W&L Law - Spring 2008

The Washington and Lee School of Law Magazine

Spring 2008

P h o t o b y P a t r i c k H i n e l y ’ 7 3 A

Grads, Dads & Granddads The Class of 2008 posed for a picture on the steps of Lee House with their alumni dads and granddads. Front row, from l. to r.: Lloyd S. Wolf ’72A, Robert L. Hillman ’73A, ’76, J. Payne Hindsley ’72A, J. Lawrence Manning ’65A and John P. Fishwick (honorary doctorate of letters, 2000, and grandfather to John Martin). Back row, l. to r.: Tyler Wolf ’05A, David Hillman, Ellie Hindsley ’05A, Lisa Manning and John Martin.

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contents 14

This American Life

Robert Saunooke ’92 tackles every opportunity.

B y A n d y Th o m p s o n

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M a k e N o S m all P la n s

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W&L introduces dramatic reforms to the third-year curriculum.

By

Louise

Uffelman

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At Ease

Mary Beth Long ’98 rises in the ranks at the Department of Defense.

B y To m

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Nugent

d e p a r t m e n t s 2 Law Council President’s Message

A Bold Approach

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3 N e w A p p o i nt m ents

The Law School welcomes eight professors to the permanent faculty

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4 Di sc ove r y

Graduation, speakers, clinics and externships

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8 F ac u l t y Di st i nc tions

Publications and presentations

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28 L aw N o t es

Reunion wrap-up and alumni profiles

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Cover by Bart Morris

L A A

P r e s i d e n t ’s

M e s s a g e

A Bold Approach

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Volume 8

Number 2

Spring

2008

© Wa s h i n g t o n a n d L e e U n i v e r s i t y

Julie Campbell

of Communications

I Interim Director

I Editor, Law Magazine Director of Communications I for the School of Law Louise Uffelman Peter Jetton

Kelli Austin ’03A

Class Notes Editor

I

Bart Morris, Morris Design

Art Director

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Patrick Hinely ’73A, Kevin Remington

University Photographers

Published by Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va. 24450. All communications and POD Forms 3579 should be sent to Washington and Lee Alumni Inc., Lexington, Va. 24450.

Periodicals postage paid at Norfolk, Va. Board of Trustees

J. Donald Childress ’70A, R e ctor (Atlanta) Kenneth P. Ruscio ’76A, P re s id e nt Robert M. Balentine Jr. ’79A (Atlanta) Andrew N. Baur ’66A (St. Louis) Frederick E. Cooper ’64A (Atlanta) Joseph H. Davenport III ’69A (Lookout Mountain, Tenn.)

Kimberly T. Duchossois (Barrington, Ill.) Mark R. Eaker ’69A (Herndon, Va.) J. Hagood Ellison Jr. ’72A (Columbia, S.C.) Jorge E. Estrada ’69A (Buenos Aires) J. Scott Fechnay ’69A (Potomac, Md.) William H. Fishback Jr. ’56A (Ivy, Va.) J. Douglas Fuge ’77A (Chatham, N.J.) Benjamin S. Gambill Jr. ’67A (Nashville, Tenn.)

William R. Goodell ’80 (Bronxville, N.Y.) Robert J. Grey ’76 (Richmond) Bernard C. Grigsby II ’72A (Walton-on-Thames, England) Ray V. Hartwell III ’69A, ’75 (McLean, Va.) William B. Hill Jr. ’74A, ’77 (Atlanta) A.C. Hubbard Jr. ’59A, ’62 (Baltimore) Peter C. Keefe ’78A (Alexandria, Va.) John D. Klinedinst ’71A, ’78 (Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.)

John M. McCardell Jr. ’71A (Middlebury, Vt.) Thomas N. McJunkin ’70A, ’74 (Charleston, W.Va.) Jessine A. Monaghan ’79 (Washington) Michael H. Monier ’62A (Wilson, Wyo.) Harry J. Phillips Jr. ’72A (Houston) Hatton C.V. Smith ’73A (Birmingham, Ala.) Martin E. Stein Jr. ’74A (Jacksonville, Fla.) Warren A. Stephens ’79A (Little Rock, Ark.) Sarah Nash Sylvester (New York) Charlie (C.B.) Tomm ’68A, ’75 (Jacksonville, Fla.) John W. Vardaman Jr. ’62A (Washington) Thomas R. Wall IV ’80A (New York) Alston Parker Watt ’89A (Thomasville, Ga.) Dallas Hagewood Wilt ’90A (Nashville, Tenn.)

John A. Wolf ’69A, ’72 (Baltimore)

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ur new third-year program may have struck a nerve. There are apparently more than a few lawyers who oppose an experiential approach to the third year. It is, they say, a trade school or vocational approach.

Brian Leiter’s blog (leiterlawschool.typepad.com/leiter/2008/03/washington-lees.html) set off a minor firestorm that is typical of the many blogs that have featured the program.

Leiter, a law and philosophy professor at Texas, says of the program: “It is clearly very risky: if it succeeds, it will transform Washington and Lee into a leader in legal education, to which the top firms will flock for new hires; if it fails—because, for example, good students and faculty choose to go elsewhere—Washington and Lee may never recover.” Comments in response to the blog add fuel to the fire.

p “This seems like a low-road strategy to me…. The new Washington and Lee approach, I hate to say, is more closely directed to training students to be the best first-year associates they can be.”

p “Requiring all 3Ls to participate will alienate those students whose

interests might diverge—those interested in academia, for instance.”

p “I doubt this will succeed, but it’s an interesting experiment.”

There are, of course, positive comments, but my favorites come from the W&L contingent, including Randy Bezanson, Lyman Johnson, David MiIlon and our architect in chief, Rod Smolla. All address the depth of thought that has gone into the program as well as the intellecJ. I. Vance Berry Jr. ’79, tual and academic rigor that will underpin it. Said Bezanson: “If any law Immediate Past President, school has the faculty, the alumni, the students, the scale of education Law Council and the resources to undertake this bold and very costly program, it is Washington and Lee. W&L is also bold enough to try something new and dramatic because, at base, it seems to be the right thing to do.”

Those of us who practice on a daily basis know that Bezanson is correct; the new program is the right thing to do. It will take tremendous leadership from Dean Rod Smolla and the law faculty, but it will also require tremendous support of the law alumni. We as alumni are particularly well equipped to share our knowledge, experiences and resources with the faculty and student body as they break new ground in legal education.

Notably, Leiter ultimately capitulates to the W&L onslaught, “wishing the faculty and students there great success with this important experiment in legal education—maybe the most important one in our time!”

— J . I . V a n c e B e r r y J r . ’ 7 9 , Immediate Past President, Law Council

Branner Named New Director of Law School Advancement

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Elizabeth Outland Branner has been named our alumni and excellent knowledge of director of Advancement for the School of the Law School and the University,” said Law, effective immediately. Branner brings Dean Rodney A. Smolla. “I have been over 14 years of experience in fund-raising to fortunate to have her guidance and experher new position. For the last nine tise during my first year as dean years, she has been involved in and have great confidence in her all aspects of advancing the Law abilities, her energy and her comSchool’s mission through fundmitment. I am looking forward raising, communications and to her leadership as we approach alumni and student relations. our upcoming campaign.”

“Elizabeth is highly respectVisit law.wlu.edu/news/storyed by her colleagues within detail.asp?id=395 to read the the Law School, and she has full press release detailing her a wonderful relationship with numerous accomplishments.

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Faculty Appointments

Washington And Lee University

This coming fall, the Law School welcomes eight professors to the permanent faculty.

They include experts in domestic and international law, as well as distinguished interdisciplinary scholars. Several have served as visiting professors at W&L this year.

Benjamin Spencer is one of the nation’s rising stars in the field of civil procedure and federal jurisdiction. He was appointed to the West Publishing Company Law School Advisory Board and last year received the Virginia State Council of Higher Education Rising Star Award, given to the most promising junior faculty member among all academic fields at all colleges and universities in Virginia.

Joshua Fairfield is an expert in e-commerce, video game regulation and virtual worlds and has written extensively on how private-law contracts have become the new public law of virtual worlds.

Sean Seymore, who also holds a Ph.D. in chemistry, has strong handson experience as a patent lawyer. He will teach a new course exploring how the intersection of law and science is critical to the formation of public policy.

A former criminal defense lawyer, R u s s e l l M i l l e r is an expert in comparative law and international legal theory. Miller co-founded the online German Law Journal, and his book, Progress in International Law, was the focus of a panel discussion during the 2008 American Society of International Law Conference.

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L aw A l u m n i A s s o c i at i o n

A. Carter Magee Jr. ’79, Pr e si d e n t (Roanoke) W. Hildebrandt Surgner Jr. ’87A, ’94, Vic e P r es i d e n t (Richmond) J. I. Vance Berry Jr. ’79, Immediate Past

P r es id ent (Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.) Darlene Moore, E x e c u t i v e S e c r e ta ry

(Lexington)

Johanna Bond teaches and researches in the areas of international human rights law, and gender and international law. In 2001, she traveled to Uganda and Tanzania as a Senior Fulbright Scholar to conduct research for her book, Voices of African Women: Women’s Rights in Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania.

Law Council

Eric A. Anderson ’82 (New York City) Peter A. Baumgaertner ’83A, ’86 (New York City) T. Hal Clarke, Jr. ’73A, ’76 (Charlotte, N.C.) Michael P.A. Cohen ’90 (Washington) Thomas E. Evans ’91 (Rogers, Ark.) James J. Ferguson Jr. ’88 (Dallas) Thomas J. Gearen ’82 (Chicago) Betsy Callicott Goodell ’80 (Bronxville, N.Y.) Nathan V. Hendricks III ’66A, ’69 (Atlanta) Thomas B. Henson ’80 (Charlotte, N.C.) A. John Huss ’65 (St. Paul, Minn.)

Chong J. Kim ’92 (Atlanta) The Hon. Everett A. Martin, Jr. ’74A, ’77 (Norfolk, Va.) The Hon. Mary Miller Johnston ’84 (Wilmington, Del.) Andrew J. Olmem ’96A, ’01 (Arlington, Va.) David T. Popwell ’87 (Memphis, Tenn.)

Lesley Brown Schless ’80 (Old Greenwich, Conn.)

Richard W. Smith ’98 (Washington) Stacy Gould Van Goor ’95 (San Diego) Andrea K. Wahlquist ’95 (New York City)

S u s a n F r a n c k ’s teaching and scholarship relate to the resolution of international disputes, including alternative dispute resolution and claims made under investment treaties.

This year, Franck received the New Voices Award from the American Society of International Law. H a r i O s o f s k y is a pioneer in the field of legal issues regarding global climate change and is one of the emerging scholarly voices addressing this important issue at the intersection of law, politics and science. In addition, her scholarship focuses on the ways in which geographic perspectives may contribute to legal approaches to cross-cutting problems such as the war on terror.

Timothy MacDonnell will take the helm of the Black Lung Clinic. His most recent position with the U.S. Army was as regime crimes liaison officer to the Department of State, acting as an attorney/ advisor to the Iraqi High Tribunal in Baghdad, Iraq. He also will be involved with the Rule of Law Practicum, which will engage students in public defender work in the Iraqi national courts.

Law Council Emeritus

Robby J. Aliff ’91A, ’97 (South Charleston, W.Va.) Kimmberly M. Bulkley ’95 (Maplewood, N.J.) Christine Champlin Adams ’90A, ’93 (Somerset, Ky.) Francis C. Clark ’76 (Davidson, N.C.) David P. Falck ’78 (Ridgewood, N.J.) John L. Griffith Jr. ’72 (Princeton, N.J.) Jenelle Mims Marsh ’81 (Tuscaloosa, Ala.) Susan Ballantine Molony ’00 (Charlotte, N.C.) James E. Nicholson ’77 (Edina, Minn.)

William H. Oast, III ’71A, ’74 (Portsmouth,Va.) Robert W. Ray ’85 (Long Branch, N.J.) Jerrald J. Roehl ’71 (Albuquerque, N.M.) Carla J. Urquhart ’96 (Alexandria, Va.) David G. Weaver ’81 (Roanoke) William A. Worthington ’76 (Houston)

Write to W&L Law

By Mail: Elizabeth Outland Branner Director of Law School Advancement Sydney Lewis Hall Washington and Lee School of Law Lexington, VA 24450

By E-Mail: brannere@wlu.edu

By FAX: (540) 458-8488 All letters should be signed and include the author’s name, address and daytime phone number. Letters selected for publication may be edited for length, content and style. Signed articles reflect the views of their authors and not necessarily those of the University or the Law School.

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The Class of 2008 makes its way to the Front Lawn for the commencement ceremony.

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Graduation 2008

The Law School celebrated its 153rd commencement on May 10, awarding 141 J.D. degrees and five LL.M. degrees.

The graduates will begin their legal careers in 25 different states and several foreign countries. Twenty-two will go on to judicial clerkships, 10 of those at the federal level. And one graduate, Paul Howe, will head to Ethiopia to serve as CEO of Gimbie Adventist Hospital, a 70-bed facility with seven affiliated medical clinics and 200 staff members and volunteers.

Graduation festivities began Friday afternoon on the Lewis Hall Lawn, with the annual awards ceremony and presentation of walking sticks. Music and fireworks, ponsored by the School of Law, followed on Friday evening at the Liberty Hall ruins.

Graham S. Butler ’08, who holds a theology degree from Duke University, provided the opening invocation, and after the official welcome from President Ken Ruscio ’76A, Dean Rodney A. Smolla addressed the graduating class. “As you are leaving, think about why you came to law school,” said Dean Smolla.

“You came to grow—not into something—but into someone.

And that growth will continue throughout your life.”

The Hon. William H. Webster, former FBI and CIA director and chairman of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, delivered the commencement address. Looking back at his 40-year career in public service, where he was involved with some of the most sensitive political and intelligence issues of the 20th century, Webster put forth two words for the graduates to 4

consider as they begin their careers in the law: truth and trust.

Webster observed that throughout his career, whether helping to preserve the delicate balance between national security and civil liberties or protecting the public from a potential health crisis, “things work better when people trust each other. But lawyers who dissemble may never again regain the trust of the court. Remember that each of you carries the reputation of all the rest around with you in your pocket.”

Judith Ndoping ’08 proudly receives her walking stick from classmate Kristen Depowski.

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John W. Davis Prize for Law highest cumulative grade point average Megan Martha Reed

Order of the Coif

Academic Progress Award most satisfactory scholastic progress in the final year Jennifer Justine Lavoie

Benjamin Joseph Conley

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Christopher John Brady

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Evan Arthur Fetters

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Jonathon Keath Hance

Virginia Trial Lawyers Association Award effective trial advocacy Melanie Ann McKay

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Lisa Joan Hedrick

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Kimberly L. Herb

Roy L. Steinheimer Jr. Commercial Law Award excellence in commercial law Jeffery Tate Mauzy and Kent Paul Woods

Anna Ku

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Robert Leonard Littlehale III

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Calhoun Bond University Service Award significant contributions to the University community Joshua Kerry Payne

John Michael Power

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Megan Martha Reed

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Frederic L. Kirgis Jr. International Law Award excellence in international law Juliette Ai-Mei Syn .....................................................

National Association of Women Lawyers Award outstanding woman law student Elizabeth Katherine Joseph

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Rachel Sederquest

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Juliette Ai-Mei Syn The Hon. William H. Webster (center), former FBI and CIA director and chairman of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, delivered the commencement address. He joins President Ken Ruscio ’76A (left) and Dean Rod Smolla (right).

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Sean Jeffrey Whittington

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Kent Paul Woods

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Charles V. Laughlin Award outstanding contributions to the Moot Court Program David Layne Hillman

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Randall P. Bezanson Award outstanding contributions to diversity in the life of the Law School community Diane Stephanie Meier

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Virginia Bar Family Law Section Award excellence in the area of family law Jennifer Lynn Crose

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American Bankruptcy Institute Medal excellence in the study of bankruptcy law Todd Benjamin Holvick and Whitney Renee Travis .....................................................

Barry Sullivan Constitutional Law Award excellence in constitutional law Lisa Joan Hedrick

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James W. H. Stewart Tax Law Award excellence in tax law Rufus Stephen McNeill

Dean Rod Smolla accepts the class gift from Class President Kristen Depowski ’08. The funds will go toward landscaping the main entrance to Sydney Lewis Hall and to the Law Annual Fund.

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Thomas Carl Damewood Evidence Award excellence in the area of evidence James D. Laukkonen

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A. H. McLeod-Ross Malone Advocacy Award distinction in oral advocacy Kristina Jean Longo

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Student Bar Association President Award services as the president of the Student Bar Association Kristina Jean Longo

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A round of applause from (l. to r.)

April Alongi, John Appelbaum and Teddie Arnold.

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D i s c o v e r y

The Law School offered a new forum this year, Breakfast with the Constitution. These conversations, hosted by Dean Rod Smolla, focused on a specific topic of constitutional law.

Food for Thought Dean Rod Smolla presents his arguments to Rockbridge High School students. At issue were two fictional cases.

One involved a high school student who, on religious grounds, refused to cut his dreadlocks to participate on the basketball team. The other case involved a science teacher who included a survey of creation stories from various religions alongside her evolution instruction.

Law and History

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In honor of George Washington’s birthday, W&L celebrated its namesake with the inaugural Hendricks Law and History Lecture, endowed by Pete Hendricks ’66A,’69. A history major himself, Hendricks strongly believes “it’s important to have a sense of history to put what you are studying into context.

I know W&L’s philosophy is to produce a well-rounded lawyer, and I hope this lecture series will serve as an interface between the two disciplines.”

William E. Nelson, the Judge Edward Weinfeld Professor of Law at New York University Law School, spoke on “When Massachusetts was Religious and Virginia Wasn’t—and Why it Changed.” Nelson compared the history of law and religion in Virginia and the South with their history in Massachusetts and the Northeast. He noted that religion was substantially more important in colonial Massachusetts than in colonial Virginia.

But today, Virginia is the stronger seat of faith. Hence the puzzle: How did the once faithful Northeast become secular and, in places, even irreligious, while the deist commonwealth of Thomas Jefferson, with its commitment to the separation of church and state, transitioned into a center of evangelical influence on politics and the law?

You can listen to the podcast at law.wlu.edu/news/ podcasts/2008hendrickslecture.mp3.

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Smolla kicked off the series with Religion and the Constitution at Rockbridge County High School, followed with The Constitution and Freedom of the Press at the Law School, and concluded with The Constitution and the War Power at Kendal Retirement Community.

“Many Americans are intensely interested in constitutional issues because those issues play such a large role in our national identity, public policy and law,” said Smolla. “One does not have to be a lawyer or an expert on the Constitution to have a keen interest in these central questions about our nation and our laws. This series is a way in which the Law School can contribute to the cultural and intellectual life of our surrounding community.”

At each event, Smolla presented oral arguments on both sides of the issue to the audience, who, acting as justices of the Supreme Court, asked questions, deliberated and then issued an opinion.

Never Forget

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The Hon. Sol Wachtler ’51A, ’52 visited the Law School in March to screen and discuss the documentary film, “Hitler’s Courts: The Betrayal of the Rule of Law in Nazi Germany.”

The film, which earned an award from the International Independent Film Festival, examines the perversion of law under Nazi rule and how distinguished lawmakers became complicit in the largest mass murder in history. The film features archival footage from the Nazi era, rarely seen photographs and interviews with leading voices in international law, including Whitney R. Harris, a member of the prosecuting team in Nuremberg in 1947, and retired Israeli Supreme Court Justice Gabriel Bach, former assistant prosecutor at the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann.

Wachtler was an executive producer of the film and worked with directors Joshua M. Greene and Shiva Kumar, both Emmy Award nominees. The Touro Law Center in New York City, where Wachtler is a professor, produced it.

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A Closer Look

Visiting speakers (l. to r.): Judi O’Kelley, Kathi Westcott, Marc Poirier, Brad Sears and Lee Badgett.

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Law Symposium Examines Sexual Orientation Discrimination

commended his work on health-care discrimination but W&L’s Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice (JCRSJ) and the bemoaned its continuing relevance.

Frances Lewis Law Center co-sponsored the symposium “A M.V. Lee Badgett, an associate professor of economics at the Queer Definition of Equality: Exploring Major Issues in Sexual University of Massachusetts-Amherst and a visiting scholar at Orientation and the Law” on Feb. 29. “We thought we’d leave the Williams Institute, spoke about the economic implications of the topic fairly broad,” said Diane Meier ’08, who served as edigender and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender status, as well tor in chief of JCRSJ and developed the idea for the symposium. as the fiscal impact of marriage rights for same-sex couples. “If “There are so many major issues that fall under this umbrella, you think about how people talk about gay life in contemporary including marriage and the military. To me, sexual orientation America, you see prosperity, economic participation and the idea discrimination and gender discrimination are as important as of gay affluence,” she said. Serving racial discrimination; they affect a lot of people. The topic is par- Go to law.wlu.edu/news/storydetail.asp?id=367 as commentator on her talk, Josh Fairfield, visiting professor of law ticularly timely, especially with to listen to the podcast. at W&L, said, “Economics and the current presidential race.”

“This is a historic event for us here at W&L,” said Louise social justice have an uneasy relationship, but as Professor Halper, professor of law and director of the Frances Lewis Law Badgett’s work demonstrates, the fit is better than we thought.”

Center. “It is, to my knowledge, the first time there has been a At lunch, Judi O’Kelley, the southern regional director of scholarly event at W&L dedicated to issues of sexual orientation.”

Lambda Legal, talked about recent Lambda cases and lobbying in the South. The symposium closed with a talk by Kathi Professor Marc Poirier, of Seton Hall, opened the proceedings with an overview of marriage and family issues. He Westcott, director of law and policy for Service Members discussed marriage as cultural property, distinguishing it from Legal Defense Network, a public interest law firm that the question of legal benefits available to same-sex couples. defends military personnel impacted by the “don’t ask, don’t Caprice Roberts ’97, associate professor of law at West Virginia tell” policy. “Over 12,000 service members have been kicked University, offered comments on his paper, comparing the legal out of the military,” said Westcott, “and according to census treatment of same-sex marriage to interracial marriage. data, over a million veterans identified as being gay.”

R. Brad Sears, director of UCLA’s Williams Institute on Dean Rodney Smolla, commentator for Westcott’s talk, spoke Sexual Orientation Law, discussed health-care discrimination about the right/privilege distinction and how that can be used to on the basis of HIV status. “I chose to research HIV discrimidiscriminate against gays and lesbians in the work force. “You may nation because it seems the issue is not getting the attention have the constitutional right to be gay or lesbian,” said Smolla, it once had,” he said. Tim Jost, the Robert L. Willett Family “but today you have no constitutional right to be a soldier.”

Professor of Law at W&L, commentator for Sears’ paper, —Lori Stevens and Julia O’Brien S p r i n g

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Masters of the

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In January, a new clinic serving low-income taxpayers opened its doors at the Law School. Directed by visiting clinical professor Michelle Drumbl, the clinic enrolled five students in its first semester. In September 2008, it will expand to a yearlong clinic, with a larger enrollment. Moreover, the clinic received a $50,000 federal matching grant for the 2008 year as part of the IRS’ Office of Taxpayer Advocate Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic network.

“Our first semester was a great success,” said Drumbl.

“We represented several clients to assist them with tax controversies and will continue to work on some of these cases in the summer. We began our outreach efforts to taxpayers who speak English as a second language by identifying issues of potential interest or concern. Then we created materials about these issues in English and Spanish and developed contacts with other organizations that serve these communities. On the policy front, students submitted a very thoughtful and wellresearched comment to the Treasury Department in response to a proposed notice of rulemaking, addressing the solicitation of refund anticipation loans by tax return preparers.”

As well as representing clients before the IRS, the clinic also has a special practice order in place with the U.S. Tax Court, and Drumbl hopes to have a case on the docket when the tax court sits in Roanoke this September.

Student feedback was encouraging. “They seem to have really enjoyed the work, and we all learned a lot from each

From l. to r.: Ryan Petersen ’08, Lindsay Swift ’08, Michael Duffy ’09, Elizabeth Crawford ’08 and Andrew Hynes ’09.

other,” she said. “We talked about how the practice of law is often surprisingly messy. For instance, people often call an attorney only when their problems have reached a crisis point. Or how taxpayers don’t keep their records, returns or even the notices they receive from the IRS.” But her students were up to the challenge. They soon realized that encouraging clients to talk freely sometimes relieved the clients’ stress and helped them identify their goals in resolving the dispute. On the practical side, students learned the importance of keeping up with timesheets and how to thoroughly document everything in the case file.

Drumbl was happy when one student admitted that “reading the Internal Revenue Code is much more interesting when you are actually trying to help a real person with a real problem.”

Solving Katrina’s Problems

Law students are their rights were helping to rebuild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . if they had grievthe Gulf region after Hurricane Katrina, ances against their landlords,” explained Meier. providing a number of legal services as part of “I think what challenged us the most,” a new practicum course. Supervised by proshe said, “was finding the information. New fessors Mary Natkin ’85 and Denis Brion, Orleans’ agencies are still a bit unorganized, and student research projects covered the viability we had to call the Housing Authority of New of language access ordinances, as well as issues Orleans and at least five other people just to involving land ownership and housing. get a copy of the leases that will be used for the Diane Meier ’08 worked on developing a new housing developments. Another big chalhousing-rights manual for people who used to live lenge, after getting the information, was to write in public housing developments in New Orleans, the manual in a way that displaced residents could understand their rights. Advocates for but are now living either in trailers or out of the city. “The manual detailed how they could get a Environmental Human Rights asked us to write at the fifth-grade reading level, since that was housing voucher to be able to return to the renovated public housing units in the city, what the average amount of education of many of the their rights were if they are disabled, and what displaced residents.”

Over spring break, Ciara Gordon and John Turpin ’10 traveled with classmates to the Gulf region to provide manual labor as well as legal aid. The trip was planned by students in the Law School’s Hurricane Practicum, a new course designed to expose students to real and pressing legal issues in a work environment reflecting the actual practice of law.

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Public Service

Fulbright Dreams ..........................

Ernani DeAraujo ‘08 is a Fulbright alternate for his proposal involving a comparative study of U.S. and Colombian administrative law. If funded, the project will take DeAraujo to Colombia for a year of study at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota.

From l. to r.: Kyu-Eun Lee, Kiyomi Bolick and Sara McManus, members of the Class of 2010, have been selected as the 2008 recipients of Virginia Law Foundation Public Service Internship awards. These awards help make it possible for students to work at law-related public service jobs during the summer.

Two will work with public defender agencies: Bolick for the Federal Public Defender for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk and Lee for the Office of the Public Defender for the Commonwealth of Virginia in Danville. McManus will work for the Legal Aid Society of Eastern Virginia in Norfolk.

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Charles E. Gates Jr. ’09 will serve as a student editor of Student Lawyer magazine for the 2008-09 academic year. Published by the American Bar Association, it provides information and guidance on issues affecting law students across the county.

A graduate of Stanford University who transferred to W&L this year, Gates served as a communications specialist and press secretary within the administration of Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich before attending law school. “I am excited for the opportunities this position offers me to represent W&L on a national level,” said Gates. “This position is a perfect blend of my love for journalism and the law.”

Gates will recruit writers, assign topics, write and edit articles for the magazine’s Division Dialogue section. He has already convinced Student Lawyer to cover the Law School’s third-year curriculum reform in an upcoming article on trends in legal education.

He has a busy year ahead of him. In addition to his work with Student Lawyer, he will serve as managing editor of the Environmental Law Digest and as a student attorney in the Community Legal Practice Clinic.

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Ernani DeAraujo ’08 hopes to be in Columbia next year, but if not, he’ll be joining Foley Hoag L.L.P. in Boston in its business law department.

He plans a meticulous review of the constitutional and statutory underpinnings of Colombia’s administrative law system, and hopes that his comparative study will help both democracies better manage their bureaucratic systems.

DeAraujo, whose mother is a native of Colombia, has dedicated himself to building bridges between the South American nation and the U.S. As a White House intern in 2000 and 2001, under Presidents Clinton and Bush, he advocated for granting undocumented Colombians Temporary Protective Status, which would give them legal status to live and work in the U.S. Though unsuccessful in these efforts, he said the experiences inspired him to volunteer at a Boston Catholic parish that was supporting a community of Colombian immigrants.

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ichael Pace ’84, managing partner at Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore L.L.P., in Roanoke, took in three law students last term as part of a new externship program his firm created. The firm’s partners and associates served as supervisors and mentors for the students. It represents the first steps for the Law School as it begins to implement a new third-year curriculum that provides students with better preparation to practice law (see page 20 for the story about the new third-year curriculum). ”We wanted to expose the students to the importance of being a part of the fabric of a community, as well as our knowledge of the law,” said Pace. “Professionalism, good judgment, involvement in bar activities, networking opportunities, client relationships and community ties are as much a part of what it takes to be a good lawyer as education and training.”

Last fall, Pace worked with Dean Rod Smolla, Associate Dean Bob Danforth and Externship Director Mary Natkin ’85 on the details. The result, said Danforth, was a program unlike any other the school had ever developed. It worked because of careful planning, consistent monitoring and Gentry Locke’s attorneys’ willingness to contribute significant hours to the project.

“Thanks to Mike’s and Mary’s efforts, this program worked beautifully,” he said. “The students who participated raved about their experiences, and now we have a template upon which to continue to build this program in years to come.” He also noted, “Developing this externship was a tremendous undertaking on their part. In doing so, they performed not only a service to the school but to the profession.”

In January, the first students arrived: Matt Weems ’08 spent his time with the business transaction group, Jessica Berenyi ’08 studied employment litigation and Bobby Littlehale ’03A, ’08 focused on commercial real estate section. “In business transactions, the cases are often very complex,” said Weems. “I took many courses during law school, but only through practice can you really train yourself to put the pieces together.”

For four months, the three participated in client meetings with partners and associates, sat in on conference calls between lawyers, engaged in strategy sessions, researched cases, wrote briefs and attended court sessions—just as they would as a part of any private-practice legal team. They also attended zoning hearings, went to Roanoke’s Martin Luther King statue unveiling, met with government officials and judges, attended bar association luncheons and participated in depositions and all-day mediations.

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To t a l I m m e r s i o n Three students gain valuable experience through an externship at Gentry Locke

From l. to r.: Matt Weems ’08, Mike Pace ’84, Bobby Littlehale ’03A, ’08, Jessica Berenyi ’08. can’t convey the culture of a law firm or show firsthand how lawyers interact with their clients and with each other,” said Littlehale. “The program gave us a chance to really see what it means to be part of a legal community.”

Berenyi agreed. “We learned from people with years of practice experience—not only the lawyers in the firm, but judges, politicians, other attorneys, even speakers at the events we attended. Everyone brought a different skill set, which broadened the whole experience. The entire environment was supportive. They encouraged questions, challenged us to not worry so much about making a mistake. Best of all, they were just nice people to work with.”

All three students said the program changed the way they looked at the law and their eventual careers. Berenyi said she still plans on practicing real estate law, but will feel more comfortable if she’s called upon to do litigation. Littlehale plans a career in corporate investigations but has developed an interest in real estate transactions. Weems says his focus has shifted somewhat: he plans to return to Chicago to practice but now knows that he enjoys working on all aspects of a transaction, not just a sliver.

“The broad experience we’ve gained here expands our marketability as attorneys,” Weems said. “And it’s taught us how rewarding being part of the community can be.”

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D i s t i n c t i o n s

The Written and Spoken Word Sam Calhoun P ublications

“May the President Appropriately Invoke God? Evaluating the Embryonic Stem-Cell Vetoes,” Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion (2008).

Lawton Cummings P resentations

“Dealing with Differences in Legal Privilege Rules in the Wake of Akzo Nobel Chemicals v.

Commission,” American Bar Association Antitrust Law Annual Spring Meeting, Washington.

“The Moral Authority of the President,” Washington and Lee Alumni College Institute for Honor, Washington and Lee School of Law, Lexington.

“Looking Back and Moving Forward: A Recap of the Supreme Court’s 2006-2007 Term and a Preview of the 2007-2008 Term,” Washington and Lee School of Law, Lexington.

M edia

Frequent guest on national Fox News, providing legal analysis on a variety of current events, including the criminal liability of New Jersey prison escapees and the Phil Spector murder trial.

Robert Danforth P ublications

Book Review: Prosecuting International Crimes: Selectivity and the International Criminal Law Regime by Robert Cryer, in 8 Human Rights Review 419 (2007).

Book Review: Beyond the Law: The Bush Administration’s Unlawful Responses in the “War” on Terror by Jordan J. Paust, European Journal of International Law (2008).

Op-ed: “Ending Atrocity Requires More than Just Punishment,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, Oct. 17, 2007.

P resentations

“Transitional Justice and the Problem of Timing,” Yale Law School.

“Aggression and Climate Change,” Oxford University.

“Atrocity, Punishment and International Law,” University of Virginia, School of Law; University of Nevada at Las Vegas; William & Mary School of Law. “Climate Change and National Security,” University of Illinois College of Law. “Commentary on the International Criminal Court,” Chicago Law School.

Federal Income Taxation of Estates and Trusts (2007-2 and 2008-1 Cum. Supp.) (with Howard M. Zaritsky and Norman H. Lane).

“The Expressive Value of Alien Tort Claims Act Litigation,” National Security Conference, Roger Williams University.

C onsultin g

Chair and moderator: New Voices Panel, American Society of International Law Annual Meeting.

Provided expert opinion concerning proper construction of trust instrument, effect of handwritten trust amendment.

A ppointments

Special Probate Committee to suggest reforms to the Virginia Commissioner of Accounts system.

Standing Committee on Commissioners of Accounts, Virginia Judicial Council.

Speaker: Annual Meetings of the Association of American Law Schools, International Studies Association, Law and Society Association, SEALS and American Branch of the International Law Association.

A ppointments

Legislative Committee of the Virginia Bar Association, Wills, Trusts, and Estates Section.

Virginia Law Foundation Committee on Continuing Legal Education.

Visiting Professor, University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Law. Organizing Committee, International Law Association, International Law Weekend.

Mark A. Drumbl

E x pert Witness

P ublications

“The Crime of Genocide,” Research Handbook of International Criminal Law (2008).

“The Expressive Value of Prosecuting and Punishing Terrorists: Hamdan, the Geneva Conventions and International Criminal Law,” 75 George Washington Law Review 1165 (2007).

Expert witness in U.S. court; interviewee, expert report, in an extradition matter in U.K. courts.

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Quoted: Associated Press, Trial Magazine, National Jurist and Virginia Lawyers Weekly.

A w ards

“The Judicialization of Dispute Resolution at the World Trade Organization,” Trends in World Trade (ed. Alan Alexandroff ), 93-104 (Carolina Academic Press, 2007).

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2007 Book of the Year Award from the International Association of Criminal Law for Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law.

Susan Frank P ublications

“Integrating Investment Treaty Conflict and Dispute Systems Design,” 92 Minnesota Law Review 161 (2007).

“Empirically Evaluating Claims About Investment Treaty Arbitration,” 80 North Carolina Law Review 1 (2007).

“ICSID Institutional Reform: The Evolution of Dispute Resolution and the Role of Structural Safeguards,” International Institutional Reform: Proceedings of The Hague Joint Conference on Contemporary Issues in International Law (ed. Agata Fijalkowsi) (2007).

“Foreign Direct Investment, Investment Treaty Arbitration and the Rule of Law,” 19 Pacific McGeorge Global Business & Development Law Journal (2007).

“Foreword: A Symposium Exploring the Modern Legacy of William Jennings Bryan,” 86 Nebraska Law Review 142 (2007).

P resentations

“International Law and Empiricism: Reality Testing Claims About International Investment Disputes,” Endowed Kirby Lecture, University of New England School of Law. “Empirical Perspectives on Investment Treaty Dispute Resolution,” University of Sydney School of Law, University of Technology Sydney Faculty of Law and Bond University Faculty of Law. “Arbitrating Contract Disputes,” Fourth International Conference on Contracts.

“Empiricism and International Law,” International Law Roundtable, Vanderbilt Law School.

“The Recalibration of International Investment Standards,” Improving the International Investment Law and Policy System Symposium, Columbia Law School.

“Appropriate Dispute Resolution for Investment Treaty Disputes,” Inter-American Development Bank Conference on Investor‑State Dispute Settlement: Emerging Issues and Challenges for Latin American Countries and Investors.

“Empirical Analysis of Investment Treaty Conflict,” International and Comparative Law Colloquium, George Washington University Law School.

“Empirically Evaluating Claims About Investment Treaty Arbitration,” Faculty Workshop, University of Wisconsin Law School.

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Fa c u lt y

Overheard

Don’t miss a word.

Although you might not be able to visit campus for the many interesting lectures and symposia, you can still listen in via podcast, either through iTunes (search for W&L Law) or from the Law School Web page.

Video is also available for some events. Visit law. wlu.edu/news/archivemultimedia.asp for the full selection. Here are our top picks.

2008 Powell Lecture

March 26, 2008 Philip K. Howard, a prominent attorney and advocate of legal reform, delivers the 2008 Powell Lecture.

Health Care Debate

March 28, 2008 Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute and Dr. Ted Marmor of Yale University debate America’s health care crisis. Moderated by Timothy Jost, the Robert L. Willett Family Professor of Law at W&L and a nationally recognized health law expert.

Media, Law and the Courts Symposium

March 17, 2008 The inaugural Media, Law and the Courts Symposium takes a look back at how “60 Minutes Wednesday” handled the National Guard story and asked: “What lessons have the media learned?”

When Massachusetts was Religious and Virginia Wasn’t

Feb. 22, 2008 William E. Nelson, the Judge Edward Weinfeld Professor of Law at New York University Law School, delivers the inaugural Hendricks Lecture in Law and History.

Breakfast with the Constitution

Feb. 6, 2008 Dean Rod Smolla explores the freedom of the press, examining such issues as a journalists' access to information, confidentiality and protection from prosecution.

Diamonds, Guns, and Thugs— The West African Extreme

Jan. 29, 2008 David Crane, former chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Professor Kevin John Heller of the Faculty of Law, University of Auckland, New Zealand, provides a commentary on Crane’s lecture.

Academic Freedom at Public and Private Universities

Nov. 3, 2007 Dean Rod Smolla delivers the Inaugural Dean’s Lecture. He explores academic freedom in a lecture titled “Freedom of Expression and Religion on the Modern Campus: Academic Freedom at Public and Private Universities.”

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A ppointments

P resentations

Parson’s Visitor, University of Sydney School of Law, Sydney, Australia.

“Consumer-driven Health Care,” George Washington University; European Union Forum on Hybrids and Chimeras, Heidelberg, Germany; “Law and Health Reform,” Fresh Thinking Project, Stanford University.

International Who’s Who of Commercial Arbitration, International Bar Association.

“A History of Cost Control in U.S. Health Care,” Brookings Institution.

Academic Council (2008‑2010) of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration.

A ppointments

Panelist: Institute of Medicine, conflicts of interest in medicine.

Ly m a n J o h n s o n P ublications

“A Fresh Look at Director Independence in Mutual Fund Fee Litigation: Gartenberg at Twenty-Five,” 61 Vanderbilt Law Review 101 (2008).

C onsultant

New America Foundation, value purchasing in Medicare.

National Academy of Social Insurance, National Academy of Public Administration, health insurance regulation.

“Having the Fiduciary Duty Talk: Model Advice for Corporate Officers (and other Senior Agents),” 63 Business Lawyer 147 (2007).

David Millon

“(Not) Advising Corporate Officers About Fiduciary Duties,” 42 Wake Forest Law Review 663 (2007) (with Rob Ricca).

P ublications

“Roundtable on the Criminalization of Corporate Law,” 2 Journal of Business & Technology Law 101 (2007).

P resentations

“The Influence of SOX on Internal Constituents,” Sixth Annual Business Law Conference, University of Maryland Law School.

P resentations

“Having the Fiduciary Duty Talk,” AALS Annual Meeting Section on Agency, Partnerships and L.L.C.s.

A ppointments

A ppointments

P resentations

Law and Literature Alumni Program, Washington and Lee School of Law.

Brian Murchison Editor in chief, Journal of Civil Litigation.

Mary Natkin “Current Developments in Black Lung Appeals,” National Coalition of Black Lung and Respiratory Disease Clinics Annual Meeting, Wheeling, W.Va.

Laurence and Jean LeJeune Distinguished Chair in Law, University of St. Thomas (Minneapolis) School of Law. Executive Committee, Section on Agency, partnerships and L.L.C.s (AALS).

M edia

C onsultant

Expert for legal counsel to Special Litigation Committee of United HealthGroup in optionsbackdating cases; expert for legal counsel for attorneys for creditors committee in litigation versus directors of Baldwin Piano Co.

Timothy Jost P ublications

“Access to Health Care: Is Self Help The Answer?” 29 Journal of Legal Medicine 23 (2008).

“Global Health Care Financing Law: A Useful Concept?” 96 Georgetown Law Journal 413 (2008).

“Medicare: What Are the Real Problems? What Contribution Can Law Make to Real Solutions?”

1 Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law and Policy 43 (2007).

“The Massachusetts Health Plan: Public Insurance for the Poor, Private Insurance for the Wealthy, Self-Insurance for the Rest?” 55 Kansas Law Review 1091 (2007).

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Quoted in “Law Students Take on the Coal Industry,” Chronicle of Higher Education.

Hari M. Osofsky P ublications

“The Geography of Climate Change Litigation Part II: Narratives of Massachusetts v. EPA,” 8 Chicago Journal of International Law 573 (2008) (awarded the Daniel B. Luten Award for the best paper by a professional geographer by the Energy and Environment Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers).

“The Scale of Networks: Local Climate Change Coalitions,” 8 Chicago Journal of International Law 409 (2008) (with Janet Koven Levit).

“Climate Change Legislation in Context,” 102 New University Law Review Colloquy 245 (2008).

“Local Approaches to Transnational Corporate Responsibility: Mapping the Role of Sub-National Climate Change Litigation,” 20 Pacific McGeorge Global Business and Development Law Journal 143 (2007).

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Fa c u lt y “The Inuit Petition as a Bridge?: Beyond Dialectics of Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights,” 31 American Indian Law Review 675 (2007) (Symposium Issue).

P resentations

“Surviving Climate Change: Adaptation and Innovation,” Monterey Institute of International Studies, University of California Hastings College of the Law. “Imagining Rights in the Era of Globalization” and “Justice and the Geographical Imagination I,” Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities, San Francisco.

FIRST Series, Faculty workshop, Chapman University School of Law. “Climate Change + Environmental Justice = Climate Justice,” 2008 Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, Eugene, Ore. “Multi-Scalar Civil Society?: Legal Pluralism and Inequality,” Oregon Review of International Law Symposium, Eugene, Ore. Faculty workshop, University of Iowa College of Law. “Public International Law & Legal Theory,” Whitney R. Harris Institute for Global Legal Studies, Washington University School of Law. Section on Women Concurrent Session: Globalization, Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, New York City.

“A Charged Atmosphere: The Future of U.S. Policy on Global Warming,” Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum Symposium.

“A Climate for Justice: Equity Imperatives in the Legal Responses to Climate Change,” Environmental Law Society and Law Students for Human Rights Symposium, New York University.

“The Appropriate Role of International Law in Addressing Climate Change” and “Interdisciplinary Approaches to International Law,” International Law Weekend, New York City.

D i s t i n c t i o n s

A ppointments

American Society of International Law: 2008 Annual Meeting, Program Committee member; Rights of Indigenous Peoples Interest Group, co-chair.

Conference co-chair: American Branch of the International Law Association, International Law Weekend.

Consultant: Climate Legacy Initiative.

Advisor: Climate Change Litigation, Western Environmental Law Center.

Doug Rendleman P ublications

“The Trial Judge’s Equitable Discretion Following eBay v. MercExchange,” 27 The Review of Litigation 51 (2008).

P resentations

“A Plea to Reject the United States Supreme Court’s Due-Process Review of Punitive Damages,” Second International Symposium on the Law of Remedies, University of Auckland Law School.

“The Changing Landscape of IP Remedies After eBay,” Intellectual Property Scholars Forum, University of Akron School of Law. “Restating Restitution: The Restatement Process and Its Critics,” Frances Lewis Law Center, Washington and Lee School of Law. A ppointments

Advisor: Restitution and Unjust Enrichment (Third) Members’ Consultative Group, Aggregate Litigation.

Advisor: American Law Institute, Restatements of Law. Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee, American Association of University Professors, Virginia Conference.

A. Benjamin Spencer P ublications

“Plausibility Pleading,” 49 Boston College Law Review 431 (2008).

Civil Procedure: A Contemporary Approach, 2d Edition (Thomson West 2008).

“Combating Climate Change on the Regional Level: West Coast Policy and Litigation,” Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation Symposium, Eugene, Ore.

P resentations

Faculty colloquium, Lewis & Clark Law School.

West Law School Advisory Board.

Boyd-Graves Conference.

“Appearances and Realities of Power Across Scales: Dilemmas of Categorization,” LatCrit XII, Miami.

Sally Wiant

Faculty Colloquium Presentation, Indiana University School of Law at Bloomington.

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“Plausibility Pleading,” Washington University, St. Louis School of Law. A ppointments

P resentations

Institute Director, Clearing Up Confusing with IP, LLSCD/SEAALL Joint 2008 Conference, Old Town Alexandria, Va.

International Law for Modern Times

..........................................

A new book by Russell Miller, professor of law, was the topic of a panel discussion during the 2008 American Society of International Law (ASIL) meeting, April 9-12 in Washington. The book, Progress in International Law (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers), was co-edited by Miller and Professor Rebecca Bratspies of the CUNY School of Law. Progress in International Law provides a comprehensive accounting of international law for modern times.

Forty leading international law theorists analyze the most significant current issues in the field, and their critical assessments draw diverse conclusions about its current state and future prospects.

David W. Kennedy, Harvard Law School professor and director of the European Law Research Center, called the book a first-rate collection of provocative articles. “Miller and Bratspies introduce the volume with a fascinating study of international law in the United States after the First World War—a moment parallel to our own. Then as now, international law was a collision point for political visions of America’s role in the world. The field was remade, as it is being remade today by those who contribute to this excellent volume.”

A former criminal defense lawyer, Miller is an expert in comparative law and international law. He co-founded the German Law Journal (www.germanlawjournal.com). The online transnational law journal, in English, receives more than 1.5 million hits each year.

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This

American

Life

R o b e rt S au n o o k e ’92 Tac k l e s E v e ry O p p o rt u n i t y

By Andy Thompson ’00A

Robert Saunooke (right) with José Canseco, the former Oakland Athletics and Texas Rangers baseball player (left) and CBS’s “60 Minutes” correspondent Mike Wallace during Canseco’s “Juiced” book tour.

There is no blueprint you could lay out for the life of Robert Saunooke ’92, no way to replicate his career path. His story is fantastic in the way that Forrest Gump’s was, a journey full of peripheral brushes with famous people and world events.

Only, unlike Forrest’s, every word of Saunooke’s life is true.

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A brief overview: A Cherokee Indian and Mormon, Saunooke attends Brigham Young University on a football scholarship. Stars alongside future NFL greats Steve Young and Ty Detmer, but misses out on BYU’s only national championship. Saves the lives of 11 schoolchildren by tackling two runaway horses during a July 4th parade. Works his way through Washington and Lee School of Law with odd jobs and by coaching football at Virginia Military Institute. Briefly practices with a Florida firm before striking out on his own. Runs for chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Loses. Gets into and out of a Southern barbecue restaurant called Big Daddy’s. Represents clients in a wide field of law, including baseball player José Canseco, Seminole Chief James Billie, Donald Trump, World’s Strongest Man competitors and victims of domestic abuse.

His classmate Eric Nelson ’92, now an attorney with Smith, Curry and Hancock in Atlanta, recalled how he was flipping through the TV channels one night. “I saw [José] Canseco on some talk show, so I stopped and watched it. All of a sudden the screen flips over, and it’s Saunooke. I thought, ‘Wait, I know that guy!’ ” Bob Doyle ’92, a partner at Lewis, Johs, Avallone and Aviles, had a similar experience while watching Saunooke represent Canseco before Congress.

The former major league baseball player was there to testify about steroid use in the sport.

“I called Rob and said, ‘What do you know about representing an internationally known athlete at a congressional hearing?’ And he said, ‘Nothing, but I talked to a couple of guys and got some advice. Then I went out and bought a new suit.’ ”

Saunooke, now 43 and a father of three—Jacob, 17, Emily, 13, and Seth, 8—applies that same

bemused air of detachment to most situations in his life.

He ruefully reminisced about missing BYU’s national championship run in 1984 while he was on a Mormon mission.

“If there’s a piggy bank you can deposit good deeds into....”

He lets the thought trail off. “I was serving my fellow man and God. If there’s a heaven, I hope that some of my good deeds overcome my mistakes.”

He played three more years as a center at BYU, then entered law school. He was accepted at Georgetown, University of California at Los Angeles and U.C. at Santa Clara, and waitlisted at Harvard. For a smalltown kid from the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, W&L and Lexington were perfect fits. “W&L was like coming home,” he said. “I liked the campus, the honesty and the small-town flavor. We had an honor code at BYU, so having one at W&L felt natural to me.

I loved law school. Some of the best relationships and my best friends in the world I made Robert Saunooke during his days as a football player for Brigham Young while in law school.”

University. He stays fit these days working out Saunooke was already married with former World’s Strongest Men Magnus ver Magnusson and Phil Phister.

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budget time because I’d already been doing that for five years.”

But he added, “I’d sleep between classes and then between jobs. Monday through Thursday I’d work from 11 at night to 7 in morning at the Super 8. Then on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays I’d bounce in the evenings and coach football every afternoon and on Saturdays. Looking back on it, I guess I don’t know how I did it.”

Saunooke was still near his playing weight—he’s listed in the BYU archives as 6 feet, 2 inches and 270 lbs.—when he attended W&L. His size is part of his persona, and, in a way, has had a direct impact on the legal work he’s taken on. “Rob is a great guy, a big guy, with a larger-than-life personality. His presence is hard to ignore,” said Doyle. “He’s played big-time football on a big stage and isn’t intimidated by major situations.

He doesn’t shrink from the opportunity to shine.”

Doyle thinks that’s why Saunooke has spent most of his professional career on his own as a litigator. “Someone like him has so much confidence in himself, he says, ‘You know what? I can do this on my own. I don’t need to be in a big, structured environment of a firm.’ ” He added, “Guys like Saunooke fly without a net. He’s not necessarily getting a stable salary or a 401K or a pension. He’s like most solo practitioners in that there’s more reward, but there’s also more risk. If the phone never rings, that’s bad.”

Robert Saunooke (right) with Chris Kuelling ’92 (center) and Molly Ziebold Sampson ’92.

“My law school friends became my extended family,” Saunooke said. “They were there for the birth of my child, Jacob, and his first birthday, too. We were all struggling together, but also there for each other.”

when he arrived at W&L, and Jacob was born in Lexington.

When he wasn’t studying, Saunooke worked at the local Super 8 Motel at night and coached football at both Lexington High School and VMI. He and Nelson were also the first bouncers in the history of The Palms, a job Saunooke finagled in true future-lawyer fashion. “I was able to convince the owners that they would be liable if something happened to one of their customers, and they didn’t have someone there to protect them,” he remembered.

Nelson laughed at the memory. “Rob went in and did a sales job on these guys and persuaded them that they needed bouncers. It was a riot because if it was minor stuff, I could take care of it. Handling drunk undergrads and stressed-out law students was not hard, but handling some guy who’s been out crossbow hunting for the past few weeks? That was for Rob.” Classmates often wondered how Saunooke kept up with the demands of law school. Daily reading assignments and writing projects were overwhelming to most, but Saunooke took it in stride. “Football consumed eight to 10 hours of every day of my undergraduate life. When I got to law school, all of a sudden I had an extra 40-50 hours,” he explained. “It wasn’t hard to 16

Immediately after law graduation, Saunooke took a job in Florida practicing insurance defense, representing large corporations such as Marriott Hotels and Florida Power.

But after two years, an offer of partnership and the suicide of the firm’s senior partner, Saunooke’s legal career was starting to resemble “The Firm,” and he decided that this wasn’t for him. “I could have joined a big firm in D.C. and plodded away and possibly have been a successful partner by now—like many of my classmates,” he mused.

“But I don’t think I would have been happy.”

Instead, he quickly picked up a “When I first got out number of law school, I wanted of

to avoid a Native American practice. But it just seemed like every time I turned around, I was being asked by another tribe or individual to help them out.”

— Robert Saunooke ’92

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Robert Saunooke (right) with then-prime minister Etienne Ys (center) of Curacao and Tim Brink. “We were there to negotiate the purchase of the island’s oil refinery to take it over from its current lease holder, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. It was a very complicated political and financial transaction.” A portrait of Queen Beatrice of the Netherlands hangs in the background.

Native American and corporate clients and found his practice taking him all over the country and the world—California, Utah, Florida, New Mexico, Arizona, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria. “I have never advertised or sought clients, but somehow I have been fortunate enough to have had the chance to represent a number of interesting and challenging groups and people.” Indeed, Saunooke’s tribal clients include Native American tribes from Alaska to Florida: Yupik and Inuit to Florida Seminole and Eastern Cherokee.

“When I first got out of law school, I wanted to avoid a Native American practice. But it just seemed like every time I turned around, I was being asked by another tribe or individual to help them out,” he said. “A lot of this I owe to my family and my own tribal history.” His father, Osley Bird Saunooke Jr., was the first director of the United Southern and Eastern Tribes; his grandfather, Osley Bird Saunooke was chief of the Cherokee Tribe; and his grandmother, Bertha Saunooke, was the first female member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Council, where she served for 32 years. “I guess it was inevitable that I would find my way back to my heritage and my history.

Being a tribal member gave me a unique perspective in representing tribes and other tribal members.”

Saunooke served as the legislative counsel to the Cherokee Tribe from 1997-1998 and continued to represent individuals and commercial entities in tribal matters throughout the country. He negotiated and drafted complex gaming contracts and argued federal or tribal criminal cases. In 2001, Saunooke became the personal legal counsel to then-Seminole Tribe Chief James Billie. When, after 27 years as chief, S p r i n g

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the tribe ousted Billie, Saunooke successfully defended every action filed against the former chief between 2001 and 2005. He also successfully defended Billie against a $65 million suit by the tribe over a land deal in Nicaragua that the tribe alleged tribal funds had paid for.

Soon after the Billie lawsuits, Saunooke met Canseco, and his career took a star-studded, hairpin turn. Canseco, recently retired, needed representation for what Saunooke thought would be a simple probation-violation issue. Canseco was also being sued in a civil lawsuit that other counsel was handling. “I didn’t know José from a hole in the wall,” said Saunooke. “I had heard of him, but I didn’t know what a superstar he was, and I didn’t know how important he was to the Cuban and the Hispanic community.”

“I guess it was inevitable that I would find my way back to my heritage and my history. Being a tribal member gave me a unique perspective in representing tribes and other tribal members.”

— Robert Saunooke ’92

Canseco, pleased with Saunooke’s work, asked him to represent him in all legal matters. Before he knew it, Saunooke was steering Canseco through his first book—Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ’roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big—which was number one on the New York Times bestseller list for seven weeks. “I started out being his lawyer for one thing, and it just blossomed.” No one could have anticipated the effect Canseco’s book would have on the game of baseball, and Saunooke found himself sitting next to Canseco as he testified before Congress on baseball, steroids and years of drug use in America’s favorite pastime. “It was an overwhelming experience, and one that I will remember for the rest of my life.”

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Robert Saunooke (left) hanging out with former baseball player and author José Canseco.

But while he was going to awards shows and representing celebrities, Saunooke was doing work far more meaningful to him. He currently serves as legal director for Clan Star, a non-profit corporation that operates within the Department of Justice under the 1994 Violence Against Women Act. When the act was renewed in 2005, it earmarked funds for the defense of abused women who live on Native American reservations. It has since become one of Saunooke’s primary projects, and one to which he has, and will, devote countless hours.

Saunooke is also chair of the Tribal Courts Section of the American Bar Association, and in that capacity has met privately with senators and congressional leaders regarding issues facing Native American courts. In April, he appeared before the Supreme Court in Plains Commerce Bank v.

Long Family Land and Cattle Co., in which he filed an amicus brief on behalf of various Native American domestic violence groups. In August, he will be moderating and cosponsoring an event at the ABA’s annual meeting, titled Maze of Injustice, to discuss violence against women and the lack of judicial and prosecutorial enforcement of federal and state

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laws on reservations. In addition, he is working with Amnesty International to detail the atrocities committed and perpetrated against Native American women and children.

“In their lifetime, one in two Native American women will be physically and sexually abused,” he said. “Every year, hundreds are beaten and killed, and few people are aware of this or “Guys like Saunooke do anything about it. fly without a net. He’s not

necessarily getting a stable salary or a 401K or a pension.

He’s like most solo practitioners in that there’s more reward, but there’s also more risk. If the phone never rings, that’s bad.”

— Bob Doyle ’92

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There are myriad jurisdictional, cultural and sovereign issues.

In Public Law 280 states, such as California, Florida, South Dakota and Minnesota, there is concurrent jurisdiction over crimes against Native Americans, but rarely do local police or prosecutors take cases or prosecute. In states that don’t have concurrent jurisdiction, federal courts are supposed to prosecute under the Indian Major Crimes Act or the Assimilated Crimes Act, but rarely, if ever, do U.S. attorneys have the time, resources or interest in prosecuting Indian-on-Indian or whiteon-Indian crime. And when Native American women do seek help, nothing happens. As a result, not only is the incidence of violence against Native American women higher than the rest of the population, but many incidents go unreported.”

It’s this kind of work, as well as advancing Native American presence in the law and the judiciary, that Saunooke is proudest of. “My focus for the future is to bring more Native American causes to the front,” he said. “It’s a fact that in the history of the United States only two Native Americans have been appointed to the federal judiciary. Meanwhile 88 Hispanics, 151 AfricanAmericans and 16 Asian-Americans have been appointed to the federal bench.” These numbers displease Saunooke, who pointed out that there are more than 1,300 possible federal positions available. It is especially disconcerting as the most litigated issue in federal courts throughout the country involves rights, laws and issues involving Native Americans and tribes.

“You have federal judges who are deciding Native American issues, and they have no concept of Native American

life or law. If this was true of any other race, there would be a tremendous outcry.”

Saunooke acknowledged, “I know that clients like José Canseco are exciting topics for water cooler conversation, but that is only a small part of my current practice. I recently met with Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), who spearheaded the steroid hearings and will be retiring from office at the end of this term.

Even though he has spent countless hours investigating and dealing with the steroid issue, he was more interested in my Native American issues and ready to move on from José and steroids. What I’m doing now to fight domestic abuse is far more important and will have a far more lasting impact.”

Although Saunooke no longer represents Canseco, that doesn’t mean, of course, that another celebrity client won’t come along and send him off in another direction. If the past is any indication, there’s just no telling what the rest of his career will be. What’s certain is that he’ll treat that next experience with confidence and enthusiasm, the same approach that’s worked on the gridiron, in the court“My focus for room and in front of the future is to bring Congress. Q

more Native American causes to the front. You have federal judges who are deciding Native American issues, and they have no concept of Native American life or law. If this was true of any other race, there would be a tremendous outcry.”

— Robert Saunooke ’92

Robert Saunooke’s father (left photo), Osley Bird Saunooke Jr., and grandmother (right photo), Bertha Saunooke, at his graduation. Both were extensively involved with tribal affairs.

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Make No Small Plans

W&L introduces dramatic reforms to the third-year curriculum

by Louise Uffelman Dean Rodney Smolla summarizes the Law School’s new third-year curriculum with a Chinese proverb: “Tell me, I will forget. Show me, I will remember. Involve me, I will understand.”

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Over the last several months, many of you have heard me speak at alumni events or in person about our plans to reform the third year of law school at W&L. I am pleased to announce that the faculty of the Law School voted unanimously to embark on a dramatic revision of the curriculum, entirely reinventing the third year to make it one of professional development. The following story details the thoughtful and rigorous debate among the faculty before they committed to this bold plan.

I believe, along with many others, that we are at a turning point in the history of the legal profession and the history of legal education. As the Carnegie Foundation’s influential 2007 report, “Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law,” forcefully explained, current legal education does a good job of teaching students the essential building blocks of legal theory, reasoning and doctrine.

It is less effective, however, in preparing a lawyer for actual legal practice. Our purpose is to transform law school into a three-year progression from the purely academic study of law to the development of the lawyer’s professional role as counselor and advocate.

There is a need to be met in our service to the public and the profession, and many law schools are responding with innovations and reforms. Five years from now, legal education will have changed. At Washington and Lee, 20

we are proud to be a leader in this national movement.

We believe it is incumbent on our Law School to be more ambitious in our mission and innovative in our approach.

While reform of this scale will require some changes to the entire Law School curriculum, it also will build on our core values. The mentoring and small-group collaborations that drive this experiential model will enhance the close interactions with faculty so prized by generations of students. By asking students to engage and confront a broad range of professional and ethical dilemmas in realistic settings, we will continue our long-standing dedication to producing lawyers bound by the ethical imperatives of the profession.

The curricular changes will also enhance our already strong legal writing program. The first year will remain an introduction to legal reasoning and analysis, expressed in both objective and persuasive writing projects. The second year will be defined by a broadening of legal knowledge, culminating in a substantive research paper. Finally, the experiences of the third year will require students to produce a full range of professional work product.

I encourage you to visit the W&L Law School Web site at law.wlu.edu/thirdyear, for detailed information about the plan.

—Rod Smolla W & L

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The way Washington and Lee’s School of Law will educate future lawyers changed forever on Feb. 4, 2008. After six months of debate, analysis and planning, the faculty unanimously agreed to sweeping reforms in the third-year curriculum.

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When W&L unveiled the plan to the world a month later, national and international media outlets covered the story, and the blogosphere lit up. Support was evident among practicing lawyers who wished they had enjoyed a little more hands-on training before setting out into the world. As one blogger said, “I applaud W&L’s audacity, and I look forward to discussions that, intentionally or not, illustrate the gulf between the interests (and objectives) of law professors, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the day-to-day work of practicing lawyers and judges who stubbornly adhere to the doctrinal law game as a means of persuasion.”

But there were also the doubters. From the Wall Street Journal Law Blog came a sarcastic comment: “Teaching law students how to practice law?! What will they think of next?” Then there was the downright dismissive: “A school can’t fake on-the-job training. It has to be a real job with real consequences and, yes, real pay. That’s what it’s all about.”

A Meeting of Minds , So why try this revolutionary experiment at W&L? And why now?

When Smolla joined W&L last July, the 2007 Carnegie Report, “Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law,” was already creating a buzz in the field. It suggested that while the original model for educating lawyers worked extremely well in the first year, it was an incomplete vision of how law schools should prepare students for the profession, which suffers from “varying degrees of confusion and demoralization.” This report was just one of many other articles and surveys lamenting the current state of legal education.

W&L Law had identified this as an important issue years ago. “In our strategic plan, we specifically contemplated the idea of capstone courses that would be optional and would require students to draw upon a number of doctrinal areas

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and apply those doctrines to a range of problems,” said Bob Danforth, associate dean of academic affairs. “It was a more modest approach to curricular reform than what we’re going to do now.”

David Millon, the J.B. Stombock Professor of Law, explained, “Many of the faculty had been talking a long time about the need to do something more challenging and different for our third-year students. We thought a capstone course would do three things. It would be integrative, asking them to draw on knowledge from different areas. It would be practical, involving them in real lawyering situations. And it would be ethics based, meaning they would practice professionalism and ethics in action. So through these courses, we would provide students with a bridge to the profession, a way to help them make the transition from being a student to being a lawyer. Our third-year curriculum accomplishes these goals in a more comprehensive way.”

Education Planning and Curriculum Committee These ten individuals spent countless hours working on the third-year curriculum proposal that went before the faculty.

Lyman Johnson, chair, Robert O. Bentley Professor of Law Bob Danforth, associate dean of academic affairs and professor of Law Sidney Evans, associate dean for Student Affairs Mark Grunewald, James P. Morefield Professor of Law Ann Massie, professor of law David Millon, J.B. Stombeck Professor of Law Mary Natkin ’85, director of externships Robin Wilson, Professor or Law Lisa Hedrick ’08 Will Young ’09

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The new third-year curriculum will be entirely experiential, comprising law practice simulations, real-client experiences and the development of professionalism and law practice skills.

• Each semester will begin with a two-week immersion course, one focusing on office and transactional practice skills, the other on litigation and conflict resolution skills.

• All students will participate in a yearlong professionalism program that will include practicing lawyers and judges and assist students in the development of professionalism in all its aspects, including legal ethics, civility, civic engagement and leadership and pro bono service.

• The core intellectual experiences in the third year will be presented 22

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At W&L, faculty shape the curriculum, and Smolla’s proposal meant winning over some skeptics. After presenting his ideas to the faculty in August, Smolla convened the Education Planning and Curriculum Committee (EPCC) to work on his proposal. Over the course of the fall term, committee members examined it from all angles. “The debates were intense, thoughtful,” said Danforth. “There were big questions to answer.”

The EPCC did its homework, beginning with a review of its peers. “A lot of the national conversations were just beginning after the Carnegie Report,” said Johnson. “I thought some of the proposed solutions weren’t substantial enough. For example, people were suggesting an interdisciplinary approach. Well, we already have that. We just didn’t see any other law school doing what we were thinking about.”

The committee asked the faculty to consider the ideal characteristics of a new third-year curriculum—to think creatively and constructively about it without regard to resources. “We invited them to participate in good faith,” said Johnson. “We truly wanted them to feel it was a collaborative process. As in our committee meetings, the faculty discussions were robust, very healthy. I like to call it constructive tension.”

Such discussions ranged from faculty resources to academic rigor. “A big concern was, would we be sacrificing substantive coverage?” said Mary Natkin ‘85, director of externships.

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Smolla was well versed on the issue, too, having had extensive conversations about the third year with many other law deans, lawyers and legal professionals during his tenure at the University of Richmond. As the incoming dean, he sensed the time was right to launch such a reform at W&L and immediately began talking to faculty, alumni and students. The “Great Conversation,” as he called it, considered the educational, intellectual and public service mission of W&L. “When you talk about curricular reform, it usually means the first year,” said Lyman Johnson, the Robert O. Bentley Professor of Law. “First years have so much to learn. It’s hard to goof it up. So you really have the first year, and then the second and third years are kind of lumped together. We felt there should be some sense of progression. The third year should be qualitatively different. Students shouldn’t simply acquire knowledge or information. There should be a time when they should express their own considered views. The third year is less about pure acquisition and more about expression and the exercise of professional judgment. When Rod arrived, he built on the Carnegie Report recommendations, adding his own thoughts to what we had in the strategic plan. He put forth a very bold proposal. It was very thought provoking.” Added Danforth, “The shift in paradigm is from students as passive learners to students who are taking primary responsibility for developing skills and enhancing their knowledge.”

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entirely through a mix of practicum courses that simulate legal practice environments, legal clinics and internships.

• The practicum courses will be led by members of the permanent law faculty, adjunct faculty and visiting professors of practice drawn from the bar and bench.

• The demanding intellectual content of the third year will be presented in realistic settings that simulate actual client experiences. Students will be required to exercise professional judgment, work in teams, W & L

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solve problems, counsel clients, negotiate solutions, serve as advocates and counselors—the full complement of professional activity that engages practicing lawyers as they apply legal theory and legal doctrines to the real-world issues of serving clients ethically and honorably within the highest traditions of the profession.

• Practicum courses will span the array of traditional legal subject matter: antitrust, banking, corporate finance, securities, tax, family, environmental, criminal, employment, intellectual property, estate planning, media, civil rights and civil liberties practice—in short, anything and everything that might be offered in a traditional law school course.

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“The devil is in the details, of course, but faculty wanted to make sure that the Law School would create and design the curriculum in a way that would give the same exposure to the topics that students would generally study in their third year. With this new approach, it’s likely that students will have fewer choices, but these experiential courses will cover more areas. These kinds of skills translate across all areas of prace tice. We needed to show faculty that we weren’t jumping off a cliff—here are our goals, and here is the plan for getting there.”

Added Millon, “Faculty were also It’s not just the third-year curriculum concerned that the third year wouldn’t that’s changing at the Law School. In May, be rigorous enough. But when you look the faculty unanimously voted to include at the kinds of learning this curriculum an h c Transnational Law as a required first-year provides, you’re asking students to be course during the second semester. far more intellectually engaged with the “However global the practice of law may be material than if they were sitting in a today, it seems very likely to be even more so—and for more lawyers—in the classroom. It’s a far more demanding decades ahead,” said Bob Danforth, associate dean of academic affairs. “Law approach.” schools must acknowledge this reality and introduce students early on to the Johnson uses his own class in busieffects of globalization on the formulation, content and practice of law and ness planning as an example of how a regulation in the modern world.” course can be intellectually rigorous and The new Transnational Law course will introduce students to core prinpractical at the same time. “When you ciples of public and private international law, comparative law, foreign law, ask students to do a task, they have a cross-border legal process and deal-making, transboundary dispute resolution deeper, more immediate motivation to and elements of U.S. law that have international effects. learn something than simply to wait for

Visit law.wlu.edu/news to read the full press release on the Transnational the final exam. When they prepare docuLaw curriculum. ments on establishing a new business, they understand there’s a lot they don’t know. They say to themselves, ‘I’d better learn it.’ I see a higher level of intellectual work.”

Although the committee felt fairly comfortable with the Faculty also raised the question of resources—who will final proposal it put before the faculty in February, ”We were staff these practica? “We didn’t want resources diverted to by no means certain of the outcome,” said Danforth. “After the third year to the detriment of the first two years,” said several faculty meetings, we made some modifications to the Danforth. “We carefully analyzed the resource question and proposal. We knew this was a substantially radical change, felt confident that we could staff the new curriculum withand the only way to make it work was with big buy-in from out sacrificing the quality of the first and second years.” as many faculty as possible. I attribute the unanimous vote to the fact that the committee addressed concerns raised in earlier discussions. I also think the faculty have great faith in the leadership and felt that their voices were being heard.”

“We’re aware that the implementation is not going to Early on, the EPCC considered applying this proposal to be easy,” said Millon. “But we have two big advantages. just one semester of the third year, but quickly dismissed it.

We have a long-standing commitment to student-centered “Initially we thought, ‘Why not go half way?’ We decided teaching, and we have a small student-to-faculty ratio.” no,” said Johnson. “If we think this is pedagogically sound, Indeed, one of the most rewarding reactions from which it is, then it is sound for the whole year. We have a the faculty was its enthusiastic response to re-tooling destination, and we need to make strong statement of comtheir courses. “It was exciting in our discussions to see mitment. One-half is not enough.” so many faculty willing to their re-think their approaches

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Alumni Weigh In

to teaching their courses,” said Danforth. “It created some energy and excitement that I haven’t felt for a while. In considering the challenges that the new curriculum would present, the faculty also recognized that we’re talking about only one-third of the curriculum. We still need people to teach first- and second-year students.” A secondary benefit was that the third-year discussions generated one of the best faculty recruiting seasons the School has had in a while (see page 3). “The folks we hired are unabashedly enthusiastic about the program,” Danforth added.

While developing a rigorous curriculum is important to the Law School, equally important is nurturing lawyers who are able to balance a number of conflicting issues. Not just professionalism, but ethics as well. Johnson describes it as “what it means to live one’s life in the law.”

He is troubled by the turnover in the legal profession and wondered, “Are we just letting it happen and then trying to deal with the effects of it after the fact? I’d like to see a more systematic exploration of why this is happening.

We should be instrumental in helping our students shape and construct healthy professional identities. I don’t know all that’s entailed, but it’s almost as exciting as the curricular part.”

Over the next few months and years, W&L will be fine-tuning its new curriculum. There are practica to create, externships to develop, money to raise and guest speakers and instructors to invite. The new third year will be phased in over the next couple of years and goes into full effect in the 2010-11 academic year. “We can take the fast track,” said Johnson, “because we’re small, we’re nimble.”

Inevitably, the curriculum will change as the Law School settles into this new direction.

There is a lot of work ahead, with many details yet to be worked out. But the Law School has the support of its alumni, and an advisory board of some of the best legal minds to provide feedback. “I’m excited that the faculty didn’t take the easy road,” said Natkin. “It really shows a commitment to being the best teaching institution out there.” Q

After the Law School announced the new third-year curriculum, many alumni wrote to share their thoughts on the decision. Here are excerpts from two emails.

An Alumnus Remembers Stan Fink ’64, a partner in Fink, Rosner, Ershow-Levenberg in Clark, N.J., enthusiastically endorsed W&L’s new third-year curriculum. He joked that he came up with the idea first.

I proposed this to Dean [Robert] Huntley ’50A, ’57 in 1963, while he, several of my classmates and I sat in the student lounge in Tucker Hall over a cup of coffee—of course, we probably should have been studying, not philosophizing over the state of law school education.

While a 3L in 1963-64, we had a speaker in our creditors’ rights class who was the bankruptcy judge in the Western District of Virginia. He was bemoaning the fact that because the lawyer population in that geographic area was so limited, he had trouble finding people to appoint as trustees in bankruptcy cases. The few lawyers who actually practiced in the bankruptcy court either represented the debtors or the creditors.

I suggested he appoint law students as trustees, which he did.

Within days, I received my first appointment. The judge could have accepted much of what we did as trustees in written reports to the court, but he insisted that we actually make court appearances to deliver, present and file our trustee reports. And we had to wear a coat and tie. What a wonderful hands-on experience. I was applying what I learned, and I was becoming a lawyer in the process.

Today, law schools offer so many more such opportunities in clinics, etc. Back then, my classmates and I were pioneers. I’m glad W&L is going to be today’s pioneer to benefit future generations and raise the level of the practice and profession.

Why It Matters Heather Boone ’00, general counsel, Los Alamos National Bank, Los Alamos, N.M., expressed her support of the new third year.

I applaud your visionary approach and am very glad that W&L is taking the lead on this important change. I have always believed that the practical experience I got through Moot Court, my internship with the AUSA and summer internships was far more important than class after class of textbook law on increasingly specific topic areas. I also believe that only through the actual practice of law can students begin to grasp the ethical and life work balance issues they will face. It is much better for them to have the opportunity to mature in this area before they set out on their own. I believe that this new approach will result in better job satisfaction, as it allows students to understand what will be expected of them and what they enjoy. Not everyone will enjoy litigation, although we all seem to think we will.

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Leading the Way The following timeline highlights important years in the history of legal education and the long-running controversy over the best way to prepare future lawyers. Blue represents U.S. milestones, while Red indicates changes at the W&L School of Law.

1630 The first Puritans in Massachusetts had among them “ten legally trained Puritans products of the Inns of Court and English Legal Practice.”1 n 1771 First American edition of Blackstone’s Commentaries influences American legal education as integrated and broadly liberal. n 1775-1783 Revolutionary War severs ties with traditions of British legal education. n 1779-1781 Harvard and William & Mary establish first chairs in law. n 1828 Jacksonian Democracy attacks elitism and class bias, including the notion that a person needs education or supervision to practice a profession, including the law. n 1849 Judge John W. Brockenbrough opens the Lexington Law School. n 1865 Industrial and financial growth at end of Civil War increases demand for standardized legal training. n 1866 Brockenbrough’s School of Law and Equity joins Washington College under President R.E. Lee. Awards Bachelor of law degrees. n 1869 Trustees’ report considers difficulties of legal instruction and recommends appointing another professor of law. John Randolph Tucker joins faculty. n 1870 Dean Christopher Columbus Langdell, of Harvard, introduces case method to the study of law. n 1878 American Bar Association established, with primary function to recommend bar exam courses of study. n 1882 ABA recommends “a method of study directed to the development of basic lawyer skills.” More critiques of the case method follow in 1891 and 1892. n 1890 Dean John Randolph Tucker envisions W&L Law enrolling students “from North and West, from all over the land.” n 1900 Some W&L professors use case method of instruction. n 1900 American Association of Law Schools established. n 1912 W&L continues traditional two-year course of study; offers optional three-year course. n 1914 The Common Law and the Case Method, by Josef Redlich, subjects case method to first systematic, critical analysis. n 1920 All law schools accept the case method of instruction for the core curriculum. n 1920 W&L requires three full years of study. Re-emphasizes case method of instruction. Law School admitted to the Association of American Law Schools. n 1921 ABA recommends two years of college before law school and three years of full-time or four of part-time study in law school; bar admission examination by a public authority; and law school accreditation through the ABA. n 1926 All W&L classes use case method of instruction. n 1928 Two years of undergraduate work required for admission to W&L Law School. n 1946 After severe enrollment declines during WWII, accredited law schools rebound thanks to GI Bill. n 1946-1951 W&L develops new courses on labor, international, family, medical and urban law. n 1965 W&L establishes Legal Aid and Legal Research Association Clinic. n 1968 Faculty, curriculum and applicant pool expand; more clinical programs added; fund-raising for new building begins. n 1971 AALS Curriculum Committee issues Training for the Public Professions of the Law. Concerned that negotiation, drafting and counseling skills are overlooked. Calls for a standard two-year J.D. degree, followed by a series of experiences to different types of legal practice. n 1972 First women matriculate. n 1974 ABA amends accreditation standards to include instruction in professional responsibility. n 1976 Law School moves into Lewis Hall. n 1989 W&L incorporates first-year writing and research programs into coursework and pioneers first year small sections n 1992 ABA’s McCrate Report conceptualizes law training as an educational continuum, involving specific responsibilities from both law schools and the profession. Judge Harry T. Edwards publishes “The Growing Disjunction between Legal Educa­tion and the Legal Profession” in the Michigan Law Review. n 2003 Enrollment reaches 400. LL.M. program begins. n 2007 Carnegie Foundation publishes “Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law.” Roy Stuckey publishes Best Practices in Legal Education. n 2008 W&L announces third-year curriculum reform.

Thanks to John Jacob, Law School archivist, for helping construct this timeline.

1 Stuckey, Roy “The Evolution of Legal Education in the United States and the United Kingdom: How one system became more faculty-oriented while the other became more consumer-oriented,” International Journal of Clinical Legal Education 101 (Dec. 2004).

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Mary Beth Long ’98 was sworn in as the assistant secretary of defense for International Security Affairs on Dec. 21, 2007, during a ceremony at the Pentagon. Undersecretary Eric Edelman (center) holds the Bible, while Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (right) administers the oath.

In her new position, she advises Gates on security threats in Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

At Ease

Mary Beth Long ’98 Rises in the Ranks at the Department of Defense

Mary Beth Long ’98 was in the middle of a comment about what it’s like to be the highest-ranking female security strategist at the U.S. Pentagon.

“Here at the Department of Defense, you are not rewarded for being demure,” said Long. “One is not rewarded for being shy, or for being someone who conducts herself like a lady. And I do think I’ve established a bit of a reputation for being blunt around here. As a matter of fact, there are occasional complaints that I’ve been . . . over-aggressive!”

She paused for a moment to laugh at herself.

A moment later, an aide suddenly interrupted her. “I’m so sorry,” she quickly told the interviewer, “but I have something that needs my attention.” With that, she stepped quickly away from her work-crowded desk at the headquarters of the U.S. Defense Department.

When she returned, about half an hour later, she was apologetic: “I’m sorry. Usually, my day isn’t quite like this.”

Why the sudden interruption?

The answer could be found on the front page of every newspaper in America the following morning: Turkey had just invaded northern Iraq with 10,000 troops, potentially plunging the entire region into a major crisis.

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BY Tom Nugent

Ask Long to explain why she thinks she has a great job, and she will tell you that in addition to “getting a great deal of personal satisfaction” out of serving her country, she greatly enjoys challenges that will test her to the max.

“I guess I’m just one of those people who loves a steep learning curve,” she said, while describing how she plunged head-first into studying Chinese and then Arabic during her 13-year career (1986-99) as a CIA agent who worked undercover to help smash international narcotics rings and terrorist organizations.

“Really, I suspect it’s simply a matter of temperament,” she said. “All I can tell you is that I’ve always enjoyed situations where you’re challenged to learn a great deal of new information and then challenged to use it in accomplishing objectives that often involve a fair amount of risk and uncertainty.”

She is a skilled attorney who spent five years with Washington’s high-voltage Williams & Connolly. When she signed on as a high-ranking civilian policymaker at the Pentagon in 2004, Long gave up a six-figure salary to return to government service. Why? “It’s simple,” she said. “I really do believe that in many ways, this great country is at a crossroads right now.

“In my job, I study the progress we’re making in places like Afghanistan, every single day. And when you see how a country W & L

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like that is struggling to adopt democracy—and to catch up to the modern world in terms of literacy and technology and industrial growth—well, then you realize all over again that the stakes for America in that part of the world are extremely high.

“Only a few months ago, for example, I was able to accompany Secretary Gates on a trip to Afghanistan. We had dinner with President [Hamid] Karzai, and he’s a very courageous man who’s committed to making his country successful and to shepherding all of the various ethnicities and religions and socioeconomic groups through this very difficult process of building a modern, democratic Afghanistan.

“When you watch that process unfolding day by day, you soon realize that helping a country like Afghanistan to embrace the democratic process is a crucially important mission for our country. I mean, if we don’t do it for a country like Afghanistan, what countries would we do it for?

“As a policymaker with responsibility for Afghanistan and countries in the Middle East, I’m very passionate about asking: What do we really stand for as citizens of the United States? And I’m also determined to do my best to make sure we answer that question in the right way—by putting everything I have into the effort to help build a thriving and successful Afghanistan that can become a beacon of democracy for that entire region of the world.”

Born and raised in small-town Clearfield, Pa., as the daughter of a substitute schoolteacher and a successful businessman, Long landed in Lexington in the fall of 1995 as a rather unusual law student. The CIA was helping to pay her tuition bills.

By then, of course, she’d already enjoyed a highly interesting—and frequently adrenaline-soaked— career. In spite of her James Bond-like background, she says she found law school at W&L to be Top photo: On an official visit to Oman, Mary Beth Long ’98 takes a stroll through the marketplace (souk) and learns “quite exciting and quite intellectually rigorous. about local crafts. Bottom photo: Later, she signs “It was another steep learning curve,” she agreements with Egyptian officials. recalled. “I’m really very grateful for the way the professors demanded my very best. And it certainly wasn’t who’s in the thick of the race for the White House. And I think easy. I struggled hard with Business Law—got a C in one that says a lot about the progress we’ve made on this issue.” course, I remember, after putting everything I had into it. And She added, “On the other hand, the fact that you can name I was tested fully, especially when it came to Contracts. But the these women who are in posts of national leadership on one training I got at W&L has been extremely helpful, not only in hand—doesn’t that show that there’s still a lot of room for the courtroom, but also in my current role at the Defense improvement?

Department, where knowing how to think rigorously and precisely “I don’t usually find myself complaining like this, but the is absolutely essential.” reality is that there’s still a bit of a glass ceiling out there—and Long is breaking new ground in her position at the I do think we need to continue working on it.”

Pentagon. “I do think we’ve made tremendous strides in this But it’s not something Long has time to dwell on. She country when it comes to gender equality,” she said. “We’ve typically works a 12- to 14-hour day and spends much of her free got a tremendous Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and time on tasks that will help her on the job, such as learning new of course, we now have a woman candidate [Hillary Clinton] languages. After all, you never know who will be calling next. Q

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Alumni who graduated 50 years ago or more received a special round of applause.

From l. to r.: Bob Rhea ’58, Tom Wilkerson ’58, Grover Outland ’51, Hardin Marion ’56A, ’58, Sam White ’50, Walter Harrod ’41A, ’47, B.C. Tolley ’42A, ’48, Walt Hannah ’50, Mark Davis ’56A, ’58, Bob Stroud ’56A, ’58, Reno Harp ’54A, ’56, Wiley Wright ’54A, ’56, Selden McNeer ’48A, ’50, George Gray ’50.

The Law School kicked off its first solo Reunion Weekend (the undergraduate Reunion was May 1-3) with the Benefactors’ Dinner. Jason Gerard Brown ’10, of Charleston, S.C., acknowledged the generosity of those who have supported him and his peers.

“During this three-year marathon, it is reassuring to know that I have not mortgaged my soul to finance my legal education,” he said.

“The assistance you all provide alleviates much of our financial burden and allows us to pursue legal careers that embrace our talents and interests. There are members of my class who aspire to be top litigators in New York City and those who aspire to be public defenders in underrepresented, poorer, rural and urban areas. My classmates aspire to work for the Department of Justice, to go in-house for major

corporations, to provide legal counsel to government agencies, to become professors. However realistic any of these goals may be, many of them would be an afterthought were it not for you.

“Truthfully, words may never fully express the gratitude I feel toward each of you, most of whom I had not met before tonight. Law school is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Attending W&L Law is a privilege I’m glad I was afforded, and I hope to one day sit next to all of you and provide the same privilege to future members of the W&L Law family.”

The spirit of giving continued throughout the weekend, with the Law Classes pooling their gifts. The $1.4 million raised will go toward supporting professorships, scholarships and the Law Annual Fund.

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Remmel Dickinson (son of Carrie and Tyndall Dickinson ’39A, 41) attended the Benefactors’ dinner and met the current Dickinson Scholars who benefit from the scholarships his family established.

From l. to r.: Erin Willoughby ’08, Marty Kang ’08, Dickinson, Vimi Shad ’09 and Jonathan Lockwood ’10.

Below left:

Bob Stroud ’56A, ’58 (left) received the first Outstanding Law Alumnus Award from Dean Rod Smolla (right) during Reunion Weekend for his exceptional achievements in the legal profession and his unselfish service to his community and his alma mater. He practiced corporate law with McGuire Woods for over 40 years, lectured at the University of Virginia and W&L Law and is the author of many articles and publications. He served on the Law Council for 13 years, eventually filling the roles of vice president and president. He raised money for the Law Annual Fund as a Law Class agent and in 2001 was named an honorary member of the Order of the Coif.

The Class of ’63, from l. to r.: Paul Boswell, Jerry Kesten, Jay Wilks, Joe Hess (’60A).

Grover Outland ’51 (left) with his daughter Elizabeth Outland Branner, director of Law School Advancement, and Ted Ritter ’73 (far right) with his daughter Cassie Ritter Hunt ’01A, director of advancement services.

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The Class of ’93, from l. to r.: Lynn Watson Neumann, her husband Dan, Sally Broatch Waudby and Ames Bowman Shea.

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The Road Less Traveled

by E mma M illon

Amy Balfour in the Bahamas doing research for her next travel guide on the Caribbean. She explained, “I’m standing on, or very close to, the Tropic of Cancer, which runs across this beach. This is also the spot where the cast and crew of the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies would load gear onto boats before sailing south to film on an isolated cay.”

Amy Balfour’s pocket‑sized guidebook highlights the best experiences, sights and neighborhoods in LA. Balfour will have you sitting under the Hogwarts Sorting Hat on the Warner Brothers Studio tour or eating pumpkin‑spice pancakes on the sunny patio at Uncle Bill’s, while enjoying the ocean view.

“I want visitors to have as much fun using the book as I had writing it,” said Balfour. “During one particularly memorable day of research, I pondered dead mice on toast at the Museum of Jurassic Technology, got spooked wandering gothic patios at Greystone Mansion, then capped it off with cocktails at the Polo Lounge, where a still‑tanned George Hamilton held court in a booth just behind me.

All in all, a good day.”

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Amy Balfour ’89A, ’93 , author of The Lonely Planet Los Angeles Encounter, is accustomed to paving the way. A member of the first female undergraduate class at W&L (her father is The Hon. Dan Balfour ’63A,’65 ), she described one of her first stories as a freelance writer. “I did [a solo hike] to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite.

The last 600 feet you have to pull yourself up the side of the dome while clutching steel chains. It’s the scariest thing ever, and I totally recommend it.”

Balfour’s start as a freelancer began after her law career was well underway. “I practiced law for a few years and then took a screenwriting class at the University of Richmond, and really fell in love with writing,” she said. As a trans‑ plant to Southern California, Balfour found her life often intersecting with Hollywood, a place where “everyone is there working their angle.

They want to direct, they want to write, and you’re not always sure of their motives.” The constant presence of A‑listers and sort‑of familiar faces can create confusion as well. “The reality stars were all over my neighborhood. You think, ‘Oh, did I know that person from high school?’

But then you realize that he’s the runner‑up from ‘Survivor’.”

She worked as a writer’s assistant on “Law and Order,” but found her niche as a travel writ‑ W & L

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er. After her Yosemite trip, her successive assign‑ ments included documenting a triathlon relay in Malibu and researching and writing the Bahamas chapter of the Lonely Planet Caribbean guide‑ book. Her task of narrowing down the 700 Bahamian Islands to six in five weeks, despite the bronzed glow she acquired, was anything but a daiquiri‑drinking vacation. “I tried to get from Grand Bahama to the Abacos, and when I got to the very end of the island, a bunch of us were lined up for the return ferry. It turned out to be one guy’s boat that only held 20 people, and it looked like it was going to sink. You know how you get into a situation and can’t get back? Let’s just say I was the last person on board and one of the first ones off.”

She cites Bill Bryson, Elizabeth Gilbert and David Sedaris among the writers she admires.

“A lot of it has to do with the author’s voice.

Bill Bryson just walks down the Appalachian Trail, but he makes it hilarious and informative.

Sedaris finds problems that everyone can identi‑ fy with and makes himself the brunt of the joke, so readers identify with the author.” When asked where she sees herself in a few years, she mused, “I’d like to do some sort of humorous travel book. Maybe a twisted Eat, Pray, Love. Drink, Curse, Puke? Something a little more indicative of life on the road.”

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1967 D. Culver Smith III (’64A)

joined the firm of Fox Rothchild L.L.P. as a partner in the litigation department of the firm’s West Palm Beach, Fla., office. He is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and serves on its legal ethics and professional‑ ism committee.

Ronald J. Bacigal received

the 2008 Harry L. Carrico Professionalism Award, rec‑ ognizing his contributions to improving the criminal justice system in Virginia.

Bacigal is a professor of law at the University of Richmond School of Law.

1968 Larry E. Hepler is a fellow

of the American College of Trial Lawyers, one of the premier legal associations in America. His induction cer‑ emony took place before an audience of approximately 730 during the 2007 annual meeting in Denver. He was recognized as one of 10 lead‑ ing lawyers in downstate Illinois by Leading Lawyers Network Magazine. He is a partner in the firm of Hepler, Broom, MacDonald, Hebrank, True & Noce L.L.C. and has been practicing for more than 30 years. He lives in Edwardsville, Ill.

1969 Peter M. Van Dine (’71A)

marked his 30th year with PNC Wealth Management as a senior trust advisor in Doylestown, Pa., where he also operates a choose-and-cut Christmas tree farm. His wife, Becky, serves as development director for Vita Education Services, a non-profit agency in Bucks County that teaches literacy and decision-making skills. They welcomed their first grandchild, Addison Jette Pollard, daughter of Ami Van Dine and her husband, Christopher Pollard, born on Aug. 2, 2007. Ami is earning her graduate degree in speech

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pathology, and Van Dine’s son, Jonathan, is a graphic designer for Abercrombie & Fitch in Columbus, Ohio.

1972 John A. Wolf (’69A) was selected for the Maryland Super Lawyers 2008 issue. He focuses on construction surety for Ober/Kaler in its Baltimore office.

1973 J. Jeffries Miles was named a

Best of the Best USA Lawyer

by Expert Guides to the Leading U.S. Lawyers 2007.

He works in the healthcare section for Ober/Kaler and lives in Alexandria.

N o t e s The Hon. John P. Miller

was named judge in charge of the criminal division for Baltimore’s circuit court. For the past five years, he served as the judge in charge of the misdemeanor jury trial docket and as a member of the courts management committee.

1974 James M. Costan joined the

public law and policy strate‑ gies practice of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal L.L.P. The group focuses on energy-related regulation, litigation, transactions and public policy. He lives in Washington.

Law and Literature Weekend October 17-18, 2008 In its 16th year, the Law and Literature Seminar will turn to another American classic, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

Perhaps the most lyrical and elo‑ quent of all the great American novels, The Great Gatsby focuses on the powerful tension between limitless desire and inherently limited human beings.

At its heart is the mysterious, charismatic fig‑ ure of Jay Gatsby, who seems to reach the pin‑ nacle of American success but at a tremendous cost.

Fitzgerald’s great novel of the Jazz Age delves into the difference between the ethical and the unethical, the legal and the criminal, the accepted social world and the rejected criminal underworld. Ultimately, this deeply moral novel seeks to explore the ele‑ ments in our nature that lead us to cross the line of what society can allow and what it must curtail— that is, the very essence of law. Fitzgerald asks us to ponder the hazards of misbegotten dreams, the corrupting influence of wealth and social standing pursued at whatever cost, and the tragic inevitability of a collision between illusion and reality.

As a bonus to practicing attorneys, the program will again seek approval for two hours of Continuing Legal Education ethics credit. The program is open to anyone interested in law and literature.

For more information, please call the Office of Special programs at spclprog@wlu.edu or (540) 458-8723.

1975 David S. De Jong was named

to CPA Magazine’s Top 50 IRS representation practitioners, as featured in the April/May 2008 issue. He is a partner at Stein Sperling and lives in Rockville, Md. W. Henry Jernigan Jr. (’72A) was included in The

Best Lawyers in America 2008.

He works in the Charleston, W.Va., office of Dinsmore & Shohl L.L.P. M. Pierce Rucker II was

elected to a one-year term as president of the law firm of Sands Anderson Marks & Miller. He lives in Richmond.

1977 Theodore D. Grosser was

included in The Best Lawyers in America 2008 in the areas of corporate and mergers and acquisitions law, to and Ohio Super Lawyers 2008. He works for Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur in its Cincinnati office.

Jeffrey W. Morris was

included in Ohio Super Lawyers 2008. He is an attorney in the Dayton office of Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, where his focus includes bankruptcy and commercial law.

1979 Samuel A. Nolen was elect‑

ed chair of Lex Mundi by the organization’s board of direc‑ tors. Lex Mundi is an associa‑ tion of independent law firms, representing 20,000 attorneys worldwide. He is a director of Richards, Layton & Finger and lives in Wilmington, Del. Stuart B. Nibley (’75A)

changed firms and joined Dickstein Shapiro L.L.P in Washington. He works in the firm’s government contracts practice and will focus on both counseling and dispute resolution on behalf of gov‑ ernment contractors. Nibley lives in Chevy Chase, Md.

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H a l low e d H a l l s

On Dec. 4, 2007, W&L alumni posed for a photo after their Supreme Court admission ceremony.

From left to right: Dave Baker ’87, Ryan Snow ’ 01, Brian Robinson ’03, Neal Robinson, Bob Woofter ’85, Todd Gaynor ’01, Peter Broadbent ’02, Tom Robinett ’70A, ’75, Dean Rod Smolla, Jim Osick ’80, Phil Hinerman ’79, Lawrence McClafferty ’94, Eddie Neufville ’03, Jon Spear ’96.

Peter G. Strasser spent a month living in Baku, Azerbaijan.

1981 Thomas McN. Millhiser and

his wife, Shelly, are happy that their middle son, Neil, will be joining the ranks of 1Ls at W&L in the fall of 2008. Tom was also appointed chairman of the board of trustees of The Hill School, in Pottstown, Pa. James H. Neale was

included in New York Super Lawyers in intellectual prop‑ erty litigation. He is a part‑ ner at Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. and lives in Yorktown Heights, N.Y.

1982 The Rev. Joseph N. Davis

is the rector of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, a traditional parish in north Franklin, Tenn. He is married to Cindy Hill, and they have two sons at Montgomery Bell Academy, Paschall, a junior, and Maclin, an eighth grader.

He said, “I got a lot of good out of my law school experi‑ ence. The intellectual train‑ 32

ing has been a great help to me in my life as a pastor and participant in the counsels of the church. Also, Dean Schildt and Uncas McThenia ’58A, ’63 actually helped me discern my vocation to the priesthood, though they prob‑ ably never knew it.”

1983 Franck G. Wobst was included in Ohio Super Lawyers 2008. He is a partner in the Columbus, Ohio, office of Porter Wright Morris & Arthur and focuses on state and federal employment law.

1986 Martha P. Boyd joined

the board of trustees for the Mission Healthcare Foundation, which serves as the fund-raising arm for Mission Hospitals and Mission Children’s Hospital in Asheville, N.C. She works as the vice president, general counsel and secretary of Volvo Construction Equipment North America Inc.

1987 David N. Baker is a member

of Duane Morris L.L.P and

is a managing director of the Atlanta office’s government affairs group.

1988 Cara Lee Macdonald

works for Macdonald Legal Placement in San Francisco.

Christopher J. O’Brien is on the University of Buffalo’s local governing council. He is a principal in the law firm of O’Brien Boyd and handles personal injury cases, securing multimillion dollar verdicts and settlements.

1989 J. Patrick Darby is a fel‑

low in the American College of Bankruptcy, an honorary association of bankruptcy and insolvency professionals. He is a partner at Bradley Arant Rose & White L.L.P. and an adjunct professor at the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University.

Jonathan Wall practices law

in Greensboro, N.C., and has two children, Caroline, 11, and Aubrey, 5. He is helping to establish a law school at Elon University.

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1990 Timothy A. Hodge Jr. was

appointed to the Maryland Economic Development Commission. He joined Miles & Stockbridge P.C. as a part‑ ner. The firm specializes in general corporate matters, acquisition, disposition and financing strategies and trans‑ actions, intellectual property issues and business disputes.

He lives in Baltimore.

1992 David M. Giles is deputy

general counsel for The E.W. Scripps Co. He was named associate general counsel in 2004, after 10 years as an associate with the law firm of Baker & Hostetler. While with the firm, he represented FOX Television and Granite Broadcasting Co. Clark H. Worthy accepted a

new position at Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore L.L.P. in Roanoke.

1993 Monika Jaensson Hussell and her husband, John F. Hussell ’94 , were both

included in The Best Lawyers M a g a z i n e

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Shoe Fits

In America 2008. They work for the Charleston, W.Va., office of Dinsmore & Shohl L.L.P. Joel M. Overton Jr. is senior

vice president and general counsel for the Billingsley Co. in Carrollton, Texas.

William R. Priest joined the health care law firm of Stewart Stimmel L.L.P. as a partner. He lives in Plano, Texas.

Michael S. Roe was pro‑

moted to senior group counsel at Ashland Inc., a global chemical company, assuming responsibility for all litigation matters. He lives in Cincinnati.

1994 Kimberly A. Hausbeck

spent her summer in Nepal teaching English to Buddhist nuns and trekking in the Himalayas. She is an assis‑ tant professor of law at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

1995 George H. Bowles joined

Williams Mullen as a partner.

The corporation has offices in North Carolina, Virginia, Washington and London. He lives in Virginia Beach.

John M. Oakey III is the director and assistant gen‑ eral counsel for securities for Circuit City Stores Inc. He lives in Richmond.

William M. Toles (’92A)

was a cluster facilitator at a weeklong leadership program for college students (www. leadershape.com) outside Champaign, Ill. He works for Stradley & Wright in Dallas.

Andrea K. Wahlquist was named a partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett L.L.P. in its executive compensa‑ tion and employee benefits group, in New York City. She was named as a 2007 Super Lawyer by Law & Politics.

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by E mma M illon

Two facts to consider: At least 10 percent of American adults have feet of different sizes, signifi‑ cant enough that they must buy two different‑sized pairs of shoes. The average D.C. traveler, according to the 2007 Urban Mobility Report, sat through more than 127 million hours of delays at a cost of $1,094 per rush-hour traveler and wasted more than 91 mil‑ lion gallons of fuel.

Kent Basson Kent Basson ’01 has ’01 is a patent lawyer at the pondered these tidbits of Washington information and offers solu‑ office of Morgan, Lewis tions to both on his Web & Bockius L.L.P. sites, oddshoefinder.com and mycasualcarpool.com.

“I have a lot of ideas, to tailor his to similarly located commuters. but I say that they must not be that good if “There are so many places where you have someone else hasn’t done it yet,” he joked. one main employer and people from the But necessity is often the mother of invention. same subdivisions working there.” His Web “My sister, Nancy, suffered a foot injury a few site allows a user to set up a park‑and‑ride years ago that resulted in her having to wear lot for that user’s commute from a residential two different-sized shoes, so I looked on the neighborhood to an industrial facility, office Internet to see what shoe options were out complex or a group of businesses in the same there for her, but didn’t find that much.” But area. Basson pointed out that “traffic flow is Basson did discover that more people have so much better even if you just reduce the different‑sized feet than one would think. number of cars by 10 percent.” There are “There are a lot of polio survivors who have additional benefits, too. “Riders save money feet that are several sizes apart. So folks who on gas and parking, they can rest on the way have bought two pairs of shoes—and like me to and from work, drivers’ expenses are off‑ hold on to everything—have closets full of set and both riders and drivers get to know mismatched shoes.” co‑workers in their neighborhoods.”

In October 2007, Basson started oddshoe Although Basson noted, “I’ll probably finder.com. Its simple mission is to help people have to remain a lawyer to support my Web with one foot bigger than the other save sites,” his brain continues to imagine new money. His Web site makes it easy for people possibilities. “I have another carpool Web like his sister to buy one shoe at a time and site, rideshareoptimizer.com, that is in the works sell their own leftover shoes. for people making single trips or who want The experience led to Basson’s second to find their optimal carpool partner based Web site, mycasualcarpool.com. “My sister on lowest travel times and distances,” he was driving 60 miles each way to work and said. “I’m really thinking college campuses would see the same cars on the interstate,” would be the next best place to promote he said. Since the Internet already offers ride‑sharing opportunities.” many ride‑sharing Web sites, Basson decided

33

L a w She specializes in executive compensation and benefits matters in leveraged buyout transactions and strategic mergers and acquisitions.

1996 Eric T. Chaffin joined

Bernstein Liebhard & Lifshitz L.L.P. He focuses on securities litigation and phar‑ maceutical and health carerelated litigation on behalf of individual and health and welfare fund clients. He lives in Rye, N.Y.

1997 Maria A. Feeley received the

F. Sean Peretta Service Award from the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division for her contributions to the local community. She is a partner with Pepper Hamilton L.L.P. and is a newly elected member of the Philadelphia Bar’s board of governors.

Derek A. Poteet joined

the National Right to Work Foundation, where he will work with Ray LaJeunesse ’67, vice president and legal

N o t e s director. Poteet will help build on the foundation’s successful litigation record for union-abused workers. A Marine Corps reservist, he recently concluded a tour of duty in Iraq. He serves as a judge advocate for the Marines.

1998

C. Cooper Youell IV estab‑ lished the firm of Whitlow & Youell P.L.C. in Roanoke.

1999 Brian S. Clarke is vice

chair of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Section. He works for Littler Mendelson in Charlotte, N.C.

Christy A. Ames joined

the Louisville, Ky., office of Stites & Harbison. Her prac‑ tice will focus on residential mortgage litigation.

Sandra Ingram Speakman

was named general coun‑ sel of the State of Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs. She serves as the legal

An American in Paris During their six-month stay in France, Mark Cobb ’91 (left) and his wife, Dorothy, had dinner with Philippe Labro ’58A, author of “The Foreign Student.”

We began with an intensive language program for a month on the coast between Monaco and Nice. Then, we had an apartment in Paris. It was an exciting time to be in France, as President Sarkozy is making some tremen‑ dous changes in the country, and the people’s reactions to these efforts (as well as their comments on the American presidential race) are quite animated.

A highlight of the trip was celebrating Thanksgiving in the countryside and introducing new friends to American recipes for turkey, dressing, pumpkin rolls and sweet potatoes—they supplied a fresh bird from a farm one mile away. We gave up the apartment just before

Christmas, and Dorothy’s brother, Paul Spencer ’00A, joined us in Vienna for the holiday. The trip ended on a high note in Budapest, loudly ringing in the new year!

We knew that Philippe Labro was noted at W&L, but we had no idea that he was so important and wellknown in France until we met him this past December.

We spoke at length about French politics, as well as his latest book (his most successful to date), which is a mem‑ oir of his depression. He was very charming, and he made us feel like celebrities as others in the restaurant kept staring at us and wondering who we were.

—Mark Cobb ’91

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All The World’s a Stage

Scene One: You find yourself on the couch, Bridget Jones style, crying your eyes out. You just got dumped. And you’re not too happy about it. In fact, you’re borderline suicidal.

This is how Andrea Coleman ’03 opened her sec‑ ond production, “A Funny Thing Happened After My Break‑Up,” produced through the Manhattan Repertory Theatre. “At the time I was going through a break‑up,” she explained. “Not much of what happens to the character happened to me, I wasn’t suicidal and God didn't appear in human form behind my couch. But I thought, ‘How could I make this more dramatic?’ ”

So she applied her knack for finding the subtle line between dramatic despondency and dry humor with her talent for comic relief to the universal theme of relation‑ ships. The play turns from crisis to comic when God appears in her apartment. “The character says, ‘Oh my God, it’s God.’ They have a conversation, and he convinces her to stick around a little bit longer.”

Coleman has been performing since junior high school and continued as a law student at W&L. “I moved to New York a few years ago because I wanted to pursue act‑ ing more professionally. While I was auditioning for other people's plays and films I thought, ‘I can write better than

adviser to the commissioner and the State Board of Veterans Affairs. She lives in Auburn with her husband, Steven ’99.

2000 Michael G. Abelow is an

associate at Sherrard & Roe P.L.C. in the firm’s litiga‑ tion group. Previously, he was an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission in Washington.

Paige Barns McThenia was

named to the district court bench in the 26th Judicial District in Mecklenburg County in North Carolina.

Previously, she served as an assistant district attorney, handling an array of criminal prosecutions, and as a private practitioner in North Carolina and Virginia, handling both complex civil matters and basic contractual disputes.

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2001 Brett N. Anderson joined

the firm of Blackburn & Stoll L.C. in Salt Lake City, Utah.

2005 Lt. Michael W. Bloomrose

is a member of the Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps and volunteered for a six-month deployment as an individual augmentee to Iraq.

He worked at Task Force 134, which acts as a liaison with the Iraqi criminal court system. His wife, Melissa, lives in Groton, Conn., where she is working on her master’s degree in elementary educa‑ tion at Eastern Connecticut State University.

2006 Tamara L. Graham started

a new position at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker.

She lives in Washington.

this.’ ” So she wrote “A Funny Thing” because “I wanted some good material.”

The show closed in 2007, and Coleman has several new productions in the works. One incorporates her legal background. “I’m writing a show that’s about my experience with the bar exam and studying for it,” she said.

Her law background gives her plenty of material to work with, but it also prepared her for the stage. “[In law] you have no idea what to expect.

You go into court thinking you are going to argue one motion, but something else turns up and you have to deal with it right there.” Keeping her cool under pressure has come in handy during her stand‑up comedy routines. “I remember watching Jerry Seinfeld, whose work I love, and sometimes he would tell a joke and the audience wouldn't get it. But he would just go on to the next one. Jokes some‑ times fall flat, even for Jerry.”

Nonetheless, she’s doing her best to make them laugh.

“I write a lot of jokes about being a lawyer. You want to write about the things that make you different. There aren’t that many comics who are also attorneys.”

— Emma Millon Lauren E. Troxclair is an

associate in the real estate capital markets group at Goodwin Procter L.L.P. in the firm’s New York office.

2007 Pamela L. Brinker

is employed with the Department of Labor Office of Administrative Law Judges in Washington.

Beth A. Gostlin is a staff attorney for Mountain States Legal Foundation in Lakewood, Colo.

Steven D. Hardgrave

joined the Charlotte, N.C., office of Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein L.L.P. Andrew M. Howard joined the trial practice in the Dallas office of Gardere Wynne Sewell L.L.P.

M arriage S The Hon. Lacey Putney ’57 (’50A) to Carmela Bills

in June 2007 at the Virginia Capitol in Richmond. The couple reside in Bedford, Va. Damien P. DeLaney ’03 to Kara McDonald ’02 on Oct.

13, 2007, at the historic Stow House in Goleta, Calif. The Hon. John M. Rogers, circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, officiated. Damien is an associate with Akin Gump, and Kara is an associate with Irell Manella, both in Los Angeles. W&L alumni in attendance included Jacob E. Comer ’03, Nancy L Kwon ’03, W&L Professor Theodore C. DeLaney ’85A and Trevor Stockinger ’97A.

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Left: Robert D. Holborn II ’06 to Natasha Voevodkin on Sept. 17, 2007, in Paris, France.

Following a ceremony in Montmarte, the couple and their guests took a bus tour around the city before the reception at the Maison de l’Amerique Latine. Guests came from Florida, New York, Moscow, Paris and the Republic of Georgia. They live in Orlando, Fla., with their dog, Abby.

where Nick teaches at the St. Marks School of Texas, and Lindsey is an attorney at Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P.

Above: Christopher Price ’07 (’01A) to Lenore A. Stubenhaus on Aug. 18, 2007, in Andover, Mass. Best man was Hugh Rabb ’01A and the ushers included Dru Rassmussen ’01A and Robert Rivers-Benaicha ’07. Lenore is an investment consultant with Cambridge Associates in Arlington, Va., while Chris is an associate at the law firm of Holland and Knight in Washington.

May 13, 2007, at R.E. Lee Memorial Episcopal Church in Lexington. Diana Grimes ’07 was the maid of honor. The couple live in Decatur, Ga.

11, 2004, in Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan, and adopted April 5, 2007. Liam joins sister Caroline, 11, and two furry siblings, Murphy and Daisy. They live in a big yel‑ low house in sunny San Jose, Calif., where she freelances part-time for her former law firm in Washington, edits books on law and politics and enjoys the beautiful weather.

Lindsey Duran ’06 (’03A) to Nicholas Sberna ’02A

Birthsbirths

M. Lucille Anderson ’98 (’89A) and her husband,

on June 16, 2007, in Lee Chapel. More than 40 alumni attended, and W&L mem‑ bers of the wedding party included Jane Ledlie ’03A,’08, Jenny Thomas ’03A, Avery Teichman ’03A, Emily Sberna ’07A, Annalee Morris ’06, Ashley Pearson ’06, Lauren Troxclair ’06, Douglas Sberna ’11A, Brent Keene ’02A, Jeffrey Powell ’02A, Jeffrey Bahl ’02A and Park Gilmore ’62A. They live in Dallas,

Mr. and Mrs. Neil J. Welch Jr. ’82 (’79A) adopted a son,

Nicole S. Neuman ’04 to Brian Wilberg ’05

in September 2007, in Washington. Susan Gibbons Parrett ’04 was the matron of honor. The guests included Karen Sykora Morrison ’04, Rob Dietz ’04, Shawn Bone ’05, David Powell ’05, Caitlin Mitchel ’05, Kelly Behre ’05, Bill Braxton ’05, Greer Smith ’05A, Chris Vrettos ’05 and Ben Danforth ’05.

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Joanna C. Dubus ’07 to Jason Rogers ’05 on

Emmanuel John, on Jan. 24, 2008. He was born on Dec. 28, 2006, in Guatemala. He is adjusting well to his new life and is very excited about his new sisters, Kate, 17, and, Maddie, 13. The family live in Chantilly, Va.

Jeff, a son, Edward Leland, on Nov. 8, 2007. They live in Houston.

They live in Charleston, W.Va. Jeanne-Marie Raymond Burke ’97 and her husband,

William, a son, James, on Nov. 20, 2007. The family live in Oakton, Va. Mr. and Mrs. Aaron L. Dettling ’97 , a son, James

Gadsby, on Sept. 21, 2007.

They live in Birmingham, Ala. Tracy Taylor Hague ’97

and her husband, Travis, a daughter, Emily Lynn, on Aug. 2, 2007. The family live in Chesterfield, Va.

Michelle Glover Foy ’96

and her husband, Ron, a son, Ronan Emmett, on Oct. 12, 2007. He joins sister Ava and brother Race. They live in Mason Neck, Va.

Mary M. Cassidy ’85 and

Mr. and Mrs. Rob J. Aliff ’97 (’91A) , a son, Wilkes

her husband, Kevin, a son, Liam Daniel, born on Dec.

Franklin, on Sept. 26, 2007.

He joins sister Meredith.

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Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. Zechini ’97 , a daughter, Jane

Gray, on May 1, 2007. She is under the constant, watchful eye of her brother, Leo. The family live in Raleigh, where Zechini leads the government affairs department for the North Carolina Association of Realtors.

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The Hon. Hiram Emory Widener Jr. ’53, longestserving active United States Court of Appeals judge in the nation and an adjunct faculty member, died Sept. 19, 2007.

Widener attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute and then entered the U.S. Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1944. He served in the Philippines and Okinawa during World War II and the Persian Gulf dur‑ ing the Korean War. He received the Bronze Star with Combat V. At W&L, he was inducted into the Order of the Coif, wrote for the W&L Law Review and belonged to Phi Alpha Delta.

He entered legal practice in Bristol, Va., and then served as a U.S. Commissioner for the Western District

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of Virginia from 1963-66, as well as chairman of the Republican Party, Ninth District. In 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed him district judge for the Western District of Virginia, and in 1972, appointed him as circuit judge. Widener was a member of the Virginia Election Laws Study Commission and the American Law Institute and was a trustee of Virginia Intermont College.

He was an adjunct professor at Southern Seminary and Junior College and the law schools of the University of Texas, W&L and the College of William and Mary.

Judge Widener is survived by his daughter and her husband, Molly Widener Thompson ’03 and Glenn Thompson ’03; his son, Hiram Emory Widener III; and a nephew and niece.

Jaime King Tyler ’01 and

Mr. and Mrs. William O. L. Hutchinson ’99 (’96A) ,

Jennifer Griffin Anstaett ’01 and her husband, Patrick,

a son, William Madison, on Aug. 11, 2007. The family live in Charlotte, N.C.

a son, Marshall Benjamin, on May 25, 2007. The family live in Fort Thomas, Ky.

her husband, Nathaniel ’01, a son, Nathaniel Price Jr., on May 14, 2007. They live in Norfolk, Va.

Meredith Guthrie Maxwell ’01 and her husband, John, a

Krista Lindsey Willim ’03 (’95A) and her husband, John,

son, Stone, on April 23, 2007.

He joins sister Madeleine, born on Aug. 25, 2005. The family live in Philidelphia.

a daughter, Avery Wright, on Oct. 25, 2007. They live in St. Augustine, Fla.

Mr. and Mrs. James L. Thornton ’01 , a son, James

obituaries Obits

commander. He worked in the insurance industry until his retirement in 1983. He belonged to Kappa Sigma.

Guillermo Moscoso Jr. ’40 ,

Alix K. Robinson ’00 and Robert Robinson ’00 , a

son, Graham Newsom, on March 7, 2007. Graham joins brother Clemens, who turned 3 in May. The family live in Georgetown, Del. Christopher B. Wick ’00 (’97A) and Jennifer Buckey Wick ’01L (’98A) , a daughter,

Piper Chandler, on Sept. 21, 2007.

Aubrey, on March 10, 2007.

They moved to Decatur, Ga., where Thorton works for McKenna Long & Aldridge.

James D. Finley II ’35 , of

Virginia Beach, died on Nov. 28, 2007. He served in the Coast Guard Reserve and was discharged as a lieutenant

of San Juan, Puerto Rico, died on Jan. 29. He served in the Army for five years.

He is the former president of Inter America Consultants Inc. Moscoso belonged to Phi Gamma Delta.

The Hon. J. Aubrey Matthews ’48 (‘42A) of

Marion, Va., died on Oct. 18, 2007. He served in the Navy in the South Pacific during World War II. He practiced general

Fullbright Fulbright Scholar

Phylissa Mitchell ’01, who spent the 2007-08 academic year as a vis‑ iting assistant professor with W&L’s journalism department, has been awarded a Fulbright to teach at a university in Ukraine. The exact institu‑ tion has yet to be announced. Mitchell will teach a comparative course on free-press constitutional guarantees, focusing on broadcast writing and public affairs.

She said that the recurring question of whether freedom exists if there is no one there to freely report it has always fascinated her. “After all, the world knows about the Orange Revolution in 2004 because Ukrainian reporters utilized the Internet to inform its people and the world about that tainted election. Because people were informed, they were outraged.

Because they were outraged, they gathered. And because they gathered, the power structure was forced to concede.”

Mitchell is a newsroom veteran, having worked for ABC, NBC, CBS and KCTS-TV, as well as the PBS affiliate in Seattle.

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N o t e s law in Marion until his appoint‑ ment to the 28th Circuit Court bench, where he worked until his retirement in 1986. He belonged to Kappa Sigma.

The Hon. Howard M. Fender ’48 , of Fort Worth,

Texas, died on Jan. 26. He piloted 65 missions for the Army Air Forces during World War II and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross.

His career was dedicated to public service in the court system, and he worked as a senior judge until several years ago. Fender belonged to Kappa Sigma.

M. Harrison Joyce ’50 , of

When I arrived in Lexington in September 1954, Earl N. Levitt was well established in his little bandbox of a store on West Nelson Street, just next to The Corner, or Doc’s.

Having attended a military school, I found my civilian wardrobe was not up to St. Grottlesex standards, so after the first obligatory visit to Pres Brown’s for phys ed gear, the next stop was Earl N’s. It was the first of many over the next six years, and I had the pleasure of working in the store for almost five of those years.

In those simpler days, Earl would spend a lot of time with students going to Europe in the summer—obviously with a view to selling a wash ’n’ wear Haspel cord suit or two. “Just wash it in the shower and let it drip dry,” he’d tell them. For most of my tenure, the dressing room was just the back room, and we clerks measured, merchandised, did the windows and swept the sidewalk—all in coat and tie.

There were items for women—six-foot scarves and smaller-sized Shetland sweaters, direct from Scotland.

We had military items for VMI faculty. Earl had a store in Richmond, and the two stores would trade items via Greyhound—some of the boxes should have earned fre‑ quent travel miles.

One of my duties was to distribute paper matchbooks to each fraternity house before big weekends—don’t just put the box out, spread them out on the table. Earl died not too long ago, a true gentleman of W&L, and I can say that I learned as much working for him as I did in most of my classes, a statement with which some of my professors would no doubt agree. Back in the day, the “Best Dressed Men did see Earl.”

—Tom O ’Brien ’58A, ’60 38

Martinsville, Va., died on Dec. 19, 2007. He served in the Coast Guard during World War II and volunteered for Habitat for Humanity. He was a partner in the law firm of Stone, Joyce and Worthy. He belonged to Pi Kappa Alpha.

William J. Ledbetter ’50 , of Montecito, Calif., died on Sept. 21, 2007. He served in

the Naval Reserves during World War II and went on to have a successful career as a corporate attorney. He later became the vice president of finance for Textron Inc., retir‑ ing in 1989 as senior execu‑ tive vice president. He was involved in many charitable and civic activities, including serving as vice chairman of the board for Roger Williams Hospital and fund-raising for United Way, the Red Cross and others.

Ray S. Smith Jr. ’50 , of Hot

Springs, Ark., died on Nov. 1, 2007. He served in the Army Air Corps and in the Arkansas legislature. On Aug. 27, 1958, he cast the sole vote against giving Gov. Orval Faubus the power to close public schools rather than integrate.

President Bill Clinton called Smith “a brilliant lawyer, a masterful legislator and a very good man.” He served on the National Park Community College board of trustees. He belonged to Kappa Alpha.

The Hon. Jack B. Coulter ’49, former vice presi‑ dent of the Law Council and a member of ODK, died Sept. 13, 2007. A retired judge and attorney who prac‑ ticed law in the Roanoke Valley for 58 years, Coulter was 83 years old.

While in the Navy during World War II, Coulter witnessed the Bikini atomic bomb testing and was at Tokyo Bay during the Japanese surrender. He gradu‑ ated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946, became a civil trial lawyer in 1949 and was named a judge in 1973.

In 1985, he was named chief judge of the 23rd Circuit, which includes Roanoke, Salem and Roanoke County.

He also was a member of the Roanoke School Board from 1964 to 1969.

Coulter retired from the judgeship in 1989, but remained active in Roanoke civic groups and in legal circles. As chair of the Roanoke Valley War Memorial Committee, he was the driving force behind the erection of the Lee Plaza War Memorial. He also persuaded the Roanoke City Council to hang flags at the memorial on holidays, particularly Flag Day and Independence Day.

He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Jeanne; their children, David, Philip and Kathy; and seven grandchildren.

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Blackstone, Va., died on Nov. 5, 2007. He served in the Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater with the First Marine Division. He served as a law‑ yer in Blackstone for 50 years, as commonwealth’s attorney and as a special prosecutor in the 11th Judicial Circuit.

Raymond D. Coates ’53 (‘50A) , of Berlin, Md., died

on Jan. 27. He served as the state’s and county attorney for Worcester County and worked with his three sons and two daughters-in-law at the firm of Coates, Coates & Coates P.A. He founded the Berlin Little League and helped return organized football to the county. In 1996 the town of Berlin honored him for his

work with local sports pro‑ grams. Coates belonged to Phi Kappa Sigma.

Clifford F. Malley II ’54 , of

Parkersburg, W.Va., died on Oct. 3, 2004.

John S. Moremen ’57 ,

of Louisville, Ky., died on March 1. He served in the Marine Corps and earned three battle stars. He worked as an attorney for the Brown-Forman Corp. until his retirement as senior vice president, secretary and general counsel in 1989. He was director and treasurer of both the Filson Historical Society and the Louisville Ballet. He belonged to Beta Theta Pi.

Virginia Bumgardner Garrison ’75, of Staunton, Va., died Dec. 22, 2007. She was a mem‑ ber of the first class of women to graduate from the School of Law and served on the Law Council and the Alumni Board. She practiced in her father’s firm and later formed Garrison Law Offices with her son, Alan ’88. She was a member of the City of Staunton School Board and an officer and board member of the S.P.C.A. She sat on the board of directors of SunTrust Bank.

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New Law Council Members Eric A. Anderson ’82 is a managing director of Credit Suisse First Boston and U.S. head of real estate investment banking, based in New York. He joined CSFB in 2000, when the firm merged with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, where he was a managing director and co-head of DLJ’s U.S. real estate group.

Anderson was with Paine Webber Inc. and Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. Betsy Callicott Goodell ’80 previ‑ ously worked for Sutherland, Asbill and Brennan and later Delta Airlines Inc. She and her husband, Bill ’80, established the Jack Callicott ’49A Honor Scholarship in honor of her father on the occasion of his 50th class reunion. They donated funds to name a classroom in Lewis Hall. She has served on the Parents Council, as chair of the Law Annual Fund and as a Class Agent.

Nathan V. “Pete” Hendricks ’66A, ’69 is a sole practitioner in Atlanta, specializing in the areas of land use, zoning and govern‑ ment permitting. He serves as a consultant and advisor to private sector developers and governmental entities, having most recently assisted in the areas of zoning and planning in the formation of the newly created cities in the metro-Atlanta area.

A. J. “John” Huss ’65 recently retired as chairman of the board of The First National Bank Hudson (Wis.). Previously, he served as assistant general counsel for Horner Waldorf Corp. in Saint Paul, Minn., before entering the banking industry in 1977. He serves on the board of trustees of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Lake Forest Academy in Lake Forest, Ill.

Looking for photos of your W&L law graduate?

Easily review and order the photos and sizes you want online at photostore.wlu.edu.

Questions? Call (540) 458-4040.

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Lesley Schless ’80 is of counsel with Day Pitney L.L.P., practicing in the firm’s trusts and estates group in the Greenwich, Conn., office. She clerked for Judge James Holden, U.S. District Court in Vermont, and worked in private practice with Duane Morris in Philadelphia, Williams Worrell in Norfolk and McGuire Woods in Richmond. She was an adjunct at T.C. Williams School of Law and worked as in-house counsel to the personal trust department of (then) Sovran Bank in Richmond.

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L a w Leslie E. White Jr. ’58 , of Richmond, died on Jan. 18, 2006.

Jerome A. Susskind ’60 , of Jackson, Mich., died on June 11, 2005. He had a long career in workman’s compensation and labor matters. He belonged to Delta Upsilon.

Samuel T. Patterson Jr. ’64 ,

of Petersburg, Va., died on Feb. 20. He served stateside in the U.S. Army for two years. He was a substitute judge in gen‑ eral district court, as well as the juvenile and domestic relations courts. He also worked as a special justice.

Peter M. de Manio ’66 , of Sarasota, Fla., died on March 20. He served in the Army and had a starring role in Disney’s

“Varda, the Peregrine Falcon.”

He founded the first rowing program in Sarasota, where he coached and mentored high school rowers for 18 years. He was a trial lawyer and mediator.

N o t e s Democratic Party of Henry County. He was a member of the adjunct faculty of Patrick Henry Community College for more than 20 years.

Jeffrey B. Lathe ’80 , of

Benjamin R. Gardner ’67 ,

of Martinsville, Va., died on Sept. 9, 2007. He served five years in the Army as an officer and military judge. With his brother, Philip ’72, he started the law firm of Gardner and Gardner in Martinsville. He was active with the Chamber of Commerce and received its highest honor for his work hosting new economic devel‑ opment prospects in the area.

He served on the board of directors for the American Red Cross, the Patrick Henry Mental Health Clinic and the

Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., died on March 8. He was a lawyer in south Florida for many years and is remem‑ bered for his sense of humor and devotion to his garden.

Stephanie W. Buonasera ’87 , of Spotsylvania, Va., died

on Dec. 16, 2007. She worked as a self-employed attorney in Spotsylvania County.

Thomas K. Kearney ’87 , of Lewes Beach, Del., died on Jan. 7. He was a partner with Abrams and Adams Inc. He

loved the water and was an avid sports fan.

Craig Allen ’97 , of Clearwater, Fla., died on Nov. 17, 2007. He was a scientific attorney for the National Science Foundation before his medical retire‑ ment in 2005.

Friends

Hope E. Laughlin died

March 26. Her late husband, Charles, was a member of the Law School faculty. She was an artist, and her work is displayed through the Law School, most notably in the hallway of the Powell Wing.

Michael Pace ’84 (left, hands clasped behind back) with VBA’s past presidents at his swearing-in ceremony.

New Virginia Bar

President The Virginia Bar Association swore in G. Michael Pace Jr. ’84 as its 108th president in January.

Pace is the managing partner of Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore in Roanoke, where he practices business law, banking and finance, commercial real estate, land use and zoning and franchising. He has served on the councils of both the VBA Business Law and Real Estate Sections and has chaired 40

the practice development com‑ mittee of the VBA Law Practice Management Division.

He was instrumental in help‑ ing establish a new externship program this semester between the W&L School of Law and Gentry Locke (see page 10).

Spending at least one day a week working as associates in the firm, W&L law students are placed in one of four practice groups (busi‑ W & L

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ness, employment, litigation and real estate) and receive actual client-related assignments from members of the practice group.

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E. Livingston Haskell ’98 was installed as chair of the VBA’s Young Lawyers Division. Haskell, who will also serve on the VBA board of governors, is general corporate counsel for Lumber Liquidators in Toano, Va. A l u m n i

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WaysTo ToGive Give Ways You

c o u l d s a y t h at

B a x t e r D av i s ’ 6 6 ,

( D a v i s , M at t h e w s & Q u i g l e y )

of

A t l a n ta ,

s ta rt e d h i s l aw f i r m

h i s f i rs t d ay o f l aw s c h o o l .

“Bill Mathews ’63A and I go back to September 1963. I sat next to him that first day of class. He transferred to the University of Texas, but he, Ron Quigley and I started our firm back in 1969. All these years later, we’re one of the few law firms with the same name and the same partners. We started with just the three of us, and now we have 25 attorneys.”

Davis grew up in the in the D.C. area and graduated, with honors, from Duke, where he met his wife, Sue. He said his decision to attend W&L was easy. “They S u e a n d B a x t e r D av i s ’ 6 6 offered me a scholarship,” he explained.

The two married at the end of his second year, and while he plowed through his third year, she taught in the local schools. “It was an interesting time to be there,” Sue Davis remembered. “We lived in married housing on Nelson Street—the military barracks—and walls were thin: you needed a space heater in the winter. None of us had any money, really nothing. But we had a lot of fun and ate a lot of hot dogs.”

As a 2L, Davis wrote for the Law Review and served as the editor in chief his final year, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.

“I got a lot of value from working on the Law Review,” he said. “As lawyers, writing is what we’re all about, and it taught me the importance of good, clear writing. I edit my partners’ work from time to time, and I still use a red pen and all the same editing symbols.”

Davis and his wife recently established the A charitable remainder unitrust pays income based on Baxter and Sue Davis Charitable Remainder a percentage of the fair market value of the trust assets as deterUnitrust, of which W&L is now a co-beneficiary. mined annually. Because a unitrust pays a variable amount of income based on the annual market value of the trust assets, this “We created the unitrust because we felt it was a form of trust fund may provide an effective hedge against inflation. good way to give to the beneficiary of our choice.

When the value of the trust principal increases, so will the donor’s Under the current revenue code, we were able income. Unitrusts may receive additional gifts during the donor’s to establish a good rate of return that guarantees lifetime or as a testamentary transfer through the donor’s will. us an income. We felt good about it.”

Upon the death of the last surviving beneficiary or at the end of Sue Davis added, “We felt that it was the fixed term, the School of Law will receive the principal being important to give to the church and school that held in trust. The donor may determine the use of the principal, had contributed so much to our success.” such as establishing a scholarship, professorship or lecture series.

Or the donor may leave the use to the School’s discretion.

For more information on how you can support the School of Law, please contact Elizabeth Outland Branner, director of Law School Advancement, at (540) 458-8191 or brannere@wlu.edu.

The Washington and Lee University S c h o o l O f L a w L e x i n g t o n,

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P h o t o b y K e v i n

Seth Mott ’08 and daughter Ava take advantage of a lovely spring afternoon with a little kite flying on the lawn of Lewis Hall.

R e m i n g t o n

Family Time