Volume 2 Issue 3
March/April 2005

• Alumni Reunion: April 16
  
  http://www.utexas.edu/law/depts/alumni/reunion/

  
  

• Non-Practicing Alumni Advisory Council (NPAAC): Friday, April 15. http://www.utexas.edu/law/depts/alumni/npaac/index.html

• The Sunflower Ceremony will be held on Saturday, May 21, at 3:30 p.m. in the Erwin Center. For more information about this event, please contact Student Affairs at (512) 232-1116.

• Professor Robert O. Dawson, 1939-2005

  The UT-Austin community will celebrate the life of Professor Robert O. Dawson on Sat., April 2 at the LBJ Auditorium.

  Professor Dawson died at his home in Fentress, Texas, on February 26, 2005. He was 65 years old. He held the Bryant Smith Chair in Law at the Law School, where he taught for 37 years beginning in 1968. From 1974 through 1998, he served as the director of the Criminal Defense Clinic which he co-founded. He and his co-supervisors worked with more than 1,200 students on criminal defendants’ cases. Those students handled more than 7,200 cases.

  Official statement and photo gallery: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2005/022605_dawson.html

• In Memoriam: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/enewsletter/inmemoriam/0305.pdf

• 2005 Chancellors Announced

  Professor David Anderson presided over the installation ceremony for new members in Chancellors, the highest honorary organization at The University of Texas School of Law, on Mar. 1, 2005 in the Rare Books Room of the Tarlton Law Library. Membership to Chancellors is extended to the 16 students with the highest grade point averages after two years at UT Law.
  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2005/030205_chancellors.html

• Texas Law Fellowships Announces 2005 Excellence in Public Interest Awards Honorees

  This February, Texas Law Fellowships announced the recipients of the 2005 Excellence in Public Interest Awards. They are: Betty Rodriguez, an attorney with the Travis County Juvenile Public Defender’s office; Allison Wetzel, Juvenile Public Defender for the Travis County District Attorney’s office; Michael Marin, a trial attorney with Vinson & Elkins, LLP; UT Law professors Bill Allison, Robert Dawson and David Shepard, and students of the UT Law Actual Innocence Clinic; and Maunica Sthanki, a third-year UT Law student.
  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2005/021705_tlfawards.html

• Travis County Honors Heman Sweatt

  On Feb. 28, Chancellor Mark Yudof, Texas Supreme Court Justice Wallace Jefferson, ’88, and other members of the UT Law community attended the unveiling of a bronze plaque at the Travis County Courthouse that commemorates UT Law civil rights pioneer Heman Sweatt. UT Law has named a professorship and scholarship in honor of the civil rights pioneer and has become a national leader in graduating African-Americans and Mexican-Americans according to the most recent American Bar Association statistics.
  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2005/030105_sweatt.html

• Dean Powers Leads Explore UT to Success

  On March 5, UT-Austin hosted more than 40,000 people at its annual open house, Explore UT. Dean Powers chaired the event this year, which brought the largest estimated crowd to date to campus. At the Law School, more than 200 children packed the Eidman Courtroom to hear U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Edward Prado, ’72, preside over the trial of Gold E. Locks. (She was found guilty of trespassing.)

• Calvin Johnson Publishes Book on the Purpose of the U.S. Constitution
  This month, Cambridge University Press released Calvin Johnson’s The Righteous Anger of the Wicked States, a history of why the U.S. Constitution was adopted. The most pressing need, he argues, was to allow the federal government to tax to pay off the debts of the common defense. The Constitution went far beyond the immediate fiscal needs, however, to create a supreme, three-part national government. The book argues that the Founders' anger at the states for their recurring breaches of duty to the united cause explains both critical steps and the driving impetus for the revolution. “A fine achievement, and a sophisticated book,” says Jefferson Powell of Duke Law School.

• The New York Times Op-Ed: Black, Silver, and Co-Authors on Texas Medical Malpractice Claims
  Related study: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2005/031005_malpractice.html

• Prof. Sarah Cleveland in The Washington Post: "Is There Room for the World in Our Courts?"

• Prof. Douglas Laycock in The Austin American-Statesman on the Top 10-Percent Law

• Laycock Featured on UT-Austin’s Take 5 Video

• Prof. John Robertson in The Austin American-Statesman on the Schiavo Case

• Regular columnists:

  • Professor Charles Childress is a regular columnist for HEARTBEAT, the quarterly Texas journal for Texas CASA (court appointed special advocates).
  • Professor Linda Mullenix for The National Law Journal.
  • Professor David Sokolow for the Australian Law Journal.
  • Professor Jay Westbrook (with Elizabeth Warren) for The American Bankruptcy Institute Law Journal

    A full list of faculty activities and publications can be found online at: http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/news/.

• Dean Powers Chairs Undergraduate Curricular Reform

  UT-Austin president Larry Faulkner tapped Dean Powers to lead the 20 -member Task Force on Curricular Reform. The task force, composed of faculty and students, will development of a new undergraduate core curriculum. The core curriculum was last revised in 1981. The task force is expected to submit a written report to the president by the end of October 2005. The group’s recommendations will be presented to the university community and the Faculty Council for consideration and comment.
  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/opa/news/04newsreleases/nr_200412/nr_curriculum041213.html

• Professor Jay Westbrook Co-chairs Emerging Scholar Program

  On April 8, Professors Jay Westbrook (UT) and Elizabeth Warren (Harvard) will convene 13 rising stars in the commercial law and bankruptcy fields to discuss papers that emphasize empirical and comparative international topics. Westbrook and Warren created the conference, Commercial Realities, to help young scholars develop their skills in these two important areas and to exchange ideas and approaches with each other. Five senior scholars served as commentators and mentors. Westbrook and Warren hope the conference will become an annual affair, alternating between Austin and Cambridge

• Sunbelt Minority Job Fair

  UT Law is a board member of the Sunbelt Minority Job Fair and would encourage your firm to participate on September 8 at the Sunbelt Minority Recruitment Program at the Crowne Plaza Suites in Dallas. The fair provides legal employers throughout the U.S. with an opportunity to interview law students from five states, including UT Law students. For registration information, please visit http://sunbeltjobfair.com.

• First-Year Students participate in Ambitious Public Service Program

  As part of its new first-year society program, more than half of all first-year law students participated in a variety of community service projects. These projects ranged from helping victims of domestic violence to volunteering for the 77 th Annual Zilker Park Kite Festival.
  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2005/030105_societies.html

• Spring Society newsletter: http://www.utexas.edu/law/depts/studentlife/sp05.pdf

• Class notes, March 2005
• Update your e-mail and home address
• Stay up-to-date with your classmates with on-line Class Notes
• Make a gift to the Annual Fund
• Join the Non-Practicing Alumni Advisory Council
• Nominate an alumnus for the Alumni Awards
• Alumni directory
• Continuing Legal Education
• Alumni calendar

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UT Law News is a bi-monthly electronic newsletter for alumni and friends to keep you informed about The University of Texas at Austin School of Law and its impact on the world. Please share your comments and suggestions by emailing the UT Law communications office director Allegra Young at ayoung@mail.law.utexas.edu.

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