Participants
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Robert Abzug,
Oliver H. Radkey Regents Professor in History, The University of Texas, and Director, Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies
Professor Abzug has written about antebellum reform, America and the Holocaust, and most recently has focused on the interpretation of religion and psychology in modern American culture. He has published numerous books and consulted on several documentary films. He joined The University of Texas faculty in 1978, and has been chair of the American Studies department and founding director of the Liberal Arts Honors Programs.
- Bill Allison, Professor & Director of the Criminal Defense Clinic and the Texas Center for Actual Innocence, The University of Texas School of Law
In addition to his work at The University of Texas School of Law, Professor Allison has taught seminars to undergraduate honors students and trial advocacy courses for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. He has received numerous awards for outstanding lawyering, including Outstanding Criminal Defense Lawyer of the Year, 2000-2001, by the Texas State Bar.
- Judge Nancy F. Atlas, United States District Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston Division
Prior to her appointment to the Southern District of Texas, Judge Atlas practiced law with the Houston firm of Sheinfeld, Maley & Kay, specializing in commercial litigation and mediation. Prior to private practice, Atlas served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, and as a law clerk to Judge Dudley Bonsal of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
- Steven M. Barkan, Professor & Director of Library and Information Services, University of Wisconsin Law School
Professor Barkan has been in his current position since 1995. He has taught torts, legal ethics and workers' compensation law, among other subjects. He has been a law librarian at The University of Texas, the United States Supreme Court, and the University of Southern California. He was awarded the Excellence in Academic Law Librarianship Award by West Publishing Company in 1993.
- Sarah M. Buel, Founder & Clinical Professor of the Domestic Violence Clinic, The University of Texas School of Law
Professor Buel teaches and writes predominately in the area of domestic violence. She founded and co-directs The University of Texas Law School's Domestic Violence Clinic, and is also co-founder of The University of Texas Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. She has won numerous awards and honors, including the Harvard Law School Gary Bellow Public Service Award, the Outstanding Teacher Award from Harvard Medical School, the Texas Young Lawyers Award for Service to the Public (for co-founding the Austin Young Lawyers Association & Volunteer Legal Services Domestic Violence Project), and The University of Texas Law School Thurgood Marshall Society Distinguished Lawyer Award.
- Stephen Burnett, Associate Dean & Professor of Law, Concord Law School
Dean Burnett is a nationally recognized expert in the application of law-related technologies. Prior to joining the Concord Law School, he was also associate dean at the Seattle University School of Law. He has held numerous administrative positions in the field of legal technology, including Internet Development Consultant to Lexis Publishing, director of the legal education division of West Publishing, Vice President and General Manager of Business Development and General Manager of Legal Business at Pro2Net, and director of the law library at the George Mason University School of Law.
- Michelle Arnopol Cecil,
William H. Pittman Professor of Law, University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law
Professor Cecil teaches and writes in the fields of taxation and bankruptcy. She teaches a variety of tax courses including tax research, basic federal income, corporate, and international tax. She has also received seven teaching awards, including the William T. Kemper Fellowship for Excellence in Teaching and the Golden Chalk Award. She is teaching in Fall 2007 at The University of Texas as a visiting scholar.
- Richard J. Conviser, Professor of Law, Chicago-Kent College of Law
Professor Conviser teaches at Chicago-Kent in the areas of antitrust, business associations, remedies, and conflict of laws. He is the Founder and Chairman of the BAR/BRI Group. He also currently serves as the Editorial Director of Gilbert Law Summaries. Previously, he practiced law with the international law firm Baker & McKenzie, and was appointed by the Governor of Illinois to help create the state’s first international operation. He also served as deputy European Director that initiative in Brussels, Belgium. Last year he was named one of the “Ten Best Professors in Illinois." He is the author of numerous publications in several languages.
- Mechele Dickerson, Professor & Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, The University of Texas School of Law
A. Mechele Dickerson joined The University of Texas School of Law Faculty in January 2006. Professor Dickerson's scholastic interests include a commitment to commercial empirical legal research, dedication to law classroom learning experience, and equity in law. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School. In 1995, she joined the faculty at William and Mary School of Law and was the Cabell Research Professor of Law from 2003-2004. During her tenure there, she was the recipient of the Alumni Fellowship Award in 2000 and the Walter L. Williams, Jr. Teaching Award, both in 1998 and 2005. In Fall 2005, she was a visiting professor at The University of Texas School of Law.
- Diana R. Donahoe, Professor of Legal Research and Writing, Georgetown University Law School
Professor Donahoe teaches and writes in the area of legal research and writing. She is also the author and creator of the innovative TEACHINGLAW.COM, an online course book and course management system designed specifically for standard first-year legal research and writing programs. Prior to teaching at Georgetown, she clerked for Judge George H. Revercomb of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and served as the Prettyman Fellow in Georgetown's Criminal Justice Clinic.
- David Epstein, Professor of Law, Southern Methodist University
Professor Epstein teaches and writes predominantly in the areas of bankruptcy, commercial law, contracts, and corporations. He is the author of three of the leading textbooks in bankruptcy and commercial law. He frequently teaches CLE courses, and is well-recognized for teaching a leading bar review contracts course. He clerked for the Texas Supreme Court and has taught at several law schools.
- Joel Wm. Friedman, Jack M. Gordon Professor of Procedural Law & Jurisdiction, Tulane
Professor Friedman is an expert in computer assisted legal instruction, and has lectured throughout the country on the integration of technology into legal education. He teaches in the areas of employment discrimination, labor, mediation, and civil procedure, and has been a recipient of the Felix Frankfurter Teaching Award. He has served as a special consultant to the Louisiana legislature and is currently writing the authorized biography of Judge John Minor Wisdom, formerly of the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
- Bryan Garner, LawProse, Inc.
Bryan Garner is a prolific writer, lecturer, and widely recognized authority on legal writing and editing,, style, and lexicography. His works include The Elements of Legal Style, The Winning Brief, The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style, Legal Writing in Plain English, and Securities Disclosure in Plain English. In addition to his own works, he has served as editor-in-chief of Black's Law Dictionary since its seventh edition. Garner has been a member of the American Law Institute since 1992, and he has served on various rule drafting committees across the nation.
- James S. Heller, Director of the Law Library and Professor of Law, The College of William & Mary
Professor Heller has been at William & Mary since 1988, and earlier worked at George Washington University, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the University of Idaho. He has served as president of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), and of the Virginia and Southeastern Chapters of AALL. Professor Heller teaches Advanced Legal Research and Law and Literature at William & Mary Law School, and Law and Public Policy at the College's Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy.
- Joseph D. Jamail, Jr., Jamail & Kolius
Joseph D. Jamail is one of the most successful trial lawyers in history, and has been named "Trial Lawyer of the Century" and "King of Torts" by numerous publications, including California Trial Lawyers, Texas Monthly, the Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune. He has served as lead counsel in over two hundred personal injury cases where recovery was in excess of one million dollars, and represented the client to win the largest jury verdict in the history of law. A graduate of The University of Texas School of Law, in 1996 he received both the law school's "Outstanding Alumnus Award" and the University's "Distinguished Alumnus Award."
- Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson, Supreme Court of Texas
Chief Justice Jefferson has the honor of being both the first African American justice to serve on the Supreme Court of Texas and the first African American Chief Justice. He was initially nominated to the Court by Texas Governor Rick Perry in March 2001 to fill the seat vacated by former Justice Alberto Gonzalez, and was later elected to the position. In September 2004, Chief Justice Jefferson was again appointed by the Governor to serve as the 26th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, and was elected as Chief Justice in November 2006. Prior to serving on the Court, Chief Justice Jefferson practiced law in San Antonio, and twice won cases argued before the Supreme Court of the United States.
- Stanley Johanson, Fannie Coplin Regents Chair, The University of Texas
Professor Johanson is a widely recognized expert in the area of wills and estates. A member of The University of Texas faculty since 1963, he is the author of several books, a member of the American Law Institute, and the 2005 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Real Estate, Probate, and Trust Law Section of the State Bar of Texas. In 1995, he was one of the inaugural professors elected to The University of Texas Academy of Distinguished Teachers, which recognizes outstanding classroom teachers at The University of Texas.
- Richard Leiter, Director, Schmid Law Library, University of Nebraska College of Law
Richard Leiter is the Director of and Professor of Law at the Schmid Law Library, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Professor Leiter has written widely on law library, legal research, and legal information technology issues. His most recent book, National Survey of State Laws, is widely held by library reference collections and was named an Outstanding Resource by the New York Public Library. He is a regular columnist for Legal Information Alert and has contributed to the Law Library Journal and numerous other law library publications, and also edits a web-log on computing and online technology and their influence on libraries called "The Life of Books." He teaches advanced legal research at the University of Nebraska Law School.
- Steve H. Nickles, C. G. Hope Chair in Law and Management, Wake Forest University
Professor Nickles teaches courses at both the Wake Forest Law School and the Babcock Graduate School of Management. An author in the fields of commercial law, payment systems, and bankruptcy, he is also involved in efforts to develop and incorporate technology into both legal education and the legal profession. He is also senior academic advisor on academic technology to West Group, a leading publisher of legal materials and on-line legal services.
- Hersel W Perry, Professor of Law and Government, The University of Texas
A specialist in constitutional and public law, Professor Perry is best-known for his award-winning book Deciding to Decide: Agenda Setting in the United States Supreme Court (Harvard, 1991). He is also co-author of Civil Liberties and the Constitution (8th ed., forthcoming) and is currently working on a study of decision-making in the U.S. Department of Justice. He came to Texas in 1994 after teaching for eight years at Harvard.
- William Powers, Jr., President, University of Texas
Prior to becoming president of The University of Texas-Austin in 2006, William Powers was dean of the School of Law. He is a member of the American Law Institute, was Co-Reporter for the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Apportionment of Liability, and is currently Co-Reporter for the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Liability for Physical Harm. He is the author of several books, and, in addition to his faculty appointment at The University of Texas School of Law, has had appointments at the University of Michigan School of Law, the University of Washington School of Law, and Southern Methodist University School of Law.
- Harry M. Reasoner, Vinson & Elkins
Harry Reasoner is a partner, and former managing partner, at Vinson & Elkins, and is recognized as a national expert in complex civil litigation. He graduated first in his class from The University of Texas School of Law in 1962, clerked for the Honorable Charles E. Clark of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and has been the recipient of the Lifetime of Excellence in Advocacy Award from the Texas Association of Civil and Appellate Specialists and the American Inns of Court Professionalism Award from the Fifth Circuit.
- R. Anthony Reese, Arnold, White & Durkee Centennial Professor, The University of Texas School of Law
Professor Reese is a specialist in copyright, intellectual property, and cyberspace aspects of intellectual property. Prior to coming to The University of Texas in 1999, he clerked for the Hon. Betty Fletcher on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, practiced intellectual property law with Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco, and was a Research Fellow in the Program in Law, Science and Technology at Stanford Law School. He is the author of numerous articles, and recently became co-author of new editions of two casebooks: Internet Commerce (with Margaret Jane Radin and John Rothchild, 2006) and Copyright, Patent, Trademark and Related State Doctrines (with Paul Goldstein, forthcoming). He regularly teaches in international programs organized by the University of Victoria (British Columbia); St. Peter's College, Oxford University; and the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.
- Larry Sager, Dean, The University of Texas School of Law
Named Dean of The University of Texas School of Law in 2006, Professor Sager has been a member of the Texas law faculty since 2002. His scholarship and teaching focus on constitutional law and jurisprudence, and he is widely recognized as one of the foremost authors in this area. Yale University Press recently published his book Justice in Plainclothes: A Theory of American Constitutional Practice, which provides a systematic account of central features of American constitutionalism. Harvard University Press will be publishing his forthcoming book, Religious Freedom and the American Constitution. Dean Sager has previously taught at Harvard, Princeton, Boston University, UCLA, the University of Michigan, and New York University, where he co-founded the Program in Law, Philosophy and Social Theory.
- David S. Sokolow, Senior Lecturer, Director – Student Life, The University of Texas
Professor Sokolow teaches in the areas of contracts, corporations, and entertainment and art law. He also serves as the Director of Student Life at The University of Texas School of Law. Professor Sokolow is a popular instructor in Bar exam preparation courses and is a two-time recipient of the Texas Exes Teaching Excellence Award, awarded by The University of Texas Alumni Association.
- Stephen D. Susman, Susman Godfrey
Stephen Susman is a nationally acclaimed trial lawyer. He is a graduate of The University of Texas School of Law, where he was editor-in-chief of the Law Review and graduated first in his class, with the highest grade point average in the school's history. He clerked for Judge John R. Brown of the Fifth Circuit and Justice Hugo L. Black of the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Susman works in Houston at the law firm he founded in 1980. He is a member of multiple professional organizations and committees dedicated to the pursuit of justice and legal reform.
- Sir David Williams, Emeritus Vice Chancellor, University of Cambridge
Sir David Williams is a distinguished legal scholar and author who has held teaching positions at the University of Oxford and the University of Nottingham, and has served as president at both Wolfson College and the University of Wales, Swansea, and as Vice Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1989 to 1996, where he also taught as Rouse Ball Professor of English Law. In addition, he has served on a number of government committees, including the Council on Tribunals, and several Royal Commissions. He has widely published in the field of public law and has a personal library of more than 8,000 volumes.
- Virginia Wise, Thayer Senior Lecturer on Law for Legal Research, Harvard
Professor Wise teaches Introduction to American and International Legal Research, Advanced Legal Research, and International Foreign and Comparative Legal Research at the Harvard Law School. She has worked and taught all over the world, fostering legal information literacy.
- Paul Woodruff, Dean of Undergraduate Studies, The University of Texas
Dean Woodruff received his degree from Princeton University, and has taught in The University of Texas' philosophy department since 1973. He chaired the philosophy department for three years before becoming Director of Phase II Honors Program in 1991. In Fall 2006, he was named Dean of Undergraduate Studies at the University. Dean Woodruff has won the Harry Ransom Teaching Award and is a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at The University of Texas. He has published some of the most widely used translations of Plato's Symposium and Phaedrus, as well as an abridged translation of Thucydides' History. In addition to his numerous academic achievements, he is an accomplished author of plays, poetry, and short fiction, and has won an Austin Book Award for his novella set in Vietnam and the B. Iden Payne Award for his play about returning Vietnam veterans.
- Patrick Woolley, Professor of Law, The University of Texas
Professor Woolley joined the faculty in 1994 after practicing for several years with Munger, Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles. His research and teaching interests include civil procedure, conflict of laws, federal courts and constitutional law. His publications include The Sources of Federal Preclusion Law After Semtek (Cincinnati, 2003), "The Availability of Collateral Attack for Inadequate Representation in Class Suits" (Texas Law Review, 2000) and "Mass Tort Litigation and the Seventh Amendment Reexamination Clause" (Iowa Law Review, 1998).
- Mark Yudof, Chancellor, The University of Texas System
Chancellor Yudof has served as Chancellor of The University of Texas System since 2002. From 1997 to 2002, he was president of the University of Minnesota. Previously, he was a faculty member and dean at The University of Texas for 26 years. He also served as a visiting professor at the law schools of the University of Michigan and the University of California at Berkeley, and as a visiting fellow at the University of Warwick in England. Chancellor Yudof is an authority on constitutional law, freedom of expression, and education law.