Volume 3 Issue 4
March/April 2006

* Events & Celebrations
* Faculty Honors
* Faculty in the News
* Student Honors
* Alumni Honors
* In Memoriam

• UT Tower Orange in Honor of 2005-2006 Mock Trial & Moot Court National Champions

  UT-Austin lit the Tower on Tues., April 25, in honor of UT Law's ABA Arbitration Competition team and the Giles Sutherland Rich Intellectual Property Moot Court team. UT Law has won ten national championships in the last seven years.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/042006_tower.html

• The Future of Open Source Peer Production Models, May 2

  On May 2, in conjunction with the historic World Congress on Information Technology 2006, UT Law will host an open source workshop, "The Future of Open Source Peer Production Models: Business and Legal Frontiers." Law school professors Ronald Mann, R. Anthony Reese, and Oren Bracha are scheduled to speak. The workshop is free but registration is required. The event is co-sponsored with the McCombs School of Business.

  Workshop registration: http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/events/osworkshop/

• Capital Punishment Center Expands Programs Relating to the Death Penalty

  The Capital Punishment Center will combine and expand the Law School’s academic and clinical programs on the death penalty. The Center will be co-directed by UT Law professors Rob Owen and Jordan Steiker, who have worked together with clinic students for more than a decade on capital punishment cases.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/040606_cpcopening.html

• Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, and Energy Law Announces Release of Debut Issue

  The debut issue of the Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, and Energy Law was published in April. It features three articles, a student note, and recent developments in the oil, gas, and energy industry. TJOGEL was founded in the summer of 2005 and is the only student-edited journal in the country focused on promoting scholarship in the energy legal field.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/041706_tjogel.html

• Second Annual UT-Harvard Bankruptcy Conference, April 28-29

  The second annual “Joint Conference on Commercial Realities” will be held April 28-29 in Cambridge, MA to provide a forum for emerging commercial-law scholars to meet and discuss their research. This conference was created by Jay Westbrook of The University of Texas School of Law and Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School. It is intended to develop a generation of legal scholars who use the tools of empirical studies and research into other legal systems to help find solutions to the problems attendant upon the rapidly changing world of commerce.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/040606_bankruptcy.html

• Texas Law Fellowships’ Spring Pledge Drive Raises Nearly $50,000 for Public Interest Work

  As a result of the Texas Law Fellowships' Spring Pledge Drive, TLF will fund 21 law students working for public interest organizations this summer.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/032806_tlf.html

• Rapoport Center Receives UT Grant to Explore Life and Legacy of Diplomat George Lister

  George Lister, a career diplomat, served as the hub of much of the State Department’s human rights policy during the Cold War era. A new educational website to be developed by the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice at UT Law will tell the story of how Lister became a powerful advocate for giving human rights a greater priority in U.S. foreign policy decisions.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/030106_lister.html

• UT Law Acquires Its First Series of Textbooks on Foreign and Transnational Law

  The Institute of Transnational Law at The University of Texas at Austin has reached an agreement with Rutledge Cavendish to launch a new series of textbooks and monographs on foreign and transnational law. This is the first time that The University of Texas acquires a law series of its own.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/020606_textbooks.html

• UT-Austin Conference on Corporate Governance for Early Stage Companies, May 25

  The University of Texas at Austin's IC2 Institute, School of Law and the Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship will host a major conference on corporate governance for directors and officers of early stage companies on Thurs., May 25, at The Houstonian Hotel in Houston.

  Among the keynote speakers, Southwest Airline founder Herb Kelleher will discuss the role his board played in the early years of Southwest Airlines, and University of Texas at Austin president Bill Powers will discuss the lessons of Enron for growing companies.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/040606_governance.html

• Professors Alex Albright and Lonny Hoffman to Serve on Texas Supreme Court Rules Advisory Committee

  Alexandra W. Albright, associate dean of students and technology and senior lecturer at The University of Texas School of Law, has been reappointed to the Texas Supreme Court Rules Advisory Committee until Dec. 31, 2008. Lonny S. Hoffman, visiting professor at the Law School, has been appointed as a new member of the committee.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/030206_albright.html

• Professor Mark Ascher releases revised Scott and Ascher on Trusts

  Professor Mark Ascher's first two volumes of the treatise Scott and Ascher on Trusts were published this week by Aspen Publishers. The 800-page work was accompanied by an additional volume of tables.

  "We congratulate Mark on this important achievement. For seven years he's worked painstakingly to revise the leading treatise on trusts, an important resource for lawyers, judges, and scholars. Mark's scholarship continues an honored UT Law tradition of treatise writing at the very highest level," said Interim Dean Steve Goode.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/042606_ascher.html

• Professor Cynthia Bryant Appointed to Texas Supreme Court Task Force

  Cynthia Bryant, clinical professor and director of the Mediation Clinic at the Law School, has been selected to serve on a 20-member Texas Supreme Court task force charged with developing a statewide case-flow management and tracking system for child-protection cases.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/040706_bryant.html

• Professor Stanley Johanson to Receive the Massey Teaching Award

  Interim Dean Steve Goode has announced that law professor Stanley Johanson is the recipient of the 2006-08 Massey Teaching Excellence Award. Johanson, a University Distinguished Teaching Professor, has been a professor at the Law School since 1963.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/042606_johanson.html

• SBA Honors Professor Jordan Steiker and Dean of Student Affairs Rey Ramos

  The Student Bar Association Board of Governors at the Law School selected Professor Jordan Steiker as the Faculty Honoree for this year's W. Page Keeton Law Week. Rey Ramos, former director of admissions and current Dean of Student Affairs, was named the Staff/Administrator Honoree by the SBA

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/022106_sba.html

• Professor Linda Mullenix Receives Fulbright Chair, 2007

  Professor Mullenix has been named a Fulbright Senior Distinguished Chair in Law. She will study in Trento, Italy, during spring 2007.

  About Professor Mullenix: http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/lsmull52/

• UT Law Faculty Ranks Fifth All-Time in Papers Downloaded from the SSRN Database

  SSRN's all-time rankings indicate that UT Law professors' scholarly papers are the fifth most downloaded set of papers in the SSRN database, with more than 85,000 downloads.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/021006_ssrn.html

In the news:

• Many UT Law professors' working papers can be found free at SSRN.com and on the Center for Law, Business and Economics (CLBE) Web site. To find the materials on SSRN.com, go to http://www.ssrn.com. Click on "Legal Scholarship Network," then "Research Paper Series." Papers are posted in both the Law and Economics series and the Public Law and Legal Theory categories under the UT Law links. Faculty working papers can also be accessed free at the CLBE Web site, using the link below.

  Related Links: http://www.ssrn.com and http://www.utexas.edu/law/academics/centers/clbe/.

• Professor Calvin Johnson on CSPAN-2 (Book TV) Lectures on Righteous Anger at the Wicked States (April):
  http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/042606_johnson.html

• Visiting Prof. Samuel Buell Blogging the Enron Trial for the Houston Chronicle (March):
  http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/031306_blog.html

• Professor Gerald Torres on the Texas Redistricting Case in the Boston Globe (March):
  http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/031306_torres.html

• Visting Professor Samuel Buell on South Dakota's New Abortion Law in the Los Angeles Times (March):
  http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/031306_buell.html

• Adjunct Prof. Steve Bickerstaff on the Texas Redistricting Case in the Austin American-Statesman and the Dallas Morning News (March):
  http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/030106_bickerstaff.html

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/ .

• Edward Cantu, ’06, and Rebecca Ryan, ’07, Make Semifinals in National Con Law Moot Court Competition

  The two students were semifinalists in the first Constance Baker Motley National Moot Court Competition in Constitutional Law. Twenty-seven teams from sixteen schools and fifteen states argued the merits of felony disfranchisement in the competition held at Columbia Law School in New York on March 4-5.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/031306_acs.html

• Ciara Williams, ’07, Receives Access to Justice Scholarship

  Second year law student Ciara Williams is the recipient of the Access to Justice Scholarship, given by the National Association of Women Judges. This $1,000 scholarship is presented to a woman student at the Law School who has demonstrated a sustained and passionate commitment to promote access in the justice system, and who has overcome significant obstacles.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/033106_justice.html

• UT Law's First Equal Justice Scholarship Awarded to Kathrine Russell, ’08

  The William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law at the Law School has awarded Kathrine Russell the Equal Justice Scholarship. The purpose of the Equal Justice Scholarship is to help increase access to justice in Texas by supporting recipients' work in the public interest during law school and upon graduation.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/030106_equaljustice.html

Editor's Note: Alumni Honors are listed in order by class year.

• UT Law Announces Alumni Association Award Winners

  The Law School Alumni Association and Law School Interim Dean honored four alumni for outstanding work in the legal profession and for service to the United States this February. Those honored include:

  W. Howard Wolf, ’59 - Lifetime Achievement Award
  Ronald Krist, ’62 - Outstanding Alumnus Award
  Hon. Preston M. Geren III, ’78 - Distinguished Alumnus Award for Community Service
  Hon. Edward Prado, ’72 - Honorary Order of the Coif award

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/022106_awards.html

• Stephen D. Susman, ’65, Named Leading Commercial Litigator in the World

  Stephen D. Susman of Susman Godfrey was named the leading commercial litigator in the world at the 2006 Who’s Who Legal Awards. He received more recommendations than any other practitioner in the awards committee’s research.

• Sylvia de Leon, ’76, Named One of the Top 20 Most Influential Hispanic Women in U.S.

  Hispanic Business Magazine has named Sylvia de Leon, ’76, one of the 20 most influential Hispanic women in the United States. In 2002, the Law School inducted de Leon into the Honorary Order of the Coif. She currently serves on the UT Law dean search committee and is raising funds for the Center for Women in Law. De Leon also serves as a member of the Law School Foundation's Board of Trustees.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/041106_deleon.html

• H. Michael Sokolow, ’84, Receives 2005 Outstanding Assistant Federal Defender Award

  H. Michael Sokolow is one of three recipients of the National Association of Federal Defenders 2005 Outstanding Assistant Federal Defender Award. Sokolow is First Assistant Federal Public Defender for the Southern District of Texas and offices in the Houston Division.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/041806_sokolow.html

• Diana Saldana, ’97, Named U.S. Magistrate

  Diana Saldana, ’97, former president of the Chicano/Hispanic Law Students Association (CHLSA) at the Law School, has been selected as a United States Magistrate Judge for the United States District Court, Southern District of Texas. She was sworn in on Mon., March 27.

  Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/040406_saldana.html

• Class Notes (Submitted Feb.-Apr. 2006):
  http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/enewsletter/classnotes/0406_classnotes.pdf

• In Memoriam (Submitted Feb.-Apr. 2006):
  http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/enewsletter/inmemoriam/0406_inmemoriam.pdf

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