Year: 2013

  • The Law School’s Career Services Office (CSO) has announced second-year students Tim Emmons and Jorge Ramirez as recipients of the 2013 CSO Study Break Public Service Stipend. Another second-year student, who will be interning with a federal agency this summer, after passing final security clearance, also received a stipend.
  • On April 17, 2013, the Law School hosted the sixth annual Color of Justice program to inspire Austin-area minority high school students to pursue careers in law. The annual event was organized by the National Association of Women Judges, the Travis County Women Lawyers’ Association, and the Law School’s William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law, with support from sponsoring law firms Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC, and Winstead. Audience members included approximately seventy-five students from Garza, Akins, and East Austin College Prep high schools.
  • Six graduating students at the University of Texas School of Law have been honored by the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law for their extraordinary commitment during law school to using the law to serve others. This annual award honors graduating students for work in the nonprofit, government, and legislative sectors, as well as participation in clinical courses, pro bono projects, and student groups. The award winners were recognized by Dean Ward Farnsworth at a reception at the Law School, and will each receive $500. In addition, BARBRI has generously provided the award winners with $500 discounts for bar review courses.
  • The 2013 Sunflower Ceremony—the Law School’s signature graduation event—will be held on Saturday, May 18, 2012 at 3:30 p.m. at the Frank Erwin Jr. Special Events Center on the University of Texas at Austin campus. Degree candidates, their families, and friends are invited to celebrate the accomplishments of the graduating class of 2013. At 2:30 p.m., prior to the Sunflower Ceremony, all degree candidates are invited to gather in the Erwin Center’s Lone Star Room.
  • Finding that a pre-1991 Texas death sentence had been imposed in violation of the Eighth Amendment, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a brief per curiam opinion on March 27, 2013, vacating the death sentence of Marlin Nelson. Nelson was represented in his appeal by University of Texas School of Law Professors Rob Owen and Jordan Steiker, assisted by the students of the Law School’s Capital Punishment Clinic.
  • Center for Women in Law Executive Director Linda Chanow received the 2013 Advancement of Women Award by the Travis County Women Lawyers’ Association and the Travis County Women Lawyers’ Foundation at the 2013 Annual Grants and Awards Luncheon on April 26, 2013, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin. The Advancement of Women Award honors women who have demonstrated excellence in their work and set a positive example for women in law.
  • The University of Texas School of Law has awarded the 2013 Julius Glickman Fellowship in Public Interest Law to third-year student Abby Anna Batko-Taylor and the 2013 UT Law Faculty/Julius Glickman Fellowship in Public Interest Law to third-year student Megan Sheffield.
  • Two graduating students at the University of Texas School of Law have been selected to receive one-year postgraduate fellowships to help pilot the Texas Title Project, an innovative title-clearing project designed to provide low-income disaster survivors with the chance to move to higher opportunity neighborhoods.
  • The Law School community is saddened to learn of the death of former Dean John Sutton, ’41, who passed away April 19, 2013, in San Angelo. Sutton was the A.W. Walker, Jr. Centennial Chair Emeritus at the University of Texas School of Law, and taught, wrote, and worked in the field of professional responsibility for over forty five years. He also served as dean of the Law School from 1979 to 1984.
  • Eleven Law School students have been selected by the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice as Rapoport Center Fellows for summer and fall 2013. They will work with nongovernmental and intergovernmental organizations in the United States and abroad. Their projects include aiding human rights victims and political refugees, researching civil rights and civil liberties, assisting international courts and tribunals in prosecuting human rights and humanitarian violations, advocating for individuals with disabilities, and pursuing impact litigation on behalf of farmworkers.
  • Six students at the University of Texas School of Law have been selected as the 2013 Whitehurst Public Interest Summer Fellows. The fellowships are made possible by a gift from Bill, ’70, and Stephanie Whitehurst, and are administered by the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law at the Law School. The fellowships are awarded annually to outstanding students between their second and third years of law school to support their summer public interest work.
  • On April 23, 2013, the University of Texas School of Law hosted the first annual Beck Awards at a luncheon recognizing the work of the new David J. Beck Center for Legal Research, Writing, and Appellate Advocacy. The Beck Center was launched in the spring of 2012 with support from David J. Beck, ’65, life trustee of the Law School Foundation and founder of renowned litigation boutique Beck Redden LLP. Among the Beck Center’s mandates is honing law students’ oral and written advocacy skills, which are foundational to all lawyers’ success.