January 2010

January 2010

Faculty Accomplishments:

Professor Hannah Wiseman. Incoming faculty hire, Hannah Wiseman, was quoted recently in the Wall Street Journal (Thurs., Jan. 21) in a page 1 article entitled “Drilling Tactic Unleashes a Trove of Natural Gas—and a Backlash.” The article is about the recently touted drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracing,” in which the subsoil shale formations are fractured through high-pressure injections of water, and natural gas is extracted through the fissures. Scholars and environmentalists, like Hannah, have raised concerns about the possible negative effects on the environment and the need for tighter regulation. Hannah published an article on this subject recently in the Fordham Environmental Law Review.

Professor Elizabeth McCormick. Betsy McCormick’s article, The Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act: Blowing Off Steam or Setting Wildfires?, was published in December in the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal. The citation is 23 Geo Imm L. J. 293 (2009).

Professor Robert Spoo. Bob Spoo’s essay, “Intellectual Property and Vietnam’s Higher Education System,” and coauthored with Dao Anh Tuan, is being published this month in a collection, Reforming Higher Education in Vietnam: Challenges and Priorities, ed. Grant Harmon et al. (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2010). In December, Bob also learned that he has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America, 16th ed. (2010), in the areas of Intellectual Property Law and Copyright. Finally, on December 29, Bob gave a talk “Copyright Deformations and the Transatlantic Publishing Scene,” on a panel entitled Copyright and the Modernist Atlantic, at the Modern Language Association Convention, in Philadelphia.

Professor César García Hernández. The College of Law welcomes Cesar Hernandez as a visiting faculty member for the spring semester. Cesar received his J.D. from the Boston College Law School in 2007, served as Managing Editor of the Boston College Third World Law Journal, and received a number of honors. He was a teaching assistant in Legal Research, Reasoning, and Writing, and served as a research assistant for various faculty members. Previously, he had received his A.B. with Honors in American Civilization and English at Brown University. César served as a clerk for the Rhode Island Superior Court—the highest trial court in Rhode Island—working primarily for Judge Daniel Procaccini, and has worked as an Associate at the Law Offices of Raúl García and Associates in McAllen, Texas. In this latter capacity, he has gained substantial experience in the practice of immigration law, including written advocacy before Immigration Courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. César has published a number of articles in law journals and other publications, including “La Migra in the Mirror: Immigration Enforcement and Racial Profiling on the Texas Border,” in the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy in 2009. This article, along with others appearing in the St. Thomas Law Review, the Seattle Journal for Social Justice, the Loyola Journal of Public Interest Law, and the Boston College Third World Law Journal, address the topics of immigration and racial profiling, immigration and birth control, and immigrant detainees and the due-process right to assistance of counsel, as well as other issues. This semester, César is teaching a section of Criminal Law and a seminar in Immigration Law.

Alumni Accomplishments:

Angelique EagleWoman (LL.M. 2004) recently received the William F. and Joan L. Boyd Excellence in Teaching Award at the University of Idaho College of Law where she is an associate professor of law. This award was initiated in the spring of 2005. Its intention is to “recognize and reward faculty who demonstrate exceptional teaching effectiveness, a deep commitment to student learning and professional growth, and an interest in creative and innovative teaching methods.” It also is based primarily on faculty activity reports, memorandum on teaching, class visits, student evaluations and other information on teaching performance. EagleWoman, a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation.

Brett McKay (JD ’09) and his wife, Kate, have recently published a new book, The Art of Manliness: Classic Skills for the Modern Man (published by F & W Publishing). Released in October 2009, the book has received rave reviews and is sold out on Amazon.com. Based on his wildly popular blog of the same name, The Art of Manliness is an essential how-to guide on being a man. With chapters entitled “The Gentlemen,” “The Hero,” “The Friend,” and “The Lover,” the book is a compilation of sage and accessible advice on how to recapture the honorable and traditional values and behavior attributed to being a “man.” It aims to teach men of the X and Y Generations core values from the Greatest Generation. The blog can be found at www.artofmanliness.com and contains a user-friendly database of must-have information.

Law School Community Accomplishments:

The Chapman Charitable Trusts announced a major gift benefiting The University of Tulsa College of Law during an event held January 12, at the law school. The gift has established the Dean John Rogers Endowed Chair for the College of Law and will fund a major renovation of John Rogers Hall that will allow future facility upgrades. The Dean John Rogers Endowed Chair for the College of Law honors the legacy of John Rogers Sr., a former trustee of the Chapman Charitable Trusts and influential figure in the history of TU, the College of Law and Tulsa.