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Leonard M. Baynes spoke as a lecturer for the PreLaw Pipeline Scholar I class on Race and the Law. Also on June 10, Dean Baynes, along with nine other Texas law school deans issued a statement condemning racism and remembering George Floyd.
On June 18, in recognition of Juneteenth, the Diversity & Inclusion Committee led by Professors
Meredith Duncan and Geoffrey Hoffman as well as Associate Dean
Sondra Tennessee hosted a Town Hall entitled “Racism and What to Do About it.” Dean Baynes moderated a panel of alumni experts: Kirk Dobbins (’93), Vice President and Regional Counsel, Kaiser Permanente; Tiana Sandford (’08), Assistant District
Attorney Montgomery County; and Richard Craig Smith (’00), Partner, Quinn Emanuel’s DC Office. On June 23, Dean Baynes was joined by Professors
Emily Berman, Meredith Duncan, Geoffrey Hoffman,
Daniel Morales, Teddy Rave, and Greg Vetter, and UH General Counsel Dona Cornell at a town hall to discuss recent news events involving race, racial incidents on campus, eradication of racism, and recommitting
to diversity and inclusion, and updates on the upcoming school year. On June 24, Dean Baynes led a discussion with PreLaw Pipeline Program students discussing diversity issues and success. On June 25, he hosted a virtual reception at the State Bar of Texas
Annual Meeting where faculty, staff, and alumni gathered to network and hear updates about the Law Center, including the new building. On June 29, Dean Baynes and nine other Texas law school deans submitted a letter urging the Texas Board of Law Examiners
and the Texas Supreme Court to reconsider the in-person bar exam in July and September. Dean Baynes continues to serve as a member of the Houston Bar Association COVID Response Team.
Emily Berman appeared on KPRC-TV (NBC-2) to discuss the doctrine of qualified immunity. She also appeared on the June 28 episode of the Still Spying Podcast entitled “What Powers does the FBI Have & How Do We Rein Them In?”
Victor B. Flatt was recognized as the 2020 Student Bar Association Professor of the Year for Part-Time students. Flatt’s article"The Costs of Creating Environmental Markets: A commodification Primer," with Michael Pappas was selected as one
of the eleven finalists for Best Environmental Law Article of 2019. He was also invited to present at the Defense Attorney Research Institute’s annual meeting on environmental disasters and environmental justice.
Leah Fowler appeared on the June 5 episode of the CAP Impact Podcast entitled “Episode 64: What you Do and Don’t Need to Fear in the COVID-19 Crisis.”
Tracy Hester coordinated and spoke at a webinar for the American College of Environmental Lawyers on June 11, which focused on waste plastics management options and liability strategies. On June 22, he spoke at a briefing on climate intervention
governance hosted by the Wilson Center in Washington DC on potential U.S. federal legislative options. On June 24, Hester gave a presentation to the Commission on Environmental Cooperation at a webinar workshop on the new USMCA trade agreement’s environmental
impacts. On June 26, he hosted and spoke at the first of three workshops jointly sponsored by the American Bar Association, the American Association of Law Schools, and the American College of Environmental Lawyers on Superfund reforms. This workshop involved
direct participation by the EPA administrators in charge of the program.
Geoffrey Hoffman advised the County Commissioner’s Office on potential repercussions and legal consequences of the then pending Supreme Court case regarding DACA. He also attended an AILA Meeting on DACA Updates from the Experts and a HILSC
Asylum Think Tank Regulations Meeting. On June 18, Hoffman and Professor Michael Olivas appeared in a Fox26 News segment on the Supreme Court DACA decision. On June 22, he met with the Editorial Board of the AILA Law Journal to select new articles. On June
23, Hoffman participated in the University of Houston Virtual Town Hall. On June 30, he was a speaker for the CLE Webinar entitled, “The DACA Decisions—Significance Moving Forward”.
Zachary Kaufman consulted for Facebook on statements by government officials regarding the use of force, which Facebook addressed in a public statement on June 5. He joined the June 15 “Statement of Lawyers and Legal Scholars Against the U.S.
Sanctions on International Criminal Court Investigators of Atrocities.” He consulted for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on its report, “Global Forced Migration: The Political Crisis of Our Time,” which was released on June 18. Kaufman consulted
for the New York City Office of the Mayor on its creation of the Racial Justice and Reconciliation Commission announced on June 19. He presented his article “Legislating Atrocity Prevention” on June 26, during the 2020 American Society of International Law’s
Annual Meeting. He also accepted an invitation to serve on the American Society of International Law’s 2020-2021 Development Committee. Kaufman consulted for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on its letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about
forced sterilizations of Uyghurs in China. He also consulted on a case for the University of Houston Law Center’s Immigration Clinic.
Renee Knake Jefferson gave a virtual book talk hosted by Pages Bookshop on June 13 to discuss her latest book Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court. Fifth Circuit Judge Jennifer Elrod reviewed Shortlisted, and the review was
published on Law360 on June 22.
Sapna Kumar presented her article “Patents, Pharma, and the Pandemic” at Loyola-Chicago Law School’s Zoom IP Occasional Workshop.
Ellen Marrus presented at the Center for Children, Law & Policy’s CLE Webinar on Zealous Advocacy for Detention Hearings on June 5. Ellen Marrus and Gavriella Roisman completed "Street
Law Curriculum for Detention Facilities" for the Center for Children, Law & Policy.
Douglas Moll participated in a panel discussion on shareholder resolutions in Professor Flatt’s Environmental Law course.
Theodore Rave participated as a panelist on the First Amendment and Hate Speech panel during the University of Houston Law Center Virtual Town Hall on June 23.
Irene Ten Cate was selected to join the editorial board of the Legal Writing Institute Monograph Series.
Amanda Watson hosted two panels on Controlled Digital Lending for the AALL Computing Services Special Interest Section (CS-SIS) on June 3 and June 5.
Kellen Zale received an $8,000 grant from the University of Nebraska Governance and Technology Center for her research proposal to study how governance models have been operationalized, and how effective governance models have been in addressing
specific challenges posed by scale in the sharing economy, with a focus on state and local regulation of home-sharing.
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