Elon University School of Law - Special Report on the First 5 Years

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Making a difference in law and society 1

c o n t e n t s Featured Reports 2

A Law School With a Difference

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Developing the Lawyer-Leader

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The Bryan Leadership Lecture Series

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The Preceptor Program

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Faculty Spotlight

Programs & Initiatives 16

Clinical Law Center & Humanitarian Immigration Law Clinic

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The Inaugural Billings, Exum & Frye National Moot Court Competition

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Special Course Highlights

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The Elon Law Review and N.C. Business Court

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The Center for Engaged Learning in the Law

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Faculty Development Lecture Series

Forums & Events 24

Justice O’Connor on Judicial Selection

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MLK Forum Marks 50th Anniversary of Sit-Ins

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Glenn Fine on DOJ Priorities Post-9/11

War Crimes and Genocide Forum

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Diversity Day Series Features Civil Rights Leaders

Judicial Selection Debate

Students, Alumni & Friends 30

Honoring Donors

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Student Spotlight

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Alumni Action

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Commencement Highlights

From the Dean Dear Friends, We are excited as we celebrate the first five years of Elon University School of Law, where we are committed to educating lawyers to be sound practitioners and strong leaders in their communities.

We begin our sixth year with full approval from the American Bar Association and firmly focused on our founding commitment to be “a law school with a difference.”

We are extremely proud of the program of legal education we are developing at Elon, a program that combines rigorous academic studies with distinctive emphases on experiential learning, leadership preparation, and public service.

All the faculty here are accomplished and dedicated. They are genuinely committed to excellent teaching, to advancing knowledge through their scholarship, and to preparing a new generation of lawyer-leaders for our profession and our society. They are the core of building a great law school.

In our first six years, Elon has enrolled and graduated talented and motivated men and women who embody the belief that lawyers also must be leaders for society. They recognize that, in addition to the need to develop excellent analytical and reasoning skills, they must begin to build the ethical foundations and leadership skills they will need to confront the complex issues they will face in their careers, in service to their communities, and in their personal lives. Already our graduates are fulfilling this mission of Elon Law. Elon Law has been strongly supported and guided by a progressive university administration as well as a dynamic board of advisors. In launching this new law school, the university insisted that Elon would not be “just another law school.” Through our innovative program, we are honoring that promise.

In addition, we owe a special debt of gratitude to members of the legal profession who volunteer their time and talents mentoring our students and ushering them into the profession. Our innovative preceptor program, which has enlisted more than 130 lawyers, integrates the practicing bar and other members of the profession into the academic world of law students and law teachers. We all are better because of their work with us.

Our success also has been propelled by the generosity of magnificent donors in the Greensboro community and beyond who believe—as we do—that Elon is a law school the world needs. From our first day, we have operated from the renovated former Greensboro public library building, a modern 84,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility named for local business leader and philanthropist H. Michael Weaver. Former Greensboro Mayor and local foundation president Jim Melvin worked closely with Elon University President Leo M. Lambert to rally several local foundations and other donors to raise the approximately $10 million to launch our new law school in downtown Greensboro.

At a time when the legal profession and legal education are under great scrutiny and experiencing unprecedented challenges, Elon University School of Law is poised to demonstrate that good law schools and good lawyers remain indispensable to the pursuit of justice, to personal freedom, to economic innovation, to social vitality—to the health and improvement of our democratic society.

In the following pages you will read about some of the milestones in the early life of our law school. We are pleased to share our remarkable beginning with you.

George R. Johnson, Jr.

Dean and Professor of Law Elon University School of Law

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A Law School With a Difference Elon University School of Law gives its students a thorough grounding in the principles and practice of law, preparing them to build successful careers in the legal profession. The school’s rigorous core curriculum is taught by scholars and practitioners of law who are committed to teaching and to the advancement of knowledge in service to society.

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From the moment it opened its doors in 2006, Elon Law has been dedicated to another purpose as well: To develop students who will graduate with the commitment, knowledge and experience to benefit not only their clients but also society as a whole, through lives of inspired leadership and active service.

In putting that vision into practice, Elon Law is setting an example for what a law school can be.

“I’m convinced that Elon Law is unique in what it’s doing to realize the vision that we have for it, to inspire students from the very first year they are here to embrace the leadership and service responsibilities that come with the privilege of practicing law,” said James G. Exum, Jr., former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, founding member of Elon’s Law School Advisory Board and Distinguished Jurist in Residence. “The school seeks to reinvigorate the profession’s notion of its obligation to lead in the resolution of some of the most challenging issues our country and indeed the world have faced in a long time.”

Elon law students build their careers on a foundation of innovative programs that put into practice the university’s hallmarks of engaged and experiential learning, a commitment to leadership and service, a global perspective, mentoring relationships with faculty, and a solid ethical base.

Students learn best by doing, and at Elon they learn the law not only through challenging coursework but also through innovative hands-on programs.

“Elon is a national model of academic excellence with programs that emphasize active, engaged learning and leadership,” said Elon President Leo M. Lambert. “We have built on those strengths, creating a dynamic legal education program that features innovative teaching methods and a focus on the important role attorneys play as civic leaders.”

Students gain firsthand experience through the school’s legal clinics and leadership program. The Humanitarian Immigration Law Clinic serves low-income refugees and asylum seekers. The In-House Wills Clinic serves homeowners referred by Habitat for Humanity. And the second-year Public Law and Leadership course provides students with opportunities to serve nonprofit clients in resolving real legal issues.

Students participate in field placement programs, externship opportunities, service learning courses, trial and appellate advocacy programs, mock trials, and moot court. They benefit from close and regular interaction with faculty and leaders in law, business, and civic life, including members of the law school’s national advisory board, an august group that is chaired by David Gergen, former adviser to four U.S. presidents, and includes two former

governors, three former chief justices of the North Carolina Supreme Court, a former president of the American Bar Association, and a former U.S. ambassador and chair of the American Red Cross.

“As one who has been involved in trying to work with the next generation, to prepare a fresh generation of leaders for this country, public leaders who I think we need so much, Elon Law’s emphasis on community service and leadership has enormous appeal to me,” Gergen said.

The importance of service permeates every day at Elon Law. The school’s Classes of 2009, ‘10, and ‘11 contributed more than 20,000 hours of community service each through clinics, programs, classes and student-led volunteer initiatives.

“Elon is a national model of academic excellence with programs that emphasize active, engaged learning and leadership.

We have built on those strengths, creating a dynamic legal education program that features innovative teaching methods and a focus on the important role attorneys play as civic leaders.”

“The law school is instilling in students the —Leo M. Lambert understanding that to be a lawyer is to be President, Elon University more than just a person who makes his or her living practicing law,” said Rhoda Bryan Billings, former Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.

“It’s a person who is a professional, who uses his or her time, skills, and learning to both lead and serve in all areas of community life.”

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“As one who has been involved in trying to work with the next generation, to prepare a fresh generation of leaders for this country, public leaders who I think we need so much, Elon Law’s emphasis on community service and leadership has enormous appeal to me.”

—David Gergen Chair, Elon University Law School Advisory Board

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Law School Advisory Board David Gergen (chair); former adviser to four U.S. presidents; director of the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; CNN senior political analyst and noted journalist

W. Randy Eaddy; Partner, Kilpatrick Stockton LLP; Furman University trustee; Reynolda House Museum of American Art trustee; member, Metropolitan Atlanta United Way Board of Directors and Executive Committee

Noel Allen; Partner, Allen, Pinnix & Nichols, P.A.; Elon University trustee

James G. Exum; Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP; N.C. Supreme Court, 1974-94, Chief Justice, 1986-94 ; Distinguished Jurist in Residence, Elon Law

Rhoda Bryan Billings; N.C. Supreme Court, 1985-86, Chief Justice 1986; President, N.C. Bar Association, 1991-92; Professor Emeritus, Wake Forest University School of Law R. Steve Bowden; Principal, R. Steve Bowden Associates; member, University of North Carolina Board of Governors Carole W. Bruce; Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP; President, Rotary Club of Greensboro; Treasurer, International Civil Rights Center & Museum Board of Directors; member of the board, The Joseph M. Bryan Foundation, The Stanley and Dorothy Frank Family Foundation, and the Greensboro Partnership Alfred (A.P.) Carlton Jr.; Partner, Allen, Pinnix & Nichols, P.A.; President, American Bar Association, 2002-03 Donald R. Dancer; Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer (ret.), International Rectifier Corporation

Henry E. Frye; Special Counsel, Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard LLP; N.C. Supreme Court, 1983-2000, Chief Justice, 19992000; N.C. House of Representatives, 1968-80; N.C. Senate, 1980-82 Ellen M. Gregg; Partner, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLC; member, N.C. Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism James E. Holshouser; Senior Partner, The Sanford Holshouser Law Firm LLP; N.C. Governor, 1973-77 James B. Hunt; Partner, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLC; N.C. Governor, 1977-85, 1993-2001 Bassam N. Ibrahim; Attorney and Shareholder, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC; Vice Chair, U.S. Trademark Law Committee, Intellectual Property Owners Association Mark London; London & Mead; co-author with Brian Kelly of The Last Forest: The Amazon in the Age

of Globalization (2007), The Four Little Dragons: Inside Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore at the Dawn of the Pacific Century (1989), and Amazon (1985) Robert E. (Bobby) Long Jr.; Granville Capital, Inc.; Elon University trustee Thomas P. (Pat) Maroney; Principal Owner, Maroney, Williams, Weaver & Pancake PLLC; Member, Elon University Board of Visitors Bonnie McElveen Hunter; Chair of the American Red Cross; founder and CEO, Pace Communications; U.S. Ambassador to Finland 2001-03 William (Bill) McNairy; Partner, Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard LLP Maureen Kelley O’Connor; Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Edmond Seferi; Partner, Bingham McCutchen; Chief of Staff to the president of Albania, 1992-94 James C. (Jack) Spencer Jr.; N.C. Resident Superior Court Judge, 1994-2009; private law practice 1969-94 Jonathan Wall; Partner, Robertson, Medlin & Blocker PLLC; member, Board of Governors, North Carolina Advocates for Justice; member, Board of Governors, New Lawyers Division, Association of Trial Lawyers of America

Setting Precedents: Milestones at Elon Law Oct. 2004 The board of trustees approves a plan to establish Elon Law in downtown Greensboro, N.C.

Sept. 2006 Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Elon President Leo M. Lambert and Founding Dean Leary F. Davis dedicate Elon Law, which enrolls its charter class of 115 students.

Sept. 2005 David Gergen named founding chair of the school’s national advisory board, which includes two former North Carolina governors, three former N.C. Supreme Court chief justices, a former president of the American Bar Association, a former U.S. ambassador and numerous business and legal leaders.

Feb. 2009 George R. Johnson Jr., a respected law professor and former White House staff counsel, is named the school’s second dean.

June 2008 Elon Law is provisionally accredited by the ABA.

May 2009 The Charter Class of Elon Law receives its degrees and achieves a 97 percent overall bar passage rate.

Oct. 2009 Elon Law establishes the Clinical Law Center, which houses a Wills Clinic and Humanitarian Immigration Law Clinic.

April 2011 Elon Law hosts the inaugural Billings, Exum & Frye National Moot Court Competition.

June 2011 The ABA announces the full accreditation of Elon Law.

August 2011 Total student enrollment reaches 365, taught by 35 resident faculty members and several of the school’s 38 extended faculty members.

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Developing the Lawyer-Leader From the beginning, Elon Law has been dedicated to preparing its students to become not only exceptional lawyers, but also exceptional leaders. That commitment is one of the central tenets of Elon Law’s mission. In an increasingly complex, interconnected and fast-paced world, the need for real leadership has never been more apparent, and Elon embraces its responsibility to help meet that need.

Graduates of Elon Law go into the world to use the experience, expertise, and vision they gain during their course of study to make a difference in the profession and in communities large and small.

“There is a desperate need for more ethical and principled leadership in all walks of life,” said George R. Johnson, Jr., Dean and Professor of Law. “We are embarking on this mission at a time when the country is crying out for the kinds of lawyers that we are preparing here.”

Students at Elon Law receive not only rigorous training in the fundamentals of the law, but also a deep understanding of the principles and practices of leadership.

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The school’s Leadership Program is a systematic three-year initiative that prepares students to excel at the highest levels of the legal profession and to take leadership roles in tackling the most challenging regional, national, and global issues of the 21st century.

The program focuses on concepts and practices such as teamwork, project management, the ethical foundations of law, and communication and interpersonal skills.

This deliberate approach to preparing students for leadership puts Elon Law at the forefront of a new trend in legal education. Johnson points out that law schools, unlike business schools, traditionally have provided very little systematic training for leadership.

Elon Law is changing that.

“With the changing dynamics of the world, it’s become apparent that we really need to do more systematic preparation because we understand that many of our graduates are going to assume leadership roles,” Johnson said.

Powell Baggett ’11 speaks with Dr. William Wickliffe, Director of the Guilford County Division of the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, about farmland protection ordinances during a site visit of the Public Law and Leadership course.

All first-year students participate in Lawyering, Leadership and Professionalism, a course that explores leadership skills and concepts in a legal context. Students engage in selfassessment exercises in the course, creating professional development plans to track progress on goals and objectives.

“Having first-year law students evaluate themselves against established predictors of lawyering success enables them to develop a plan of action for personal and professional development early on in law school,” said Roland Smith, SkeensWatson Visiting Professor of Leadership at Elon Law and Senior Faculty Member at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL).

In the course, students participate in skill development workshops at CCL, ranked by the Financial Times as one of the world’s top ten providers of executive education.

“By showing us the things that we need to work on, telling us what our strengths are and teaching us how to be leaders in the legal community, we’re stepping closer and closer to being effective from the day that we graduate law school,” said Jason Burton ’11.

In their second year, students increasingly put principles into practice, serving actual clients through a Public Law and Leadership course.

Under the leadership of law professors, students assist nonprofit organizations and government agencies in resolving real legal issues.

“Engaged learning is very important to how we teach the law at Elon,” said Faith Rivers James, Associate Professor of Law. “Second-year students, working directly with nonprofits as clients, begin to see how their legal skill and knowledge can propel them to leadership roles in the civic life of the communities where they will practice law.”

“Everything we do in the leadership program at Elon Law is aimed at helping students become excellent lawyers and ethical leaders throughout their lives.”

—John Alexander Distinguished Leadership Coach in Residence and former President, Center for Creative Leadership

Each Public Law and Leadership team operates as a model law firm, conducting interviews and doing legal research to develop and present recommendations to their clients.

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List of

Andrew Bench ’11 presents recommendations to the Piedmont Conservation Council in the Public Law and Leadership course.

“The second-year leadership course was a great experience for me not only because we got to apply our legal knowledge and skill on behalf of an actual client, but also because we adapted our work to address challenges facing our client beyond their immediate legal question,” said Nathan Standley ‘11.

In their third year, students have the opportunity to apply legal knowledge and leadership skills to capstone projects that benefit the profession, the community, or the wider society. Projects are defined, developed, and implemented by students under the supervision of faculty advisers.

exist in my community and explore how I can become an effective resource to help solve those problems,” Standley said, “whether it’s giving legal advice or going further and saying, ‘How can I roll up my sleeves and make a difference in this community?’”

Organizations Served Through Elon Law’s Public Law & Leadership Course: Action Greensboro • After Gateway, Inc. • Bicycling

“The capstone experience allows us to be entrepreneurs, building a course around a project that can benefit others and that we’re passionate about,” said Jeb Brooks ’10. “It provides a model for how to make long-term positive impacts as we prepare to enter the profession.”

Greensboro • Center for Youth, Family, and Community Partnerships • City of Greensboro Department of Housing and Community Development • City of Greensboro University Roundtable • East Market Street Development

With the skills and experience they build through their course of study and the Leadership Program, Elon Law students graduate ready to hit the ground running for the greater good.

Corporation • Elsewhere Collaborative Living Museum • Greensboro Housing Coalition • Greensboro Neighborhood Congress • Housing Greensboro, Inc. • Legal Aid of North Carolina •

“The leadership program, as well as the strong legal education here, have already equipped me to go out there and not just get a job, but essentially to become actively involved and to give back and to figure out what problems

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Piedmont Conservation Council, Inc. • Reading Connections • Self Help Corporation • Volunteer Center of Greensboro

Law students in the Public Law and Leadership course, center, on a site visit with Housing Greensboro representatives discussing the nonprofit’s legal questions.

The Leadership Fellows Program As part of Elon University School of Law’s mission to infuse its legal education with an emphasis on leadership development, the school formed the Leadership Fellows program. The inaugural group of 12 Leadership Fellows enrolled in fall 2009. The program now includes 26 fellows.

Engaging Law Students in Leadership

By Faith Rivers James, Associate Professor of Law Embracing leadership as a critical lawyering skill, Elon Law’s Leadership Program prepares graduates for the responsibility and demands of leadership in professional, political, and community endeavors. Building upon Elon’s recognized engaged learning, leadership, and civic engagement initiatives, the Law School provides a foundational model for engaged learning and leadership as innovative, foundational pedagogies to complement doctrinal law programs.

The Public Law and Leadership Course provides an opportunity for students to help nonprofit and government entities solve problems in the public law arena. Students delve into legal materials with real clients, think critically about client objectives, and help clients assess the best course of action to achieve their objectives. In addition to substantive instruction, the course provides lawyering skills training and teaches students how to work in practice teams. Students emerge from the course with experience in client-centered practice skills and a broader view of the leadership skills expected of lawyers in practice, business, and civic leadership.

Students invited into the Leadership Fellows program have demonstrated exceptional leadership through community, collegiate, military or other leadership experiences, as well as academic achievement. They identify, through an essay in the Fellows application process, how the leadership skills they have acquired could be further developed at Elon, in the practice of law, and in their communities.

In addition to scholarships, Leadership Fellows have an opportunity to serve in a public sector organization through a summer externship offered for course credit, for which they receive an additional scholarship covering tuition for the course and living expenses.

Throughout the school year, Leadership Fellows meet in small groups with visiting scholars and speakers at the law school. They also have formed committees on service and community engagement, curricular development, and leadership programs and lectures.

“Engaging the needs of an actual client through research, preparation of legal documents, and the presentation of our findings was both a rewarding experience and one in which our team took great pride,” said Simon O’Brien ‘12. “I was fortunate to be placed into a group composed of driven leaders who eagerly supported one another in our efforts to advance our client’s greatest needs.”

As a result of the leadership program, Elon Law students have the benefit of developing technical proficiencies in the study of law, along with the emotional intelligence to recognize and craft behavioral competency skills. Armed with self-knowledge and problem-solving experience, Elon Law graduates can better position themselves for success in their legal careers.

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Nina Totenberg National Public Radio Legal Affairs Correspondent March 16, 2010

“My own view is that what we’re seeing today is the flip side of the Warren Court era, when the court was severely criticized for its so-called liberal activism.”

The Bryan Leadership Series The Joseph M. Bryan Distinguished Leadership Lecture Series is an integral part of Elon Law’s commitment to develop lawyers who are also leaders. Endowed through a generous gift from the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation of Greensboro, N.C., the series brings accomplished leaders from a variety of fields to Elon to share their experiences and perspectives with students and faculty.

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David Gergen

Jim Hunt

Harold Ford

Former presidential adviser, scholar, and author

North Carolina Governor, 1977-85, 1993-2001

Chairman, Democratic Leadership Council; Member of Congress, 1997-2007

Scott Turow Cory Booker

Acclaimed writer and attorney Oct. 13, 2010

Mayor, Newark, N.J. Feb. 3, 2009

“Will we take ownership of our nation? Will we not look for blame but accept responsibility? This is our challenge — this is the test of this fledgling democracy still in its youth.

Can it be bold enough, rich enough and inclusive enough to fulfill the dreams of our ancestors?”

“[Americans] see positive potential in the law and they see in the law something that the market does not give them.

I think the reason people are interested in the law has to do with the pivotal role it plays in society in determining questions of value.”

Jeffrey Toobin

Bonnie McElveen Hunter

Henry E. Frye

CNN Senior Analyst

Chair, American Red Cross; CEO of Pace Communications; former U.S. Ambassador to Finland

Former Chief Justice, N.C. Supreme Court

David McCullough

Jim Melvin

Aldona Wos

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian

Former Mayor, Greensboro, N.C.

Former United States Ambassador to Estonia

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Valuable Experience From Day One Any practicing attorney will tell you that it’s one thing to sit in a classroom and study the principles of the law, and another thing entirely to actually put those principles into practice in the real world.

“Preceptors treat students as members of the profession from the moment they enter law school, binding our program of legal education to the practicing bar in a really meaningful way.”

— Margaret Robison Kantlehner Associate Professor of Law

Elon Law gives its students the opportunity to experience those realworld applications of the law right from the start.

At the beginning of their first year, Elon law students are paired with practicing attorneys who serve as mentors through the school’s Preceptor Program. The program gives students the opportunity to experience business and professional dimensions of the law in all its complexity.

“I was very excited when I first heard about the Preceptor Program, because I had this long held opinion that not enough was being done to educate law students about what it actually takes to succeed as a practicing attorney as opposed to some of the more academic aspects of studying the law in law school,” said D. Marsh Prause, Esq., preceptor and attorney with

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Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP. “By pairing the students with a practicing attorney and putting them in a position where they can actually see what that attorney does day in and day out, it’s an incredibly eye-opening experience.”

Preceptors work primarily with first-year students, but also regularly interact with second- and third-year students, as well as alumni. Students accompany preceptors as they research cases, take depositions, interview clients, hold mediation sessions, and conduct trials.

The result is that Elon Law students graduate with a level of practical knowledge and experience typically available only to new associates at law firms.

“Preceptors treat students as members of the profession from the moment they enter law school, binding our program of legal education to the practicing bar in a really meaningful way,” said Margaret Robison Kantlehner, Associate Professor of Law and Director of Externships, Preceptors and Capstone Leadership Experiences.

The Preceptor Program puts the Elon value of experiential learning into practice with every new class of law students.

Networking Receptions with the Legal Community During the academic year, Elon Law hosts monthly receptions with attorneys and judges, creating an opportunity for students to interact with lawyers in a casual setting. Each reception features a special guest judge. Guest judges have included: L. Patrick Auld, federal magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina V. Stuart Couch, immigration judge in the Charlotte Immigration Court, a component of the Executive Office for Immigration Review under the U.S. Dept. of Justice Andy Cromer, Superior Court Judge, North Carolina Catherine C. Eagles, U.S. District Court Judge for the Middle District of North Carolina Robert H. Edmunds, Jr., Associate Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court A. Robinson Hassell, Special Superior Court Judge, North Carolina Harry C. Martin, former Associate Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court and the first Chief Justice of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation John C. Martin, Chief Judge of the North Carolina Court of Appeals

Former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers Headlines Preceptor Appreciation Forum At a Jan. 20, 2010, Elon Law event recognizing more than 50 accomplished attorneys who serve as mentors to students through the law school’s Preceptor Program, former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers reflected on her career in national politics and government, and discussed several mentors who were pivotal in her professional development and success, including five-term Los Angeles “Some things young Mayor Tom Bradley. lawyers will have Myers, the first woman to serve as White House press secretary, said it makes a great deal of sense for law students to explore the business and ethical dimensions of law through interaction with experienced lawyers.

Elon Law Dean George R. Johnson, Jr., thanked all attorneys serving through Elon Law’s Preceptor Program for the insights they offer and the time they devote to law students.

“You have helped us to create something unique in legal education and special in the lives of Elon law students,” Johnson said. “Our students and our graduates tell us that the Preceptor Program is among the most valuable aspects of their legal education. We thank you for being a really important part of Elon University School of Law.”

to learn just by going out there and making mistakes, but so many of those mistakes can be avoided by talking through things with mentors, and they can start that much further ahead of the game.”

—Dee Dee Myers

Edwin G. Wilson, Superior Court Judge, North Carolina

Myers spoke at the law school as Elon University’s sixth Isabella Cannon Distinguished Visiting Professor of Leadership.

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Faculty Spotlight Law scholars are in a unique position to challenge, probe and inform new approaches to both the legislative process and the laws that govern our increasingly interconnected world. Members of the faculty of Elon Law are stepping up to the opportunity. They are making an impact by advancing research and by developing innovative recommendations for urgently needed reforms.

Faculty members are testifying before legislative bodies, engaging policymakers and community members, speaking on a national and international stage, writing books and developing articles for respected journals.

A few compelling examples:

international trade laws for electronic commerce and transport documents. He also advises the U.S. State Department as a member of the Department’s Advisory Committee on Private International Law, and he is an elected member of Rome’s Governing Council of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT). He recently concluded his work as the chair of the editorial committee for the new 2010 UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts. He is a Fellow of the U.K.-based Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and an elected member of the American Law Institute. He recently addressed the relationship between agricultural finance and food security at a meeting of the International Law Institute and at a recent roundtable sponsored by the World Bank.

Gabriel has authored nine books and more than 50 law review articles and has served as a visiting professor at law schools around the world, helping to train a new cadre of lawyer leaders prepared for the global stage.

Andy Haile, Associate Professor Areas of Scholarship: Tax Policy and e-Commerce

Henry Gabriel, Professor Areas of Scholarship: Unified International Commercial Laws and Arbitration Elon Law’s Henry Gabriel has spent the last two decades engaged in the development of uniform commercial laws, both domestically and globally.

Gabriel, a life member of the Uniform Law Commission, has served that organization for 21 years, having been appointed a commissioner by the Louisiana Legislature for 17 years, and serving the State of North Carolina for the last four by appointment of Gov. Beverly Perdue. Closely involved with the Uniform Commercial Code, he was the reporter for the revisions of the sales and lease provisions of the Code as well as the chair of the committee to revise the articles governing documents of title. He also served on the drafting committee of the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act. Appointed by successive presidential administrations, Gabriel serves as a U.S. delegate to the U.N. Commission on International Trade Law where he has worked on

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Today, Internet sales are booming. But a Supreme Court decision issued nearly two decades ago is keeping cashstrapped states from seeing the benefit. They are prohibited from requiring retailers based outside their borders to levy sales taxes on purchases made by in-state residents. What’s at stake? The losses to state coffers are estimated up to $11 billion nationwide.

Elon Law professor Andy Haile is helping the states fight back. He recently authored a special report defending the

constitutionality of a Colorado law aimed at reducing state and local tax losses on Internet purchases. In addition, his panel on “Taxing Internet Sales: The Battle Between States and Retailers” made the “hot topics” list during the annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools. His article, “Constitutional Threats in the E-Commerce Jungle: First Amendment and Dormant Commerce Clause Limits on Amazon Laws and Use Tax Reporting Statutes,” co-authored with Elon law professor Scott Gaylord, is forthcoming in the University of North Carolina Law Review.

A specialist in tax law and policy, Haile has recommended ways for North Carolina to modernize its tax code – broadening the sales tax base to include more services, closing corporate income tax loopholes and reducing the individual income tax rate. Some of his recent research explores the increasing dependence of state governments on revenues from tobacco taxes and the potential conflict of interest with public health policies.

Study Committee. Rivers James has served on the Property Preservation Task Force for the American Bar Association and served as an observer on the National Conference of Commissions on Uniform State Laws Drafting Commmittee, which recently established the Partition of Heirs’ Property Uniform Act. The book Breakthrough Communities: Sustainability and Justice in the Next American Metropolis features a chapter co-authored by James on the saga of heirs’ property in the Carolina Lowcountry. Her work in this area also has been published in the Temple Political & Civil Rights Law Review and in the Southeastern Environmental Law Journal.

David Levine, Assistant Professor Areas of Scholarship: Intellectual Property and Trade Secrets David Levine’s research explores the impact of an open, unrestricted Internet on our intellectual property laws.

Technology is forcing us to reevaluate which inventions should be protected and how high our intellectual property walls should be built, he says.

Levine has found that trade secrets remain relatively unchallenged by the Internet’s open, unrestricted infrastructure. Trade secrecy laws not only allow businesses to keep information from competitors, but also from the public. Levine contends that some trade secrets are of general public interest – such as the source code used in voting machines or the formula for a dispersant used to remediate oil spills in public waterways.

Faith Rivers James, Associate Professor Areas of Scholarship: Property Law and Public Law Faith Rivers James is known for her extensive research on the challenges of preserving property ownership for African Americans – especially in poor coastal communities in the Carolinas. Because of limited access to legal counsel and procedural treatment of fractionated title, she says, families are in constant danger of losing their inheritance through partition orders and tax sales. Rivers James’ scholarship proposes property law and tax policy solutions to the conundrum of heirs’ property. She has presented at the South Carolina Masters-in-Equity Association Annual Meeting and the North Carolina General Assembly Partition

“My goal is to force us to answer the question of whether we need the levels of secrecy we’re currently seeing or whether there are other ways to protect the interest of intellectual property holders without impacting the public’s right to know,” Levine says.

His article, “The People’s Trade Secrets?,” is forthcoming in the Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review. His article, “Transparency Soup: The ACTA Negotiating Process and ‘Black Box’ Lawmaking,” was recently published in the American University International Law Review.

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The Center houses Elon Law’s Wills Clinic, which provides will drafting services to low-income clients referred by Habitat for Humanity of Greater Greensboro, and the Humanitarian Immigration Law Clinic.

Elon University President Leo M. Lambert said the facility demonstrates the priorities of the law school and the university.

“I am exceedingly proud that the first new facility created for the law school since its founding will serve individuals who may not otherwise have access to legal representation, and that Elon Law students and faculty are going to meet important community needs,” he said.

Clinical Law Center From left, Professor Tom Noble, Elon University Executive Vice President Gerald L. Francis, Dean George R. Johnson, Jr., and Professor Margaret Kantlehner

At a special ceremony on Oct. 14, 2009, Elon Law Dean George R. Johnson, Jr. said that the school’s new Clinical Law Center would strengthen the school’s ability to address legal needs in the community and to educate students through practical learning experiences.

“The Clinical Law Center will help law students to apply concepts they learn in the classroom to specific client circumstances and to cultivate a sense of responsibility to serve and to become leaders in addressing the needs of their communities,” Johnson said.

George R. Hausen Jr., executive director of Legal Aid of North Carolina, noted the considerable contributions of Elon Law students to the legal needs of underserved populations in the region.

“Elon Law students have been a tremendous resource in supporting the work of Legal Aid of North Carolina since the law school’s establishment in 2006,” Hausen said. “The attorneys at Legal Aid have taken notice of the students’ dedication and the quality of their legal work. We’re pleased to see Elon expanding its clinical programs and we look forward to a continued partnership to maximize the legal aid we provide to the people of Greensboro and across North Carolina.”

Humanitarian Immigration Law Clinic On July 21, 2011, the clinic hosted a citizenship hearing of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, at which law students assisted two elderly refugee clients with both legal representation and Russian/English translation services.

By Helen Grant, Professor of Law, and Heather Scavone, Clinical Practitioner in Residence The Humanitarian Immigration Law Clinic opened on the 1st of January 2011. Intent on growing our community focused clinical education program, Elon Law saw the Humanitarian Immigration Law Clinic as a significant opportunity for clinical education and a way of assisting our community when the only nonprofit legal service in the region offering immigration legal services to refugees, asylees, and asylum seekers closed in late 2010.

The clinic is staffed by faculty director Helen Grant, Clinical Practitioner in Residence Heather Scavone, a Board of Immigration Appeals certified representative and a paralegal.

Under the supervision of faculty, Elon Law students under-

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As a result of work by the Humanitarian Immigration Law Clinic, Jofred and Mircia, center, were reunited with their parents, who fled the Republic of Congo because of civil conflict.

During its first semester of operation, Spring 2011, Elon Law students represented clients in more than 270 federal immigration cases.

take either a two or three credit course, representing clients in immigration matters that include applications for political asylum, permanent resident status, U.S. citizenship, humanitarian parole, and petitions for family reunification. Summer represents an additional opportunity for Elon Law students to represent clients by interning in the clinic. During those periods in which students are not involved in the clinic, client services are provided by faculty and staff.

The clinic is a natural segue to Elon’s focus on engaged learning, requiring students, under the supervision of faculty, to manage all aspects of their cases including meeting with clients, performing intake interviews, analyzing cases for legal remedy, gathering evidence, drafting and filing applications and briefs, maintaining client correspondence, and representing the clinic’s clients during hearings before federal administrative agencies and courts.

Importantly, the clinic exposes Elon Law students to populations that come from many and varied places around the globe including Afghanistan, Bhutan, Burma, Congo, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe, among others. Most have suffered past traumatic experiences and endured years of displacement and hard-

ship prior to coming to the United States; populations that are very much in need of the no-fee immigrant legal services that Elon Law faculty, staff and students are able to provide through the clinic.

The following are examples of cases of particular humanitarian concern that resulted in favorable outcomes: >> A medical doctor from an East African nation was accused by his government of providing humanitarian medical care to victims of the crisis in Darfur. He was repeatedly jailed and tortured on account of his attempts to care for victims of this crisis and accused of providing reports of human rights abuses to the United Nations. After representation by a third-year Elon law student, he won his claim for political asylum. >> An elderly and disabled Christian refugee from Ethiopia was denied U.S. citizenship due to her inability to pass the standardized U.S. citizenship examination. A cognitive impairment prevented her from learning the test material and passing the exam. An Elon Law student drafted a brief in favor of granting a disability waiver for the applicant and represented the applicant during her hearing, resulting in a grant of U.S. citizenship.

An April 28-29, 2011 seminar organized by the faculty, staff and students of the Humanitarian Immigration Law Clinic featured presentations by immigration law scholars and practitioners, law enforcement officials, and leaders of the U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. Dozens of nonprofit immigration service providers and attorneys specializing in immigration law attended the event.

The clinic provides valuable learning opportunities for our law students, meets an important need in our region, and serves hundreds of people who face incredibly challenging legal issues and life circumstances.

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Elon Hosts Inaugural Billings, Exum & Frye National Moot Court Competition

By Alan Woodlief, Associate Dean for Administration, Associate Professor of Law, and Director of the Moot Court Program Seventeen law schools and 31 teams of law students participated in the inaugural Billings, Exum & Frye National Moot Court Competition on April 1-2, 2011. It was a tremendous start for the annual competition honoring three of North Carolina’s most distinguished lawyers: Rhoda Bryan Billings, James G. Exum, Jr. and Henry E. Frye.

Each has served as chief justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina and in a variety of leadership positions within the legal profession and in public life. All three justices are also founding members of Elon Law’s national advisory board.

Associate Dean Alan Woodlief, left, with members of the Moot Court Board at Elon Law from left, Nicole Patterson ‘10, Craig Turner ‘10, Tiffany Atkins ‘11, Will Warihay ‘10, and Sarah Neely ‘10 at the announcement of the Billings, Exum & Frye National Moot Court Competition, April 28, 2010.

“Justices Billings, Exum, and Frye have not only shown great leadership in our courts, they have shown great leadership in the legal profession, in their communities, and now in legal education through their contributions to the formation and development of Elon Law School.”

— James B. Hunt, Former Governor of North Carolina

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Former North Carolina governors James E. Holshouser and James B. Hunt, both members of the law school’s national advisory board, have recognized the important contributions that Justices Billings, Exum, and Frye have made to the State of North Carolina, as well as the impact that a moot court competition named in their honor can have in legal education.

“I don’t believe there is any state in America that has three former chief justices of the Supreme Court that are deeply involved in the leadership of a law school, with a moot court competition named for them,” said Hunt. “Justices Billings, Exum, and Frye have not only shown great leadership in our courts, they have shown great leadership in the legal profession, in their communities, and now in legal education through their contributions to the formation and development of Elon Law School.”

“These three justices have been the sheer epitome of two important traits that are an important part of what Elon University School of Law is all about; they have been leaders and they have been contributors to their community,” said Holshouser. “Public service and leadership are going to be outstanding traits of Elon Law graduates, and this competition, bearing the names of three of North Carolina’s most distinguished justices, builds on that important mission at Elon Law to prepare lawyers for roles in leadership and service to society.”

Competition champions, Joy Foglietta and Bennett Lessmann, center, of Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center, with, from left, former chief justices of the North Carolina Supreme Court and current members of the Elon Law national advisory board, James G. Exum, Jr., Rhoda Bryan Billings, and Henry E. Frye.

David Gergen, chair of Elon Law’s national advisory board, delivered the keynote address at the competition banquet. He commended participants for engaging deeply in the study of law and advocacy through moot court competition.

“Language and words and argument make a difference,” Gergen said. “If you’re a lawyer or if you’re a lawyer who is also a leader, which we would encourage in all of you, you have to be ambassadors of persuasion. It’s very, very important for you to help bring people along in the practice of law. You often have to persuade your client, you often have to persuade a judge, you often have to persuade others, you may have to persuade somebody in politics if you get into that, there are a lot of things, but the point is, words matter and having a mastery of language and of words matters.”

Competitors in the spring 2011 competition were challenged with a problem focusing on two First Amendment issues before the United States Supreme Court. Each team wrote an appellate brief and presented a minimum of four oral arguments before panels of lawyers and judges.

More than 100 distinguished judges and lawyers volunteered to serve as judges for the competition, including Steven M. Colloton, Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; five justices of the North Carolina Supreme Court, including Chief Justice Sarah Parker; four judges of the North Carolina Court of Appeals; and two judges of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.

Elon Law and its moot court board are grateful for the tremendous support the competition received from alumni, attorneys, law firms and distinguished jurists who served as judges.

The level of competition in the inaugural competition was

exceptional, and our Elon Law students did a wonderful job of hosting a first-rate competition for the teams.

The moot court board at Elon Law consists of 40 law students who have excelled in the school’s annual intramural moot court competition. The board is devoted to developing the advocacy skills of Elon law students by coordinating this intramural competition, and of law students nationwide by hosting the Billings, Exum & Frye competition. These students also represent Elon at interscholastic competitions across the country.

“These three justices have been the sheer epitome of two important traits that are an important part of what Elon University School of Law is all about; they have been leaders and they have been contributors to their community.”

Since first entering into interscholastic competitions in the spring of 2008, Elon’s moot court teams have had great success, earning national recognition for the students’ advocacy skills. Its teams have won multiple best brief awards and placed — James E. Holshouser, second in two national competitions.

Former Governor During the 2011-12 academic year, they of North Carolina will again compete in competitions across the country and internationally, including the American Bar Association National Appellate Advocacy Competition and the National Moot Court Competition co-sponsored by the American College of Trial Lawyers and the New York City Bar Association.

The 2012 Billings, Exum & Frye National Moot Court Competition will be held March 29-31, 2012.

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Global Perspectives International Study of Business and Law

“This course gives our students an opportunity to experience firsthand the impact of globalization on U.S. businesses and on our legal system. It also allows students to learn the practical aspects of doing business and practicing law in a foreign culture.”

— Andy Haile Associate Professor of Law

In 2010 and 2011, Elon law and MBA students participated in a collaborative international business course during the winter term. The course incorporates travel to global centers of commerce, including China, Singapore, and Vietnam, focusing on interaction with global and foreign business leaders and examination of cultural, legal and political influences on international commerce.

In the course, students gain valuable cultural and business knowledge through readings and orientations that are held prior to departure, focused observations, lectures, and directed self-learning. In the 2011 course, 12 law students and 12 MBA students experienced two distinct societies and economies: Vietnam and Singapore. Experiences for the students on the trip included meetings with: >> Frasers International Lawyers, a firm comprised of international lawyers that helps foreigners wanting to do business in Vietnam

>> Theodore Alexander, a furniture company that manufacturers high-end furniture and shows at the High Point Furniture Market twice a year >> Gilimex, a contract manufacturer for IKEA of backpacks, cosmetic bags, cushions, hammocks, collapsible storage boxes, and suitcases >> the American Chamber of Commerce, Singapore Office.

In January 2010, law and MBA students travelled to Vietnam and China, including the Special Administrative Region of

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Hong Kong, for the course. During the trip, law students served as legal advisors to simulated commercial entities created by business students, exploring each country’s legal system, researching intellectual property, labor and trade laws specific to each country, and advising on legal considerations from how to enter the foreign country to the best business structures to use.

“Constitutions and Cultures” Course Brings Acclaimed Lawyers to Elon Legal minds from the United States, Japan, Scotland and Germany shared their expertise with Elon Law students in “Constitutions and Cultures: The Idea of a Constitution,” a course taught by noted constitutional law expert A.E. Dick Howard during the 2009 winter term. Howard visited Elon as the first Sandra Day O’Connor Professor.

While taking the course, students contemplated the ideas behind a constitution – what one is, what uses it has – and examined whether any “universals” exist in making a constitution for a democratic society.

Constitutional law experts who took part in the course included: Naoyuki Agawa, Attorney, Former Minister for Public Affairs at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C.; Azizah al-Hibri, Professor of Law, University of Richmond School of Law; Winfried Brugger, Professor of Public Law, Philosophy of Law and Theory of State, Heidelberg University, Germany; and Herbert A. Kerrigan, Barrister, Queen’s Counsel, Scotland.

Howard, the White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs and Earle K. Shawe Research Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, created the course based partly on experiences he has had with men and women who helped create constitutions in other nations, such as the societies of Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of communism.

On Feb. 2, 2011, N.C. Gov. Beverly Perdue appointed Judge James L. Gale (pictured) as a Special Superior Court Judge.

Gale replaced Judge Ben Tennille as Special Superior Court Judge for Complex Business Cases. Tennille retired on March 1, 2011, after 15 years of service as the business court’s founding judge. Judge Gale’s chambers are housed in the School of Law.

The Elon Law Review

By Eric Fink, Associate Professor of Law and Faculty Advisor to the Elon Law Review The Elon Law Review was established by the law school’s charter class in 2008. With each issue, the Elon Law Review strives to advance legal education and scholarship through the contribution of intelligent discussion and analysis of the law. The editorial board of the Elon Law Review is comprised of second- and third-year students, selected on the basis of their academic performance and a writing competition.

The law review hosts a yearly symposium on an emerging topic in the legal community. Past symposia have examined the state of death penalty jurisprudence, emerging trends in international commercial transactions, and the intersection of Internet privacy and the law. This year’s symposium will mark the ten-year anniversary of Sept. 11 with an examination of how several areas of the law have evolved in response to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

In addition, the law review will be co-sponsoring a conference in November 2011 with the University of North Carolina’s Center for the Study of the American South. This conference will honor the legacy of notable Greensboro attorney Albion Tourgée – who was the lead counsel for Homer Plessy in Plessy v. Ferguson. The law review will publish a special issue containing pieces adapted from the conference’s presentations.

The current issue (Volume 3, Number 1) of the Elon Law Review is dedicated to articles exploring the development of a new model of “engaged” legal education.

Working Court Integral to Trial Advocacy Education Elon Law is one of the few law schools in the country, and the first in North Carolina, to house a working court - the North Carolina Business Court. The Business Court provides an excellent forum for students to observe courtroom proceedings.

The law school’s Robert E. Long Courtroom also plays an important role in trial and appellate advocacy education at the law school; it is regularly used for trial practice, moot court, mock trials, and more.

“We put a great deal of energy and resources into skills education at Elon, starting in the first year,” said Catherine Dunham, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Professor of Law, and Director of the Trial Practice Program. “We think about how our colleagues in practice use communications and advocacy skills on a day-to-day basis, whether in interactions with clients, in business settings, or in the courtroom, and we integrate learning about those skills across all three years of our legal education program.”

“We think about how our colleagues in practice use communications and advocacy skills on a day-to-day basis, whether in interactions with clients, in business settings, or in the courtroom, and we integrate learning about those skills across all three years of our legal education program.”

— Catherine Dunham Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law

In addition to moot court, a Student Advocacy Board was established in 2010, enabling law students to participate in mock trial competitions across the country. Also in 2011, Peter T. Hoffman, one of the nation’s leading authorities on trial advocacy, depositions, and evidence, joined Elon as professor of law and director of legal skills.

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The Center for Engaged Learning in the Law: Promoting Excellence in Legal Education

By Steven I. Friedland, Professor of Law and Senior Scholar, Director of the Center for Engaged Learning in the Law The Center for Engaged Learning in the Law (CELL) is dedicated to facilitating engaged learning communities and advancing legal education through experiential means. CELL has addressed engaged learning interests at Elon Law for students, faculty, the legal community, and beyond through a variety of measures.

From offering an ongoing blog for law faculty and students from around the world, to offering noncredit foreign language classes in Mandarin, Italian, Spanish and Arabic, to creating faculty-student discussion events, to bringing in speakers for faculty and students such as Stephen Wermeil to discuss his authorized biography of Justice William Brennan, CELL has aimed to promote all forms of engaged learning.

Perhaps the most significant event cosponsored and hosted by CELL was its April 2010 academic conference, “Teaching Law for Engaged Learning.” The conference brought together more than 50 legal educators from around the nation, all focused on the dual goals of developing as teachers and improving legal education.

The conference was designed and presented by law professors nationally known for their work on legal education, including: Roberto Corrada of Denver University School of Law; Gerry Hess of Gonzaga University School of Law and co-director of the Institute for Law School Teaching and Learning with M. Schwartz (also a co-sponsor of the conference); Michael Hunter Schwartz of Washburn University School of Law; and Sophie Sparrow of New Hampshire Law School.

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The conference was organized around four core sessions: Course and Class Preparation, Teaching Methods, Assessment and Exams, and Developing as a Teacher.

The conference was aimed at developing engaged learning with the objectives of fostering passion in the classroom and preparing students for the high expectations of the legal profession. Those who attended the conference were ready to share their ideas and issues. Said Katherine Trisolini of Loyola Law School, “Teaching is a skill, not a trait. This conference is great because it’s valuable to see what other people are achieving through their teaching techniques.” Reed Benson, of the University of New Mexico Law School, added, “It was great to just think about teaching and be around other [like-minded] people.”

Conference attendees left even more committed than before to expanding the presence of engaged learning in legal education. “Students should feel very fortunate to go to Elon University where there is already an environment of engaged learning in place,” said conference participant Nick Nichols of Widener Law School. “Engaged learning is so important and often overlooked.”

Significantly, the conference led to several unintended but positive consequences. A follow-up conference cosponsored

by Elon’s Martha & Spencer Love School of Business and Center for Law and Humanities is now being planned on teaching law from multidisciplinary perspectives. Also, the main presenters at the engaged learning conference were asked to write articles about engaged learning for the Elon Law Review. A special law review edition was created with most of the keynote speakers participating. That edition (Volume 3, Number 1) extends the reach and life of Elon Law’s engaged learning enterprise.

Faculty Development Lecture Series Supports Scholarly Inquiry Law scholars William M. Carter, Jr. of Temple University Beasley School of Law, Jacqueline D. Lipton of Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and Frank Pasquale of Seton Hall Law spoke at Elon University School of Law during the 2010-11 academic year through the law school’s faculty development lecture series.

The lecture series is designed to advance scholarship in the law by providing a venue for scholars to present works in progress and receive feedback from peers, while addressing research interests among the faculty at Elon Law and sustaining a robust culture of scholarly inquiry at the school.

On Oct. 13, 2010 Lipton spoke on cyber-victimization, discussing a work in progress that proposes to address cyberbullying and other forms of online abuse through reforms both in criminal and tort laws and in a broader “multi-modal regulatory framework,” including enhanced public education initiatives and the development of pro-bono reputation management strategies and reporting hotlines.

Lipton serves as Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Research, Co-Director of the Center for Law Technology and the Arts, and Associate Director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western.

On March 1, 2011 Pasquale discussed a work in progress proposing objective audits of the automated systems used by large institutions to rank and rate individuals, information, and organizations in health, search engine, and finance sectors, arguing that transparency in the methodologies of “automated authorities” could safeguard against unintended economic stratification and unknown risk in markets, among other things.

Pasquale is Schering-Plough Professor in Health Care Regulation and Enforcement and Associate Director of the Gibbons Institute of Law, Science & Technology at Seton Hall Law. On April 7, 2011 Carter presented a work in progress positing that interest convergence theory helps to explain why one element of the Thirteenth Amendment, to eliminate the vestiges of slavery, has entered minimally into jurisprudence of liberty and equality. Carter is Professor of Law at Temple University Beasley School of Law. Elon Law professor David Levine, chair of the faculty development committee, commented on the lecture series.

“We were very fortunate to have three prolific scholars discuss their current research with us,” Levine said. “We are planning for next year and looking forward to expanding our efforts to bring other eminent scholars to Elon.”

In addition to the lecture series, the faculty development committee organizes internal works-in-progress talks throughout the academic year, scholarship exchanges with other law schools, and other formal and informal efforts aimed at supporting the scholarship endeavors of faculty at Elon Law. The 2011-12 faculty development lecture series will welcome the following scholars of law, among others: James Grimmelmann, Associate Professor at New York Law School, David Hoffman, Professor of Law at Temple University Beasley School of Law, Sonia Katyal, Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law, and Julie Cromer Young, Associate Professor of Law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law.

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Justice Sandra Day O’Connor with Elon Law Review Symposium Editor Stephen Shaw ’10 and Editor-in-Chief Edward Garrett ’10

Justice O’Connor Urges Change in North Carolina’s System for Selecting Judges On March 10, 2010, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (ret.) Sandra Day O’Connor told an audience of more than 300 law students that all states should appoint judges, rather than electing them, in order to improve the quality of the judicial system.

O’Connor, who dedicated Elon Law in 2006, was emphatic in her opposition to judicial elections. “We are the only nation in the world that elects its judges,” O’Connor said.

“We are just way out in left field on this.”

Noting that the U.S. Constitution requires federal judges to be selected and appointed by the president, with the advice and consent of the Senate, O’Connor said the states originally used similar systems.

“Every one of the original colonies, every one of the original states had appointed judges,” O’Connor said. “None of them elected judges.”

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While describing her successful efforts in Arizona to establish an appointive system for judicial selection in 1974, O’Connor expressed regret that North Carolina has not made a similar change.

“In those days, Arizona elected its judges,” O’Connor said. “You still do that in North Carolina, I’m sorry to say – very sorry to say – that’s not a good way to go… I know you have some public funding of elections, and it’s nonpartisan, but that doesn’t do enough. I hope that someday you’ll think about something else in North Carolina.”

After O’Connor spoke at Elon Law, several North Carolina newspapers editorialized in favor of her call to change the state’s system of selecting judges, including the Charlotte Observer, Raleigh News & Observer, and Greensboro News & Record.

O’Connor spoke on a range of additional topics during a

Justice O’Connor with Leadership Fellows and SBA leaders

conversation with Elon Law Dean George R. Johnson, Jr. and through a question-and-answer period with law students.

Pointing to the limited amount of time current federal legislators stay in the nation’s capital each week, O’Connor urged members of Congress to take more time to get to know each other, especially across party lines.

“They don’t even get acquainted with the members of their own party, much less the other party,” O’Connor said. “This business today, they think they have to raise money every single weekend, and they go home every single weekend.

Now that’s no way to get acquainted and to understand how to work together. It seems to me, we have to find ways both at the state level and at the national level to get acquainted and to start working together.”

Justice O’Connor at the dedication of Elon Law in 2006 with, from left, Elon University President Leo M. Lambert, Elon Law Advisory Board Chair David Gergen, Joseph M. Bryan Foundation President Jim Melvin, and Elon University Life Trustee Dr. James B. Powell.

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The International Civil Rights Center and Museum opened in 2010 inside a former Woolworth building in Greensboro, N.C. The store’s lunch counter, pictured above as part of the museum, was the site of a series of “sit-ins” against segregation beginning on Feb. 1, 1960.

American Civil Rights Movement Explored at MLK Forum Franklin McCain, one of four North Carolina A&T State University students who energized the civil rights movement on Feb. 1, 1960, by sitting at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., was the featured speaker at Elon Law’s second-annual Martin Luther King Jr. forum, held Jan. 14, 2010.

The forum took place two weeks prior to the 50th anniversary of the sit-ins and preceded the opening of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum, a 43,000 square-foot facility that opened on Feb. 1, 2010, at the site of the historic sit-ins in downtown Greensboro, just blocks from the law school.

Duke University historian William H. Chafe began the forum by describing what he called the “progressive mystique of the South, a much more genteel form of social control where the thinking was, ‘we should be nice to people but not necessarily change the status quo.’”

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“What happened on February 1 was the decisive tipping point which led to so much else happening, including basically the creation of the direct-action student civil rights movement, which is responsible for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the ‘65 Voting Rights Act and the ‘68 Housing Act. All that really had its inception in the direct action started by Franklin McCain and others,” Chafe said.

McCain then described how he and his friends arrived at the decision to initiate the sit-ins, noting how angry they had become at a system that denied them equal rights. He also explained the group’s thought process in choosing the sit-ins as a form of protest.

“We didn’t pick the Woolworth’s counter just out of a hat,” McCain said. “We picked Woolworth’s because it represented a real dichotomy of treatment and offerings and service. It was a representation of another big lie, meaning that you

Elon Law students, representing the school’s Black Law Students Association and Phi Alpha Delta chapter, pictured with civil rights pioneer Franklin E. McCain, seated center.

could go to a Woolworth’s in New York City or Philadelphia, and visit all 44 counters, including the lunch counter. You could come a little farther south, to Greensboro, and do your business at 43 counters and not number 44. And we thought, ‘This is sinister. This is a place where we have a legitimate right and a way to attack it.’”

Romallus Murphy, former general counsel for the North Carolina NAACP and past-president of the Guilford County Association of Black Lawyers, reviewed civil rights litigation preceding the sit-in movement and described courageous actions of plaintiffs in those cases. Reviewing a series of state and U.S. Supreme Court cases in the 1950s, Murphy noted that legal actions taken by the NAACP under the leadership of Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall were successful in overturning the separate but equal doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson, and that plaintiffs in those cases deserved greater recognition for the hardships and risks to personal safety they endured to advance civil rights.

“Twenty seconds after I sat on that dumb stool, I had the most wonderful feeling. I had a feeling of self-fulfillment, I had a feeling of dignity 100 feet tall, I had a feeling of invincibility. I was somebody through my own accord and through my own action.”

— Civil rights pioneer Franklin McCain

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Relationship Between War Crimes Evidence and Social Reconstruction Explored at Special Forum Three scholars whose research explores the social significance of historical, visual, and scientific war crimes evidence spoke at Elon Law on Jan. 18, 2011, exploring the Bosnian War and its aftermath.

Presenting at the forum were David Crowe, Professor of Legal History at Elon Law and Professor of History at Elon University, documentarian Adnan Džumhur, affiliated with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Sarah Wagner, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Glenn Fine served under three presidents and five attorneys general as Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice

Glenn Fine Describes Shift in U.S. Department of Justice Priorities On March 10, 2011, Glenn Fine spoke before an audience of Elon Law students and faculty about recent changes within the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Fine, the Inspector General of the department from 2000 to 2011, said that the agency’s top priority had changed dramatically since 2001, from detection and prosecution of crime to prevention of terrorism.

Fine detailed several Office of the Inspector General reviews done in the counterterrorism area in the last decade, including a 2010 report about the DOJ’s preparedness to respond to a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) attack.

“We found that the FBI actually did have an effective plan and had practiced that plan, but the rest of the department had not,” Fine said, noting that the report helped to advance Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives efforts to improve coordination, planning, and processes to help first responders in the wake of potential WMD attacks.

Serving under three U.S. presidents and five U.S attorneys general, Fine holds the longest tenure of any inspector general for the DOJ. Upon his retirement in January, the New York Times wrote in an editorial (Feb. 1, 2011) that Fine had devoted time in the position, “pushing to clean up and depoliticize a hyperpoliticized department.”

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The forum was titled “War Crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Their Aftermath: Exploring the Role of Historical, Visual, and Scientific Evidence in Trials Before the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia and Its Impact on Social Reconstruction.”

Crowe surveyed the history of the Bosnian War and the proceedings of the International Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia currently taking place in The Hague, Netherlands, which he observed extensively.

“The visual representation and documentary evidence at the trial is really quite astounding,” Crowe said. “There is no other trial like it in recent international criminal justice that I know of.”

Džumhur suggested that evidence of war crimes through photography and film had been essential in raising awareness about atrocities of the Bosnian War and in the prosecution of those crimes after the war, but said those same images had a “multiplicity of significance” over the last fifteen years on the communities that experienced the war.

Finally, Wagner discussed the social impacts of large-scale efforts to identify those killed through war crimes during the Bosnian War using DNA evidence. She said that families and entire communities struggled to move forward when they lacked conclusive knowledge about the fate of those assumed to have been killed through war crimes.

She also explained why the assumption that the recovery, identification, and burying of their family members bodies could help to achieve social repair was an assumption that needs to be problematized.

Diversity Day Features National Civil Rights and Education Leaders Each February, Elon Law hosts Diversity Day, designed for minority college students, but open to all considering law school and to the Elon community.

Keynote speakers have included: 2008 - Julius Chambers, Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund from 1984 to 1993 and Chancellor of North Carolina Central University from 1993 to 2001 2009 - Elaine R. Jones, the first woman President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (1993-2004) 2010 - Timothy Tyson, Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and author of Blood Done Sign My Name 2011 - Julianne Malveaux, President of Bennett College for Women.

Diversity Day includes presentations by North Carolina judges, accomplished attorneys, and members of the faculty at Elon Law, exploring the role of the lawyer in society and the path to entry into law school. The event is co-sponsored by the Law School Admission Council as part of the DiscoverLaw Month.

“Many will depend upon you to come in, to pick up the mantle, and to move us forward. Whatever you care about – children, the economy, the environment, rights, disability, age – it is going to be in the law. The question is, are you going to be fully prepared to prosecute or defend that issue that you are so passionate about?”

—Elaine R. Jones

Judicial Selection Takes Center Stage At a public debate at Elon Law, held Oct. 29, 2009, former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice James G. Exum Jr. urged that the state move to a system of appointing judges, arguing that elections wrongly influence judges to consider the political implications of their decisions.

“Politics in judicial selection is like matter in the universe,” Exum said. “You cannot destroy it. It will always be there. The question for us is, where do we want to put the politics? I can tolerate politics in the initial selection process, in an appointment process, but what seems to me to be intolerable is when the judge is in office, working on cases, at that point it seems to me intolerable to subject that judge to popular political recall.”

Exum heads the appellate practice group at Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP, serves as Distinguished Jurist in Residence at Elon Law and is a member of the law school’s national advisory board.

Elon Law professor Scott Gaylord defended judicial elections, arguing that they present a check on the power of judges who would otherwise serve lifetime appointments.

“There are not many eternal verities in my scheme of thinking, but there are at least two. One is that I have come to believe that human beings will never be able to administer the death penalty fairly and equitably, and it is time to abolish that.

The second is we have no business electing judges.”

“The election process is a means by which you can try to get the judiciary to have a control, to have a check on the process, and answerable to the people as —James G. Exum Jr. opposed to what Lincoln and Jefferson talk about as a ‘despotism of an oligarchy,’” Gaylord said. “With lifetime appointments, there’s not a lot you could do to put a check on judges within an appointment system, and there’s not a lot that the executive or legislative branches could do at that point.”

The forum was part of an extensive focus on the subject of judicial selection at the law school, including the address on the subject by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (see page 24) and articles by professors Andy Haile, Alan Woodlief and Gaylord, published in the News & Record (Greensboro, N.C.) and North Carolina State Bar Journal.

forum & event highlights 29

honoring donors

Making a Difference Elon Law would not exist without the support provided by a number of North Carolina’s most respected philanthropists and civic leaders. The achievements of Elon Law and the contributions that its students and alumni make to the betterment of the profession and society are linked directly to the generous contributions made by these outstanding individuals.

We are grateful for all they have done, not only to make the law school a reality, but also to make it a law school of excellence, focused on leadership and service at a time when the world is crying out for leaders to take on the great challenges before us.

George R. Johnson, Jr. Dean and Professor of Law

In 2004, Jim Melvin, president of The Joseph M. Bryan Foundation of Greater Greensboro, and Elon University President Leo M. Lambert spearheaded a campaign to raise start-up funding to locate Elon Law in Greensboro. The Bryan Foundation and several other foundations, corporations, and individuals participated in the successful drive to provide the $10 million needed to supplement Elon funding for the launch of the school.

In 2006, the law school facility was named the H. Michael Weaver Building in honor of the prominent business leader and philanthropist. The naming recognized Weaver’s lifetime of service and generosity to the Greensboro community and to North Carolina.

In 2008, a $1 million gift from the Bryan Foundation established the Joseph M. Bryan Distinguished Leadership Lecture Series, bringing national leaders to Greensboro to speak with law students and the broader community.

Also in 2008, a $500,000 gift from Maurice Jennings Sr. ’57 and his wife, Linda, and Maurice “Burney” Jennings Jr. ’87 and his wife, Dina ’87, established an endowed professorship at Elon Law. The gift included an estate gift from Burney Jennings, an Elon trustee.

The Jennings Professor of Law is committed to the law school’s mission of enhancing civic engagement and leadership in the legal profession, demonstrating innovation as a teacher and scholar, and working to address a legal or social challenge. The Jennings family has been a vital part of the Elon community for more than 50 years.

The Nixon C. Henley Endowed Fund was established in 2008 with a $250,000 estate gift through the Community Foundation of Greensboro. It supports scholarship and symposia at the law school focusing on small family business and the role of lawyers in creating and sustaining local economic development.

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Far left: Jim Melvin, president of The Joseph M. Bryan Foundation of Greater Greensboro and former Greensboro Mayor, received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Elon in 2006.

Left: Maurice N. Jennings ’57 and Burney Jennings ’87. Maurice Jennings was awarded the Elon Medallion for outstanding service to the university in 2006.

Bottom left: Leading Greensboro philanthropist H. Michael Weaver received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Elon in 2006.

Below: Elon University trustee and law school donor Gail M. Drew Lane was awarded the Elon Medallion for outstanding service to the university in 2004.

Katherine Stern and family established the Sidney J. Stern, Jr. Endowed Scholarship. Sidney Stern was a longtime Greensboro, N.C., attorney and business, civic and religious leader. Recipients of the scholarship are selected on the basis of integrity, intellect and leadership, qualities that defined Sidney Stern’s life and career.

served for 19 years as coordinator of special events at Elon University. Her husband, Robert Ellington, was formerly Elon’s physician. They have been loyal donors to Elon for years. The Banks Arendell Scholarship honors Helen’s father, who served with distinction as an attorney in Raleigh from 1924 through the mid-1960s.

The Weaver Foundation of Greensboro made a gift to provide funding for The Center for Engaged Learning in the Law, helping Elon to promote the national exchange of ideas and information between law school faculty about fresh, innovative approaches to teaching the law.

In 2010, Michele “Shelly” Skeens Hazel, a 1979 Elon College graduate, and her family, including daughter Alix Hazel ’09, established The Skeens-Watson Visiting Professor of Law fund through a $500,000 gift.

In 2009, the McMichael Family Foundation made a $2 million gift to Elon Law, establishing the largest scholarship endowment at the school. The gift continued the McMichael family’s rich philanthropic tradition at the university. Dalton L. McMichael’s daughter, Gail M. Drew Lane, of Durham, N.C., is a university trustee and law school donor. Her annual gift to the law school’s scholarship fund supports annual Drew Scholars.

In 2009, Greensboro philanthropists and members of Elon Law’s national advisory board Bonnie McElveen Hunter and Robert E. “Bobby” Long, Jr. gave $250,000 each to create the endowed Sandra Day O’Connor Professorship. The professorship serves as a tribute to Justice O’Connor’s service to the nation, encouraging law students to follow her example by becoming exceptional lawyers and effective community leaders.

Also in 2009, trustee Vicky Hunt and her husband, Sam, of Burlington, N.C., made a $100,000 gift to to endow the scholarship that bears their names. The Hunts received the university’s Frank S. Holt Jr. Business Leadership Award in 2005 in recognition of their contributions to civic and business communities.

In 2010, a $100,000 charitable remainder trust from Helen Ellington established the Banks Arendell Scholarship. Ellington

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Friends of Elon Law gather at the home of Betsy Long and Rob Clark.

Betsy Long and Rob Clark Host Reception for Elon Law in Raleigh

honoring donors

Betsy Long and Rob Clark, M.D., Ph.D., graciously hosted a reception for friends of Elon Law at their home in Raleigh, N.C., in May 2010. The Long family is a founding supporter of Elon University School of Law. The courtroom at Elon Law, which houses the North Carolina Business Court, is named in memory of Robert E. Long, Betsy Long’s father, who is broadly recognized within the legal profession for his distinguished service as an attorney in Burlington, N.C.

Featured speaker David Gergen, center, with, from left, law school dean George R. Johnson, Jr. and wife Linda Morris, Betsy Long and Rob Clark

Joy and Leary Davis, founding dean and professor of law emeritus, with Elon president Leo M. Lambert, at Davis’s portrait unveiling ceremony at the law school, Oct. 8, 2009. The Davis’s established the Joy B. Davis Endowed Scholarship in 2007.

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Frank Family Establishes Carole W. Bruce Endowed Scholarship The Stanley and Dorothy Frank Family Foundation, together with sons William A. Frank and Barry S. Frank, made a $100,000 gift in 2010 to create the Carole W. Bruce Endowed Scholarship at Elon Law. The Frank family established the scholarship to honor Carole W. Bruce, secretary to the Stanley and Carole W. Bruce, Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP Dorothy Frank Family Foundation and legal and financial adviser to the Frank family for more than 40 years. The scholarship also honors the legacies of Stanley and Dorothy Frank, outstanding Greensboro citizens and philanthropists. The gift will provide scholarships for secondor third-year law students in good academic standing with an interest in tax or estate-planning law.

Leadership Fellows from the Classes of 2012 and 2013 are among those who will benefit from the endowment established

by Don and Lucy Dancer of Manhattan Beach, California.

Donald and Lucy Dancer Establish Endowed Scholarship for Leadership Fellows Program Donald R. Dancer, a member of the Law School Advisory Board, and his wife, Lucy Dancer, generously contributed $100,000 in 2010 to establish the Elon University School of Law Leadership Fellows Summer Internship Fund.

Distributions from the endowment will be used to support Elon Law Leadership Fellows pursuing summer internship opportunities.

The Dancers said they chose to support the program because they believe in the obligation of lawyers to represent the highest standards of ethics and professionalism throughout their careers. The Fellows program builds toward that objective by placing law students in high-level internships where they can explore dimensions of ethical leadership through practical experiences in the law.

100 Percent of Faculty and Staff Make Gifts to Law School Every member of the faculty and staff at Elon University School of Law contributed to the Law School Faculty and Staff Campaign for the second consecutive year during the 2010-11 academic year. These gifts helped to raise substantial funds for law student scholarships.

Eugenia Leggett, Associate Dean for Development at Elon Law, said the breadth of financial contributions from faculty and staff to the annual fund was evidence of broad support within the institution for the law school’s mission, to prepare law students for leadership roles in the profession and in society, and to enrich legal education through the infusion of engaged learning techniques in the study of law.

Class Gifts Support Scholarships and Enhance Law School The presentation of the class gift at the annual Dean’s Reception for graduating students has become an important tradition at Elon Law. In 2009, on behalf of the charter class, gift committee chair Leslie Price presented a contribution toward a scholarship for future law students and an original commissioned painting by Greensboro artist William Mangum depicting iconic elements of the law school facility and historic experiences of the Elon Law community.

The following year, members of the Class of 2010 presented a donation of more than $10,000 toward the establishment of an endowed scholarship. Camilla Goodchild and Sarah Neely, cochairs of the Class of 2010 gift committee, presented the gift.

“We hope that this gift will benefit future Elon Law students with the same drive, dedication and service that members of the Class of 2010 have demonstrated,” Goodchild said.

Members of the Class of 2009, Damon Duncan, left, and Chad Hinton, unveil their class gift to the law school, which also included a contribution toward a scholarship for future law students.

In 2011, Gift Committee Chair Tiffany D. Atkins presented the gift on behalf of her class. Their gift completed the Weaver Lobby of the law school with custom benches. .

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student spotlight

our article, we examine this idea and provide guidance to nanotech practitioners and lawyers drafting nanotech patents that will assist the patent office effectively, helping to process future nanotech patent applications more efficiently.”

Keely Sewell Improves Legal Representation of Children in Ethiopia

Brown also presented at the North Carolina Central University School of Law Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Law Review symposium on March 19, 2010, representing Womble Carlyle, where Brown served as a summer associate and as a patent agent while in law school. Now an attorney with Womble Carlyle, Brown obtained a doctorate in biochemistry from North Carolina State University. He also holds degrees in chemistry and zoology and served as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at Wake Forest University.

Keely Sewell ‘11 spent the summer of 2009 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, working with the country’s First Federal Instance Court on an initiative to provide court-appointed social workers to represent the interests of children in family law cases.

As part of her work, Sewell developed a policy and procedures manual, code of ethics, and assessment tools for social workers to use when filing recommendations with the court.

She also met with social workers on a weekly basis to discuss their cases and to help determine the best strategy for handling each case.

While in Ethiopia, Sewell worked on another court-facilitated project to create a mentorship program for orphaned children.

“Initially the project will target those children who have experienced severe trauma either through rape or other physical abuse,” Sewell said. “Eventually the hope is to have enough resources for all the orphaned children in Addis Ababa to have mentors.”

Natalie Morales Receives Pro Bono Award Natalie Morales ’09 received the North Carolina State Bar Pro Bono Service Award in 2009.

Given annually by the State Bar, the Pro Bono Service Award recognizes law students for extraordinary public service. During her three years at Elon Law, Morales contributed 675 hours of pro bono service, working with Lutheran Family Services, the Racial Justice Project of the North Carolina, American Civil Liberties Union, the Immigrant and Refugee Legal Resources Center, the Federal Public Defender’s Office of the Middle District of North Carolina, and the Elon Law Innocence Project, where she reviewed innocence claims by Spanish speaking inmates. .

Bernard Brown Authors Research on Patent Law and Nanotechnology Bernard Brown ’10 co-authored an article about the impacts of patenting and the patent review process on the emerging field of nanotechnology with Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice attorneys Greg Grissett and Jack Hicks. The article was presented in September 2009 at the Society for the Study of Nanoscience and Emerging Technologies Conference in Seattle, Washington.

“Because nanotechnology is a multidisciplinary field, and because researchers and developers raced to the patent office with every ‘apparently new’ development, the U.S. patent office has been overwhelmed,” Brown said. “This has led to a ‘patent thicket’ that could stifle innovation. In

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Christa Davis Receives E-LEEP Grant Christa Davis ‘11 was one of 20 students to receive a grant through the U.S. State Department for the Emerging Leaders’ Extraction and Environment Program (E-LEEP).

E-LEEP trains young leaders to address social, economic, and environmental challenges involved with the extraction of natural resources around the world. Through the program, Davis traveled to Ghana in July 2011, participating in lectures, site visits, and projects as part of a joint arrangement through Duquesne University and the University of Ghana. A grant from the U.S. State Department fully funded the trip.

Hasina Lewis Publishes Article in N.C. Bar Association Bulletin Hasina Lewis ‘12 published “Cultivating Diversity in the Law School Classroom” in the Jan. 2010 edition of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Law Student Division Bulletin. In the article, Lewis called for greater understanding about the diverse experiences of those entering law school.

“Before we start to diversify our legal classroom…everyone must be willing to listen and understand the lives and experiences of people from different cultures for us to reach a common ground,” Lewis wrote.

Lewis also calls for strong mentoring programs to support minority students.

“It is crucial for minority law students to have access to mentors due to the scarcity of minorities within our profession,” Lewis wrote.

When asked why she wrote on the topic, Lewis said, “It is important that the legal community reflect the diversity of the people that we will serve in practice.”

Jeb Brooks Leads Initiative to Draw Young Professionals into Civic Life As a third-year law student, Jeb Brooks ’10 moderated a candidates forum for Greensboro’s mayoral and city council offices, and organized two forums on city government and economic development as part of his capstone leadership project.

Capstone projects allow third-year students to apply legal knowledge and leadership skills toward initiatives of their choice that benefit the profession, the community or broader society.

“Just like success as a litigator is based, at least in part, in an understanding of civil procedure, it’s necessary to understand the way our local government is set up in order to be a successful advocate for Greensboro,” Brooks said. “By taking time to get a sense of how our system works, what it needs and, most importantly, how it can improve, young professionals can hone the skills necessary to be effective advocates.”

Brooks is the executive vice president of The Brooks Group.

student initiative highlights Elon Reaches Out Since 2007, first-year students have participated in Elon Reaches Out community service day as part of their orientation to law school.

Through Elon Reaches Out, students support the work of nonprofits across the region, including the Adult Center for Enrichment, the American Red Cross, the Boys and Girls Club, Housing Greensboro, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Care Package Drives for Soldiers Overseas In 2010 and 2011, David Stephens ’11 spearheaded multi-week campaigns to collect goods for U.S. military servicemen and women overseas. The campaigns drew support from regional corporations, high schools and middle schools, and Elon’s MBA program. Carla Rogers ’11 was also instrumental in the effort.

Forums on Innocence and Justice In addition to conducting reviews and investigations of innocence claims made by prisoners incarcerated in North Carolina, the Innocence Project at Elon Law holds regular forums open to the Elon community. On April 12, 2010, for example, Greg Taylor told Elon Law students about his harrowing experience, spending 17 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission found Taylor innocent after nearly two decades in prison for a first-degree murder conviction.

Black Law Students Association Multicultural Dinners BLSA’s third annual multicultural dinner at Elon Law featured Camille Banks-Payne of the Tenth District Court in Forsyth County, N.C. BLSA established the annual “Raising the Bar” dinner to welcome incoming minority students and to honor third-year members of BLSA. Members of the organization also volunteered as judges at the 2010 debate tournament of the National Association of African-American Honors Programs and as teachers to elementary age children in a mock trial program sponsored by Jack and Jill of America, Inc. Women’s Law Association Judiciary Panels The April 21, 2010, Women in the Judiciary forum encouraged diversity on the bench, featuring presentations by judges of the N.C. Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and District Court. In addition, the WLA’s annual Women in the Profession dinners have honored former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Rhoda Bryan Billings, former N.C. Bar Association President Janet Ward Black, and Guilford County District Court Judge Polly Sizemore. The organization also hosts an annual 5K run for women’s health.

Public Interest Law Society Summer Internship Stipends Established in 2010, student-funded grants from the organization have supported law students working at the Office of the Attorney General for the State of North Carolina, the Guardian ad Litem program in Wake County, N.C., and the Orleans Public Defenders in New Orleans, Louisiana.

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Q&A with Alvaro De La Calle A member of the Class of 2012, Alvaro De La Calle was elected by his peers to serve both as a first-year student representative to the Student Bar Association and as a second-year representative to the Honor Council. In the fall of 2010, he spearheaded the creation of the Latin American Law Students Association (LALSA), for which he served as president in 2010-11.

Q. Why did you decide to create LALSA?

Elon Students Teach at Public High Schools Through Street Law Course

student spotlight

In 2011, for the third consecutive year, students at Elon Law taught at several public high schools through a Street Law course offered in the spring semester. Street Law programs enable law students to teach practical legal information to high school students, encouraging greater awareness among teens about the impact of law on society while providing law students with opportunities to enhance legal skills and knowledge of substantive law.

Through the course, law students prepare teens to participate in a mock trial held at the end of the semester. Law students offer instruction on opening statements, directand cross-examinations, and closing arguments among other things. Elon students taught at several public schools in Greensboro this year, including Dudley High School, Page High School, The Academy at Lincoln, and Ragsdale High School.

The course is taught by Larry D. Brown, Jr., Assistant District Attorney for Alamance County and a member of the extended faculty at Elon Law. The 2011 Street Law participants included law students Danielle Appelman ‘12, Chris Avery ‘12, Amy Brodland ‘12, Josh Choi ‘11, Megan Connole ‘12, Adam Furr ‘12, Hank Harrawood ‘12, Daniel Joyce ‘11, Pamela Lawrence ‘12, Allison Lukanich ‘12, Danny Lyon ‘11, Jenny Stapleton ‘12, and Matt White ‘11.

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A. LALSA was created with the hope of uniting the various Latin American students present at Elon Law, as well as those who share a general interest in Latin America. I feel there is some cultural separation between those born in Latin American countries and those who are of Latin American heritage born in the United States - LALSA can help bring us together.

The founding executive board (Vice President Josh Lopez ‘12, Treasurer Rebekah Parker ‘12, and Secretary Allison Lukanich ‘12) and I hope to have individuals from all backgrounds participate and become involved in our organization.

Q. What are some of the challenges you see the organization facing?

A. Here, in the media, people see certain things. Everyone knows about the dictators, the war on drugs, and the violence that is occurring in Latin America. The same method has been applied to Latin American immigrants in the U.S. The media most often concentrates on stories related to gang activity, illegal immigration and so on.

I think it is important for people to see and hear other perspectives regarding Latin American development and news, so LALSA will strive to do just that … we want everyone to have access to different points of view, ideas, and philosophies and come to their own conclusions.

Q. What are your plans for the organization?

A. We’d like to host bilingual VITA clinics [free tax preparation clinics for low-income residents in the region]. It’s very important for LALSA to give back to the Greensboro community and we feel that this is a great way to do it.

ALUMNI ACTION Elon Law Alumni Selected for Presidential Management Fellowships Nicole Patterson ‘10 and Brendan Garcia ’11 have been accepted into the Presidential Management Fellowship (PMF) program. More than 5,000 people apply for Presidential Management Fellowships each year, on average. Approximately six percent of applicants obtain appointments as fellows.

particular project, will provide me with the opportunity to serve the communities that have given so much to me throughout my life. In addition, I hope that working with HRSA will allow me to show the D.C., Maryland, Virginia area how well Elon Law has prepared me to be a lawyer and leader.”

Through her fellowship, Patterson is working in the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Patterson is assisting a special committee, appointed by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, to update federal criteria used to determine whether a particular area or population is medically underserved or has a shortage of health professionals.

Garcia will be working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in the Veterans Benefits Administration. In summer 2010, Garcia served as a summer law clerk at the Board of Veteran’s Appeals in Washington, D.C.

“My career endeavor has always been to work in the public sector and the PMF program will allow me to do that,” Patterson said. “Working with HRSA, especially on this

“My time at Elon Law served as a great foundation for my selection as a Presidential Management Fellow,” Garcia said. “The emphasis that Elon places on leadership helped to prepare me for my future responsibilities with the federal government and will give me an advantage in completing the leadership training within the PMF program.”

Elon Law Grads Attend LL.M. Programs

Jennifer Fleeman ‘09 holds an LL.M. in employment law from the University of Georgia School of Law.

Ted Johnson ’09 holds an LL.M. in international law from the American University Washington College of Law.

Norman J. Leonard ‘09 holds an LL.M. from University College London.

Jon Dunsmoor ‘10 holds an LL.M. in Criminal Law from the University at Buffalo Law School.

Justin Ervin ‘10 earned an LL.M. in Tax Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

Andrew Hogan ’10 began the LL.M.in Tax program with the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa in September 2011.

David Klein ‘10 holds an LL.M. from the University of Georgia School of Law LL.M. program in international law.

Stephen Shaw ‘10 is pursuing a New York University Executive LL.M. in tax, a part of NYU Law’s Graduate Tax Program.

Christa Davis ’11 is pursuing an LL.M. at Vermont Law for Environmental Law.

Matthew White ‘11 is pursuing an LL.M. in International Criminal Law at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

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Alumni Council Members of the Elon Law Alumni Council, clockwise from left, Melanie Crenshaw ‘09, Melissa Duncan ’09 (past-president), Michele Cybulski ‘09, Megan Silver ’09 (secretary), Andrea Dancy Harrell ‘09, Samantha Gilman ‘11, Eric Meredith ‘09, Jason Aycoth ’09 (president), Will Warihay ‘10, Danielle Caldwell ‘09, Danny Donovan ‘09, Barron Thompson ‘09, Deron Henry ‘09, Steven Lucente ‘09, Tiffany Atkins ‘11, Erin O’Connell, Seema Shah ‘09, Sarah Robinson ‘09, and Damon Duncan ‘09. Other members of the Council include: Alumni Association treasurer Mital Patel ’09, Andrew Ackley ’09, Britainy Alford ’09, Tamaya Davis ’11, Alix Hazel ’09, Amy Holthouser ’09, David Klein ’10, Leslie Price Lasher ’09, Danny Lyon ’11, Shannon O’Donnell ’09, and Manisha Patel ’11.

Regional Receptions In 2011, Elon hosted regional receptions for law alumni in Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh, North Carolina, and in Washington, D.C. Pictured right, some attendees at the March 15, 2011 reception in Raleigh, including Elon Law professors Marty Peters, left, and Bonnie McAlister, right, Associate Dean for Development Eugenia Leggett, center, and alumni from left, Edward Garrett ’10, Gavin Painter ’09, Holly Greeson ’09, Chad Hinton ’09, Lauren Reeves ’09, Damon Duncan ’09, Melissa Duncan ’09, Kyle Ostendorf ’09, and Jason Aycoth ’09.

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Class Notes Damon Duncan ’09, an attorney with Duncan Law, was named one of the North Carolina Bar Association (NCBA) Young Lawyers of the Quarter with Mital Patel ‘09 for April-June 2011.

He is on the NCBA Young Lawyers Division (YLD) Council, co-chair of the YLD New Lawyers in Practice Committee, a member of the NCBA Law Practice Management Section, chairing the section’s Continuing Legal Education committee, and a member of the Greensboro Bar Association’s (GBA) Young Lawyers Section’s Board.

Duncan has presented at several CLEs about law practice management issues.

He is a member of the Community Involvement Committee of the GBA. Chad Hinton ‘09 joined the law firm of Taylor, Brinson & DeLoatch in Tarboro, N.C., in March. Since moving to Tarboro, he has been actively involved in the Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club. He was appointed representative to the Edgecombe County Cultural Arts Council by the Tarboro Town Council.

Norman J. Leonard ‘09 is an attorney with Ward and Smith, P.A. in Asheville, N.C. While earning an LL.M. from University College London, he was awarded the Sir Frederick Pollock Scholarship by UCL, given annually to an outstanding North American law graduate pursuing an LL.M. Lauren V. Reeves ’09 joined the law firm of Smith Debnam in Raleigh, N.C., as an associate in 2010, where she will concentrate her practice in the areas of foreclosures, bankruptcy and creditor’s rights.

Sarah Robinson ’09, attorney in the law firm of Wishart Norris Henninger & Pittman in Charlotte, N.C., has joined the board of directors of the Charlotte Women’s Bar, the Carolina Foster Kids Foundation, and the Down Syndrome Association of Charlotte.

Kerri Sigler ’09 joined Wyatt Early Harris Wheeler, LLP as Litigation Associate in May 2010. She reports that her first argument for the firm in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of North Carolina set precedent and her first appeal before the N.C. Court of Appeals was successful. She was invited to Guilford County Inns of Court in 2010 and the Board of Directors for Triad Local First in 2011. She serves as an Elon Law Preceptor. The Elon Law Review published her first law review article in 2011. She is scheduled to return to Honduras with Habitat International in 2012 for a third consecutive trip.

Captain Luke Spencer ‘09 is the Chief of Military Justice for the 49th Wing at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. In this capacity, he is responsible for managing the courts-martial process for all 49th Wing cases and for advising commanders on disciplinary issues involving their troops. He also prosecutes cases as a trial counsel.

Ryan Stewart ’09 has been admitted to the U.S. Tax Court. He is a member of the Greensboro and Alamance County Bar Associations along with the N.C. and American Bar Associations.

He is on the Membership Council of the Alamance Area Chamber of Commerce and has volunteered at Wills for Heroes and American Red Cross Junior Achievement Fundraisers.

In his practice, Stewart has assisted publicly traded corporations with multi-site multi-state acquisitions; regional, national and publicly traded commercial developers with multisite commercial development and re-development projects; corporations with both federal and state tax issues; and international manufacturing companies with federal, state, and local permitting and regulatory issues.

Rachel M. Dimont ’10 joined the Winston-Salem, N.C., office of Blanco Tackabery in 2010, where she practices

in the Business Bankruptcy and Insolvency Group.

David Klein ‘10 is an attorney with O’Kelley & Sorohan LLC, in Duluth, G.A., and is a member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Georgia and its Young Lawyers Division.

M. Brett Moore ’10 started M. Brett Moore, PLLC in High Point, N.C. and reports that the firm is off to a great start. He was appointed to the board of Court Watch of North Carolina, a nonprofit organization working to help children and families who need assistance from the courts and to improve the N.C. judicial system.

Michael Vivenzio ’10 is an attorney with The Law Offices of Dominick Pilli, P.C. in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, focusing on criminal defense litigation. He is a licensed agent with Sports Management Group Worldwide, Inc., an agency serving primarily NFL and MLB players. He passed the Virginia Bar Examination in July 2010, followed by passage of the NFL Players Association examination.

He is a licensed NFLPA and MLBPA certified Player Agent.

William B. Warihay ’10 joined Ogletree Deakins as a litigator in employment litigation and labor arbitration in 2010. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Elon, teaching undergraduate pre-law classes and coaching participants of Elon Mock Trial, a program he co-founded as an Elon undergraduate and elevated to national prominence as a teacher for the program during law school.

Mike Sprague ’11 has been appointed Corporate Counsel at TIMCO Aviation Services, Inc., one of the world’s largest independent aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul providers.

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A Job Well Done Commencement Speakers

“All of you now have shown us your wisdom, your courage, your service to others and your dedication to leadership. You have those qualities deep within you. You have proven that to all of us. What we ask of you now is to remember who you are and remember to give back, and we will all remain proud of you for the rest of our lives.”

Elon Law Advisory Board Chair David Gergen, recipient of an honorary Doctor of Laws degree

“You will be successful if you focus on being a good lawyer, because no matter the economic circumstances, good lawyers will always be in demand. What I mean by ‘good lawyer’ is someone who respects the law, as a foundation of our democracy, the protector of our rights and freedoms, and the codified expression of how we, as a society, live our lives.”

“The big challenges of today must be met with bold and daring ideas, and the education you have received here at Elon has prepared you for coming up with those big ideas and for solving our nation’s and the world’s most pressing problems.”

U.S. Senator Richard Burr

U.S. Senator Kay Hagan

Student Speakers “We have begun to put Elon Law on the map and as we go into the legal community we will continue to bring pride to Elon. ” Melanie Crenshaw ‘09

“We are part of a tradition that will build for thousands of years. We’re at the front, and we helped to do that by building relationships with each other.

None of us on our own are as capable as all of us together.”

Jeb Brooks ‘10

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“Here at our school we help each other, we make each other better, we inspire others to do the same and we helped start that legacy.”

Raymond Large ‘11

Recipients of the David Gergen Award for Leadership and Professionalism

Holley J. Greeson ‘09

William Warihay ’10

Tiffany D. Atkins ‘11

Elon Confers Honorary Degree on Robert E. Long, Jr. At commencement ceremonies for Elon Law’s Class of 2010, North Carolina business leader Robert E. Long, Jr. was presented with the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in recognition of his philanthropic and civic leadership.

Jim Melvin, former Greensboro mayor and president of the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation of Greater Greensboro, presented Long with the degree on behalf of Elon University.

“Throughout his distinguished career, Mr. Long has built a reputation for visionary leadership, creativity and innovation, and played a pivotal role in the economic revitalization of our region,” Melvin said.

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Post Office Box 398 Elon, North Carolina 27244

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Elon University School of Law is located at 201 North Greene Street, Greensboro, NC 27401 | law.elon.edu | E-mail: law@elon.edu | Toll free: 1-888-ELONLAW

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