August 2014

Dean Brandon

The Law School welcomes Dean Mark E. Brandon.

Brandon is a member of the first class to take classes outside of Farrah Hall. He graduated from The University of Alabama School of Law in 1978, and he practiced law in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. He earned a master’s degree in political science at the University of Michigan in 1986 and a doctorate in politics at Princeton University in 1992. He taught political science at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Michigan before returning to law as a professor at Vanderbilt University in 2001.

On July 1, he succeeded Interim Dean William Brewbaker, who led the Law School after Dean Kenneth Randall retired. Dean Brandon has been married to Kathryn Brandon for nearly 20 years and is the father of two teenagers, Rachel and Evan.

Law and Lies Symposium

October 10, 2014 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Bedsole Moot Courtroom (140)

The symposium is organized by Professor Austin Sarat, the Justice Hugo L. Black Visiting Senior Faculty Scholar at The University of Alabama School of Law, and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science; Associate Dean of the Faculty at Amherst College.

Presenters:

Mary Anne Franks, University of Miami School of Law

Norman Spaulding, Stanford Law School

William N. Eskridge Jr., Yale Law School (keynote speaker)

Helen Norton, University of Colorado School of Law

Stuart Green, Rutgers School of Law-Newark

Montré Carodine, The University of Alabama School of Law

Law School Foundation & Farrah Law Alumni Society

Tailgating on the Quad

Again this fall, active members of the Farrah Law Alumni Society are invited to tailgate on the Quad prior to the four 2014 home SEC football games. The Law School Foundation will sponsor a reserved tent, conveniently located on the Quad, in location G-21. Complimentary food and beverages will be provided two hours prior to kickoff. We invite all Farrah Law Alumni Society members to stop by and enjoy this opportunity to engage with other members, faculty, and staff on game day! For additional information regarding the tailgate tent or joining Farrah, contact Jami Gates in the Advancement Office at jgates@law.ua.edu or (205) 348-5752.

Open to all active members of the Farrah Law Alumni Society

September 20, Alabama vs. Florida

October 18, Alabama vs. Texas A&M

November 15, Alabama vs. Mississippi State

November 29, Alabama vs. Auburn

Alabama State Bar 2014

The Alabama State Bar recently honored Judge Joseph Colquitt and other Law School alumni during the 2014 Annual Meeting in Destin, Florida.

Colquitt received the Chief Justice’s Professionalism Award from the Alabama State Bar. The award recognizes a judge or lawyer for outstanding contribution in advancing the professionalism of the legal profession in Alabama. Colquitt is a 1970 Law School graduate and served as Circuit Court Judge in Tuscaloosa County from 1971-1991. Colquitt has been teaching at the Law School for most of his legal career, first as an adjunct and now as a full-time professor.

Jeff Smith, a shareholder at Rosen Harwood in Tuscaloosa, and a 1995 Law School graduate, received the Al Vreeland Pro Bono Award, the highest award given by the Alabama State Bar to an individual attorney who has provided outstanding pro bono service. As president of the Tuscaloosa County Bar, Smith established a monthly legal clinic that provides counsel to the poor and disadvantaged in the Tuscaloosa area. He helped set up and organize the clinic, recruited new volunteer attorneys and developed a partnership with the law school. Additionally, Smith is a regular volunteer at the clinic and has been a Volunteer Lawyers Program volunteer since 2004. Over the last year, he personally assisted 12 clients and currently has four open and active pro bono cases.

Lee Copeland, a partner at Copeland, Franco, Screws & Gill, P.A. in Montgomery, and a 1982 Law School graduate, was elected as President-Elect of the Alabama State Bar. Copeland currently is a Bar Commissioner of the Alabama State Bar, a former President of the Montgomery Bar Association, and has served, often as President, of a host of community organizations including Hospice of Montgomery, Goodwill of Montgomery, and Red Cross of Montgomery.

Richard Raleigh, a partner at Wilmer & Lee, P.A. in Huntsville, and a 1995 Law School graduate, was sworn in as President of the Alabama State Bar. Raleigh served in Army JAG after graduating from Law School. He has been a volunteer with the Alabama State Bar’s Volunteer Lawyer Program throughout his career, and has previously been recognized with the State Bar’s highest award for pro bono service. Raleigh is actively involved in many community organizations in Huntsville. At age 43, Raleigh is the second youngest person elected as President of the Alabama State Bar.

Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction

The University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal named the finalists for the 2014 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction in May. The three books chosen to compete for the prize were: “Once We Were Brothers” by Ronald H. Balson, “Sycamore Row” by John Grisham, and “The Burgess Boys” by Elizabeth Strout. The prize, authorized by Harper Lee, is given annually to a book-length work of fiction that best illuminates the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change.

The Law School and the ABA Journal began awarding the prize four years ago to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the publication of To Kill A Mockingbird and to honor former Alabama law student and author Harper Lee. The 2014 prize will be awarded in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28, in conjunction with the Library of Congress National Book Festival, which will be held on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2014, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The winner will receive a signed copy of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Mini-Course on Election Law

Registration is now open for an Election Law mini-course. Kareem Crayton, Associate Professor of law at The University of North Carolina, will teach a mini-course Aug. 18-22 and Oct. 13-17.

Crayton led a group of scholars who submitted a widely cited amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case Shelby County v. Holder. He was contributing amicus counsel in the U.S. Supreme Court for the Congressional Black Caucus in the Voting Rights Act lawsuit Bartlett v. Strickland as well as co-counsel to the Congressional Tri-Caucus (Congressional Black, Hispanic, and Asian Pacific American Caucuses) in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One (NAMUDNO) v. Holder.

Book Note

The innovative course, The Business of Being a Lawyer, is now a book. The Business of Being a Lawyer (West Academic Publishing) by Professor Pamela Bucy Pierson provides practical tips and advice on how lawyers should treat themselves as a business. The book focuses on the changing economics of the legal marketplace, 20 financial decisions most lawyers make, the importance of emotional intelligence, and how to be an effective free agent.

Looking to hire?

Registration is now open for Fall On-Campus Interviews. The Career Services Office is happy to help you locate 2Ls for summer positions or 3Ls and alumni for post-graduation employment. If you are interested in hiring an Alabama law student for summer or permanent employment, please contact the Assistant Dean for Career Services, Tom Ksobiech (tksobiech@law.ua.edu). The CSO can arrange an on campus interview, collect resumes, or post a position on its electronic job board. All CSO services are free of charge.

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.

Alumni News

Law School in the News

Dean Mark E. Brandon discussed the legal job market, graduation trends and how he intends to keep tuition affordable at the School of Law. Read the full story at “Lawyer Limelight: Alabama Law Dean Mark Brandon.”

Professor Montre Carodine was featured in a recent Alabama Public Radio broadcast on the Affordable Health Care Act. Carodine says the federal government is limited in how it can penalize citizens who don’t have healthcare insurance because the act doesn’t allow it to garnish wages or issue tax liens. “So they don’t have any way to get it other than to take money from you that they owe you.” For more, read and listen to “No Health Insurance? You May Owe More Money on Next Year’s Taxes.”

Professor Heather Elliott, associate professor of law, recently joined other legal scholars in The Wall Street Journal, saying House Speaker John Boehner’s plan to sue President Barack Obama will face obstacles. Delays in Affordable Care Act deadlines, No Child Left Behind law waivers and other Obama administration actions are executive abuses, Republicans say. It’s unclear, Elliott said, whether the House could meet the standing threshold without the Senate’s blessing because the Senate is controlled by Democrats. Read more at “Hurdles Lie Ahead for Potential Boehner Lawsuit.”

Professor Paul Horwitz, the Gordon Rosen Professor of Law, participated in a Q&A for al.com readers and put the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby in perspective. For starters, he did not find the decision surprising. “The (Religious Freedom Restoration Act) is a powerful statute, passed by an overwhelming majority of Congress and strongly worded to place a thumb on the side of government accommodation of religion,” he said. Click here to read more of “‘The outcome here was not a shock,’ says Alabama law professor on Hobby Lobby ruling.”

Professor Paul Horwitz recently wrote in The New York Times that Americans should expect many more Hobby Lobbies. “A country that cannot even agree on the idea of religious accommodation, let alone on what terms, is unlikely to agree on what to do next,” wrote the Gordon Rosen Professor of Law and author of First Amendment Institutions. “A country in which many states cannot manage to pass basic anti-discrimination laws covering sexual orientation is one whose culture wars may be beyond the point of compromise.” For more, read “Hobby Lobby Is Only the Beginning.”

College athletics programs may be able to prevent academic misconduct by writing a clear policy, applying it consistently to all students and investigating every concern, says Professor Gene A. Marsh, an emeritus law professor, in a recent issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education. Check out “Friendly Faculty: the Quiet Danger to Athletics Programs” to read all of Marsh’s suggestions.

Professor Gene A. Marsh, an emeritus law professor, has watched as his sports law class increased from 30 students just a few years ago to nearly 60 students this year, according to a recent Tuscaloosa News article. As professional players’ and coaches’ salaries soar, law schools are offering classes and law firms are including it as part of their practices.

The University of Alabama School of Law:

Jamie Leonard and Marcus Cotton hosted the Boys and Girls Club of West Alabama, and the group’s visit was featured on WVUA. Click on “Boys and Girls Club Career Week” to view the story.

Tom Ksobiech, assistant dean for career services, said law firms have reached out to the Law School for hiring. “There are a couple of prominent national firms that have contacted us about 3Ls because they did not have summer associate coverage,” he told The Wall Street Journal. Summer classes are increasing at large firms in Atlanta, New Orleans, Nashville and Birmingham, he said. For more, read “Big Law Firms Resume Hiring.”

Student Paul Sloderbeck recently won first place in the 2014 Environmental Law Essay contest sponsored by the Environmental Law Section of the Alabama State Bar. He will receive $1,000 for “Ecuador’s 2008 Constitutional Rights of Nature: A Step Toward Nature-Centered Rights in South America or Utilitarian Anthropocentrism in Disguise?” for a paper he wrote in International Environmental Law Seminar.

Faculty Notes

Professor Bill Andreen has just returned from Canberra, where he again directed our Summer Exchange Program with the Australian National University. Nine Alabama law students traveled to the ANU this summer where they took a Survey of Australian Law taught by the ANU faculty and Comparative Approaches to the Practice of Law, which was taught by Professor Steven Hobbs and Vivien Holmes of the ANU law faculty. Our students also met with the Chief Justices of the Australian High Court and the ACT Supreme Court and received briefings at Parliament, ACT Legal Aid, and the US Embassy. Since its inception in 2001, 123 Alabama law students and 130 students from the ANU have participated in the exchange. Professor Andreen also completed a book chapter entitled “Dynamic Federalism and the Clean Water Act: Completing the Task,” which will be published in The Law and Policy of Environmental Federalism: A Comparative Analysis (Erin Ryan & Kalyani Robbins eds., Edward Elgar Publishing). In May, he participated in the annual meeting of the Center for Progressive Reform at the George Washington University Law School and attended the Law and Society meeting in Minneapolis.

Professors Kimberly Boone, Cameron Fogle, Anita Kay Head, and Mary Ksobiech presented at the Legal Writing Institute’s 2014 Biennial Conference in Philadelphia in July. Their presentation, “It’s How You Finish: Our Adventures in Drafting Comprehensive Legal Writing Exams to Evaluate the Entire First-Year Experience,”included the pedagogy behind giving exams in legal writing, practical tips for drafting exams, sample documents, and assessment ideas.

Professor James Bryce along with friend and former student, Scott Ludwig, presented an overview of the LLC Act of 2014, effective January 1, 2015, at the Alabama State Bar.

Professor Montré Carodine was recently appointed by the Alabama Supreme Court to serve on the Alabama Access to Justice Commission. She also was a panelist for a program sponsored by the Birmingham FBI and the Civil Rights Institute. The program was entitled, “The Civil Rights Act at 50: Education and Empowerment.” Professor Carodine presented on a panel that included Doug Jones, who prosecuted the 16th Street bombing cases for the U.S. Attorney’s Office; Frank Mackaman, Dirksen Congressional Leadership Research Center; Amanda Wilson, executive director, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG); and Hezekiah Jackson, president of the Metro Birmingham Branch NAACP. Professor Carodine recently co-authored an essay with Chief Judge Carl E. Stewart, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, and current Board President of the American Inns of Court. Professor Carodine is a former clerk of Chief Judge Stewart. The essay, entitled, “The Judge-Law Clerk Relationship: More than Just a Job,” will appear in the September/October issue of The Bencher, the flagship publication for the American Inns of Court. Professor Carodine also recently provided commentary for CBS 42 Birmingham on the murder case against Justin Ross Harris and for Alabama Public Radio on the enforcement of penalties under the Affordable Care Act.

Professor Tanya Asim Cooper presented her work-in-progress, “We Shall Overcome: Stories of Bias in American Foster Care” at the AALS Clinical Conference in Chicago. In June, she also presented another work-in-progress, “Racial Bias in the Church and Its Role in American Foster Care” at the Christian Scholars Conference in Nashville. In June, Professor Cooper presented an oral argument before an en banc D.C. Court of Appeals in In re Ta.L., a case of competing adoptions (foster parents vs. paternal aunt) of two children from foster care. This was the first case that the D.C. Court of Appeals streamed live video of the oral argument and an article about the case can be found here: http://www.nationallawjournal.com/legaltimes/id=(120) 265-8788916?. Last summer, a three-judge appeals panel ruled under D.C. law that the trial judge erred in granting the foster parents’ adoptions of the children over the biological aunt, who was the parents’ preferred caregiver. Since her article, “Racial Bias in American Foster Care: The National Debate,” was published this past spring, it has been downloaded over 400 times, and an excerpt appears on the website, “Race, Racism and the Law: Speaking Truth to Power”, available at http://racism.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1784:racial-bias-in-american-foster-care-the-national-debate&catid=53&Itemid=176. Professor Cooper was invited to join the organizing committee for planning a conference in October at Pepperdine Law School on domestic violence in higher education. Her proposal to present, “How Abusers (Mis)Use the Bible to Justify their Domestic Violence and How the Church Enables Them,” was accepted at the Feminism Spoken Here series at The University of Alabama in October.

Judge Joseph Colquitt was named Reporter for the Uniform Law Commission’s drafting committee on a Uniform Act on Domestic Unsworn Declarations in July. The proposed Act likely will be presented to the Uniform Law Commissions at the annual Conference in 2016. He previously has served as Associate Reporter for the ULC’s Uniform Act on Prevention of and Remedies for Human Trafficking. Earlier, he served as Reporter for the Uniform Unsworn Foreign Declarations Act. He also has served as a ULC Commissioner in the past. Judge Colquitt was reappointed in July to serve as a member of the Alabama Pattern Jury Instructions – Criminal Committee. He also served on the Dean’s Search Committee for the law school. Judge Colquitt, along with Professor Ron Krotoszynski, was interviewed by The Atlantic magazine for an article focusing on an Alabama appellate decision involving a criminal prosecution. The article appeared in the June 2014 issue.

Professor Richard Delgado spent month-long competitive residencies at a writers’ colony in Port Townsend, Washington. Professor Delgado completed an article based on an endowed lecture he gave at University of New Mexico School of Law in April, 2014, and submitted it to the New Mexico Law Review. He completed a second article, which he plans to submit this fall, and edited two others for publication this spring. He also published two articles in the Wake Forest Law Review. Professor Delgado, along with Professor Jean Stefancic completed and sent to their publisher, West Group, a new edition of their casebook, Race and Races: Cases and Resources for a Diverse America.

Professor Bryan Fair was one of 12 people named to serve on the steering committee for the Tuscaloosa City Schools’ upcoming demographic study and facilities analysis.

Professor William Henning was reappointed to the United States Department of State’s Advisory Committee on Private International Law. He attended the annual meeting of the Uniform Law Commission in Seattle, his first annual meeting as a Life Member of the organization.

Professor Julie Hill gave a presentation entitled “Virtual Currency Update” at the Teaching Consumer Law in a Virtual World conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on May 30, 2014.

Professor Paul Horwitz co-organized the fifth annual Law and Religion Roundtable, held in late June at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. He presented a talk there on the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby; it will be published this fall. His article “Institutional Actors in New York Times v. Sullivan” was published in a Georgia Law Review symposium devoted to the case; it can be found at 48 Georgia Law Review 809 (2014). His review of James Hackney’s book Legal Intellectuals in Conversation was published in the May issue of the Journal of Legal Education; it can be found at 63 Journal of Legal Education 729 (2014). Other articles are forthcoming in the Pepperdine Law Review and the Boston University Law Review. Professor Horwitz’s op-ed on the Hobby Lobby case, “Hobby Lobby is Only the Beginning,” was published in the New York Times on July 1. He spoke about this and other recent Supreme Court cases with various reporters and on the popular SCOTUSblog web site.

Professor Ron Krotoszynski, Jr. conducted a practicum/workshop on “The Dark Art of Article Placement and Related Strategic Advice on Article Development and the Effective Marketing of Published Legal Scholarship,” at the Seattle University School of Law, in Seattle, Washington on July 15, 2014. From May 18-21, 2014, he participated in the American Law Institute’s new member orientation and in the ALI’s annual meeting, in Washington, D.C. Professor Krotoszynski has recently published “A Prolegomenon to Any Future Restatement of Privacy,” 79 Brooklyn Law Review 505 (2014); this essay was his contribution to the “Restatement of. . .” symposium, jointly sponsored by the ALI and Brooklyn Law School.

Professor Mary Ksobiech attended the Association of Academic Support Educators National Conference at Indiana University’s Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Kenneth Rosen served as the United States National Reporter on Company Law and the Law of Succession as part of the 19th Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law in Vienna, Austria. The IACL gathers noted legal experts from around the world every four years to assist the development of law by producing reports that allow comparisons of different national approaches to important legal subject matters. Professor Rosen was selected to analyze the complex intersection between laws related to business entities and estates in the United States, resulting in his national report that was shared with international colleagues in Vienna.

Professor Jean Stefancic spent month-long competitive residencies at a writers’ colony in Port Townsend, Washington. She, along with Professor Richard Delgado completed and sent to their publisher, West Group, a new edition of their casebook, Race and Races: Cases and Resources for a Diverse America.

Professor Adam Steinman attended the annual American Law Institute meeting in Washington, D.C., in May, 2014.

Professor Gary Sullivan attended a meeting of the ALI Uniform Asset Preservation Act Committee at Cumberland Law School. The Act provides a framework for the issuance by trial courts of in personam orders preventing the dissipation of assets.

Professor Fredrick Vars accepted an offer to publish “The Future of Preventive Detention” in the Louisiana Law Review. He completed revisions of his symposium piece for the Connecticut Law Review, “Symptom-Based Gun Control” and his chapter on evidence law in the Oxford Handbook on “Behavioral Economics and the Law.” He was also a guest-blogger at Prawfsblawg.

CLE Alabama Training Opportunities

August 21 – 22: 2014 ECAPI – Montgomery

September 12: iPad/iPhone Foundations – Tuscaloosa

September 12: iPad Productivity and Law Apps – Tuscaloosa

October 10: Business Law – Birmingham