Faculty Focus

Faculty Focus is a monthly publication documenting the activities, accomplishments, and honors of  the University of Houston Law Center Faculty.

July, 2004

Richard M. Alderman has received the Nancy L. Garms Memorial Award from the State Bar of Texas. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to law focused education in Texas. He also has been invited to speak on arbitration at the AALS 2005 Conference on Contracts in Montreal. From June 20th to July 5th he visited Serbia as a ACDI/VOCA volunteer. While in Serbia he consulted with government officials, lawyers, law professors, and consumer advocates regarding the implementation of consumer protections in Serbia. He also submitted the manuscript for the 2004-2005 edition of Texas Consumer Law: Cases and Materials.

 

Darren Bush and coauthors John Flynn and Harry First were asked to provide comments on a bill that has recently become law.  Public Law 108-237 (HR. 1086) strengthens the requirement that judges, when considering a proposed consent decree between the Department of Justice and any other person, consider certain public interest factors.  These factors are largely ignored by courts that instead engage in rubber-stamping of any proposed decree placed before them.  Professor Bush and his colleagues wrote in favor of the bill.  Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), in a statement made on the floor in support of H.R. 1086, quoted Professor Bush's article with Professor Flynn on the Microsoft case, The Misuse and Abuse of The Tunney Act in the Microsoft Cases: The Adverse Consequences of Ignoring Legislative History and Intent, 34 Loy. U. Chi. L. J. 749 (2003). Professor Bush commenced work on his next article, titled Conspiracies of One:  When Violation of FERC's Code of Conduct Rules Constitutes a Conspiracy in Restraint of Trade.  Professor Bush was awarded a New Faculty Research Program grant in the amount of $6,000.00 to complete the article.  He is also working on completing other projects, including updating ANTITRUST: STATUTES, TREATIES, REGULATIONS, GUIDELINES, AND POLICIES 2003-2004 (with John J. Flynn and Harry First) and revising FREE ENTERPRISE AND INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION: ANTITRUST (originally authored by the late Louis Schwartz along with Professors John Flynn and Harry First).

 

Professor Bush has also continued to be active with respect to Mayor White's towing proposal.  In addition to submitting to members of the Houston City Council an unpublished response to the Mayor's op-ed in the Houston Chronicle, Professor Bush spoke before the City Council, noting that the Mayor's towing plan appears to violate the federal antitrust laws. Professor Bush has also submitted comments to numerous City Council members regarding the Mayor's revised towing plan.

 

Cheryl Butler, Clinical Assistant Professor, Legal Research, Analysis & Communication will present a lecture: "The Curriculum, The Bar and Learning What Matters" at the Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO) Thurgood Marshall Legal Educational Opportunity Program 2004 Conference: "Attitude is Essential: A Law Student's Guide To Academic, Professional and Personal Success" on July 12th. On June 11th, in conjunction with her local civic organization, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. she hosted "A Chat With Mayor Bill White" at One Delta Plaza Educational Center.  This event was a follow-up to "Delta Days at City Hall" on April 20th in which she spoke before the City Council on the impact of affordable housing law and policy on African-Americans.

 

 

Michelle Michot Foss and the UH IELE research staff completed the fourth session of New Era in Oil, Gas & Power Value Creation, May 16th-28th.  Dr. Michot Foss spoke at the CWC North American liquefied natural gas (LNG) conference in Houston, May 27th; on natural gas market developments at the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association annual meeting on June 8th; chaired a luncheon panel on LNG issues for the Society of Petroleum Engineers, June 8th; participated as a speaker and delegate in the 5th U.S.-China Oil and Gas Industry Forum, Shanghai, China, June 14th-15th and, while there, also participated as a commentator in the energy panel at the Harvard Business School global symposium June 17th; spoke on U.S. energy policy at the Houston Bar Association luncheon June 22th; with Mr. Fisoye Delano, IELE Senior Researcher, conducted a workshop and participated as speaker and chair, respectively, at the CWC Latin America and Caribbean Gas Conference, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, June 28th-30th.

 

Joan Krause's article, Regulating, Guiding, and Enforcing Health Care Fraud was published in Volume 60, Issue 2 of the New York University Annual Survey of American Law.

 

Professors Krause and Saver agreed to write/edit a new column on legal ethics in health care (as yet untitled) for the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics published by the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics.

 

Douglas Moll's article, Shareholder Oppression & 'Fair Value': Of Discounts, Dates, and Dastardly Deeds in the Close Corporation, was recently listed on SSRN's Top Ten Download list for another journal-Corporate Law: Securities Law Recent Hits. The article has been accepted for publication by the Duke Law Journal.

 

Tom Oldham sent in the manuscript for the 32d supplement to his book Divorce, Separation and the Distribution of Property.

 

Michael A. Olivas was interviewed in a number of newspapers and professional publications such as the Chronicle of Higher Education, Business Week, and others about his recent Congressional testimony on Sec. 529 Plans, the Texas Top Ten Percent Plan, and immigration-related developments.

 

Jordan Paust was a member of a panel on Military Commissions during the Conference on International Law Challenges: Homeland Security and Combating Terrorism at the U.S. Naval War College on June 24th.  The panel session was recorded for the television show "60 Minutes".  His article Judicial Power to Determine the Status and Rights of Persons Detained Without Trial, 44 Harvard Int'l L.J. 503 (2003) was cited in the majority opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, June 28, 2004.  He was also interviewed on NPR in June on the occupation in Iraq after June 30th.

 

Richard Saver presented "What Institutional Review Boards Could Learn From Corporate Boards" at the American Society of Law, Medicine, and Ethics Health Law Teachers Conference on June 5th at Seton Hall University Law School in New Jersey.  He also lectured on "Out-of-Hospital Do Not Resuscitate Orders: Best Practices and Legal Pitfalls" at the Hospice at the Texas Medical Center on June 22d.

 

Ira B. Shepard's June presentations in Houston included speaking to the Houston IRS-CPA Society on "Recent Developments in Federal Income Taxation"; speaking to the Wednesday Tax Forum three times, (1) "The Impact of Sarbanes-Oxley on the Corporate Tax Function" (with Geoffrey Koslov of Ernst & Young), (2) "Current Developments in Federal Taxation" and (3) "Distinguishing Passive, Aggressive and Dangerous Planning Strategies"; and speaking to the Council on International Tax Education's Transfer Pricing program on "Distinguishing Passive, Aggressive and Dangerous Planning Strategies." His out-of-town presentations in June were to the American Institute on Federal Taxation (Birmingham, AL) and to the New Mexico Tax Symposium (Albuquerque, NM) on "Recent Developments in Federal Income Taxation," the latter with Marty McMahon. An article he co-authored with Marty McMahon that suggested "a procedural detail slipped through the statutory cracks" Recent Developments in Federal Income Taxation: The Year 2002, 6 Florida Tax Review 81, 177 (2003)] was cited by the Second Circuit in support of its conclusion in Maier v. Commissioner, 360 F.3d 361 (2004), that a legislative remedy would be needed in order to grant judicial relief in certain innocent spouse disputes. In July, Professor Shepard plans to speak to the Wednesday Tax Forum on "Current Developments in Federal Taxation" (which he has done monthly since 1982), and to the Denver Tax Institute on "Recent Developments in Federal Income Taxation" (which he has done annually since 1980).

 

Sandra Guerra Thompson gave three interviews in area media stories in June.  She was interviewed by Houston's Channel 2 on the anticipated indictment of Enron CEO Ken Lay.  She was interviewed by the Houston Chronicle on federal indictment of men who lure young girls on the internet to arrange sexual encounters.  She was also quoted in the Austin Statesman on a Williamson County case in which victims complained about plea bargains offered by the District Attorney in their cases.

 

Greg Vetter presided at IPIL's Santa Fe conference on June 3d-4th:  Trademark in Transition.  A year in the making, the conference was organized by him along with help from the other IPIL co-directors.  Professors who presented papers authored for the conference include: Tomas McCarthy of the University of San Francisco School of Law and the author of a six-volume treatise on Trademarks and Unfair Competition, which is the leader in the field; William M. Landes, a professor of both law and economics at the University of Chicago; Mark Lemley of Stanford Law School; Graeme Dinwoodie of Chicago-Kent College of Law; and Michael Froomkin of the University of Miami School of Law.