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

Editor, Katy Stein Badeaux, kastein@central.uh.edu

Previous editions of Faculty Focus can be accessed here.

October 2013

Janet Beck spoke to a group of Albert Schweitzer fellows at Baylor College of Medicine about cross-cultural issues and effective communication techniques across race, nationality and socio-economic status. The group consisted of graduate students including several at UH as well as medical students from Baylor and the University of Texas who are engaged in various projects across the Houston area to address unmet health needs among lower socio-economic groups. http://www.schweitzerfellowship.org/chapters/houston/

Zack Bray’s work on conservation easements and private land trusts has been cited by the Law Commission for England and Wales in a report about whether those jurisdictions should adopt and expand similar tools for private conservation. The Law Commission’s consultation materials are available at http://lawcommission.justice.gov.uk/consultations/2317.htm.

Julian Cardenas participated as a guest speaker at the forum, “Preparing for Energy Reform: International Experiences and Considerations,” at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), celebrated in Mexico City, last October 3, 2013. His presentation illustrated the interplay of international investment arbitration in the petroleum sector and the creation of transnational rules through international arbitration awards that are applicable for petroleum investments. Prof. Cardenas’s article The Era of Petroleum Contracts Mega Cases – Commentary on the Occidental v. Ecuador ICSID Award was published in the most recent number of the Houston Journal of International Law. The comment highlights discussions and questions on best practices for farmout agreements and international investment law applicable to the petroleum sector.

Barbara Evans has been named an affiliated Member of the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine; this facilitates future UHLC-Baylor collaborations in the genetics and health IT areas. On Oct. 13, Prof. Evans submitted revisions to her article, Mining the Human Genome after Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, to the Nature journal, Genetics in Medicine. On Oct. 10, the Student Health Law Organization hosted Prof. Evans and practitioners Alyssa Parrish of Universal American and Renee Lowe of the Harris County Hospital District for a career options panel. On Oct. 3, her chapter, In Search of Sound Policy on Nonconsensual Uses of Identifiable Health Data, in The Future of Human Subjects Research Regulation (I. Glenn Cohen & Holly Fernandez Lynch, eds.) went into final copy edits at M.I.T. Press. On Oct. 2, she submitted a law article, Sustainable Access to Data for Postmarketing Medical Product Safety Surveillance under the Amended HIPAA Privacy Rule, to appear in the 60th anniversary symposium for Case Western Reserve University’s health law program. On Oct. 1, Prof. Evans and coauthors Wylie Burke, M.D., Ph.D. and Gail Jarvik, M.D., Ph.D. submitted their article, Return of Results: Research and Clinical Practice, to American Journal of Medical Genetics. On Sept. 30, Harvard Law School’s Bill of Health blog featured Prof. Evans’ article, Minimizing Liability Risks under the ACMG Recommendations for Reporting Incidental Findings in Clinical Exome and Genome Sequencing, Genetics in Medicine (forthcoming Dec. 2013). Her book chapter, The Future of Prospective Medicine under the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007, is undergoing peer review. On Sept. 27, she submitted the Year-3 renewal application for her NIH exome sequencing grant, with copious help from April Moreno, Business Services, and UH’s OCG. On Sept. 25, she resigned as Co-director of the Health Law & Policy Institute to focus on her duties as Director, Center on Biotechnology & Law. Earlier in September, her article, Why the Common Rule is Hard to Amend, appeared in the Indiana Health Law Journal’s symposium issue. She reported results of a legal research study (with privacy lawyers Kristen Rosati and Deven McGraw) on data privacy in large-scale, randomized observational studies of medical product safety and they are preparing a related White Paper now. She submitted the final manuscript of The First Amendment Right to Speak About the Human Genome to U. Penn. J. Constitutional Law. She contributed to a chapter on ethical guidelines for long-duration spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit. She participated via WebEx in an Institute of Medicine meeting on Oct. 3 and 4; delivered a talk on proposed revisions to federal clinical laboratory regulations in teleconference with the Univ. of Washington NEXT Medicine Return of Results Committee on Oct. 4; and participated in ongoing teleconferences related to a large drug-safety surveillance project. She attended healthcare-related conferences at the UH Hilton on Oct. 4 and in San Antonio on Sep. 28.

Geoffrey Hoffman was interviewed on 92.1 radio on the Affordable Care Act and undocumented immigrants, as well as on 90.1 regarding Deferred Action and Comprehensive Immigration Reform proposals in the House and Senate. Professor Hoffman attended a meeting with HBA president and immigration professors at the HBA. He spoke at the SALT/UHLC/LCLD Pipeline Conference, October 11, 2013. Professor Hoffman also spoke at the People’s Law School on immigration law on October 5, 2013.

Paul Janicke spoke on patent litigation topics at the Intellectual Property Owners annual meeting in Boston in late September. Martindale-Hubbell has designated Professor Janicke AV Preeminent in its Judicial Edition, due to his work as special master in the federal courts.

Craig Joyce was reappointed to the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. for his 26th consecutive year of service.

Jacqueline Lipton published, To Copyright or Not to Copyright: Copyright and Innovation in the Digital Typeface Industry (republished in IP and Competition Law Review, Law Press, Bei Jing China, 2013). Professor Lipton also published (with M. Wong), Online Gripesites and ICANN’s new gTLD Process, 25 Intellectual Property Journal 195 (2012).

Jessica Mantel delivered the Case Western Reserve Law Review’s Distinguished Lecture on October 3. Her talk, entitled “The Influence of Organizational Culture on Clinical Decision-Making: Implications for Law, Policy, and Ethics,” discussed her forthcoming article in the Case Western Reserve Law Review. On October 4, Professor Mantel spoke at the University of Houston’s conference "Greater Houston's Health - Urban Health Care in the 21st Century." Her talk was entitled “Looking Beyond the Individual Mandate and Exchanges: How ACA is Changing the Organization and Delivery of Health Care.” Professor Mantel also organized HLPI’s symposium workshop “Our Patchwork Health Care System: Benefits and Challenges,” held on September 28-29 in San Antonio. The workshop brought together various national health law scholars to discuss their articles, which will be published in the spring issue of the Houston Journal of Health Law and Policy.

Rick McElvaney spoke at the UHLC Consumer Law CLE Program on September 27, 2013 on the topic of Landlord and Tenant Law.

In 2013, Douglas Moll’s scholarship has been cited by the Supreme Court of Iowa, the Texas Court of Appeals, and the North Carolina Business Court. Professor Moll has also accepted an invitation to participate on a panel at the 2014 SEALS conference on “The Role of Trust in the Marketplace.” He has also accepted an invitation to moderate a panel at the ABA Section of Litigation Annual Meeting on issues related to business divorce. Professor Moll is currently working away on the manuscript for his forthcoming casebook on Business Torts (Thomson/West Publishing).

Tom Oldham was invited to be a speaker at a conference on international developments in child support hosted by the Australian National University in early November. He had to turn it down because he would have had to cancel a week of classes. Professor Oldham has been reappointed to the Board of Editors for the ABA Family Law Quarterly for the 2013-2014 year.

Michael A. Olivas delivered the Keynote Address at a Texas A&M University conference on new directions in Chicano/a scholarship; the Lecture will be a Chapter in a forthcoming University of Texas Press book project, scheduled for publication in 2014. He recorded a public service announcement on immigration issues for college students for the NM Immigrant Law Center, as well as a series of programs at KANW, an NPR affiliate in Albuquerque, NM. He also delivered the Howard Bowen Distinguished Lecture at the Claremont Graduate University, speaking from his new book, Suing Alma Mater (Johns Hopkins University, 2013): https://emsweb.claremont.edu/CGUMC/EventDetails.aspx?data=hHr80o3M7J4aLVUR9yI6GkgiBcVBsqGGZMO1QVPa9QrXpfedkSmkNiPBRtOlb5pv

Jordan Paust’s author’s rank regarding downloads during the last 12 months is within the top ¼ of the top 1% of authors from all disciplines covered (#500 out of 236,255 authors). His earlier article on Nonstate Actor Participation in International Law and the Pretense of Exclusion has been reprinted as a book chapter in vol. 2 International Law: Essays in Honor of Augusto Sinagra 502-534 (Rome 2013).

D. Theodore Rave presented his article, Settlement, ADR, and Class Action Superiority on September 27 at Vanderbilt Law School as part of “The Public Life of the Private Law: The Logic and Experience of Mass Litigation” conference in honor of Richard A. Nagareda. The conference was jointly sponsored by the Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program, the Journal of Tort Law, and the University of Texas Center on Lawyers, Civil Justice, and the Media. Professor Rave’s paper will be published in the Journal of Tort Law this spring.

Susan Sakmar prepared and presented a CLE program for the Denver law firm of Dufford & Brown on September 26 entitled “A Wild Ride Through the New American Energy Landscape.” The 2-hour course explored the transformation of America from a major energy importer to a potential major energy exporter and the myriad of regulatory and policy issues this dramatic turn of events raises. In focus were several key “hot topics” including shale gas and oil development, the Keystone XL pipeline, U.S. exports of LNG, coal, and crude, and how these developments might impact recently announced climate change goals. The course also provided insight into how the profound energy developments in the U.S. could impact energy markets around the world.

Greg Vetter was an invited reviewer/commentator at the 6th Annual Junior Scholars in Intellectual Property (JSIP) Workshop, an event on October 4-5, 2013, by the Michigan State University College of Law Intellectual Property, Information & Communications Law Program (IPIC); invited reviewers are a group of established scholars providing detailed commentary on articles by junior scholars in a focused workshop setting.

Bret Wells presented "Tax Planning Implications of Current Business Tax Reform Proposals" to the Wednesday Tax Forum on September 17.