Faculty Focus is a monthly publication documenting the activities, accomplishments, and honors of the University of Houston Law Center Faculty.

November 2005

Christine Agnew was appointed to the ABA Tax Section’s Hurricane Katrina Task Force.  The Task Force interfaces with Congress, the Internal Revenue Service and FEMA on matters relating to Hurricane Katrina tax relief.  On October 25th, she gave a presentation to the Wednesday Tax Forum on the Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act of 2005 (“KETRA”) and on October 31st, her interview with Fox News aired in their morning money segment which featured the new tax benefits under KETRA.

 

 

Darren Bush for the past few months has been a consultant with the Antitrust Modernization Commission (AMC), www.amc.gov, dealing with issues related to statutory immunities and antitrust laws.  His report, coauthored with Dr. Gregory K. Leonard of NERA Economic Consulting and Professor Stephen Ross of the University of Illinois College of Law, titled, A Framework for Policymakers to Analyze Proposed and Existing Antitrust Immunities and Exemptions is publicly available and soon will be uploaded to the AMC website.  The report will also be the subject of a hearing before the AMC on December 1st, at which Professor Bush will testify.  In addition, in October he spoke at the Houston Intellectual Property Law Association meeting on recurring issues at the nexus of antitrust and intellectual property.  He also completed a draft of an article titled, The Incentive and Ability of the Federal Trade Commission to Investigate Real Estate Markets: An Exercise in Political Economy, which he will present at the American Antitrust Institute’s Real Estate Symposium on November 8th in Washington, D.C.  The proceedings of this symposium will be published in a yet to be named law review.  His essay titled, Screening for Market Power in Electricity Markets was published in Energy Magazine.  He also gave a talk to the Society of Law and Politics student group on ”The Is and the Oughts of Racial Profiling Data Collection in Texas.”  Finally, he was quoted on KTRH Radio concerning recent consolidation in the telecommunications industry.

 

Victor Flatt wrote a memorial article on Judge Faye C. Kennedy, which was published in the November issue of Washington Bar News.  He was also quoted in OutSmart magazine on the proposed Amendment 2 to the Texas Constitution, banning same-sex marriage and other relationships.

 

Gidi published a paper on Comparative Civil Procedure in Colombia.  He also presented a paper for Brazilian Law Professors from his office at the Law Center, through videoconference.

 

Leslie Griffin’s chapter entitled, The Ethics of Partners: Bohatch v. Butler & Binion about a 1998 Texas Supreme Court case appeared in Legal Ethics:  Law Stories published by Foundation Press. She also attended the Editorial Board meeting of the Journal of Law and Religion at Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, on October 27th & 28th. As part of the meeting, she also moderated a panel discussion on "Democracy and Virtue:  Optimism or Faith?"

 

Craig Joyce published six entries on copyright and legal history in the Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States (2d ed. 2005).

 

Joan Krause has been invited to write an article on health care fraud for the Northwestern University Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology symposium on white collar crime.

 

Peter Linzer wrote the Foreword: Hadley v. Baxendale and the Seamless Web of Law, 11 Texas Wes. L. Rev. 225 (2004), to the Texas Wesleyan Law Review’s 500 page symposium on the 150th anniversary of Hadley v. Baxendale, the famous case on consequential damages for breach of contract.  (The crankshaft at the flour mill broke and the carrier delayed getting the replacement; held: no damages for unforeseeable lost profits – remember?)  The symposium, which was based on a conference held in Gloucester, England in the summer of 2004, has 23 articles and panel discussions involving 29 authors, including Joe Perillo, Andrew Tettenborn, John Kidwell, M.P. Ellinghaus and Ian Macneil, as well as a bevy of younger writers.  Copies are said to have been sent to every contract professor.  On another, continuing front, Professor Linzer has completed a major chunk of the parol evidence rule chapter of his revision of the interpretation volume of Corbin On Contracts.  Publication of what will be Volume 6 of the Revised Edition of Corbin is expected in 2006. Professor Linzer will give a paper entitled "Allan Farnsworth's Theory (Non-Theory? Anti-Theory?) Of Contract" at the mid-year contracts conference to be held at Texas Wesleyan in February.  Apparently, the paper will lead off a discussion of the general topic of contract theory with a panel that currently includes Joseph Perillo and Randy Barnett, and will have a couple more members. Professor Linzer has just been invited to give a lecture at McGeorge Law School in Sacramento, California as part of its 2006-07 Distinguished Speakers Series. He has accepted and tentatively is going to write a paper entitled, "Adhesion-K Meets Cyberspace: Take-it-or-leave-it Contracts in the Twenty-first Century."

 

Ellen Marrus has been invited to present and publish an article for a symposium on Adolescence and the Law at Temple Law School in the spring.  Professor Marrus also presented a session at the People’s Law School on the Juvenile Justice System and Teen Rights.  In addition she is doing a series of workshops for attorneys practicing in juvenile court in San Antonio, Houston, Galveston and the Valley.

 

Douglas Moll attended the Drafting Committee meeting for the Revised Uniform Limited Liability Company Act in Chicago from October 21st-23rd.  The statute is a NCCUSL product, and Professor Moll is an official Observer on the project.  Professor Moll was also asked to join the West casebook Business Structures as a co-author, but declined because he and Professor Ragazzo are busily working away on their West casebook, Cases and Materials on the Law of Closely-Held Business Organizations.

 

Gerry Moohr’s article, Prosecutorial Power in an Adversarial System: Lessons from Current White Collar Cases and the Inquisitorial Model, 8 Buff. Crim. L. Rev. 165 (2004) will appear in a new book.  The book, a compendium of articles on the Martha Stewart case titled, Martha Stewart’s Legal Troubles:  A Domestic Diva’s Interaction with Law and the Legal System, will be edited by Joan Heminway and published by Carolina Academic Press early in 2006.

 

Raymond Nimmer has had a busy two months. He completed the manuscript for the second edition of his treatise on Modern Licensing Law (West). He published the statutory supplement for his casebook on Licensing of Intellectual Property and Information Assets, had his paper on Fair Use and Licenses accepted for publication in Computer und Recht, a German, law periodical, and had his paper on Contract, Markets and Data Control accepted for publication in  BNA International, World Internet Law Report. Professor Nimmer chaired and delivered the keynote address at the 20th Annual Information and Computer Law Conference in Dallas.  The address was on “Taming the Dust Bunny that is Modern Law.” He also delivered speeches on the “Digital Millennium Copyright Act,” in New York and in San Francisco, chaired a workshop session in Phoenix at the Licensing Law Executives annual meeting, and was invited to deliver the keynote address at the International Information Technology Law conference in India.

 

Tom Oldham’s article co-authored with colleagues from Mexico and Canada relating to their NACLE-inspired course has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Legal Education. Supplement #36 to his book, Divorce, Separation and the Distribution of Property, has been published.

 

Michael A. Olivas was a busy guest lecturer this month. On October 10th, he addressed more than 300 state college trustees in Austin on legal issues concerning college governance, including the implications of Sarbanes-Oxley on non-profit boards. This was part of his multi-year grant from the Houston Endowment. On October 17th, he delivered the Moore Distinguished Lecture at North Carolina State University, on the implications of post-9/11 legislation and regulation of immigration and postsecondary education. On October 28th, he spoke at Texas A&M University-Commerce, on legal issues that arise in community colleges, particularly disputes between faculty and students. He also advised the attorneys handling the 10th Circuit appeal of Day v. Bond. He is the Kansas state expert witness in the case, which involves immigration and residency tuition.

 

Laura Oren delivered a paper, “Honor Thy Mother?  The Supreme Court’s Jurisprudence of Motherhood”, to the 21st Century Motherhood:  Change conference sponsored by the University of Houston Women’s Studies Program on October 22nd.  A fuller version of the paper will be published by the Hastings Women’s Law Journal. The Final Report of the Faculty Senate Commission on University Governance (October 19, 2005) has been delivered to the Faculty Senate.  Foundation Law Professor Oren and Dean Nancy Rapoport served on the Commission.

 

Jordan Paust was a panel member and speaker during the Conference on Speaking Law to Terror: The Rule of Law in the War on Terrorism, The Treatment of Persons Detained by the U.S. Government at University of New Mexico School of Law on October 7th. He was also a panel member at Command Responsibility: Prosecuting Military Commanders and Civilian Ministers for Violations of the Laws of War, and a panel member and speaker, The Importance of Customary International Humanitarian Law in an Era of Codification, during the annual meeting of the American Branch of the International Law Association, in New York City on October 22nd.

 

Jon Schultz has begun his retirement with projects co-authored with his wife, Suzette Schultz, whose firm designs law firm offices throughout the U.S. and overseas.  Their new book, The Complete Guide to Designing Your Law Office, has been published by the American Bar Association.  The book is already listed by the ABA among its best sellers.  Professor Schultz and his wife have also joined forces to contribute a chapter on designing smaller offices to the new edition of the ABA’s book entitled Flying Solo, as well as an article in the April/May issue of Law Practice titled, Small Spaces: a Planning Primer for Solo and Small Firm Office Design.   This article was awarded the “Best Articles Published by the ABA” designation and is reprinted in part in the September, 2005 issue of GPSolo Magazine.  He also contributed a research guide on law firm design to the web-based research encyclopedia, the Infography of Fields of Knowledge.

 

Ira B. Shepard did not speak at the Tulane Tax Institute on October 27th but he spoke at the Mississippi Tax Institute in Jackson on October 28th, and will speak at the 7th Annual CBIZ Tax Conference in Tucson on November 7^th, at the Wednesday Tax Forum in Houston on November 8th, at the William & Mary Tax Conference in Williamsburg on November 10th, at the Tennessee Tax Institute in Nashville on November 11th, at the Kentucky Tax Institute in Louisville on November 17th and at the West Texas Tax Institute in El Paso on December 2nd. He will also attend the planning meeting for the 41st Annual Southern Federal Tax Institute in Atlanta on November 12th. His Recent Developments outline was used in November for presentations to the University of Texas Tax Conference and the Austin TEI Chapter Annual Tax Seminar.

 

Joseph Vail served as a representative to the National Committee for the American Immigration Lawyers Association at the liaison meeting with the Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review in Falls Church, VA on October 17th. He also spoke at the National Association of Women Law Judges Conference on “Immigration Issues Facing Criminal, Juvenile and Family Court Judges” on October 21st. Later in the month on October 25, 2005 he conducted a web conference for the American Immigration Lawyers Association on basics of immigration court practice.

 

Greg Vetter presented a work-in-progress draft of his paper Exit and Voice in Free and Open Source Software Licensing:  Moderating the Rein over Software Users at the Works-in-Progress Intellectual Property Colloquium held on October 7th-8th by the Washington University School of Law and the Saint Louis University School of Law.