The award is given annually by the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin as way to honor the memory of Heman Sweatt, the first African American admitted to the university’s School of Law.

“Machree has given so much to The University of Texas at Austin, including service on the Commission of 125, the Law School Executive Committee, the UT Development Board and the Forty Acres Scholarship Foundation. As president of the Texas Exes she has helped spread the word of the importance of the university to the state’s economy and quality of life,” said Dr. Gregory Vincent, vice president for diversity and community engagement.

Gibson earned her BA in 1982 and her JD in 1991, having entered law school as a working mother with children ages 5 and 2.  Gibson’s affiliation with the Texas legislature goes back to her freshman year in college when she took a secretarial job at the Capitol. She then worked for Senator Gonzalo Barrientos for nearly eight years, then as Governor Ann Richards’ legislative liaison with the Senate. When Richards appointed Ron Kirk Secretary of State, Kirk persuaded Gibson to serve as the assistant secretary of state. She is currently a principal in the Graydon Group.

Gibson is a charter member of the Town Lake Chapter of LINKS Inc., and has been involved with Jack & Jill Inc., the Junior League of Austin and the Austin Black Lawyers Association. She is a Texas Bar Foundation Life Fellow.

(Published on May 16, 2012, on the the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement’s wesbsite at http://blogs.utexas.edu/ddcecentral/2012/05/16/ddce-honors-machree-garrett-gibson/)

This year’s keynote address will be delivered by Joseph D. Jamail, ’53. Jamail is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where he received   his BA in 1950 and of the Law School, where he received   his LLB in 1953. He is the founder and owner of the Jamail & Kolius law firm in Houston. He is the recipient of many honors and awards, including the Brotherhood Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith Jurisprudence Award, and the Distinguished  Alumni Award of the Houston Texas-Exes Association. In 1996, he was awarded the University of Texas Distinguished Alumnus Award and received the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the Law School. In 1993, the “Joseph D. Jamail Center for Legal Research” was named in his honor at the Law School. In 1996, the new pavilion that adjoins historic Townes Hall with the John B. Connally Center for the Administration of Justice was also named in his honor.

Jamail is most known as the famed trial attorney who won the landmark verdict in the Texaco, Inc. v. Pennzoil, Co. case. He has been lead counsel in more than two hundred personal injury cases where recovery, either by verdict or settlement, was in excess of $1 million. Jamail is an active member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, American College of Trial Lawyers, International   Academy of Trial Lawyers, American Board of Trial Advocates, and many other organizations.

For more information on the Sunflower Cerem0ny, including directions and parking, please log on to the Sunflower Ceremony page.

Supreme Court of Texas Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, '88, speaking after receiving the Leon Green Award at the Texas Law Review's annual banquet on April 14, 2012.

Featuring a keynote address delivered by recently retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the Texas Law Review celebrated another successful academic year with a banquet on Saturday, April 14, 2012. Since 1965, TLR’s annual banquet has served as a gathering place for UT Law students and TLR alumni and leaders from around the country, allowing judges, faculty members, attorneys, and students to meet, and former Texas Law Review members to reunite. At this year’s banquet, the Texas Law Review Association honored Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, ’88, of the Supreme Court of Texas, awarding him the Association’s highest award—the Leon Green Award—in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the legal profession. In addition to Stevens and Jefferson, 479 people attended, including many other federal and state judges, notable UT Law alumni, and respected practitioners from around Texas and the United States. 

Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens delivering the keynote address at the Texas Law Review's annual banquet on April 14, 2012.

Justice Stevens, born in Chicago, Illinois, received an AB from the University of Chicago and a JD from Northwestern University School of Law. He served in the United States Navy from 1942–1945 and was a law clerk to Justice Wiley Rutledge of the Supreme Court of the United States during the 1947 Term. He was associate counsel to the Subcommittee on the Study of Monopoly Power of the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1951–1952, and a member of the Attorney General’s National Committee to Study Antitrust Law, 1953–1955. He was second vice president of the Chicago Bar Association in 1970. From 1970–1975, he served as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. President Gerald Ford nominated him as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat on December 19, 1975.

Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, a 1988 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, was appointed to fill an interim term as chief justice on September 14, 2004, by Governor Rick Perry and was confirmed unanimously by the Texas Senate on March 9, 2005. He was elected chief justice in 2006 and reelected to a full term in 2008. Chief Justice Jefferson joined the Court from private practice in San Antonio. As a partner in the appellate-specialty firm Crofts, Callaway & Jefferson, he successfully argued two cases before the United States Supreme Court.  He is a member of the American Law Institute and is certified in civil appellate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He served as president of the San Antonio Bar Association in 1998–99 and was named the San Antonio Young Lawyers Association’s Outstanding Young Lawyer in 1997. He received the “Pillars of the Foundation” award by the North Side Independent School District and is the namesake for the Wallace B. Jefferson Middle School in San Antonio. He has served as a director of the San Antonio Public Library Foundation and the Alamo Area Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and served on the education committee of the San Antonio Area Foundation.

This year’s banquet also included the presentation of note awards and outstanding editor awards, recognition of the Volume 90 and the Volume 91 editorial boards, and remarks from the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Editorial Board.

Glenn E. Johnson, winner of the Ernest E. Smith Lifetime Achievement Award for accomplishments in the field of energy law.

On February 9, 2012, the Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, and Energy Law awarded the 2012 Ernest E. Smith Lifetime Achievement Award to Glenn E. Johnson, partner at Kelly Hart & Hallman LLP. This prestigious award is given to a distinguished attorney who has made significant contributions to the oil, gas, and energy industry.

Johnson received his BA, cum laude, from Texas Christian University, and his JD from the University of Texas School of Law. A former hearings examiner for the Railroad Commission of Texas, Johnson is a partner in Kelly Hart & Hallman’s Environmental and Administrative Law and Oil & Gas/Energy practice groups. His practice focuses on oil and gas development and pipeline regulatory work before Texas state agencies for oil, gas, and pipeline operators, and associated litigation and appellate work before all Texas courts.

Johnson has been recognized in Chambers as a leader in energy regulation and litigation in Texas, and has been included in Best Lawyers in America since 1995. He has also been identified as a “Super Lawyer” in Administrative Law by Texas Monthly yearly since 2004.

The Ernest E. Smith Lifetime Achievement Award honors practitioners who have participated in the advancement of natural resources law, policy, or scholarship. The award is named after Professor Ernest E. Smith, the Rex G. Baker Centennial Chair in Natural Resources Law at the Law School. Considered the preeminent specialist in oil, gas, and energy law, Smith cowrote leading casebook Oil and Gas Law and leading treatise Texas Law of Oil and Gas. He created the first-ever wind-power law class to be taught at an American law school. He also teaches property law. Smith recently received the Massey Teaching Excellence Award, which is given to a law professor who “epitomizes the School’s priority of providing the highest quality of teaching to its students.” Smith also serves as a faculty advisor to the Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, and Energy Law.

The seventh recipient of the Ernest E. Smith Lifetime Achievement Award, Johnson joins Vinson & Elkins partner Fielding “Tres” Cochran III; Andrews Kurth partner Timothy Unger; Cotton Bledsoe Tighe & Dawson founding partner Robert Bledsoe; former Devon Energy General counsel Duke Ligon; Exxon general counsel C. Kenneth Roberts; and the late Frank Douglass, founding partner of Scott, Douglass & McConnico, in receiving this honor at the Journal’s annual banquet.

The Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, and Energy Law is the only entirely student-run energy publication in the country, and one of the largest publications at the Law School. In addition to publishing articles on oil, gas, and energy topics twice a year, the Journal hosts a two-day continuing legal education symposium in conjunction with its banquet. This year’s symposium took place on February 9–10, 2012, at the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center. The Symposium featured topics including solar energy, Dodd-Frank, international energy transactions, MLPs, and hydraulic fracturing. Speakers included external and in-house practitioners, and law and business professors.

Contacts:

Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, and Energy Law, info@tjogel.org

Kirston Fortune, Law School Communications, 512-471-7330 or kfortune@law.utexas.edu

To honor our scholarship donors and recipients, the Law School hosts an annual event at which our students, and those whose charitable giving has helped them, can become acquainted. This year’s Scholarship and Fellowship Reception was held on January 26, 2012.

Thanks to our donors for their extraordinary generosity!

Judge Royal Furgeson, ’67

U.S. District Judge Royal Furgeson Jr., ’67, has been appointed founding dean of the University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law, which is scheduled to open in August of 2014. Furgeson is currently a judge at the United States District Court, Northern District of Texas.

Furgeson is expected to begin his deanship at the law school in April 2013, after he retires from the bench.

“The Law School is very proud to hear of Royal Furgeson’s appointment as founding dean,” said UT Law Interim Dean Stefanie Lindquist. “He has led a distinguished career as a lawyer and judge, and the University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law has made an excellent choice for a dean to lead them forward in the field of legal education.”

The Texas Legislature approved the creation of the UNT Dallas College of Law, which will be the first public law school in North Texas, in 2009. It will be housed at 1901 Main Street in Downtown Dallas, in a renovated building that used to be the Titche/Joske’s department store. The city’s Old Municipal Building will be renovated for use as the permanent home of the UNT Dallas College of Law.

Furgeson was appointed as a federal judge by President Bill Clinton in 1994. He has presided at courts in El Paso, Midland-Odessa, San Antonio, and Dallas. Before becoming a judge, he practiced law with the El Paso law firm of Kemp, Smith, Duncan, and Hammond, where he headed the commercial litigation section and carried out many pro bono efforts.

Robert Brothers, '11, accepts the Law Student Pro Bono Award on November 14, 2011.

Brothers was recognized for his three semesters of volunteer work with the Law School’s Domestic Violence Clinic, for which he continued providing help even after completing the bar exam.  According to the ATJ statement on his award, Brothers “demonstrated a strong commitment to helping victims become thriving survivors.”  He also served as vice president of the Survivor Support Network, a law school organization that supports victims with non-legal needs such as providing emergency funding and moving assistance.  The ATJ Law Student Pro Bono Award was established in 2007 to recognize a Texas law student who has demonstrated his or her commitment to the delivery of legal services to poor and low-income Texans. Nominations for the award were solicited from each of the nine Texas law schools; legal services programs; and law students themselves.  The award includes a $2,000 stipend from the ATJ Commission.

UT Law Dean Larry Sager, right, accepts the Commitment to Service Award on behalf of the Law School on November 14, 2011.

The Law School received the Commitment to Service Award for “significantly expanding its access to justice efforts through the creation of financially supportive initiatives, expansion of clinical courses, and by establishing a pro bono program designed to educate students about public service and instill a commitment to work toward equal justice long after graduation.”

The ATJ Commission specifically mentioned the creation of the Justice Corps, a post-graduate fellowship program that sends new alumni to work with nonprofit legal organizations serving underrepresented individuals and communities across the world.  The law school also implemented a loan repayment assistance program, conducts one of the largest clinical programs in the country involving over 450 upper-class students, and created a Pro Bono Program in 2009 that now includes a pro bono pledge during new student orientation. The ATJ Law School Commitment to Service Award recognizes a law school that most prominently advances the delivery of legal services through clinics, public interest programs, student involvement and other initiatives. Nominations for the award were solicited from each of the nine Texas law schools, legal services programs in Texas, local bar associations, alumni and law students.

Recently the Pro Bono Program spoke with Jake Gilbreath, a 2009 UT Law graduate and an attorney at Piper & Turner PLLC, about his pro bono work in family law.

Gilbreath had his first experience with family law when he participated in the UT Law Domestic Violence Clinic for two semesters. He tried a contested case in front of a judge at the end of his first semester. “The judge still mentions that case to this day,” Gilbreath said. “There’s honestly no better way to learn than to do the clinic.”

The Clinic ultimately led Gilbreath to his firm. Through the Clinic’s work with organizations like Safe Place and SAHELI, a nonprofit organization that provides domestic violence help to Asian and other immigrant families, Gilbreath met the partners of Piper & Turner. The firm allowed him to continue to work a clinic case that involved the gamut of issues from violence to drug abuse and took two years to complete. “We ended up getting complex and special safeguards for the client and her child. It was great to be able to see the case all the way through,” Gilbreath said.

Gilbreath continues to be heavily involved in pro bono work at Piper & Turner. “The firm’s philosophy is that pro bono cases are treated the same as paying cases,” Gilbreath said. “We don’t treat pro bono clients as if we’re just pushing them through the system. We give them the same attention we would give any other client.” Gilbreath recognizes the partners’ commitment to pro bono work as the driving force behind the firm’s culture. “In our firm, we choose who we want to take because we’re interested in them, we feel for them. It’s not the partners choosing. The only question they ask is ‘Do you feel like you can help this person? Do they need to be helped?’ If yes, then absolutely take it.”

Though Gilbreath tries to work on just one complex, contentious pro bono case at a time, he also tries to be involved in smaller ways. The recipient of the Volunteer Legal Services Pro Bono Award last year, Gilbreath volunteers at the domestic violence clinics hosted by VLS and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. “Pro bono doesn’t always mean taking the client. Even if you can’t take the case, you can still help people out with the process and reduce costs when they do find an attorney.” Gilbreath will sit down with a person for an hour to help point them in the right direction. “Often I’m just giving people my card and saying, ‘Sorry, I can’t take your case, but here’s where you can find forms. I’ll look over them for you.’ Or I’ll tell them to call me before a hearing to go through what they’re going to say and what it’s going to look like.”

On the importance of pro bono work, Gilbreath notes the responsibility of attorneys to give back. “The legal field is not a level playing field. People of lower income do not have access to quality legal services. It’s a huge inequity in society.” Gilbreath pointed out that despite gains in access to medical care and other necessities, legal services remain out of reach for many people. “Pro bono work is a way for lawyers to remedy this injustice. It’s a great way to stand for a cause and contribute in a way that no one else could contribute.”

Gilbreath also noted that pro bono work can have a large impact on career success, because some of the most complex issues come up in pro bono cases. “I’ve probably learned the most law doing pro bono cases. It’s a great way to make yourself stand out.” Referring back to how he got his job, Gilbreath said the networking opportunities gained through pro bono work are invaluable. “It’s a great way to meet other attorneys and get your name out. It gets you in front of judges. When we hire at Piper & Turner, we look for people with a pro bono background because we know that you’re involved and that you’ve likely gotten into the courtroom. Also, it’s fun. It’s just fun.”

Related links:

Pro Bono Program

National Pro Bono Week

Contact: Tina Fernandez, Director, Pro Bono Program, William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law, 512-232-6170, tfernandez@law.utexas.edu

John Hay, '08, left, and his partner, J. Bradley Compere, of law firm Hay Compere PLLC, consult with a displaced resident at a free legal aid table in Bastrop on September 8, 2011.

Tina Fernandez, director of the Law School’s Pro Bono Program, said she was contacted by members of the Austin Bar Association and the Austin Young Lawyers Association about their need for volunteers to help staff legal clinics for victims of the Bastrop wildfires on September 6, 2011, and that the call was met with enthusiastic participation. Nearly twenty students expressed an interest in volunteering and students who attended the legal clinics assisted practicing lawyers—some of whom are UT Law alumni—as they met with Bastrop residents at aid centers set up at locations in and near Bastrop.

“UT Law students were incredibly responsive to this call to action,” Fernandez said. “I continue to be inspired and impressed by the enthusiasm of UT Law students for helping those in need.   In this particular situation, students from across the country volunteered to help Bastrop residents—an indication in my mind that they already consider Austin and Central Texas part of their community.”

 “It’s definitely odd,” Blatt said. “UT Law doesn’t have a whole lot of people on the Supreme Court bar.”

They make fine representatives of their alma mater. Earlier this year, Blatt argued her thirtieth case before the Court, making her the most experienced female Supreme Court practitioner. Her lifetime record is twenty-nine wins and one loss—a batting average far above the norm. The single miss came in a 2005 case called Bates et al. v. Dow Agrosciences LLC. The lead counsel for the winner of that case? One David Frederick.

“Lisa has tremendous analytical skills,” Frederick said. “I think her strongest point is getting right to the heart of the matter. When she’s confronted with a complex set of facts and legal authorities she has a real talent for getting right to what’s important, and for an appellate advocate that’s especially critical because the judges are looking for some straightforward principle that will govern the case. Lisa has a real knack for identifying what that principle should be.”

Frederick is equally accomplished. When the Obama administration transitioned into power in 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported rumors that he was under consideration to serve as solicitor general. (Both he and Blatt worked in the Solicitor General’s Office—together, naturally—for years in the nineties and the first decade of this century.)  He’s argued thirty-five cases before the Supreme Court. In his spare time, he’s been a codirector of UT Law’s Supreme Court Clinic since 2007.

“You can tell that the Court really likes him,” Blatt said of Frederick. “When I have a case against David, I know that nothing is going to get past him, and everything has to be perfect. You have to be your best at the Supreme Court, and all the more reason because David’s on the other side.”

David Frederick, ‘89, and Lisa Blatt, ‘89, at the Supreme Court of the United States, where they have faced each other as opposing counsel three times.

Perhaps the most remarkable quality that the two lawyers share is the ability to carry on a close friendship even while repeatedly encountering each other in a highly competitive environment that Blatt cheerfully describes as “war.” They still find time to chat on the phone or meet up for the occasional lunch, though the topics of conversation are sometimes circumscribed. “We don’t talk that much about the cases,” Blatt said. “It’s more about some other Supreme Court case, or what’s going on with the kids. We both view it as ‘he’s fighting and I’m fighting.’”

One line of conversation is always off-limits—both lawyers consider it bad form to brag about past victories. “It’s more in the line of, ‘You did a great job,’ or, ‘These things happen,’” Frederick said. “In the Solicitor General’s office, we had an ethic of celebrating the process and the effort. I think that’s continued since we’ve been in private practice. At some point as a lawyer you know that you don’t control the process.”

The two met on the first day of classes in Austin in 1986. Blatt, who grew up in San Angelos and Bryan-College Station, was heading straight into law school after finishing her BA at UT in just three years. Frederick, a few years older, had just returned to his native Texas from a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University. “We were in the same first year section, so I saw Lisa every day,” Frederick said. “She was an exceptional student, and we enjoyed talking about what was going on in class.”

“We were definitely social friends,” Blatt said. “David was very erudite back then, very intellectually curious and fascinated by the law. I had no doubt he was destined for greatness.”

Frederick became a student of the legendary UT Law professor Charles Alan Wright, whom Ruth Bader Ginsberg once described as, “a colossus standing at the summit of our profession.” Blatt, meanwhile, found a mentor in then-Dean Mark Yudof, now the President of the University of California system. Both teachers played crucial roles in the careers of their young students. Wright and fellow Professor Michael Sturley guided Frederick towards a clerkship on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and later with Justice Byron White on the Supreme Court.  And based in large part on the assistance of Professor Wright, Blatt clerked for then-Judge Ginsberg on the D.C. Circuit immediately after law school.

The two young legal hotshots reconnected and renewed their friendship in the office of the Solicitor General, where Frederick served from 1996–2001 and Blatt from 1996–2009. Now both are partners in private firms, Blatt with Arnold & Porter and Frederick with Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel.

With thirteen years in the SG’s office under her belt, most of Blatt’s Supreme Court appearances have been on behalf of the government. More recently, however, she’s branched out into private work. She’s particularly proud of her recent pro bono win in Henderson v. Shinseki, on behalf of a military veteran who had died during the case’s pendency. The victory expanded access to Veteran’s Administration benefits for thousands of veterans. “It’s great whenever you win a case,” she said. “I liked winning for the government because it helps their programs. But I really liked winning this one because it was pro bono. I think it says a lot when someone does that.”

Frederick, meanwhile, has developed a specialty around issues of preemption, or the conflict between federal and state laws. He recently won an important preemption case, Wyeth v. Levine, on behalf of a musician whose arm had to be amputated because of gangrene that developed after she received an injection of an anti-nausea drug. “It was a hugely important decision for patients and consumer rights,” Frederick said. “To prevail in that case was very significant. On a personal level, Diana Levine, my client, was a very special person, and she’d been through a lot. To win that case for her was very meaningful for me.”

Was it his proudest Supreme Court moment? No, he said, that honor might go to his lone victory over Blatt in the Bates case. According to Frederick, his clients (Texas peanut farmers) won against all odds; if you ask Blatt, she’ll tell you her side never had a chance. They can’t both be right—but they both sure are convincing. 

So far, Blatt and Frederick are even when they’ve met each other face to face. But, she said, in a sentiment he’d likely echo, as much as she hates losing, a part of her can’t help cheering on her favorite adversary. “It’s better when you have someone that good, and all the better when you have someone you like, because you like watching them succeed,” she said. Then, quickly, she clarifies: “But that doesn’t mean that you don’t want to win.”—Mike Agresta

(Photo by Andrea Hackman, courtesy of the Supreme Court of the United States.)

Ryan Newman, '07

Ryan Newman, ’07, will begin a clerkship for Justice Samuel Alito at the U.S. Supreme Court at the beginning of the 2011–2012 term. He leaves his position as associate at the Dallas office of Jones Day.

Newman grew up in southeast New Mexico and attended college at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, graduating in 1998 with a bachelor of science in international politics. He then served over five years as an armor officer in the U.S. Army at Fort Hood. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 10th U.S. Cavalry Regiment (Buffalo Soldiers), 4th Infantry Division. In the Army, he served as a tank platoon leader, scout platoon leader, troop executive officer, and squadron adjutant. He deployed to Iraq in 2003 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. After leaving the Army, he came to the Law School, where he was chief notes editor of the Texas Law Review, an associate editor of the Texas Review of Law and Politics, president of the Texas Federalist Society, and a member of the Supreme Court Clinic.

After earning his JD, Newman clerked for Judge J.L. Edmondson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia. He then moved to Washington, D.C., and worked for a year at Jones Day as a litigation associate. After that, he clerked for Judge Richard J. Leon on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He and his family then moved back to Texas, but the move has proven to be temporary. “When that clerkship ended, my wife and I moved to Dallas so that we could live closer to family,” Newman said. “We have a five-year-old daughter and thought it would be best if she could see her grandparents more often. I started back at Jones Day in the firm’s Dallas office in September last year. To my surprise, I received a call from Justice Alito’s chambers a month later for an interview. Now, less than ten months after returning to Texas, we are packing up and heading back to Washington.”

Newman follows in the footsteps of other recent Law School graduates who have clerked at the nation’s highest court, including Scott Keller, ’07, who clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy, and William Peterson, ’08, who clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas in the 2010–2011 term.

“It is, of course, an incredible honor to have the opportunity to work for Justice Alito,” Newman said. “It goes without saying that the experience will be invaluable. To witness firsthand how the Court does its work, how the justices wrestle with the most challenging legal problems facing the country, and how some of the nation’s best advocates craft and present their arguments to the Court will be for me the learning experience of a lifetime. I know that when my experience at the Court is over I will be better lawyer and will have an even greater appreciation for the law. I cannot wait to get started.”

“Austin’s changed and grown a lot since I was a student,” Alcala said. “But it’s a nice place to live. It’s a much smaller town than Houston, but very friendly. Everyone’s very helpful and laid back,” she laughed.

Alcala began her career as a prosecutor, spending nine years as an assistant district attorney in Houston, until she was appointed by Governor George W. Bush—and subsequently elected—to the Harris County 338^th District Court as a judge. After three years, she was elected to the First Court Of Appeals, until Governor Rick Perry nominated her for appointment on the Court of Criminal Appeals in late March.

“I’m intimately involved with how a jury trial occurs,” Alcala explained. “Having seen a trial progress from the very beginning all the way to the appellate process helps us realize how our decisions impact what ultimately happens on the case.”

“I was very pleased that Governor Perry had the insight to appoint her,” said Professor George Dix, who Alcala described as her “favorite professor” during her time as a student at the Law School. “She brings to the highest state appellate court experience at all levels of the judiciary, as well as experience as a practitioner at all levels of the criminal justice system. She combines her insight with a marvelous array of experiences.”

While Alcala studied under Dix as a student, he said that he’s come to know her best through much more recent projects—namely, the State Bar of Texas Pattern Jury Charge Committee for Criminal Law, on which they both serve as co-vice chair. The committee, which uses Law School facilities when it meets once a month to draft uniform instructions for criminal juries, has enjoyed extremely active participation from Alcala up to this point.

“I enjoy the committee quite a bit,” Alcala said. “I’ve learned a lot, since the people on the committee come from all aspects of criminal law. It’s a wonderful opportunity to have a conversation about the law in a neutral environment, and the professors do a tremendous amount of work. It’s been great working with the UT professors.”

In addition to meeting with Dix and Professor Susan Klein as part of the Pattern Jury Committee, Alcala has kept her alma mater as a regular part of her work life in another important way: namely, by filling staff vacancies with UT graduates.

“She has done a lot of hiring of UT grads,” Klein said. “Her judicial law clerk just graduated from UT, and her staff attorney is from the class of 2009.”

“My chamber is composed entirely of UT grads,” Judge Alcala said. “Not necessarily by design, but that’s the way that it’s turned out. UT Law graduates are capable of competing with the best and brightest anywhere, so I’m fortunate to have UT Law grads to work with.”

Both Dix and Klein were thrilled to learn of Alcala’s appointment to the highest Texas court for criminal cases. “She’s amazing,” Klein said. “She is extremely level-headed and compassionate. She’s not an ideologue. She’s bright, and she follows the law. She’s exactly the kind of person you’d want on that court, regardless of what party you’re from.”

Added Dix, “I think it’s a benefit to the Law School. She brings to the court a continuing connection to the Law School that could be advantageous in the long run, for working together on projects.”

For her part, Alcala is excited to be working on this new opportunity. “It’s been a great experience,” she said. “It’s been an adventure – that’s the only word I can use. I’m really enjoying the quality and importance of the work.” —Dan Solomon

Thomas M. Susman, ’67
Outstanding Alumnus Award

Thomas M. Susman heads the lobbying office for the American Bar Association, the world’s largest professional association serving over 400,000 lawyers across the country and the world. He and the Governmental Affairs office staff advocate before Congress and federal agencies to advance the policies adopted by the ABA. Before joining the ABA in May 2008, he served for more than twenty-seven years as partner in the Washington office of Ropes & Gray LLP.

Before joining Ropes & Gray, Susman served on Capitol Hill for more than eleven years. He was chief counsel to the Senate Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure and general counsel to the Antitrust Subcommittee and to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Prior to that he clerked for Judge John Minor Wisdom on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and was special assistant to the assistant attorney general in the office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice. He graduated from Yale University and received his JD with high honors from the University of Texas School of Law, where he was editor in chief of the Texas Law Review.

Susman served on the Board of Governors and in the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association; was President of the D.C. Public Library Foundation; chaired the board of trustees of the National Judicial College; and served on advisory boards of the National Security Archives, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. He is currently a life member of both the American Law Institute and the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation; a member of the boards of the National Conference on Citizenship and the National Freedom of Information Center; and president of the District of Columbia Open Government Coalition. He is chair of the Ethics Committee of the American League of Lobbyists and is coeditor of and a contributor to The Lobbying Manual. Susman has frequently written, testified before Congress, and lectured in the U.S. and abroad on legislative process, open government, and politics. He was a visiting professor at the University of Texas School of Law (teaching information law and policy) and an adjunct professor at the American University’s Washington College of Law (teaching lobbying and legislative process).

Susman lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Susan Braden, a judge on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. He has four children and five grandchildren.

The Honorable Sam Sparks, '63

The Honorable Sam Sparks, ’63
Lifetime Achievement Award
The Honorable Sam Sparks received an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas in 1961. In 1963 he received his LLB degree from the University of Texas School of Law and began the practice of law as clerk to Federal District Court Judge Homer Thornberry. In 1965, Sparks entered private practice with the firm of Hardie, Grambling, Sims & Galatzan, where he practiced trial law for twenty-six years throughout Texas and other states, trying over 300 cases to verdict.

He was nominated to the federal bench by President George H.W. Bush on October 1, 1991, was confirmed by the Senate on November 21, 1991, and received his commission on November 25, 1991. Since that time, Sparks has presided over one of the busiest dockets in the country, disposing of approximately 400 civil cases and sentencing 300 defendants annually.

Since 1978, Sparks has been certified in the fields of civil trial law and personal injury trial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His professional associations include the American College of Trial Lawyers (judicial fellow); the American Board of Trial Advocates (advocate); Texas Bar Foundation (life fellow); and membership in the State Bar of Texas and the Fifth Circuit District Judges Association. In 2005, Sparks was named “Trial Judge of the Year” by the Texas Chapters of the American Board of Trial Advocates. In 2007, Judge Sparks was selected to serve as federal judicial liaison to the State Bar of Texas Board of Directors. In 2010, he was honored by the American College of Trial Lawyers with its prestigious Sandra Day O’Connor Jurist Award in recognition of his independence, courage, and commitment to the Rule of Law.

Sparks married Melinda Echols of Fort Worth in 1995. His marriage to Arden Reed of Houston from 1962 until her death in 1990 produced four sons. Judge and Mrs. Sparks now enjoy a blended family of six children and seven grandchildren.

Ann Barnett Stern, ’82

Ann Barnett Stern, ’82
Distinguished Alumnus Award for Community Service

Ann Barnett Stern is a 1982 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law. She began work at Texas Children’s Hospital in 2003 as vice president and general counsel and was promoted to executive vice president in 2008. Currently, Stern is vice chair of the Board of Trustees at St. John’s School, and will step in as board chair in June 2011. She is also currently on the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Houston Branch, and the Board of Directors of Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative. Among her many volunteer achievements, she is a past president of the Junior League of Houston Inc. and has served on the Board of Trustees at Texas Children’s Hospital; the Minority Task Force of Greater Houston Partnership; the Board of Directors of Park People; the Board of Trustees of St. Luke’s Episcopal Health Charities; and on the Board of Directors of the Phi Beta Kappa Houston Chapter. Her husband, Karl Stern, is also an attorney and the couple have two children.

Wayne A. Reaud

Wayne A. Reaud
Honorary Order of the Coif

Wayne A. Reaud is a trial lawyer and the founder of the law firm of Reaud, Morgan & Quinn. For more than thirty years, he has represented clients in significant cases involving personal injury, product and premises liability, toxic torts, and business litigation. He is known throughout the legal community as a champion of working men and women. He received his law degree from Texas Tech University in 1974, and his undergraduate degree from Lamar University. Reaud is a former member of the Lamar University Board of Regents.

Reaud has handled the largest asbestos product liability class-action lawsuit in the history of Texas courts, and represented the State of Texas in its landmark litigation against the tobacco industry.

Reaud currently serves as chairman of the Board of the Beaumont Foundation of America and is a director of the Reaud Charitable Foundation. In those capacities he has directly or indirectly given nearly $5 million to the University of Texas School of Law. In 2006, the Reaud Charitable Foundation began funding the Reaud Public Interest Scholars Program.

A life fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and a fellow of the International Society of Barristers, Reaud is also a former director of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association. He is a member of the Philosophical Society and a member of the State Bar of Texas Grievance Committee. Reaud was chosen as the “Most Distinguished Alumni” of Texas Tech University Law School in 1998 and also chosen as the “Most Distinguished Alumni” of Lamar University in 2006. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America.

Reaud has served as a director of Huntsman Corp., the nation’s fourth-largest chemical company, since March 2005.

Reaud’s son, Reagan, and his daughter, Ryann, graduated from UT Law in 2004 and 2008, respectively.

The documentary, Incendiary: The Willingham Case, explores the intricate arson forensics surrounding the case and the polarized public responses to Willinghamʼs execution. Created by codirectors Steve Mims and Joe Bailey Jr., ’08, the film will premiere at the 2011 South by Southwest Film Festival on March 12, 2011, at 4:30 p.m. at Austinʼs Paramount Theatre, 713 Congress Avenue.

From the film Incendiary

“We set out to make a film that sticks to the facts of the original event and the scientific evidence surrounding the case,” said Bailey. “We had no other cause. But with the inevitable injection of politics into the story, the film needed to pull back the curtain on some rough and ready political hardball.”

Incendiary is equal parts murder mystery, forensic investigation, and political drama. It places the scientists front-and-center in a cautionary tale of the battle between science and speculation.

“It’s a riddle and a brainteaser of a film that asks you to figure out who is telling the truth and why,” said Mims.” At its core, Incendiary is a mystery. Did Willingham do it? Why are the people in the film—some amazing, larger than life characters—all so adamant in their diametrically opposite views of the case?”

Additionally, the film will screen during the festival at the Long Center for the Performing Arts Rollins Theater, 701 West Riverside, (available tickets sold fifteen minutes before showtime) on Thursday, March 17, at noon and Saturday, March 19, at 5:30 p.m.

The award recognizes Cochran’s work for over thirty-five years on mergers and acquisitions, project development, finance, commodity trading and hedging, and other transactions in the energy industry. During his career he has worked on a wide range of energy transactions, including transactions in oil and gas, coal, lignite, synthetic fuel produced from coal, carbon capture and storage, wind power, solar power, geothermal power, and bioconversion of coal to methane. 

Ernest E. Smith Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Fielding B. “Tres” Cochran III, ’75, (center) stands with Texas Journal of Oil, Gas & Energy Law Editor in Chief Chad Smith, left, and Managing Editor David Leonard, right, at the journal’s January 20, 2011, banquet.

Cochran is a partner at Vinson & Elkins in Houston. In the early 1990s he was a significant contributor in the development of a volumetric production payment that could easily be hedged in the commodity derivatives markets that were beginning to develop at that time. This transaction structure has been widely adopted and continues to be an important means for financial institutions to invest in oil and gas properties.

The Ernest E. Smith Lifetime Achievement Award honors practitioners who have participated in the advancement of natural resources law, policy, or scholarship. The award is named after Professor Ernest E. Smith, the Rex G. Baker Centennial Chair in Natural Resources Law at the Law School. Considered the preeminent specialist in oil, gas, and energy law, Smith cowrote the leading casebook in the field, Oil and Gas Law, as well as leading treatise Texas Law of Oil and Gas. He created the first wind-power law class to be taught at an American law school. He also teaches property law. Smith recently received the Massey Teaching Excellence Award, which is given to a law professor who “epitomizes the School’s priority of providing the highest quality of teaching to its students.” Smith also serves as a faculty advisor to the Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, and Energy Law.

The sixth recipient of the Ernest E. Smith Lifetime Achievement Award, Cochran joins Timothy Unger, ’74, partner at Andrews Kurth LLP; Cotton Bledsoe Tighe & Dawson Founding Partner Robert Bledsoe, ’55; former Devon Energy General Counsel Duke Ligon, ’69; Exxon General Counsel C. Kenneth Roberts, ’51; and the late Frank Douglass, founding partner of Scott, Douglass & McConnico, in receiving this honor at the Journal’s annual banquet.

The Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, and Energy Law is the only entirely student-run energy publication in the country and one of the largest publications at the University of Texas School of Law.  In addition to publishing articles on oil, gas, and energy topics twice a year, the Journal hosts a two-day continuing legal education symposium in conjunction with its banquet. This year’s symposium took place on January 20–21, 2011, at University of Texas at Austin’s AT&T Conference Center. The Symposium featured a wide range of energy-related topics from subsurface trespass to solar development, water issues in oil and gas development to unconventional resource plays, and crisis response in the energy field to recent developments in the ERCOT market.

Contact: Kirston Fortune, UT Law Communications Office, 512-471-7330, or kfortune@law.utexas.edu

Coleman was a partner at Yetter Coleman in Austin, and ran the firm’s appellate litigation practice. He successfully represented clients before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeals, and numerous state supreme courts and intermediate courts of appeals. He also served as the first solicitor general for the State of Texas, where he was lead appellate counsel for the state.

“Greg was an outstanding lawyer whose dedication to excellence and public service truly exemplified the best of the legal profession,” said Paul Yetter. “He was very proud to have attended the University of Texas Law School and spoke fondly of his time spent as managing editor of the Texas Law Review. We made our gift establishing a memorial scholarship to honor his memory and to ensure that other bright legal minds like Greg’s are supported in their own pursuit of excellence.” 

Coleman graduated from the Law School with high honors in 1992, after receiving a BS and MBA from Texas A&M University.  While at the Law School, Coleman served as managing editor of the Texas Law Review and was elected to Chancellors. Following graduation he was an active member of the Law School community, serving as an adjunct professor and on the board of the Texas Law Review Association—including one term as its president.

“Greg and I were law partners for several years and worked together several times,” said friend and colleague Scott Atlas, ’75. “He was an extraordinarily able appellate lawyer and an honorable, decent human being who was respected by everyone who knew him. The Texas Law Review Association will miss his understated but visionary leadership. Greg loved Texas Law Review. It is fitting that his law firm is creating a scholarship fund that will support the legal scholarship efforts of future generations of law review editors.”

The Scholarship will be given every year to the managing editor, and possibly other editors, of the Texas Law Review in an effort to make up for the loss of internship income incurred by the editorial staff.

If you would like to make a gift in support of the Gregory S. Coleman Memorial Scholarship, please visit the Law School’s Donations Page, and select “Gregory Coleman Memorial Scholarship” from the drop-down menu.

Contact: Kirston Fortune, UT Law Communications Office, 512-471-7330, or kfortune@law.utexas.edu

Driver’s review of Barry Friedman’s book The Will of the People earned his spot in the Almanac. Entitled “Why Law Should Lead,” the review first appeared in the April 8, 2010 issue of the New Republic. [A PDF copy of the article can be downloaded here.]

Wood’s concurrence in Bodum USA, Inc. v. La Cafetiere, Inc. was also honored [A PDF copy of the opinion can be downloaded here; Judge Wood’s concurrence begins on page 31.] and was published along with Judge Frank Easterbrook’s opinion for the Seventh Circuit in the same case.

Details about this publication, including a list of works nominated for inclusion and a list of the members of the Board of Advisors, can be found as a PDF on the Green Bag’s website.