders, and Tour Guides” ___ U. Toledo L. Rev. ___ (2001), in this year's University of Toledo Deans Symposium.
Dean Rapoport spoke this summer at the following events: “Do ‘Best Practices’ in Legal Education Include an Obligation to the Legal Profession to Integrate Theory, Skills, and Doctrine in the Law School Curriculum?” Association of Legal Writing Directors Biennial Conference (July 2001); “Of Cat-Herders, Conductors, Fearless Leaders, and Tour Guides: Ways of Leading,” NASA National Managers Association (June 2001); and “Teaching Bankruptcy as a Vehicle for Teaching Other Values,” AALS Bankruptcy Workshop, St. Louis, Missouri (May 2001). Dean Rapoport also delivered a paper this month (September) to the 2001 Hofstra Legal Ethics Seminar, entitled "Bankruptcy Ethics - Does One Size Fit All? Actually, One Size Fits Nobody."
Among Dean Rapoport’s summer service activities: Membership, American Bar Association's Task Force on Law Student Debt (2001 - ); Board Membership, ADL Southwest Regional Board (2001 - ); Board Membership, Law School Admissions Council Board of Trustees (2001 - ); and Board Membership, Friends of Girl Scouting Advisory Board (for the Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council) (2001 - ).
September 2001
Dean Nancy Rapoport & Professors Dow and Paust led discussions during the Law Center forum in Krost Hall September 12th on the terrorist attack on the United States September 11th.
Professor Richard M. Alderman published the 2001-2002 edition of Texas Consumer Law: Cases & Materials, currently adopted by every Texas law school. Prof. Alderman’s article, “Predispute Mandatory Arbitration in Consumer Contracts: A Call for Reform,” was accepted for publication and will appear in the Houston Law Review’s volume 38 ( No. 4). Prof. Alderman also submitted manuscripts for the 2001 Supplement to the Lawyers Guide to the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and, along with Professor Douglas Moll, to the 2001-2002 edition of Alderman’s Texas Commercial and Consumers Law Annotated.
Prof. Alderman gave speeches to the Houston Credit Coalition, the Texas State Educators Association, the South Houston AARP, the Spring Branch Rotary and the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, and taught the Consumer Law Classes for BarBri.
Prof. Alderman’s high school legal education video, “Know Your Rights!”, has been adopted by more than 600 high schools. And, Prof. Alderman served as legal advisor to the Houston Television Partnership and was appointed to the Board of Directors of the newly formed Houston Broadcasting & Music Hall Of Fame.
Professor Mary Anne Bobinski’s (et al.) medical ethics project, entitled Medical Ethics: Analysis of the Issues Raised by the Codes, Opinions, and Statements" (Vol. 2), is being released by BNA Press; and UHLC Health Law Research Professor Joe Wang and Prof. Bobinski completed a research project funded by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, “Medical Records, HIV Testing, and Financial Information: A Summary of Federal and State Laws in Region VI."
Prof. Bobinski also gave several presentations recently, including the commencement address at University of Texas School of Allied Health Professions, Galveston, Texas (August 10, 2001) and a presentation at the 25th Annual Health Law Teachers Conference, American Society of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, Boston, MA (June 2, 2001), entitled “Nursing Home Litigation Trends and Their Relationship to Health Care Finance.”
Prof. Bobinski was also a plenary session presenter on “Addressing Root Problems: Health Policy, Public Policy, and Community Development: Impacts
on Health Disparities,” at the Cooperative Extension Health People Healthy Communities Initiative (National Conference), Dallas, TX (May 22, 2001). Among Prof. Bobinski’s other state and local presentations are “Medical Futility,” for Kindred Healthcare, Pasadena, Texas (August 31, 2001); “Health Law Update,” State Bar of Texas “Summer School” CLE Program, Galveston, Texas (July 27, 2001); and “HIV at 20,” Stonewall Lawyers Association, Houston, Texas (July 25, 2001).
Prof. Bobinski had a number of media interviews and appearances over the summer, in June, on “Compassionate Use Policies in the Supreme Court” for the Patrick Report on Chan. 55 and, that same month, for AIDS Policy & Law quoted in the article, “Anniversary Offers Opportunity to Review Status of AIDS Pandemic.” In July, Prof. Bobinski appeared on Channel 11's Debra Duncan Show on medical malpractice, and was interviewed about health law and the Supreme Court for the August American Medical News. Prof. Bobinski appeared on August 6th on KTRH (Chan. 2) Evening News on human cloning, and again on the August 9th Evening News about stem cell research.
Prof. Bobinski completed the Management Development Program for Higher Education, sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Education (June 17- 29, 2001).
Professor Seth J. Chandler's article, "Foggy Game Theory and the Structure of Legal Rules," has been published in the book Symbolic Computing: New Horizons. A talk with the same title was a keynote address at the Fourth International Mathematica Symposium in Tokyo, Japan.
Prof. Chandler also published "Behavior and Learning Under Law" in the most recent issue of The Mathematica Journal (Volume 8:2). The piece, co-authored with computer science Professor Christian Jacob from the University of Calgary, uses a relatively new development in modeling, called "genetic programs," to explore ways in which legal rules shape the behavior of parties in a Coasean conflicting land use setting.
Prof. Chandler also published a small article in Health Law Perspectives entitled "New Jersey Supreme Court Restricts Use of Contract in Determining Disposition of Frozen Preembryos." Prof. Chandler’s larger article, "Visualizing Adverse Selection: An Economic Approach to the Law of Insurance Underwriting," is now being submitted to law journals for evaluation.
Professor John Jay Douglass was awarded the Nelson Award for distinguished service to the Association by the American Bar Association’s Government & Public Sector Lawyers Section at the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago.
Professor David R. Dow’s article, “Can Constitutional Error Be Harmless?", appeared in 2000 Utah Law Review 483, and his essay, "Volunteers for Death," appeared in the March 2001 issue of the Index on Censorship.
Prof. Dow published at timely op-ed piece in the Houston Chronicle on September 17th regarding reaction to recent terrorism, entitled “We Must Not Betray Our Constitutional Values.”
Professor Sandra Guerra Thompson completed work on an article that will appear in the Criminal Law Bulletin, entitled, "Apprendi's Unanswered Question: Is Failure to Charge an Element in an Indictment a Jurisdictional Error?"
Prof. Thompson was interviewed in August on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" show regarding the lengthening of Texas's statute of limitation in sexual assault cases in which DNA evidence is found. Prof. Thompson was also quoted recently in U.S.A. Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Houston Chronicle, and KTRH Radio on the Andrea Yates murder trial.
Prof. Thompson attended a meeting of the American Law Institute in Scottsdale, Arizona, on September 7th and also currently serves as Member of the Association of American Law School's Scholarly Papers Competition Selection Committee. Prof. Thompson is Chair of the AALS’ Criminal Justice Section and is in the process of coordinating the planning of the Section's events for the annual meeting in January.
Professor Lonny S. Hoffman was invited in August to serve as co-editor for a collection of short essays to be written in connection with a program scheduled for April 2001 in London, England, organized by the American Law Institute-American Bar Association (ALI-ABA) and entitled “United States Domestic and International Litigation and Dispute Resolution: Current Developments and Their Impact on U.S. and European Companies, Insurers and Lawyers.” The program’s speakers and essayists include U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Judges Edward Becker, Patrick Higginbotham, Thomas Platt, Anthony J. Scirica and Jack Weinstein. Academic contributors include Professors John Coffee, Geoffrey Hazard, Arthur Miller, Leon Friedman and Linda Silberman. In connection with this co-editorship, Prof. Hoffman will travel to London in April for the program.
Professor Christine Hurt will speak at the Central Region Lawyering Skills Conference, whose theme is “Writing is Thinking in Ink,” on September 22, 2001 in Chicago, Illinois. Her topic is “Lessons from Sesame Street: Proposing a More Diverse Legal World Through Legal Research and Writing Problems.”
Prof. Hurt’s citation workbook, Interactive Citation Workbook and Workstation, (second edition; with Tracy McGaugh and Kay Holloway) was published this summer by Lexis Publishing.
Prof. Hurt was also invited to give a seminar on writing research memoranda to the tax department at Enron Corp. on Tuesday, September 18, 2001. This is a yearly seminar that she presents at Enron.
Professor Paul M. Janicke hosted Anne Chasser, U.S. Commissioner of Trademarks, and members of her staff on September 6th for a half-day program at Vinson & Elkins on electronic trademark filing procedures. The program was attended by a full-capacity audience of 120 lawyers.
Prof. Janicke completed a manuscript in August on arbitration of international patent disputes, to be delivered at the Annual Meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland of the Association for Research & Teaching of Intellectual Property Law (which, unfortunately, was canceled because of the recent terrorist attacks).
Prof. Janicke was appointed by the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in August to an Advisory Committee to review pattern jury instructions for patent infringement cases.
Professor Craig Joyce, in addition to chairing the Facilities Policy & Planning Committee during the Law Center's recover from Tropical Storm Allison this summer, published an updated edition of Copyright Law (still the most adopted book in its field) and a five-part supplement, including new text on digital and international developments and the only standard, continually updated research bibliography on the subject.
Professor Joan Krause's article, “Medical Error as False Claim,” appeared in Volume 27 of the American Journal of Law & Medicine (Summer/Fall 2001).
Professor Peter Linzer attended the American Law Institute’s Members Consultative Group meeting regarding the Restatement (Third) of Restitution in Scottsdale, Arizona on September 7-8, 2001. Prof. Linzer was interviewed by a Cape Cod newspaper about possible intrusions on civil liberties in the wake of the recent terrorist attack, and is writing an op-ed piece for the Ottawa Citizen (Ontario) about racial profiling in reaction to that attack.
Professor Ellen Marrus presented a paper entitled "Over The Hills And Through The Woods To Grandparent's House We Go: Or Do We Post-Troxel?" at the Southeast Association for American Law Schools Conference held in July 2001. The article will be published by the Arizona Law Review as its Winter issue’s lead article. Prof. Marrus also completed a second article, entitled "Crack Babies And The Constitution: Ruminations About Addicted Pregnant Women After Ferguson v. City of Charleston," which has also been accepted for publication.
Professor Marrus appeared on Channel 2's August 4th (2001) Newsmakers for a discussion on the juvenile death penalty.
Prof. Marrus serves on the Planning Committee for the First Rocky Mountain Regional Clinical Conference to be held in October and on the Planning Committee for the Fifth National Juvenile Defender Leadership Summit.
Through fund-raising efforts, the UHLC Immigration Clinic and the Southwest Regional Juvenile Defender Center have each received gifts of $12,000 from the Lovebridge Foundation.
Professor Douglas K. Moll's article, "Shareholder Oppression v. Employment at Will in the Close Corporation: The Investment Model Solution," 1999 University of Illinois Law Review 517, is cited extensively in the forthcoming West textbook Business Structures, authored by David Epstein and Richard Freer of Emory Law School and Michael Roberts of Harvard Business School.
Professor Geraldine S. Moohr presented a paper, "Privatized Justice and Cultural Minorities," which considered use of arbitration by members of the gay and lesbian community, at the Law and Society Conference in Budapest. Prof. Moohr also chaired a panel, "A Free Press and Theories of Democracy," at the same conference.
Later in the summer, Prof. Moohr presented a paper at the Southeast Association for American Law Schools Conference on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2000-01 decisions on employment law and white collar crime, and also organized a panel for the January 2002 American Association of Law Schools Conference to consider advantages and disadvantages of criminal laws protecting intellectual property and information.
Finally, Prof. Moohr completed an article, "The Problematic Role of Criminal Law in Regulating Use of Information," which the University of North Carolina Law Review has offered to publish.
Professor Raymond T. Nimmer was recently listed in the International Who’s Who of Internet Lawyers and is now Chair of the State Law Committee of the Licensing Executives Society. Prof. Nimmer was the Keynote Speaker at the International Conference of Business Law Faculty in Albuquerque, speaking on property rights in the digital economy and, in July, Chaired a program in Seattle on Electronic Commerce. Prof. Nimmer also has two papers forthcoming in a new Oxford Press book on American Law.
Professor Michael A. Olivas published an article from his talk at the National Tax Association Annual Meeting in November; the 2000 Proceedings were published in September, 2001, and included the article on prepaid tuition plans, and gave a keynote address at the National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC). Although Prof. Olivas could not attend the August ABA Annual Meeting, his paper on financing legal education was presented to the Bar at a workshop conducted by the Legal Education and Admissions Section. Prof. Olivas also served as a consultant to the Sachs Foundation on legal issues concerning philanthropic financial assistance programs.
Prof. Olivas was interviewed for articles on college finances, immigration, and legal education that appeared in the Minneapolis Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, the Houston Chronicle, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Prof. Olivas also conducted a workshop for UH student affairs staff, on campus legal issues.
Professor Jacqueline L. Weaver lectured at Pace Law School on “The Federal Government as a Useful Enemy: Perspectives on the Bush Energy/Environment Agenda from the Texas Oil Fields.”
Rod Borlase, Editor