The twenty-third annual Ray H. Jenkins trial competition is this week. This prestigious competition was founded by the Moot Court Board in 1985 and was made possible by the generous support of the Knoxville law firm of Jenkins & Jenkins. The competition honors the memory of a prestigious member of the Knoxville bar, Ray H. Jenkins, a legendary trial lawyer and 1920 alumnus of the College. Mr. Jenkins gained international prominence in 1954 as Special Counsel to the Senate Committee investigating the Army-McArthur hearings; his life was illustrated in the autobiography The Terror of Tellico Plains.

The Ray H. Jenkins Trial Competition is held each spring and alternates between civil and criminal contexts. This year's problem is a criminal trial for the first degree murder of Adam Thomas McKenzie. The first-place team, second-place team, best oralist, and best witness all receive cash prizes.

Rounds 1 and 2 are March 27 and 28, respectively, at the College of Law from 5 until 8 p.m. The final round between the top two teams will be held Monday, March 31 from 5 until 8 p.m. at the College of Law and will be presided over by Judge Clifford Shirley.

All students are encouraged to attend the finals, which will be a showcase of the best trial advocates the law school has to offer. Finger foods will be provided. Please RSVP to Jamie at jballing@utk.edu by Friday evening, if you would like to attend so that a number can be given to the caterer.

This year's teams are:

Jade Dodds
Ashonti Davis

Jonathan May
Matt Lamberth

Gregg Fuller
Will Caldwell

Sean McDermott
Ashley Musselman

Justin Furrow
Carter Moore

Goran Musinovic
Adam Holland

Meghan Fowler
James Inman

Jesyca Westbrook
Crystal Young

In the coming weeks, the College of Law will host two prominent corporate governance speakers. James D. Cox, a prominent corporate and securities law professor at the Duke University School of Law, will speak Friday, April 4, from noon until 1:30 pm in Room 135. Also, Catherine Bromilow, the PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Partner-in-Charge of the firm's corporate governance practice, will speak Wednesday, April 9, from 12:15 p.m. until 2 p.m. in Room 132. All are invited to attend both presentations, which are co-sponsored by the College of Law's Clayton Center for Entrepreneurial Law and the UT Corporate Governance Center. Each distinguished visitor is setting aside some time to meet with law and Ph.D. students who may be interested in a one-on-one or group discussion. Contact Prof. Joan Heminway if you are interested in meeting either visitor on this basis.

The entire law school community is invited to attend "Re-Entry and Restoration of Voting Rights: Dismantling Felon Disenfranchisement Laws in Tennessee," a program featuring ACLU attorney Nancy Abudu Tuesday, April 8, at 3:30 p.m. in the Legal Clinic (Room 12). In her presentation Ms. Abudu will discuss the history of felon disenfranchisement in this country, outline current policies in Tennessee, and describe ongoing litigation seeking reform such policies in our state. This program is sponsored by the College of Law Advocacy Center, Legal Clinic, and Criminal Law Society, in conjunction with the Knox County Public Defender's Community Law Office, the Knoxville Defense Lawyers' Association, and ACLU-TN. Light refreshments will be served.

The Black Law Student Association will host the 8th Annual Julian Blackshear, Jr. Scholarship Banquet Friday, April 4, at the Hilton Knoxville. This is the culminating event to our Second Annual Diversity Week, a celebration of UniTy at UT April 1 through 4. Please join BLSA for a free Meet and Greet with speakers and Mr. Blackshear, the third African-American law student to graduate from UT, from 5:30 until 7 p.m. at the Hilton Knoxville. Tickets for the banquet are $20 for students and children under the age of 18 and $35 for general members. All students and faculty should have received invitations to the event and they can be turned in with menu choices to the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs. For more information contact: (865) 974-6691 or (901) 230-1915.

VITA is open to prepare taxes for students, professors, and low-income families. Please come by and get your taxes done for free. VITA will be open through April 9, Monday-Wednesday, from 4 p.m.-7 p.m. VITA is located in the video viewing room on the 1st floor of the law library.

The College of Law Bettye B. Lewis Career Center seeks a talented and motivated individual to fill the position vacated by Meredith Martin, who is recently married and moving to Nashville. The Employment/Recruiting Coordinator advances strategic relationships with employers, secures and promotes employment opportunities for students and alumni, and coordinates the College’s on- campus interview programs. The successful candidate will have a Bachelor’s degree, graduate work preferred, and experience interfacing with employers and/or graduate or professional school students. Excellent communication and organizational skills are a must. If you know someone who would be good for the job, please see Karen Britton or Kay Brown for more information.

FACULTY

An article by Prof. Tom Davies has recently been published as the lead article in a Fourth Amendment Symposium Issue of the Mississippi Law Journal -- an issue that is widely distributed to legal academics and state appellate judges. The 224-page article, titled "Correcting Search-and-Seizure History: Now-Forgotten Common-Law Warrantless Arrest Standards and the Original Understanding of 'Due process of Law,'" 77 Miss. L. J. 1, builds upon Davies's previous historical research. In a 1999 Michigan Law Review article, he previously documented that the Fourth Amendment was not written to serve as a general search-and-seizure protection but was simply aimed at banning issuance of general warrants. In his current article, Davies documents that the law of arrest was actually a salient aspect of the Framers' understanding of "due process of law," and that "due process" was only a criminal procedure protection in 1789 but did not yet carry the broader meanings the Supreme Court assigned to that term in the late nineteenth century. Thus, he argues that the current formulation of the Fourth Amendment is actually far removed from the original understanding of that provision, and significantly understates the protections the Framers thought they had preserved.

Over spring break, Profs. Dwight Aarons, Jennifer Hendricks, Mae Quinn, and Paula Williams participated in and gave talks at the 2008 Society of American Law Teachers’ Teaching for Social Change Conference. The two-day program, hosted by the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley, brought together legal academics from across the country to share ideas, strategies, and methodologies for making social change an essential aspect of American legal education. Prof. Aarons presented “Nuts and Bolts for Teaching Social Change Across the Curriculum.” Prof. Hendricks discussed her work “‘We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service to Anyone’: History and Citizenship for Lawyers.” Prof. Quinn presented her work-in-progress “A New Clinician’s Ways of (Un)Knowing: Forgetting to Remember, Remembering to Forget and (Re)constructing Identity.” Prof. Williams shared her insights in a piece entitled “A New York legal Aid Lawyer Teaches Social Justice in Tennessee.”

Prof. Tom Plank attended a Federal Judicial Conference educational program, “The Current State of the Capital Markets: an FJC Program for Bankruptcy Judges,” in New Orleans March 3-5 and gave a presentation entitled “Sales of Mortgage Loans and Securitizations” March 5.

"Prof. Glenn Reynolds was featured in the Technology section of the New York Times last week, in an article on bloggers' secrets of success. He also offered some advice on time management." LINK

Prof. Joan Heminway gave a brief telephonic lecture March 18 and participated in a Q&A discussion session on legal issues relating to Enron as part of a continuing education course affiliated with The University of Arizona. The course, entitled "Trials of the Centuries - Part V," features lectures and discussion on a variety of legal controversies, from the trial and subsequent beheading of Charles I to Roe v. Wade and its progeny.

Prof. Greg Stein gave a presentation at the Spring Meeting of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers in San Antonio earlier this month. The talk was part of a panel addressing the changing nature of the real estate curriculum in American law schools. Professor Stein’s remarks described how law schools are increasingly incorporating skills training into the real property curriculum.

STUDENTS

An interest meeting for a new student organization, Students for the Study of Law and Culture, will be held Wednesday, March 26, during the free hour in Room 136. The SSLC will be an interdisciplinary group comprised of law students and graduate art students. The focus of this group will be an examination of the cultural framework of the law, art, politics, literature and more, and the group will plan lectures, contribute to journals, and expand the scope of study at UT. This is an opportunity to be part of an interdisciplinary student organization. Barleys pizza will be served.

First- and second-year students are invited to the Transactions: Tennessee Journal of Business Law interest meeting Monday, March 31, in Room 132 during the free hour. Journal representatives will discuss the benefits of serving on the Journal as well as give an overview of the candidacy process and requirements. The Transactions Journal is an excellent opportunity for students to enhance their research and writing skills, as well as gain insight into the current state of business law. Additionally, the Transactions Journal provides members with a forum for publication; numerous staff members this last year had case synopses published in the Journal. Mark your calendars and come to the meeting to learn more. Please contact Rob Whitfield with questions, or let him know if you are interested but will be unable to attend. The staff looks forward to continuing the tradition of excellence that is the hallmark of the Transactions Journal; therefore, we look forward to recruiting excellent staff members for the 2008-2009 year.

The law school has created an inaugural Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP. The purpose of LRAP is to provide annual loans to graduates of the Law School who obtain employment in the field of public interest law and who need assistance in repaying loans for their legal education. Many types of jobs may qualify as public interest. These include working for the public defender, district attorney, legal aid organizations, government agencies, and most nonprofit organizations. This year, the Law School will be offering two $3,600 awards to graduating 3Ls. Applications must be submitted to the Student Records Office no later than noon on Monday, April 14. The recipients of the awards will be announced on Monday, April 21. If you have any further questions about this program there will be an informational meeting Monday, March 31, during the free hour in Room 136.

The UT College of Law has joined a wide consortium of other academic departments, colleges, and centers to present a three-day conference at the Hilton in downtown Knoxville April 10-12, entitled “Energy & Responsibility: A Conference on Ethics and the Environment.” This conference invites ethicists, legal theorists, energy policy makers, energy enterprises, and environmental activists to engage in a conversation about ethics and responsibility in the contested terrain of energy and the environment. In addition to well-known international speakers from The Natural Resources Defense Council, Merton College (Oxford), Princeton, Yale, and New York University, there will be panels addressing Environmental Ethics, Ethics of Planning Processes, and Irreversibility and Environmental Damage. The conference will also include a student caucus, addressing topics such as the responsibility of higher education in addressing energy issues and the role of students in addressing energy issues with respect to current generations, our future, and our prosperity. The planning committee is looking for UT Law students to help with the student caucus by providing housing (e.g., extra beds, couches, floor space) to students attending the caucus. If you are able to host any of these student attendants, please contact 2L Corinne Martin at cmarti34@utk.edu.

The College of Law and the ABA Section on International Law will co-sponsor a panel discussion on careers in international law Monday, April 7, from 12:20 until 1:10 p.m. in Room 135. UT Prof. Robert Blitt will be among those on the panel.

CAREER SERVICES

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

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CONTACT PERSONS

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