Albertus Accolades

December 2017

Editor, Robert N. Clark, Reference/Research Librarian

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 celebrated the spirit of the season with UHLC faculty and staff at the annual Holiday Party on December 1 and wished everyone Happy Holidays and good cheer. On December 2, Dean Baynes hosted the Law Center’s annual Holiday Coffee Open House with faculty and staff to celebrate the season with brunch and good cheer. On December 8, Dean Baynes gave lunch time remarks at the Lawyering Skills and Strategies Workshop, “Stepping into Spring: Preparing for the Second Semester.” On December 9, Dean Baynes attended the ZT Wealth and Altus Foundation Annual Toast to Living Well Gala at the downtown Hilton Americas. The Gala raised $675,000 to help those affected by Hurricane Harvey. On December 10, Dean Baynes and UH Law Center A.A. White Professors of Law, Joe Sanders and Ron Turner, attended a brunch meeting with Don Riddle (’66) to thank him for his generous support of the A.A. White Faculty Endowment. On December 13, Dean Baynes gave introductory remarks at a UH Law Center CLE event titled: “Life after the World Series: Impacts on Houston and the Greater Community.” The event focused on the different impacts winning the World Series has on business, contract negotiation, brand recognition, and local economic development.

Emily Berman spoke at a CLE on the “Extent of, and Limitations on, Presidential Power” organized by the Austin chapter of the American Constitution Society at the Austin Bar Association.

Katherine Brem spoke about the positive impact practitioners’ real-world narratives can bring to the classroom, both pedagogically and with regard to student wellness, at the Legal Writing Institute One-Day Workshop on December 8, sponsored by the University of Houston Law Center. And Brem, along with Lauren Simpson, has been invited to make a related presentation at the regional Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law next March.

Richard Dole is currently in the top ten percent of authors on SSRN by total new downloads within the last twelve months.

David R. Dow's most recent book, The Memoir of an Innocent Man, was acquired by Dutton (an imprint of Penguin-Random House). For an article solicited by the Journal of Appellate Practice, he co-authored with Clinical Supervising Attorney Jeff Newberry an article entitled How to Obtain Relief for Three Decades of Delay: Lessons on the Right to a Speedy Trial and the Pre-Trial Writ of Habeas Corpus from the Saga of Jerry Hartfield. Finally, he argued before the Fifth Circuit on December 4 on behalf of death row inmate Rick Rhoades, in a case raising issues of a Batson violation, the wrongful exclusion of mitigating evidence, and the wrongful inclusion of misleading aggravating evidence. 

Whitney Heard presented "Using the Familiar to Teach the Unfamiliar: An Introductory Persuasive Writing Exercise" at the Legal Writing Institute (LWI) One-Day Workshop, at the University of Houston Law Center. She also helped organize the workshop with her LSS colleagues.

Tracy Hester testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Management, and Regulatory Oversight on December 6 to outline options for enhancing the resiliency and stability of Superfund sites in natural disasters. On November 16, Hester moderated the UH Energy Symposium on “Permian and Peak Demand: Death of OPEC?” On December 7, he participated in the joint symposium on “Is Climate Change Making Us Sick?” organized by the Health Law & Policy Institute and the Energy, Environment and & Natural Resource Center (along with Jessica Mantel, Victor Flatt, Blake Hudson, Gina Warren, and Seth Chandler). In his role as chair, Hester led the Texas Environmental Research Consortium’s board of directors meeting on December 5, and he joined the inaugural meeting of the Houston resiliency collaborative hosted by the Urban Land Institute and the Houston Advanced Research Consortium on December 13. On December 7, he participated in the Greater Houston Partnership’s Environmental Advisory Committee meeting on environmental priorities for Houston in 2018 as its vice-chair.

Geoffrey Hoffman appeared on KJZZ to discuss the Supreme Court’s recent decision to allow President Trump’s third travel ban to go into effect while legal challenges make their way through the system. Audio is available here. Professor Hoffman was quoted in a Law360 article regarding major immigration cases from 2017. He was among a group of legal scholars who filed an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court of Montana in support of the petitioner’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the case of Valerio-Gonzalez v. Jarret. He is currently in the top ten percent of authors on SSRN by total new downloads within the last twelve months.  

Craig Joyce attended the American Society for Legal History’s 2017 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas in four capacities – as the incoming chair of the Local Arrangements Committee for the 2018 Annual Meeting (to be held in Houston and sponsored by the Law Center); as the long-time (21 meetings) chair of the Standing Committee on the Annual Meeting; as the chair of the Committee on the History of the Society (website opened at the 2017 meeting, with generous assistance from Robert Palmer); as senior co-chair of the Archive Committee (newly created to serve as a repository for materials not preserved on-line through HOTS) – and, as a long-time season ticket holder, witnessed the Houston Astros become World Champions.

Renee Knake was elected to the American Law Institute in December 2017.

J. Thomas Oldham published a new edition of his Family Law text with West (co-authored with Linda Elrod).

Michael A. Olivas published Undocumented College Students and the DREAM Act, in Oxford Bibliographies in Latino Studies, Ilan Stavans, ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming). He also wrote six letters for promotion and/or tenure this Fall, bringing his total to over 150 such personnel letters to over 100 institutions, as well as letters of recommendation or references for more than 200 additional fellowships, academic positions, committee or other honors academy memberships, and academic awards.

Kellen Zale presented her article, Compensating City Council (Stanford Law Review, forthcoming 2018), at the South Texas School of Law Houston in November 2017 and at the New Voices in Legislation Program at the AALS Annual Meeting in San Diego in January 2018.