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Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman has appointed Michael Long, JD'94, to serve as a county court judge for the 7th Judicial District.

Long, 45, currently serves as the Deputy County Attorney for Madison County. He is responsible for prosecution of felony and misdemeanor criminal cases including sex offender proceedings. Long previously served as a Deputy Scotts Bluff County Attorney and as Antelope County Attorney.
 
Since 2001, he has served as an instructor for the Criminal Justice Department at Northeast Community College. Additionally, Long trains the Norfolk Police Division and the Madison County Sheriff’s Office on the topics of search and seizure, Miranda and confessions, investigation of sexual assault and child abuse cases, and trial preparation and testimony.

World Bank Lead Counsel David Satola discussed “Regulation of Online Freedom: International Internet Governance and Human Rights” during the 2013 Koley Lecture on Thursday, Feb. 28, at Creighton University School of Law.

The lecture, which is part of the Creighton University School of Law Koley Lecture Series, can be viewed online here.

Recent negotiations in the International Telecommunication Union Treaty indicate that governments are attempting to replace the current multi-stakeholder model for Internet governance with state-centered control. These efforts present new threats to human rights, including freedom of speech, privacy and access to information.

Satola has been following these issues globally and speaks regularly in international forums on Internet governance.

The law firm of Koley Jessen P.C. established the James L. Koley ’54 Scholarship in Constitutional Law to honor the business career of Koley. The scholarship is awarded annually to a second- or third-year law student who has demonstrated an aptitude and interest in First Amendment issues. Law professor G. Michael Fenner is the current holder of the James L. Koley ’54 Professorship in Constitutional Law.

Creighton University School of Law students are currently participating in a live mock trans-Atlantic contract negotiation with law students at Carlos III University of Madrid.

The students at both universities are enrolled in an International Business Transactions class and their professors are participating in a faculty exchange program. Creighton’s law professor Stephen C. Sieberson, is currently teaching the class in Madrid, while visiting law professor Manuel Alba, of Carlos III, is at Creighton.

The class requires students to negotiate a contract for the purchase of the stock of a U.S. company. Students are divided into teams, with each team representing different parties in the transaction. Over Skype, each Creighton team negotiates with a Carlos III team, simulating the circumstances and difficulties faced in a real international business transaction.

Creighton Law students Nathan Dallon, Mitchell Engel, Oliver Maguire and Rachel Timm won the Best Oralist Team award at the Midwest Regional of the 2013 International Trademarks Association Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition in Chicago on Feb. 9. Twenty-eight teams from 19 schools in seven states took part, including Notre Dame, University of Chicago, University of Iowa and Northwestern. Creighton’s team of Toby Hausner, Craig Ingrisano and William Bruce Wray also argued very effectively. Professors Nancy Dickhute, Dean Craig Dallon and 3L  Nathan Tenney coached these teams.

Four faculty members from the School of Law’s Werner Institute for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution will speak at the American Bar Association’s 15th annual Section of Dispute Resolution conference April 3-6, 2013, at the Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park in Chicago, Ill.

The conference brings together mediators, arbitrators, attorneys, scholars and other leaders in the field to learn about the field and from each other. Noam Ebner, Jacqueline Font-Guzman, Bernie Mayer and Palma Strand will discuss “Trust as Social Adhesive: Implications for Negotiation, Conflict Intervention and Governance.” The presentation will cover the issue of trust as it has evolved in the field, the effect culture has on how individuals and societies treat trust and the application of interpersonal trust in large-scale situations.

Creighton's Masters in Business Administration/Juris Doctor (MBA/JD) program was included in the Eduniversal Ranking of best master's programs worldwide for 2012/2013. Creighton's MBA/JD program is listed in the top 200 global programs in business and law. The rankings were compiled based on three criteria: the reputation of the program, the career prospects and salary level of graduates and student satisfaction. The Eduniversal list looks at over 4,000 master's degree and MBA programs in 154 countries around the globe.

Creighton Law alumnus Thomas White, JD’83, and Amy Jorgensen lectured to a first-year Harvard Law torts law class, called Frontier Torts, on Nov. 14. They were asked to discuss the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota case, which they filed in federal court.

World Bank Lead Counsel David Satola will discuss “Regulation of Online Freedom: International Internet Governance and Human Rights” during the 2013 Koley Lecture at 3 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 28, in the Gross Appellate Courtroom (Room 124) at Creighton University School of Law.

The lecture, which is free to the public, is part of the Creighton University School of Law Koley Lecture Series, and is approved for CLE credit for attorneys in Nebraska and Iowa. To receive CLE credit, attorneys must check in at the CLE registration table outside the Gross Appellate Courtroom.

Recent negotiations in the International Telecommunication Union Treaty indicate that governments are attempting to replace the current multi-stakeholder model for Internet governance with state-centered control. These efforts present new threats to human rights, including freedom of speech, privacy, and access to information.

Satola has been following these issues globally and speaks regularly in international forums on Internet governance. He will offer important insights on these topics and their implications for human freedom and flourishing.

The law firm of Koley Jessen P.C. established the James L. Koley ’54 Scholarship in Constitutional Law to honor the business career of Koley. The scholarship is awarded annually to a second- or third-year law student who has demonstrated an aptitude and interest in First Amendment issues. Law professor G. Michael Fenner is the current holder of the James L. Koley ’54 Professorship in Constitutional Law.

 

Creighton alumni are reaching out to keep those staying in homeless shelters in the St. Louis area warm at night.

Creighton alumnus Mark Spence, JD'90, (pictured) serves as chief operating officer of Faultless Linen, which launders the sheets, blankets and bed linens for the nine St. Louis homeless shelters operated by AmeriCorps for free.

That amounts to 1,500 or more pounds of laundry every week!

The other Creighton connection: Dave Culhane, BA'09, the son of law dean Marianne Culhane, who is an AmeriCorps volunteer in St. Louis and helps run the shelters there.

The story was featured on Fox News in St. Louis.

Creighton Werner Institute student Firas Alsalih won first place out of 36 students in the individual mediator category at the January 2013 Dubai Invitational Mediation Tournament, sponsored by the InterNational Academy of Dispute Resolution (INADR).

The INADR, founded in 2002, aims to further awareness of mediation as a means to peaceful resolution; to encourage society to resolve disputes in a more sensitive and compassionate manner; and to promote peace and civility in human behavior.
 
The Dubai tournament included 12 teams from the United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, India and Sri Lanka. Although Creighton did not field a team, Alsalih joined the UAE team as a Werner Institute Creighton student.

Alsalih is pictured (at left) with Dick Calkins, co-founder and board member of the INADR.

John (Jay) McCauley, resident professor and chair of the arbitration program at Creighton Law’s Werner Institute, will be the keynote speaker at a national continuing legal education (CLE) seminar on alternative dispute resolution best practices on March 14. The Rossdale CLE seminar will be broadcast live before a large audience of attorneys across the country. In addition, McCauley, who has been included in Best Lawyers in the United States in the practice area of ADR for the last five years, has now been named the Best Lawyers' 2013 San Jose Mediation "Lawyer of the Year." Only one lawyer in each practice area in each region is honored as “Lawyer of the Year."

A visit to the Supreme Court of the Dominican Republic by Creighton law students on Jan. 15 was featured on the Court's official website. The article (in Spanish) can be found here. Below is the English translation of the article from Professor David Weber.

***

Law Students from Creighton University visit the Supreme Court of the Dominican Republic
 
Law students from Creighton University in Nebraska visited the Supreme Court this morning with the purpose of learning how the Dominican judicial system functions.
 
The group was received by Justice Miriam Germán Brito, president of the Criminal Tribunal of the Supreme Court and second substitute for the Chief Justice.  For over an hour, she shared her experience with the students and later responded to a series of questions and concerns they had about the administration of justice in the Dominican Republic.
 
Justice Germán Brito, who met with the group in the Primary Courtroom of the Supreme Court excused Chief Justice Mariano Germán Mejía, who was unable to receive the students given his schedule.
 
“It is a pleasure to welcome you and put myself at your disposal,” stated Justice Germán Brito.
 
She explained that the Second Tribunal deals with issues of extradition, appeals to the Supreme Court, and actions against individuals with certain types of immunity.
 
The Justice explained that she is the first woman to head a Tribunal, one of the three that make up the high court.
 
Afterward, the group was invited to Justice Germán Brito’s office where they shared experiences about judicial decisions and the human side of a judge. There the group also met with Judge Samuel Arias Arzeno.
 
The group, made up of 10 students, its coordinator Leah Latenser, and Professors David Weber and Ronald Volkmer, will remain in the country 10 days to learn about the Dominican judicial system.
 
The coordinator of the group, Leah Latenser, said thank you on behalf of the students, and stated that the group leaves with a good memory and good sense of what a Supreme Court justice is like.

Prof. Raneta Lawson Mack's newest book, A Criminal Procedure Anthology: Cases, Readings, and Comparative Perspectives, has now been published by Cognella Academic Publishing. The book offers insight into the most compelling issues surrounding the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments. Learn more about the book here.

Third-year law student Wes Van Ert donated a kidney to his father in December. The younger Van Ert is scheduled to argue a case before the Nebraska Supreme Court on Jan. 8.

Congratulations to law student Jannette Taylor, who was recently featured in a special section of the Midlands Business Journal for her work as executive director of Impact One Community Connection, a local nonprofit group devoted to gang intervention and prevention. (Article not online.) Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle also proclaimed Dec. 5 as Jannette Taylor Day in the city. You can read more about Taylor in this story published in The Reader: http://bit.ly/VQkTbw. Taylor also was recently featured in the Omaha World-Herald. You can read that story here.

Alumnus Mike Dyer, JD'90, a retired New York City police officer who currently practices law in Omaha at Dyer Law PC, returned to New York recently to help after Superstorm Sandy. You can read his story in the Douglas County Post-Gazette. He was also recently featured in an article in the Irish Echo titled The Long Blue Line.

A team of five law students from Creighton University won the American Bar Association (ABA) Arbitration Midwest Regional Competition, held Nov. 10 and 11 in Columbia, Mo.

The team, one of three from Creighton that participated in the regional event, will advance to national competition Jan. 25 and 26 in Chicago.

Team members Sean and Sarah Schaerrer, John Matson, Grant Mullin and Jen Varon were undefeated in the regional competition, besting top talent that included three teams that had won regional or semifinal competitions last year.

Also competing were Creighton law students Larry Roland, Tom Gross, Ryan Reynolds, Audrey Carey, Cory Becker, Nick Sullivan, Michael Guy, Sean Lynch, Kelli Olson and Brian Graf.

The ABA Arbitration Competition promotes greater knowledge in arbitration by simulating a realistic arbitration hearing. Participants prepare and present an arbitration case, including opening statements, witness examinations, exhibit introductions, evidentiary presentations and summations.

Creighton arbitration coaches include law professors Collin Mangrum, J.D.; Larry Teply, J.D.; and Jay McCauley, J.D.

Dr. Jackie Font contributed a chapter to a book which just won the 2012 Madrid Mediators Association (AMMI) award for best publication in mediation. The book is Mediación y Resolución de Conflictos: Técnicas y Ámbitos, eds. Soleto-Muñoz, Carretero-Morales, and Ruiz-López. Madrid, Spain: Editorial Tecnos. Font’s chapter examines court-annexed mediation programs in the USA and Puerto Rico. This welcome international recognition should further extend the Werner Institute’s reputation.

The Women’s Law Student Association has partnered with the Nebraska Women’s Bar Association to implement a mentoring program to pair 2L and 3L students with practicing female attorneys in the area. Third-year law student Amy Garreans said the goal of this program is to provide guidance and support to law students making the transition from student into legal professional, as well as to offer insight into different obstacles and challenges faced by attorneys entering the legal community. “The program is off to a great start with 20 pairings so far this year,” Garreans said. A reception was held on Oct. 3 in the Harper Center, introducing the students to their mentor attorneys and conveying the goals of the program. “We have high hopes that this program will continue to grow each year with more student and attorney participation,” Garreans added. For more information on the program, contact Garreans at AmyGarreans@creighton.edu.

Solidarity Lecture Series: "Ignatian Principles and the Law" by Prof. Ron Volkmer, Tuesday, Oct. 23, Harper Center, room 3028, 5:30-6:30 p.m.

Since January 2006, Professor Volkmer has led the Law School’s partnership with the Institute of Latin American Concern (ILAC) in creating a unique experience for Creighton law students that, at its core, is founded upon principles articulated by former Jesuit Superior Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach in his landmark 2000 speech to Jesuit educators at Santa Clara University. During the past three years, Professor David Weber has joined the Law School program as a co-leader.

The Law School program focus is upon educating the “whole person of solidarity for the real world”; it is based upon Fr. Kolvenbach’s view that “solidarity is learned through ‘contact,’ rather than through ‘concepts.’” Professor Volkmer will describe how the Law School’s program design implements Fr. Kolvenbach’s goals and what the impact has been on the students who are challenged on the “immersion” trips that the Law School has supported.

Creighton University’s School of Law is listed among the nation’s best law schools in the 2013 edition of the Princeton Review annual college guide. The book, “The Best 168 Law Schools,” features two-page profiles on each institution, which are full of comments about professors, academics, campus life and their fellow classmates.

Students are quoted as saying, “The faculty is committed to making the students better lawyers and they consistently push each student to really reach their potential.”

“We appreciate the Princeton Review’s recognition of our strong bar passage rate, trial practice program and accessibility of our talented faculty. Even more gratifying is the fact that the guide’s recommendations are based on surveys of those really in the know—the law students at each school they review,” said Marianne Culhane, dean of the School of Law.

Creighton University is no newcomer to the Princeton Review. The University has been listed as one of the nation’s top 377 colleges and universities in 2013, and the law school was previously listed in the review in both 2011 and 2012.

The publisher’s ranking is based on surveys of 18,000 current students and institutional data.

Professor Mike Kelly's article “Prosecuting Corporations for Genocide under International Law” has just been published in the Harvard Law and Policy Review.  His paper presents a unified theory that ties together his prior work in this area, exploring international criminal law’s potential use in prosecution of multinational corporations when they are complicit in genocide. Read the article here: http://hlpronline.com/print/volume-6-2/

Creighton University Professor of Law Michael Kelly awarded the 2012 AIDP Book of the Year Prize to Northwestern University Professor of Law David Scheffer at a ceremony on Sept. 7 at Case Western Reserve University School of Law’s Symposium “Presidential Power, Foreign Affairs, and the 2012 Presidential Election.” Pictured with Prof. Kelly (left) and Prof. Scheffer (center) is Professor Michael Scharf, host of the conference. Professor Scheffer’s book, All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of the War Crimes Tribunals (Princeton 2012), is a memoir of his time in service as America’s Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues. AIDP is the French acronym for L'Association International du Droit Pénal, a Paris-based society of international criminal law scholars, judges and attorneys founded in 1924 that enjoys consultative status with the United Nations. Professor Kelly has served as president of the U.S. National Section of AIDP since 2008.

Creighton alumna Francie Riedmann, JD'93, was sworn in as a judge of the Nebraska Court of Appeals, Third Judicial District, on Aug. 23 in Lincoln, Neb. Riedmann graduated summa cum laude from the Law School. The Third Judicial District of the State Court of Appeals includes several counties in northeast Nebraska. Read the story in The Daily Record. (Photo by Lorraine Boyd, The Daily Record) 

The Honorable Robert Pratt, JD'72, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Iowa, was recently honored for his years of service as a federal judge. Judge Pratt was recognized with senior status on July 1 of this year after 15 years of dedicated service to the bench. He served as chief judge of the district from May 2, 2006, to Oct. 31, 2011. A resolution was adopted at the Eighth Circuit Judicial Conference in Kansas City expressing regard, respect, appreciation and best wishes for Judge Pratt. You can read that resolution here. In addition to his work on the bench, Judge Pratt is a long-time member of Creighton Law School's Advisory Board and will receive the Law School's 2012 Alumni Merit Award during Alumni Weekend.

Creighton School of Law alumnus Bob Ginn, JD'83, was an inspiration to classmates, family and friends. Paralyzed from the chest down in a water-skiing accident, Ginn graduated from Creighton law school, worked for nine years at Kutak Rock, and went on to earn master's degrees in Christian spirituality and in theology from Creighton. Ginn died Aug. 14 from pulmonary failure. Read the story in the Omaha World-Herald.

Creighton law graduate Marty Conboy, JD'80, is retiring in August as Omaha's city prosecutor after 31 years in municipal government. Conboy joined the City Prosecutor's Office in 1981 and began serving as city prosecutor in September 1994. He was recently profiled in an Omaha World-Herald article.

Judge Ronald L. Brown, JD'77, retired Aug. 3, after serving 18 years on the bench of the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Court. Then-Gov. Ben Nelson appointed Brown to the bench of the court on April 8, 1994. Read more in the Daily Record.

Police lies are tolerated - and even encouraged - by the Kansas justice system, according to research conducted by Creighton law alumnus Dan Monnat, JD'76, and Paige A. Nichols of Monnat & Spurrier, Chartered. Published in the July 2012 issue of the Journal of the Kansas Association for Justice, their article, "To Protect and Serve and Lie? Why Even 'Good' Police Lies are Bad for Kansas Justice," is a legal review of the ways in which police lies are accepted within the Kansas justice system, and the subsequent harm that comes from them.

"A review of case law from around Kansas and the United States shows that when police officers are encouraged to believe that their investigatory lies are 'for the public good,' that justification may lead to a willingness to lie in court," Monnat said.

While the article explores the harm that comes from police lies, it's not a call to end all police lies in the field.

"We recognize that eliminating lies is unlikely, and perhaps even undesirable," Monnat said. "Rather, our article is a call to skepticism about the value of police lies, and the tolerance with which the justice system should view them. We are simply pointing out that courts, litigators and legislators can and should take action to curb lies, to ensure the trustworthiness of both out-of-court police work and in-court evidence."

Monnat has been a criminal defense lawyer representing high-profile clients for the past 35 years. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the Litigation Counsel of America. He has been one of the Top 100 Super Lawyers in Kansas and Missouri each year since 2005.

Twenty-nine students, including two from Nairobi, Kenya, spent a month this summer in Germany and the Netherlands studying international law — and how traumatic societal events like the Holocaust impact the law — as part of a new study-abroad program, "From Nuremberg to The Hague," offered through the Creighton Law School. (The class is pictured at left at Dachau.)

“In line with its mission of service and justice, Creighton Law School was thrilled to create this new program for students in Germany,” said Michael Kelly, professor of law and associate dean for international programs, who coordinated the program. “Teaching classes about societal wrongs and the plight of victims in the very place they occurred is a remarkable experience for both students and teachers.

“It is vitally important that younger generations never forget the Holocaust and become imbued with a sense of vigilance and care for their fellow man.”

Guided by leading faculty in international law, students explored the theoretical and practical reaches of major international crimes: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression. They also studied the influence of the Holocaust on the development of international crimes, human rights law, peremptory norms, transitional justice, hate speech prohibitions, genocide denial laws and modern governmental bureaucracies.

Classes were held at the Nuremberg State Museum, site of the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds, near the city center. Nuremberg, which hosted the Nazi war crimes trials after World War II, is widely regarded as the birthplace of modern international criminal law.

Students also visited The Hague, where war criminals are currently being prosecuted in the International Criminal Court, the Special Chambers of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

Classroom work was enriched with field trips to such sites as the Dachau Concentration Camp and the War Crimes Documentation Center at Philipps University in Marburg. The War Crimes Documentation Center and Philipps University helped co-sponsor the program, along with the U.S. National Section of the International Association of Penal Law.

Creighton Law alumna Francie Riedmann, JD'93, was appointed to the Nebraska Court of Appeals on July 31. Riedmann practices law with Gross & Welch. Read the Omaha World-Herald article.

Professor Nicholas Mirkay has published an article, Hall v. U.S.: Chapter 12 Debtors Liable for Post-Petition Taxes, in the online journal of the National Association of Chapter Thirteen Trustees, ConsiderChapter13.org, edited by Professor Michaela White. The article concerns the intersection of bankruptcy and federal income taxes. Download a copy here.　

Professor Sean Watts has just returned from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he spent two weeks teaching Constitutional Law to rising 4th-year ("Firsty") cadets, fulfilling his annual active duty obligation. West Point’s Law Department filmed part of his class to help train other faculty there. He also attended West Point’s graduation and commissioning ceremonies. Professor Watts is currently in Tallinn, Estonia, at the Fourth International Conference on Cyber Conflict, sponsored by NATO’s Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. The Conference convenes more than 300 cyber security experts and professionals from government, military, and academia. During the conference, Professor Watts will present his new paper, "The Notion of Combatancy in Cyber Warfare." The paper will be published as part of the 2012 Conference proceedings. The full agenda is available here. Next, Professor Watts travels to Nuremburg, Germany, where he will teach in Creighton Law's new Nuremberg to The Hague Program.

Professor Carol Knoepfler gave a presentation during the annual conference of the Legal Writing Institute (LWI) last week, where she led an interactive mock class, entitled "The Seven Dirty Words in Legal Writing." Those seven words -- "I thought I was a good writer" -- comprise a phrase almost all 1L's use when they first get feedback on a legal writing assignment. She compared a poem, a speech, and a scene from a play with a reported court opinion, and showed how to help students realize that just because one is adept at other types of writing does not automatically translate into being a good legal writer.

Professor G. Michael Fenner has published an article, "Attorney Deception: The Honorable Lyle E. Strom and Professor Tory L. Lucas," in the May/June 2012 issue of The Nebraska Lawyer. In the article, he focuses on the work of three Creighton Law alumni -- Federal District Judge Lyle E. Strom ('53), Public Defender Tom Riley ('75), and Professor Tory L. Lucas ('95) -- regarding a criminal case in Omaha where lawyer Terry Haddock, in cooperation with police, supplied cell phones to Shannon Williams, a prisoner in the Douglas County Correctional Center (DCCC) awaiting trial on drug charges. Police monitored all of Williams’ conversations on those phones. Haddock represented Richard Conway, William’s co-defendant, also held in the DCCC. Haddock repeatedly told Williams that he could not represent him and was not his lawyer, but the two met in the DCCC some 63 times between April and December 2009.　

At trial, Riley argued that Haddock’s actions as an attorney and government informant were outrageous conduct, and that use of evidence so gathered was a denial of due process and a violation of attorney-client privilege. Judge Strom overruled both objections in his opinion in U.S. v. Williams, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28960 (March 21, 2011). While teaching professional responsibility as a visitor at the University of Nebraska College of Law, Lucas wrote an article that explored the ethical quandaries posed by Haddock’s conduct, suggesting the need for a narrow exception to current "no deception" rules to cover this case. See 89 Neb. L. Rev. 219 (2010).　

Elizabeth Eynon-Kokrda ('96) of Baird Holm LLP has been elected Chair of the Board of the National School Boards Association (NSBA) Council of School Attorneys. In addition to serving as Chair of the Council, she will sit as an ex-officio member of the Board of the NSBA. The Board of Directors of the Council of School Attorneys (COSA) oversees 3,000 members nationwide who work to improve the practice of education law and prevent lawsuits against public schools. An affiliate of the NSBA, COSA represents state school board associations in working with federal government agencies and national organizations that impact education across the United States, and advocates for "equity and excellence in public education through school board leadership." Learn more here.

The Honorable Douglas F. Johnson ('87, pictured left), Judge of the Separate Juvenile Court of Douglas County, recently received the 2012 Commissioner’s Award from the Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) during an annual conference in Washington, D.C. This prestigious award honors one recipient from each state who has made exceptional contributions to the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect in his or her state, district, or territory. The Douglas County Juvenile Court is one of 36 Model Courts nationwide that is implementing strategies designed to improve the handling of child abuse and neglect cases. Judge Johnson also teaches Juvenile Law as an adjunct professor at Creighton, and he is the 2010 recipient of the Law School's Alumni Merit Award. He was appointed Judge of the Separate Juvenile Court of Douglas County in 1993.

Bryan Hanson, Assistant Director of The Werner Institute, recently delivered the keynote address for the annual meeting of the Chicago Chapter of the Association of Conflict Resolution. His presentation was entitled, "Online Dispute Resolution: Where Does It Take Us?" Hanson's remarks "also provided an excellent opportunity to highlight the good work we are doing here at Creighton Law," said Dean Marianne B. Culhane. The ACR Chicago website and annual meeting program can be found here.

Jamal Jackson (3L) was the featured speaker during the Creighton Diversity Scholars/Markoe Leadership Program's Award Ceremony at Morrison Stadium on April 20. As an undergraduate at Creighton, Jackson was honored for his work on the Martin Luther King Committee, and he also served as president of the African-American Student Association (CUASA), the Association of Minority Greek Organizations (AMGO) and Diversity Recruitment, Enrichment, and Awareness by Multicultural Students (DREAMS). He will graduate with Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration degrees in May. Watch the video of his remarks during the ceremony on April 20 here.

Creighton Law School and the Omaha Bar Association held the Sixth Annual Seminar on Ethics and Professionalism on Friday, April 13, from 1:30 to 5 p.m. in the Hixson-Lied Auditorium of the Mike and Josie Harper Center at Creighton University. Presenters included: Prof. Stephen C. Sieberson (pictured), Creighton Law School; The Honorable Michael G. Heavican, Chief Justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court; and J. Scott Paul of the law firm of McGrath North. More than 250 guests were in attendance. The event was approved for 2.5 CLE ethics credits in Nebraska and Iowa. Read a summary from The Daily Record, Omaha's legal newspaper, here.

Creighton Law's team of Mark Farrell, Analise Vela, Ken Wilson, and Doug Amen were named semifinalists during the 2012 ABA Criminal Justice Trial Advocacy Competition in Chicago. Undefeated in the preliminary rounds, the team lost a split decision in the semifinals to the eventual national champion. Amen, Farrell, and Vela each won an individual award for achieving a perfect score in a preliminary round. Learn more about the competition here.

Creighton Law alumnus Kevin McEvoy ('10), who is currently completing a prestigious Presidential Management Fellowship in Washington, D.C., has published an article, "HOPE: A Swift and Certain Process for Probationers," in the NIJ Journal (Issue No. 269, March 2012). Established in 1977, the Presidential Management Fellowship Program provides training for careers in public service or in the private sector. This rigorous two-year paid program includes formal classroom training, a mandatory developmental assignment, optional rotations of one to six months in duration, and opportunities to network with other future leaders. McEvoy is currently working in the Office of General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and he has also completed a rotation at the U.S. Department of Justice. Download a copy of his article here.

The 2012 Pittman Award Ceremony was held on Thursday, Feb. 23. This year, the award was given posthumously to Creighton Law alumna Evelyn E. Labode ('92), who died in 2011. Pictured (left to right) are Treena Labode (daughter-in-law), Moyo Labode (son), Ayo Labode (daughter and 1997 Creighton Law alumna), Modupe Labode (daughter), Bode Labode (husband), and Yinka Oladosu (cousin). In September 2011, the Nebraska Juvenile Justice Association renamed its Service to Youth Award in Labode's honor. The award is now known as the Evelyn E. Labode Service to Youth Award. Learn more here. 

The 2012 TePoel Lecture was held in Room 124 of the Ahmanson Law Center on Friday, March 23, at 11:30 a.m. The featured speaker was Prof. John Burwell Garvey (pictured). The event followed the Creighton Law Review Symposium, held earler that morning, with the theme of "Changes in Legal Education and the Professional and Ethical Implications for Practicing Attorneys." The lecture and symposium were approved for four hours of CLE credit in Nebraska (including 1.5 hours of ethics credit). Prof. Garvey addressed the topic, "Making Law Students Client-Ready: A New Model in Legal Education." Watch a video of the lecture here. Read a summary that was published in The Daily Record here.

In late February, Creighton Law made a first-time appearance in the Niagara International Moot Court Competition, held this year in Washington, D.C. This event has been held every year since 1976, and is a program of the Canada-United States Law Institute. The hypothetical cases argued each year are problems of international law. The 2012 case involved a dispute between Canada and the United States at the International Court of Justice, and it concerned issues of the territorial sovereignty of a developing nation, humanitarian intervention, genocide, and head of state immunity. Creighton was represented by four 3L students -- Paul Allen, Kristina Day, Molly McCleery, and Kathleen Pitts. The team was advised by student coach, Christine Schaad, and Prof. Stephen C. Sieberson.

Competing against Cornell, Georgetown, American University and a number of other U.S. and Canadian law schools, Creighton participated in six rounds of arguments and reached the final four. In addition to earning an award for participating in the semifinals, Creighton's team earned the coveted award for best memorial (brief) on the respondent's side, and Allen was named runner-up as outstanding individual advocate. Pictured (left to right) are Kristina Day, Christine Schaad, Kathleen Pitts, Paul Allen, Molly McCleery, and Prof. Stephen C. Sieberson.

Creighton Law alumna Gayla L. Thal ('80) was named Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Union Pacific, effective March 15. Previously, she had served as Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer, and, in that capacity, she led Union Pacific's Compliance and Ethics Program to encourage a culture of ethics and to prevent violation of legal requirements. She also led and managed legal matters for the railroad, including commercial transactions and litigation, regulatory matters, labor, and employment. Thal began her career with Union Pacific in 1980 as a litigator, and served in the operating department for two years before assuming responsibility for the claims department in 1993. In 1997, she was named Vice President-Risk Management, where she led and managed departments responsible for preventing and responding to operations failures, including operating practices, environmental issues, chemical transportation, security, medical, and claims. She has represented the railroad industry and Union Pacific on related public policy matters, and also has led industry joint defense initiatives. Thal has served as adjunct faculty at Creighton Law, and she also has served on the 8th Circuit Practice and Procedures and Judicial Conference committees. Read the press release from Union Pacific here.

During the spring 2012 semester, Creighton sent two trial teams to compete at the regional level of a competition sponsored by the Texas Young Lawyers’ Association and held at Gonzaga Law School in Spokane, WA. Creighton was named champion of the region. Both Creighton teams won all their preliminary and semifinal rounds. In the final rounds (there are two bracketed finals), Christine Galt, Cory Campbell, and Joshua Dunyon won and advanced to the national finals, which were held March 22-24 in Austin, TX. Ryan Sandstrom, Ben Williams and Marcus Sladek lost in their final round to second-place winner Montana. Both teams were coached by Prof. R. Collin Mangrum. Pictured (left to right) are Prof. Mangrum, Marcus Sladek, Ben Williams, Josh Dunyon, Ryan Sandstrom, Christine Galt, and Corey Campbell. Learn more about the competition here.

Prof. G. Michael Fenner will receive ACLU Nebraska's 2012 Robert M. Spire Founders Service Award during a ceremony on Saturday, March 10, in Omaha's Tip Top Ballroom. ACLU Nebraska, founded in 1966 as the Nebraska Civil Liberties Union, is a nonprofit, non-partisan, privately-funded organization devoted exclusively to the defense and promotion of the individual rights secured by the U.S. and Nebraska constitutions. As it is described on the organization's website, the Robert M. Spire Founders Service Award "is given to someone who has consistently worked with ACLU Nebraska for a lengthy period of time to advance civil liberties."

On March 8, Prof. Fenner will serve as the keynote speaker during the annual joint dinner for members of the Omaha Bar Association and the Metro Omaha Medical Society. He will address "The Constitutionality of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a.k.a., Obamacare." Prof. Fenner is the President-Elect Designate of the Nebraska State Bar Association.

Prof. Sean Watts has been elected a member of the prestigious Institute of International Humanitarian Law. Headquartered in Villa Ormond, Sanremo (Italy), the Institute is an independent, non-profit humanitarian organization whose main purpose is to promote international humanitarian law, human rights, refugee law, and related issues. Since its founding in 1970, the Institute has earned an international reputation as a center of excellence in the field of training, research, and the dissemination of all aspects of international humanitarian law. The Institute works in close collaboration with important international organizations dedicated to the humanitarian cause, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). It has operational relations with the EU, UNESCO, NATO, OIF (International Francophony Organisation), and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. It has consultative status with the United Nations (ECOSOC) and the Council of Europe.

Creighton hosted the ABA Client Counseling Competition (Region 8) on Feb. 17 and 18. This competition was one of 12 regional competitions held at various sites around the country. It is organized and sponsored by the Law Student Division of the American Bar Association. Eight teams participated in this regional competition. The teams were from law schools in Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, and Minnesota.　

The ABA Client Counseling Competition simulates a law office consultation in which two students, acting as lawyers, are presented with a client matter. They conduct an interview with a person playing the role of the client, help the client determine what options are available, and help the client decide on a course of action. Three-judge panels observe the same client being interviewed by different teams. The judges then decide which teams of lawyers did the best job in light of the judging criteria, and they provide feedback to the students.

Along with more than 20 outside attorneys and counselors, 11 faculty members served as judges. A total of 13 Creighton Law students played the roles of clients. First and second places in the competition were awarded to the University of Nebraska. Third place was awarded to William Mitchell School of Law. Creighton did not have a team in this competition because its teams competed at Northern Kentucky. The winning team will next compete at the National Competition in March.

The competition was administered by the Creighton Negotiations and Client Counseling Board, Associate Dean Ed Birmingham, and Profs. Cate Brooks (pictured) and Larry Teply. In previous years, Prof. Teply has served on the ABA committee that organizes the competition. He is currently the United States Representative to the Brown-Mosten International Client Consultation Competition.

Assoc. Dean Michael Kelly has published an article, Ending Corporate Impunity for Genocide: The Case Against China’s State-Owned Petroleum Company in Sudan, in the Oregon Law Review. This paper is a case study that applies corporate criminal law to the international crime of genocide in Darfur and explores the reaches of culpability for companies complicit in genocide. Download a copy of the article here. Last year, he introduced his theory in this area in the Emory International Law Review, and the remainder of the theoretical piece will be published later this year in the Harvard Law & Policy Review. This series of articles grew out of his participation in the 4th Biennial Four Societies scholarship workshop in Awaji, Japan, sponsored in 2010 by the American Society of International Law.

Creighton Law alumnus Jim Seifert ('82), a new member of the Law Advisory Board, was profiled in The National Law Journal in January. Seifert serves as Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of Ecolab, Inc., a firm that operates in more than 100 countries. Read the article here.

Creighton Law congratulates the national moot court team of Alex Boyd, Emma Nagengast, and Aaron Junge (pictured, left to right), and their coach, Prof. Dan Real. Earlier this week, the team advanced to the "Sweet 16" in the ABA's National Moot Competition in New York City, before they were eliminated in a very close round. Only the top-30 teams in the U.S. made it to the national finals in NYC, after each qualified by placing first or second in regional rounds last fall. This Creighton team won the Best Brief Award and placed second in the Columbia, MO, regional (missing first place by one point in a split decision). This was the first time in five years that Creighton has qualified for the national rounds of this prestigious competition.

"Thanks to this team, our coach, and to Creighton's other ABA moot court team of Corey Campbell, Jamal Jackson, and Ryan Sandstrom, for all the time and talent they committed to this effort," said Dean Marianne Culhane. "Thanks, also, to the many alumni and other local lawyers and judges who gave up many hours on evenings and weekends to judge and critique our students in practice rounds."

For a full week in early January, a group of 10 Creighton Law students, along with Profs. David Weber and Ronald Volkmer, participated in the law school's seventh "immersion" trip to the Dominican Republic. Creighton Law's program, which is conducted under the auspices of the Creighton Institute for Latin-American Concern (ILAC), is structured to provide students with opportunities to witness and encounter all aspects of Dominican life, law, and culture. The program, based on the charism of Ignatian Spirituality, included an opportunity for discernment and reflection under the direction of Fr. Bill Johnson, S.J., the chaplain at the ILAC Center. Learn more about Creighton Law's trips to the Dominican Republic here.

Alumna Jessica A. Perez ('01) served as the 2011 President of the State Bar of New Mexico Board of Bar Commissioners. Perez is a native of Bernalillo where she practices with her father, former District Court Judge George Pérez, her brother Christopher, and her mother Veronica, their paralegal. She was previously employed as a field representative for U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, as an assistant attorney, and as an analyst for the State Senate. A Bar Commissioner since 2003, she is past chair of the Personnel Committee and a member of the Bylaws and Policies, Annual Meeting Planning, Bench and Bar Relations, Finance, and Governmental Affairs committees. She is also a past president of the Sandoval County Bar Association.

Creighton Law alumnus and "Band of Brothers" member, Thomas Burke ('51), has recently published his memoirs. Entitled A Life Lived for Others: The Tom Burke Story, the book was written by Burke's grandson, Robert Thomas Marcell, a trained historian. As Marcell writes in the book's preface, "...[W]ithin these pages -- compiled from more than sixty hours of recorded interviews, from countless books and documents, from newspaper articles, from academic yearbooks, from legal reviews, and from newsletters -- you will find the story of a man who found happiness not in pursuing self-serving goals, but in leading his life in service to others. Through his touching, humorous, and insightful story, it is his hope and mine that you will be inspired by his example to measure your success not in wealth nor prestige, but in how much you have helped improve the lives and happiness of others, many of whom you will never know." Burke was the 1991 recipient of Creighton Law's Alumni Merit Award, among other honors.

Creighton Law alumna Jill Robb Ackerman ('84) was recently appointed to serve a four-year term on the prestigious Commission on Uniform State Laws. Established in 1892, this commission (also known as the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws) provides states with non-partisan legislation that brings clarity and stability to critical areas of state statutory law. Members are practicing lawyers, judges, legislators, legislative staff, and law professors, who have been appointed by state governments to research, draft, and promote enactment of uniform state laws in areas of state law where uniformity is desirable and practical. A partner in the Omaha law firm of Baird Holm, Ackerman was recently appointed by Gov. Dave Heineman. Read the announcement on the Omaha World-Herald here.

Kelly Lynn Anders, Director of Communications and Diversity, has published her second book, Advocacy to Zealousness: Learning Lawyering Skills from Classic Films (Carolina Academic Press, 2012). The book has recently been featured in The National Law Journal and The Daily Record. Anders is also the author of The Organized Lawyer (Carolina Academic Press, 2009).

Effective January 2012, Prof. Nancy Lawler Dickhute will join the Career Development Office staff to help students and recent graduates find law-related employment. Prof. Dickhute will also continue to direct Creighton Law's thriving Externship Program, maintaining her contacts with area employers. Her title will be Director of Professional Relations. During the spring 2012 semester, Prof. Dickhute and Assistant Dean Tammy King will conduct a joint presentation during the Externship VI Conference, which will be held at Harvard and Northeastern law schools in March 2012. The topic is entitled, "Working Together for Career Development: Externships and Career Services."

Creighton University School of Law has launched a new summer abroad program, "From Nuremberg to The Hague." Under the guidance of Creighton Law faculty, including Assoc. Dean Michael Kelly (pictured) and Prof. Sean Watts, students will spend the month of June in Germany and The Netherlands, where they will complete two courses that will enable them to explore the reaches of international criminal law, the impact of the Holocaust on the law, and the prosecution of war criminals and perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity. Learn more about the program here.

Prof. G. Michael Fenner conducted a presentation on "The Admissibility of Web-Based Evidence and a Related New Rule Applicable to the Attorney-Client Privilege" during the Iowa State Bar Association's Federal Practice Seminar in Des Moines on Friday, Dec. 9. About 300 lawyers attended his presentation. See the full schedule here.

Prof. Ran Kuttner, Associate Professor of Negotiation and Dispute Resolution in The Werner Institute, is a member of the Middle East Section of Mediators Beyond Borders (MBB), a volunteer mediation organization that serves communities around the world. Through MBB, Prof. Kuttner worked during his summer visit to Israel and during the fall semester on helping community mediation centers in mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel develop their curriculum and training. While in Israel, he gave a workshop on leadership skills for a mixed group of Jewish and Arab women mediators working in community mediation centers. He also helped design the Israeli community mediation centers' annual conference, which will be held in Israel in early December. In the conference, several MBB members will give presentations, as well as Dr. Sara Cobb, a leading expert in Narrative Mediation from George Mason University, who will provide several workshops sponsored by MBB to help community mediators in mixed Jewish-Arab cities assist stakeholders in private and public disputes arrive at better coexistence using narrative mediation techniques.

The 2011 Lane Lecture was held in Room 124 of the Ahmanson Law Center on Thursday, Nov. 10, at 4 p.m. The featured speaker was Prof. Ann Southworth (pictured). This lecture was approved for one hour of CLE credit in Nebraska and Iowa. Prof. Southworth's remarks were drawn from her book, Lawyers of the Right: Professionalizing the Conservative Coalition (University of Chicago Press, 2008). A reception followed in the Schneider Commons. Watch the video here.

Both Creighton Law School and The Werner Institute hosted conferences in early November. On Nov. 4 and 5, The Werner Institute hosted the 6th annual AALS Dispute Resolution Section Works-in-Progress Conference, with a select group of ADR scholars presenting ongoing research and seeking suggestions from the other presenters. Profs. Arthur Pearlstein, Bernie Mayer (whose book is pictured), and Palma Strand gave presentations, along with Creighton Law alumnus Scott Hughes ('76), who is now on the faculty at the University of New Mexico School of Law. Other presenters included law faculty from Marquette, Loyola Marymount, Kansas, Missouri-Columbia, North Carolina, Oregon, Toledo, Hamline, La Verne, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Concurrently, Creighton Law hosted the 4th annual Complex Issues in Juvenile Law Practice Conference. Held in the Ballroom of the Mike & Josie Harper Center on Nov. 4, this continuing education program was organized by Creighton Law alumna Christine Costantakos ('78). Among the presenters were Douglas County Juvenile Court Judges Vernon Daniels and Douglas Johnson ('87), the latter of whom recently received Creighton Law's Alumni Merit Award.

 

 

 

Creighton Law congratulates this year's Moot Court winners: John Matson and Grant Mullin, First Place team; Jessica Gil and Lawrence Roland, Second Place team; John Matson, Outstanding Oralist; Kara Stockdale, Best Brief; and Kamaal Patterson, Runner-Up Best Brief. Watch the final round here.

Prof. G. Michael Fenner has recently become President-Elect Designate of the Nebraska State Bar Association. Having just completed a year of service as Chair of the NSBA's House of Delegates, he will train to serve as NSBA President two years hence. In addition, Prof. Fenner gave a presentation on "Current Issues in Evidence" during the 2011 Fall Judges' Meeting, held in conjunction with the NSBA's Annual Meeting in Lincoln last week. See the agenda here.

Creighton Law's 2011 Red Mass was held in St. John's Church on the Creighton University campus on Tuesday, Oct. 4, at 5:30 p.m. Fr. Timothy R. Lannon, S.J. (pictured), president of Creighton University, presided, assisted by members of Creighton’s Jesuit community. This annual Law School tradition provides an opportunity to pray for guidance in the study, practice, and interpretation of law, and it is typically held during the first week in October to coincide with the start of the U.S. Supreme Court's session. A reception followed in the Schneider Commons at the Law School. A centuries-old tradition, the "Red Mass" was named for the red vestments worn by the priests to signify the fire of the Holy Spirit, along with the scarlet robes that were historically worn by judges and doctors of law. Learn more about the history of the Red Mass here.

Creighton Law's 2011 TePoel Lecture, held on Sept. 28, featured remarks by Russell Sullivan (pictured). More than 130 guests were in attendance. Sullivan currently serves as the Democratic Staff Director for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, which has jurisdiction over legislation concerning Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and taxes. A tax attorney by training, Sullivan has played a pivotal role in every major tax and health measure over the past decade, including the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, and the 2010 Affordable Care Act. The TePoel Lecture Series is named in honor of Dean Louis TePoel, teacher, scholar, and academic administrator, who served on the Creighton Law School faculty from 1907 to 1947, and as Dean from 1920 to 1947. Inaugurated in 1975 with a lecture given by Professor Harold J. Berman of the Harvard Law School, the series has featured many legal scholars of national and international reputation. One hour of Nebraska CLE credit has been approved. Read the University's press release here.

Creighton Law's 2011 International Law Lecture marked the 50th anniversary of the trial of infamous Nazi Adolf Eichmann with a talk by Justice Gabriel Bach (pictured), Israeli Supreme Court (ret.), the prosecutor at Eichmann's war crimes trial. The event was held on Thursday, Sept. 22, at 5 p.m. in the auditorium of the Mike & Josie Harper Center. The lecture was co-sponsored by the Institute for Holocaust Education, Kutak Rock Foundation, Heartland Holocaust Education Fund, Anti-Defamation League--Plain States Region, and the Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Read the University's press release here. Read a recap from the Omaha World-Herald here.

Prof. Carol Knoepfler has become Creighton Law's Director of Legal Writing.  She has worked over the past year to restructure the Legal Research & Writing ("LRW") Program, which is now housed in Room 105 in the Ahmanson Law Center. Before joining Creighton Law, Prof. Knoepfler was a partner in the Baird Holm law firm, and was also a law clerk for Justice Lindsey Miller-Lerman of the Nebraska Supreme Court. More recently, she served as Creighton Law's full-time Interim Director of the LRW Program. During the summer of 2011, Room 105 was remodeled into an office suite for the legal writing faculty. Learn more about Creighton Law's LRW faculty here.

This fall, Creighton Law's inaugural Master of Science in Government Organization and Leadership ("GOAL") Program class will spend the semester working and studying in Washington, D.C. The D.C. office of the law firm of Husch Blackwell generously donated classroom space for the group, and the firm will host several outings during the semester, including a recent dinner at the stately Metropolitan Club. Husch Blackwell's managing partner in the D.C. office is Creighton Law 1989 alumnus, Steve Kupka (pictured with the group, far left). Despite the earthquake and hurricane that punctuated their first week in our Nation's Capitol, the group is faring well. The GOAL Program requires students to work for a full semester in an externship in a federal agency in Washington, D.C. This semester, placements include the Peace Corps and the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Learn more about the GOAL Program here.

Professors G. Michael Fenner and Sean Watts (pictured) were featured speakers during the 2011 Eighth Circuit Judicial Conference in Rapid City, S.D. Prof. Fenner spoke on the admissibility of web-based evidence and attorney-client privilege, and Prof. Watts presented an update on developments in Constitutional Law. During the conference, they also had the opportunity to meet informally with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, along with most of the federal judiciary from the Eighth Circuit. In addition to Nebraska, other states in the Eighth Circuit include Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Learn more about the Eighth Circuit here.

Associate Dean Michael Kelly concluded a third year of successful talks this summer with officials of the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq concerning the final draft of the region's first Constitution. Dean Kelly is pictured here with the Secretary General of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The Kurdistan Constitution is due to be ratified by referendum and promulgated in the Fall of 2011. Dean Kelly's article in the Penn State Law Review on the Kurdistan Constitution can be found here.

Omaha has recently received several noteworthy rankings from national sources. Forbes recently included Omaha in its 2011 ranking of America's 25 Best Places for Business and Careers. Kiplinger has ranked Omaha as the No. 1 Best Value City of 2011. Additionally, Yahoo! Finance has ranked Omaha as the No. 5 Best City for Young Professionals. "This is great news for Creighton Law School, and for our students and alumni," said Dean Marianne Culhane. "We've always known that Omaha is special, and it's wonderful to see that the nation is taking notice."

Creighton Law mourns the loss of former Associate Dean and Assistant Professor Barbara Gaskins (JD '76), the Law School's first woman administrator, who passed away early Saturday morning while aboard a cruise ship. She died in her sleep of heart failure, likely caused by complications of the diabetes she had fought for so many years. After retiring in 2008, Barb and her husband, Ken, lived in Cave Creek, AZ, just north of Phoenix, where they enjoyed golf, bridge, and spending time with their many friends in Arizona and Nebraska. "Barb was a great friend to all who knew her," said Dean Marianne Culhane. "Her kindness, wisdom, and hearty laugh blessed us and our students for many (but not nearly enough) years." Read her obituary here. The University's official statement is available here. A memorial service was held at the Law School on Saturday, July 23, at 1 p.m.

Creighton Law's Class of 1951 held its 60th anniversary reunion on June 3 and 4 in Omaha. Alumni in attendance included: (front row, from left) Bob Marcotte, Virgil Anderson, B.J. Cunningham, Tom Walsh, and Dale Kent; and (back row, from left) Wallace Hopkins, Emil Sodoro, Dick O’Toole, Dick Stageman, Tom Burke, and Frank Svoboda. A 2001 Creighton Law publication labeled the class "Creighton’s Band of Brothers" because many enrolled at the University on the G.I. Bill after having served in World War II. Read the article here.

On Monday, June 27, Gov. Dave Heineman officially announced five appointments to fill judicial vacancies for two district court and two county court seats in the Omaha area, as well as a judge to serve on the Nebraska Court of Appeals. Four appointees are Creighton Law grads. Marcela Keim ('99) and Sheryl Lohaus ('90) will fill vacancies on the County Court of the Fourth Judicial District, created by the retirements of Judge Thomas McQuade and Judge Stephen Swartz. Timothy Burns ('84) and Duane Dougherty ('87) will replace Judge Gerald Moran and Judge Patricia Lamberty, who are both retiring from the District Court in the Fourth Judicial District. Read the full press release here.

Creighton Law's chapter of the Black Law Students Association (BLSA) hosted its second annual Diversity Law School Expo in the Mike and Josie Harper Center at Creighton University on Saturday, July 16, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. BLSA member and recent graduate Destynie Jenkins ('11, pictured) was among the speakers during the 2010 Expo. This event is open to high school, undergratuate, and graduate students who are interested in learning more about attending law school. In addition to panel discussions with law students and attorneys, the Expo included a networking luncheon. The keynote speaker was Creighton Law Prof. Raneta Mack. About 30 guests attended. For additional information, please contact Karen Hicks at karenhicks@creighton.edu.

The weather outside may have been unseasonably cool, but sentiments were warm during a special lunch on June 22 in Des Moines. The Iowa Creighton Lawyers honored Dean Emeritus Rodney Shkolnick during an Alumni Luncheon, in conjunction with the Iowa State Bar Association's annual meeting. Dean Shkolnick is celebrating his 50th year on the Creighton Law faculty.

Prof. Michaela White (pictured) and Dean Marianne Culhane gave presentations during the Eighth Circuit Bankruptcy Judges Conference on Saturday, June 4. The event was held at Eugene T. Mahoney State Park in Ashland, Neb. Prof. White discussed standing issues under negotiable instruments law when creditors seek to foreclose mortgages during the debtor's bankruptcy proceeding, with particular reference to the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS). Dean Culhane's paper covered the 2010 amendments to UCC Article 9, with respect to financing statements. Nebraska is one of seven states that have enacted these amendments.

Four Creighton Law students -- Christine Galt, Laura Hill, Andrew White, and Jaclyn Wyatt -- have been selected to participate in the Equal Justice Works 2011 Summer Corps Program. With a record of 1,898 applications this year, the selection process was extremely competitive. This year's Summer Corps class represents 163 Equal Justice Works law schools. These law students will receive a $1,132 AmeriCorps education award upon completion of service at a nonprofit organization. Members provide critically-needed legal assistance to low-income and underserved communities around the country. In addition, Summer Corps members gain first-hand experience and legal skills in areas such as client intake, individual representation, research, and writing.

Summer Corps members are engaged in a broad range of issues, including civil rights, community economic development, death penalty, disability rights, housing, domestic violence, education, public benefits, and workers' rights. Galt will work at the Douglas County Public Defender's Office, and Wyatt will work at Lutheran Immigration Services of Nebraska. Hill and White will work in the Iowa Public Defender's Office in Council Bluffs. All four students will begin their third year of law school in the fall.

Prof. David Weber completed two presentations in May. He first gave a presentation during the 2011 LatCrit South-North Exchange on Theory, Culture and Law Conference, Migratory Currents in the Americas, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He discussed the topic of state and local regulation of immigration law, with a particular focus on recent Nebraska-based legislation, and the issue of federal-versus-local regulation of immigration-related laws and ordinances. Details about the conference are available here. Later in the month, Prof. Weber participated in the 2011 Emerging Immigration Law Scholars (EILS) Conference, during which he gave a presentation on Corporate Law Lessons for Immigration Law. Learn more about the EILS Conference here.

Nebraska's children will soon be eligible for increased health insurance options -- thanks, in part, to comments provided by Creighton Law student Jennifer Piatt ('12). Piatt was interviewed in an article that was published in the Omaha World-Herald in April that highlighted the plight of parents who lack insurance options for their children. In the article, Piatt discussed the difficulties she faced in finding coverage for her nine-year-old daughter, Isabelle (pictured with Piatt). A week later, a second World-Herald article was published, announcing that the Nebraska Comprehensive Health Insurance Pool Board voted to start accepting children who cannot get insurance because of the unavailability of child-only policies. Read both articles here and here.

Assoc. Dean Craig Dallon has published an article, "The Anti-Bootlegging Provisions: Congressional Power and Constitutional Limitations," in the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law. The anti-bootlegging provisions in question are civil and criminal federal statutes prohibiting the unauthorized recording, copying, and distribution of live musical performances. Dean Dallon takes the position that the Commerce Clause "firmly supports Congress' power to enact" legislation of this type, and that legislation does not conflict with the Copyright Clause or violate the First Amendment. Download a copy of the article here.

Creighton Law's Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) makes small grants to recent graduates who hold low-paying public interest jobs to help them pay down their student loans. To be eligible for LRAP, a graduate must work full-time in a law-related position for a nonprofit or governmental unit, other than as a judicial law clerk. Many law students graduate with student loan debt of nearly $100,000; without help, they could not afford to take important, but low-salaried, entry-level jobs as prosecutors, public defenders, or legal aid lawyers.

Years ago, Dean Lawrence Raful launched Creighton Law's LRAP -- named for Robert J. Kutak, founder of the Kutak Rock law firm and a tireless advocate of public service. The program continues to make a difference in the lives of our graduates and their clients. Below is a thank-you note from Ann Miller ('08, pictured), who works with victims of domestic violence at the Douglas County Attorney's Office:

"Your generous support allows me to maintain a career in public service, aiding victims of domestic violence. [T]his work affords me the unique opportunity to work closely with amazing survivors who are daily making great strides to change their present circumstances. Thanks to your charitable giving, I am able to continue providing assistance to those women, children and families as they attempt to create new and better lives. Please accept my sincere thanks."

Creighton Law's LRAP program is not yet endowed. Instead, it is funded by donations from generous alumni and other benefactors. The economic downturn means more law graduates have applied for LRAP, so your donations are more important than ever. The need still outstrips available dollars. Federal law offers aid for those with federal direct loans, but not for loans from private lenders, on which many of our grads have relied. Please help us replenish the Loan Repayment Assistance Fund.

The Rev. John "Jack" Zuercher, S.J., former Creighton Law Chaplain, died Saturday, May 7, in Omaha. He was 86. "Fr. Z," as many knew him, came to Creighton in 1976. During his 35 years at Creighton, he also taught psychology courses and founded the Collaborative Ministry Office.

"Our beloved Father Z was a wonderful chaplain for the Law School," said Dean Marianne Culhane. "In the days before e-mail, he encouraged faculty, staff and students with lively, usually humorous messages on small slips of paper which he delivered to each person's individual mailbox several times each semester. Some were jokes – at least tangentially – about law and lawyers, and others were short prayers and meditations. I'll never forget the retreats he organized, his listening skills, his perfect choices for invocations and benedictions and his deep knowledge of psychology when asked for advice. But it’s those little surprise messages that still make me smile."

Read Creighton University's obituary here, and an obituary that appeared in the Omaha World-Herald here.

Fr. Kevin Kersten, Creighton Law's Chaplain, was recently featured in the Omaha Daily Record. The article includes comments from Dean Marianne Culhane, Prof. Ronald Volkmer, and Prof. David Weber. Download a copy of the article here.

Dean Marianne Culhane (pictured) was the featured speaker during the 2011 Law Day Luncheon, held Tuesday, May 3, at the Coco Key Convention Center in Omaha. Law Day was established by Presidential Proclamation in 1961 as a "special day of celebration by the American people in appreciation of their liberties and their reaffirmation of their loyalty to the United States of America." Dean Culhane spoke on this year's theme, "The Legacy of John Adams: From Boston to Guantanamo." Read a summary from the Omaha Daily Record here. On Monday, May 2, Prof. G. Michael Fenner and attorney Clarence Mock (Oakland, Neb.) debated the issue of protection from cyber-bullying versus protection of First Amendment rights as part of a program for students in grades 8 through 12, many of whom also participated in a Law Day Essay Contest. The event also qualified for one hour of Nebraska Judicial Branch Education credit, and many state appellate court judges were in attendance. See an event announcement here.

Creighton Law School will hold the 2011 Mangrum on Nebraska Evidence Seminar on Thursday, May 19, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event will be held in Room 124 of the Ahmanson Law Center, 21st and Cass Streets, and it has been approved for 6.5 CLE hours in Nebraska and Iowa, including one hour of ethics training. To register, please download a copy of the brochure, complete the registration form, and mail it with the appropriate fee to: Creighton University School of Law, Continuing Legal Education, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE 68178-0208. Learn more about Prof. Richard Collin Mangrum (pictured) here.

Prof. Edward Morse planned and moderated a panel during the ABA Business Law Section's 2011 Spring Meeting on the topic, Privacy Police to Security Sheriffs: The Emerging Federal Role in Regulating Privacy and Data Security Protection. Data security and privacy protection in the United States occur in a diffused regulatory environment, which creates significant uncertainty for businesses and consumers. This program was designed to assist practitioners and in-house attorneys with a broad range of clients dealing with consumer data in assessing, navigating, and limiting potential legal and economic risks. Learn more about the 2011 Sping Meeting here. Download a copy of handouts from the panel here.

Creighton Law hosted a luncheon on April 27 in honor of United States Tax Court Judge Diane L. Kroupa (pictured), who was in Omaha for a week to hear cases. The U.S. Tax Court sits in 75 cities around the country. Cases are saved up until the calendar includes 70 or more, and then a judge is sent to handle them. Creighton Law alumna Elizabeth Boone ('08) served as Judge Kroupa's law clerk for two years, and suggested that Judge Kroupa visit Creighton while she was in town so that she could connect with Creighton's tax faculty and local practitioners. Judge Kroupa and her husband recently visited Elizabeth in Hawaii, where Elizabeth's husband, a Navy commander, is stationed. Learn more about the U.S. Tax Court here and here.

Assoc. Dean Michael Kelly has published "Grafting the Command Responsibility Doctrine onto Corporate Criminal Liability for Atrocities" in the Emory International Law Review. In this article, Assoc. Dean Kelly explores possible corporate criminal liability under the concept of "command responsibility" -- a post-WWII theory holding military commanders accountable for the conduct of their troops and for any atrocities they carried out. He examines the difficulties of applying this theory to corporate actors in the context of a recent Second Circuit decision, Presbyterian Church of Sudan v. Talisman Energy, Inc., 582 F.3d 244 (2d Cir. 2009), which resulted in the granting of summary judgment in favor of Talisman, sued under the Alien Tort Statute for allegedly collaborating with the Sudanese government in genocide. Download a copy of the article here.

Creighton Law alumna Elizabeth Peetz ('10) recently collaborated with Harvard Law School on a legal research project to examine ways in which the Arab Spring can help encourage Bahrain to restructure its constitution and system of government. The study was well-received by senior U.S. State Department and foreign affairs officials, and a corresponding essay, "Constitutional Options for Bahrain," was published in the Virginia Journal of International Law. Read the essay here. Review background papers here.

Assoc. Dean Michael Kelly has published an essay, The Status of Corporations in the 'Travaux Préparatoires' of the Genocide Convention: The Search for Personhood, in the Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law. In his essay, Dean Kelly reminds readers that "only individuals, not states or corporations, were formally charged with war crimes in the Nuremburg trials. However, the International Court of Justice recently held that states are persons under the 1948 Genocide Convention and can be held liable thereunder." The essay explores the question of whether corporations can also be considered "persons" to hold liable for their complicity in the commission of genocide under the Convention. Read the essay here. Additional articles written by Dean Kelly are available here.

Prof. David Weber has published an article, The Murky Mess of MERS, on www.ConsiderChapter13.org, an online resource from the National Association of Chapter 13 Tustees' Academy (NACTT). In this era of "robo-signers," asset-backed securities and unprecedented foreclosures, the mechanics of collecting on a promissory note accompanying a mortgage or deed of trust are often forgotten or not followed for a number of reasons such as: the sheer volume of paperwork accompanying every such file; the fact that many of these promissory notes are indorsed to third parties or are no longer in the possession of the servicer or the interested financial party; or because the notes themselves are simply lost. These cases have been complicated recently due to differing decisions in various state and federal courts as to the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.'s (MERS) ability to foreclose without being a "holder" of the corresponding promissory note. This essay briefly describes the split in the current state of the law regarding MERS' ability to proceed in foreclosure proceedings or join in bankruptcy proceedings. Download a copy of the article here.

Prof. Edward Morse was interviewed for a segment on the National Public Radio program, All Things Considered, to discuss "The Corn Belt Debate: Crops or Cattle?" Prof. Morse (pictured) is also an Iowa farmer. According to the story, the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts cattle prices will rise 20 percent in 2011. That pales in comparison to the price of corn, which has more than doubled in the past year to nearly $8 a bushel. One might think this scenario would tempt farmers to alter the use of their acres from cattle pasture to cropland. But it's a tough decision that depends on much more than recent prices. Listen to the segment, and read the corresponding story here.

Prof. Jacqueline Font-Guzman, Associate Director of The Werner Institute, has recently been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship. "This well-deserved recognition of Jackie’s achievements in scholarship and teaching will enhance the reputation of The Werner Institute and the Law School," said Dean Marianne Culhane. Prof. Font-Guzman will serve as a Fulbright Senior Lecturer at the Carlos III University Law School in Madrid, Spain, during the spring of 2012. She will teach basic negotiation theory and practice for law students, mediation process for graduate students in law, and dialogue and conflict engagement for students in the Master’s Program in public and private law. 

Creighton Law's team of Robert Alexander (2L), Brandon Crainer (3L), William Sun (2L), and Carol Svolos (3L) came in second place this past weekend in the 21st annual National Criminal Justice Trial Advocacy Competition. Pictured (left to right) are: Prof. Ron Smith, Director of the Competition; Vince April, Esq. (Louisville, KY); Stephen Komie, Esq. (Chicago); The Honorable A. C. Cunningham (ret.), Presiding Judge; and Creighton team members Svolos, Crainer, Sun, and Alexander. The team was coached by Prof. Ken Melilli. This is the oldest invitational criminal trial competition in the country, and it is sponsored by the Criminal Justice Section of the ABA and The John Marshall Law School in Chicago. Each year, 20 schools are invited to participate. Each school completes three rounds of trials, with the top four teams advancing to the semifinals, and the two winners there advancing to the finals. Creighton's team advanced to the semifinals, won its semifinal round, and then lost a split decision (2-1) in the final round by one point. The advocates are also evaluated on their professionalism in making routine objections and handling exhibits. A judge and a "jury" of experienced criminal trial attorneys score the performances. Alexander and Crainer each received perfect scores. The case involved arson, with the defendant charged with fire-bombing the office of a political candidate who had campaigned to deprive the defendant of a lucrative towing contract with the city. See a full list of participating schools here. Read a preview here.

Kelly Lynn Anders, Director of Communications & Diversity, gave a presentation on "The Ethical Use of Social Media for Lawyers and Museum Professionals" during the 39th annual Legal Issues in Museum Administration conference in Washington, DC. This conference was co-sponsored by the American Law Institute of the American Bar Association (ALI-ABA) and the Smithsonian. About 200 people attended her presentation, which qualified for ethics CLE credit, including museum directors and lawyers serving as general counsel at some of the nation's top museums. Details about the conference are available here.

Creighton Law's team placed third in the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Midwest Regional Competition last month in Chicago. Pictured (on either side of the judge, left to right) are Christine Schaad (2L), Benjamin Patterson (3L), Sharon Hansen (3L), and Joseph May (3L). Team members not pictured are third-year students Michael Knowles, Liam Meehan, Steven Ranum, and Sarah Zoellner. The competition is sponsored by the International Trademark Association (INTA). The team also won the region's "Best Oral Argument" award. Additionally, Creighton's two trial teams who traveled to Portland, OR, did well in regional rounds of the Texas Young Lawyer's National Trial Competition in early February. Twenty-four teams from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, and the Dakotas participated. After three trials, the team of third-year students Mark Rose, William Oliver Jenkins, and Mandy Gruhlkey was in first place, having not lost a single ballot. They later lost in the semifinals in a split decision to the host school, Lewis and Clark. The team of third-year students Christine Kroupa, Jon Taylor Benson, and Dan Gubler lost just one trial and missed the semifinals by one point. Rose and Jenkins each won a "Master Trial Attorney" award for excellence in performance, given to only six of more than 60 individual competitors. Professor R. Collin Mangrum coached the team, and he and Professor Larry Teply accompanied the group to Portland. 

Creighton Law School and the Omaha Bar Association will hold the Fifth Annual Seminar on Ethics and Professionalism on Friday, April 1, from 1:30 to 5 p.m. The event will be held in the Hixson-Lied Auditorium in the Mike and Josie Harper Center at Creighton University. Presenters will include: Prof. Stephen Sieberson (pictured), Creighton Law School; The Honorable Mark S. Cady, Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court; and J. Scott Paul of the law firm of McGrath North. The event has been approved for 2.5 CLE ethics credits in Nebraska and Iowa. Admission is free for OBA members and Creighton Law School faculty and students. The cost is $75 for others. To RSVP, please call (402) 280-3607, or send an e-mail to cheriesempek@creighton.edu, by no later than Friday, March 25.

Prof. Raneta Lawson Mack was interviewed for a WOWT-News story about a recent shooting. The shooter argued that he acted in self defense. Prof. Mack said that this distinction is a "fine line" because some may think it's justified in the heat of the moment, but a jury may not. "So that's always the difficulty of self defense, putting yourself in the shoes of the person what they were perceiving at the time," she explained. See the video and transcript here.

Creighton Law School’s 2011 TePoel Lecture and Law Review Symposium will be held on Friday, March 25. The topic of this year’s Law Review Symposium is "Moral and Ethical Perspectives in War, Terrorism, and Military Law." The 2011 TePoel Lecturer, Dr. Cynthia G. Irmer, will discuss "Transforming Conflict with a New Framework: A Strategic Priority for the United States." Both events will be held in the Ahmanson Law Center, 21st and Cass Streets. The Symposium begins at 10:30 a.m., and the TePoel Lecture will be held from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.. CLE credit has been approved in Nebraska and Iowa. Attendance is free. An invitation with additional details is available here.

Prof. David Weber gave a presentation to the Nebraska Leadership Education/Action Development (LEAD) Program on March 3. The LEAD Program is a joint effort between the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Nebraska Agricultural Leadership Council. The group invited Prof. Weber to speak about Immigration Law as part of its workshop on social issues. Prof. Weber's presentation was entitled, "Guiding Immigration Policy in Nebraska: The Next 10 Years." About 60 people attended.  He discussed Nebraska’s current demographics, the state of current immigration law, and Nebraska’s attempts to legislate immigration at state and local levels. He advised the group, as future leaders, to take an active and positive role in shaping Nebraska’s immigration policy during the next 10 years. Learn more about the LEAD Program here. Download copies of Prof. Weber's papers here.

Creighton Law School's Milton R. Abrahams Legal Clinic is the first winner of the Inez Fitz Community Service Award, which will now be presented annually by the Fair Housing Center of Nebraska-Iowa. The Clinic was chosen because of its "tireless and effective work to assist economically disadvantaged people [to] enjoy…protections afforded by…housing laws….The Clinic’s work has led to countless people preserving or improving their housing. The Clinic’s Fair Housing Act litigation includes…two cases that were groundbreaking in protecting…women from sexual harassment and people with disabilities from exploitation by landlords….[T]he Clinic’s advocacy has helped to educate not only its students but the Bar as a whole on fair housing rights."

The award will be presented on Friday, April 29, at Metropolitan Community College’s Swanson Conference Center, in a ceremony beginning at 6 p.m. In addition, Creighton Law alumnus Scott Moore ('95) of Baird Holm LLC is receiving an individual award for his work on housing. Additional information about the event is available here.

Creighton Law alumna Amy Diederich ('08, pictured center) recently received the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) "Misdemeanor DUI Prosecutor of the Year" award for the State of Arizona. Diederich is a Deputy County Attorney with the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. Her current assignment, since August 2009, includes prosecuting all misdemeanor DUI cases that occur within the West Mesa Justice Court. Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery issued the following statement:

"The West Mesa Justice Court consistently has the highest, if not one of the highest number of misdemeanor DUI cases of any Justice Court in Maricopa County, and Amy handles all of them with a level of dedication that is to be commended. She has completed 13 DUI jury trials, in addition to securing plea agreements on hundreds of cases where the offenders are held accountable for their crime -- DUI. In addition to this, Amy has conducted dozens of motion hearings where the defense has sought to limit or preclude evidence of the defendant?s guilt from trial. Amy has developed an excellent relationship with all the agencies she works with, but is to be especially commended for her work with Salt River.

"Amy takes the time to meet with the officers and explain legal issues to them so that officers better understand how to honor DUI suspects' legal rights to ensure that those who drink and drive are held accountable for their actions. In addition to training the officers on the law, Amy takes time to 'ride-along' with the officers to better understand their job. As her supervisor, I have noticed a remarkable improvement in the DUI cases submitted by Salt River Police Department. While most of the credit should be given to Salt River for striving to continue to improve, a portion of that improvement is in no doubt due to Amy's efforts."

Read the press release here.

Prof. Tom Purcell is the recipient of the 2010 Arthur J. Dixon Memorial Award, the highest award given by the accounting profession in the area of taxation. The award, given by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, was presented during the AICPA’s Fall Tax Division Meeting in Washington, D.C. Read the full announcements here and here.

A group of Creighton Law students and undergraduate accounting majors traveled to Winnebago, Neb., on Jan. 21-22 and 29 to assist the low-income residents of the Winnebago Indian Reservation with their tax returns. Pictured is an advertisement that appeared in the Jan. 22 edition of the Winnebago Indian News. This is the second year a student group has provided this service. Last year, they assisted more than 40 people and generated approximately $150,000 in refunds for their clients. This year, they assisted almost 70 people and generated more than $220,000. The students organized the service site, interviewed the clients, and prepared federal and state tax returns. The coordinators, Maria Carlson and Jacque Parker (from CoBA) and Danielle Bode (a third-year law student with a Creighton degree in accounting), also provide services in the days following the on-site clinics by intervening as necessary between the clients and the IRS for any problems encountered. Third-year law students Erin Ross and Brad Wellens also volunteered.

"This service learning project challenges the students to use their professional skills to assist a population that is otherwise under-appreciated in our culture," said Prof. Tom Purcell. "It was personally gratifying for me to witness the interaction of the students and the clients, the mutual respect each held for the other, and the deep appreciation the clients expressed for the work the students performed. The work of the coordinators was especially noteworthy and highly professional."

Nearly 100 guests enjoyed "Lunch with Fenner" in late January. Prof. Mike Fenner has conducted this lunch presentation for the Omaha Bar Association for 16 years. As reporter Lorraine Boyd recounted in a Feb. 1 article in The Daily Record, "Part law lecture, part stand-up comedy, the Omaha Bar Association January luncheon meeting -- 'Lunch with Fenner' -- featured the wit and wisdom of Creighton University School of Law Professor G. Michael Fenner, an expert in Constitutional Law. For the first time, the meeting offered Nebraska general Continuing Legal Education credits of .5. Nearly 100 people attended the event at the Livestock Exchange Building. Fenner always chooses a topical subject, and this 16th annual event's topic was no exception. This year's was: 'Personhood Under the United States Constitution: What Entities Have the Constitutional Rights Granted to Persons?' As always, he opened his remarks with a short 'state-of-the-law-school' report, paying tribute to his colleague Rod Shkolnick for his 50 years (and counting) of teaching." Prof. Fenner is pictured during the lecture (photo courtesy of The Daily Record). Download a copy of the article here.

Creighton Law's chapter of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) was named "Chapter of the Week" during the week of Jan. 28. Pictured (back, left to right) are Associate Dean Michael Kelly and Dean Marianne Culhane, along with members of Creighton Law's ACS Chapter. The American Constitution Society brings together many of the country’s best legal minds to articulate a progressive vision of our Constitution and laws. Through its public programs (over 1,100 debates, conferences and press briefings across America each year), publications, and active on-line presence, ACS shapes debates on key legal and public policy issues. Visit ACS here.

Building 1491, an Officer Training School ("OTS") dormitory on Maxwell Airforce Base in Alabama, has been named "Morehouse Hall," in memory of Maj. Gen. David Morehouse, a former Judge Advocate General, and alumnus of Creighton Law (JD, '60). This is the first time a building on Maxwell has been named in honor of a Judge Advocate. In attendance for the dedication ceremony last July were Morehouse's widow, Sally Morehouse, and Lt. Gen. Richard Harding, the current Air Force Judge Advocate General. Harding said members of the JAG Corps are guided by Air Force Core Values, as well as the JAG values of wisdom, valor, and justice. He said Morehouse "rigidly followed" the JAG values in his work and life. The current OTS class was also named the "Morehouse Class." Read the full story here. See commentary about Morehouse's work here and here.

Professors Ronald Volkmer and David Weber, along with 12 students, visited the Dominican Republic in early January. Prof. Volkmer has led several groups of law students on one-week immersion experiences to the Dominican Republic in previous years. This project is a culmination of his participation in Creighton's Education for Justice Committee and the Faculty Seminar on Jesuit Higher Education.

This year's visit was featured on the country's Supreme Court website. The link to the story, published in Spanish, is available here. As translated by Prof. Weber, the story reads as follows:

"Twelve law students from Creighton University in Nebraska, USA visited the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Doctor Jorge A. Subero Isa. The young students, who were accompanied by their Professors, exchanged a wide range of concerns with Chief Justice Subero Isa regarding the judicial system in the Dominican Republic and some of the most important cases heard by the high court. In particular, they congratulated the Supreme Court for its independence and the unprecedented advancements carried out by the Dominican Judicial Branch. The students and their professors were given a tour of the building and greatly appreciated the opportunity granted to them in regards to their visit, which was led by representatives of the Supreme Court."

Learn more about other visits to the Dominican Republic here. Read a story from the summer 2003 issue of Creighton Lawyer magazine (scroll to page 18) here.

Creighton Law is delighted to welcome Fr. Kevin Kersten, S.J., as the new Chaplain. The Law School's former Chaplain, Fr. Burnell Bisbee, S.J., received a new assignment, and several other Jesuits kindly held masses in the Law School during the fall semester. Arriving on Jan. 3, Fr. Kersten moved to Omaha from Boston College. In addition to serving mass and offering other pastoral services in the Law School, he will also teach in the Communications Department. Fr. Kersten's impressive biography is available here.

For the first time, the Lane and Koley lectures will qualify for one hour of CLE credit in Nebraska and Iowa. The 2011 Lane Lecture will be held on Feb. 2, and the featured speaker is Prof. Ann Southworth (pictured). The 2011 Koley Lecture will be held on Feb. 24, and the featured speaker is Dahlia Lithwick. Both lectures will be held in the Mike and Josie Harper Center, Ahmanson Ballroom (4th floor). Attendance is free. Additional details about the lectures and speakers, including a link to RSVP, may be found here.

Professor Patrick J. Borchers (also Creighton's VP of Academic Affairs) and his wife, Judy, also an attorney, have again coached a high school mock trial team to a Nebraska state championship. Their Skutt High School team defeated North Platte High School on Dec. 7 in Lincoln, with Federal District Court Judge Lyle E. Strom (Creighton Law, Class of '53) presiding. The Skutt team will advance to the National Mock Trial Championships in Phoenix in May. The Borchers began volunteering as mock trial coaches when their daughter, Erin, was on the Skutt High team. Erin is now a sophomore at Creighton, but the Borchers still devote many hours to lead Skutt's teams to consistent victories. In the past five years, Skutt High has won three state mock trial championships and one state runner-up trophy. Read the full story in Catholic Voice here. See a photo of the winning team with Judge Strom here.

Creighton Law alumnus Matt Schultz ('06) has become Iowa's new Secretary of State. The Secretary of State is Iowa's chief election officer. The office also registers all corporations and provides information for and about businesses. Schultz, 31, has been a member of the Council Bluffs City Council since 2005, elected while still a student at Creighton Law. A post-election article in the Omaha World-Herald is available here, and an OWH article published after Schultz took office is available here.

Prof. Edward Morse conducted a CLE on "Current Developments in Federal Income Tax" during the State Bar of South Dakota's Tax Update XXXII on Dec. 10. The event was held at the Ramkota Hotel in Sioux Falls. View the full agenda here.

Prof. Raneta Mack was recently interviewed on the topic of cyberbullying for a PBS segment on the.News. Cyberbullying involves the use of information and communication technologies to harm others. View the video here. Download a copy of the transcript here. A four-part NET News radio series on the topic will also be featured Dec. 20-24. The stories will air during NET News segments on Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Professor G. Michael Fenner has published an article, "Evidentiary Problems Associated with the Introduction of Web-Based Evidence," in ConsiderChapter13.org, an online journal published by the National Association of Chapter Thirteen Trustees (NACTT) Academy for Consumer Bankruptcy Education. In the article, Prof. Fenner contends that the principal problem with admissibility of web-based evidence -- business and personal websites, social-media pages, and the like -- is authentication. Once the evidence is shown to be what its proponent claims it is, the other evidentiary concerns are those lawyers face all the time: Is the printout, itself, hearsay? Are some of the matters asserted on the printout or in the re-recording hearsay? Does the printout run afoul of the best evidence rule? Can the court take judicial notice of the site, and of matters found on the site? Read the full article here. Learn more about the NACTT Academy here.

Prof. Michaela White has recently published When Worlds Collide: Bankruptcy and Its Impact on Domestic Relations and Family Law (4th ed., American Bankruptcy Institute, 2010). Recent changes to the Bankruptcy Code make it harder to discharge certain obligations that arise in divorce, and help illustrate the differences between the objectives of bankruptcy law and family law. This desk book provides state judges with a brief, readable primer on the bankruptcy law that impacts their subject-matter jurisdictions. The book will soon be available through the American Bankruptcy Institute's bookstore.

Professors Edward Morse and Thomas Purcell, III, were featured presenters during the 48th Annual Great Plains Tax Instutute, held Dec. 2 and 3 in Omaha. Prof. Morse spoke about "Important Developments in Federal Income Taxation," while Prof. Purcell addressed "Ethical Issues in Tax Practice." Download a copy of the full brochure here. Learn more about the Great Plains Tax Institute here.

Associate Dean Michael Kelly recently published an op-ed, UN Security Council Membership: The Admission of India and Other Necessary Reforms, on JURIST. Dean Kelly is a contributing editor on JURIST, which is a Web-based legal news and real-time legal research service. In the op-ed, Dean Kelly contends that President Barack Obama made the right move in recommending India for a permanent position on the UN Security Council, but that the Council also needs to undergo more extensive changes in order to reflect current geo-political realities. Read the op-ed here. Learn more about JURIST here.

Prof. Bruce Aronson recently visited London to present a paper at an interdisciplinary book workshop on contemporary Japan, which was held on Nov. 11-12 at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. The research for Prof. Aronson's paper, Reassessing Japan’s "Big Bang": Twenty Years of Financial Regulatory Reform, began last summer while he was a visiting scholar at the Bank of Japan in Tokyo. The paper is scheduled to appear as a chapter in a book being developed from the workshop. The chief organizer of the workshop and book project, Christopher Gerteis (formerly an assistant professor of History at Creighton), is now a lecturer at the University of London. Download the full program here.

Creighton's team has won the Buffalo-Niagara Criminal Mock Trial Competition. The University at Buffalo Law School hosted the competition, which was held Nov. 11-14 in the courtrooms of Buffalo City Court. The Buffalo-Niagara Competition is a national invitational tournament, with 32 teams, 16 each in civil and criminal divisions. Creighton’s four women won all seven of their trials. Pictured (left to right) are: Julie Roberts, Kayla Coleman, Bonnie Moore, and Jacquie Clement. Clement and Roberts were each named Best Advocate in the each of the final trials. This is the second time that Creighton Law has won the Buffalo-Niagara Tournament. The first win was in 2005. Read the press release here. Learn more about the competition here.

Creighon Law School's new electronic newsletter is now online. View the first issue here. Contact Kelly Lynn Anders, editor, with news and announcements.

The Creighton trial team of Bryan Carter, Rebecca Kulaga, Joshua Nyberg and Erin Ross, coached by Heather Voegele-Andersen and Allen Tate, reached the finals during the 10th Annual Quinnipiac National Criminal Justice Trial Advocacy Competition. Rebecca Kulaga also won an individual award for the Best Opening Statement. In conjunction with the American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Section, Quinnipiac hosted the competition on Oct. 29-31. Pictured (left to right) are: Allen Tate, Joshua Nyberg, Erin Ross, Rebecca Kulaga, Bryan Carter, and Heather Voegele-Andersen. Learn more about the competition here.

Creighton has received a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration totaling more than $350,000 to support the work of the Law School’s Community Economic Development Clinic (CED Clinic), a project that serves rural Nebraska, western Iowa, Omaha, and Lincoln. Third-year law students, working under the supervision of Clinic Director and Professor Milo Alexander (pictured), get hands-on experience in representing micro-entrepreneurs  and community nonprofits. Microenterprises generally have five or fewer employees. Students handle a wide variety of transactional cases for both start-up and established enterprises. The Clinic collaborates with microenterprise development organizations, such as the Rural Enterprise Assistance Project, to foster microenterprise and community development. Such organizations assist with business plans, accounting, and financing, while the Clinic provides legal representation. CED’s work also includes community workshops on microenterprise and nonprofit topics.  Workshops have included Arnold, Imperial, Loup City, and Minden, Neb., as well as Red Oak and Creston, Iowa. Prof. Alexander collaborated with Professor Catherine Mahern, Director of Creighton's Civil Law Clinic, to secure the funding. Learn more about Creighton's Law Clinics here.

During the fall of 2010, the faculty approved the introduction of a second scholarly journal, the Creighton International and Comparative Law Journal (CICLJ). CICLJ will publish articles, perspectives, and commentary from academics, legal practioners, and Creighton University students. This journal will be published exclusively in electronic sources, including the Creighton Law website, Lexis-Nexis, and Westlaw. The first issue will be available during the spring of 2011. Visit CICLJ here.

Professor Edward Morse recently visited The Netherlands in early October, where he lectured on the topic of Entrepreneurialism at Erasmus University in Rotterdam and presented a paper at the Tilburg Law and Economics Center's workshop, "Economic Governance and Competition: The Pros and Cons of Private Ordering in the Shadow of the Law." The paper, entitled Private Ordering in Light of the Law: Achieving Consumer Protection Through Payment Card Security Measures, addresses the intersection of law and private governance measures through payment card networks. The Tilburg Law and Economics Center, part of Tilburg University, is one of the leading institutions in Europe supporting interdisciplinary research in law and economics. Prof. Morse is pictured with Professor Helen Gubby of Erasmus University in Rotterdam, alongside a statue of Erasmus. Download a draft of the paper (coauthored with Dr. Vasant Raval) here.

Professor Sean Watts is the 2010 recipient of the Lieber Society Military Prize for his article, Combatant Status and Computer Network Attack, 50 Virginia Journal of International Law 391 (2010). One of President Obama’s early executive acts created a national Cyberczar to coordinate U.S. defenses against computer network attacks. The Department of Defense has recognized cyberspace as a realm of combat operations equivalent in importance to land, sea, and space, creating a new Cyber Command believed to be capable of launching offensive computer network attacks. This Article examines the critical question of combatant status – specifically, who, under the existing law of war, may lawfully participate?
 
Prof. Watts has been invited to conduct presentations and contribute to proceedings related to cyber legal issues in China, Estonia, and England, the University of Virginia School of Law, and the United States Naval War College. The Lieber Society Military Prize, awarded annually since 2007, recognizes a piece that significantly enhances the understanding and implementation of the law of war. The award is given for exceptional writing in English by an active duty or retired member of the regular or reserve armed forces, regardless of nationality. Read the press release here, and a mention in the Omaha World-Herald here. Read an abstract and download a copy of the article here.

Professor G. Michael Fenner has become Chair of the Nebraska State Bar Association's House of Delegates, which is the official policy-making body of the legal profession in Nebraska. Prof. Fenner's appointment became official during the NSBA's Annual Meeting, which was held in Omaha on Oct. 22-24. Learn more about the NSBA here. Read the announcement in the Lincoln Journal-Star here.

Creighton Law School will host the "Complex Issues in Juvenile Court Practice III" seminar/CLE on Friday, Nov. 5. This event, which has been approved for 6.5 hours of CLE credit in Nebraska and Iowa, will be held in Ballroom C of the Harper Center from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. This seminar will focus on a variety of particularly challenging areas of juvenile court practice, such as: the delinquency and status offense cases under the new juvenile justice bill (LB 800); how to handle cases involving developmentally disabled juveniles; improving appeals from juvenile cases; assessing the value of psychological evaluations in termination cases; and working through the complexities of cases involving placements under the interstate compact and interstate custody cases. Each registrant will receive a complimentary copy of Juvenile Court Law and Practice, by Christine P. Costantakos (Thomson-Reuters, 2010). To register, please contact Karen Dixon. To download a copy of the brochure, please click here.

Mark D. Kratina, Jr. (’06) has published his first novel, The Nostalgist (Fedora House, 2010). The story centers around a young, idealistic attorney who decides to suspend a burgeoning legal career to run for Nebraska’s Senate seat against a heavily-favored, two-time incumbent.

"The story is really about how we’re changing as a society, both politically and journalistically," Kratina said. "The idea of a political campaign serving as a catalyst for deeper themes of loss, change, and how we interact with one another was interesting to me."

The Nostalgist is now available at www.fedorahouse.com or through Amazon.com in print or e-book formats.

Professor Michaela White has recently assumed the post of Editor and Advisor to the National Association of Chapter Thirteen Trustees (NACTT) Academy. The Academy is an outgrowth of NACTT, a member organization founded in 1965 for legal and financial professionals involved in Chapter 13 bankruptcy. NACTT established the Academy to increase awareness among lawyers, debtors and creditors, accountants, credit counselors, debt collection agencies, and the public about Chapter 13 and how it differs from Chapter 7, the better-known of the personal bankruptcy options. Read the official announcement here. Additional information about the NACTT Academy is available here.

Associate Dean Michael Kelly, new president of the U.S. National Chapter of L’Association Internationale de Droit Pénal (AIDP), awarded the 2010 Outstanding Book of the Year Award to Dr. William Schabas (National University of Ireland – Galway) for his book, The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: A Commentary (Oxford University Press, 2010), and the Outstanding Article of the Year Award to Prof. Leila Sadat (Washington University College of Law) for her article, The Nuremberg Paradox, 58 Am. J. Comp. Law 151 (2010), which explores the French experience during the Nuremberg trials.  The awards were presented on Sept. 10 at the annual meeting of the U.S. National chapter of AIDP at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, in conjunction with a symposium on "Lawfare," co-sponsored by the group.  AIDP is a Paris-based professional organization of international criminal law scholars, judges, and attorneys founded in 1924. It enjoys consultative status with the United Nations.

Professor and Dean Emeritus Rod Shkolnick was honored for 50 years at Creighton Law School during the Annual Dinner on Oct. 1. A total of 360 guests attended. To view the video, "A Tribute to Rod Shkolnick," which was shown during the evening, click here. Dean Shkolnick was also featured in an article in The Daily Record, Omaha's legal newspaper.

U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy (JD, '93) was featured in a recent article in the Los Angeles Times. Duffy also served as the keynote speaker during the Law School's Annual Dinner on Oct. 1. Read the full Times article here.

Neither rain nor soggy grounds kept more than 100 students, faculty, alumni, and staff from attending Creighton Law's annual Sedgwick Golf Tournament. This year's event was held at The Knolls Golf Course in West Omaha on Friday, September 10.

Creighton Law School's recently-launched Government Organization and Leadership (GOAL) Program was featured in the Omaha World-Herald. Read the full article here.

Creighton Law School hosted a reading of the play, Waaxe's Law, by Mary Kathryn Nagle on September 21 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Harper Center. About 100 guests attended. The play is a dramatic retelling of Chief Standing Bear's 1879 Fort Omaha trial. This was the first federal court ruling that Native Americans were persons under the U.S. Constitution—a defeat for U.S. Attorney G.M. Lambertson. Chief Standing Bear was represented by two very prominent local attorneys, John Webster and A.J. Poppleton, with help from journalist Thomas Tibbles. Nagle, just out of Tulane Law School, was clerking for federal district judges Joseph Bataillon (‘74) and Laurie Smith Camp when she learned of the dramatic story and wrote the play. The evening ended with a question and answer session with Nagle, Ponca elder Louis Headman (who portrayed Chief Standing Bear), and Dean Michael Kelly. To hear an intervew of Nagle on KIOS-FM, which was recorded on Sept. 21, click here. To read a full historical overview, click here.

Professor Ran Kuttner of the Werner Institute recently published his article, “What Does it Mean to Do the Right Thing?” in the Nevada Law Review 10(2), a special issue (symposium) on “Mindfulness, Emotions, and Ethics in Law and Dispute Resolution.”

Patrick Borchers, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law, published the 5th edition of his Conflicts of Laws treatise with West publishing, available here. His co-authors on the book are Peter Hay of Emory University and Symeon Symeonides of Willamette University. In addition to finding scholarly and classroom usage, Conflicts of Laws has been a standard reference work in this field since the first edition in 1982.  

 

Professor Stephen Sieberson published an article, "Inching Toward EU Supranationalism? Qualified Majority Voting and Unanimity Under the Treaty of Lisbon," 50 Virginia Journal of International Law 919 (2010). The article analyzes the impact of the EU's latest treaty amendment on voting procedures at the EU's senior legislature, the Council. The Virginia Journal of International Law is the oldest law-school-affiliated international law review in the US, and its 50th anniversary volume has been recognized as a significant milestone in international legal scholarship.

Professor Sieberson also recently presented at two law faculties in Serbia.  At Belgrade's Union University, his topic was the EU's failure to adopt a constitution and its  ratification of a substitute treaty amendment, the Treaty of Lisbon. At Novi Sad 's Singidunum University, Professor Sieberson spoke on "European Union Federalism - An American Perspective." While in Serbia,  he was interviewed by Serbian National Radio on Serbia's potential membership in the EU.

Associate Dean Michael Kelly's book chapter, "Islam & International Criminal Law: a Brief (In)compatability Study," is the first chapter in the Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (2008-09), edited by Eugene Cotran & Martin Lau of the University of London. The 2008-09 volume is the 14th yearbook in the series.

Professor Eric Chiappinelli has recently completed the second edition of his casebook, "Cases and Materials on Business Entities" (Aspen, 2010).

The following three Creighton University School of Law 1L students have been named members of the Summer Corps 2010, Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps:

Daniel Ramirez, for work at Legal Aid of Nebraska--Native American Program
Andrew White, Office of the Iowa State Public Defender
Jaclyn Wyatt, Legal Aid of Nebraska

This year's 577 Summer Corps members were selected from 1,536 applications.  Summer Corps members each receive a $1,000 AmeriCorps education award voucher upon completion of a minimum of 300 hours of summer service at a nonprofit public interest organization. Congratulations to Daniel, Andrew, and Jaclyn.

2010 Law School Graduates, Yvonne Sosa and Sylvia Rodriquez, were the focus of a column in the Omaha World-Herald, May 23, 2010, by Michael Kelly. In the column they discuss some current challenges facing Hispanics in this country. They also discuss their respective interests and journeys in becoming law school graduates. Congratulations to Ms. Sosa and Ms. Rodriquez.

Congratulations to Bryan Hanson of the Werner Institute. Bryan was just elected the first President of the Board of the Nebraska Mediation Association, the statewide organization representing all mediators across Nebraska.

Professor Jackie Font-Guzman of the Werner Institute will visit Spain this summer to present on court-annexed mediation systems, at the invitation of the Commission of the Juridical of Spain. The three day colloquium is organized by the Spain Supreme Court (“Consejo General del Poder Judicial Servicio de Formación Continua”) and the Law Faculty of the Carlos III University in Madrid. In addition, she will give two lectures to law students and faculty at the Law Faculty of the Carlos III University.

Professor Michaela White recently presented at three different seminars on consumer bankruptcy topics. First, she participated in a panel on current issues in consumer bankruptcy at a seminar in Miami for bankruptcy judges sponsored by the Federal Judicial Center. Next at a seminar for bankruptcy trustees in Omaha she addressed ethical issues arising in bankruptcy. Finally, Professor White took part in a panel on means testing in consumer bankruptcy for the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys in San Francisco. Congratulations to Professor White.

On April 29, 2010, Associate Dean Michael Kelly testified before the U.S. House of Representative's Trade Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee on the topic of the United States' relations with Cuba. He testified concerning the need to work for resolution of disputed property claims dating back to the seizures of private property in Cuba when Castro took power. His comments can be heard at Dean Kelly's testimony. Congratulations Dean Kelly.

Professor Bruce Aronson published an op-ed piece on Financial System Reform in the April 21, 2010, Omaha World-Herald. Congratulations Professor Aronson.

Professor Bruce Aronson published a paper in the latest issue of Creighton Law Review, "The Financial Crisis One Year Later: Proceedings of a Panel Discussion on Lessons of the Financial Crisis and Implications for Regulatory Reform." That essay and transcript lead off the collection of articles resulting from the Law Review Symposium last fall. Congratulations to Professor Aronson.

 

Dean Michael Kelly and Professor Sean Watts concluded a week of talks with various government ministries in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.  Among the topics covered were questions of legal action against corporations implicated in the 1988 genocide of the Iraqi Kurds, raising awareness of the Kurdish situation in European and North American legislative assemblies, and judicial/legal education in northern Iraq.  The institutional relationship between Creighton’s Law School and the Kurdish Regional government was furthered in meetings with the new Prime Minister, Barham Salih, and other members of parliament and the cabinet.  Dean Kelly’s 2008 book on the Kurds and his new article on the Kurdish constitution that appears in vol. 114 of the Penn State Law Review were disseminated with wide interest.  Dean Kelly and Prof. Watts were accompanied by Laura Olson of the D.C.-based Constitution Project.

 

Congratulations to Professor Bernie Mayer of the Werner Institute, whose article "Reflections on the State of Consensus-Based Decision Making in Child Welfare" has just won the Meyer Elkin Essay Award. This annual award is presented to the author of the best article in the Family Court Review. The recipient is selected by senior FCR editorial staff and this year it is Bernie Mayer by a unanimous vote. 

Congratulations to Professor Michael Kelly on his recently published article "The Kurdish Constitution Within the Framework of the Iraqui Federal Constitution:  A Struggle for Sovereignty, Oil, Ethnic Identity and the Prospects for a Reverse Supremacy Clause," found in the Penn State Law Review at 114 Penn. State L. Rev. 707 (2010).  

Professor Ralph Whitten published with LexisNexis the Fifth Edition of his casebook "American Conflicts Law," co-authored by Robert Felix. Congratulations to Professor Whitten.

Vice President and Professor Patrick Borchers received the Nebraska State Bar Foundation's Outstanding Legal Educator Award during the annual Fellow's Dinner on March 12, 2010, at the Holland Performing Arts Center, for his significant contributions to legal education.

The award citation noted: Borchers served as law dean for 8 years until he was named vice president in 2007. From 1990 to 1999, he was a faculty member and an associate dean at Albany Law School. Before that, he was in private practice in California and a law clerk for the Hon.
Anthony M. Kennedy, now an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Under Pat's leadership, applications to Creighton's law school more than doubled and the school won several regional and national trial skills, negotiating and moot court competitions.

Congratulations Vice President Borchers.

Congratulations to Professor David Weber, whose article “The Intangibles of Payment Stream Stripping: Why Article 9 Should Not Leave You Baring Your Assets (Applying a Common Law Remedy to a Creature of Statute” was just published in the Mississippi Law Journal.  The citation is 79 MISS. L.J. 419 (2009).

Professor David Weber, along with newly appointed Immigration Judge Alison Brown, spoke on a panel on asylum law at a continuing legal education event on March 26, 2010, hosted by the Iowa/Nebraska Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). Congratulations Professor Weber. 

In February 2010, in Chicago, the team of William Bradshaw, Andrew Portis and Amanda Schmitz won the Midwest Regional of the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition sponsored by The International Trademark Association. They faced  22 teams from 17 school, winning the Outstanding Oralist Award as well. They advanced to the National Finals in Washington D.C. facing the other regional winners: University of California Berkley, Franklin Pierce School of Law and Brandeis University in the final rounds. While the University of California Berkley won the competition, the Creighton team argued extremely well receiving excellent comments from the judges, most of whom serve on the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board. Nationwide the competition attracted 78 teams this year involving 202 law students. Congratulations to this outstanding team coached by Professor Nancy Lawler Dickhute and Dean Craig Dallon.

Professor R. Collin Mangrum presented a paper entitled "Religious Text as Authoritative Sources for Legal Reasoning: the Israeli Experience," at the 2010 Conference of Religiously Affiliated Law Schools held at Brigham Young University on March 18-19, 2010.

Congratulations to Vice President Patrick Borchers on his most recent publication, "Punitive Damages, Forum Shopping, and the Conflict of Laws," published in the Louisiana Law Review. In his article he discusses how jurisdiction, judgment recognition, and choice of law all may play important roles in disputes involving punitive damages.

Dean Michael Kelly has an op-ed "Defining Democracy in Iraq" on the Jurist website at http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2010/03/defining-democracy-in-iraq.php. Congratulations Dean Kelly.

Dean Dallon gave a presentation in Lincoln, Nebraska, on March 5, 2010, to the Nebraska Criminal Defense Attorneys Association, entitled "Ethical Considerations Concerning Conflicts of Interest and Duties of Confidentiality for Criminal Defense Counsel."

Professor Sean Watts' recent article "Combatant Status and Computer Network Attacks" has just been awarded the American Society of International Law's Lieber Military Prize.  The award will be presented on March 26, 2010, at the ASIL's annual conference in Washington, D.C. 

Sean's article, published in the Virginia Journal of Intermational Law, and has led to many other invitations to present around the world:  in China,  at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, in Tallin, Estonia; Durham, England; and Brussels, Belgium over the coming year.  The latter three are part of a workshop to develop a Law of Armed Conflict Handbook on Cyber Warfare.

The ASIL's announcement of the award said, "We received numerous submissions from members of the military across the world, but the judges determined your work on 'Combatant Status and Computer Network Attack' to be the one most noteworthy and that addresses the law of war issues in the most thoughtful and informative way." Congratulations to Professor Watts.

Congratulations to Professor Ran Kuttner of the Werner Institute, who presented during February 2010 at the Harvard Negotiation Law Review Symposium entitled “The Negotiations Within”.  Ran led a panel on “Current Trends in Research.”

Professor David Weber presented on February 27, 2010, at the Spring Conference on Contracts hosted by the University of Nevada-Law Vegas. Professor Weber's talk, on use of common law merger doctrine to resolve certain priority disputes under UCC Article 9, was part of the panel entitled “Failures of Statutory and Regulatory Regimes: Can Contract Law Help?” Congratulations to Professor Weber.

Congratulations to Professor Mike Kelly who published his article, “Charting America's Return to Public International Law Under the Obama Administration,” in the Journal of National Security Law and Policy. The URL is http://www.jnslp.com/read/vol3no2.asp

Professor Bruce Aronson published an op-ed on Feb. 23, 2010, in the online publication Jurist: “Learning from Toyota's Troubles — Where's the Board?”  It is available at http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2010/02/learning-from-toyotas-troubles-wheres.php. Congratulations Professor Aronson. 

The Creighton team of William Bradshaw, Andy Portis and Amanda Schmitz won both the Outstanding Oralist Award and First Place in the Midwest Regional competition of the International Trademark Association’s Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition held in Chicago on February 6, 2010. A second Creighton team of Mark Hill, Barrett Lindsey and Emily Wiechmann also argued extremely well and received praise from the judges. This is the 4th time in 5 years that a Creighton team has won the Lefkowitz regional meet. This year, they outscored 22 teams from 17 other law schools. The winning team will go to the National Finals in Washington D.C. on March 20. Professor Nancy Dickhute and Dean Craig Dallon coached these teams. Congratulations to the teams.

The team of Sharon Hansen and Allison Gutnik, who earlier placed second in the regionals of the ABA Negotiations Competition, competed in the national round in Orlando, Florida this weekend. Congratulations to them on this significant honor. Dean Ed Birmingham, Professor Larry Teply and Professor Cate Brooks coached the team.

On January 22 and 23, 3L’s Alyson Carstens, Bret Clark, Timothy Hook, and Danielle Pressler represented Creighton Law School at the ABA Arbitration Competition National Finals in Orange, California. Each round of this Competition consists of openings, direct and cross-examinations, and closings.  After the preliminary rounds, Creighton’s team had a perfect score and was seeded number one in the semi-finals (the “Final Four”). The team lost in the semi-finals to the eventual winners of the Competition, but was recognized as one of the four best teams in the country. This is the second year that Creighton competed in the Arbitration Competition. The team was coached by Professor Collin Mangrum with assistance from Professor Larry Teply. Congratulations to the the team on their excellent performance.

Congratulations to Professor David Weber, whose article, "Halting the Deportation of Businesses: A Pragmatic Paradigm for Dealing with Success" was just published by the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal at 23 Geo. Immigr. L.J. 765 (2009). The article proposes the creation of a new investor-class visa aimed at highly successful undocumented entrepreneurs.

Congratulations to Professor Mike Kelly, whose book review of Guenael Mettraux's "Perspectives on the Nuremberg Trial" (Oxford Univ. Press 2008), was just published in 23 Holocaust and Genocide Studies 498 (2009).

 Congratulations to Professor Ran Kuttner of the Werner Institute for two recently published articles. The first is “Human, not too Human: Why is Mediation a Profound Alternative to Legal Proceedings”, 50 Studies in Law, Politics and Society 139 (Dec. 2009), suggesting that mediation has become such a popular ADR method because it responds to basic human needs and deals with authoritarian tendencies and patterns common in everyday life.  A second paper, entitled “Using Philosophy to Teach Dispute Resolution”, appears in the bi-annual newsletter Negotiation Pedagogy at the Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School 3(1) (January 2010).  It describes how the adoption of various philosophical frameworks can enhance understanding of foundational concepts.

The Law School congratulates Professor Bernie Mayer of the Werner Institute, whose book Staying with Conflict has won the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution’s (CPR) annual award for the outstanding book in the field of ADR. This may be the most prestigious award for publications in the ADR field. CPR's mission is to "spearhead innovation and promote excellence in public and private dispute resolution," and to serve as a "global resource for corporations and their legal counsel who seek best practices in conflict management and resolution of complex business-related disputes". 

Congratulations to Professor Edward Morse who recently published two articles, "Survey of Significant Developments in Internet Gambling" in 65 The Business Lawyer 309 (November 2009), and "Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards and the Legal Framework for Security: An Update on Recent Developments and Policy Directions," in the current issue of the Lydian Payments Journal (Vol. 1:3, January 2010) (with co-author Professor Vasant Raval).

Creighton University has named Marianne B. Culhane, J. D., professor of law, as Dean of the School of Law effective Jan 1, 2010. She becomes the tenth dean of the School of Law since its founding in 1904 and is the first woman to hold the position.

Culhane has been on the faculty since 1977, teaching a variety of commercial and business law courses. She served as interim dean from June 2007 to July 2008. She frequently writes and speaks on consumer bankruptcy and has been active in legal reform.

“Professor Culhane was the overwhelming choice of the faculty to take on the role as dean. Her long experience at the school, her graceful personality, her national reputation as a scholar and her strong bond with our students, faculty, staff and alumni make her the right person to lead the school in this challenging time,” said Patrick J. Borchers, J. D., vice president for Academic Affairs and law school dean from 1999 to 2007.

Culhane has served on the Board of Trustees of the Iowa Law School Foundation, as well as the Boards of Directors of the Omaha Legal Aid Society and the American Board of Certification, for which she served as Dean of Faculty. In 2009, she was named the Southern Bankruptcy Law Institute Distinguished Visitor at Georgia State University Law School in Atlanta, Ga. In 2003, she was the Robert Zinman Scholar-in-Residence at the American Bankruptcy Institute’s headquarters in Alexandria, Va. She is also a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. With her colleague Michaela White, professor of law, Culhane has been awarded several extramural grants to support empirical research in bankruptcy and has published two books and numerous articles on bankruptcy. “

It will be a great honor to work with the Law School’s talented faculty, staff and alumni to prepare our students for 21st century law practice. Together we must meet new challenges—the rising cost of legal education and finding jobs for graduates in a down economy—to name just two, as well as the continuing need to compete for able students, improve the curriculum and support faculty scholarship,” said Culhane.

Prior to joining Creighton, Culhane was an associate at the law firm of Eisenstatt, Higgins, Kinnamon, Okun & Stern in Omaha. She also served as a law clerk to Judge Donald P. Lay of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

A cum laude graduate of Carleton College, she earned her law degree magna cum laude at the University of Iowa’s College of Law. She is married to Creighton law graduate Thomas J. Culhane and has four children.

Creighton University’s School of Law has educated aspiring attorneys in legal theory, practice and ethics for over 100 years. The law school's motto is "educating for service and justice" and its goal is to produce attorneys who not only care for their clients' needs, but also recognize their own over-arching duty to the profession and society at large. The Creighton University School of Law enrolls about 470 students annually.

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.