Alumni Notes This section reflects notifications received between May. 1, 2018 and November 15, 2018. BOV denotes membership on the Law School’s Board of Visitors.
1968
Bruce Alexander retired in June as vice president for New Haven and state affairs and campus development at Yale University. Bruce was appointed to the new post in 1998, which over 20 years expanded to include oversight of campus facilities planning, construction, and operations. He is continuing to work on special projects on a part-time basis.
Christopher Britton has published his third novel, A Blind Eye Crying (2018), a suspense/courtroom drama, whose protagonist is a struggling San Diego attorney.
Gordon Rather, senior partner of Wright, Lindsey & Jennings in Little Rock, Ark., has been selected for the Lawdragon 500 Hall of Fame for having been recognized 12 years in a row as one of the 500 leading lawyers in America.
1969
Charles Becton was honored, in June, with the “Lifetime Champion Award” from the North Carolina Justice Center. Becton is a past president of the N.C. Bar Association and former judge on the N.C. Court of Appeals. He also has served as interim chancellor at N.C. Central University and Elizabeth City State University.
» For Super Lawyers and other professional kudos, see page 61.
1970
Bill Stevens, senior counsel at Dentons in Atlanta, has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Daily Report, Georgia’s legal industry publication. The awards celebrate accomplished figures in Georgia’s legal profession. BOV
1971
Christine Durham was awarded an honorary degree and delivered the address at Westminster College’s May commencement ceremonies in Salt Lake City. Christine retired in November 2017 after 35 years as a justice of the Supreme Court of Utah. She currently serves on the board of overseers for the RAND Institute for Civil Justice and co-chairs Utah Center for Legal Inclusion and the Coordinating Committee for Access to Justice. She is also a trustee for University of the People, an accredited, tuition-free, online institution for higher education. BOV
1972
Ned Leiken retired Jan. 1, 2018 from practice at Leiken & Leiken in the Peoria, Ill., area. Maryellen Madden married Judith Graves on April 28, 2018, in Philadelphia, where Maryellen is of counsel to Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads, practicing commercial litigation. She was a guest lecturer on transgender history at Duke Law in fall 2017 and 2018.
1973
Dan Blue, Democratic leader of the North Carolina Senate and managing partner of the Raleigh law firm, Blue, was the commencement speaker for Livingston College in Salisbury, N.C., on May 4. Dan welcomed the same class of Livingston graduates as freshmen at their 2014 Fall Convocation. BOV
Ken Starr ’73 has published Contempt: A Memoir of the Clinton Investigation (Penguin Random House, 2018). He was appointed to serve as independent counsel for five investigations, including Whitewater, from 1994 to 1999, and his report led to President Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives. A former U.S. circuit judge for the District of Columbia Circuit and U.S. solicitor general, Ken has argued 36 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States and has served as dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law and president and chancellor of Baylor University. In 2018, Ken joined the Lanier Law Firm in Houston where he works as of counsel on a range of appellate matters and legal issues and causes of special interest. He continues to serve on the Boards of Advocates International, the Supreme Court Historical Society, and the Christian Legal Society. BOV d 54 Duke Law Magazine • Spring 2019
