Spring 2008
April
Professor Jason Gillmer presented his paper, “Base Wretches and Black Wenches: A Story of Sex and Race, Violence and Compassion, During Slavery Times,” to the faculty at Stetson Law School in Gulfport, Fla., on April 3, as part of its faculty colloquium. Professor Megan Carpenter presented “Bare Justice: A Feminist Reconceptualization of Justice and Its Potential Application to Crimes of Sexual Violence in Post-Genocide Rwanda” at the Creighton International Human Rights Symposium on April 4, 2008. Her paper on the same topic will be published in a special issue of the Creighton Law Review.
Professor Michael Green spoke at the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Section Employment Rights and Responsibilities Midwinter Committee Meeting held in Dana Point, Calif., on April 5, 2008. His panel addressed “Friend or Foe: Ethical Traps Involving In-House Counsel,” and Professor Green spoke on the topic, “Employment Litigation Investigation and the Ethical Dilemmas involving In-House Counsel.”
Professor Neal Newman presented his current work-in-progress, “The U.S. Move to International Accounting Standards – A Matter of Cultural Discord – How do we Reconcile?” at the Southeast/Southwest People of Color Conference. In his paper, Professor Newman argued that a shift in United States corporate culture and paradigms must occur before converting successfully to the more principle based standards commensurate with International Financial Reporting Standards. The conference was hosted by North Carolina Central University School of Law on April 11, 2008.
Professor Michael Green has been invited to speak at the 25th Annual Carl A. Warns Jr. Labor & Employment Law Institute at the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law on Friday, May 30, 2008 where he will present on “Ethical Issues in Interviewing and Preparing Witnesses for Employment Litigation." Professor Green also has been invited to speak at the 14th National Labor-Management Conference sponsored by the 14th Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in Washington, D.C., June 9-11. Professor Green will be speaking on the topic, “Identifying and Cultivating a Diverse Pool of Arbitrators.”
Professor Keith Hirokawa has accepted an offer to publish his work entitled, “Property Pieces in Compensation Statutes: Law's Eulogy to Oregon's Measure 37.” Professor Hirokawa's article examines the tensions between property and property rights rhetoric. His article will be published in Issue 4 of Volume 38 of Environmental Law, one of the premier legal journals focusing on environmental issues.
March
Professor Maxine Harrington's article, "The Ever-Expanding Health Care Conscience Clause: The Quest for Immunity in the Struggle Between Professional Duties and Moral Beliefs," was published by the Florida State University Law Review. Professor Harrington's article explores the tension between the legal duties of health care providers and their right to refuse care on grounds of conscience.
Professor Huyen Pham was an invited panelist at the March symposium sponsored by the Tulsa Journal of Comparative and International Law, "What about Federalism? States' Rights and the New State Immigration Laws." Her talk was entitled, "Analyzing the 'Success' of Local Immigration Laws."
Professor Maxine Harrington completed a Beazley Visiting Professorship in Health Law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. While there, she presented, "The Thin Flat Line: Are Organs Being Removed From Donors Who are not Legally Dead?" to faculty and student forums and lectured to several health law classes.
Professor Michael Green has been asked to be on the Executive Board of the Labor and Employment Relations Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section. It is a three-year appointment starting in 2008.
Professor Megan Carpenter has been asked to speak at the prestigious International Trademark Association's Leadership Meeting in November 2008. Her talk will address recent trademark cases that have been decided under the European Convention on Human Rights, posing the question of whether there is a human rights component to trademark law (and a trademark component to human rights law).
Professor Keith Hirokawa presented “Moving into the Second Generation of Green Building Laws” to the Texas Bar Association and other land use professionals at the 12th Annual Land Use Conference, hosted by University of Texas. Professor Hirokawa presented an assessment of green building's successes and failures in introducing new technologies and perspective into the construction process, and provided analysis of the likely direction of local government efforts to reduce the ecological footprint of building practices.
Professor Susan Ayres and Professor James McGrath both spoke at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities, held on March 28-29, 2008, in Berkeley, Calif. In her paper “[Not-So] Safe Havens?,” Professor Ayres examined the rhetorics surrounding legalized abandonment, abortion, and neonaticide, and also re-evaluated the profile of neonaticidal mothers in order to argue that, while Safe Havens will not prevent all neonaticides, they are an important piece of the strategy for prevention. Professor McGrath, in his paper, “Are You a Boy or a Girl?,” examined and critiqued categorization of sex as a binary in the law from a historical perspective and in light of recent scientific developments.
Professor Huyen Pham spoke at a plenary panel of the Cambio de Colores Conference, Latinos in Missouri: Uniting Cultures in Columbia, Missouri, sponsored by the University of Missouri. Her panel was entitled, “Local Enforcement of Immigration Laws: The Implications for Missouri.”
Professor Michael Green spoke at the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Section Joint Midwinter Meeting of its Equal Employment Opportunity and Ethics & Professional Responsibility Committees held in Tucson, Ariz., March 28-29, 2008. His first panel presentation was on “Preparing Witnesses Ethically and Effectively” and he spoke on the topic, “To Prepare or Not To Prepare Witnesses During a Deposition: Ethically, is that not the Question or Is it balancing the Duty to the Client with the Duty to the Tribunal and Others to Be Truthful?” On the second panel, “Ethical Traps Involving In-House Counsel,” he spoke on the topic, “Ethical Employment Investigations Involving In-House Counsel.”
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February
Professor Huyen Pham's article, "The Private Enforcement of Immigration Laws," was published by the Georgetown Law Journal. In this article, Professor Pham argues that private enforcement laws (requiring private parties like landlords and employers to check immigration status before granting a private benefit) have not been effective in reducing illegal immigration. Drawing on our 20 year experience with federal employer sanctions, she suggests that the laws instead will result in substantial discrimination against those who look or sound foreign.
Professor Huyen Pham was also invited to speak at the University at Buffalo Law School on Feb. 22, as part of the Immigration Crucible Spring Speaker Series there. She presented her paper, "When Immigration Borders Move: the Implications for Citizenship, Membership, and Community."
Professor Susan Ayres presented her paper at William & Mary School of Law on Feb. 23, for the annual symposium organized by the Journal of Women and the Law. The paper was entitled, "Kairos and Safe Havens: The Timing and Calamity of Unwanted Birth." The paper examined the effectiveness of laws allowing legalized abandonment of newborns and discussed customs and laws in the United States and other countries. It also analyzed the problem of abandonment using the rhetoric of kairos, or right-timing.
Professor Maxine Harrington was a panelist on "Bioethics," sponsored by the Fort Worth Life Sciences Coalition.
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January
Professor James McGrath's article, “Overcharging the Uninsured in Hospitals: Shifting a Greater Share of Uncompensated Medical Care Costs to the Federal Government,” was published at 26 Quinnipiac Law Review 173 (2007). This article explores the hidden federal subsidies for medically treating the uninsured, questions the legitimacy of hospital pricing schemes, and adds support to the existing literature advocating a single payer health care system in the United States.
Professor Megan Carpenter's article, “Bare Justice: A Feminist Reconceptualization of Justice and Its Potential Application to Crimes of Sexual Violence in Post-Genocide Rwanda” was accepted by the Creighton Law Review and she has been invited to present it at the Symposium on Human Rights in April. In addition, Professor Carpenter received two offers of publication for her creative works from the Legal Studies Forum. One is called “The Lexical Heart” and is an excerpted dictionary. The other is called “River Rats” and is an essay.
Professor Michael Green presented “What Hurricane Katrina Should Have Taught Employers About Using Expedited ADR to Address Employment Matters in a Crisis,” at the Labor Employment Relations Association 60th Annual Meeting held in New Orleans, La. on Jan. 5, 2008. The overall theme of the conference was “Rebuilding America in a Changing Global Context” and Professor Green participated on a panel regarding Workers’ Rights in the Aftermath of a Disaster. Professor Green’s talk focused on labor and employment matters, including employee retirement and salary benefits, safety, relocation, worker’s compensation, employee counseling and other concerns that may arise when a crisis occurs. Professor Green asserted that employers and employees can be better prepared to deal with these issues by developing expedited ADR procedures that spring into action at the time of a crisis and involve all interested stakeholders including government and community participants in developing quick and effective resolutions.
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Professor Jason Gillmer’s article, “Base Wretches and Black Wenches: A Story of Sex and Race, Violence and Compassion, During Slavery Times,” was selected as one of the top three papers in the Southeastern Association of Law Schools’ 2008 Call for Papers competition. Professor Gillmer will receive an award honoring his achievement at a special luncheon during the SEALS conference in August, where he will also present his paper.
Professor Susan Ayres’ article, “Who Is to Shame? Narratives of Neonaticide,” was published in 14 William & Mary Journal of Women in the Law 55 (2007). In her article, Professor Ayres considers why attitudes and laws about newborn child murder, or neonaticide, have not evolved in America as they did elsewhere. She points out that, like in 17th-century England, we still view cases of neonaticide with shame, disgust, and anxiety about teen sexuality and motherhood. Drawing on literary sources as much as the law, Professor Ayres argues that our social and legal responses will not change until we make an effort to understand the causes of neonaticide and to deal with its complexities.
Fall 2007
November
Professor Huyen Pham presented, “Lessons Learned from the First Generation of Local Immigration Laws,” at Hofstra Law School’s conference, “Local Dimensions of Immigration: Challenges and Opportunities in Our Changing Communities,” Hempstead, New York, November 9, 2007. At this presentation, Professor Pham examined the specific problems that local governments have experienced in implementing local immigration laws and considered the implications of these problems for local immigration enforcement generally.
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Professor Frank Snyder moderated the panel “Implication, Interpretation, and Default Terms” at the Pace University Law Review Symposium, “The Enduring Legacy of Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon,” White Plains, New York, November 2007. The other panelists were Melvin Aron Eisenberg (UC-Berkeley), Peter Linzer (University of Houston), Nicholas Weiskopf (St. John’s University), and Jonathan Kang (University of Washington).
Interim Dean Cynthia Fountaine presented “Private Legal Education in the United States,” at the US-Russia Joint Conference on the Rule of Law held at St. Petersburg University in Russia. Dean Fountaine’s talk focused on various aspects of American legal education, including highlighting differences between public and private legal education, accreditation issues, financing legal education, American legal educational pedagogy, law school admissions, attorney licensing regulations, clinical legal education and other skills and experiential learning programs, and incorporating ethics education into the law school curriculum.
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Professor Michael Green’s commentary, “A New Call to Action: Selecting Diverse Arbitrators,” was published in Volume 36, Fall 2007 of the American Bar Association Section of Labor and Employment Law Newsletter. In this commentary, Professor Green laments the lack of diverse arbitrators being used for resolving statutory employment discrimination claims and asserts that corporations should agree to match their diversity efforts in selecting attorneys with their efforts in selecting arbitrators.
Four Texas Wesleyan University School of Law professors have been invited to present their papers at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities, to be held March, 2008 in Berkeley, California. In her paper, “[Not-So] Safe Havens?” Professor Susan Ayres will examine the rhetorics surrounding legalized abandonment, abortion, and neonaticide, and will also re-evaluate the profile of neonaticidal mothers in order to argue that, while Safe Havens will not prevent all neonaticides, they are an important piece of the strategy for prevention. Professor Jason Gillmer, in his paper, “The Murder of Isaac Baughman: Race and Violence in Reconstruction Texas,” will be exploring the lynching of Sheriff Baughman, appointed during Republican rule, to highlight a period of intense racial conflict and tremendous upheaval in a place that, like many others, was struggling to come to terms with a new social order. Professor James McGrath, in his paper, “Are You a Boy or a Girl?” will examine and critique categorization of sex as a binary in the law from a historical perspective and in light of recent scientific developments. Finally, in his paper, “Private and Semiprivate Law: The Contract/Tort Divide,” Professor Frank Snyder will challenge the usual treatment of tort law as part of “private law,” arguing that tort law really is a mechanism for enforcing involuntary social norms rather than enabling private ordering, and thus the real distinction ought to be drawn not between “public” and “private” but between “social control” and “social enabling” legal regimes.
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Professor Michael Green presented “Arbitration of Employment Disputes: Will it Continue or Diminish?” to the Conflict Resolution Network in Plano, Texas on Nov. 20, 2007. Professor Green asserted that employers have started to become skeptical about the use of arbitration for employment disputes and this may not bode well for future employment of arbitrators.
Professor Charlotte Hughart was interviewed by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for an article about three clients represented by the Law Clinic and their successful experiences. The article appeared on November 28, 2007, and was titled, “They give the poor a voice in the justice system.” Professor Hughart provided background information on the Clinic operations.
Professor Michael Green has been asked to speak at the ABA Labor and Employment Section Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibilities Midwinter Meeting in Tucson, Arizona on March 28, 2008, regarding Ethical Traps in Preparing Witnesses in Employment Discrimination Suits. Professor Green has also been asked to speak at the ABA Labor and Employment Section Committee on Employment Rights and Responsibilities Midwinter Meeting in Dana Point, California on April 5, 2008, regarding dilemmas for in-house counsel in pursuing their own employment discrimination claims.
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October
Professor Terri Helge presented “Tax Aspects of Transactions with Charitable Organizations,” at the Tax Section of the Dallas Bar Association, Oct. 1, 2007. Professor Helge’s presentation examined transactions between charitable organizations and taxable parties and discussed the special tax considerations involved in engaging in these types of transactions.
Professor Michael Green presented “Developing a Scholarly Agenda to Obtain Tenure: Know Yourself and Know Your Institution,” at the Twelfth Annual LatCrit Conference, Fifth Annual LatCrit-SALT Junior Faculty Development Workshop, held in Miami, Florida, on October 5, 2007. The Workshop, titled “On Scholarship: What to Write and How to Finish,” was designed to help new scholars navigate the waters of obtaining tenure.
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Professor Maxine Harrington has been selected for a Beazley Visiting Professorship in Health Law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law in March 2008. Professor Harrington will spend three days in residence, giving a faculty lecture and teaching two classes on health law.
Professor Wayne Barne’s article, “The Objective Theory of Contracts,” was selected for publication in the University of Cincinnati Law Review. In this article, Professor Barnes articulates the soundness of the objective theory of mutual assent to contract formation, and argues that three areas of contract law should be reformed to conform to objective theory. The three areas are the rule that death terminates an offer, the mailbox rule, and consumer assent to standard form contracts.
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Professor Aric Short’s article, “Slaves for Rent: Sexual Harassment in Housing as Involuntary Servitude,” was selected for publication in the Nebraska Law Review. In this article, Professor Short examines the problem of sexual harassment in the landlord-tenant context, focusing specifically on the plight of poor, single mothers who are the most frequent victims of such exploitation by their landlords. After qualifying and quantifying residential sexual harassment and critiquing application of the Fair Housing Act in this context, the article explores the Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition of involuntary servitude as a possible source of rights for victims suffering abuse in this setting.
Professor Neal Newman’s article, “The ‘Carrot’ Approach to Accounting Standard Setting,” was selected for publication in the University of Miami Business Law Review. In this article, Professor Newman argues for the removal of incentive based compensation for executive officers, maintaining that this form of compensation has an adverse affect on accounting standards and the quality of financial reporting.
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Professor Jason Gillmer’s article “Base Wretches and Black Wenches: A Story of Sex and Race, Violence and Compassion During Slavery Times,” was selected for publication in the Alabama Law Review. In the article, Professor Gillmer examines in detail the local and trial records of a nineteenth-century Texas case to tell the story of a white slave master who had a thirty-year relationship with a female slave. The article is designed to add depth and detail to our understanding of the slave South and the relations between the races, ultimately concluding that the master narrative of rape so familiar to students of the subject is inadequate to account for a case like this.
Professor Michael Green’s article, “Ruminations About the EEOC’s Policy Regarding Arbitration,” was published in the Chicago Kent Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal as part of the proceedings from an AALS panel, “Dispute Resolution in Action: Examining the Reality of Employment Discrimination Cases.” In Professor Green’s article, he argues that the EEOC has failed to set effective policy regarding the arbitration of statutory employment discrimination claims and lost a major opportunity to assist employers and employees in resolving these disputes.
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Interim Dean Cynthia Fountaine presented “Texas Wesleyan University School of Law: Ten Years of Service and Impact in Fort Worth,” at the Fort Worth City Council, Pre-Council Meeting, October 23, 2007. This presentation highlighted the law school's achievements and accomplishments in the ten years since Texas Wesleyan University School of Law has been located in downtown Fort Worth, and highlighted the law school's economic impact on Fort Worth as well as public service programs that benefit the citizens of Tarrant County.
Professor Jason Gillmer was a presenter at the SMU Colloquium on Law and Citizenship on October 30, 2007. At the Colloquium, Professor Gillmer discussed his current work on using trial level data to understand the everyday life of race and slavery.
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September
Professor Lynne Rambo presented “Update on the Supreme Court's 2006 Term: The Swing Votes Are Gone,” at the Tarrant County Bar Association Brown Bag Program, September 21, 2007. Professor Rambo analyzed the cases decided in the last Term, focusing especially on Justices Alito and Roberts and Justice Kennedy’s shift to the right.
Professor Susan Ayres co-presented “Infanticide” with Dr. Prema Manjunath during Grand Rounds at John Peter Smith Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry, September 7, 2007. Professor Ayres discussed social constructions and legal treatment of women who kill their children, while Dr. Manjunath discussed the psychiatric considerations of infanticidal mothers.
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Professor Maxine Harrington was appointed by the ABA Standing Committee on Specialization as Examination Reviewer for the Medical Liability Certification Program.
Professor Michael Green presented “Searching for the Wright Answer to Collective Bargaining Arbitration of Statutory Claims,” at the Second Annual Colloquium on Current Scholarship in Labor and Employment Law held at the University of Denver College of Law, Denver, Colorado on Sept. 28, 2007. Professor Green highlighted the unique difficulties for employees represented by unions when they have statutory discrimination claims and suggested a solution to a growing conflict in the federal courts regarding the analysis that should apply to determine whether these disputes may be subject to final resolution through labor arbitration.
Professor Maxine Harrington was interviewed by a reporter from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel who is writing a series of articles on medical error.
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Summer 2007
On August 10-11, 2007, Professors Meredith Conway and Wayne Barnes organized and held the first Texas Junior Legal Scholars Conference at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law. The conference brought together over 25 young scholars from around the country to share their works in progress and receive collaborative feedback from their colleagues. Five Texas Wesleyan Law School Professors presented their work. Professor Conway presented, “The Connection Between Wealth and Income Disparity and the Taxation of Executive Compensation.” Professor Barnes presented “The Objective Theory of Contracts.” Professor Maxine Harrington presented “The Thin Flat Line: Are Donors Whose Organs are Removed After Cardiac Death Legally Dead?” Professor James McGrath presented “Paying for the Most Expensive, Least Efficient Health Care: Bush’s Answer to the Health Care Crisis.” Finally, Professor Neal Newman presented “The Holy Grail of Financial Reporting and Why We May Never Get There.”
Professor Susan Ayres has been invited to participate in the annual symposium sponsored by the William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law to be held in February 2008. The symposium title is “Not That Kind of Girl: The Legal Treatment of Women Defying Traditional Gender Roles.”
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Professor Malinda Seymore’s article, “China’s Future Lawyers: Some Differences in Education and Outlook,” has been selected for publication by the Asper Review of International Business and Trade Law, a peer-reviewed journal at the University of Manitoba, Canada. The article is an outgrowth of Professor Seymore’s experience teaching American law for five months as a Fulbright Professor at Xiamen University School of Law in Xiamen, China. Professor Seymore’s fellow authors are: Patricia Ross McCubbin (Southern Illinois/Wuhan University, China), Andrea Curcio (Georgia State/South China Normal University, China), and Llewellyn Joseph Gibbons (University of Toledo/Zhongnan University, China).
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July
Professor Susan Ayres presented “Stories of Neonaticide,” at the Rights, Ethics, Law & Literature International Colloquium, held at Swansea University, Wales, July 6-8, 2007. At the Colloquium, Professor Ayres discussed narratives of neonaticide found in works of literature. She argued that the benefit of literary stories for legal analysis is that stories provide the opportunity and model to balance the view that mothers who kill newborns deserve only treatment versus the view that they deserve only imprisonment.
On July 19-21, 2007, Texas Wesleyan Law School held its fourth annual Gloucester Law Conference in Gloucester, England. This year’s conference, titled “Law, Culture, and Rights in an Age of Globalization,” was organized by ProfessorsAric Short, Margarita Coale, and Frank Snyder. The conference brought together scholars from around the world to discuss the law as a tool for social change in an increasingly complex and interdependent world. In particular, the conference commemorated the 200th anniversary of the ending of the British slave trade. Presenters examined a wide range of topics, including the rights of migrant workers, lingering vestiges of African slavery, the global sex trade, the intersection of religion and free speech, and discrimination in the education setting.
At the Gloucester Law Conference, Professors Aric Short, James McGrath, and Huyen Pham each presented papers. Professor Short’s paper, “Sexual Harassment in Housing as Involuntary Servitude,” examined the possible use of Thirteenth Amendment to protect poor, single mothers sexually harassed by their landlords. Professor McGrath’s paper, “Overcharging the Uninsured for Health Care in the United States: An Anachronism in the Age of Globalization,” discussed competitive global trade implications for the United States as a nation that does not have universal health care coverage for its workers. Finally, Professor Pham’s paper, “When Immigration Borders Move,” explored the practical and conceptual implications of our shifting borders paradigm. Professor Frank Snyder also moderated the panel, “Migration and Human Rights.”
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Professors Huyen Pham and Jason Gillmer attended the annual meeting of the Law and Society Association, held in Berlin, Germany, on July 25-28, 2007. At the Conference, Professor Pham further developed her paper, “When Immigration Borders Move,” by discussing the legal implications of new and proposed laws requiring all residents to demonstrate their legal immigration status, multiple times and at multiple points within the country, to obtain licenses, employment, and other important benefits. Professor Gillmer also organized and chaired a panel on “Race and Slavery: Historical Problems and Contemporary Context.” The panel brought together scholars interested in cultural and legal history, and the role of race and slavery in shaping the American legal landscape. At the panel, Professor Gillmer also presented his paper, “Base Wretches and Black Wenches: A Story of Sex and Race, Violence and Compassion, During Slavery Times.”
Four Texas Wesleyan Law Professors participated in the Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) annual meeting, held on Amelia Island, Florida, on July 31-August 4, 2007. Professor Michael Green coordinated an employment discrimination panel on the impact of the Civil Rights Act of 1991. As a participant on that panel, Professor Green presented, “The Suspicious Enforcement of Arbitration for Title VII Claims After the Civil Rights Act of 1991 Granted the Right to Jury Trials and Punitive Damages: What Congress Could Not Have Intended,” where he argued that judicial interpretation of arbitration law conflicted with legislative intent under the Civil Rights Act of 1991. In addition, Professor Neal Newman helped coordinate a panel on “Teaching Socio-Economics in Law School.” At this panel, Professor Newman presented a paper in which he gave an overview of socio-economic principles and discussed how these principles can be applied in doctrinal courses. Professor Meredith Conway participated on the same panel, and gave a paper in which she discussed how to incorporate socio-economics into tax courses. Professor Michael Green also served as a moderator for the panel. Finally, as part of the SEALS New Scholars Workshop, Professor Aric Short presented, “A 13th Amendment Critique of Residential Sexual Harassment.” In his paper, Professor Short examined structural and doctrinal weaknesses in the federal Fair Housing Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 as tools to address housing-related harassment perpetrated in the landlord-tenant relationship.
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June
Professor Aric Short participated in the Interschool Junior Faculty Workshop on Poverty Law, held at American University, Washington College of Law, on June 1, 2007. Professor Short’s talk, which explored the exploitation and abuse often encountered by low income women in the housing market, was one of several presentations by young scholars across the country that examined poverty and its effect on legal rights in America today.
Professor Michael Green was selected and participated as a faculty fellow for the Cross-Cultural Negotiation and Employment Dispute Resolution System Design Courses held at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine Law School in Malibu, California, June 5-23, 2007. As part of this unique faculty fellows program, Professor Green attended two Dispute Resolution courses with the goal of allowing him to enhance both his scholarship and teaching in this area while learning from the classroom dynamics and approaches of others who teach these subjects.
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Professor Joe Spurlock, Director of the Asian Judicial Institute (AJI), organized and conducted the 7th annual training session in the American common law legal system for members of the Mongolian legal profession from June 23 to July 10. The 2007 AJI summer trainees were law professors and attorneys from the National Legal Training Center of Mongolia and Association of Mongolian Advocates who returned to Mongolia to help retrain Mongolian private attorneys, prosecutors, and government lawyers in American substantive and procedural law. The course program, “Pursuing Justice in the U.S. and Local Common Law Court Systems,” was taught by several professors of the school. Professors Aric Short, Paul George, Margarita Coale, James McGrath, Stephen Alton, Joe Spurlock, and Frank Elliott, and adjunct professors Kay Elliott, G. Ganzorig, Joe Shannon, U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade, and assistant law librarian Stephanie Marshall each presented a half-day lecture and discussion on one of the subjects covered. The Honorable Ravdan Bold, Ambassador of Mongolia to the United States visited the school during the program to express the Mongolian government’s appreciation for the law school efforts in support of judicial and legal reform in Mongolia. Ambassador Bold presented to Professor Spurlock a plaque “In Recognition of Outstanding Contribution to Mongolia-United States Relations and Continued Support for Training Mongolian Lawyers.”
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May
Professor Maxine Harrington presented “Obtaining Medical Records under HIPAA in Judicial or Administrative Proceedings” at a CLE activity sponsored by the Northeast Tarrant County Bar Association, May 15, 2007. At her talk, Professor Harrington presented an overview of how the HIPAA Privacy Rules affect the disclosure and use of medical information in legal proceedings.
Professor Michael Green presented “Leveraging Opportunities for Minority Arbitrators through Mandatory Arbitration Agreements,” at the Third National Conference, Minority Professionals in Alternative Dispute Resolution, held at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio, May 17, 2007. Professor Green asserted that the growing number of disputes involving employment discrimination claims when intersected with the growth of arbitration can provide many opportunities for minority arbitrators to handle these matters.
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Professor Terri Helge presented “Legislative Update from Washington on Charitable Reforms: The Pension Protection Act of 2006” at the TSCPA 2007 Nonprofit Organizations Conference in Dallas, Texas, May 21, 2007. Professor Helge’s presentation focused on the impact of the reforms contained in the Pension Protection Act of 2006 on the nonprofit community.
Professor Neil Sobol presented “Persuasive Writing” to the Fort Worth Paralegal Association at the Petroleum, Club on May 24, 2007. The presentation illustrated the differences between objective and persuasive writing. Professor Sobol also described the role of word choice, placement, and organization in persuasive writing.
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Professor Mark Burge presented “Teaching Statutory Interpretation in an Age of Outsourcing: Are Our Students Ready to Play Judge Yet?” at the Second Biennial Lone Star Legal Writing Conference, held at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, May 31-June 1, 2007. Professor Burge argued that judicially-oriented methods of interpreting statutes are on the wane, and that a consequence of this development is a need for reinvigorated instruction in interpretive principles.
Professor Susan Ayres’ poem, “My Brilliant Career,” was published in The Legal Studies Forum.
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