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Dean Baynes greeted and welcomed admitted students to the UH Law Center at the April 1 Admitted Students Day event where he shared highlights of the Law Center’s accomplishments, including an update on the status of the John M. O’Quinn Law building. On April 5, Dean Baynes was invited by Professor Megan Davis to give a lunchtime presentation to all LAW sections on legal analysis and writing. Later that day, Dean Baynes joined Associate Dean Vetter, Associate Dean Sondra Tennessee, Assistant Dean Tiffany Tucker, Senior Director of Advancement Brena Baumann-Gonzalez, and Senior Assistant Director of Advancement Stephanie Johnson at a meeting initiated by Polsinelli’s Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer to discuss ways Polsinelli can attract diverse law students and lawyers to their firm and other DEI collaborations and initiatives. Dean Baynes delivered remarks at the Houston Law Review Annual Banquet on April 7. Keynote speaker was alum Marvin Nathan ‘66. The event was held at the Petroleum Club. On April 8, Dean Baynes joined Professor Sandra Guerra Thompson, Professor Ryan Marquez, and UH law students at the Hispanic/Latinx Law Students’ Association 8th Annual Scholarship Gala that was held at the Crystal Ballroom at the Rice Hotel. Dean Baynes celebrated the Law Center’s 75th anniversary with alumni at the 45th Annual Law Gala that was held in-person on April 9 at the Post Oak Hotel. Dean Baynes celebrated and recognized faculty, staff, and students at the Annual Dean’s Award Ceremony that was that held virtually on April 11. On April 15, Dean Baynes attended the Blakely Annual Advocacy Banquet that was held at Grappino di Nino. This year’s in-person event was especially meaningful because this year’s teams were recipients of the most wins in Blakely’s history – three national championships, three regional/state championships, UHLC advancing to elimination rounds of 14 national competitions (octofinalist, quarterfinalist, semi-finalist, finalist), in addition to being ranked 18th in the country! Congratulations to Jim Lawrence, Amy Hawk, and everyone involved in equipping our students in advocacy. Dean Baynes welcomed staff members of the Parliament of Kenya to the Law Center for a three-day workshop on governance training opportunities on April 18th. The workshop was coordinated by Karen Jones, Executive Director of Global and Graduate Programs. On April 25, Dean Baynes welcomed more than 64 black Texas big law firm partners/corporate counsel during a virtual meeting of influential stakeholders to discuss strategies to recruit and retain more black law students and attorneys in the State as well as providing networking and collaboration opportunities. A part of the discussion featured six historic firsts, including Charisma Nguepdo ‘22, first black Editor-in Chief of the Houston Law Review. The 6th Annual EENR Conference was held April 28 where Dean Baynes moderated a panel of corporate general counsel and executives on the topic of the legal need for energy companies moving beyond carbon. Panelists included alums Kay McCall ‘84, President and Executive Director, Renewable Energy Alliance of Houston, Ken Neikirk ’00, General Counsel of Helix Energy Solutions, Deonne Cunningham Nauls ‘06, General Counsel, GlidePath Power Solutions, and friend of UH Law Center Janet Carrig, former General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, ConocoPhillips. On April 30, Dean Baynes joined faculty, staff, students, and alumni at the live stream celebration of life for Professor Emeritus Michael A. Olivas, who unexpectedly passed away on April 22.
Victor Flatt presented “The Myth of state Surface Water – The 50 Year Flaw of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Jurisdictional Debate,” as part of the virtual Clean Water Act at 50 symposium hosted by Lewis & Clark Law School on April 8. Professor Flatt was a featured guest on Houston Matters on April 18, discussing oil company liability for climate change disinformation.
Tracy Hester participated in an invitational meeting of the Southern States Energy Board's Carbon Capture, Utilization and Sequestration Consortium at the University of Houston to discuss investment strategies for carbon capture in Texas. As part of his recent naming as a Fellow at the Global Policy, Diplomacy, and Sustainability Program at Jindal University in India, he gave a keynote address on the implications of climate intervention and legal strategies to govern it on April 7 and 9. Hester participated in the EarthX Legal Conference in Dallas as part of its Earth Day celebration on April 21 as a member of its planning and advisory board. He spoke as a panelist at the State Bar of Texas' inaugural symposium on Climate Change and Energy Transition in Austin on April 14, where he discussed the implications of the SEC's proposal to require companies to disclose climate change risks. He gave a guest lecture to the introductory climate engineering class on April 25 at Colorado State University's graduate program, where he discussed how environmental laws and policies could apply to this set of emerging technologies. Last, Hester chaired and moderated the North American Energy Law Conference at the University of Houston Law Center to review legal and policy issues arising from the ongoing pivot away from carbon-based fuels to produce energy. Professor Gina Warren moderated a panel for this conference, and Dean Baynes organized and moderated a panel of general counsels and corporate executives in the energy sector.
Throughout April 2022, Zachary D. Kaufman participated in interviews about the Russia-Ukraine conflict with several media outlets, including the Washington Post, Law360, the Texas Standard, and Telemundo. On April 11, he delivered a talk, “Lessons from Rwanda: Post-Genocide Law and Policy,” at the annual North American commemoration of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Professor Kaufman presented his new article Police Policing Police, which is forthcoming in the George Washington Law Review, at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association on April 9, at Yale Law School on April 13, and at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law’s faculty workshop on April 27.
Sapna Kumar was awarded University of Houston Law Center Order of the Barons Professor of the Year.
Ellen Marrus presented at the Fourth Annual Children of Incarcerated Parents National Conference, regarding "Bars Between Youth and Their Babies: Confined Youth Separated From Their Babies" on April 6.
Andrew Michaels presented his article, Benefits of the Invention and Social Value in Patent Law, which is forthcoming in George Mason Law Review, at the PatCon patent law conference at Boston College Law School.
Jessica Roberts was an invited panelist regarding "Trustworthy Digital Contact Tracing" at the virtual 2022 University of Richmond Law Review Symposium. She was invited to be a discussant at the virtual Round Table on Ableism as part of the 2022 University of Tennessee Diversity Week Presentation. Roberts also spoke at a virtual panel regarding "Covid-19 & Disability: Sustaining Reforms for Disability Justice" for the 2022 Solomon Center at Yale Law School Roundtable. In addition, she spoke as a virtual panelist regarding “Can Health Apps Bridge the GAP for Rural Health Care?” at the 2022 West Virginia Law Review Symposium.
Peter Salib’s article Big Data Affirmative Action was selected for 2022 Harvard/Yale/Stanford Junior Faculty Forum.
Lauren Simpson was voted 2021-2022 SBA Professor of the Year for faculty teaching in the part-time program, her fifth time to receive this teaching recognition.
Gina Warren moderated the 6th Annual North American Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Conference entitled "Staying Balanced in the Pivot: Legal Challenges of the Carbon Transition" on April 28. She also moderated the program “Grid Governance in the Energy Trilemma Era: Remedying the Democracy Deficit,” presented by Daniel Walters at the UHLC Marie Sklodowska-Curie speaker series event held on April 5.
Amanda Watson presented her paper The Unintended Consequences of Unintentional Datasets to the faculty at the South Texas Law School. She also gave the annual LAW talk at the Southwestern Association of Law Librarians meeting, where she spoke about the future of law collections.
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