Faculty Focus

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

July, 2006

Richard Alderman served as the Course Director for the “Teaching Consumer Law Conference,” presented by the Center for Consumer Law. The conference, held in Houston, was attended by more than 50 law faculty from seven countries. He also visited the University of Tokyo for a month where he taught classes at both the graduate and undergraduate law level and conducted a seminar on the regulation of consumer credit for the professors. In addition, Professor Alderman submitted his manuscript for the 2006-07 edition of Texas Consumer Law—Cases and Materials, published by Imprimatur Press. In June he completed his 800th story for his weekly syndicated TV spot entitled “It’s the Law,” which is sponsored by the Texas Young Lawyers’ Association and is shown in 14 Texas cities.

 

Darren Bush was involved in an American Antitrust Institute (AAI) request to the Federal Trade Commission to investigate residential real estate commissions.  In a May 9, 2006 letter to FTC staff, he, Bert Foer (President, AAI) and Norman Hawker (Associate Professor of Finance and Commercial Law, Haworth College of Business, Western Michigan University) wrote that crucial data relating to pricing of brokers' commissions can best be obtained by use of the Commission's compulsory investigatory authority. Attached to the cover letter was an article by Professor Hawker summarizing AAI's symposium on real estate competition and an article by Professor Bush analyzing the FTC's authority to conduct an investigation, including a proposed Civil Investigative Demand to be issued to participants within the industry.  The letter, the articles, and the model Civil Investigative Demand can be found athttp://www.antitrustinstitute.org/recent2/517.cfm.  He was also quoted in the June 28th edition of the Fort Worth Star Telegram relating to the agreement between the City of Fort Worth, the City of Dallas, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and DFW International Airport regarding the future of Dallas Love Field.  The agreement is available at http://www.setlovefree.com/pdf/agree amendment.pdf. 

 

Richard Dole addressed the students at the Capital University of Economics and Business and the University of International Business and Economics on “Lessons Learned from the Enron Corporation Scandal” in Beijing, People’s Republic of China on June 9th. 

 

David R. Dow's essay, The End of Innocence, was published in the New York Times Op-ed page on June 16th, and was reprinted in the Houston Chronicle on Sunday June 25th.  He also delivered the annual supplement to his Texas Contract Law to Thomson-West.   

Professor Dow was invited to participate in a symposium at the University of Albany on “The Future of Death Penalty Research” and to discuss his forthcoming book of constitutional theory at the University of Tulsa. 

 

Victor B. Flatt gave a presentation on “Climate Change Policies, the UK Example” at a Houston Business Forum, sponsored by Trinity Consultants, on June 6th.  On June 28th, he was the keynote luncheon speaker at Roger Williams University summer program in Environmental and Marine Law, speaking on the topic of “Changes Needed in the Clean Air Act to deal with Air Toxic Risks.” He was also quoted in the June issue of Outsmart magazine on the effect of Lawrence v. Texas on gay rights in the US. Professor Flatt's article "This Land is Your Land: Our Rights to the Environment," 107 W. Va. L. Rev. 1 (lead article, special issue) was selected as a finalist for the annual compendium of best land use and environmental law articles of 2005.

 

Stephen K. Huber & Maureen Weston, ARBITRATION: CASES AND MATERIALS (2d ed. 2006) is hot off the press from LexisNexis.  Maureen Weston is a professor of law at Pepperdine Law School.  Professor Huber’s summer activities include teaching a two week course at Pepperdine Law School, chairing a meeting at the Seals Convention (at the Breakers in Palm Beach), and visiting Michael Olivas in Sante Fe. He plans on doing lots of scholarly writing as well.

 

Craig Joyce attended the AALS Workshop on Intellectual Property in Vancouver, B.C., and chaired the panel on “Enemies or Friends? The IP Clause and Other Congressional Powers Under the U.S. Constitution.”  He also completed for publication by LexisNexis the manuscripts of Copyright Law: Seventh Edition and its 2006 Cumulative Supplement.

 

Joan Krause was interviewed by KUHF on June 21st regarding the retrial of Andrea Yates and her article, A Patient-Centered Approach to Health Care Fraud Recovery, was published in  96 J. Crim.L. & Criminology 579 (2006).

 

Douglas Moll was invited by Conley Rose P.C. to discuss the liability implications of converting the law firm (currently a professional corporation) to a limited liability partnership with several shareholders in the Houston and Dallas offices over lunch.  He was also invited to present faculty enrichment lectures at the University of Oregon and the University of Arizona Law Schools.

 

Tom Oldham, Barbara Atwood and other NACLE colleagues (North American Consortium of Legal Education) published Crossing Borders in the Classroom: A Comparative Law Experiment in Family Law, in 55 J. Legal Ed. 542 (2005). Also he has been invited by the editor of the Journal of the American Association of Matrimonial Lawyers to submit an article about the dissipation of marital property.

 

Michael A. Olivas participated in a national call-in radio program on immigration issues hosted by the University of Missouri System NPR on July 7th. As a member of the MALDEF Board, he was appointed to chair the search/transition committee for the new MALDEF General Counsel/President vacancy.

 

Jordan Paust’s article, Antiterrorism Military Commissions: Courting Illegality, 23 Mich. J. Int’l L. 1 (2001-2002), was cited by Justice Stevens in his majority opinion in the landmark case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 2006 WL 1764793 (June 29, 2006).  Professor Paust will send the third edition of Paust, Bassiouni, et al., International Criminal Law to the publishers after preparing an extract of the opinions in Hamdan.

 

Nancy B. Rapoport  appeared on CNBC to talk about Ken Lay’s death, http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=c35a46b1-8b76-4b5c-907a-3e7df461de85&f=rssmoney&fg=rss&f=15/64rssmoney, and she published No Redemption Now: Thoughts on the Death of Ken Lay, JURIST—The Legal Education Network: JURIST Forum, July 6, 2006, http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2006/07/no-redemption-now-thoughts-on-death-of.php.

 

Greg Vetter attended the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) 2006 Mid-Year Meeting and Workshop on Intellectual Property held June 14th-16th.  At the meeting he presented a commentary on a paper presentation by Professor Andrew Chin of the University of North Carolina School of Law.  Professor Chin’s presentation was entitled:  Software Licensing and Market Power in the Age of the Virtualized Computer.  

 

Jacqueline Lang Weaver will be attending the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation’s annual meeting from July 19th-21st in Sante Fe, New Mexico.  She is the university’s trustee to this organization which recently awarded an $8000 scholarship to a UHLC student, Carrie Clark. Then, from July 24th- August 5th, she will teach a new course, “Natural Gas: Domestic and International Legal Frameworks” at the Vermont Law School’s Energy Summer Program in South Royalton, Vt.

 

Steve Zamora gave two full days of lectures in July on “International Litigation in U.S. Courts,” as part of the Academy of American and International Law of the Center for American and International Law.  It was his seventeenth consecutive year of giving this mini-course on U.S. conflicts of laws to foreign lawyers who attend the 6-week summer Academy in Plano, Texas.  This year’s class included 67 lawyers from 35 different countries.   

Harriet Richman, editor