W&L Law - Fall/Winter 2009

The Washington and Lee School of Law Magazine

Professor Ti m J o s t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Assesses the Health- Care Debate

Also InsIde: T r Ac k I n g H u m A n r I g H T s I n T A n z A n I A new crImInAl defense clInIc

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From the Archives This summer, the class notes of George A. Robinson 1878L’s senior year made their way back to the Powell Archives, a gift from the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville.

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Peter Scott Campbell, technical services librarian at Brandeis, found these notes while examining his “someday-I’ll-get-to-them pile of odds and ends.” When he realized the notebooks would be of significance to the Law School, he contacted John Jacob, W&L’s Law School archivist.

“As far as I know,” said Jacob, “this is an unprecedented record in the realm of 19th-century teaching and learning at our School.

In addition to the intrinsic artifactual value to W&L, the notes will be a treasure for scholars in legal education from this period.”

The two bound notebooks cover Professor Charles A. Graves’ classes in Practice and Pleadings, Equity, Real Property, Partnership and Agency. And it appears that both John Randolph Tucker and Judge William McLaughlin were guest lecturers. Tucker and Graves served as the first two deans of the Law School, and McLaughlin was a University trustee.

After graduation, Robinson, whose elder brother, Richard Jr., was a member of the Law Class of 1877, returned to his hometown of Louisville, Ky., and worked in two of the family’s businesses, as general manager of the Louisville Cotton Mills and as vice president of R.A. Robinson’s Sons Inc. He also served as president of W&L’s Louisville Alumni Chapter.

In 1880, Robinson married Rosa Johnson, the daughter of Col. William Preston Johnson, a professor of history and literature at W&L who later served as a lecturer of law, covering topics in history and the science of law.

George A. Robinson graduated f r o m t h e L aw S c h o o l in 1878.

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Third-Year f r o m

Plan:

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Sara McManus ’10L and Shannon Sherrill ’10L reflect on the new curriculum.

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Six law students in a new international law class investigate human rights abuse.

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Professor Tim Jost tracks the debate over comprehensive health insurance.

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Paul

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d e p a r t m e n t s 2 Future Plans

A message from President Ken Ruscio ’76

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3 Di sc ove r y

Law orientation, new Defense Clinic, visiting Afghan students and faculty accomplishments

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16 C l ass N o t es

Alumni profiles and milestones

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Cover Photo by Kevin Remington

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Future Plans

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Volume 10

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Number 1

FALL/WINTER

2009

© 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

Louise Uffelman

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Kelli Austin ’03, Emily Anne Taylor ’12

Class Notes Editors

Patrick Hinely ’73, Kevin Remington

University Photographers

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Jim Goodwin, Laurie Lipscomb, Denise Watts, Mary Woodson I

Graphic Designers

Bart Morris, Morris Design

Art Director

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University Advancement Jeffery G. Hanna, Executive Director of Communications and Public Affairs Elizabeth Branner, Director of Law School Advancement Peter Jetton, Director of Communications for the School of Law Julie Campbell, Associate Director of Communications and Public Affairs

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. Law Alumni Association Officers W. Hildebrandt Surgner Jr. ’87, ’94L, President (Richmond) Stacy Gould Van Goor ’95L, Vice President (San Diego) A. Carter Magee Jr. ’79L, Immediate Past President (Roanoke) Darlene Moore, Executive Secretary (Lexington) Law Council Eric A. Anderson ’82L (New York City) Blas Arroyo ’81L (Charlotte, N.C.) T. Hal Clarke, Jr. ’73, ’76L (Charlotte, N.C.) Thomas E. Evans ’91L (Rogers, Ark.) James J. Ferguson Jr. ’88L (Dallas) Thomas J. Gearen ’82L (Chicago) Betsy Callicott Goodell ’80L (Bronxville, N.Y.) Wyndall Ivey ’99L (Birmingham, Ala.) Peebles Harrison ’92L (Nags Head, N.C.) Christie Hassan ’98L (Washington) Nathan V. Hendricks III ’66, ’69L (Atlanta) A. John Huss ’65L (St. Paul, Minn.)

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

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

William Toles ’92, ’95L (Dallas) Andrea K. Wahlquist ’95L (New York City)

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As most of you undoubtedly know, Furman University has named Rodney A. Smolla as its 11th president. Furman made the announcement in December; Rod takes his new post on July 1, 2010.

Given Rod’s proven leadership abilities and many academic and professional accomplishments, I am not the least surprised that Furman has chosen him. He will be an outstanding president. He is a distinguished scholar and a proven administrator known for his collegial and creative leadership. In addition, I consider it a tribute to Washington and Lee that peer institutions look to us to fill leadership vacancies on their campuses.

During his time at Washington and Lee, Rod worked with our faculty, students and alumni to help us rethink legal education, and he has positioned W&L at the center of reform efforts nationally.

We are grateful to him for this incredible achievement.

We remain committed to being a leader among law schools. First and foremost, we wish to help our own students enter the legal world prepared for a demanding but also immensely rewarding career. Beyond that, however, established quality and reputation coupled with our relatively small size enables us to be, among law schools nationally, the credible innovator. In mid-December, the Washington Post wrote about the W&L plan in a feature story that described its potential, noting that the “goal of the new lessons is to teach third-year students how law is practiced in the real world, in contrast to the sterile predictability of the classroom.” This is more than learning the tools of the trade. It is our attempt to inculcate in our students a true sense of what it means to be a member of a profession.

As the Post story properly indicated, the faculty of the School of Law spent six years laying the groundwork for the new curriculum. Thanks to their exhaustive work and the support of the administration and staff, the early returns from participating students have been extremely positive. This remains a work in progress, with considerable refinement still to come. Still, already we see the results, through significantly increased applications, strong philanthropic support and the increased attention the School has received from educators, practicing attorneys and judges.

We will take care to retain that momentum as we begin the search for a new dean. Shortly after Furman announced its decision, Provost June Aprille and I began speaking with faculty, students, administrators and alumni of the Law School about the search for Dean Smolla’s successor. Those conversations will continue in the days ahead as we formulate the timetable and the process for finding our next dean.

I am confident that our long-standing reputation for excellence and innovation will enable us to attract excellent candidates for the dean’s post.

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Carole Shorter receives a welldeserved standing ovation from faculty and staff at her retirement party.

Happy Retirement After many years of distinguished service, Carole Shorter retired from W&L. Shorter has long served as the as-

sistant to the Law School dean.

“Carole is one of those critical individuals who keep a great institution going, working with great dedication and professionalism behind the scenes to keep the Law School functioning efficiently,” said Dean Rodney Smolla.

“We are defined in our community

by the human character of those with whom we serve. Carole has been a humane, kind-hearted, generous soul to all who have been part of this Law School for the last 26 years, making us all the better for it.”

He continued, “It is no exaggeration to say that I cannot imagine the last two years without her, and I am personally most grateful for her dedication and professionalism.”

Shorter began her tenure at the Law School in 1983. During her 26 years, she served seven deans, including Rick Kirgis, Randy Bezanson, Barry Sullivan, David Partlett, Mark Grunewald, Brian Murchison and Rod Smolla.

Professor Mark Grunewald, who presided over a PowerPoint presentation at her retirement party, brought the house down with his comment, “Carole looked at the Law School and saw that it was good, and on the seventh dean she rested.”

“I have been blessed to have been part of the Washington and Lee family and to have had the pleasure of working with outstanding deans, faculty, staff and students who are among the best in the country,” said Shorter. “During these past 26 years, I have formed many close, lasting relationships which have truly enriched my life and which I will always treasure.”

Bylaws Update The W&L Law Alumni Association recommended amendments to its bylaws at the Oct. 2009 meeting and will vote on the following proposed changes at the Reunion Weekend meeting in April.

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The Law Council will take an active role in fund-raising for the Law School.

The number of Law Council members will increase from 20 to 24.

This means adding one person to each of the four classes.

You can review the bylaws in full at law.wlu.edu/lawcouncilbylaws.

Find Us Online Stay in touch with the Law School on your terms.

You can be our fan on Facebook, follow us on Twitterrrrr, watch lectures and events on our YouTub channel or make professional connections in our LinkedIn group. Visit law.wlu.edu/alumni to get started.

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Honor Roll of Donors This year, the Donor Report will be available to alumni via the Web at law.wlu.edu/ donorreport. The publication provides a report on the gifts to the Law School for the 2008-09 school year.

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The Class of 2012 First-years are assigned to a Burks Scholar, a third-year who helps them develop legal research skills and analyze sophisticated legal problems.

As part of orientation, students have an opportunity to sign up for meal plans, register for campus alerts, discuss computing issues and get a parking pass. Malleri McCrae ’12L, from San Diego, posed for her face book photo.

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Sidney Evans, associate dean for student services, introduces the Kirgis Fellows, upper-level law students who serve as peer mentors to the first-years.

This year, the Law School welcomed 135 students as first-year students, and orientation activities kept them busy their first few days on campus. As well as normal matriculation activities, students participated in a number of small group sessions. Sidney Evans, associate dean for student services, explained, “We are trying to give students the tools they need to successfully prepare themselves as students and future lawyers. We spend a lot more hands-on time with firstyears than we used to, and the Kirgis Fellows play a very important role as peer mentors in those groups. We talk a lot about what to expect as a first year—for example, how to manage stress and strategies to manage the transition from student to professional.” Another component of orientation includes the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument Training, a diagnostic instrument to help students get a better sense of how they absorb and process information. “It’s all about being prepared,” said Evans. “When issues do come up, these students will be better able to cope with them.”

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First-year students on their way to their class photo, a tradition at both ends of their law school career. The class represents 95 undergraduate institutions and 30 states. There are 67 women and 68 men, and 23 percent identify themselves as diverse.

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Criminal Defense Clinic The School of Law launched a new legal clinic focusing on misdemeanor criminal defense. Law students working in the Criminal Justice Clinic will represent, in district and circuit court, indigent clients who face criminal charges, including assault, driving while intoxicated, shoplifting and marijuana possession.

Clinic Director J.D. King, who was a public defender for the District of Columbia, hopes that the clinic will better prepare students planning on careers in criminal defense for the challenges and frustrations of an often understaffed and underfunded publicdefender system.

“It’s not unusual for public defenders to represent over 50 clients at a time,” King said. “Our students will rarely have more than two ongoing cases, and this will allow them to learn the real way to try a case, to leave no stone unturned. They will be able to focus on a case in a way that is not always possible in a high-volume criminal defense practice.”

The clinic will represent low-

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income clients from Lexington, Rockbridge County and surrounding areas and receive case assignments directly from the courts. Operating on a completely pro bono basis, the clinic will take no money from clients and will not receive compensation from the court system. King estimates the clinic will handle 40-60 cases each year.

As well as providing high-quality legal representation, the goal of the clinic is to teach students the art of criminal defense and effective trial practice. In addition to learning the substantive and procedural law of criminal practice, students will be responsible for the entire life of the case until the trial is over. They will conduct client interviews, make arguments on bail and conditions of release, find and interview witnesses, litigate evidence discovery and argue sentencing motions, among other tasks.

Students have found their first steps into the world of criminal defense to be humbling. Nicholas Neidzwski ’10L, who is working on a DUI case, noted that it was disconcerting to find he was

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The Transnational Law Institute has established a new partnership with the Carter Center that places current or recently graduated U.S. law students with a variety of institutions in Liberia working pro bono on access to justice issues.

The Carter Center, founded in 1982 by former President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, works in more than 70 countries and has operated The Access to Justice Project in Liberia since 2006. For the 2009-10 academic year, 12 law fellows are slated to join Liberian institutions, such as the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Labor, the Supreme Court and the James A. A. Pierre Judicial Institute, as F a L L / W i n t e r

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not able to provide ready answers to his client’s seemingly simple questions, such as, “Am I going to jail?”

“Meeting with my client for the first time, I was forced to become comfortable with the answer ‘I don’t know, but I will look into it and get back to you tomorrow’,” said Neidzwski. “The practice of law has become more real to me through the clinic, and it has become evident that zealous advocacy is not the only part to being a good lawyer.”

King hopes the clinic will help students understand what a well-functioning indigent criminal defense firm should look like, while exposing them to the significant challenges of this area of practice.

“Students will feel frustrated navigating a new system that’s not always user friendly and dealing with a deck that seems stacked against you,” said King. “But they will experience those frustrations in an environment that is supportive and encourages selfreflection, becoming better and more creative litigators in the process.”

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well as the Carter Center’s offices in Monrovia, the Liberian capital.

“These fellowships offer students a unique opportunity to engage in legal reform and legal development at a critical time in Liberian history, as well as a challenging and interesting personal experience,” said Professor Speedy Rice, who directs the School’s activities in Liberia.

W&L’s own efforts in Liberia began in 2008 with the Transnational Law Institute’s Liberia Access to Justice Practicum, a joint program including Washington and Lee, the Louis A. Grimes School of Law at the University of Liberia, Monrovia, Liberia, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

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Faculty Accomplishments Johanna Bond’s article, “Gender, Discourse, and Customary Law in Africa,” forthcoming in the Southern California Law Review, explores Africa’s evolving human rights provisions, which require African states to ensure that women have a voice in the formulation of customary law and practice.

Bond and students in her International Human Rights Practicum recently traveled to Tanzania, where they conducted human rights fieldwork in collaboration with a women’s rights organization (see story on p. 10).

Christopher Bruner’s article, “Power and Purpose in the ‘AngloAmerican’ Corporation,” will appear in the spring 2010 edition of the Virginia Journal of International Law. In the Law article, Bruner develops a comparative theopolitical theo ry to explain why U.K. shareholders enjoy greater legal power and centralcentral ity than U.S. shareholders do. A specialist in corporate and securities law, Bruner’s forthcoming conference papers relate to directors’ fiduciary duties and the scope of shareholders’ power to constrain the board’s governance authority.

Sam Calhoun published “Getting the Framers Wrong: A Response to Professor Geoffrey Stone,” in the October 2009 issue of UCLA Law Review Discourse.

Bob Danforth made several presentations on planning with grantor trusts, including at the Duke Estate Planning Conference. His Tax 6

Management Portfolio on grantor trusts, co-authored with Howard M. Zartisky, will be published later this fall. He has also acted as an expert witness in several matters concerning breaches of fiduciary duty and attorney malpractice.

Mark Drumbl’s new book, Always Innocent? Child Soldiers, Justice and the International Legal Imagination, is under advance contract with Oxford University Press and will be published in 2011. Drumbl made several presentations on atrocity trials and post-conflict justice, including internationally in Sarajevo, Helsinki, Buenos Aires and Italy. The United Kingdom High Court of Justice cited his scholarship in Bajinja et al. v. Government of Rwanda/ UK Secretary of State (2009).

The work of international economic law expert Susan Franck was cited with praise by the U.S. Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy report to the U.S. Department of State, on the revision of the Model U.S. Investment Treaty. Franck spoke at a round-table discussion at American University at the request of officials at the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, and representatives of the government of Argentina requested that Franck present her research to them at the University of Buenos Aires in December.

Lyman Johnson published two papers on corporate law and made several presentations, including an address at the program in Washington to celebrate the Securities and Exchange Commission’s 75th anniversary. Johnson is also involved in two cases on this year’s U.S. Supreme Court docket. He was an expert witness in the mutual fund case Jones v.

Harris Associates and co-authored an amicus brief on the securities case Merck & Co. v. Reynolds.

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In addition to publishing several book chapters and articles, health care expert Tim Jost spent the summer and fall working on health-care reform issues. He authored numerous position papers and appeared regularly in print and electronic media, including Politico.com, ABC, CNN, CNBC, Fox News, NPR, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Christian Century and numerous trade press publications and local radio and TV stations.

Jeff Kahn published the sixth edition of the hornbook Corporate Income Taxation, coauthored with Douglas Kahn, Terrence Perris and Jeffrey Lehman.

Criminal law scholar Erik Luna published several articles and made several domestic internaand interna tional presenpresen tations on an array of crimicrimi nal law topics, including corcor porate crimicrimi nal liability.

Luna also propro vided expert testimony before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security on the national crisis surrounding indigent representation.

Russ Miller was profiled, along with German Law Journal co-founder Peer Zumbansen, in one of Germany’s leading newspapers concerning the journal’s 10th anniversary and its promotion of German law abroad. Miller also appeared on a panel marking the 60th anniversary of Germany’s postwar constitution, co-sponsored by the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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David Millon was quoted in a Wall Street Journal analysis of new U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s comments in her first Supreme Court appearance, related to the protections from government oversight afforded to corporations. Millon’s various presentations included a discussion of how corporations can be encouraged to respect human rights.

Law school reform remains a hot topic among law schools and law-related organizations, and Mary Natkin has been busy addressing the issue on behalf of W&L at a variety of conferences. Most recently, Natkin attended the ALI-ABA Critical Issues Summit in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Jim Moliterno conducted legal ethics and professionalism training in several cities and countries including Kosovo, Madrid, China and the former Soviet Georgia. He also presented at the Global Legal Skills conference at Georgetown University Law School. His publications included an article in the Fordham Law Review titled “The Lawyer as Catalyst for Social Change.”

Brian Murchison was a research visitor at the University of Melbourne Law School in Melbourne, Australia,

Hari Osofsky published Adjudicating Climate Change: State, National and International Approaches, (Cambridge University Press), co-edited with William Burns. The book explores the role that litigation at different levels of government does and should play in the regulation of climate change.

Osofsky will deliver the Brodies Environmental Law Lecture at the University of Edinburgh.

where he made several presentations on blogging and free speech.

He was also interviewed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio National, where he discussed a case in which a China-based, U.S.incorporated developer of an online role-playing video game brought a libel action in Australia against a UK-based blogger for disparaging comments about the company and its software.

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Doug Rendleman delivered the keynote address at University of St. Thomas Law Journal Fall 2009 symposium, Exxon Valdez Revisited: Rights and Remedies.

Law Dean Rod Smolla moderated the first debate between Creigh Deeds and Bob McDonnell for the closely watched Virginia governor’s race. Smolla was featured by the ABA Journal as a “legal rebel” for his work on W&L’s new third-year curriculum.

Ben Spencer published the lead article “Understanding Pleading Doctrine” in the Michigan Law Review.

The article builds on Spencer’s previous body of work, in which he has advanced his interpretation of the meaning of Bell Atlantic Corp. v.

Twombly, arguing that the Supreme Court’s pronouncements in the case were misguided. Spencer was also appointed a special assisassis tant U.S. attorney, in which capaccapac ity he has been handling criminal and civil appeals on behalf of the federal government on a pro bono basis.

Scott Sundby continues to be a sought-after expert by practitiopractitio ners and the media on the death penalty and related issues. He was quoted in the Chicago Tribune and the Richmond Times-Dispatch and gave a variety of talks on the death p e n a l t y, including to the Advanced Judicial Studies conference.

Sally Wiant, who retired as director of the Law Library this summer, spoke on copyright issues at the University of Georgia and Sweetbriar College.

Following the publication of her new co-edited book Health Law and Bioethics, Robin F. Wilson, the Class of 1958 Law Alumni Professor of Law, made several presentations about Jesse Gelsinger, the first person to die in a clinical trial for gene therapy. She published several opinion pieces related to her work on same-sex marriage and religious liberty and made presentations in Canada, China, Italy and Israel and at several U.S. law schools.

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Third-Year Plan: A Report from the Frontlines

by S ara M c M anuS ’10L and S hannon S herriLL ’10L

There is no doubt in our minds, or in the minds of anyone we’ve talked to, that the third-year plan is making us better prepared to practice. Let’s face it, your average, par for the course, law school class involves three main activities: reading a casebook, listening to the professor and taking the exam (and most of us only do number three). It’s not a very active process.

The third-year plan, on the other hand, requires much more participation. The immersion was intense. We followed a case from start to finish, including drafting complaints and arguing in a “courtroom,” in only two weeks. While some parts of the immersion were too lecture-based, we had the chance to give feedback after it ended. It’s likely that each semester’s immersion will be an improvement over the one before.

The small group periods during the immersion were effective at teaching practical skills, such as how to give an opening statement and how to question witnesses on direct- and crossexamination. What was the most shocking thing we learned?

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Federal Rules of Evidence might actually be important in the practice of law.

That was quite the bombshell.

Jesse Eshkol ’11L celebrated the roll-out of the third-year plan with a few strategically placed treats. He said, “A few friends pitched in to help cover expenses and place the candies in locations that I designated. The designer M&Ms débuted at a Women Law Students’ Organization cocktail party.

It seems like the harmless prank was well received.

The dean himself was amused (I placed a bowlful in the foyer near his office), and he took a few home to share with his kids.”

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Practica (Practicums? We’re unsure of the plural here) can be even more intense learning experiences. We won’t say which practicum this is, but a lucky few in the third-year class have already had the pleasure of a law firm partner scheduling a conference call to chew them out for being so bad at legal work.

That’s the kind of milestone we didn’t think any of us would pass until starting practice.

Seriously though, practica give you a chance to do things that you probably won’t be able to do for a long time in real life, such as take control of a case from start to finish. It can be pretty daunting, and you find yourself having to rely on classmates more as colleagues and less as a social network. But the great thing is, even if you do get chewed out a bit here and there, you actually feel like you are learning how to do and not just how to listen and read.

It’s pretty unlikely that you’ll be given as much responsibility as you will in a practicum, and that’s actually cool, because hopefully when it’s real you won’t mess it up so badly.

Clinics are even better than practica or the immersion, because not only are you doing the work, it actually counts. If you spend some time in a clinic you will actually get the chance to help out a fellow human being, and you will realize that the average person looks at the legal system with fear, awe and confusion.

It’s a great feeling to help out, or at least demystify, a legal situation for a member of the larger community.

If you can’t fill your plate with the array of practica and clinics offered, you can always do an externship, either by using connections the school already has or by arranging your own program. Many members of our class have chosen to do this, and in a down economy it is a great way to get experience and possibly even land a job after graduation.

All in all, the third-year plan is a good plan.

For one thing, those of us who are doing it hardly have class at all, which is neat. Of course we do spend more time out of class doing work, but at least we can do it at home in our pajamas, if we so choose. There’s also an increased feeling of togetherness in the 3L class ever since the shared immersion experience.

Even if all of the above doesn’t sell you on the third-year plan, think back to when you were a 3L, and keep in mind that those of us who have signed on to the new program never have to take a law school exam again. Exams or no exams? Not a tough decision.

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LL.M. Students Hope to Bring Better Life to Afghanistan Mohammad Asif Ehsan ’10 LL.M. (left) and Sebghatullah Ebrahimi ’10 LL.M. hope to bring the rule of law to their native Afghanistan.

M. Asif Ehsan and Sebghatullah Ebrahimi believe that peace and prosperity is possible in their native Afghanistan. They know it will be a long journey, but they never expected it to bring them to Lexington.

Graduates of Kabul University Faculty of Laws and Political Science, the two are enrolled in Washington and Lee’s Master of Laws program. Ehsan, who also holds a B.A. from Macalester College, was most recently employed as a program officer at the Foundation Open Society Institute. Ebrahimi worked as a gender and justice national program officer at the United Nations Fund for Women; prior to that post, he was a senior legal advisor to a USAIDfunded privatization project. They hope that exposure to U.S. laws and legal systems will further prepare them to help stabilize their country’s legal sector.

Even setting aside cultural history, the effects of decades of war and, most recently, internal strife from a controversial election, the barriers to justice reform are considerable. At every level, from judges to lawyers, the judicial sector in Afghanistan is critically short of trained personnel and corruption is commonplace. Most Afghan judges have no formal education in the country’s legal codes, relying instead on religious training or customary law to deliver legal remedies.

Despite the challenges, Ehsan and Ebrahimi are committed to seeing the rule of law established in their home country. A stable and consistent justice system, they say, is the only way to realize the future they want for their homeland.

“People want jobs, a good life,” Ehsan said, “but unless we have a strong justice sector, a strong rule of law, we cannot achieve the minimum level of development or welfare that we want to have in Afghanistan.”

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the Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan, a joint effort between the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs and the American legal community. The goal is to help the Afghan people establish a fair and transparent justice system that protects the rights of women, children and minorities and that is equally accessible to all citizens.

Kevin Rardin ’84L, an assistant district attorney in Memphis, introduced W&L to the partnership. An Army reservist who served as a judge advocate for U.S. forces and legal mentor to the judge advocates in the Afghan Army’s 205th Corps from 2007-08, Rardin enlisted the help of Dean Rodney Smolla to take two of the six Afghan law students accepted into the State Department program.

Administrators from both the School of Law and W&L’s Office of International Education plowed through red tape to get the students to Lexington just in time for the start of classes in August.

Ehsan and Ebrahimi didn’t learn where they would be studying until just days before they left Afghanistan. As non-native speakers, both are happy to have landed at a small, well-respected school, where the close student-faculty interaction provides support, and also encourages greater class participation.

Neither is certain where they will apply their enhanced knowledge when they return home. Ehsan would like to work at the policy level, helping to stabilize the justice sector in order to encourage much-needed international investment. Ebrahimi knows that working for marginalized groups will remain a strong focus of his career, in addition to taking part in the law reform process.

“Women and children have been the populations most affected by the war in my country,” he said. “It will take time, especially in rural areas, to make the people aware of their rights and to change certain traditions so that Afghan law is respected.”

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Human Rights in Tanzania

by Peter Jetton

But before the students could travel to Africa to research the The International Human Rights Practicum is one of the Law problem of sexual violence as a human rights abuse, they spent School’s new third-year practice-based courses, designed to six weeks researching the Tanzanian legal system and the law prepare students for their careers by simulating a variety of legal and policy around gender-based violence. They also conducted practice environments. But this class goes well beyond simulaa number of practice interviews specifically designed to teach tion by engaging students in the investigation of actual cases of them how to extract the most accurate information from people human rights abuse. often reluctant to speak about such sensitive issues.

“In this course, the students are functioning as a small The group, which included Bond and Class of 2010 stuhuman rights organization,” says Professor Johanna Bond, an dents Cristina Buccina, Ya Marie Cham, Lena Golze Desmond, expert in international human rights and gender law who is John LaMont, Dennis Maxwell and Shannon Sherrill, traveled teaching the course. “They research, travel and investigate, to Tanzania in early October. During their 10-day stay, the with the ultimate goal being to generate a human rights report students conducted about 60 interviews with judges, lawyers, that can be used to prod a government into making changes.” police officers, health-care providers and a variety of non-govStudents are investigating enforcement of Tanzania’s Sexual ernmental organizations that provide legal aid and counseling Offenses Act. Passed in 1998, the landmark legislation amended to victims of sexual violence. the country’s penal code to include tougher penalties for sexual Given their assumptions going in, the students were not assault and also outlawed human trafficking and the harmful surprised to find the problems with reporting and enforcement cultural practice known as female genital mutilation, common perhaps worse than within some ethnic they expected. But groups. But even they were surprised before hitting the by how seriously ground, students the issue is taken, learned from their even as they uncovin-country partners ered the deep roots at the Women’s of problem.

Legal Aid Center “The people I (WLAC) that genspoke with, from eral awareness of police to governthe law was on the ment officials, genudecline. In addiinely want to fix the tion, there remains problems and make a strong social stigthe environment ma attached to vicbetter for women,” tims of sexual viosays Maxwell. lence, suggesting W&L students collaborated with a local partner organization in “There are many many such crimes Dar es Salaam, the Women’s Legal Aid Centre, which created these reasons why they go unreported. posters to raise awareness about domestic violence in Tanzania.

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D i s c o v e r y

Children rescued from human trafficking learn sewing and knitting so that they have skills to support themselves. The W&L group visited the facility, and after a tour the children sang them a song.

Buccina and Sherrill conducted interviews with administraare struggling with the enforcement of the law, and the country tors at an aid organization that has rescued 250 children from has a long row to hoe in overcoming the cultural and social barrihuman-trafficking situations in the last four years. The children ers to enforcement.” are now learning sewing and knitting so that they have skills to One interview in particular brought this challenge into stark support themselves. relief. The subject was herself a human rights lawyer, educated “During the interviews, were heard singing throughout the in the law and fighting on a daily basis for the women and chilbuilding, and afterward we were given a tour of the facility,” dren of Tanzania. But even she admitted that if she became a said Sherrill. “We were introduced to the children and they sang victim of sexual assault, she would be extremely reluctant to us a song, and it was at that point that what we were doing took report the crime to police. on a greater purpose.”

Perhaps the most galvanizing experience for the students Now, the students have the difficult task of synthesizing all was witnessing the pervasive poverty in the country. Though the information they gathered into a human rights report docupolitically stable since becoming an independent republic in menting the enforcement problems and causes and detailing 1964, Tanzania was left destitute following decades of poorly Tanzania’s obligations under international human rights law. It implemented socialist policy, and it is now heavily dependent will also suggest changes to the law and make recommendations on foreign aid. to police, prosecutors and judges on how to properly investigate This poverty has contributed directly to the failed enforceand adjudicate cases involving sexual violence. The report will ment of the law. The poorly paid police force is susceptible to be mass-produced at the School of Law and then delivered bribery, and because victims are rarely compensated by the court to the School’s partners at WLAC for lobbying the Tanzanian system when they do go forward with a complaint, many victims parliament and community education efforts. or their families elect to take payment from the offender’s famFor many of the students, direct involvement with interily in exchange for not reporting the crime. Similarly, as Buccina national human rights may end when the class is over, but notes, human traffickers, when they don’t simply steal children, Bond believes the experience are able to take advantage of nevertheless will inform their poor families looking for a careers regardless of the area better life for their children. of law they practice.

“Life in the villages is “It’s disorienting to be hard, and when a relative or dropped into a foreign legal some other agent from the system so different from our city promises to provide a own and figure out how it child with an education or works,” she said. “But in that a good job, families often disorientation, so much learnagree,” said Buccina. “But ing happens. This kind of too often that child ends up experience gives them new being forced into prostituperspective on our own legal tion or simply becomes a Watching human suffering from half a world away can be frustrating. Six law students in a new system and the power of domestic slave.” international law class are getting the rare law to create social change.

Despite the bleakness chance to do something about it. From l. to r.: They will be better lawyers of the current situation, Dennis Maxwell ’10L, Cristina Buccina ’10L, Shannon Sherrill ’10L, John LaMont ’10L, Lena because of it.” there have been successes.

Golze Desmond ’10L and Ya Marie Cham ’10L.

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FOCUSED LAW

Professor Tim Jost tracks the debate over comprehensive health insurance B

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What’s life like in the eye of the storm? “Busy,” understates health-care expert Timothy Jost, the Robert L. Willet Family Professor of Law. Delivering two talks in D.C., teaching two classes, grading 25 papers, hosting 10 student conferences, fielding calls from senators, plowing through the 1,990-page Congressional health-care bill before blogging summaries on the Health Affairs Web site—a representative 80-hour work-week sounds Herculean, back-breaking. But for Jost, author of Health Care at Risk: A Critique of the Consumer-Driven Movement (Duke University Press, 2007), the work is endlessly fascinating.

And of life-and-death importance. Ever in crisis mode, “American health care is in pretty bad shape,” he maintains.

“With accessibility, affordability and quality the three pillars of effective health care, ours is a shaky edifice. At nearly 50 million people, the U.S. has more uninsured than any other developed country. We have the world’s most expensive system. And, while we do some things very well—our five-year cancer survival rates are evidence—our quality isn’t exceptional. In a survey charting deaths that could have been avoided with better

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Tim Jost joined W&L in 2001 as the Robert L. Willet Family Professor of Law. He is a co-author of a casebook, Health Law, used widely throughout the United States in teaching health law, and of a treatise and hornbook by the same name.

He is also the author of Health Care Coverage Determinations: An International Comparative Study; Disentitlement? The Threats Facing Our Public Health Care Programs and a Rights-Based Response; and Readings in Comparative Health Law and Bioethics (2nd edition, 2008).

He has also written numerous articles and book chapters on health-care regulation and comparative health law and policy and has lectured on health-law topics throughout the world. You can read his most recent essays at law.wlu.edu/ josthealthcare. He also writes for Politico.com’s “The Arena.” health-care services, we placed 19th out of 19 countries.”

Yet Jost is guardedly optimistic. With the House and Senate passing the Affordable Health Care for America Act, the next challenge is to merge the two bills. We’re just not sure how sustainable it will be,” he said. It will take three years before any legislation is implemented, but, seeing five years into the future, Jost envisions progress: “I’m hoping another 30 million people are insured and costs are lower than they could have grown otherwise.”

A brass-tacks pragmatist, Jost is a thinker, an idealist, however savvy. “I’m a Christian and justice is important to me, particularly for the poor.” He’s also a gentleman, dismayed, for

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instance, by the histrionics of the press. “Ninety percent of the coverage has been awful in that it’s about politics—who’s mad at whom—not substance.” And yet, pulled into the media maelstrom, whether it’s a civil chat on NPR or the prizefighting of “a CNBC program where people don’t talk, but scream,” he perseveres, “hoping that I might be able to do some good.”

With his father a hospital administrator, Jost concedes that his professional passion is in the blood, and that is reflected in his jam-packed schedule. To relax, he cooks and reads something other than scientific abstracts or The Congressional Report—a Big Apple Trifecta: The New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, the Sunday New York Times.

Yet mainly, right now, it’s laptop, limelight and lecture hall—labor, in short, for the soft-spoken yet driven Jost. Fighting the good fight, as it were. And doing it thoughtfully, ethically and passionately.

MEDIA

“At nearly 50 million people, the U.S. has more uninsured than any other developed country. We have the world’s most expensive system. And, while we do some things very well—our five-year cancer survival rates are evidence— our quality isn’t exceptional.

In a survey charting deaths that could have been avoided with health-care services, we placed 19th out of 19 countries.”

A

Tim Jost is in the Rolodex of many Tim Jost is in the Rolodex of many reporters. Here are this fall’s placements.

1 1 / 3 0 /0 9 – Wa s h i n g t o n P o s t

How long it will take for health-care reform initiatives to take effect, even if they are implemented soon.

1 1 / 9/ 2 0 0 9 - Wall Street Journal

Efforts by Democratic lawmakers to strip health insurers of their protection from certain federal antitrust laws.

1 1 / 8 / 2 0 0 9 - The Globe and Mail

Compromises between lawmakers that facilitated the passage of the U.S. House health-care reform bill.

1 0 / 3 1 / 2 0 0 9 - H e a l t h Af f a i r s

Blog about the House Health Reform Bill, HR 3962.

1 0/ 2 8 / 2 0 0 9 - F o r b e s

Citing his research examining a trigger for a public health-care plan.

10/28/2009 - Washington Times

Constitutionality of requiring individuals to purchase health care.

At press time, the Senate had just THE HEALTH-CARE DEBATE passed a comprehensive national system of health insurance. We threw of big big hrew aa couple couple of questions at several of our alumni whose intersect whose careers careers intersect with health-care law, asking them for their thoughts. f their thoughts. for We asked, “How do you think the health-care legislation will impact your work and ultimately the kind of care he health-care legislation will impact your work and ultimately the kind of care an ordinary citizen gets?” and “What areas does the proposed legislation get right or completely wrong?”

ALUMNI PERSPECTIVES

Personal Participation

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Scott B. Gregerson ’02L, vice president, business development at Doctors Community Hospital, in Lanham, Md., provides leadership in business development and strategy for the organization. He held a similar position at Sonoma Valley Hospital in Sonoma, Calif.

He is a fellow of The Advisory Board Company, a provider of comprehensive performanceimprovement services to the health-care and education sectors.

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Health care in the U.S. is failing based on expectations. We expect the latest technology, the best-trained physicians and immediate access to care in unlimited supply while living in ways that don’t promote health. The costs of those expectations are the system that we have now, and it isn’t cheap.

There are some basic things that can be done—better access to primary care, better management of chronic diseases such as diabetes, and reduction of preventable errors and infections in hospitals—but most of the critical components of a more rational system are politically untenable. For example, more than 25 percent of Medicare dollars are spent on the last year of a patient’s life. This is an enormous figure that provides very little by way of benefit to the patient or society. In fact, better care, such as palliative medicine and 13

hospice, are much cheaper, but culturally less acceptable, than taking extraordinary steps, even when it is obvious that no real quality of life will ever be restored.

The truly difficult decisions in this debate don’t relate to how much to pay for procedures or antibiotics, but instead how much we are willing to participate in our own wellbeing. The legislation, as it stands now, provides relief in some areas and challenges in others, but care will have to be controlled (or rationed, if you prefer) so that appropriate, not simply desired care, is provided. The health care crisis isn’t an economic failure, it is a cultural one, and the legislation doesn’t go far enough to address that issue.

It’s going to be an interesting year.

Innovative Technologies

As an original founder and co-patent holder on certain nano-particle technology, T o m D u n l a p ’ 9 9 L serves as the CEO of Ceres Nanosciences L.L.L.P., a biotechnology company that develops diagnostics products, based in Manassas, Va. He is also a partner at Dunlap, Grubbs and Weaver, where he focuses on complex civil litigation, mediation and arbitration in the areas of patent, copyright, trademark and commercial law.

The current version of the healthcare reform bill has something for everyone to complain about, which is not entirely a bad thing.

Leaving politics aside, the basic tenet of the Senate bill is that it will cover 94 percent of legal immigrants and cost $848 billion, allegedly reducing the federal deficit by $130 billion over 10 years. The federal government would negotiate rates with health-care providers, and there would be an elective public option (on a state-by-state basis). The bill proposes penalties for the failure to obtain insurance for both businesses and individuals and imposes additional taxes to help pay for the bill.

Of particular interest is the proposal to tax as much as $102.3 billion over 10 years from fees on insurance companies, drug makers and medical device manufacturers.

As the CEO of a small life-sciences company, I find the most alarming feature of the bill is the proposal to charge an excise tax on medical devices, which include items such as wheelchairs and insulin injection syringes used by diabetics (America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009, S. 1796, § 6009). The tax on a company is calculated essentially by taking the covered entity’s market share of all medical-device sales and imposing that percentage of the tax that would cover its pro rata responsibility (relative to the total medical device sales in the U.S.) for $4 billion per year for 10 years. The gross receipts for purposes of the excise tax are defined in three categories of gross receipts: under $5 mil14

“The current version of the healthcare reform bill has something for everyone to complain about, which is not entirely a bad thing.”

— To m D u n l a p ’ 9 9 L

lion, where 0 percent of gross receipts are taxed; over $5 million, but less than $25 million, where 50 percent of gross receipts are taxed; and over $25 million, where 100 percent of gross receipts are taxed. The tax would be levied regardless of whether the company is profitable.

There are a lot of opinions about what this bill means to the biotechnology and health-care industry, with each stemming from that company’s particular viewpoint. Generic drug manufacturers are unhappy with the biologics evergreen extension; medical device companies are unhappy with the targeted tax; and larger pharmaceutical companies, in some instances, believe the bill threatens their ability to innovate by placing downward pressure on prices and encouraging the use of generic drugs. Arguably, increased access to health care may serve to broaden the market, whereas a specific tax on successful health-care companies and downward price pressures may serve to stifle innovation and make access to market for innovative health care more difficult.

It is hard to say how the bill will impact smaller innovationdriven companies. While companies like Ceres sit at the same table as the larger companies, the interests and opportunities of smaller companies are very different. Likewise, there is no strong lobby for smaller, innovative companies separate and apart from those sponsored by big pharma or the other healthcare interests. The net result is that there is little dialogue and little or no consideration or attention directed at these companies. Smaller companies do not have the bandwidth, resources or clout with policy makers or the mainstream media to meaningfully participate in the dialogue.

Most innovation in biotechnology occurs in small companies (less than 500 employees). The goal for most small biotech companies is to partner with or be acquired by a larger company. This does not mean that their interests necessarily align. To ignore the potential for input has long been a mistake the legislature has made, but one difficult to rectify in an environment where starts-ups rely on large companies for access to markets and sometimes capital.

I think the Health Care Reform Act, insofar as smaller biotechnology companies with innovative health-care products are concerned, could be a tremendous opportunity. While the medical-device tax seems unfairly targeted at a potential sector of health-care technology, for many of these companies—by offering better products that perform more efficiently at a reduced cost—there is a huge potential.

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T i m K i l g a l l o n ’ 8 4 L joined Free & Clear as CEO in July 2004, motivated by the company’s opportunity to create value and improve lives by reducing the leading causes of death and disease. He previously was president of Applied Discovery, a leader in providing Web-enabled business services to the legal industry.

Preventative Health Care

Few dispute that reforming the U.S. health-care system is necessary. At $2.3 trillion, and costing twice as much per person as most European countries, it’s too expensive—and it’s growing way too fast. Further, the U.S. health-care system’s higher costs are not justified on the basis of outcomes or social equity; it compares unfavorably to most other developed countries in both areas. Given that the majority of today’s risk factors for disease, disability and early death are within human control, reversing the inexorable trend of rising medical costs requires a focus on human behaviors such as tobacco use, poor nutrition and physical inactivity. Yet, U.S. health-care does not face up to this; providers and consumers are encouraged to over-consume medical treatment, and preventive actions are seldom promoted.

Thus, the topic of U.S. health care provokes little serious controversy on the question of whether reform is necessary, but plenty on how to accomplish it.

Comprehensive health-care-reform proposals can be thought of as falling into several overlapping categories involving changing or creating new regulations and payments related to health insurance, medical treatment and prevention and wellness. Reform proposals have attempted to address all three of these areas, but those on the table now primarily address health insurance reform. Given the sheer magnitude of change contemplated, and the corresponding political price, the scaling back of reform has seemed inevitable. Yet, insurance reform may prove to be exactly the place to start.

In the U.S. today, health-insurance companies are concerned almost exclusively with medical treatment costs incurred during the average term of their members—about three years in many cases. The short coverage period per individual stems from employers’ frequent tendency to switch coverage, and employees’ penchant for switching jobs. Further, healthinsurance companies are allowed to deny coverage to potential new members who have a pre-existing condition likely to run up medical costs. Because of this, health-insurance companies stand to gain little or no benefit from investing in policies and protocols that address long-term health, and so they don’t.

Under health-insurance reform, this could all change—big time. Removing pre-existing-condition exclusions and other coverage limits would fundamentally transform the risks— and incentives—of health-insurance companies. For the first F a L L / W i n t e r

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time, insurance companies would be motivated to collectively address the long-term health of the U.S. population.

Chances are this would fire up a crucible of innovative energy to get Americans to engage in healthy behavior throughout their lifetimes. If so, that would be real reform.

Jeff Miles ’73L is listed in The Best Lawyers in America in the specialty of antitrust law; in Chambers U.S.A., America’s Leading Business Lawyers in healthcare law; in Expert Guides to the Leading Lawyers—Best of the Best U.S.A. 2007, healthcare category; Corporate More Work for Counsel / Top Lawyers; Health-Care and in the Guide to Lawyers Leading Healthcare Lawyers.

Nightingale’s Healthcare News selected him as one of the nine outstanding health-care antitrust attorneys for 2005 and 2006 in the U.S. He is a principal at Ober/Kaler in Washington.

The Obama administration has promised a reinvigoration of antitrust enforcement in general, and, more specifically, has targeted health-care industries. Moreover, any health-care reform will emphasize increasing competition in many healthcare industries, particularly health insurance, pharmaceuticals and hospitals. As a result, the work of attorneys specializing in health law, and particularly those specializing in health-care antitrust law, is likely to increase significantly.

The Federal Trade Commission has already heightened its attack on hospital mergers, and several significant investigations are pending across the country. The trial of an important FTC pharmaceutical merger case begins in December, and the FTC is also investigating mergers of large physician practices and a number of situations in which otherwise competing physicians have attempted to jointly negotiate prices with health insurers. It appears that the FTC will persuade Congress to enact legislation to prohibit so-called reverse-payment settlements in patent infringement litigation, by which makers of branded pharmaceuticals pay manufacturers of generic drugs to delay the entry of generics into the market.

The Antitrust Division has promised more active action against mergers of health-insurance firms in light of the highly concentrated structure of many health-insurance markets and pressure from both Congress and special-interest groups.

And attorneys general in many states are examining the same types of competitive problems in health-care industries.

Not surprisingly, even during this period of economic downturn and law-firm layoffs, health law remains an unusually attractive, active and secure area of law practice. Q 15

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by Jason bacaJ ’10

For the last 30 years, The Hon. William Broadhurst ’79L has spent his weekends watching football. But Broadhurst wasn’t watching from the sidelines or the comfort of his living room. Instead, he was in the middle of the games— as a referee.

“Up until 18 months ago, I had wonderful anonymity,” he said.

But he was outed when an attorney from Roanoke went to a game at the University of Richmond and brought a long-lens camera and a headset to also listen to the game on the local radio station. A penalty was called, and the announcers wondered aloud what decision head referee Bill Broadhurst would make. The attorney looked through his camera lens and recognized his colleague, Roanoke Circuit Court Judge William Broadhurst.

“Some guys hunt, some guys fish. Some officiate,” Broadhurst explained.

Broadhurst began moonlighting as a referee in 1982, after the Roanoke commonwealth’s attorney, Donald S. Caldwell, suggested he try it out one weekend. Over the last 27 years, Broadhurst worked his way through the ranks from Pop Warner to the Football Championship Subdivision, formerly Division 1-AA. Broadhurst works games for the Colonial Athletic Association, Patriot League, Ivy League and, when time permits, USA South and Old Dominion Athletic Conference games.

But officiating isn’t simply a weekend pastime.

Referees spend nearly as much time preparing for a game as the players do. As head referee, or “white hat,” Broadhurst must upload the previous game’s foul report on Sunday and download that game’s film to review his crew’s 16

performance. On Monday, he confirms meeting times with coaches for the upcoming week’s game and checks hotel reservations. Tuesdays, he reviews the game film, holds a conference call with his officiating crew to discuss their performance and reviews notes from the officiating observer who watched the game on Saturday. On Wednesday, he finalizes travel plans and talks with the supervisor of officials about any types of fouls his crew has missed or called incorrectly.

Thursdays are free, but on Friday Broadhurst travels to the city hosting the game, holds a post-dinner meeting with his crew to watch the previous week’s game film and a training film from the supervisor, and completes a weekly rules exam. On Saturday there’s a pregame meeting, and, finally, the game. “Officiating is a fairly time-consuming hobby,” Broadhurst admited. “Not including travel, I’d say it takes a full two days.”

Having a degree of control over his schedule helps him handle the extra workload. He can free up Fridays to accommodate his travel, but the downside is that he has to make five days of work fit into four. And he acknowledges that after shoehorning an officiating job into a judge’s already busy schedule, family time can get pushed to the wayside.

“It’s a sacrifice for all officials,” Broadhurst said. “I like to think I handled it in proper proportion, but I probably haven’t.”

Broadhurst plans to referee for as long as he’s physically able and still having fun. “Being part of an officiating crew is like being part of a team, made up of individuals who work hard, sacrificing physically and mentally for the good of the crew,” he said. “Those qualities are harder to find in the world than you’d think.”

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1939 Joseph C. Murphy moved

from Reedville, Va., to Leesburg, Va.

1955 Richard W. Hudgins

presented a paper entitled “Living Without God”to the Hampton Roads Torch Club in March.

1963 Jay F. Wilks was honored at

The Best Lawyers in America anniversary event in Atlanta in April, as being one of only 1,397 lawyers nationwide who has been listed in each edition of Best Lawyers since its first publication 25 years ago. He is the senior member of Wilks, Alper & Harwood P.C., in Norfolk, Va.

personal injury defense and medical malpractice law.

James M. Sturgeon Jr. joined the Charleston, W.Va., office of Kay Casto & Chaney. He was also elected president of the West Virginia board of accountancy.

1977 George R. Moore was named a top attorney in commercial litigation by Chambers USA. He is a shareholder of Devine Millimet and focuses on a wide range of commercial litigation cases. He lives in North Andover, Mass.

N o t e s The Hon. Pamela J. White

has been appointed by Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine to the board of her undergraduate alma mater, Mary Washington University.

White graduated from Mary Washington in 1974. She has served as a circuit court judge for Baltimore, Md., since 2007.

Prior to her appointment to the court, she was a partner and chair of the employment law group at the Baltimore firm of Ober/Kaler.

1978 David P. Falck was appoint-

ed executive vice president,

1966 R. Sander Harman lives in

New York City. His daughter, Jamie, gave birth to a baby girl, Charlolette Georgina Birkenhead. He hopes she will join the class of 2027.

1971 Albert M. Orgain IV was listed in the July issue of Richmond’s Super Lawyers magazine. He works for Sands Anderson Marks & Miller P.C. and specializes in aviation law.

John D. Klinedinst (’71A) was

listed in San Diego’s Super Lawyers magazine for his work in business and corporate litigation and professional liability defense.

1979 Samuel A. Nolen was

included in 2009 edition of The International Who’s Who of Corporate Governance Lawyers.

He is one of 367 lawyers selected by their peers as the world’s foremost corporate governance lawyers. Nolen is a director in the corporate department of Richards, Layton & Finger. He advises individuals, boards and management on corporate governance, transactional and control dispute issues. Nolen also represents corporate and individual clients in derivative and class actions, fiduciary responsibility actions and other complex cases.

1980 Cheryl H. Ledbetter retired

after 28 years with Jackson Kelly in Charleston, W.Va. She is now a managing partner for the health-care division of Hoffman McClain Consulting, with offices in Charleston, S.C.

1972 John A. Wolf (’69A) was

included in the 2010 edition of the Best Lawyers in America.

He focuses his practice at Ober/Kaler on construction litigation.

1982 Robert M. Couch (’78A)

1973 J. Jeffries Miles was includ-

ed in the 2010 edition of the Best Lawyers in America for his work as an antitrust lawyer at the Washington office of Ober/Kaler.

1975 M. Pierce Rucker II was

listed in the July issue of Richmond’s Super Lawyers magazine. He is the president of Sands Anderson Marks & Miller P.C. and specializes in F a L L / W i n t e r

general counsel and secretary of Pinnacle West and Arizona Public Service Company. He will oversee the company’s legal matters and handle utility law and public policy issues.

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Richard Redding ’92L , associate dean and professor

of law at Chapman University School of Law, coauthored The Politically Correct University: Problems, Scope and Reforms (AEI Press). The authors write, “Our goal in this book is to explore and finally offer remedies to this culture of political correctness, the bugaboo that has most bedeviled American higher education in recent years. We focus on the problem of liberal political orthodoxy in teaching and scholarship and seek to understand how ‘diversity’—of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation, but not of ideas—has become the dominant ideology in higher education.”

joined the banking and financial services practice group at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings L.L.P. as counsel in the firm’s Birmingham, Ala., office.

1983 Sean R. Smith (’79A) com-

pleted the Governor’s Island two-mile swim around New York Harbor on Sept. 4. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and four children and practices law.

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At Ease

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N o t e s Brig. Gen. Malinda Dunn ’81L on Chicken Street in Kabul, Afghanistan. She said, “The kids were always vying for photos, and then asking for a dollar. I am fond of kids generally, so I always inter interacted with them. And, I spent four years in Afghanistan (7th, 8th, 9th and 10th grades), so it was a lot of fun to talk to the kids, trying to dredge up my 30-year-old Farsi.”

by M aggie s utherland ’10

Early in her career, a commanding officer told her, “Women have no place in the 82nd Airborne, Capt. Dunn.”

Brig. Gen. Malinda E. Dunn ’81L , the first female to serve as the staff judge advocate of the XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg and the first female judge advocate to become a general officer on active duty, took the jab right on the chin.

“What a great welcome to that division,” she said with a laugh. “I entered the Army in 1981, and women had just been integrated into the regular Army from the Women’s Army Corps in 1978. At this point, the whole Army was getting used to the change. What I learned is that you, especially as a woman, have to establish yourself in every new job and unit. The Army is a performance-based organization, and if you prove yourself, you have no problem.”

And prove herself she did. Dunn has served as the assistant judge advocate general for Military Law Operations, commander of the United States Army Legal Services Agency, chief judge of the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, special assistant to the judge advocate general and staff judge advocate, XVIII Airborne Corps.

Her awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit with two Oak Leaf Clusters, Meritorious Service Medal with eight Oak Leaf Clusters, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Korea Defense Service Medal, Humanitarian Capt. Koritko (left) and I were getting ready to fly from Camp Victory, which is in Baghdad, up to LSA Anaconda, also known as Balad Air Base, north of Baghdad,” recounted Brig.

Gen. Malinda E. Dunn ’81L. “I was the senior attorney for all combat forces in Iraq at the time, so I flew all around checking on other legal offices.”

Patricia Davison Crauwels

finished her one-year term as president of the Florida Chapters of the American Board of Trial Advocates.

The board is a national, invitation-only organization comprising plaintiff and defense attorneys whose primiary mission is the preservation of the Seventh Amendment 18

right to civil jury trial. She is a shareholder in Matthews, Eastmore, Hardy, Crauwels and Garcia in Sarasota, Fla. J. Frederick Earley II was elected president of Mountain State Blue Cross Blue Shield by the board of directors at its annual meeting. He joined Blue Cross

Service Medal, Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal and the Multinational Force and Observers Medal.

Despite her impressive accolades and accomplishments, Dunn said the most satisfying part of her career was forming personal and professional relationships with soldiers and officers. “It sounds almost trite,” she noted, “but in the Army JAG Corps we say, ‘It is all about the people.’ I came into the Army not knowing what to expect, and what I found is that the JAG Corps and the Army are full of officers who are smart, who are informed by values in everything that they do and who understand that hard work is important. I built connections that created a circle that mixed work and social relationships. It is like being on a team all the time.”

Certain people helped Dunn forge her significant journey through the Army and over gender barriers. She attended W&L Law after the School’s first female law professor, Anne Unverzagt, sought her out on a recruiting trip. Dunn recalled, “I sat in the grass in blue jeans outside the dormitory with Anne as she conducted my law school interview.”

Dunn considers another important role model to be Gen. Henry Hugh Shelton, with whom she worked at the mid-point in her career, when he was the commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division. “There were very few women in that division at the time,” Dunn said. “He made a huge impression on me because of his innate understanding that women contributed as much to the Army as men.”

In September, Dunn retired from the Army after 28 years of military service. Though a prototype for balancing career and family life, she plans to stay home with her 13- and 16-year-old daughters for the next year. “My husband, Mark, was deployed to Iraq for a year after Thanksgiving. I’m not sure where I’ll go from here—I am just looking forward to spending time with my daughters.”

Blue Shield in 1989 and has served Mountain State as senior vice president of external operations, general counsel and corporate secretary since 1995. As president, he will have direct responsibility for sales, legal and regulatory affairs, external provider relations, provider contracting, planning and

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communications. He lives in Vienna, W.Va.

1984 G. Michael Pace was named

a Virginia Super Lawyer for 2009 in real estate. He works for Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore L.L.P. in Roanoke.

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N o t e s Services Authority prosecuting securities and derivatives market fraud cases. He writes, “If you are passing through London, let us know.”

Jonathan L. Snare joined the

Washington office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius L.L.P. as a partner in the labor and employment section. From 2003 to 2009, he served in the U.S. Department of Labor in several positions, including deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary with OSHA, deputy solicitor of labor and acting solicitor of labor with the solicitor’s office.

Robert J. Light was named a non-equity member of the firm Lawson and Silek P.L.C. He lives in Winchester, Va. Robert S. Westermann joined

the bankruptcy practice group at Hirschler Fleischer P.C. in Richmond as a partner. He focuses on Chapter 11 corporate Lynn K. Suter cases, general crediwas appointed town tors’ rights and related counsel for Dayton, civil litigation. Prior Va. She practices At a mini reunion of the Class of 1976L in Louisville, Ky., to joining Hirschler business law for both these alumni re-created the Ryder Cup celebration on the Fleischer, Robbie large corporations and clubhouse deck at Valhalla Golf Club after their own successful was a member of the navigation of the course.

From l. to r.: Hiram Ely, John Norris, small businesses with Dick Hooker and Rob Hillman. bankruptcy team at Lenhart Obenshain Hunton & Williams P.C. in Harrisonburg. in Richmond. Robbie She also serves on December 2007, in Cornelius, property practice group of and his wife, Townsend, have the board of directors of the N.C. They focus on business Sills Cummis & Gross P.C., three children, Ellie, 11, Ann Blue Ridge Community and commercial disputes and in its Rockefeller Center Ross, 8, and Robert, 5.

College Educational other state and federal court office, New York.

Foundation and chairs the civil litigation, but also have The Hon. James M. Williams board of directors for Eastern experience in estate plan1990 was appointed by the Mennonite University. ning and business formations Sandra L. Fischer was Louisiana Supreme Court and transactions for small to admitted to the Master of to serve as a judge, filling 1987 medium-sized clients.

Divinity Program at Yale a vacancy in Division J of David G. Hammon is of Divinity School. She is Orleans Parish Civil District counsel to Steptoe & Johnson 1997 pursuing ordination in the Court. At 35, Williams is the P.L.L.C., in the firm’s Krista Honaker Bowen United Church of Christ. youngest judge in the state of Charleston, W.Va., office. was named to the Forty Louisiana. He will serve Under 40 by the Charlotte 1991 until a new judge is elected 1988 Business Journal. She is a corClifford R. Jarrett is the to fill the seat. He is a partner Louise Phipps Senft was porate attorney for Robinson, managing director and office with Gauthier, Houghtaling named to The Daily Record’s Bradshaw & Hinson and leader for the Charlotte office & Williams. He was also Circle of Excellence, a disa board member for the of Major, Lindsey & Africa. inducted into New Orleans City tinction earned by being Charlotte Coalition for Social Business Magazine’s Hall of named a Top 100 Woman Justice and the International 1993 Fame and the Million Dollar three times. The award proHouse. Last year she led the L. Johnson Sarber Advocates Forum. gram was created 14 years United Way campaign at her III (’89A) was elected ago to draw attention to the firm.

1999 secretary-treasurer of the contributions being made by Florida Defense Lawyers Matthew E. Cheek was women throughout the state 1998 Association. He is a sharenamed to Style Weekly’s Top 40 of Maryland. She established Kevin K. Batteh (’95A) holder with Marks Gray P.A. Under 40. He was recognized Baltimore Mediation in and his wife, Sarah, have been in Jacksonville, Fla. for a host of accomplishments, 1993 and is vice president living in London for the past including his work with the of Roland Park Civic League. two years. Sarah is earning 1995 Virginia Bar Association Young her Ph.D. in health economShawn A. Copeland (’90A) Lawyers Division, the Boy 1989 ics, and Kevin works for the opened Copeland, Cook & Scouts of America, Junior Scott D. Stimpson is the United Kingdom Financial Richards with two partners in Achievement and English co-chair of the intellectual F a L L / W i n t e r

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2001 Ivy A. Johnson (’94A)

returned to the Senate as senior counsel for the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

Ross S. Goldstein was presented with the Attorney General’s Award for Fraud Prevention at the Department of Justice’s annual awards ceremony at D.A.R. Constitution Hall in Washington. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder made the presentation. The award recognizes “exceptional dedication and effort to prevent, investigate, and prosecute fraud and white collar crimes.” He is a trial attorney

in the Office of Consumer Litigation and belonged to the team responsible for the criminal investigation and prosecution of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co. for promoting its antipsychotic medication Zyprexa for uses not approved by the FDA. Eli Lilly’s conviction earlier this year resulted in the company paying what was then the largest criminal fine in the history of the United States.

2002 Faiz Ahmad began working

as counsel for the Acumen Fund after seven years of mergers and acquisitions practice at Skadden. Acumen Fund is a venture fund that is attempting to combat global poverty by making investments that will benefit the poor, primarily in Kenya, India, Pakistan and South Africa. The goal is to provide

N o t e s capital and business expertise to local entrepreneurs who can build and sustain businesses. Sample investments include housing projects, clean water filtration systems, drip irrigations systems and anti-malaria mosquito net factories. He writes, “The fund is doing amazing work. Please visit the Web site at acumenfund. org.”

2003 Gerald M. Titus (’00A)

joined Spilman Thomas & Battle in Charleston, W.Va.

2004 Troy A. Berman is the

new executive director of West Virginia’s Republican Party. He has worked for the Ohio GOP and party lawmakers in the Maryland House of Delegates and New York State Senate.

He also has managed congressional and state senate campaigns in Texas and Pennsylvania.

Erik G. Swanson opened his

own law firm earlier this year and handles civil litigation from his offices in Chicago’s northern and western suburbs. He remains active in numerous bar associations and recently spoke at the Illinois State Bar Association’s Solo/ Small Firm Conference in Springfield, Ill.

2005 Luder F. Milton was named

a Rising Star in the business litigation category by Virginia Super Lawyers magazine. He is an associate at Hirschler Fleischer in Richmond and is the youngest person in his firm to be recognized as a Super Lawyer.

Don Partington ’61, ’64L (in the white sweater) taught a short course on American jury trials in civil cases for a couple of weeks to the law faculty of Mazaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. He explained, “There is no jury trial system in the Czech Republic in civil cases.” He said the students all spoke English, and he was provided with a student assistant. “It was a nice experience,” he said. “The students applauded after my last lecture, which may be normal for them but was not expected by me.”

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The North Carolina Bar Association honored Walter L. Hannah ’50L with the dedication of the Walter L. Hannah Justice Fund. Hannah was the first associate of the Greensboro firm, which was called King, Kleemeier & Hagan when he joined in 1955. He has served in numerous leadership roles and received several honors from the bar association. He was the first recipient of the Evelyn M. Coman Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Construction Law. He’s also a 2002 inductee into the General Practice Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, his daughter, Nan Hannah ’93L, a Raleigh attorney and president-elect of the Wake County Bar Association and 10th Judicial District Bar, provided remarks on behalf of her father and family.

2008

on Jan. 28. They live in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Kimberly L. Herb was

accepted into the Attorney General’s Honors program and now works in Washington at the Department of Justice, Civil Division, Federal Programs Branch as a trial attorney.

Courtney Camp Enloe ’97L and Christopher Enloe ’93L,

a son, Christopher Wyatt, on May 21.

Amy Cadle Hocevar ’02L

MARRIAGES MARRIAGES

and her husband, Greg, a daughter, Clara Vivian, on May 7. They live in Richfield, Ohio, where Amy is an litigation associate with Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in Cleveland.

Karen Head ’00L to Kevin

Loren Weiss Villa ’02L and

2009 Sahang-Hee Hahn entered

the Villanova LL.M. tax program in the fall of 2009.

Joyce on March 28 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. They live in Washington, where Karen is the director of political and regulatory affairs for the Amalgamated Transit Union, AFL-CIO.

B I R T H S BIRTHS Rima Fawal Hartman ’94L

and her husband, John, a son, Charles Abraham, on Aug. 24.

He joins brothers Luke, 12, and Peter, 10, and sister Ella, 7. They live in Birmingham, Ala., where Rima is a shareholder at Maynard, Cooper & Gale.

Kimmberly M. Bulkley ’95L

and her husband, Michael Thompson, a daughter, Rorygrace May, on June 19.

She joins brother Grayson.

They live in Maplewood, N.J. Kelly Horan Florio ’96, ’99L and her husband, Rick,

a son, Giacomo “Jake” Walter,

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her husband, John, a daughter, Kira Danielle, on Jan. 23. She joins brother Devon, 4. They live in Hagerstown, Md. Kevin A. White ’04L and

his wife, Meghan, a daughter, Mary Ellerson, on June 6.

She joins sister Elizabeth Frazier, born on Oct. 14, 2007. They live in Richmond, where Kevin serves as an adjunct professor of business law in the undergraduate economics/business department of Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va. He is an associate at Kaufman & Canoles P.C., where he concentrates on public finance and taxexempt bond transactions and also maintains a general business law practice.

Matthew L. Frisbee ’07L and Allison Frisbee ’07L ,

a son, John Wilson, on Feb. 27. They live in Chevy Chase,

O B I T U A R I E S Md. The Hon. Henry W. MacKenzie Jr. ’32L , of

Portsmouth, Va., died on Oct. 5. He served as an officer in the U.S. Army and then practiced law in Portsmouth before being appointed as an associate judge of the circuit courts for Princess Anne County, Isle of Wight and Portsmouth. He was later named judge of the Circuit Court for the City of Portsmouth. He was a founding trustee of the Virginia Environmental Endowment.

MacKenzie belonged to Kappa Alpha. He was the brother of John A. MacKenzie ’39L and the uncle of I. Curtis Jernigan Jr. ’65 and Reverdy H. Jones III ’71L. The Hon. LeRoy Edward Glass ’49L , of Lynchburg,

died Oct. 26, 2006. He served as a captain in the Army during World War II and continued his service as a major in the Army Reserves. Judge Glass sat on the bench of the

General District Court from 1969 until his retirement in 1982.

Rufus B. Hailey ’50L , of

Sevierville, Tenn., died on May 1. After graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1943, he completed seven war patrols aboard the USS Perch and ended his World War II career in Tokyo Bay. He was recalled to active duty in the Korean War, served two years on the staff of Comsublant and retired as a commander from the Naval Reserves. He practiced law for 55 years, pursued real estate ventures (developing Forbidden Caverns) and was founding chairman of the Robert F. Thomas Medical Foundation.

He served on the boards of the Tennessee State Board of Education, the University of Tennessee, Morristown College and the Holston Home for Children, and was the founding chairman of the Sevier County Veterans Monument Association.

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What’s Brewing? by andrea M. null ’10

Nanette Heide ’90L , a relative newcomer to Duane Morris’ New York office, is

already making her mark at the firm.

A corporate finance attorney, Heide headed up a team that served as U.S. counsel for Australian grain supplier GrainCorp Ltd. In November, the company closed a $655 million deal to acquire United Malt Holdings Ltd., the fourth-largest manufacturer of malt used to make whiskey and beer. The acquisition will double GrainCorp’s size and transform it into an international agribusiness. With operations in Australia, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, the grain supplier will now be less susceptible to the seasonal conditions of eastern Australia, where it currently operates seven bulk-grain export terminals.

Heide’s primary responsibility was to put together and manage a team of attorneys with a range of expertise, such as environmental, domestic and international tax, export compliance laws, merger and acquisition, and labor and employment.

“When I was asked to run this transaction, my first thought was, ‘Holy cow! How do I put together this team?,’ ” she said. “But at the end of the day, I am a logistics person.

I always try to have that end product in mind and work backwards.”

That approach is a direct result of her years at W&L, where “everyone was expectNanette Heide ’90L served as ed to be prepared and participate in class U.S. counsel in a multi-millionnumerous times. In a school with such small dollar international acquisition. classes, you couldn’t run, much less hide,” she explained.

Working with her favorite professor at the Alderson Clinic, the late Roger Groot, whom she describes as “a dry, tough guy from North Carolina who took no prisoners,” provided her with critical training. “He taught me the valuable lesson of never thinking anything is impossible, either legally or practically. There is always a way to find a door open to do what your client wants to accomplish, within ethical boundaries, of course. When my partner came to me and asked me to run this particular deal, I didn’t say ‘No, I can’t do that, I don’t know enough people for the team, I have no idea of what laws we are going to have to review, etc.’ Instead I said, ‘OK, we will figure it out and get it done.’ ” Starting in late August 2009, the team worked long and odd hours for their Australian client and had to think creatively about rounding out due diligence.

By utilizing internal resources, such as practice group leaders, Heide was able to determine which colleagues were available and had requisite experience. She said, “You hope that your colleagues will be willing to do what it takes to get the job done, really, really well. In this instance, all of my partners and the associates jumped right in, rolled up their sleeves and produced amazing work in very short time frames.”

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Townsend Oast ’51 ’57L , of Portsmouth, Va., died on Sept.

3. He was president of the Southwest Hampton Roadsarea SunTrust Bank and founder of the People’s Bank of Chesapeake. He was the founder and president of the Chesapeake Rotary Club, and was a Paul Harris Fellow. He was president of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce and the Virginia Bankers Association. Oast belonged to Kappa Alpha. He was the brother of John P. Oast ’56, cousin of James A. Oast ’54L and Edward L. Oast Jr. ’53L and uncle of William H. Oast III ’71 ’74L. John J. Flood ’51L , of Burlington, N.C., died on Aug. 6. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Vermont and served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. Flood worked as staff counsel to the member companies of New Hampshire Insurance Co. until his retirement in 1985 as vice president and counsel.

Gordon B. Mills ’51L , of

Louisville, Ky., died on May 12. He served with the U.S. Army during World War II. After the war, he worked as a stockbroker with UBS Paine Weber.

Larry M. Topping ’59L , of Poquoson, Va., died on June 2, 2007. He served on active duty as a Marine infantry officer and also worked on military legal affairs. He was a partner in the law firm of Hall, Fox and Topping. Topping belonged to Phi Kappa Sigma.

Calvin T. Cronk ’66L , of Urbana, Va., died Oct. 3.

He served Old Dominion University, James Madison University and four state museums as counsel through the Office of the Attorney General of Virginia. He also counseled the Virginia Community College System, Virginia Military Institute and

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He was admitted to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court, Virginia Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court. He was president of the board of the Richmond Area Association for Retarded Citizens Inc.

Theresa Markley Brion ’85L received a Master of Divinity degree from Episcopal Divinity School.

She also received the Bishop of Atwood Arizona Prize for maintaining the highest standards in the field of church history.

Jennifer Belcher ’05L knows how to talk. A native of Rocky Gap, Va., she has a flair for oral argument that propelled her to first place in the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation’s annual Young Farmer Discussion Meet.

Farming is in her blood. She grew up working on her family’s beef and dairy farm and was an active member of the Bland County 4-H program. In 2001, while a senior at Emory & Henry College, she was named Miss Virginia Farm Bureau.

Now an associate with McDermott Will & Emery in Washington and a member of its trial department, Belcher kept up her connection to the Virginia Farm Bureau, the state’s biggest farmers’ advocacy group, with more than 150,000 members in 88 county farm bureaus. Volunteers in the organization are committed to protecting Virginia’s farms and ensuring a locally grown food supply.

Every year, the Virginia Farm Bureau holds a Discussion Meet at its annual convention. Using a pre-determined agricultural topic, participants compete in a committee-style discussion and are judged on their ability to build consensus and work toward solutions. This year’s final-round topic was how farmers can reach out to the public to make people

He served on the board of trustees of Waynesburg University and the Headley Whitney Museum Trust.

Dr. Preston B. Mayson Jr. ’91L , of Roanoke, died

Ronald K. Ingoe ’68L , of Manassas, Va., died on Feb. 2.

He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and practiced law with Chess Durrette & Roeder and Boothe, Prichard & Dudley before starting his own office. Ingoe belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

on March 30. He served in the Army and earned his undergraduate degree from the United States Military Academy and a medical degree from George Washington University. He practiced radiology for 18 years before attending law school. He practiced law for nine years until his retirement in 2000. He was the father of Brooks H. Mayson ’84.

John R. Bagby ’73L , of

Jennifer P. Taylor ’97L ,

Lexington, Ky., died on Sept. 7. He served in Naval Intelligence in Guam and later became an attorney in Lexington. He was a member of the Gratz Park Association.

of Richmond, died on Sept.

22. She practiced law in Charleston, W.Va. She was a prosecutor and later handled bankruptcy cases for a local law firm.

more aware of and supportive of agriculture. Belcher convincingly argued that producers need to share with the public as much information as possible about farming to gain needed support.

She suggested using popular social media outlets, like Facebook, Web sites, and other tools to educate the public.

She also encouraged farm bureau members to become part of the state’s Spokesfarmer Program to connect with other industries.

Belcher represented Virginia at the national competition in January 2010 at the American Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmer & Rancher Discussion Meet in Seattle, Wash. Belcher will also attend the 2010 Virginia Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers Winter Expo in Alexandria.

In an interview with SWVA Today.com, Belcher said of her farm experience, “You don’t appreciate it until you get away from it. It was not until I moved away that I realized how much I miss it. I learned the value of hard work early on. Mom always told us, ‘Hard work builds character.’ We told her when we were teens that we already had enough character. I’m proud of my background.”

Well Said

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Save the Date!

Law Reunion Weekend April 16 and 17, 2010

We will celebrate reunions for the classes of ’60L, ’65L, ’70L, ’75L, ’80L, ’85L, ’90L, ’95L, ’00L, and ’05L, as well as our Legal legacies (any alum who graduated more than 50 years ago).

For more information go to law.wlu.edu/reunion.

Questions? Contact the Office of Law School Advancement at (540) 458-8587 or e-mail Joan Miller at jhmiller@wlu.edu.

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WWays ays To ive ToGGive

J essine A. M onAghAn ’79L used two chALLenge gifts to e xpAnd her gift to the third - yeAr c u r r ic u LuM At t h e s c ho oL of L Aw . J oh n h u s s ’65L, b e n e fA ctor of t h e h u s s c h A L L e ng e g i f t , s A i d t o h e r , “ y o u J u s t c o s t M e A L o t o f M o n e y , A n d i c o u L d n ’ t b e h A p p i e r .”

Inspired by the generosity

mind. “There has been a lot

of Gerry Lenfest ’53, ’55L

of discussion in recent years

and John Huss ’65L, Jessine

about the real need for law

Monaghan ’79L structured a

schools to train students for the

gift to the Law School’s third-

actual profession of law. The

year curriculum that tripled

traditional doctrinal focus was

her donation.

not necessarily doing the job.

In doing so, she takes

The third-year program at W&L

advantage of the unique

is exactly the type of approach

match opportunities of the

that will prepare our students

Lenfest Challenge Gift for

to enter practice with the kind

faculty support and the Huss

of skills that are important to

Challenge Gift for the third-

representing clients well.”

year curriculum.

Monaghan, manager and

Monaghan credited Huss

senior counsel of government

for his inspiration. “I am

relations at SABIC Innovative

delighted that he has proposed

Plastics, said, “I appreciate

the challenge grant to support

W&L’s sense of collegiality, as

the third-year program,” she

well as its tradition of civility

said. “I could not be happier than to work with John to

Jessine A. Monaghan ’79L

and honor. Some of my fondest memories are of the close

make this program as robust and successful as it can

personal relationships I made with other law students. I

possibly be. John and his wife are wonderfully generous

am still in touch with many of those with whom I went

people, and it is a tremendous gift.”

to school and also have developed relationships with

The Jessine A. Monaghan Fund is a permanent

new people through my connections at W&L.”

endowment to support faculty who teach various aspects

Monaghan considers it a privilege to have worked

of the third-year curriculum. The fund will also provide

with many current law faculty and trustees on various

grants to faculty to support curricula development.

committees and through the Law Council. “I have

Faculty members receiving such grants will be designated

always supported educational institutions and have been

as Monaghan Fellows.

a long-time supporter of W&L. To me, education is

Monaghan focused her gift with a practical aim in

fundamental and, therefore, very important to support.”

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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N o n P r o f i t O r g.

U. S . P o s t a g e

P

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P e r m i t N o. 508 N o r f o l k, Va

Violence on Campus

S

Students Who Are a Danger to Self or

Others and Appropriate Institutional Responses

A daylong symposium on Nov. 6 explored recent violence on college campuses from the perspective of psychology, medical science and the law.

Keynote speaker Lucinda Roy (pictured at left), professor of English at Virginia Tech, discussed her close association with Seung-Hui Cho, the young man she tutored who later killed 32 people on Virginia Tech’s campus in 2007. She said, “There is no more urgent issue we face in higher education than this one. Violence on campus is no longer an isolated phenomenon.”

The symposium was sponsored by the Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice, the Frances Lewis Law Center and Barbri. Listen to the discussions at law.wlu.edu/violenceoncampus.