The Current Summer 2012 by The Appalachian School of Law

the

current

the magazine of the Appalachian School of Law Spring/Summer 2012

Forging ahead Incoming dean details next goals for ASL Also inside ASL, Wellmont illuminate health care act Remembering Blackwell, Sutin, and Dales qq A fond farewell to the Class of 2012

dean’s perspective Editor’s note: Lucy S. McGough will become the Appalachian School of Law’s eighth dean on July 1.

Louisiana State University

“Much is afoot at the Appalachian School of Law: There is great optimism about the future ... for realizing both immediate and long-term goals.”

the

have been asked if I wanted to share my vision of ASL, and I quickly agreed, though just as quickly, I want to deny any notion that my vision is any different than that held by most of you. The dean whom I most admired was Louisiana State Dean Bill Hawkland, one of the drafters of the Uniform Commercial Code and a member of the Illinois Law faculty who, some say, “defected” to deaning. Bill liked to explain that he did not dictate where the sidewalks were to be poured. Instead, he would wait to see where the paths were worn in the grass and put the walks where the walkers wanted them to be. That’s a metaphor for leadership of the collective constituencies. I spent a lot of my time in November and again in February trying to discern where the various groups – faculty, students, alumni and trustees – wanted those walks to be. I firmly believe that listening to others to divine their vision is leadership. Everyone wants for ASL to grow in all sorts of ways. We certainly want to continue to improve bar passage and create more options for graduates in their search for a professional niche. Steps have already been taken by Dean Wes Shinn, with my blessing, to hire a new Director of Admissions, Mary Ragland. In addition, though it’s hard to let Tommy Sangchompuphen go, we look forward to the arrival of Maryann Herman, who will take the reins of the Academic Success program. Empowering those who are here to become licensed professionals is a critical promise of our mission.

current

is published twice a year by the Appalachian School of Law. Send comments, questions, and alumni updates to current@asl.edu.

We are also devoting more of the budget in support of Career Services and the indefatigable Janie Castle. Before the fall, we hope to have a new software system in place to facilitate her communication with students about internship and job opportunities and to provide additional support for programs. We should also all acknowledge that the staff members provide the engine for ASL to survive and, more than that, detail a route for the realization of our aspirations. We want to enrich the possibilities for specialization for graduates. As you know, we are adding a specialty in natural resources law and all sorts of professional enhancements through the Natural Resources Center. We are so honored that Elizabeth McClanahan of the Virginia Supreme Court has agreed to direct these new initiatives. A colonial mansion, the Bunn-Richardson House, has been acquired as a home for the center and various student organizations. Plans are afoot to expand current environmental law offerings to provide specialty courses for students, a joint-degree collaboration, and several continuing legal education programs for alums and other members of the bar. This enrichment will come at no expense to the existing commitment to alternative forms of dispute resolution that we consider essential to grads’ professional development. We want to build a sturdier scaffolding for the ASL of the future by enhancing our endowments and seeking foundation support for our mission. To this end, we have hired a new Director of Development, Karen Harvey. In order to secure alumni support, we need to regard current students as “alumniin-residence.” To that end, we pledge to respond to student concerns. We also know educational debt can suffocate professional

Editor, designer: Saundra Latham Photos: Taylor Burgess unless otherwise credited; Class Notes photos courtesy of alumni; Herman mug (pg. 5) courtesy of Maryann Herman; McKechnie mug (pg. 13), Marcum mug (pg. 15) and gala/golf photos (pg. 15) by Jason McGlothlin Contributors: Lucy McGough; Saundra Latham; Stewart Harris; Sandy McGlothlin; Jina Sauls; all Class Notes submissions courtesy of alumni The Current is now online! Go to issuu.com/appalachian_school_of_law to read this issue and previous editions. tt

dean’s perspective choice. With increased endowments, we hope to hold tuition at affordable levels. With my support, in April, key faculty hosted a student-faculty forum, the first of what I hope will be a regular community meeting for the sharing of constructive complaints about present policies. I use “constructive” not in an exclusive sense of forbidding negative comments but in the positive sense of providing criticism that leads to suggestions for solutions. For example, in my experience participating in the ABA accreditation process, when the Accreditation Team meets with concerned students, invariably there are two concerns: not enough jobs are produced by the Career Services Department, and parking options are limited and lousy, given the tuition we are paying. Note that while these criticisms are real and deeply felt, they are concerns of the current student body. It’s when current students confront the larger issues of barriers to the school’s emergence as a leader in legal education and a leader in service to the underserved that we are all engaged to find long-term solutions. The most troubling comment at the forum was a student’s charge that the name and mission of ASL was a hindrance in retaining law students and in employment. That speaker had not done his/her homework. In legal education circles and major hiring markets, ASL enjoys name and mission recognition and is highly respected for its success in teaching and professional preparation. You need not worry about this

Jesse Markley ’12 speaks with incoming Dean Lucy McGough. ASL held a reception in McGough’s honor during a campus visit in February.

school’s reputation. I hope you will come along with me: ASL’s mission will not change. We will continue to seek those who have realized that they learn best under an intimate faculty-student mentoring model. We will recruit those who want to live in a stunningly beautiful small community and who think potluck dinners with faculty and staff are cool. We will support and nurture those who respond to an ideal of public service, whether within a large firm with a public service commitment or as a county attorney or public defender. These are equally life-affirming professional goals. We will support our alumni with continuing career advice about opportunities and connections: This is a lifetime partnership in the law. None of these pledges could be realized without faculty support. I

tt Externships

am amazed at the energy and commitment of these souls. On any afternoon at many law schools, tumbleweeds blow down the halls with no faculty member in sight. This ASL faculty works more hours for less pay than any faculty of whom I am aware. They actually care what happens to you beyond the end of their courses. Much is afoot at the Appalachian School of Law: There is great optimism about the future and enormous commitment for realizing both immediate and long-term goals. We hope you will recommit to this vision, which you either knowingly or unknowingly wed when you chose ASL. This law school now has 18 years of experience. We now enter the middle years. As Robert Browning said in his love poem “Rabbi Ben Ezra”: “The best is yet to be. The last for which the first was made.” n

earn recognition

ASL was named one of the top schools in the nation for externships by preLaw magazine, a national publication targeted at college students interested in going to law school. ASL, which was ranked ninth on the magazine’s list, requires all students to complete an externship after their 1L year. For six weeks, students earn three hours of academic credit by spending at least 200 hours working in a judge's chambers, public law office, or public interest organization.

Spring/Summer 2012

around campus

Wellmont Health System

Moderator David Bailey introduces panelists during a forum on health care reform cosponsored by ASL and Wellmont Health System in Bristol, Tenn. The forum, held in April, can be viewed online at www.ustream.tv/recorded/21727701.

ASL, Wellmont team up in health debate

xperts in health care, law, and insurance gathered to discuss federal health care reform in an April panel cosponsored by ASL and Wellmont Health System. The event, held at Bristol Regional Medical Center in Tennessee, was broadcast live at ASL. The panel, “Health Care at the Crossroads: Charting Our Country’s Future,” focused on the debate surrounding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Panelists were ASL Professors Stewart Harris and Doug McKechnie, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Wellmont President and CEO Margaret “Denny” DeNarvaez, CVA Heart Institute President and Executive Medical Director Gerald Grant Blackwell, Virginia Court of Appeals Judge Stephen McCullough, and Diane Boyle, vice president of federal government relations for the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors. David Bailey, host of “This Week in Richmond,” was the event’s moderator. McCullough noted that on one side of the issue are those who believe the Constitution “represents a profound 4

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viewpoint” about how to govern, and that it’s the states, not the federal government, that should have the power when it comes to health care. Others, he said, argue that what was important when the Constitution was written has naturally evolved, and big problems require big intervention. Cuccinelli said Virginia was the first state to sue over health care reform. “The bill is about health insurance and health care … the lawsuit is about liberty. If Congress can order you to buy insurance, they can order you to buy a car, they can order you to buy asparagus, they can order you to buy a gym membership.” Harris took the opposing view, saying that “that horse done left the barn” because, in part, health care is so unique. “The federal government has mandated … people who run hospitals provide you with health care. We decided as a society years ago that we wouldn’t leave people to die in the street.” Harris said the insured are already paying for the uninsured to receive care, and the federal government is already exercising its power to regulate commerce via

health care. “I think of this as the ‘antifreeloader statute.’ ” Boyle said the crucial parts of health care reform are access and affordability. “If you make health care more affordable, you address a large part of that access issue,” she said. DeNarvaez said reform has to focus on the front end of health care – preventative steps – rather than the back end. We are “going to have to work harder on creating wellness as an agenda, and not just illness and treatment,” she added. Blackwell argued that health care reform is a “very complicated topic that is being posited as having simple solutions,” but that isn’t true. In the end, tort reform is crucial to reform, he said, or “the costs are not going to be driven down. In our emergency rooms, the only way doctors can get in trouble is if they undertest.” Cuccinelli traveled to Grundy to meet with faculty, staff, and students at ASL the day after the panel. The Supreme Court heard a case on the topic, Florida et al v. United States Department of Health and Human Services, in March. A ruling is expected in late June. n

faculty spotlight

Bowers, Herman to be newest faculty additions James Bowers is a Montana native and was recently the Oliver P. Stockwell Professor of Law at Louisiana State University, where he taught since 1982. Bowers He is also chair of the American Association of Law Schools Section on Law and Economics. He holds a bachelor’s and bachelor of laws from Yale University. He has taught Contracts, Uniform

Commercial CodeSales, Secured Transactions, and a Legal Scholarship Seminar. Before joining the faculty at LSU, he taught at Texas Tech University Law Herman School in Lubbock and William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minn. He also spent eight years in private practice in Minnesota. He is husband of incoming Dean Lucy McGough.

Maryann Herman will be directing ASL’s Academic Success program. Herman has served as the Director of Editorial at BARBRI Inc. for the past four years, and was a senior attorney editor with BARBRI before that. She also served as a staff attorney with the Chicago Legal Clinic. Herman holds a J.D., cum laude, from Wayne State University, where she was editor of the Wayne Law Review. She earned her bachelor’s at Siena Heights College in Adrian, Mich., and is licensed to practice in Illinois and Michigan. n

Recent Faculty Scholarship Pat Baker will represent ASL at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) New Scholars workshop in Florida in July. He has written “The Case Backlog Before the Federal Mine Safety Health Review Commission: Why Reforming the Commission’s Role and the Hearing Procedure will Present a Viable Solution to Case Gridlock,” publication forthcoming. Judie Barger’s “Innocence Found: Retribution, Capital Punishment and the Eighth Amendment” has been accepted by the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review and will appear as lead article in fall 2012.

Falling,” was published in the fall/winter 2011 edition of the Appalachian Journal of Law. Stewart Harris’ 2009 article “Sometimes We Really Do Suck” was selected for inclusion in Techniques for Teaching Law 2. His new article, “Which Bible? Which God?” will be published in the Appalachian Journal of Law this fall. He will be speaking at the University of Tennessee’s College of Law on the role of law professors in political debates in July.

Mark Belleville presented to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy on “Contracts 101: How to Avoid Liability,” and “Appalachian Wind Wars: Harnessing the Wind Energy of the Appalachian Highlands in a Sustainable Way.” He also recently participated in a panel discussion for the Radford University Pre-Law Society on non-traditional ways to use your law degree.

Derrick Howard lectured on human trafficking to the International Law Society in spring 2012. He was also a lecturer at the University of Kentucky College of Law’s Developing Ideas Conference in summer 2011 and participated in the New Scholar workshop at SEALS. His “The Appearance of Solidity: Legal Implementation of the Human Right to Water in the United States,” appeared in the fall/winter 2011 edition of the Appalachian Journal of Law.

Charlie Condon’s “RFID and Privacy: A Look at Where the ‘Chips’ are

Kendall Isaac’s “Resolving Race Discrimination in Employment Disputes

Through Mediation: A Win-Win for all Parties” is being published in the American Journal of Mediation, Spring 2012. His article “Is American Law Behind the Times for not Outlawing Workplace Bullying?” will be published in the Spring/Summer issue of the ABA Employment Law and Litigation Newsletter. He presented on "Entrepreneurship and the Law” at the London, Ohio, Correctional Institute in December and on “Using ADR as a Remedy for Workplace Bullying” to the Virginia Mediation Network in March and the Minorities in ADR Conference in Columbus, Ohio, in May. He will present on the same topic as a new scholar at SEALS in July. Isaac also co-presented on “Employer Implications on Conducting Background Checks in a Post-9/11 Environment” in April at the Society of Business, Industry, and Economics Conference in Florida. Faculty Scholarship Award Winner – Doug McKechnie’s “The Death of the Public Figure Doctrine: How the Internet and the Westboro Baptist Church continued on page 13

Spring/Summer 2012

around campus

Sandy McGlothlin

Members of the ASL community take a load off during a bike trip on the Creeper Trail, which runs between Abingdon and Damascus, Va. (1) ... Professor Stewart Harris gets cozy in the hot seat during a student-organized “roast” (2) ... Members of the ASL Softball team take a break from competition during the University of Virginia Law Softball Invitational in Charlottesville, Va. (3) ... ASL and the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office pause to remember Deputies Neil Justus and Billy Stiltner, killed near Vansant in March last year (4) ... Dean Wes Shinn presents Elisabeth Griffith ‘12 with the Sutin Soul of ASL Award during the annual awards banquet in March at Mountain Mission School (5).

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Akiah Highsmith

Maggie Ransone

around campus

Runners take to the Grundy streets during the annual Memorial 5K run in March (6) ... Nicole Lawson â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;12 and Sarah Brown â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;12 of ASL Cares snap a picture with Laura Donahue, center, Virginia State Director for the Humane Society of the United States, who spoke on campus in April (7) ... Students load up on southern fare during a campuswide barbecue hosted by the Student Bar Association in March (8) ... Members of the ASL community pitch in to spruce up their surroundings during Campus Beautification Day in April (9).

9 Spring/Summer 2012

The Class of 2012

SL held its 13th annual commencement May 5 at Riverview Elementary-Middle School, recognizing the 91 members of the Class of 2012. The new graduates mean ASL now has more than 1,000 alumni. The ceremony was Dean Wes Shinn’s sixth and final commencement as leader of ASL. The graduates, he said, were becoming “students of the law for life.” He also urged graduates to acknowledge the family and friends who encouraged them during their studies, prompting a standing ovation in honor of the audience of supporters. The commencement speaker was Beverly Perdue, the governor of North Carolina and a Buchanan County native. She was introduced by Associate Dean Sandra McGlothlin, who noted that Perdue grew up in Harman a coal miner’s daughter. She started at Grundy High when it was still in the building that now houses ASL and eventually graduated third in her class. She was elected to the North Carolina House in 1986 and became the first female governor of North Carolina in 2009, “shattering the glass ceiling,” McGlothlin said. Perdue encouraged the graduates to take time to think about where their journey has led and where they want it to lead next. “We have very few opportunities to think about our hopes, the people we love, the choices we’ve made or might have made,” she said. “My team calls it a ‘moment of magnified purpose.’ My hope for you is that you take a few minutes 8

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Akiah Highsmith

for your personal moment of magnified purpose.” The ceremony’s student speaker, an honor that goes to the student who graduates first in his or her class, was Daniel Newby ’12, a native of Johnson City who graduated from East Tennessee State University. “We made it to the law school finish line,” he said. While hurdles such as the bar exam remained, he noted, they didn’t reduce the significance of the achievement that was finishing law school. ASL Alumni Association President Suzanne Kerney-Quillen ’03 issued the alumni challenge to the new graduates, noting that the Class of 2012 meant that — North Carolina Gov. ASL now has more than Beverly Perdue 1,000 alumni, “an incredible milestone.” Previous graduates had laid the groundwork for the newest alums’ success, she said, “and your success will pave the way for future students of ASL.” Kerney-Quillen also presented Newby with the Sutin-Blackwell Award for Excellence for graduating first in his class. McGlothlin presented the graduates with their hoods, and Shinn awarded the degrees. Professor Stephen P. Parsons gave the invocation and benediction. Pianist Terry Ratliff and the Appalachian Highlanders Pipes & Drums provided music. Faculty members formally welcomed all graduates to the profession with a handshake after the ceremony, a tradition instituted at last year’s commencement. n

“You are stars, and there are people all over who need to be inspired by stars.”

2012 commencement • Dominick M. Angotta • Courtney Lynn Armstrong • Claude Addison Barnhill • William Blake Belcher • Joseph Michael Birchfield • Bradley S. Blanchard • Sarah Kathryn Brown • James Anthony Burdoff III • Richard Joseph Burningham • Jeffrey Ellis Caudill • Evan Heath Chaffin • Alex Anderson Chesnut • Adam Storm Chess • Hansi Stevenson Chowdhry • Joshua Greg Cohen • Morgan Hall Constantino • James Richard Cook II • John Michael Crotts • Jacob L. Davidson • Steven Craig Davis • Alexander N. DerGarabedian • William B. Divis • Curtis Edward Dotson • Brandie Inez Eaton • Joshua R. Evans • Jennifer Leigh Ferrara • Ryan Christopher Frank • James Paul Glover • Brandi Nicole Goad • Elisabeth Nicole Griffith • Ralph Joseph Hagy • Meka Danielle Hall • T. Brooke Howard II • Amber Lee Howe • Laura Ashley Humphries • Penny Sueann Mullins Hunter • Garylene Ana Joji Dedoyco Javier • Jennifer Gail Jones • Robert Bruce Josey Jr. • David Thomas Kasper • Pamela Sinclair Keeling • Jamie Clifton King

• Samantha Eve LaRoche • Brandi Lee Olive Lawrence • Nicole Amber Lawson • Brooke Ashley Lewis • Bethany Michelle Long • Danny Lee Lunsford Jr. • Katherine M. Madon • Jesse C. Markley • Lance V. McFadden • Lucille C. McGee • Kathryn Emily Mooney • Eugena Moulton • Daniel Armon Newby • Patrick Richard Newlun • Edward Nicholson • Brittani O’Brien • Ashley Elizabeth Owen-Cunningham • Elena Georgiev Patarinski • Ankur R. Patel • George Anderson Payne Jr. • Tania Razara Perez Rodriguez • Sean F. Pinner • Valerie Elaine Powell • Bryan Linzie Ragland • Noorassa Aroosha Rahimzadeh • Chloe Denise Richland • John Ross Rogers • Stephen Patrick Shepard

• Joshua Gentry Shrieves • Jonathan Louis Silvester • Charles Wade Simmons • Shelly Lynette Smith • Alexandra James Smith • John Stanley Stacy II • Jason Adden Stegner • Gary Wayne Stiltner • Kevin Ray Sullivan • Jessica Brooke Taylor • Tracy D. Taylor • Alexis Christine Thore • Neal Robert Tucker • Carl Eric von Kleist II • Stephen Lee Walters Jr. • Erin A. Waugh • Brian Andrew Wenham • Gregory T. Whitley • Robert Samuel Willett • Phoenicia D. Williams • Domica Martha Winstead

Akiah Highsm

Spring/Summer 2012

ith

the

heart

the

soul

the

spirit ... of ASL

Many thought ASL could not survive after January 16, 2002 – a new institution, just provisionally accredited, improbably located, and in a challenging professional environment. The fact that we are here today, a decade later, as a thriving academic community, remembering, is a testament to the contributions of our three friends and colleagues. – Dean Wes Shinn TOM BLACKWELL As remembered by Professor Stewart Harris On January 16, 2012, it was precisely 10 years since our friend and colleague Tom Blackwell was suddenly, brutally, and senselessly murdered. We miss him and we mourn him still. Tom was a devoted husband to Lisa Blackwell and a wonderful father to Zeb, Jillian, and Zeke. My office was next to his. Although we had known each other only a few months, we were already good friends. On the day before he died, Tom and I had a conversation about his children, who had spent the previous after10

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noon playing with Priscilla’s and my children at our home. I commented that his kids were extraordinarily well-behaved, intelligent, and – surprisingly for such young children – even witty. I told him that I hoped they would come over many times in the years to come. Tom’s response: “Well, it’s hard to believe that I could produce such good kids, but I guess I have to agree with you.” He paused, and then added, “It must be their mother’s influence.” Tom’s career achievements, though always secondary to his family commitments, were impressive right from the beginning. I remember one conversation we had about scores on the LSAT, the Law School Admission Test. After a little prod-

ding from Lisa, Tom told the story of his own experience with the LSAT. He said that he had given a friend a ride to the exam, and that the friend had suggested that, rather than waiting in the car all day, Tom should take the test, too. So he did: Without studying, without knowing anything about the LSAT, Tom took the test, cold. He scored in the top 1 percent and, indeed, came very close to achieving a perfect 800. Later, after breezing through Duke Law School, Tom had a long and successful career in private practice until he decided to begin teaching. He started as an adjunct at Texas Wesleyan School of Law while still maintaining his private practice and while going to the University of Texas at Arling-

January 16, 2002 memorial ton to begin his Ph.D. in mathematics. He then taught full-time at Chicago-Kent and finally came to the Appalachian School of Law. He was one of the finest teachers I have ever known. Tom was also a giver to this community. A few weeks before he died, he and his entire family performed in the Christmas show at the Mountain Mission School. (It wasn’t enough, you see, for the Blackwell kids to be brilliant, polite, and funny – they also had to be musical.) Tom pounded nails and got his boots muddy volunteering with a local community group that renovates the homes of low-income families. And his contributions to the law school were too numerous to list. It suffices to say that without Tom, ASL would not have had a website until much later, would not have nearly the respect it had already earned in the legal education community, and would not have been the wonderful place it was before he died. I am pleased to report that, in the 10 years since the death of their husband and father, the Blackwells have done well. Tom’s kids did come over to our house many times and played with our children frequently until the Blackwells moved back to Texas in 2005. Lisa recently completed a master’s degree in counseling. Zeb graduated from Princeton in 2009, Jillian will graduate from the University of Pennsylvania this year, and Zeke is a member of the Class of 2013 at Yale. The institutions Tom served have also carried on his work. The Association of Legal Writing Directors has established an annual award in Tom’s honor. ASL obtained its final accreditation in 2006 and continues to thrive as the town of Grundy is reborn around it. Tom came to ASL because he wanted to help create a law school where one was truly needed, a law school that would produce lawyers who cared about more than money and prestige, lawyers who would devote themselves to service and to justice. He wanted to help people who otherwise would never have had a chance to obtain a legal education. As the past decade has amply demonstrated, Tom achieved his goals, to a greater extent than he could have known.

Members of the ASL community release balloons in memory of those killed and wounded in the January 2002 shooting during a 10-year anniversary memorial.

TONY SUTIN As remembered by Associate Dean Sandra McGlothlin On January 16, 2002, when Dean Tony Sutin died, many thought that the Appalachian School of Law would die along with him. They were wrong. Tony Sutin graduated from high school in Bellport, N.Y., as valedictorian of his class. He graduated with honors from Brandeis University and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School. He was a judicial law clerk for the U.S. District Court under the guidance of Judge Barefoot Sanders. He was a partner in the Washington, D.C., firm of Hogan and Hartson before accepting a position in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served in various positions until he was appointed by Attorney General Janet Reno to serve as Acting Assistant Attorney General. Then, in September 1997, Tony contacted the Appalachian School of Law to find out if they anticipated expanding their faculty the next fall, and, if so, he ex-

pressed his interest in being considered for any openings. In November of that year, after an initial interview with some representatives of the school, Tony wrote in a letter to ASL, “I believe I share the founders’ vision of what the school can and should be, and would enjoy the opportunity to participate in bringing that vision to fruition.” You see, there was no need to sell him on the mission of the school. It was consistent with how he lived his life and with what he wanted to do. So in 1999, Tony Sutin left a position as Acting Assistant Attorney General of the United States to become an assistant professor at a start-up law school in rural Virginia that was still unaccredited. Tony and his wife, Margaret, who also became a professor at ASL, and their son, Henry, who they adopted in 1998 from Russia, moved to Grundy in 1999. In 2000, although he had been at the school less than a year, the faculty and Board of Trustees asked Tony to serve as dean. In May 2000, the school graduated its first class. Shortly thereafter, Tony faced his biggest challenge: to get ASL accredited. In April 2001, Tony’s hard work paid continued on page 12 Spring/Summer 2012

January 16, 2002 memorial continued from page 11

off: The ABA granted ASL provisional accreditation. Tony was not just a leader. He was a leader who genuinely cared about all of those around him. Tony reached out to assist those who struggled, even his own future assailant, buying him a laptop, paying his electric bill, and counseling him repeatedly on his classwork. Something I vividly remember being said about Tony by a colleague from his D.C. law firm at his memorial service was that “Tony was just as kind and considerate to the guy that took the trash out of his office everyday as he was to his boss, the Attorney General of the United States.” That quote was a real inspiration to me. I find it popping up in my memory quite often.

In 2001, shortly before his tragic death, Tony and his wife, Margaret, adopted a little girl, Clara, from China. Tony and Margaret liked the idea of raising their kids in a small town. They adapted easily. Tony walked to school in the mornings and frequently joined Henry for “Dads & Donuts” get-togethers at the public library. It was common to see Margaret and the children visiting with Tony in his office at lunchtime. Tony Sutin did not die in vain. After that tragic day in January 2002, the Appalachian School of Law did not perish, but instead, it thrived. By the following semester, six new professors had joined the faculty, and student applications were up more than 50 percent. There is a quote that I think best sums up Tony Sutin’s dedication to ASL. It comes from Ted Kennedy’s concession

speech in his campaign for nomination as the Democratic presidential candidate against incumbent Jimmy Carter, a campaign that Tony had been a part of. The quote goes like this: “For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.” n

ANGELA DALES As remembered by Community Service Director Jina Sauls On January 16, 2002, Angela Denise Dales died tragically in a shooting at ASL. This senseless act devastated the entire ASL community.

One decade later, their memories live on ... In 2003, a year after her husband’s death, Lisa Blackwell presented the first Thomas F. Blackwell Memorial Award for outstanding achievement in the field of legal writing to Richard Neumann of Hofstra University School of Law. The Blackwells’ children, Zeb, Jillian, and Zeke, were also on hand for the occasion. The honor has been bestowed each year since at the meeting of the Association of Legal Writing Directors and has become one of the most coveted in legal writing. Recipients must have “made an outstanding contribution” to legal writing through exemplary teaching and fruitful efforts to advance the field. They receive a $1,000 prize, a plaque, and a desk lamp. The lamp’s meaning is two-fold: It symbolizes the light Blackwell “shed on his students and colleagues” and pays homage to his love of light bulb jokes. The 2012 winner of the 10th annual Blackwell Award was Suzanne Rowe, 12

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Lisa Blackwell

Zeke, Lisa, and Jillian Blackwell present Suzanne Rowe, second from right, with the 2012 Thomas F. Blackwell Memorial Award in Washington.

director of the Legal Research and Writing Program at the University of Oregon. A plaque listing all winners is on display at ASL. The Blackwell Award is one notable example of the ways his memory, as well as those of Tony Sutin and Angela Dales, lives on. ASL’s chapter of the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity is also named for Blackwell, and an ASL professorship bears his name. Sutin’s name graces a public service

fellowship at Harvard University and an annual award, the L. Anthony Sutin Civic Imagination Award, given by the Department of Justice. ASL’s chapter of Phi Alpha Delta bears his name, and ASL established the L. Anthony Sutin professorship, held by Dean Wes Shinn. Angela Dales’ name graces ASL’s Student Services office and student scholarship program. Route 624 from U.S. 460 to the Buchanan County line, which traverses Dales’ Garden Creek home, was renamed the Angela Dales Memorial Highway. ASL continues to honor Blackwell, Sutin, and Dales every year with the Memorial 5K, and the school’s annual memorial awards – The Blackwell Heart of ASL award, Sutin Soul of ASL award, and Dales Spirit of ASL award – recognize students who embody the character of each person. The trio of trees in front of ASL’s visitor parking lot also memorializes the three.

Angela exemplified the mission and the spirit of ASL. She was born and raised in Buchanan County, Virginia. Angela’s father was a coal miner, and her mother worked as a cook in the local school system. Angela possessed a desire to learn and was determined to succeed. She graduated third in her class from Garden High School. She was an honor student at Virginia Intermont College. She graduated with a double major in English and political science and received the school’s highest awards. While at Virginia Intermont College, Angela also participated in the Worrell Honor’s Program for Studies Abroad, wherein she studied at the University of Munich in Munich, Germany. After returning to Virginia, Angela enrolled in graduate school at Radford University and later accepted a position at ASL as an admissions counselor. Adversity was not a word that she ever recognized. As a single mother, she continued to perform work toward her graduate degree while she spent a lot of time traveling to showcase the law school. She personally recruited many of the students in the earlier classes to ASL. As a member of the charter class at ASL, I met Angela while she was working in admissions. Angela was an absolutely beautiful human being. After only a few conversations and interactions with Angela, I realized her beauty radiated from within. Angela was a loving daughter and sister and a devoted mother to her daughter, Rebecca. Angela was a selfless, giving person. You could see this just by looking in her eyes. She cared about people and always put others before herself. She loved to do things, buy things or make things for other people. She never expected anything in return. She possessed an innate ability to make those around her feel important and appreciated. Her laughter was contagious and her smile could brighten any room. Angela believed that ASL would produce attorneys who would benefit society. She enjoyed working for ASL. She loved it so much that she recruited herself. This did not come as a surprise to some members of the Dales family. They could feel her energy. She was excited about the opportunity to attend law school and to fuel her passion for learning. At the time of her death, Angela was a 1L at ASL. Not unlike some of the students in attendance today, Angela probably spent the initial days of that spring semester anxiously awaiting her first grades. She excelled as a student at ASL and earned the distinction of being on the Dean’s List. She had also been elected treasurer of Phi Alpha Delta, one of the first student organizations on campus. Angela was drawn to ASL by its mission, and she believed in it. Her dream will live on as ASL graduates become citizen lawyers. Angela will forever remain in the hearts of all those who knew her. As poet Thomas Campbell once wrote, “To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die.” n

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Spawned a Killer” will be published in the University of California Hastings College of Law Journal in the fall. He will moderate a panel on “Evaluating Student Performance and Providing Feedback” at SEALS in July, where he will also present on “Supreme Court and Legislative Update: Individual Rights.” McKechnie He spoke on “A License to Speak Freely on Matters of Public Concern: Everything Old is New Again,” at the Southeastern Law Scholars Conference in Charleston, S.C., in October 2011. Alan Oxford’s “When Agents Attack: Judicial Misinterpretation of Vicarious Liability Under ‘Aided in Accomplishing the Tort by the Existence of the Agency Relation’ and the Restatement 3rd's Failure to Properly ‘Restate’ the Ill-fated AS:219(2)(d) Provision,” will be published in Oklahoma City University Law Review this summer. His article “O Brother, Where Art Thou and Thine Unequal Share?: Simplifying the Computation of Unequal Inheritance Shares With a ‘Count-the-Shares’ Approach,” will be published in the Quinnipiac Probate Law Journal, spring 2012. Paula Young’s “The Crisis in Insurance Coverage for Mediators – Part 2: Even Lawyer-Mediators are ‘Going Bare’” is forthcoming in the American Journal of Mediators. She presented on “Malpractice, Ethics, and UPL Claims Against Mediators: How the Ethical Mediator Can Avoid Them,” at the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution 14th Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., in April. She also spoke on “Updating Your Agreement to Mediate and Opening Orientation to Reflect the Requirements of the Revised SOEs,” at the Annual Spring Training Conference of the Virginia Mediation Network in Richmond in March. She was a Faculty Workshop Presenter at the Quinnipiac-Yale Dispute Resolution Workshop in Connecticut in March and at the Salmon P. Chase College of Law in Kentucky in April. Young also was a presenter and panelist at the annual Fall Training Conference of the Virginia Mediation Network in September 2011 as well as a presenter and trainer for the Collaborative Law Process Collaborative Professionals of Roanoke in July 2011. Spring/Summer 2012

class notes

2001 Clayton M. Craft ’01 has released his first novel, entitled The HawkenEye. The young adult fantasy novel came after years of reflection on his childhood survival of cancer. It is available at Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. He currently serves as vice president of SunTrust as their real estate officer for Western Virginia. Photo 1.

2006 In November 2011, Meg Sagi ’06 started a new position as the special prosecutor at the District Attorney’s Office for DUI and Vehicular Homicide crimes in the 23rd Judicial District of Tennessee, just west of Nashville. Previously, she was the special prosecutor for domestic crimes in the jurisdiction for the past five years. Her office is now located in Ashland City, Tenn. Jeremy Williams ’06 and his wife, Meghann, welcomed Christopher Cooper Williams on March 6, 2012. He weighed 9 pounds, 2 ounces, and was born in Wilmington, N.C., where the family lives. Jeremy is working for Baker & Colby, PLLC. Photo 2.

2007 Jason Little ’07 accepted a position with Steptoe and Johnson PLLC in their Charleston, W.Va., office in December. His practice focuses primarily on energy and mineral law, and specifically oil and gas related to the Marcellus and Utica Shale areas in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. His wife, Jamie Webb Little ’07, accepted a position at the Boone County, W.Va., prosecutor’s office in March. They live in Charleston. Photo 5. Erica Edanasu Parish ’07 and Brendan Erich Roche were married on Sept. 10, 2011, at Emory United Methodist 14

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Church on the campus of Emory & Henry College in Emory, Va. Erica is licensed in Virginia and Tennessee and is currently a judicial law clerk to the Hon. Elizabeth McClanahan on the Supreme Court of Virginia. Brendan is an assistant commonwealth’s attorney in Smyth County, Virginia. They live in Abingdon, Va. Photo 6. Jonathan Roberts ’07 is sole practitioner and owner of Wohlford & Roberts in Tennessee. It is a general law practice, but Roberts specializes in plaintiff ’s litigation, criminal defense, and domestic relations law. He lives in Bristol, Tenn., and practices law all over the state. He recently helped secure a $16 million verdict for a client in a wrongful-death case.

Artie Vaughn ’07 and his wife, Leeatra, welcomed daughter Kimberly Grace Vaughn on Nov. 4, 2011, at David Grant Medical Center in California. The family is stationed at Travis Air Force Base in California, where Artie serves as Chief of Operations Law. Christopher Young ’07 recently opened his own law practice, The Young Law Firm PLLC, in Washington, D.C. His practice areas are nationwide federal criminal defense on the trial and appellate level, as well as general civil litigation in federal court. He represents clients at the trial level and appellate level, and those looking for other means of postconviction relief.

class notes

2009

animal law. He has also been made chairman of Wake County Bar Association’s community service subcommittee. Photo 3.

Joshua Ferrell ’09 is opening the Ferrell Law Office in Williamson, W.Va., where he will live. The general law practice will handle areas including coal mining accidents and deaths, personal injury, family law, and criminal law.

2011

Amber Floyd Lee ’09 and McKenna L. Cox have formed Cox and Lee PLLC in downtown Johnson City, Tenn. McKenna and Amber both worked at Legal Aid of East Tennessee before leaving to open the practice. The civil litigation firm specializes in domestic relations, immigration, trusts and estates, and employment discrimination.

2010 David Horton ’10 joined the public defender’s office of the 10th judicial circuit of Florida in November 2010. He won the “trial dog” award for most jury trials in 2011. He recently moved to defend juveniles and was on the local news handling a detention hearing for a 14-year-old charged with attempted murder. He was published in the Appalachian Law Review in 2011. Photo 4. Nicholas M. Verna ’10 accepted a position as Of Counsel with the Gerber Animal Law Center in Raleigh, N.C., specializing in

David Barnette ’11 recently opened his office in Kingsport, Tenn. He is currently practicing criminal, landlord/tenant and debtor/creditor law, but plans to engage in other fields as well. Justin Marcum ’11 was sworn in to the West Virginia House of Delegates in January. Marcum represents Mingo and Wayne counties and is a member of the education committee and political subdivision committee. During his time at ASL, Marcum, a former miner, penned a resolution calling for a day of appreciation for coal miners that was passed in the West Virginia legislature and U.S. Marcum Congress. He has been active in politics as former leader of Mingo County’s Young Democrats. He lives with wife Latisha in Williamson, W.Va. Justin Plummer ’11 is employed with Shapiro and Ingle LLP in Charlotte, N.C. He is focusing on bankruptcy and foreclosure work.

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the date

ASL will host its annual gala at 8 p.m. on Saturday, August 18, in the courtyard. The event will feature live music, a catered dinner, and a raffle. It will also serve as the official welcome of incoming Dean Lucy McGough. Cocktail attire is suggested. For more details, contact Development Director Karen Harvey at kharvey@asl.edu. The annual golf tournament will also be held August 18 at Willowbrook Country Club. Morning and afternoon tee times will be available. For more details, contact Professor Tom Scott at trs@asl.edu. Spring/Summer 2012

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Give. Why? To pay it forward. To boost your degree’s value. To keep making a difference. For these reasons and more, consider making a donation to the Appalachian School of Law’s Alumni Fund. For more details or to make a donation, please contact Director of Development Karen Harvey at kharvey@asl.edu or 276-935-4349, ext. 1241.