Albertus Accolades

January 2017

Editor, Katy Stein Badeaux • Access previous editions of Albertus Accolades here.

Albertus Accolades is a monthly publication documenting the activities, accomplishments, and honors of
the University of Houston Law Center faculty and staff.

Leonard Baynes introduced UH President, Dr. Renu Khator, at the Arrival Awards Cultivation Breakfast on December 2.

Janet Beck’s article, “Immigrants Detained in America: Who are They and What are Their Rights,” was published in The Houston Lawyer, November/December 2016.

Barbara Evans has been invited to speak on biodiversity genomics policy at the Smithsonian Institution next month during a summit with the Beijing Genomics Institute. Professor Evans will deliver the keynote address at a citizen science conference at King’s College London where she will discuss BioEXIT, a popular uprising against 20th century bioethics principles. She has a blogpost forthcoming on this same topic as part of a group Professor Susan Wolf assembled for the December 2016 Dienard Memorial Lecture at University of Minnesota. A 2016 hearing health care study Professor Evans co-authored was cited in the Federal Trade Commission’s January 4 announcement of a public workshop on competition and consumer protection issues in hearing health care. The White House cited the study in its December 7 blog post announcing that FDA has revised its regulations to implement the study’s recommendation on over-the-counter sale of hearing aids to enhance access among the uninsured (which is most of us with respect to hearing health care). The President of the American Academy of Audiology also cited the study in his essay, Where is  the outrage? Professor Evans worked through the holidays with the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee on Future Biotechnology Products, which is issuing a report on regulation of biotechnology very soon, and she is working with the NCVHS Privacy Subcommittee to develop recommendations on HIPAA’s handling of de-identified data and to prepare a report for Congress on HIPAA implementation. Professor Evans and Dr. Gail Jarvik submitted a medical journal piece on HIPAA’s minimum necessary standard and genomic data sharing, and Professor Evans will speak about genomic data sharing at a meeting of the NIH’s clinical sequencing in cancer research consortium in Bethesda on Feb. 2.The Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School announced that Professor Evans will participate in its April 2017 Annual Conference, Transparency in Health and Health Care, where she is presenting a sole-authored piece work on privacy/transparency conflicts and also joining lead author Jim Hawkins and Dr. Harlan Krumholz of Yale Medical School for a coauthored study of transparency in  electronic health records; she will moderate a session on metrics of transparency in health care. Professor Evans was recently awarded an additional year of funding under her NIH Clinical Sequencing in Cancer grant with Dr. Jarvik, through November 2018, and currently is finalizing funding arrangements with Harvard Catalyst and FDA for a study of public health applications of FDA’s Sentinel System.

Geoffrey Hoffman represented the Law Center at the executive meeting of the Houston Immigration Collaborative. He also participated in a conference call and meetings relating to the Arrival Awards and planning for the event. Most importantly, he took his 2 sons snorkeling in Key West, Florida. In January Professor Hoffman spoke on political opinion in the context of gang-based asylum claims at the asylum training workshop sponsored by Akin Gump and RAICES. He also attended the Organizational Development Subcommittee Meeting of the Houston Immigration Collaborative on behalf of the Law Center. Later, Professor Hoffman was interviewed by KUHF for a news piece on sanctuary cities in Texas, available here. Professor Hoffman appeared on KPRC-TV’s Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall to discuss the immigration ban. Video is available here. The following day, Professor Hoffman was quoted in a Houston Chronicle article regarding his work with a group of lawyers providing pro bono services to those affected by President Trump’s executive order. The Immigration Prof Blog published his essay describing the experience as a volunteer attorney at the IAH airport in Houston Sunday, January 29. Professor Hoffman was also interviewed by Fox 26 News for a story regarding the volunteer lawyers present at IAH airport. Video is available here. A Houston Chronicle article regarding the efforts of these attorneys quoted Professor Hoffman as well. The following day Professor Hoffman was quoted again in the Houston Chronicle, discussing how the U.S. travel ban on citizens of seven predominantly Muslim nations could backfire on American energy companies.

Craig Joyce was reappointed to the Editorial Board of Journal of Supreme Court History, sponsored by the Supreme Court of the United States, and began his 30th consecutive year of service.  Joyce also announced Las Vegas as the site of the American Society for Legal History’s Annual Meeting in 2017 and was reappointed as chair of the Society’s Standing Committee on the Annual Meeting, which he has led since 1998.

Renee Knake was elected Treasurer for the Professional Responsibility Section of the Association of American Law Schools at the annual meeting. She was invited to speak about access to justice issues by the Universidad Francisco Marroquin at the Antigua Forum in Guatemala on January 20. Dean Baynes and Professor Knake produced a “Briefcase Radio” segment that aired on Houston Public Media in January, available here.

Sapna Kumar travelled to Asia and presented her paper “Patent Damages Without Borders” at the Singapore Management University and at Hong Kong University law schools.

David Kwok presented his paper, “The Public Wrong of Whistleblower Retaliation,” at the AALS Annual Meeting in San Francisco on January 4 as part of the New & Emerging Voices in Workplace Law program.

Jessica Mantel and Lauren Simpson spoke at the AALS annual conference on a panel entitled “Experiential Learning in Legal Writing Programs.” The panel was sponsored by the AALS Legal Research, Reasoning, and Writing section and discussed the benefits and challenges of collaborations between doctrinal, legal writing, and clinical faculty. Professors Mantel and Simpson explained their innovative teaching collaboration in an upper-level seminar designed to improve students' law-practice writing.

Douglas Moll submitted the manuscript for the 13th edition of his casebook, The Law of Business Organizations:  Cases, Materials, and Problems (with Jon Macey), to West Academic Publishing.  He also submitted the manuscript for his article, “Bank Director and Officer Duty of Care” (with Julie Hill) to the Alabama Law Review.  Professor Moll accepted an invitation to speak at the “Essentials of Business Law” program in March (sponsored by TexasBarCLE).  Professor Moll will be speaking on “Differences in Drafting for Majority, Minority and 50/50 Owners in an LLC and Implications for LLC Operating Agreement Drafting.”  (That title was forced upon him.)  Professor Moll was also reelected as an Executive Committee member of the AALS Section on Agency and Unincorporated Business Associations.  Finally, Professor Moll received a contract from West Academic Publishing for the second edition of his concise hornbook, Principles of Business Organizations (with Rich Freer). That project will likely begin in Summer 2017.

Gerry Moohr’s first-year casebook Criminal Law (8th edition, with co-authors Paul Marcus, Linda Malone, and Cara Drinan) was published by Carolina Academic Press in December 2016. A teacher’s manual will follow in early 2017.

The supplement to Tom Oldham’s treatise entitled Divorce Separation and the Distribution of Property was published last month.

At the AALS Annual Meeting, Michael A. Olivas chaired the Association’s Law and Film Series, which included two films on legal themes (Anatomy of a Murder and Jaula de Oro (Cage of Gold). He also commented on Jaula and facilitated a discussion with the film’s producer at the showing.

D. Theodore Rave’s article, The Information-Forcing Role of the Judge in Multidistrict Litigation, 105 Cal. L. Rev. (forthcoming) (with Andrew Bradt, Berkeley), was selected for presentation at the Ninth Annual Junior Faculty Federal Courts Workshop, which will be held at Emory Law School on March 31. He attended Pound Civil Justice Institute’s Law School Outreach Summit on January 7 in San Francisco. Professor Rave was also elected to the executive committee of the Election Law Section at the AALS Annual Meeting.

The Pennsylvania Law Review published Jessica Roberts’ paper with Glenn Cohen, Chris Deubert, and Holly Lynch (Harvard), Evaluating NFL Player Health & Performance: Legal & Ethical Issues. The Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics accepted her proposed paper with Elizabeth Weeks Leonard (Georgia) Stigmatizing the Unhealthy for its symposium issue.

In May 2017, Lauren Simpson will speak at the Nacogdoches Civic Center at the Texas Pollinator Powwow, an annual pollinator-conservation conference. Her presentation, entitled “How I Came to Love the Syrphid Fly—from the Journal of a Citizen Scientist,” will introduce the audience to this family of pollinating fly, explain its important role in pollination and garden health, and showcase its species’ beauty through photographs from Professor Simpson’s own home wildlife-habitat gardens, which are a Certified Wildlife Habitat (National Wildlife Federation), a Monarch Waystation (Monarch Watch, Waystation No. 10925), and a Certified Butterfly Garden (North American Butterfly Association). To date, Professor Simpson’s home wildlife-habitat gardens have welcomed nearly 40 species of butterfly; at least 20 species of syrphid fly; and over 25 species each of bee and wasp—among other pollinators. Professor Simpson has accepted an invitation to speak on March 4, 2017, on transforming a home landscape into a wildscape supporting pollinators and other wildlife. The program is sponsored by the Oak Forest Homeowner’s Association.

Gina Warren was elected Chair of the Natural Resources and Energy Law Section of the AALS and moderated the Section’s panel, Natural Resource, Energy, and Environmental Implications of “Leave It In the Ground” Policies, at the AALS Annual Meeting in San Francisco on January 4, 2017. Professor Warren was also interviewed by Dean Leonard Baynes for a segment on The Law Center Briefcase regarding her forthcoming article, 1-Click Energy.

Bret Wells spoke in Houston on December 13th at the Wednesday Tax Forum. Professor Wells addressed the recently issued final Section 385 regulations and their impact on inbound US tax planning.  

Kellen Zale was the moderator for the State and Local Government Law panel on "Marijuana Law: 2017" at the AALS Annual Meeting in San Francisco on January 6, where she was also elected to the Executive Committee of the State and Local Government Law Section of AALS.  Her article, When Everything is Small: The Regulatory Challenge of Scale in the Sharing Economy, was reviewed in Jotwell  by Professor Eric Biber.