Professor Julie Hill provides academic commentary for Jurist about the Financial Choice Act and duplicative enforcement of financial regulations.
For more, read “Financial Regulators and Dog Piles.”
Joyce Vance, UA Distinguished Visiting Lecturer in Law, spoke at the Robert H. Jackson Center’s June 23 symposium on Immigration, National Security, and American Values. She joined distinguished speakers John Q. Barrett, Professor of Law, St. John’s University; Lucas Guttentag, Professor of the Practice of Law, Stanford Law School & Distinguished Senior Fellow and Lecturer, Yale Law School; Rick Su, Professor of Law, University at Buffalo School of Law; Theodore M. Shaw, Julius L. Chambers Distinguished Professor of Law & Director of the Center for Civil Rights, University of North Carolina School of Law; and Margo Schlanger, Henry M. Butzel Professor of Law, University of Michigan. Her presentation was titled “The Role of the Prosecutor in Protecting Civil Rights and Keeping Communities Safe.”
For more, read How “Far Gone” Are We Now? Immigration, Security, & American Values, from Justice Jackson’s Time to Our Own.
Professor Joyce Vance comments on the FBI’s Trump Investigation on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Watch until the end for the shout out to the University of Alabama School of Law.
Professor Paul Horwitz is quoted in U.S. News & World Report about whether U.S. senators are free to vote against anyone nominated for a governmental agency for religious reasons.
For more, read “Experts: Bernie Sanders Can Vote Against Nominee Based on Christian Beliefs.”
Alabama Law student Gonzalo E. Rodriguez recently won the Ninth Annual Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Competition.
His essay, “Protecting Inland Waterways, from the Institutes of Gaius to Magna Carta,” was chosen as the winner of the contest sponsored by the Legal History & Rare Books Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries.
The essay examines how the civilizations of Ancient Rome, the Visigothic Kingdom and England managed water resources in very different ways. It surveyed the geographic, climatic and political realities of these civilizations as a means of understanding the factors that guide civilizations in their decision whether, and to what extent, to regulate and protect their waterways.
“Rodriguez’s essay built upon an interesting thesis, and he applied extensive research in creating a well-written, engaging analysis of the ways several societies through history have dealt with protecting their waterways and the logic behind those societies’ methods,” said Fred Dingledy, Senior Reference Librarian at the College of William & Mary’s Wolf Law Library.
Rodriguez, a rising third-year law student, said he was honored to win the contest.
“After spending so many beautiful Alabama spring weekends in the mustiest parts of the library, being recognized for my work is truly vindicating,” he said. “I am not sure if I will get a chance to cite the Visigothic Code in a legal brief anytime soon, but it sure makes for a great ice-breaker.”
The idea was roughly conceived during Professor Heather Elliott’s Water Law course. Rodriguez later enrolled in Librarian Paul Pruitt’s English Legal History course with the hopes of bringing the idea to fruition.
“It was as a result of his instruction and guidance that I developed the historical inquisitiveness I needed to transform a very rudimentary idea into this final work,” Rodriguez said.
He will present his paper at the American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting on Sunday, July 16, in Austin, Texas. He will receive a $500 cash prize from Gale Cengage Learning and up to $1,000 for expenses associated with attending the meeting.
The essay will be published later this year in Unbound: A Review of Legal History and Rare Books. To read the essay, visit SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2968145
Professor Fredrick Vars writes an op-ed for Al.com about an argument that could save lives in capital cases.
For more, read “The Overlooked Argument That Could Save a Death Row Inmate’s Life.”
The University of Alabama School of Law announces the retirement of three longtime faculty members: Professor James Bryce, Vice Dean Jamie Leonard and Professor Pamela Bucy Pierson.
Bryce retires after 39 years of service, having joined the faculty in 1978. He has taught hundreds of students a variety of tax courses, dealing with federal, state and local taxes. Leonard has been on faculty for 19 years at the Law School and spent another 11 years at Claude W. Pettit College of Law at Ohio Northern University. During his tenure, he trained lawyers in courses on disability law, employment discrimination and family law. Pierson retires after 30 years of service, having joined the law faculty in 1987. She has taught generations of lawyers in criminal law and procedure as well as her popular The Business of Being a Lawyer course.
“The retirement of any one of them would be significant,” said Dean Mark E. Brandon. “The retirement of all three measures 8+ on the institutional Richter Scale.”
Brandon said they have had an “incalculable impact” on students and left an “indelible mark” on the Law School.
“There’s neither praise nor prose that can adequately express what they have meant to us as teachers, mentors and colleagues,” he said.
As they embark on new journeys, each of the professors reflected on their teaching careers.
Bryce founded and served as editor of the American Journal of Tax Policy for 16 years. He served as reporter to the Alabama Commission on Tax and Fiscal Policy Reform in 1989-1991 and staff member of the Tax Reform Task Force in 1991-92.
“I was the guy in the back room, cranking out drafts,” he said.
He taught courses for the LL.M. in tax, initially driving to venues across the state to meet students for classes. He said he will miss “trying and sometimes succeeding in getting the fascination of tax and business law across to new, young students.”
Bryce’s wife convinced him to retire while he is healthy. He is looking forward to taking care of his gardens, orchards and timber at Shotgun Hollow Plantation in Eoline. In addition to visiting children, he looks forward to visiting grandchildren.
Leonard was appointed director of the Bounds Law Library at Alabama Law in 1998 and became the James M. Kidd Sr. Professor of Law in 2010. He spent about 10 years studying and teaching about disability law, and he founded the Disability Law Institute. Later, he shifted his interests to employment discrimination and family law. Three years later, he was appointed Interim Vice Dean for the Law School, becoming Vice Dean in 2014, where he was largely in the business of solving problems.
“Because I’ve taught employment law, it actually made a lot of my administrative work easy,” he said. “I know where the land mines are. Usually.”
While he won’t miss the preparation required for delivering lectures, he will miss teaching students on a daily basis.
“Because I’m here and we have such good students, in every class there’s going to be somebody who has either seen something in a case that I didn’t see and gives me a new perspective or just somebody who is smarter than I am.”
Leonard plans to sit on his front porch at his Ohio home and read books for a month or two. After that, he doesn’t have any specific plans.
Pierson fell into teaching. She had been a federal prosecutor in St. Louis, when she moved to Alabama. She wanted to continue with the U.S. Attorneys’ Office in Birmingham, but there was a hiring freeze at the time. Undeterred, she took a teaching position at the Law School, thinking she would do it for a year.
She never looked back. As a professor, Pierson has received the Burnum Award, UA’s top award given to one faculty member each year for research and scholarship, and the university’s Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award.
During her tenure, Pierson founded a number of programs, including the Summer Externship Program in 1992, the Public Interest Institute in 2000, the Shadow Program in 2000, and The Business of Being a Lawyer course in 2014.
All three were geared toward students. Active in the bar throughout her tenure at the law school and always keeping up with former students, Pierson noticed that while many of her former students were happy in their practices of law, some were not.
“I remembered how excited and happy and thrilled about being lawyers when they were in law school and it made me sad to see how unhappy they were now. It had a profound impact on me. I wondered if there was some kind of course I could put together that would help my students choose practices of law that would be personally fulfilling for them.”
Along with dozens of students and hundreds of lawyers, Pierson developed BBL to help students and lawyers develop satisfying careers and love the practice of law.
She will dearly miss watching students come in a first-year law students and progress through law school.
“I have people that I taught 30 years ago that I’ve become good friends with. My relationships with my students are my treasures.” she said.
The University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal have announced the finalists for the 2017 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction.
The three books chosen to compete for the prize are: “Gone Again” by James Grippando, “Small Great Things” by Jodi Picoult and “The Last Days of Night” by Graham Moore.
“The ABA Journal is honored to be a continuing part of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction,” said Molly McDonough, editor and publisher of the ABA Journal. “We’re particularly excited about the diversity of topics in this year’s finalists: a compelling narrative on race in America, a riveting piece of historical fiction on the lawyering behind the electrification of America, and a gripping legal thriller with a race against the death penalty at the center of the story.”
The prize, authorized by the late Ms. 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.
Seven years ago, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the publication of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and to honor former Alabama law student and author Harper Lee, The University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal partnered to create The Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction.
There were 25 entries for the Prize, and a team of reviewers chose three books for the Selection Committee’s consideration. The public is invited to cast votes on the ABA Journal website, http://www.abajournal.com/, to help determine who the winning author will be.
The public will act as the fifth judge, contributing a vote equal in weight to the selection committee members. To vote, visit: http://www.abajournal.com/polls/HarperLeePrize2017
Voting is open until June 30 at 11:59 p.m. Central.
The 2017 prize will be awarded in Alabama at The University of Alabama School of Law for the first time. The winner will be announced prior to the ceremony and will receive a copy of “To Kill a Mockingbird” signed by Harper Lee.
A distinguished panel of writers will select the 2017 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction.
They are: Deborah Johnson, winner of the 2015 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and author of “The Secret of Magic”; Cassandra King, author of “The Same Sweet Girls Guide to Life”; Don Noble, host of Alabama Public Radio’s book review series as well as host of “Bookmark,” which airs on Alabama Public Television; and Han Nolan, author of “Dancing on the Edge.”
Mary Lauren Kulovitz, a new Alabama Law graduate, is going home again.
After she passes the Alabama State Bar exam, she will be a trial attorney at Wooten, Thornton, Carpenter, O’Brien, Lazenby & Lawrence, a firm in Talladega, where she was born and raised.
Talladega has roughly 15,700 residents. It’s a place where residents who go to the store expect to see someone they know. Kulovitz’s father opened his dental practice in Talladega more than 35 years ago without any connections to the area, and the family quickly established roots in the city situated along the Talladega National Forest.
While some of Kulovitz’s classmates have accepted positions in large cities, she accepted a position in a city that is on the cusp of economic growth.
“It’s one of those places I feel like has so much potential,” she said. “If everyone leaves who sees that potential, it’s not going to get any better.”
Those who know Kulovitz are thrilled she is coming home.
Lynn Sims, who served as her ballet and pointe teacher, has known Kulovitz since she was born.
“Mary Lauren is one of those people who will work at something until she has it exactly how she knows it should be,” Sims said. “She is so self-driven, with grace and dignity.”
Barbara Lawler, who taught Kulovitz English at Talladega High School, echoed those sentiments. Lawler has been teaching for more than 40 years, and she has never met anyone like Kulovitz. In the classroom, she welcomed challenges and solved problems. At the same time, she was genuine and sincere.
“I was so impressed with her when I first met her,” Lawler said. “I couldn’t wait to get her in my class.”
Kulovitz has always adored the state of Alabama and all it has to offer. After graduating as valedictorian from Talladega High school in 2010, she received a full scholarship to attend Samford University, where she graduated summa cum laude in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She chose The University of Alabama School of Law because it offered an excellent education, small classes and the opportunity to develop intimate relationships with students and faculty.
“It’s highly regarded not only in the state but also across the nation, and so to be able to have that right in my backyard was something I really wanted to take advantage of,” Kulovitz said.
In law school, Kulovitz continued to excel. She served on the Managing Board of the Alabama Law Review, and she was tapped for the 2L Moot Court Fellows, which allows students to gain two years of moot court experience.
Kulovitz, along with Eunji Jo and Briana Knox, drafted briefs and prepared oral arguments for two competitions. They competed in a regional competition of the National Moot Court Competition in Oxford, Mississippi, in November 2015. There, they defeated teams from the University of Memphis, Vanderbilt University, Mississippi College of Law and the University of Tennessee, before advancing to the final round of competition. Then they beat Belmont University and claimed the Regional Champion award.
While training for the competition, Kulovitz bonded with Mary Ksobiech, Assistant Dean for Students and Professor of Legal Writing, who coached the team. Ksobiech met one-on-one with Kulovitz, helping her form arguments. The experience proved to Kulovitz that she had selected the best law school for her needs.
“Having a professor who sacrifices her time to work with you individually because she cares about you and wants you to succeed is both a rare opportunity and an honor.”
To date, law school has been Kulovitz’s most difficult endeavor. She tells anyone who asks that going to law school requires preparation. It’s a degree that has to be earned, and anyone willing to put in the work will find professors at Alabama Law who are willing to help.
“This may sound very cliché, but you have to work hard,” she said. “It’s very difficult to fly by the seat of your pants and also be a good attorney.”
Attorney Debbie Long advised The University of Alabama School of Law’s graduates that they must have a practical tool in their toolbox: common sense.
“When you are trying to solve a problem, common sense tells us to respect the people involved, even if we disagree with them,” said Long, Executive Vice President, Secretary and Chief Legal Officer of Protective Life Corporation. “Part of respect is a willingness to communicate, which means listening, not just talking. Put yourself in the other’s shoes, listen and try to understand their points of view, even if you are tired and you feel there is no hope. Because if you close a door to listening, you close a door to a solution. That’s what the First Amendment is all about, giving us a way to reach solutions – if we keep the dialogue alive.”
Graduates, faculty members and guests gathered at Coleman Coliseum May 7 to witness the conferral of 129 Juris Doctor degrees. Eight J.D. graduates and three others received the LL.M. in Taxation or Business Transactions, while three students received the LL.M. degree from the Law School’s International Program.
Long told graduates if they want to understand people and their challenges, they also will need to understand their differences.
“Seek out people who are different from you, who have different political views, different likes and dislikes. If you like the country music, find someone who likes the opera, disco, or something other than country music. If you like to hunt, for heaven’s sake, have a vegetarian friend. If you grew up in a city or the suburbs, find a farmer to be a friend with and vice versa.”
As the graduates choose their path to success, she urged them to consider the state of Alabama.
“You need to go wherever your hearts take you, and I hope you do,” Long said. “But I also hope you will let your hearts consider staying in or returning to Alabama. Alabama can use your talents and your contributions. Your generation, the largest generation we’ve ever known, will make changes in Alabama, and it will be exciting to be part of those changes.”
In his welcoming remarks, Dean Mark E. Brandon honored the academic success of the Class of 2017.
The median LSAT score for the class was 163, and its median undergraduate grade-point average was 3.77 Some 57 percent were members of one of the Law School’s four legal journals, while 64 percent participated in at least one of six clinics, training and serving as student lawyers. Thirty-five graduates won individual or team awards for performance in regional or national moot court competitions or were members of a team that advanced to elimination rounds.
“The study of law is itself a kind of training in adversity. It’s intellectually challenging. It can be psychologically and physically demanding. It is competitive,” Brandon said. “But the question we all face at various points in our lives is how to deal with adversity? I am proud to say that you – as individuals and as a community – have risen to the challenges.”
Before introducing the platform party, Dean Brandon acknowledged colleagues Shelly Darling, Staff Attorney in the Elder Law Clinic, and Liz Whipple, Interim Director of the Domestic Violence Clinic, who died in April in a tragic accident.
“Both were committed to values of equal justice, and each was a beloved member of the community.’’
Dean Brandon and all guests honored their lives with a moment of silence.
As the Law School reflected on milestones, Dean Brandon recognized three colleagues – Professor Jim Bryce, Vice Dean Jamie Leonard and Professor Pam Pierson – who will be retiring.
“Among the three of them, they have invested almost 90 years’ teaching in the School of Law,” he said. “That’s 9-0.”
Aaron Smith, delivering the valedictory address, decided he would not impart any wisdom to his classmates, saying his classmates already have lived up to many law school platitudes. For example, they gave voice to the voiceless, pursued their passions and remained compassionate while attending law school.
Instead, he showed his fellow classmates that they earned much more than a degree.
“Look to your right, look to your left,” he said. “I hope you see someone who challenged your views and made you think harder about what you care about and why. I hope you see someone who comforted you during a pre-finals freakout or consoled you during even more difficult and challenging personal situations. I hope you see someone who laughed with you, even if it was for a punny legal joke that only we JDs could possibly find funny. I hope you see someone who cared deeply about you, both on a professional and a personal level.”
Degree candidates were hooded by Carol Andrews, Douglas Arant Professor of Law; Heather Elliott, Professor of Law; and Anita Kay Head, Associate Professor of Legal Writing.
The seven recipients of the Dean M. Leigh Harrison Academic Achievement Award were hooded first. Twenty-three students received the Public Interest Certificate for completing the program’s academic, clinical and externship requirements, while 25 students received the Order of the Samaritan honor for performing 50 hours of pro bono legal service and 40 hours of community service during Law School.
A reception honoring graduating students was held immediately following the ceremony on the Camille Wright Cook Plaza in front of the Law School.
