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February 2015

Bounds Law Library Launches Special Collections Blog

The Bounds Law Library is sharing information about books, manuscripts, and artifacts on its new blog, Litera Scripta. Bounds preserves and catalogs documents and objects, with an eye to the evolution of common law. Its primary focus is on legal history in Alabama; but it is also interested in law and society in the South and the nation, in the English roots of constitutionalism and the rule of law, and in the history of the civil law.

Law School To Host Reunion Honoring Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. Law Clerks

The Law School will host a reunion honoring former Law Clerks of Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. on Feb. 27-28. Former law clerks will attend the 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act Symposium, participate in a special lunch and dinner, and tour The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. For more information, please contact Jami Gates at jgates@law.ua.edu.

Students Win Moot Court Award

Queena Ruffin and Brittney Wormely, both 3Ls, recently participated in the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition in Columbia, South Carolina, and received the award for Best Brief of the Petitioner.

Law School Welcomes Major Gifts Officer

The Law School welcomes Caroline Strawbridge to the Office of Advancement as the major gifts officer. Strawbridge is a 1997 graduate of the School of Law and has a bachelor’s degree in communications from UA.
“She brings to the job an impressive resume of relevant experience and a deep knowledge of the Law School and our alumni,” said Dean Mark E. Brandon. “I’m looking forward to working with her. Please take the opportunity to welcome her back to the Law School.”

Events

Farrah To Honor Justice Janie Shores At Annual BanquetCBS Chief Legal Correspondent Jan Crawford To Deliver Keynote AddressThe annual Farrah Law Alumni Society Banquet, hosted by Chairwoman Elizabeth Huntley and Dean Mark E. Brandon, will be held Friday, Feb. 20 at The Westin in Birmingham. The banquet will honor Justice Janie Shores as the recipient of the 2015 Sam W. Pipes Distinguished Alumna Award. Justice Shores was the first female member of the Alabama Supreme Court. Our featured speaker is CBS Chief Legal Correspondent Jan Crawford. Please mark your calendar now to join us for this event. Tickets are available for purchase. Seating will be limited. Invitations have been sent to all current members of Farrah. To join or renew your annual membership today, please visit the Farrah web page.

Alabama Law Review Sponsors Voting Rights Act SymposiumJoin us as the nation’s foremost experts on the Voting Rights Act commemorate the 50th Anniversary of this historic enactment. The symposium is 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27 in the Bedsole Moot Court Room (140). Please register for this event. Seating will be limited.

Presenters

JACK BASS, author, Taming the Storm
GUY-URIEL CHARLES, Duke University School of Law
KAREEM CRAYTON, University of North Carolina School of Law
RICHARD L. HASEN, University of California Irvine School of Law
SAMUEL ISSACHAROFF, New York University School of Law
PAMELA KARLAN, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Stanford Law School
THE HONORABLE MYRON H. THOMPSON, Senior U.S. District Judge
FRANITA TOLSON, Florida State University College of Law

 

BLSA Hosts 14th Annual Scholarship BanquetJoin us for the 14th Annual BLSA Scholarship Banquet at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 2 at the Harbert Center in Birmingham. This event will honor faculty, students, and attorneys for their work in the legal profession.
This year’s keynote address will be delivered by April England-Alright, an Alabama Law Alumna and attorney for the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights in Atlanta. For more information or to RSVP, please send an email to Shalyn Smith at shalyn.smith@law.ua.edu or Prof. Bryan Fair at bfair@law.ua.edu.

Gifts

Charles F. Carr, ’77, donated $5,000 to the Charles F. Carr Endowed Scholarship Fund.
Susan G. Delony Management Trust donated $500,000 to establish the Delony Family Endowed Scholarship Fund. The Scholarship will be given to students who maintain a minimum 3.0 GPA. A preference will be given to students from Colbert County.
Stephen Douglas Kane donated $41,200 to establish the Stephen Douglas Kane Endowed Scholarship in honor of former Dean Kenneth C. Randall. The scholarship will be given to exceptional out-of-state students.
Laura Proctor, ’92, John F. Proctor II, ’57, and James M. Proctor III, ’84, contributed a total of $8,000 for the Proctor Family Scholarship.
The Honorable Schuyler H. Richardson, III, ’77, contributed $9,950 to the Patrick W. Richardson Memorial Endowed Scholarship.
Michael Stephen Stutts, ’80, contributed $5,000 to the Farrah Law Alumni Society.

CLE

Alumni are invited to participate in Alabama training opportunities throughout the state.
Feb. 6: Banking Law Update
Feb. 27: Issues in Elder Law

The Best Thing For Your Resume Since Spellcheck
LL.M. Concentrations in Taxation and Business Transactions Offered Online

The Law School’s Graduate Department offers two exceptional LL.M. programs through live, interactive Internet technologies. Students receive skills-based instruction taught by respected professors and practitioners throughout the country without having to leave their offices.
The tax program permits students to focus on courses in estate planning or business tax. The course of study for the business program is interdisciplinary in fields of law and business – including tax, finance, intellectual property, entrepreneurship, and traditional corporate classes. For more information, or to apply to either concentration, visit www.alabamallm.com or contact Assistant Dean for Graduate Law Programs Daniel Powell.

Honoring Dean Randall

A portrait honoring former Dean Kenneth Randall has been hung in the hallway outside of the Samford Room on the 2nd floor of the Law School. Randall served as dean of the Law School for two decades and retired in 2013. Lindy Bruggink, wife of Law School graduate Judge Eric Bruggink, painted the portrait.

Class Notes

  • Robert Bailey, ’99, was featured in The Tuscaloosa News for publishing his first legal fiction novel, The Professor.
  • Billy Bell, ’72, has retired as a judge from the Madison County Circuit Court.
  • Blake Bernard, ’13, has joined Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis in Nashville.
  • Larry Brantley, ’97, has joined Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis in Nashville.
  • Mark Crosswhite, ’87, was appointed to the Southern Research Board of Directors.
  • Thomas G. DeLawrence, ’06, has been named partner at Balch & Bingham.
  • J.R. Gaines, ’01, was sworn in as a judge in the 15th Judicial Circuit in Montgomery County.
  • Donald Knowlton, ’98, has joined Cusimano, Roberts & Mills in Gadsden.
  • Franklin H. Long, Jr., ’07, has been named partner at Balch & Bingham.
  • Michel M. Marcoux, ’08, has been named partner at Balch & Bingham.
  • W. Brad Neighbors, ’06, has been named partner at Balch & Bingham.
  • Mary Forman Samuels, ’07, has been named partner at Balch & Bingham.
  • Alan C. Sheppard, LL.M. ’12, was elected president of the Florida chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.
  • Edward Sledge IV, ’03, has joined Bradley Arant Boult Cummings as a member of the Litigation Practice Group.
  • Brad Tate, LL.M. ’12, has joined Prejean Romero McGee, LLC in Lafayette, Louisiana, as a tax manager.

Faculty Notes

PROFESSOR TANYA ASIM COOPER conducted a training session on domestic violence law and practice for new UAPD officers in January. She was interviewed and quoted by a UA journalism student for an article on relationship violence, which was published in the Crimson White, available here. As editor of the newsletter of the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA), comprised of more than 1000 members, she published the latest edition, available here. Prof. Cooper also served as a faculty mentor for a junior editor’s student note on the Journal of the Legal Profession.

PROFESSOR SHAHAR DILLBARY has recently accepted an invitation to serve as a keynote speaker at the Second International Law and Economics Conference (ILEC), which will take place in May in Turkey. Last year the U.S. keynote speakers were Professors Robert Cooter (Berkeley) and William Kovacic (George Washington University and former FTC Chairman). Early in January, Prof. Dillbary visited and gave presentations at the Bar Ilan University Intellectual Property Workshop (Tel Aviv, Israel). While in Israel, he also met with the (former) Chief Justice Aharon Barak and faculty members of Tel Aviv University School of Law to discuss Prof. Dillbary’s new scholarship on causation. Prof. Dillbary also met the new Israeli coordinator of the Alabama–Tel Aviv Exchange Program.

PROFESSOR RICHARD DELGADO‘s article, “Hate Speech in Cyberspace,” co-authored with PROFESSOR JEAN STEFANCIC, made two new Top Ten SSRN download lists (Applied Ethics and Discrimination, Law, and Justice). Another article, “Racial Templates,” co-authored with Juan Perea, made a different Top Ten list (Discrimination Law). A third, “Law’s Violence: Derrick Bell’s Next Article,” made a fourth list (Jurisprudence and Theoretical Inquiry). And a fourth, “Two Narratives of Youth,” made a fifth list (Law and Literature).
Delgado was quoted in the American Bar Association Journal’s centenary issue (January 2015) in an article by Terry Carter on key developments during the civil rights decade.
Profs. Delgado and Stefancic published, with co-authors Juan Perea and Stephanie Wildman, a 200-page Teacher’s Manual to accompany a new edition of Race and Races: Cases and Resources for a Diverse America (West 2015).

PROFESSOR JOHN GROSS had an article/essay published by the National Association of Public Defenders: “The Truth About how Public Defenders Handle Excessive Caseloads.” It is available at: http://www.publicdefenders.us/?q=node/673

ANITA KAY HEAD, a legal writing instructor, coached the law school’s Frederick Douglass Moot Court Team. The team competed in January in the Southern Regional Competition in Columbia, South Carolina, where they won the Best Brief for the Petitioner.

PROFESSOR YURI LINETSKY participated on a panel at the Global Café (which is part of the UA Center for Community-Based Partnerships), where he spoke about legal issues that may affect international students and scholars, such as apartment leases and other contracts.

PROFESSOR PAMELA PIERSON, as a Foundation Fellow, attended the annual Alabama Law Foundation dinner. Foundation Fellows are nominated and selected from top 1 percent of members of the Alabama Bar Association.