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January 2016

New Field, New Corn Anthology Features Research by Young Scholars

Eight University of Alabama School of Law alumni have been published in New Field, New Corn, an anthology of research papers that explores Alabama legal history and the state”‘s legal and judicial figures. The anthology, published by Quid Pro Books in New Orleans, covers Alabama legal history from the pre-Civil War era through the civil rights era, and the essays were first written when the contributors were students at UA Law. “These are youthful scholars and yet their work is original, and it significantly adds to our knowledge,” said Paul M. Pruitt, Jr., Special Collections Librarian in the Bounds Law Library.

ABA Journal Recognizes Professor Joyner’s Blog Among Top 100

Professor Dan Joyner“‘s Arms Control Law blog has been chosen for the ABA Journal”‘s Blawg 100 list, as one of the top 100 best blogs for a legal audience. This marks the third year in a row ACL has received this distinction.

Scott Tindle: Serving the State

Scott Tindle (“’09) uses innovation to drive profits and support the citizens of Mobile. In 2013, Tindle was hired as the Executive Director of The Grounds, home of the Greater Gulf State Fairgrounds, to transform the organization. The first stop on the entertainment venue”‘s turnaround was the Disney Institute in Orlando, where Tindle and his staff studied the success of The Walt Disney Company. They learned how Disney makes emotional connections with attendees and how to add value to admission. Tindle immediately hired 25 employees who were trained by the Disney College Program. As a result, members of the guest services staff at The Grounds are former Disney cast members.

Alumni Weekend

Please join Dean Brandon and UA Law faculty and staff February 26 and 27 for a special weekend to honor all University of Alabama School of Law alumni. The weekend will kick off Friday evening with the annual Farrah Law Alumni Banquet. The banquet, which will return this year to Tuscaloosa after having been hosted in Birmingham for many years, will be held at the Law School to honor 2016 Sam W. Pipes Distinguished Alumnus Award Recipient Sam Crosby. Open to all alumni, tickets to the Farrah Banquet are $75 per person. Farrah Law Alumni Society members may purchase tickets at the discounted rate of $50 per person.

In addition to the Farrah Banquet, the Law School will host an alumni picnic, potential CLE opportunities and law school tours. The alumni picnic will take place on Saturday from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. at the Law School prior to the Alabama vs. Auburn basketball game. The picnic is free of charge but pre-registration is required. A limited number of tickets to the game will be available for $15 online prior to the picnic. For more details, please contact Jami Gates, Events Coordinator, at (205) 348-6775 or jgates@law.ua.edu.

Hiring? On Campus Interviews

Registration is now open for Spring 2016 On-Campus Interviews. The Career Services Office helps employers find 1Ls and 2Ls for summer positions as well as 3Ls and alumni for post-graduation employment. Please contact the Assistant Dean for Career Services, Lezlie A. Griffin (lgriffin@law.ua.edu), for more information on recruitment opportunities. The CSO arranges on-campus and video-conference interviews, collects resumes, and posts positions on its electronic job board. All CSO services are free of charge.

CLE Alabama Alumni are invited to participate in training opportunities throughout the state.

January 15 The Business of Being a Lawyer Tuscaloosa

January 22 Mandatory Professionalism Seminar for New Admittees Tuscaloosa

Class Notes

  • David M. Benck (’93) has been appointed to the International Tribunal Arbitral du Sport/Court of Arbitration for Sport. He also has joined the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Birmingham Branch through 2018.
  • Julian L. Bibb, IV (’15) has joined Waller Lansden in Nashville as an associate.
  • Bryan Comer (’05) has been elected president of the Mobile Bar Foundation.
  • John Cottle (’78) has been named managing shareholder of the Ft. Walton Beach office of Becker & Poliakoff PA.
  • Alvin Hope (’97) has been appointed to the Alabama State Port Authority Board of Directors.
  • Jessica Keir (’15) has joined Rubin Lublin LLC in Atlanta as a litigation associate in the title curative practice group.
  • Elena A. Lovoy (’87) received the Birmingham Bar Association”‘s 2015 L. Burton Barnes, III, Public Service Award for her work with the Head Start program offered by the Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity.
  • Amanda L. McCleney (’15) has joined RichardsonClement PC in Birmingham as an associate.
  • Michael J. Meginniss (’14) has joined Begley, Carlin & Mandio LLP in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, as an associate.
  • Laura E. Proctor (’92) has been elected president of DRI, an organization of defense attorneys.
  • Lucas B. Salyers (’15) has joined Bass, Berry & Sims PLC in Nashville as an associate.
  • Stephen W. Still (’78) received The Still Ambassadorial Award for his steadfast dedication to the Business Council of Alabama’s investor relations strategy.

Send Class Notes to Alumni News.

Gifts

  • Frank M. Bainbridge (’56) donated $10,000 to the Bainbridge-Mims Professorship of Law.
  • Mary Virginia Hearn Estate contributed $100,000 to the James Luther Hearn Endowed Scholarship.
  • The Honorable Truman M. Hobbs, Jr. (’83) contributed $5,000 to the Farrah Law Alumni Society through The Hobbs Foundation.
  • Mrs. Truman M. Hobbs donated $10,000 to the Law School Foundation through The Hobbs Foundation.
  • The Law Clerks of Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. have pledged $50,000 to establish an endowed scholarship in memory of Judge Johnson and his wife, Ruth Jenkins Johnson. Protective Life Corp. will match a portion of the contributions.
  • M. Cecil Mackey (’58) contributed $95,000 to the M. Cecil Mackey Endowed Scholarship.
  • Robert P. Reynolds (’79) donated $5,000 to the Class of 1979 In Memoriam Endowed Scholarship Fund.
  • Mr. and Mrs. James H. Richardson donated $5,158 to the Patrick W. Richardson Memorial Endowed Scholarship.
  • The Henry G. Sims and Henry U. Sims Memorial Foundation donated $8,750 to the Public Interest Institute.
  • Michael Stephen Stutts (’80) contributed $5,000 to the Farrah Law Alumni Society.

Faculty Notes

PROFESSOR BILL ANDREEN has published a book chapter titled “Dynamic Federalism and Clean Water Act: Completing the Task” in The Law and Policy of Environmental Federalism: A Comparative Analysis (2015). The book, published by Edward Elgar Publishing, was edited by Professor Kalyani Robbins.

PROFESSOR RICHARD DELGADO and PROFESSOR JEAN STEFANCIC presented a paper at a Georgetown Law Journal conference on policing and another at a conference at Duke University School of Law on the future of civil rights. Delgado’s scholarship defending Mexican American Studies in Tucson has been receiving favorable commentary and may have influenced a recent Ninth Circuit decision supporting the program. PROFESSOR MIRIT EYAL-COHEN was invited to the University of Toronto School of Law to present her paper, “The Hidden Price of Regulation,” in the University of Toronto Tax Colloquia series. This paper is the first to conceptualize the hidden price of regulatory burdens on entities that lack economies of scale, scope, age, and the latent externalities imposed on their unregulated affiliates. The paper makes the following three contributions to the current literature. First, it demonstrates that the relationship between size and regulatory effects is non-exclusive. Second, it provides legislatures with better understanding of the effect of regulations on certain entities. Lastly, it provides policymakers with a novel and simple mechanism to alleviate regulatory burdens.

Professor Eyal-Cohen was invited to the University of San Diego to present her paper, “The Hidden Price of Regulation,” in the annual Law & Entrepreneurship Retreat of the Law & Entrepreneurial Association. This event is a by-invitation-only forum for professors and researchers from all fields of the law that intersect with the topic of innovation and entrepreneurship. Professors from Berkley, Emory, Georgia, BYU, Indiana, Wisconsin, and other universities who teach IP Law, Corporate Law, Securities Law, Property, and Tax Law presented and discussed their papers. Professor Eyal-Cohen was invited to the University of Saint Louis to present her paper, “Through the Lens of Innovation,” in the University of Saint Louis Faculty Colloquia series. The paper is the first to conceptualize the unique characteristics of the innovation process and point to the dissonance between law and entrepreneurship. It theorizes that a legal culture that wishes to entice innovation is one that requires legal agents to think like entrepreneurs. It demonstrates that current organizational and bankruptcy classifications create significant distortionary effects. The paper also offers a bridge between law and entrepreneurship by providing policymakers with tools to recognize the distinctive modus operandi of innovation.

PROFESSOR MICHAEL PARDO presented his paper, “Evidence Outside of Trials,” at a panel hosted by the Section on Litigation at the American Association of Law Schools annual meeting in New York. Professor Pardo serves on the executive committee for the Section on Evidence and is a past chair of the section.

PROFESSOR KEN ROSEN“‘s paper, “Challenging Insider Trading Orthodoxy,” will be published by the Journal of Law, Economics and Policy. He has been selected to present the paper at a special event honoring Dr. Henry Manne in Virginia in January, where Professor Jonathan Macey of Yale Law School is scheduled to comment on the paper. Professor Rosen presented his paper, “Cooperation Before Consolidation in Investor Protection,” at a special symposium on The Promise and Perils of Convergence in Financial Regulation and Consumer Protection at Tulane Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana, for the Tulane Law Review”‘s 90th Volume. The paper will be published by the Tulane Law Review. He was among a small group of invited scholars from the United States and abroad, along with a U.S. Department of State official, at a conference on Private International Law, Economics and Development sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation in Marina Del Ray, California.

PROFESSOR STEPHEN RUSHIN spoke with The Baltimore Sun about the police officers on trial for the death of Freddie Gray. He was interviewed by CBS News in Chicago (WBBM, 105.9 FM) about the U.S. Department of Justice”‘s investigation of the Chicago Police Department following the release of the Laquan McDonald shooting video. He also has an essay forthcoming, titled, “Judicial Policymaking and Police Reform,” that will appear in an edited volume published by the Center for the Study of Law and Society at Berkeley Law (edited by Jonathan Simon, Hadar Aviram, and Rosann Greenspan). He also talked with The Wall Street Journal about the DOJ’s investigation of the Chicago Police Department.

LIZ WHIPPLE, Interim Director of the Domestic Violence Clinic, addressed the United Nations Working Group on the Issue of Discrimination Against Women. As part of the first ever official visit by U.N. independent experts to assess the progress made towards achieving gender equality and the protection and promotion of women’s human rights in the United States, Whipple spoke about the challenges facing victims of intimate partner violence in the U.S. generally and Alabama specifically. The visiting delegation of human rights experts also will travel to Oregon and Texas to explore issues related to discrimination against women in various contexts. Following the visit, the Working Group will present a report with its conclusions and recommendations to the U.N. Human Rights Council in June 2016.