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Creighton Law School successfully competed in the American Bar Association regional arbitration competition on November 14-15.  The team including members Thomas Dickerson, Kat Hudgens, John Loughlin and Robert Grennan lost a split decision by one vote in the semi-final round.  The team including members Alyson Carstens, Danielle Pressler, Bret Clark and Timothy Hook won the championship.  The victory was particularly impressive because in the semifinal round against Iowa, thirty minutes before the semi-final round was to begin, the team learned that one member was too sick to compete and the remaining team members would have to take on new roles as counsel and as witnesses that they had never practiced before the trial!  Creighton not only won that round, but in the final round Creighton defeated Chapman School of Law, the school that won the national championship last year and will be hosting the national competition this year. Creighton will compete in the national competition in California on January 22-23, 2010.

The team of Amber Fullwood, Chelsea Oxton, Dan Reeker and Vanessa Strazdas won all three of its preliminary rounds and finished as national octofinalists in the 2009 Buffalo-Niagara Mock Trial Competition.

Mike Fenner filed a Brief Amicus Curiae in the Nebraska Supreme Court on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska in what may well prove to be an interesting case.. The case is State v. Drahota, Case No. S-08-628. It is a freedom of speech case under the First Amendment as incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment. Drahota was arrested, tried, and convicted under a breach of the peace statute for some things he said to one of his professors at UNL who was at the time running for a seat in the Unicameral. Drahota is being represented pro bono by Eugene Volokh from the faculty at UCLA. Professor Volokh was, as you know, here recently as the Koley lecturer.

Congratulations to Corinne Jacox, Catalog/Reference Librarian, Klutznick Law Library/McGrath North Mullin & Kratz Legal Research Center, who is the 2009 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award given by the College & University Section of the Nebraska Library Association.

The Distinguished Service Award is presented to individuals for service to academic librarianship within the last five years, active participation in the College & University Section at the time of the award, and present or potential service to the Nebraska Library Association, Association of College and Research Libraries, or the American Library Association.

Congratulations to Dean Borchers who is the co-recipient of the Nebraska State Bar Association’s (NSBA) 2009 Award of Special Merit.  The Award of Special merit is presented to individuals for services advancing the legal profession, the administration of justice, and public interest. 

Professor Marianne Culhane just completed service as the 2009 Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute (SBLI) Distinguished Visitor at Georgia State University College of Law.  She spent a week in the spring and another this fall in Atlanta, visiting classes and discussing research projects with faculty.  On Oct. 28, she made a presentation on Arbitration in Bankruptcy to bankruptcy judges, lawyers and law faculty.

Congratulations to the Creighton Negotiating teams which made a remarkable showing in the American Bar Association regional competition held this weekend in Des Moines. The Creighton team of Alison Gutnik and Sharon Hanson finished second to the University of Minnesota and thereby earned an automatic berth in the national finals. The other Creighton team of Mark Rose and Jeremy Anderson finished third. Creighton was the only school to place two teams in the final four. Congratulations to faculty coaches Ed Birmingham, Catherine Brooks, and all the other faculty who helped prepare the students.

The Creighton team at the Quinnipiac University Criminal Justice Trial Advocacy Competition finished this weekend as National Semifinalists.  The student members of the team were Molly Blazek, Patrick Lee, Andrew Portis and Emily Wiechmann.  Emily Wiechmann also won the individual award for the Best Opening Statement.  The team was coached by Adjunct Professors Teri Koller and Allen Tate.  Congratulations to the students and their coaches.

 

Sarpy County Court Judge Robert Wester, Creighton University School of Law Class of 1979, was awarded Distinguished Judge for Service to the Community on October 15, 2009. The award, presented by Chief Justice Mike Heavican, is the highest honor given by the Nebraska Supreme Court recognizing members of the judiciary for meritorious projects and exemplary accomplishments that enhance the vision of justice within Nebraska communities. Judge Wester was nominated for his long-term, ongoing service to the Stephen Center, a shelter for the homeless, along with and a newer separate residential chemical dependency facility in Omaha. The complete press release can be found at the Supreme Court web site.

Congratulations to Professor G. Michael Fenner who is the reporter for the Nebraska Pattern Civil Jury Instructions. The latest edition of the instructions was just published by Thomson-Reuters.

The Creighton University School of Law and Cardoner at Creighton cosponsored an event on October 15, 2009, as part of the “Faith & The Legal Profession” series.  Michael D. McKay, a graduate of the law school, was the guest speaker.  This speaker series was prompted by the Law School’s desire to focus on Creighton’s mission to encourage students, staff, and faculty to reflect upon what it means to be a person of faith and a member of the legal profession. The Cardoner program grew out of a grant that the Lilly Endowment made a few years ago to a number of religiously affiliated universities. The objective was to establish or enhance “programs that 1) help students examine the relationship between their faith and vocational choices, 2) provide opportunities for young people to explore Christian ministry as their life's work, and 3) enhance the capacity of a school's faculty and staff to teach and mentor students effectively in this arena.”  Three additional events with guest speakers are scheduled to visit the law school over the course of the academic year. Each guest will share his or her own vision of what it means to be a person of faith and a lawyer.

 

At its annual convention held this past October, the Nebraska State Bar Association elected Professor G. Michael Fenner to the position of Chair-Elect of the Association’s House of Delegates. The House of Delegates is the policy making body for the State Bar Association. Congratulations to Professor Fenner.

The Creighton University School of Law hosted the Annual Red Mass on October 6, 2009, at St. John's Church on Creighton's campus. Omaha Archbishop George J. Lucas presided and delivered the homily. The Mass was attended by local lawyers, judges, law students, law faculty, law staff, and others. The Mass was followed by a reception held at the Law School. The name of the Mass is derived from the red vestments worn by the priests to signify the fire of the Holy Spirit, and by the scarlet robes worn in times past by judges and doctors of law. The Mass originated in the early 13th century as a service conducted exclusively for the bench and bar, in which God was called upon to help lawyers and judges adhere to truth and justice. 


The July 2009 Arizona bar examination was held July 28 and 29, 2009 in Tucson.  Ms. Jennifer Whitney Greenband, Class of 2009, received the second highest score on the exam out of a field of 559 applicants.  The overall passage rate was 78 percent while Creighton’s overall passage rate for first time test takers was 100%.  Congratulations to Jennifer and her colleagues on a great result!

Professor Thomas D. Morgan, the Oppenheim Professor of Antitrust and Trade Regulation Law at The George Washington University Law School, and leading scholar in the field of professional responsibility, delivered the Winthrop and Frances Lane Foundation Lecture, at the Law School on October 1, 2009. Professor Morgan spoke about the changing legal profession and discussed his research based on his forthcoming book entitled “The Vanishing American Lawyer: The Ongoing Transformation of the U.S. Legal Profession.”

Creighton University School of Law held a conference entitled “Lessons of the Financial Crisis:  Implications for Regulatory Reform” on September 25, 2009.  The day-long conference had three parts:  (1) A morning business panel which featured an open discussion among nationally prominent business law scholars and leading local financial professionals and a regulator, moderated by Professor Bruce Aronson of Creighton, (2) A lunchtime keynote speech by Professor Larry Mitchell of George Washington University entitled “Is Financialism Destroying Capitalism?  Finance for the Sake of Finance,” and (3) An afternoon academic panel which featured presentations by Professors William Black (University of Missouri-Kansas City), Adam Pritchard (University of Michigan) and Heidi Schooner (Catholic University), moderated by Professor Larry Mitchell.  All of the panels will be included in an upcoming symposium issue of the Creighton Law Review on the financial crisis and regulatory reform, and podcasts of the morning panel and keynote speech are available on this website.    

On September 24, 2009, the United States Court of Criminal Appeals held a session of court at the Law School. The Court heard arguments in the case of United States v. Captain Linda T. Bruhn. Judges Colonel Barbara Brand (Chief Judge), Colonel Gary Jackson, and Colonel Thomas Helget, presided. Following the session, the court took questions from students and recessed to a reception held for students and court personnel.

Professor Marianne Culhane participated on a panel addressing arbitration and bankruptcy at a symposium held at St. John’s University in Queens, New York, entitled “ADR Meets Bankruptcy: Cross-Purposes or Cross-Pollination?”. The symposium, held October 2, 2009, was sponsored by the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review, The Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution, and St. John’s Institute for Bankruptcy Policy.

 

Professor Michael Kelly led the American delegation to Istanbul, Turkey during the week of September 20-26 for the 5-year Congress of L’Association Internationale de Droit Pénal.  Founded in Paris in 1924, AIDP is an assocation of international criminal law judges, scholars and attorneys that develops and analyzes the legal instruments of their trade for incorporation into treaties, tribunal decisions and treatises.  The 2009 Congress was attended by over 500 delegates representing 120 nations.  The topics addressed in this cycle focused on universal jurisdiction, terrorist financing and procedural issues for enhanced human rights protection.  Professor Kelly serves as president of the U.S. National Chapter of AIDP.  Working together with the German, Dutch and Chinese groups, the American group was able to make significant strides on the universal jurisdiction track.

 

Professor Mangrum on September 28, 2009 presented a lecture on trial ethics at Iowa's 4th District's Bench and Bar continuing legal education program.  The presentation addressed issues related to inappropriate conduct during the trial, including unethical opening statements and closing arguments, as well as the unethical injection of inadmissible or spoliation of admissible evidence.

On September 16-17, 2009, the Creighton University School of Law and the Werner Institute hosted a conference for law school associate deans entitled “Dealing with Law School Faculty Conflict: A Workshop for Associate Deans.” The event began with a welcome dinner on Wednesday evening and a program on Thursday held at Creighton’s Harper Center. The program was provided by the Law School’s Werner Institute, with Professors Arthur Pearlstein, Bernie Mayer, Jackie Font-Guzman, and Palma Strand each conducting portions of the program. The Law School was pleased to welcome forty-four associate deans from forty-three different law schools in twenty-six states. The event was made possible by private donations.

The hard work of Creighton Law students and the knowledge and dedication of the Creighton Law School faculty have paid off with strong results in those jurisdictions that have reported exam outcomes. The class of 2009 achieved a 100% pass rate on the July 2009 Iowa bar examination and a 93% pass rate on the Nebraska bar examination. This is the second year in a row that 100% pass rate was achieved for the Iowa bar exam.

Professor Edward A. Morse along with coauthor Dr. John P. Safranek, published an op-ed article in the Des Moines Register entitled "Judicial fiat should not be last word." In the article the authors discuss the Iowa Supreme Court’s recent decision in Varnum v. Brien, which struck down an Iowa statute restricting marriage to one man and one woman. The article concludes that fundamental changes in long-standing social structures should be determined by the legislative process rather than by judicial edict. The article can be read at DesMoines Register.

Associate Dean and Professor Michael Kelly published an op-ed commentary on the Jurist website entitled "Risky Business: An International Tribunal for Guantanamo Detainees?" In his commentary he questions whether the idea of an international criminal tribunal would be the best way to deal with the Guantanamo Bay detainees. His commentary can be read at Jurist.

Professor Raneta Lawson Mack published an op-ed commentary on the Jurist website entitled "Jury Trials in Japan: Off to a Good Start, But…" In her commentary Professor Mack discusses the recent return to criminal jury trials in Japan which she views as a bold effort to democratize the Japanese criminal justice system. Her commentary can be read at Jurist.

The Class of 2012 has arrived at Creighton University School of Law! This year, orientation activities included a service project at the Open Door Mission where students, staff and faculty completed a variety of projects including organizing canned goods, sorting clothing, weeding gardens, and helping wherever needed. The Open Door Mission provides men, women, and children with safe shelter beds, nutritious meals, and preventive measures to more than 250 families living in poverty.

Professor Edward Morse wrote an op-ed article in the Omaha-World Herald, published August 5, 2009, entitled "Shrinking of health care makes Obama plan flawed." In his article, Professor Morse poses the question "what costs are we willing to bear to enhance the appearance of equality?" He notes that President Obama’s approach to reform is rooted in concerns about disparate outcomes in health care delivery and the production of wealth. Professor Morse cautions that the move away from a market-based health care system to a system with an increased government role would not achieve reduction in costs but would result in limiting health care options. You can read his article by clicking here.

Congratulations to Professor Palma Strand on the publication of her article, Law as Story: A Civic Concept of Law (with Constitutional Illustrations), which has been published in the Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal. The article introduces a civic, as opposed to authoritarian, concept of law that addresses the question of how we ought to formulate, tell, and revise the law viewed as a story. It then applies this concept to the Supreme Court’s gerrymandering jurisprudence and the Seattle school case.

Congratulations to Professor Sean Watts on the publication of his article Reciprocity and the Law of War in the Harvard International Law Journal. The article concludes that much of the law of war is founded on notions of reciprocity, even in light of changing conceptions of humanity in warfare, and that the persistence of reciprocity may detract from the effectiveness of modern warfare goals such as Rule of Law or Stability Operations.

 

Creighton University law professor Ralph U. Whitten has been named the first Senator Allen A. Sekt Endowed Chair in Law.  Theendowed chair inauguration will be held at 4 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 8, in the Harper Center Hixson-Lied Auditorium.

Whitten has been a professor of law at the Creighton School of Law since 1977. Prior to that, he served on the faculty at the University of South Carolina School of Law. He holds undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Texas and has a Master of Laws degree from Harvard Law School. He teaches and writes in the area of civil procedure and conflict of laws.

"Ralph Whitten has served the law school with distinction for over 30 years. Generations of lawyers have benefited from his knowledge and his passion. I am happy to be able to recognize his contributions in this way," said Creighton University President the Rev. John P. Schlegel, S.J.

Vice President for Academic Affairs and former law school dean Patrick J. Borchers said, "The chance to have Ralph Whitten as a colleague was one of the most important reasons I came to Creighton as dean 10 years ago. I am delighted that he is receiving this recognition."

Eric A. Chiappinelli, dean of the law school added, "Ralph’s erudition is unsurpassed and his work on the Full Faith and Credit Clause has rightly earned him a national reputation. He’s a demanding and effective teacher, as well. This is a terrific and well-deserved honor for him."

The Sekt Chair is named in honor of Sen. Allen A. Sekt, who graduated from Creighton School of Law in 1936. He practiced law in Sioux City, Iowa, and San Francisco, where he met his wife Lillian.

Sekt went to Guam on business and fell in love with the island and became a resident. He started a Hertz automobile rental agency and later owned a Chrysler dealership on the island. He was elected senator in the Guam legislature and became Guam’s voice in Congress during the 1970s. He also helped form public policy on Guam, which benefited the less fortunate as well as all other sectors of society.

During his 30 years on the island, he was an active owner-investor in Guam real estate, which included offices, hotel projects and resort properties. Trusted and respected, and known as a true gentleman, he finalized many ventures with a handshake. Sekt was also a media pioneer, one of his productions, "Talent on Parade" on Guam television, became a local favorite. Sekt died May 25, 2007. He was 93.

Scott Blaha (Class of 2009) has successfully argued in front of the Nebraska Supreme Court. Arguments in the case were held in April while Scott was still a third year law student working at the Sarpy County Public Defender’s Office. In July, the Court issued its opinion, ruling in favor of Scott who had argued that the state could not appeal a misdemeanor sentence on the ground of being exceptionally lenient. The opinion can be read at http://www.supremecourt.ne.gov/opinions/2009/july/jul10/s08-881.pdf. Congratulations to Scott!

 

 

The Creighton Law School is delighted to announce that Professor Michael Kelly has taken on the responsibility of Associate Dean for International Programs. As Associate Dean, Mike will spearhead efforts to identify international study opportunities for our students. These efforts should hopefully result in summer abroad opportunities sponsored by the law school and eventually the opportunity to study abroad during the academic year. Mike will also work to recruit international students who want to obtain a J.D. from Creighton. Finally, Mike will work with the faculty on international and comparative studies and programs within the law school.

 

Professor Bruce Aronson participated in a conference entitled "Law and Practice in Postwar Japan: The Postwar Legal Reforms and Their Influence," which was held in Tokyo on May 28-29, 2009. He presented a paper on "Postwar Reform of Corporate Law and Corporate Governance: Democratization under the Occupation and the Japanese Reaction."

Professor Aronson’s talk covered three topics: (1) opposing views on the necessity, collaboration and success of reforming Japanese corporate law in order to support the basic U.S. occupation policies of democratization and economic deconcentration, (2) the appropriate criteria for deciding these issues, and (3) the U.S. occupation’s attempt to transform the Japanese corporate government system into something akin to the U.S. system by widely distributing shares to individual shareholders and granting new shareholder rights.

His conclusions were that the occupation policy may have achieved "corporate democracy" in a broad sense but failed in the narrower sense of instituting a "shareholder democracy" which would encourage the continuing widespread of shares by individual shareholders. In addition, the Japanese, perhaps unsurprisingly, developed their own corporate governance system which was unlike both Japan’s prewar system and the American model which inspired the occupation authorities.

In addition, Professor Aronson participated in a conference on "Revisiting Postwar Japan," held at Sophia University’s Institute of Comparative Culture in Tokyo on May 31, 2009. He served as a commentator on a panel entitled "Between Continuity and Discontinuity."

Professor Michael Kelly is president-elect of the U.S. National Section of L'Association Internationale de Droit Pénal (AIDP), a Paris-based society of international criminal law scholars, judges and attorneys that enjoys consultative status with the United Nations. Prof. Kelly succeeds Prof. Michael Scharf of Case Western Law School, who accompanied him to Paris for the annual meeting of the Executive Committee in preparation of AIDP's 5-year Congress this Fall in Istanbul, Turkey. The U.S. National Section's blog can be accessed at: http://aidpblog.org/

Creighton Law School graduate Patrick Strawbridge this summer is completing his judicial clerkship with United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Patrick is the Law School’s first Supreme Court Clerk. He graduated summa cum laude from the Law School in 2004. Following law school, Patrick clerked for the Honorable Howard Dana, Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, and thereafter for the Honorable Morris Arnold of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Judicial Circuit. He also worked as an associate at the law firm of Preti Flaherty in Maine prior to beginning his Supreme Court Clerkship. Patrick is pictured here with Creighton Law Professor G. Michael Fenner and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas. The Law School congratulates Patrick on his significant accomplishments. Photograph by Steve Petteway, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Congratulations to Professor G. Michael Fenner on the recent publication of the second edition of his treatise "The Hearsay Rule," published by Carolina Academic Press. In his treatise, Professor Fenner discusses important topics such as: the use of judicial notice as a hearsay exception; admitting the hearsay statement of an incompetent witness; using opinion evidence to get around the bar of the hearsay rule; the problem of multiple hearsay; and the special problem of state of mind evidence. Congratulations to Professor Fenner.

Professors Larry Teply and Ralph Whitten published the fourth edition of their textbook entitled Civil Procedure, published by Foundation Press. The new edition incorporates recent cases, and materials reflecting e-discovery changes and the restyling of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Congratulations to Professors Teply and Whitten.

Professor G. Michael Fenner was interviewed on KPTM Fox 42 News on May 26, 2009, concerning the nomination of Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Professor Fenner indicated that he was not surprised by the nomination, partly because Judge Sotomayor’s story and President Obama’s story are so similar. Professor Fenner also noted Judge Sotomayor’s varied experience as a practicing attorney, a trial court judge, and judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

 

Joseph A. Larson, of St. Paul, Minn., a third-year law student in the Creighton University School of Law has been selected as a recipient of the Burton Award for Excellence in legal writing. He is one of only 15 students across the nation receiving the award.

His winning entry, "Taming the Wild West: An Examination of Private Student Loan Companies’ Violation of Section 43 (a) of the Lanham Act" was published in the Creighton Law Review. The article argues that student loan consolidation companies that distribute notices with phrases and insignias that closely resemble those of the Department of Education should be held liable for false advertising.

An avid writer, Larson has published several short stories and was the recipient of Fifth Wednesday’s Journal’s "2008 Editor’s Prize for Fiction." At Creighton, he has been a student mentor, on the Board of Editors of the Creighton Law Review and a two-year member of the Jessup International Law Moot Court Team.

Larson and the other 2009 award recipients will be honored at a black-tie ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., on June 15.

The nonprofit Burton Awards Program was formed in a relationship with the Library of Congress and Law Library of Congress to honor excellence and modernization in legal writing. Over the years, awards have been added to the original law schools and law firms categories to honor judicial writing, reform in law, contributions to legal writing education, and more. The award is named for William C. Burton, a partner in the international law firm of D'Amato & Lynch and the author of Burton's Legal Thesaurus.

On May 1, 2009, the Law School welcomed Tammy S. King as the new Assistant Dean for Career Development. Prior to joining the Career Development Office at Creighton, she worked as the Associate Director and later Director of Career Services at the Washington University School of Law, in St. Louis, Missouri, for five years. Previously, she was an attorney in St. Louis at Herzog Crebs, LLP and Thompson Coburn, LLP practicing in the area of commercial litigation. During law school, she gained experience working in the Vanderbilt Legal Clinic and at the United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee. Tammy has been admitted to practice law in Missouri and Illinois and is a member of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, the American Bar Association and the National Association for Law Placement (NALP). She received her J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School and her B.A., , from the University of Missouri. In addition, Tammy has served as a volunteer advocate with Voices for Children speaking up for children caught in the legal system due to abuse and neglect.