The Dorbin Association donated $13,000 to Turning Point Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault Services on March 27.
The donation is the largest in the association’s history, and leaders said they were honored to raise the money for an organization that supports women.
Turning Point serves nine counties throughout West Alabama, providing services to more than 2,000 primary and secondary victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Turning Point also conducts community training and other events throughout the year.
Professor Ronald Krotoszynski, Jr. appears on WWL in New Orleans and a discusses Louisiana bill that would allow schools to display “In God We Trust” on buildings.
Legal scholars discussed the future of textualism on the U.S. Supreme Court Friday, March 23, at The University of Alabama School of Law.
The occasion was a symposium on Life After Scalia: Justice Gorsuch and Modern Textualism on the Supreme Court. The conference examined the form textualism may take on the Court and how Justice Gorsuch will influence the Court.
While Justice Neil Gorsuch can trace his jurisprudential ancestry to Justice Antonin Scalia, Dean Mark E. Brandon said during his introduction that Justice Gorsuch “is not a mere acolyte.”
“What we may soon see is that there are, in fact, many textualisms and many originalisms out there,” he said. “All of which suggest, to me anyway, not only that today’s symposium is timely but that it is also important.”
The presenters were:
International attorney Owen Pell, partner at White & Case and the President of the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, visited Alabama Law Tuesday and discussed the critical role the legal community can play in promoting civil and institutional safeguards and access to justice for minority and diaspora communities.
“Lawyers are often the bridge,” Pell said. “Lawyers figure out ways to get people who don’t like each other to talk to each other. That’s part of what we do. We humanize. We advocate. We develop arguments, and we keep pushing.”
The Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation is part of an emerging infrastructure that is helping foster civil societies that are free from fear and violence, Pell said. The institute trains administrators in how to identify the processes that lead to genocide and mass atrocities, how to interrupt those processes, and how to create a dedicated group of people whose sole purpose is to make sure genocide and mass atrocities are less likely to happen in their countries.
“What we try to do is create a safe space for government bureaucrats to come talk about things they might not be able to talk about as freely at home,” Pell said.
The event was sponsored by the Law School’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion, the Jewish Law Students Association, and OUTLaw.
Robert Dyar, Morgan Epperson, and J.T. Lewis, all 3Ls, performed well in the Robert F. Wagner National Labor and Employment Law Moot Court competition at New York Law School in Manhattan during the first weekend of Spring Break.
They competed in six rounds of oral argument over two days against teams from across the country, including the University of Houston, Georgia State, and Seton Hall. They advanced through the initial rounds and made it to the semi-finals before losing to an excellent team from Southwestern, the eventual winner of the competition. The Alabama team was recognized for writing the Best Petitioner’s Brief and finished in third place overall in a field of 40 teams.
The team members appreciate the support and guidance of Coach Roger Williams (’69). Professors Anita Kay Head, Cameron Fogle, Stan Murphy, Daiquiri Steele and team alumni Emily Vande Lune (’16 ) and Beth Howland (’17), of Bressler, Amery & Ross in Birmingham, provided helpful advice in practice rounds.
Professor Fred Vars writes an op-ed with Ian Ayres in The Los Angeles Times about how to reduce gun suicides.
For more, read “A New Way to Reduce Gun Suicides, and Maybe Mass Shootings too.”
Professor Joyce White Vance, former U.S. Attorney and Distinguished Visiting Lecturer in Law, talks with MSNBC’s Ari Melber about the role of the White House legal counsel.
For more, read “McGahn is White House lawyer, not Trump lawyer, Trump should know.“
Professor Allyson E. Gold, director of The University of Alabama School of Law’s Elder Law Clinic, is quoted in Caring.com about how to handle power of attorney for someone who has severe memory loss or severe cognitive impairment.
For more, read “How to Handle Power of Attorney for a Parent with Dementia.”
Caroline Page, Robert Pendley, and Margaret Reiney, all 3Ls, won the 26th Annual Duberstein Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition. The Duberstein Competition is the preeminent national bankruptcy moot court competition and one of the largest single-site appellate moot court competitions in the country. Teams from forty seven schools competed in this year’s event at St. John’s University School of Law.
Page, Pendley, and Reiney demonstrated resolve and determination from the beginning of the competition weekend, when their flights to New York were cancelled Friday due to weather conditions in the northeast. The students rented a car and began a road trip to Washington, D.C., to catch a train to New York. When the trains were cancelled, the students soldiered on by driving to Manhattan, arriving at 3 a.m. on Saturday, the morning of the first preliminary round.
The team made it through the preliminary rounds against teams from Emory University and Wayne State, proceeding to the octo-finals on Sunday afternoon. In the octo-finals, our team faced Suffolk University and UNLV, outscoring their opponents in each round to advance to the quarter finals.
The quarter finals were held on Monday in Brooklyn at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York. Alabama Law’s team defeated the University of Texas in this head-to-head elimination round.
The semi-final round pitted UA against perennial contender SMU, whose team placed third and had Best Advocate in 2017 and won back-to-back national titles in 2015 and 2016. During this round, Page and Reiney turned in virtually flawless performances against SMU and earned the team an advance to the finals.
In the finals, the team competed against George Washington University and faced an active bench comprised of a Circuit Court Judge and three prominent Bankruptcy Judges. During this round, Page and Pendley demonstrated remarkable acumen in parrying the barrage of questions from the bench, winning the championship round against a team.
The team’s performance would not have been possible without the contributions of Faculty Advisor and Professor Gary Sullivan (’96), Coach Mark Williams, (’84) Team Coordinator Kathryn Trent, 2L, and Bankruptcy Judge Jennifer Henderson (’04).
