September 2009

September 30, 2009

Community Accomplishments:
  
The University of Tulsa College of Law and the George Kaiser Family Foundation announced the creation of the Frederic Dorwart Chair in Energy Law on Tuesday, September 29 in John Rogers Hall.   The event was followed by a reception in the College of Law where local attorneys, alumni and judges celebrated the announcement.

The chair was named in honor of the George Kaiser Family Foundation's president and longtime attorney, Frederic Dorwart of the law firm Frederic Dorwart Lawyers.  The foundation provided the gift, which establishes an additional faculty position focusing on sustainable energy sources and emerging trends in the energy sector.  A nationwide search is underway to recruit a faculty member for the position and the law school hopes to have the new professor in place by next fall.  The professor also will serve as a fellow of the National Energy Policy Institute, which was created in cooperation between TU and the Kaiser Foundation.  Its initiatives include making recommendations on energy policy to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil.

Faculty Accomplishments:

Professor Robert Spoo coauthored an article with Professor Melissa Tatum, entitled "Does Gender Influence Attitudes Toward Copyright in the Filk Community."  It has been accepted for publication in the American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law. 

Professor Rex Zedalis has written a new book entitled, "The Legal Dimensions of Oil and Gas Law in Iraq: Current Reality and Future Prospects" which recently published by Cambridge University Press.   This book is the first and only comprehensive examination of current and future legal principles designed to govern oil and gas activity in Iraq. This study provides a thorough-going review of every conceivable angle on Iraqi oil and gas law, from relevant provisions of the Iraqi Constitution of 2005; to legislative measures comprising the oil and gas framework law, the revenue sharing law, and the laws to reconstitute the Iraq National Oil Company and reorganize the Ministry of Oil; to the Kurdistan Regional Government's 2007 Oil and Gas Law No. (22) and its accompanying Model Production Sharing Contract; and to the apposite rules of international law distilled from both controlling UN resolutions addressing Iraq and more generally applicable principles of international law. This text is essential to the reading collection of every practitioner, business executive, government official, academic, public policy maven, and individual citizen with an interest in the details and controversial aspects of Iraqi energy law.

Professor Zedalis also has been recently selected to receive the Phyllis Hurley Frey Professorship in Law.  This professorship will commence in the fall of 2010 and honors the memory of Phyllis Hurley Frey.  Phyllis Hurley Frey was married to Professor Martin Frey and a 1981 graduate of the College of Law.

Professor Robert Butkin has recently been appointed by the President of the National Uniform Law Commission to a Study Committee on a possible Uniform Act on Mareva Injunctions.

Professor William G. Rice has been asked to serve on the Law School Admissions Council Diversity Committee's Grants/Proposals Subcommittee.  Also, on September 26, 2009, Professor Rice delivered the keynote speech at the Michigan State University College of Law's 6th Annual Indigenous Law Conference:  Global Perspectives on Indigenous Rights:  The U.N. Declaration and Beyond.

On the first Monday in October, the day of the new U.S. Supreme Court session, Professor Robert Spoo recounted some of his experiences clerking for the U.S. Supreme Court's newest justice, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and provided his analysis of the upcoming 2009-10 court session during a free CLE hosted by the TU College of Law.
After receiving his J.D. from Yale Law School, Spoo clerked for Justice Sotomayor when she served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit during 2001-2002.
          

While at Yale Law School, Spoo was Executive Editor of the Yale Law Journal. After graduation and his clerkship, Spoo practiced for several years with law firms in New York, Oklahoma, and San Francisco, providing litigation services and advice in the areas of copyrights, trademarks, and other intellectual property. His litigation work has included serving as co-counsel, with the Stanford Center for Internet & Society, for Professor Carol Shloss of Stanford against the Estate of James Joyce. The suit accused the Joyce estate of copyright misuse and sought to have material on Shloss's academic website declared non-infringing fair use. 
          

He joined the faculty of the TU College of Law in Fall 2008. His teaching interests include copyrights and intellectual property, media and entertainment law, law and literature, and contracts.

Student Accomplishments:

Ben Lambert, a third year law student, recently won first place in the International Association of Defense Counsel 2009 Legal Writing Contest and his paper will likely be published in Defense Counsel Journal in January or April of 2010. 

Community minded law students gave up a beautiful Autumn Saturday in September to attend mandatory volunteer training that will equip them to conduct client interviews, frame legal issues, and prepare required Legal Aid Service of Oklahoma (LASO) intake paperwork (all under attorney supervision) at the TU CLS Homeless/Indigent Legal Clinic held monthly at Tulsa's John 3:16 Mission. The clinic is now in its fifth year of operation serving the legal needs of Tulsa's most vulnerable citizens.
 
The students received a "poverty law" primer presented by Tulsa LASO director Scott Hamilton, LASO Homeless Project attorney Judy Monroe, and attorney Keith Bartsch (JD' 07).
 
The participants were:
 Peter Cullen (1L)
Kirk Schauer (3L)
Ashley Hodges (1L)
Sherry Sides (2L)
Jamie Kirk (3L)
Pedro Mari (2L)
Ross Crutchfield (3L)
 
These seven students should be commended for their demonstrated commitment to help make "equal justice for all" a reality for the underserved.

Third year law student, Caleb Overstreet has recently been offered an attorney advisor/judicial clerkship position through the US Attorney General Honors Program.  Caleb will be working with the Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) in the Immigration Court in San Diego.  Caleb was one of 12 EOIR 2009 summer interns.  Only 26 graduates are selected nationally for the2 year EOIR judicial clerkships. 

Alumni Accomplishments:

The TU College of Law was proud to bring The Honorable Layn R. Phillips (BS '74, JD '77) back to campus to share his wisdom and experience with our law school family as this year's Distinguished Alumnus-In-Residence. Judge Phillips earned both his bachelor's degree and his JD from TU, where he also received the Robert Butler Award for Outstanding Legal Writing and graduated with honors, second in his class. Even while holding the esteemed position of U.S. Attorney, Judge Phillips found time to serve as an adjunct professor at the TU College of Law from 1984-87.

Today, Judge Phillips specializes in complex civil litigation, internal investigations and alternative dispute resolution at Irell & Manella LLP in Newport Beach, California, where he heads up the firm's arbitration and mediation practice. In the last five years alone, he has presided over more than 35 nationwide cases, each of which has settled for more than $100 million.

Reed Smith LLP, one of the 15 largest law firms in the world, announced in July 2009 the addition of James L. Sanders (JD '73) as a partner in the Global Regulatory and Enforcement Group of its Litigation Department.  Mr. Sanders is resident in the firm's Century City office, where his practice focuses on securities litigation, white-collar criminal defense, and the representation of corporations and individuals in investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other governmental entities.  Mr. Sanders was formerly a partner and head of the Los Angeles Trial Department at McDermottWill & Emery LLP, where his clients included highly compensated executives and corporations.

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Antonin Scalia will present the Sandra Day O'Connor Award for Professional Service to Catina R. Drywater (BA '95, JD '98), Esquire, of Tulsa, OK on October 17, 2009 during the Celebration of Excellence at the U.S. Supreme Court.  Ms. Drywater's peers nominated her for her efforts to expand access to justice.