UTLaw News Masthead 2009

May 2009

Bernard S. Black discusses Obama’s first one hundred days
Bernard S. Black, Hayden W. Head Regents Chair for Faculty Excellence Professor of Finance, and director of the Center for Law, Business, and Economics at the McCombs School of Business, participated in a panel of distinguished professors from across the University of Texas at Austin April 28 to discuss the policy decisions President Barack Obama has made to help ease the current recession. Video of the panel is available at the McCombs Web site:
http://blogs.mccombs.utexas.edu/mccombs-today/2009/04/deans-forum-economic-outlook-at-obamas-first-100-days-in-office/

Jessica Cassidy, ’09, awarded Equal Justice Works Fellowship
Jessica Cassidy, ’09, has been awarded an Equal Justice Works Fellowship to work with Austin-based nonprofit legal-services organization Texas Advocacy Project. Cassidy will use the two-year fellowship to help survivors of domestic violence and their children achieve economic self-sufficiency. Cassidy hopes to meet this goal through three strategies: enforcing child support payments for domestic abuse survivors; helping survivors repair bad credit; and providing economic empowerment training.
http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2009/043009_jessica_cassidy_fellowship.html

Professor Stefanie Lindquist discusses U.S. Supreme Court case on Central Texas voting rights
Stefanie Lindquist, who holds the Thomas W. Gregory Professorship in Law, was recently interviewed by KUT radio about a case at the United States Supreme Court challenging a provision of the Voting Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 to prohibit voter discrimination based on race or color. Because the State of Texas has a history of discrimination, it still operates under provisions of the Act that have to do with making changes to election procedures. Audio of the interview is available at
http://kut.org/items/show/16588

Justice Center announces George M. Fleming Public Interest Summer Fellowship
The Law School selected first-year student Maka Hutson as the inaugural George M. Fleming Public Interest Summer Fellow. This fellowship program, generously supported by George M. Fleming, ’71, provides funding for students to work on issues related to health law, healthcare access, and healthcare benefits. Fellows receive a $5,000 stipend to work for at least ten weeks over the summer with a nonprofit legal organization on projects within the program’s scope.
http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2009/042709_fleming_summer_fellow.html

UT Law launches Human Rights Clinic
The Law School has launched a new legal clinic, the Human Rights Clinic, to undertake cases and projects that illustrate the breadth of human rights practice, including fact finding, reporting, and press and other public advocacy. Under the supervision of Law School Professor Ariel Dulitzky, an interdisciplinary group of law students and graduate students will work on human rights projects and cases from the advocate’s perspective.
http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2009/040909_human_rights_clinic.html

Law Alumni Association announces 2009 award recipients
The University of Texas Law Alumni Association announced the recipients of its 2009 distinguished alumni awards. George C. Chapman, ’62, has received the Lifetime Achievement Award; the Honorable Royce C. Lamberth, ’67, has received the Outstanding Alumnus Award; Catherine Lamboley, ’79, has received the Distinguished Alumnus Award for Community Service; and Max R. Sherman, ’60, has received the Honorary Order of the Coif. The recipients were honored at an Alumni Association Awards dinner in Austin on April 17, 2009.
http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2009/042009_alumni_awards.html

Six graduating students awarded University Co-op Public Interest Awards
Graduating Law School students Kelly Davis, Brett Kaufman, Lisa Snead, Meghan Shapiro, Whitney Hill, Aron Israelite have been awarded University Co-op Public Interest Awards. This annual award honors graduating law students for work in non-profit, government, or legislative sectors and for pro bono and community service activities. Each student will receive a $4,250 award made possible by a grant from the University Co-op and administered by the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law at the Law School. The students will be recognized at the University Co-op Awards for Excellence in Graduate Education banquet on Tuesday, May 12.
http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2009/041409_coop.html

UT Law wins National Championship in 2009 Hispanic National Bar Association Moot Court Competition
The Law School won this year’s National Championship in the Hispanic National Bar Association Moot Court Competition. UT team members Cassandra Cuellar, ’10; Belinda Garcia, ’10; and Rudy Segura, ’09; beat Loyola Law School (Los Angeles) in the final round of the competition bringing home the national title. In addition, Rudy Segura won the award for best speaker. The University of Texas Tower was lit in honor of their national championship on April 29.
http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2009/040309_hispanic_national_bar.html

Events

May 1-2
“Law and Innovation: The Embryonic Stem Cell Controversy”
The George McMillan Fleming Center for Law and Innovation in Biomedicine and Healthcare will hold a conference at the Law School examining legal, medical, ethical, public policy, and healthcare delivery issues surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells in medical research and practice.
http://www.utexas.edu/law/academics/centers/fleming/law-and-innovation/

May 4
Professor Scot Powe discusses, signs new book about history of Supreme Court
The Law School’s Anne Green Regents Chair in Law and University of Texas professor of government Lucas A. Powe Jr. will host a discussion of his latest book, The Supreme Court and the American Elite, 1789-2008, at BookPeople, 603 N. Lamar Blvd., in Austin, Monday, May 4, at 7:30 p.m. In the book, Powe details the ways in which every major Supreme Court rulings, however deftly framed in constitutional terms, suited the wishes of the most powerful politicians of their time. His history reflects a changing Court, from the country’s early struggles over commerce and transportation to the torturous justifications of slavery before the Civil War, to a post-New Deal interest in ending segregation, controlling criminal procedure, and addressing knotty questions arising from the Cold War. For more information and details, log on to http://www.bookpeople.com/index.php?com=coe&view=detail&id=1091

May 21
Austin Alumni Reception
The University of Texas Law Alumni Association will host its Austin Alumni Reception Thursday, May 21, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., in the Capital Ballroom of the InterContinental Stephen F. Austin Hotel, 701 Congress Ave., Austin. For more information, contact Teri Raeke at traeke@law.utexas.edu or 512-232-1221.

May 23
Spring Graduation Ceremony
The Law School’s Class of 2009 will graduate May 23. The 2009 Sunflower Ceremony will take place on Saturday, May 23, at 3:30 p.m. at the Frank Erwin Jr. Special Events Center. Degree candidates, their families, and friends are invited to celebrate the accomplishments of the graduating class of 2009.

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