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September 2016

News

UA Law Hosts Conference on Bank Director and Officer Responsibilities

Legal scholars and members of the banking community discussed banking issues during a conference on Bank Director and Officer Responsibilities. The program was organized by Professor Julie Andersen Hill. Participants explored the roles and responsibilities of bank directors and officers in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The conference was co-sponsored by the Alabama Law Review, a nationally recognized journal built on a rich tradition of scholarship aimed at exploring issues of national, as well as local significance to scholars, legislators, jurists and practitioners.

Professor Fair Moderates Community Forum on Policing

Professor Bryan Fair moderated a public forum about law enforcement and community relations as Tuscaloosa residents said they are concerned about police training, body cameras and recording police interactions. “It’s not the community against the police, it’s not the police against the community,” Fair said. “We are all Tuscaloosans.” About 175 people attended the forum sponsored by The Tuscaloosa News and WVUA-23. It was held at First African Baptist Church.

Tim Lewis: Serving the State

Tim Lewis (’84) knew from the moment he arrived at law school that he planned to be a law librarian. “I’m attracted to legal research,” he said. “It’s very structured and logical. I never wanted to practice. I had no intention of it.” After he graduated, he was hired as a reference librarian for the Alabama Supreme Court, and in 1992 he was appointed as Director.

Events

Homecoming

Alabama’s 2016 homecoming football game is schedule for Saturday, Oct. 1, when the Crimson Tide will play host to the Kentucky Wildcats at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Class Notes

Brett Adair (’95) has joined Carr Allison as a shareholder in its Birmingham office.

Simon Turner Bailey (’11)has been named the recipient of the 2016 Cameron J. Miller Award for Excellence and Community Service.

Emily A. Crow (’13) has joined Burr & Forman as an associate in its Mobile office.

Tripp Haston (’93) has been appointed to serve as Dean-Elect of the 2017 International Association of Defense Counsel’s exclusive Corporate Counsel College. He will serve as Dean of the CCC in 2018.

Lyn Head (’90) has been appointed by Gov. Robert Bentley to serve on the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Judge Harold V. Hughston, Jr. (’79), Presiding Circuit Judge of the 31st Judicial Circuit, has been elected President of the Alabama Circuit Judge’s Association.

William R. Lane, Jr. (’80)has been named chairman of the Florida Bar Tax Section.

Reid S. Manley (’94)has been re-elected to the Board of Directors of the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel.

Marcus Maples (’06) has joined Baker Donelson as a shareholder in the firm’s Birmingham office.

Daniel Murdock (’07) has joined Bradley as an associate in its Birmingham office.

Brad Sklar (’87)has been appointed to the Progress Bank Board of Directors.

Gifts

The Law Clerks of Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. have established an endowed scholarship in memory of Judge Johnson and his wife, Ruth Jenkins Johnson. Protective Life Corp. has matched a portion of the contributions with $34,167, and the balance for the fund is $95,800.

Faculty Notes

PROFESSOR BILL ANDREEN continues to direct the Law School’s exchange program with the Australian National University (ANU) College of Law. Through this program, now in its 16th year, 140 Alabama Law students have studied at the ANU and nearly 150 ANU law students have traveled to Tuscaloosa to study. In July, UA Law students took a course surveying Australian Law taught by the ANU’s faculty and a Comparative Gender Law course, team-taught by Emerita Professor Martha Morgan and by Skye Saunders and Anne Macduff from the ANU faculty. They also had lunch with the Chief Justice of the Australian High Court; met with a Justice on the ACT Supreme Court; discussed a wide range of topics with Andrew Leigh, MP; and visited the local Aboriginal Legal Services office. Professor Andreen participated this summer in meetings of both the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Academy of Environmental Law and the Center for Progressive Reform. He peer reviewed the next volume of Land Use and Environment Law Review and revised his chapter on “Alabama Water Law (and the Water Wars),” which appears in Volume 4 of Waters and Water Rights (LexisNexis).

PROFESSORS RICHARD DELGADO and JEAN STEFANCIC published “Critical Perspectives on Police, Policing, and Mass Incarceration,” 104 Geo. L. J. 1351 (2016). Wake Forest Law Review accepted their article, “The Hole in the Wall Gang View of Life and America’s Racial Future,” 52 Wake Forest L. Rev. ___(2017). Alabama Law Review accepted their article,”Alto, Cabron. A Ver Las Manos: A Police Officer’s Expectations of Instant Obedience When a Civilian Does Not Speak English–A Comment onUnited States v. Parker,” (the Indian Grandfather Case) for fall publication in the review’s electronic supplement. Texas A&M Law Review accepted Professor Delgado’s review essay, “What Do We Regret and Why?” for publication in early 2017. The essay reviews a book by Steve Bender, Mea Culpa: Lessons on Law and Regret from U.S. History (New York University Press). Professor Delgado’s scholarship was quoted by the New Republic in a story about a police shooting in Pasco, Washington: https://newrepublic.com/article/121139/pasco-police-kill-immigrant-video-latino-ferguson

PROFESSOR ALAN DURHAM‘s article “Patent Scope and Enablement in Rapidly Developing Arts” has been published in the May 2016 issue of the North Carolina Law Review. The article discusses the problem, in fields of rapidly developing technology, of patent disclosures that fall short of enabling the full scope of the claimed invention.

PROFESSOR HEATHER ELLIOTT organized a day-long symposium on water resources law that was held at the Law School on Friday, August 19. Joseph Dellapenna, a leading national expert on water law, was the keynote speaker. Other speakers included Professor William Andreen of the Law School, Dr. Bennett Bearden of the University’s Water Policy and Law Institute, Eva Dillard of the Black Warrior River Keeper, Chris Williams of Maynard Cooper & Gale, Mitch Reid of the Alabama Rivers Alliance, Dr. Patrick O’Neil of the Geological Survey of Alabama, Thomas Casey of Balch & Bingham, and Sarah Stokes of the Southern Environmental Law Center.

PROFESSOR JULIE A. HILL attended the Southeastern Association of Law Schools Annual Conference in early August. While there, she was a presenter on two panels. The first panel discussed social media strategies for maximizing scholarly impact. The second panel discussed methodologies for teaching secured transactions.

PROFESSOR DAN JOYNER‘s new book, Iran’s Nuclear Program and International Law: From Confrontation to Accord, is being published in September by Oxford University Press. In August, Professor Joyner traveled to Muscat, Oman, on a contract with the U.S. State Department to provide training on nonproliferation export controls to Omani government officials. He also in August traveled to Canberra, Australia, to teach an intensive course on nuclear security law at the Australian National University.

PROFESSOR PAM PIERSON‘s article, “Economics, EQ, and Finance: The Next Frontier in Legal Education,” 65 J. Legal Educ. 864 (2016), was published in August. Also in August, Professor Pierson moderated a panel sponsored by the Birmingham Bar Women’s Section on economic trends in law firms. The update to Professor Pierson’s treatise, Health Care Fraud: Enforcement and Compliance, was published in August by Law Journal Seminars Press.

PROFESSOR STEPHEN RUSHIN’s article, “Police Union Contracts,” was accepted for publication in the Duke Law Journal. He presented “Police Union Contracts” at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools Annual Conference in August. A recent article in CityLab (The Atlantic magazine) prominently featured his new co-authored article, “From Selma to Ferguson: The Voting Rights Act as a Blueprint for Police Reform,” which is forthcoming in the California Law Review. Professor Rushin was interviewed by NPR’s “Morning Edition” and the NPR affiliate in Los Angeles about federal intervention in local police departments.

PROFESSOR FRED VARS offered a compromise solution to keep terrorists from getting guns in a commentary for JURIST titled, “What Next on Terror and Guns?” (Aug. 17, 2016).

The views, opinions, and conclusions expressed by faculty in their publications or research activities are those of the author and not necessarily those of The University of Alabama or its officers and trustees. The content of faculty publications has not been approved by the University of Alabama, and the author is solely responsible for that content.