The Informant
January 12, 2010
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, Birthday
The Committee on the Law School Community invites all members of the law school community to celebrate Dr. King's life, works, and legacy by participating in two exciting upcoming events.
The first is a new event for the law school, to be held on Tuesday, January 19, during the free hour in Room 132. Professor Joe Cook will read Dr. King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," and Professor Otis Stephens will recount his personal meeting with Dr. King during the 1960's. During this event, community members will also have the opportunity to share their reflections on Dr. King's legacy.
The second event is a tradition at the law school, the Faculty-Staff-Student Luncheon, to be held on Wednesday, January 20, during the free hour. Individual faculty members will host students and staff members in their offices for lunch, and a free box lunch and beverage will be provided. These luncheons provide a unique opportunity for community members to come together in an informal atmosphere to discuss Dr. King's legacy.
The deadline for signing up to participate in the luncheons is 5 p.m. on Thursday, January 14. Sign-up sheets are available in the Student Records Office, the Library Circulation Desk, and the Library Reference Desk, or you may email the Committee Chair, Professor Judy Cornett, at jcornett@utk.edu.
Professors to lead sessions in Baker Center program
UT law Professors Joseph Cook, Otis Stephens and Iris Goodwin will lead sessions in a Baker Center reading group series to discuss the book Justice as Fairness: A restatement by John Rawls. The series is sponsored by the Baker Center and the Knox County Public Library and will meet on Mondays from 6 until 8 p.m. in the Toyota Auditorium in the Baker Center. MORE
Docket Day is Jan. 27
Docket day is Wednesday, Jan. 27, in Room 237. The morning session begins at 9:30 a.m. and the afternoon session begins at 1:30 p.m. Judge Joseph M. Tipton of the Court of Criminal Appeals will be the presiding judge, and Judges Norma McGee Ogle and D. Kelly Thomas, Jr. will be on the bench as well.
Nominations sought for 2009 Student and Staff Awards
Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to submit nominations for several student and staff awards to be presented at the College of Law's Annual Honors Banquet and Awards Program on Friday evening, February 19, 2010, at The Foundry on the World's Fair Site.
Nominations should be submitted by this Friday, Jan. 15, to either the Dean's Office (Suite 278) or the Student Records Office (Suite 166). Nominations also may be submitted by e-mail to Mary Ann James at mjames1@utk.edu.
Descriptions of awards and nomination forms:
General Information
Student Awards
Susan B. Anthony Award
Library Staff Award
College Staff Award
FACULTY
From Greg Stein, Associate Dean for Faculty Development
Last March, I distributed a notice in this column about the Google Book Settlement. Under the original proposed settlement, book authors might be entitled to receive payment. That settlement agreement has now been amended, and the amended provisions are available here. Depending on your circumstances, you may be eligible to submit a claim or to opt out. Take a look.
Prof. Maurice Stucke’s article, “Auditing Self-Interest,” has been published in the December 14, 2009 issue of America Magazine. Subscribers can view the article here.
Prof. Stucke has also been selected to present a paper at the “Next Generation of Antitrust Scholarship” conference at NYU on Friday, January 29, 2010. This conference is designed to convene the next generation of antitrust law professors — people who started their teaching career in 2000 or later — and provide them an opportunity to present their latest research. Senior antitrust scholars and practitioners in the field will comment on the papers. Prof Stucke will present his working paper, “Deterring and Destabilizing Cartels: A Behavioral Economics Analysis.” Hart Publishing Oxford will publish this research paper in Criminalizing Cartels: A Critical Interdisciplinary Study of an International Regulatory Movement (Caron Beaton-Wells & Ariel Ezrachi eds. forthcoming 2010). The conference is co-sponsored by the NYU School of Law, the Association of American Law Schools, and the American Bar Association–Antitrust Section.
Prof. Greg Stein’s article, “The Uniform Partition of Inherited Property Act: A Report from the ACREL Observer to the Drafting Committee,” has just been published in the American College of Real Estate Lawyer News. The article describes the current status of a Uniform Law project to reform partition actions to protect the interests of family members. The Act will have a significant impact on recent land losses by rural African-American families. The article appears on page 22 of the publication, which is available here.
Prof. Dean Hill Rivkin’s UT College of Law Education Law Practicum (with cooperating attorneys Barbara Dyer and Brenda McGee) participated in an Amicus Curiae Brief filed with the Supreme Court of North Carolina on the issue of a student’s right to alternative education upon expulsion from school for alleged disciplinary reasons. The UT Education Law Practicum joined, among others, The Barton Child Law & Policy Center at Emory Law School, The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School, The National Association of Counsel for Children, and the University of North Carolina School of Law Center for Civil Rights, in filing the Brief. The UT Practicum represents students whose educational opportunities are jeopardized by unwarranted exclusionary school policies and practices.
Prof. Glenn Reynolds’s article, “Rules of the Road for Space?: Satellite Collisions and the Inadequacy of Current Space Law,” coauthored with Prof. Robert P. Merges of the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, was just published in the Environmental Law Reporter.
On December 15, 2009, Prof. Reynolds testified before the Federal Communications Commission on Network Neutrality and Open Internet Regulations. His written statement can be found here.
Prof. Karla McKanders has just been elected to the Society of American Law Teachers (“SALT”) Board of Governors. Professor McKanders was asked to co-chair SALT’s Human Rights Sub-Committee. She traveled to New Orleans to participate in the Access to Justice Committee meeting and SALT’s Board meeting. Anyone who is interested in joining SALT or participating in its upcoming teaching conference should contact Professor McKanders.
During the holiday break, Professor McKanders was a guest on Steve Oberman’s radio show, Let’s Talk Law. She spoke regarding immigration policies in Tennessee and the overall demographic make-up of immigrants within the state of Tennessee. Prof. Oberman regularly serves as an adjunct faculty member at UT.
The December 2009 issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal features a cover article by Prof. Alex Long. The article, “Focusing Your Firm on Ethics,” looks at the duties of law firm partners, managers, and supervisors to make reasonable efforts to ensure that all lawyers within the firm are practicing in an ethical manner. Professor Long gave a presentation on this same topic at a pre-football CLE event at the College of Law in October.
The California Business Law Practitioner has published Prof. George Kuney’s article, “Contractual Arbitration Clauses in California.” The article contains a comprehensive overview of contractual arbitration in California under both the California Arbitration Act and the Federal Arbitration Act and provides contract drafting advice in light of the state of the law in this area.
The most recently revised volume of Bogert and Hess, The Law of Trusts and Trustees (3d ed.), has just been published. Prof. Amy Hess has been the successor author of this leading treatise since 1994, authoring annual supplements for the entire 18-volume treatise and periodic replacement volumes. The latest replacement volume covers fiduciary duties with respect to particular assets, trustees’ powers and liabilities in contract and tort, and beneficiaries’ remedies for breach. Another replacement volume, authored by Prof. Caryl Yzenbaard of Northern Kentucy Law School and covering constructive trusts, has also just been released. Prof. Yzenbaard taught in UT’s summer school several years ago.
A book review coauthored by Prof. Joan Heminway and UT Law alum Sarah White (Walters) was reprinted at 51 Corporate Practice Commentator 619 (2009). The book review, “Wanted: Female Corporate Directors (A Review of Branson, No Seat at the Table: How Corporate Governance and Law Keep Women Out of the Boardroom),” originally was published in the Pace Law Review earlier in 2009.
On December 4, Prof. Heminway participated in an invitation-only roundtable discussion at the Boston University School of Law on “Mutual Funds Under New Administration: Litigation & Regulation.” The roundtable included counsel for the parties to the Jones v. Harris case that was recently argued before the Supreme Court and representatives of the SEC and private industry, as well as law professors.
Prof. Heminway also will serve as a member of the Steering Committee for the second biennial conference of the Emory University School of Law’s Center for Transactional Law and Practice. This conference, which focuses on the teaching of transactional law and skills, is entitled “Transactional Education: What’s Next?” The conference will be held at Emory on Friday, June 4, and Saturday, June 5, 2010.
In addition, Prof. Heminway’s comments on the use of course management Web sites in law teaching were featured in the December 2009 Newsletter of the Association of American Law Schools Teaching Methods Section.
Prof. Iris Goodwin was recently quoted in the Knoxville News-Sentinel. Prof. Goodwin discussed the uncertainty created by the December 31, 2009 expiration of the federal estate tax, which is scheduled to reappear in 2011. You can read her remarks here.
Profs. Judy Cornett and Paula Schaefer participated in the Knoxville Bar Association’s third annual Ethics Bowl competition on December 4, 2009. The Ethics Bowl features teams of attorneys and judges competing to answer questions on attorney ethics correctly. Professor Schaefer was a color commentator and made two presentations during the program: “Recent Developments in Tennessee Attorney Ethics” and “Clawbacks, Quick Peeks, and Confidentiality in Tennessee.” Professor Cornett served as a “lifeline” in the competition. Teams were allowed to “Ask Judge Judy” for her help answering a question. More than ninety audience members also participated in the interactive program, which included an “Ask the Audience” lifeline.
Prof. Rob Blitt presented a work in progress at the AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans in early January. His talk, which was part of a panel on New Voices in Human Rights, addressed the challenges posed by efforts to label “defamation of religion” a violation of human rights under international law.
STUDENTS
2010 Spring Hooding
Spring '10 Hooding information, including hotel accomodations.
Summer Fellowship in Antitrust Law
The ABA Section of Antitrust Law is sponsoring a summer fellowship program, whereby selected students will serve for a minimum of eight weeks in the consumer protection department of one of the participating State Attorneys General during the summer of 2010. Each selected student will receive a $5,000 stipend for the summer and a supplemental housing/travel allowance of up to $2,000. The application period is until February 5, 2010. MORE
Business Internship and Writing competition
The Center for Entrepreneurial Law notes that the American Bar Association is promoting a business internship program for the Summer of 2010 and a writing competition featuring cash prizes. For more information click here. Prof. George Kuney is willing to assist students in preparing an internship application or discuss the writing competition if desired.
Roscoe Hogan Environmental Law essay contest
The Public Justice Foundation is sponsoring the 2010 Roscoe Hogan Environmental Law Essay Contest. The topic is Can "Coal Be Clean? Litigation Remedies for Coal Contamination from Mining to Combustion to Sequestration." The intent-to-enter form submission deadline is Jan. 29, 2010, and the essay submission deadline is March 31, 2010. Below is the link for additional information about the contest. If you have any questions, please call 202-797-8600 or email cgoings@publicjustice.net. Details
Environmental writing competition underway
The TBA Environmental Law Section has announced the 2010 Jon E. Hastings Memorial Award writing competition for law student members of the section. The competition is held each year in memory of one of the section's most outstanding founding members and has a cash prize pool of $1,200. It is a juried competition for the best legal writing on a topic related to Tennessee or federal environmental law. Entries are due March 27.
Learn more about the contest.
Education Law writing contest
Entries are being sought for the 2010 George Jay Joseph
Education Law Writing Award. Learn more about the contest.
CAREER SERVICES
Upcoming programs offered through the Bettye B. Lewis Career Center:
-- Your Job Search Tool Kit for 1Ls, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 12-1 p.m., Room 136.
-- Get To Know You 1L Advising, Thursday, Jan. 14, 10 a.m.2-5 p.m., Room 250.
-- Using Resources in Your Job Search for 1Ls, Thursday, Jan. 14, 12-1 p.m., Room 135.
-- Using Resources in Your Job Search for 1Ls, Friday, Jan. 15, 12-1 p.m., Room 135.
-- On Campus Interviews; First bids due in Symplicity for 1 and 2Ls, Friday, Jan. 15, 11:59 p.m..