SPRING 2015
The University of Virginia School of Law
The Citizen-Lawyer
“[I have] an ardent zeal to see this government (the idol of my soul) continue in good hands.”
—Thomas Jefferson, 1808
Upcoming Alumni Events
September 8
Charlottesville Reception
Law School’s Caplin Pavilion
September 17Norfolk/Virginia Beach Reception
Towne Point Club
September 30
Los Angeles Luncheon
Jonathan Club
September 30
Los Angeles Reception
Craft
October 1
San Francisco Reception
Villa Taverna
October 20
New York City Reception
Midtown Executive Club
October 21
Wilmington Luncheon
Hotel Dupont
October 21
Baltimore Reception
Woodberry Kitchen
December 9
Washington, D.C. Holiday Reception
Metropolitan Club
For Latest on alumni events: www.law.virginia.edu/alumni
from the dean Paul G. Mahoney
…
By Inclination and Training
L
awyers are heavily represented in public life. Partly
this is because lawyers are trained to persuade,
which is an essential skill in the policy arena. But it is
also because lawyers are by inclination and training
dedicated to public service. We take great pride in
being the first law school explicitly founded on that
principle.
The remarkably high representation of UVA Law
graduates in national, state, and local elected and
appointed office is also a reminder that effective public
service depends critically on leadership ability. Our
graduates have always become leaders within their
organizations, both in the private and public sectors,
at rates disproportionate to their numbers. Their ability to work with others—to
listen, to understand, to build consensus, and to inspire—make them naturals in the
public arena.
In this issue of the UVA Lawyer, we focus on graduates who hold or have held
important posts in state and local government. As of 2012, there were 90,056 state and
local government units, including 38,910 general-purpose governments such as cities
and towns, in the United States. They collectively employed 14.7 million full-time
workers, compared to 2.6 million at the federal level. While federal policies obviously
have outsized impact, a majority of all government decisions and actions take place
at a local level. In that sense, it really is true that all politics is local. We asked several
graduates who have served in state and local government, including some who can
contrast it with their federal government service, to give us their insights. I particularly
enjoyed hearing their descriptions of interactions with constituents and related
comments about the differences between campaigning and governing.
Law and lawyers played a central role in the civil rights movement, which celebrates
an important anniversary this year. On August 6, 1965, President Johnson signed the
Voting Rights Act of 1965, which contained provisions designed to make effective the
right to vote as guaranteed by the 15th Amendment. We asked three faculty members
whose teaching and scholarship touch on civil rights and in particular on voting rights,
Risa Goluboff, Dan Ortiz, and George Rutherglen, to reflect on the Voting Rights Act
and the recent Supreme Court decision in the Shelby County case finding a portion of
the act unconstitutional.
These pages contain a wealth of interesting observations on issues that should be of
interest to every citizen as well as every graduate of the Law School. I hope you enjoy
reading them.
The University of Virginia School of Law
Departments
1
From the Dean
By Inclination
and Training
5
Law School News
Feature stories
47
Faculty News
& Briefs
59
20
The Citizen-Lawyer:
Leadership in State and Local Government
Class Notes
83
In Memoriam
84
In Print
88
Opinion
The Voting Rights Act
36
Karl Racine ’89: New Role, New Goal
39
Meet Donald Lemons ’76: Virginia’s Chief Justice
43
Remarks on Race by Mississippi Judge
Carlton Reeves ’89 Reaches National Audience
45
On the cover: Inside the dome of the
California State Capitol in Sacramento.
Facing page: The U.S. Capitol dome
presently under renovation is expected
to be completed by 2017.
Five Alumni, Five Former Supreme Court Clerks,
One Firm
Spring 2015 Vol. 39, No. 1 | Editor Cullen Couch Associate Editor Denise Forster Contributing Writer Rebecca Barns Design Roseberries Photography Tom Cogill, Warren Craghead, Kimberly Reich, Eric Williamson, Mary Wood
Law School News
Hit Podcast | Eric Williamson and Mary Wood
Serial Brings to Light Work of Innocence Project
his is a Global
T e l * L i n k
prepaid call from …
Adnan Sye d … an
inmate at a Maryland
correctional facility.”
That
sound
bite
launched each eagerly
awaited
episode
of
Serial, the hit podcast
that teamed up with the
Law School’s Innocence
Project to investigate and
track down new leads in a
1999 murder case. The 12week series, downloaded
by millions of listeners,
ended in December. In
April it garnered a Peabody Award—the
first ever awarded to a podcast, and in May
it received a Silver Gavel Award from the
American Bar Association.
The podcast closed with the promise
that the Innocence Project would seek
DNA testing and investigate further. The
school’s for-credit clinic and a related pro
bono clinic give students who participate
the chance to investigate, and potentially to
litigate, wrongful convictions that may lead
to exoneration.
Whatever the final results of that
investigation turn out to be, the students
involved in the effort say it was a once-in-alifetime experience.
“We feel like we’re making a difference
in something that the whole nation’s looking
at,” said Katie Clifford ’15, who was featured
on the podcast.
Katie Clifford ’15 (left), Deirdre Enright ’92, and Mario Peia ’15
discuss their participation in the Serial podcast.
Enright said the level
of interest was a surprise
in light of the traditional
lack of funding for postconviction relief.
“If you would have
told me last year that
5 million people would
want to know what we do
every day, I would say they
clearly don’t care what
we do every day, because
there aren’t funds for
representing people postconviction,” Enright said.
“No one even pays people
to do that. So, this level of
interest feels really hopeful
to me, like maybe we’re underestimating
people’s interest in the system.”
The clinic’s efforts to investigate
questionable convictions have made news
in the past. Syed read in prison about Justin
Wolfe, a Virginia death row inmate who had
a defense team that included the Innocence
Project, and saw similarities to his own
case. This led Serial co-creator and narrator
Sarah Koenig to interview Enright about
those similarities and to hash out with her
some of the unusual aspects of the Syed
case. Their conversations form the bulk
of Episode 7, titled “The Opposite of the
Prosecution.”
During the episode, Enright makes
Koenig an offer to help track down some of
the unanswered questions.
“It’s a lot of leg work, [but] if we had
a team of five students we could get those
things done with people who are being
supervised, so think about that,” Enright
tells her. “I’m totally hooked.”
A flabbergasted Koenig accepts.
Dan Addison / UVA Public Affairs
“T
The Case
Adnan Syed was a 17-year-old Baltimore
high school student when his ex-girlfriend,
Hae Min Lee, was found strangled to death
in a park. Despite apparently lacking a
strong motive, Syed was sentenced to life in
prison for her murder. Syed has maintained
his innocence.
Produced by the makers of This
American Life, the serialized re-examination
of the murder case became an international
sensation, with Apple reporting that the
podcast became the fastest to reach 5 million
downloads and streams in iTunes history.
But members of the Virginia team said they
never predicted how popular or expansive
the reporting would turn out to be.
“Zero idea,” said Innocence Project
Director Deirdre Enright ’92, with her students echoing agreement.
“We thought maybe it was going to
be one episode of This American Life,”
Clifford said.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 5
Law School News
…
“Really, this is how the investigation
should have started. From the forensics, and
go from there,” Enright said.
The crime scene—including Lee’s
body—appears to have contained multiple
sources of forensic information that
were not pursued by either the defense
or the prosecution, Enright said. Hairs
not belonging to
Lee were recovered
from
her
body,
“Really, this is how the investigation should have
and her fingernails
started. From the forensics, and go from there.”
were clipped and
preserved, as was
a rope found next to her partially buried
the files, tell Koenig that, like Enright, they
remains. The evidence was not presented
have doubts about Syed’s guilt.
in court, Enright said, nor was it submitted
“One of the things I found odd when I first
to CODIS, the FBI’s DNA database through
started reading this case was how precisely
which law enforcement checks for hits on
[Syed] was convicted under this amount of
potential perpetrators.
material,” says Peia, an aspiring prosecutor
The tests could exclude Syed as the
now clerking in the U.S. District Court for
killer—or they could suggest his guilt.
the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
“And of course, there’s always the
Clifford notes during the interview that
third possibility—that the testing neither
forensics reports were missing from Syed’s
inculpates nor exculpates Adnan,” Enright
file for some physical evidence that was
said. “Many years have passed, and evidence
collected.
can deteriorate and degrade.”
“We are curious about the results we
don’t have,” she says.
In fact, Enright added eight students to
the case—five from the project’s for-credit
clinic and three from the pro bono clinic.
Pro bono students began work on the
project in early March 2014.
Also in Episode 7, team leader
Mario Peia ’15 and pro bono clinic president Clifford, who had read through all of
The Investigation
In addition to reviewing the material Koenig
and her colleagues collected, the students
investigated new leads of their own. Peia
said the team worked by trying to answer
questions they had about Syed and others
closely linked to the victim, then widening
their circle. Enright suggested that they
try to answer the question: If not Syed,
then who?
“It sounded to us like the piece that
wasn’t being addressed at all is, who were
the alternate suspects?” Enright said.
Now, “We’ve got these alternate suspects—very legitimate alternate suspects,”
Enright said.
Early last fall, members of the team
visited the Baltimore Police Department’s
Homicide Cold Case Unit, and drafted a
motion for forensic testing of crime scene
evidence that could potentially implicate one
of the alternate suspects, and exonerate Syed.
6 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
Alternate Paths
The drive to test the evidence has been on
hold for now, as Syed’s attorneys pursue an
alternate route. In January 2014, a Baltimore
circuit court decision denied his petition for
post-conviction relief on the grounds that
his attorney, Cristina Gutierrez, had been
ineffective. But in May, a Maryland Court
of Special Appeals remanded the case to the
Baltimore circuit court to consider a new
affidavit by a witness offering a potential
alibi. The remand reopens the previously
concluded post-conviction proceeding.
Gutierrez, who suffered from multiple
sclerosis, was disbarred in 2001 after several complaints from her clients. She died
in 2004.
“What’s a little bit different in this case
[compared to a typical Innocence Project
case] is that the defense attorney did a
lot,” Enright said. “She didn’t always do
the things that we wish she would have
done, like test the physical evidence, but I
don’t know if she’d be ineffective under the
standards that we have.”
Enright said that even if forensic testing
doesn’t happen, the Innocence Project will
continue their investigation of the case and
determine if there is enough new evidence
to file a writ of actual innocence based on
non-biological evidence.
“The combined efforts of Sarah Koenig
and Syed’s team of supporters have already
revealed many significant new facts that
were never presented to the jury, and our
investigation is far from complete,” she said.
A Unique Experience
As the story unfolded on Serial, Enright and
the students saw their research turned into
a compelling story in a unique new format.
“What ends up being on the show is
about an eighth of what we all learned and
know,” Enright said. For example, the show
highlighted one possible alternate suspect,
whereas Enright believes there are many.
The Law School team also had to work with
Serial on the timing of when certain pieces
of information would be revealed, to allow
space for the investigation to happen.
“We had many discussions about their
goals in telling a story and our goals in
exonerating someone,” Enright said. “Often
we were on the same page, but sometimes
we came right up against each other and we
would say, ‘We would never do what you are
about to do,’ and they would say ‘We cannot
do what you want to do.’ And it was okay, it
worked. But it was a challenge.”
Members of the team said the experience
they’ve gained on the case, and the exposure
they’ve received, can only help their careers.
Most anticipate working for law firms, and
said employers are always interested in
attorneys with practical experience.
Other students hope to work specifically
in criminal defense or, in Peia’s case,
prosecution.
“The Innocence Project has been
fantastic for learning prosecutorial ethics.
By seeing what happens when things go
very wrong in the criminal justice process,
one can learn how to avoid these problems
before they come to fruition,” Peia said.
Law School News
…
UVA Law at the
Supreme Court
UVA Law at the Supreme Court | Mary Wood
UVA Law at the Supreme Court | Mary Wood
Laycock Wins Religious Liberty Case ­­
Clinic Gains Unanimous
Win With Henderson
T
he Supreme Court ruled unanimously
in January that an Arkansas inmate
could wear a beard according to his religious beliefs, in a case argued by Professor
Douglas Laycock.
“This is a clear and unanimous
statement from the
Supreme Court.”
“This is a clear and unanimous statement
from the Supreme Court,” Laycock said of
the decision. “Prison officials, and courts,
must take seriously the obligation to protect
the religious practices of prisoners.”
Holt v. Hobbs, which Laycock argued in
October, involved an Arkansas correctional
facility that refused to let Gregory Holt
wear a half-inch beard, though hair longer
than a half-inch was allowed, and beards a
quarter-inch or shorter were permitted for
medical conditions. Holt brought the petition against corrections director Ray Hobbs
and related parties under the Religious
Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.
Holt, aka Abdul Maalik Muhammad,
is serving a life sentence for burglary and
domestic battery. He said the prison policy
infringed upon his ability to practice his
Muslim faith.
“This is not just a win for one Muslim
prisoner in Arkansas—it is a win for
prisoners of all faiths,” Laycock said. More
at: www.bit.ly/s15holtruling.
Pictured above from left, Professor Douglas Laycock at the
Supreme Court when he argued Holt v. Hobbs, pictured
with Sarah Rafie ’16, Jennifer Carl ’16, Caitlin Shea ’16,
Andrew Mandelbaum ’16, Jad Khazem ’16, Katie Barber ’15,
Courtney Miller ’16, James Nelson ‘09, Sean Johnson ’16, and
Professor Micah Schwartzman ’05.
T
he Supreme Court delivered a unanimous decision on May 18 in favor of
a Florida man represented by the Supreme
Court Litigation Clinic.
Henderson v. United States involves the
“felon-in-possession” statute, which bans
felons from possessing firearms. In the
case, former U.S. Border Patrol Agent Tony
Henderson had provided his 19 guns for
safekeeping to the FBI in 2006, during his
prosecution for felony drug offenses. After
serving six months in prison, he tried to
arrange to transfer the guns to someone
who would pay him for them.
“The government refused, saying that to
do so would somehow attach constructive
possession of the guns to our client,” said
Professor Daniel Ortiz, director of the clinic.
Henderson v. United States is the twelfth
case the clinic has taken to Washington, and
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 7
Law School News
…
the fourth case Ortiz has argued before the
Court. The clinic offers students the chance
to handle actual cases, from the seeking
of Supreme Court review to briefing on
the merits.
Ortiz, who argued the case at the
Supreme Court on February 24, said he
wasn’t surprised at the unanimous decision.
“After the argument, we couldn’t
count a single justice who was clearly
on the government’s side,” he said. “It’s a
wonderfully clear, concise, direct opinion.
It repudiates the government’s odd view of
what counts as possession pretty clearly—it
doesn’t have any difficulties in getting to
that point. It’s a great example of Justice
[Elena] Kagan’s clear, direct style.”
Ortiz said the Supreme Court’s decision
will have a broad impact.
“There are over a million people
convicted of felonies in this country every
year, and in many cases the value of the
firearms can be quite high,” he said.
Find CBS News coverage of the clinic,
and more, at: www.bit.ly/s15henderson.
UVA Law at the Supreme Court | Mary Wood
Supreme Court Litigation
Clinic Wins Facebook
Threat Case
T
he Supreme Court handed another
victory to the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic June 1. In Elonis v. United States,
justices sided 7–2 with the clinic’s client,
Anthony Elonis, who was appealing his
conviction for making threats against his
estranged wife and others on Facebook.
Elonis argued his comments, styled as rap
lyrics, were made in jest to blow off steam.
Without addressing the First Amendment
issue in the case, Chief Justice John Roberts
said in the majority opinion it was not
enough for prosecutors to show that Elonis’
comments would make a reasonable person
feel threatened.
Clinic Director and Professor Daniel
Ortiz said the decision throws out Elonis’
conviction, though it doesn’t clear up a
murky area of free speech law.
“It’s a very strong win and a clear
opinion that leaves to another day a few
big questions—if negligence isn’t enough,
what’s the correct level of mens rea required
and what role the First Amendment might
play in the issue—that the lower courts will
consider over the next few years,” he said.
The clinic, which has argued 12 cases
in Washington since its inception in 2006,
offers students the chance to handle actual
cases, from the seeking of Supreme Court
review to briefing on the merits.
At issue in Elonis was whether the
comments constituted a “true threat.”
Clinic Instructor John Elwood, a partner
at Vinson & Elkins in Washington, D.C.,
argued on behalf of Elonis and the clinic on
December 1.
“This case is particularly relevant in an
age when we increasingly communicate
electronically with people we have never
met in person,” Elwood said. “People who
know me well may know when I’m kidding,
but people who are just reading something
on Twitter or Facebook may not know that
this is something that [is meant] facetiously.”
Elonis was 27 when, in the span of a few
weeks, his wife of seven years left him and
he lost his job.
“He put up some posts on Facebook,
although they were typically posted with
From left, Joel Johnson ’15, Jennifer
Maloney ’15, Anna McDanal ’15,
Professor Dan Ortiz, clinic instructor
David Goldberg, Samuel Strongin ’15,
Peter Benson ’15, and Professor Toby
Heytens ’00 pause for a photo after the
Henderson argument.
8 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
Law School News
…
Below, Andrew Kilberg ’14, a
former articles development
editor for the Virginia Law Review
and Supreme Court Litigation
Clinic participant, will be the
fourth alumnus to clerk at the
Supreme Court for the 2015–16
term.
all sorts of disclaimers all over them—that
they were basically written for cathartic
purposes and weren’t meant to be taken
seriously,” Elwood said.
release in February 2014. After his release,
he was still subject to supervised release for
three years and to traditional obstacles from
being labeled a felon.
“This case is particularly relevant in an age when we increasingly
communicate electronically with people we have never met in person.”
In his posts, Elonis included links to the
Wikipedia “Freedom of speech” page and
made references to other First Amendment
cases. In the meantime, his wife obtained a
“protection from abuse” order against him.
“[Elonis] got an unhappy visit from
the FBI and of course he put out a post on
that one too. The FBI was not amused, and
they charged him with making an interstate
threat,” Elwood said.
Elonis was convicted of five of six
charges, and served 44 months before his
Above, a mix of counsel, professors, and students on the steps of
the Supreme Court after arguing the Elonis case in December. From
left, Ronald Levine, Julie Wolf ’15, Abraham Rein, Lide Paterno ’15,
John Elwood, Peter Benson ’15, Toby Heytens ’00, Dan Ortiz,
Nick Reaves ’15, Trevor Lovell ’15, and Mark Stancil ’99.
Genevieve Hoffman ’15, a clinic
participant who worked on the case, said
she was not surprised by the decision.
“It’s consistent with the Court’s
precedents dealing with mens rea standards
in federal statutes, which I think definitely
worked in our favor,” she said. “It was great
to see that our work paid off—many of
those precedents that we had researched
and discussed showed up in the opinion.”
Lide Paterno ’15 also helped with the
case. “I loved working on this case because
it brought together so many areas of law I
had studied throughout my time at UVA,
from the basics of criminal law to more
advanced First Amendment and statutory
interpretation issues,” Paterno said.
Four Alumni to Clerk at
the Supreme Court
W
ith the news that Andrew Kilberg ’14
will clerk for Justice Anthony
Kennedy during the 2015–16 term, the Law
School can claim four graduates serving as
clerks at the Supreme Court, which ties a
school record from the 2009–10 term.
Kilberg joins Ben Tyson ’14, Galen
Bascom ’13, and Jonathan Urick ’13, who
will clerk for Chief Justice John Roberts
and Justices Stephen Breyer and Antonin
Scalia, respectively. Virginia is fourth
in contributing the most clerks to the
U.S. Supreme Court from 2005–14, after
Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. (The nine
justices hire 36 clerks each year.)
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 9
Law School News
…
annual anthology | Mary Wood
Intellectual Property Article Named Among Best of the Year
A
n article by Professor Dotan Oliar,
K. Ross Powell ’15, and UVA
economics Ph.D. student Nathanial Pattison
was selected for inclusion in the 2015
edition of Intellectual Property Law Review,
an anthology of the best IP law scholarship.
Articles selected for the Thomson
Reuters (West) annual anthology represent
“the best law review articles related to
intellectual property published within the
last year,” according to the publisher.
The paper, “Copyright Registrations:
Who, What, When, Where, and Why,” is
the first to study the contents of individual
copyright registration records, and is
intended to help lay down an empirical basis
for evidence-based copyright lawmaking.
“We want to lay the foundation
for subsequent work, by ourselves and
hopefully by others too,” Oliar said. Looking
at 2.3 million registrations from 2008 to
2012, Oliar and his co-authors discovered
patterns in how businesses and people of
different ages register their creative work.
“Firm authors tend to be geographically
concentrated, and to register published
works, computer software, periodicals, and
movies,” Oliar said. “Individual authors
tend to be geographically dispersed, and
to register unpublished works, music, text,
and drama.”
Most registered music works are by
authors in their 20s, whereas a majority of
computer software authors are in their mid40s, and authors of literature are mostly in
their late 50s.
“We find that older authors tend to
register published works, whereas younger
authors tend to register unpublished works,”
he said. “This phenomenon may suggest
that older, more experienced authors know
their way in the market better than younger,
less-experienced authors.”
Powell, who gained experience with
registration records working on a previous
paper co-authored by Oliar, said he learned
much about the process of drafting an
article for publication.
“Seeing the process play out was
instructive,” Powell said. “It was proof of the
lesson stressed so often by professors: It is
critical to write, evaluate, rewrite, evaluate
more, rewrite again.”
Powell, who graduated in May, plans
to clerk for U.S. Judge Robert Doumar ’53
of the Eastern District of Virginia. He said
he had to understand copyright regulations
to know what the data from the records
represented.
“One important contribution of our
paper is that it suggests ways that improved
access and understanding of the copyright
records could help build upon these prior
studies,” Powell said.
Oliar is continuing to expand his work
on copyright registrations. He and George
Washington University law professor
Robert Brauneis are working together with
the U.S. Copyright Office to make available
to the public and analyze the office’s records
dating back to 1978.
Dotan Oliar, center, K. Ross Powell ’15,
left, and economics Ph.D. student
Nathanial Pattison’s paper is the first
to study the contents of individual
copyright registration records.
10 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
Law School News
…
The World of the Corporate Lawyer | Kimberly Reich
Alums Take Students Through
Company Life Cycle
S
everal alumni taught a new short course
about the role of corporate lawyers
in business transactions and how that
role evolves throughout the life cycle of
a company.
The Role of Counsel in Business
Transactions, a one-credit course offered
through the John W. Glynn, Jr. Law &
Business Program, was taught by Hogan
Lovells corporate lawyers Bill Curtin ’96,
Warren Gorrell ’79, and Michael Williams ’84
during the spring semester.
The three also brought fellow alums
and Hogan Lovells colleagues to guestlecture, including Kevin Clayton ’98, Carine
Stoick ’99, John Osborn ’83, and Richard
Parrino ’78. In all, the group spans three
decades on grounds at UVA Law.
The course offers students perspective
on what it’s like to practice corporate law.
“We hope to give students some of the
same training we give our own associates in
our in-house program,” Williams said.
Students examine actual contracts
and corporate documents, Williams said,
and learn how to look at the long-range
implications of various decisions made in
the early stages of a company’s development.
The course “makes it much easier for
our students to hit the ground running
when they have their first opportunities
to work on transactions themselves, and
hopefully will enable them to make better
contributions and good first impressions,”
Gorrell said.
Williams and Clayton covered the first
part of the class: a company’s early stages,
when the focus is on organizing, financing,
and getting the company to market through
strategic agreements.
In the next phase of the course, Gorrell
and Parrino covered the choices companies
face as they consider whether to become a
listed company with public stakeholders.
They discussed the client’s need for advice
and guidance when considering the added
responsibilities and disclosure that confront
a public company.
The final part of the class, which
addressed mergers and acquisitions, joint
ventures, and other alliances, was taught by
Curtin, Stoick, and Osborn.
“My Hogan Lovells partners and I have
been looking for an opportunity to offer a
course through which we could share with
students an appreciation for the corporate
law continuum that companies experience
in the markets where they do business,”
Curtin said. “As graduates of the Law School,
we’ve always wanted to do this at Virginia
because we have a personal appreciation for
the way that the Law School makes learning
and teaching such a shared and constructive
experience.”
Carine Stoick ’99 and Bill Curtin ’96 discuss mergers and
acquisitions, joint ventures and other alliances.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 11
Law School News
…
courtrooms across the country | Eric Williamson
Clinic Students Travel U.S. to Argue
Appeals in Federal Courts
T
hrough the expanded reach of the
Appellate Litigation Clinic, thirdyears are gaining experience preparing
and arguing appellate cases in courtrooms
across the country.
The clinic handled appeals beyond its
home circuit this year, including two recent
First Amendment cases argued in Ohio, and
an upcoming argument for a high-profile
prisoner in Arkansas.
“Last year, we initiated an effort to
expand the geographic reach of the Appellate
Litigation Clinic beyond the Fourth Circuit
in Richmond,” clinic director Stephen Braga
said. “This year that effort bore fruit. By
summer, I expect that we will have had seven
students argue in four different circuits.”
12 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
The year-long clinic allows 12 third-year
students to engage in the hands-on practice
of appellate litigation through actual cases
before federal circuit courts of appeals.
Essentially acting as a small law firm, the
students work in teams to help each other
prepare cases, with one student having
primary responsibility for each case.
The team of Jack Zugay, David Martin,
and Cory Ward traveled to Cincinnati in
April to argue two First Amendment cases
before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Sixth Circuit.
On April 29, Zugay argued in the case
Abdurahman Haji v. Columbus City Schools,
which centered on whether their client, a
former middle school teaching assistant,
was fired by the Columbus School System
for exercising his First Amendment rights.
Haji had made a video of a sermon he
delivered at his local mosque. During the
sermon, he criticized the manner in which
the language arts class he helped conduct
taught Greek mythology.
“He believed it had crossed the line into
religious instruction, rather than remaining
solely historical instruction,” Zugay said.
The school system claimed the reason
for the firing was that Haji left early from
work on Friday afternoons, in violation of
the collective bargaining agreement. But
even if that were real reason, Zugay said,
an existing agreement had been in place
to allow his client to leave early to conduct
Friday worship.
Zugay said arguing the federal appeal
was a rare honor.
“Arguing the case was a tremendous opportunity,” he said. “It is rather unique for a
young lawyer to get to argue a federal appeal—
let alone a law student. All of the preparation
Law School News
…
Appellate Litigation Clinic client Abdurahman Haji, second from
left, stands with student legal team Cory Ward ’15, Jack Zugay ’15,
and David Martin ’15.
we went through—the numerous moots,
the countless discussions we had about the
case—really helped prepare me to think on
my feet and respond to the judges’ questions.”
Ward helped the team on the Haji case
by mooting as the state’s counsel throughout
the preparations. He said it was gratifying
to see their client’s reaction following the
actual oral arguments.
“The most rewarding part of the appeal
was meeting Mr. Haji after the argument,”
Ward said. “His appreciation was palpable,
and the moment made me realize what an
amazing skill we have acquired over the past
three years, and the positive impact we can
make moving forward.”
On April 30, Martin argued in the
case Ohio Council 8 v. Secretary of State.
The students challenged Ohio’s system
for judicial elections, which prohibits
judicial candidates from being identified
with their political parties on the general
election ballot. Their clients—a coalition
of Ohio voters, judicial candidates, and
Holt is now asking an appeals court to
help him obtain documents under the state’s
Freedom of Information Act that he was
previously denied, but may demonstrate
his actual innocence. The act prohibits
inmates without counsel from accessing
state records under the state’s FOIA law,
but allows inmates with counsel to do so.
Clifford and Peia assert that this statutory
distinction violated Holt’s rights to equal
protection under the law and to access
the courts.
the Democratic Party of Ohio—contended
that this system deprived them of their
First Amendment rights to association and
freedom of expression.
“The law mandates partisan primaries
for Democrats and Republicans, and then
strips that party label from the general election ballot,” Martin
said. “We argued that
the immense voter
“12 minutes at the podium goes especially quickly
drop-off experienced
when challenging a 160-year-old state law.”
in these elections
is at least in part
“Our client seeks reports stating that
caused by the burden on First Amendment
the main witness in his conviction lied
freedoms, and that constitutional burden is
and/or had a habit of lying in cases similar
too great for the state to justify the poorly
to his,” Peia said. “This information and
tailored law.”
documentation is absolutely critical towards
Martin called the experience “the
Mr. Holt’s attack on his conviction; indeed,
capstone” of an enjoyable three years at
he cannot challenge his conviction without
UVA Law, despite having felt some stress
this information.”
during the argument. Aware of the relatively
Students this year also argued federal
brief time he was slotted, Martin said he had
appeals in the Fourth and D.C. Circuits,
to work to pace his replies.
filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of
“The biggest challenge was slowing down,
Appeals for the Second Circuit, filed a
to make sure my answers were responsive,
petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S.
thorough, and persuasive,” Martin said.
Supreme Court, and filed an opening brief
“That was especially difficult given the
on behalf of a new clinic client in the Sixth
time crunch; 12 minutes at the podium
Circuit.
goes especially quickly when challenging a
Braga said students learned how rules
160-year-old state law in a federal court.”
vary in the different federal circuit courts,
But he said he felt prepared because of
how the logistics of travel can impact
the supportive efforts of Professor Michael
preparation, and how the geographic
Gilbert, who judged Martin’s final moot
backdrop for the courts and the judges
before he left for Cincinnati, and Braga and
sitting on those courts can affect their
classmates.
receptiveness to certain arguments.
The Sixth Circuit has not yet issued its
He said gaining this kind of experience
decision on either of the two appeals.
may provide the future lawyers an edge.
Another team of now-former clinic
“Because of their talents, UVA Law
students, Katie Clifford and Mario Peia, will
graduates will most likely wind up working
soon argue before the U.S. Court of Appeals
in a national law practice, so being exposed
for the Eighth Circuit in Holt v. Howard,
to actually litigating real cases around the
although the date has yet to be finalized.
country while still in law school will provide
Holt and Professor Douglas Laycock made
an enormous practical advantage to the
news earlier this year at the U.S. Supreme
students,” Braga said.
Court when they brought, and won, Holt’s
religious liberty complaint against the
Arkansas prison system for not allowing
Holt to wear a beard, per his religious
convictions as a Muslim.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 13
Dan Addison / UVA Public Affairs
Law School News
…
the World Court | Mary Wood
International Court of Justice
Represents Unique Blend of
Legal Systems
T
he International Court of Justice
operates through a unique blend of the
legal traditions of the nations represented
on the court, Judge Joan E. Donoghue told
an audience at the Law School in April.
Donoghue, this year’s recipient of the
Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in
Law, is the first American woman to serve
on the court, also called the World Court.
She was elected to the bench in 2010 after
a long career at the State Department that
culminated in her role as principal deputy
legal adviser from 2007–10.
Established by the U.N. Charter in 1945
following World War II, the World Court
renders advisory opinions to the United
This year’s Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Law recipient,
Judge Joan Donoghue, is the first American woman on the
International Court of Justice.
14 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
Nations and considers issues among states
involving violations of international law or
treaties, including a “steady diet of land and
maritime boundary cases,” Donoghue said
in remarks that painted a picture of how the
court operated.
“When you hear the expression ‘border
skirmish,’ it sounds like something small,
but it’s probably not small if you’re one of
the people being shot at in that disputed
border territory,” she said.
Only six of the 15 judges, including
Donoghue, come from a nation based on
common law principles—meaning courts
operate under an adversarial system in
which judges serve as referees, jury trials
are common, witnesses testify in court and
rulings set precedent. The United States,
England, and Australia hew to a common
law system, while much of continental
Europe and many international courts
operate under a tradition heavily influenced
by the French civil law system.
“There is something of a mix there, but
I would say [the World Court’s] tendency
over time [is] to operate and communicate
in a manner that’s a bit closer to a common
law court than a civil law court,” she said.
The civil law system emphasizes statutes
over case precedent and concentrates power
in judges’ hands. Rulings are typically
short and refer to the related statute rather
than expounding on the reasons behind
the decision.
“I think the most important responsibility of any judge in any court and
certainly our court is to bring an element of
self-awareness to our jobs,” Donoghue said.
“We are all creatures of our history. I am
American-trained, and I am a U.S. national,
and when I have an immediate instinct to
a question of law, to a question of fact, to
a question of procedure, I have always to
ask myself, why do I have that reaction?
Why does my colleague from Uganda, or
my colleague from Mexico have a different
reaction? And sometimes when you scratch
the surface, it turns out that one of the reasons is this difference in training on the civil
law and common law side.”
The World Court offers a stage for
nations (or states, in court parlance) to
have their argument heard, Donoghue said.
While 20 percent of the court’s work is
advising the U.N., the remainder is devoted
to deciding such “contentious cases.”
“Those look a little bit like a civil case in
our system, in the sense that you have one
state bringing a case against another state,”
she said.
Though the United States no longer consents to ICJ jurisdiction across the board,
the U.S. has appeared before the court in
more contentious cases than any other state,
and also in more advisory opinion proceedings than any other state, she said.
The court is developing a body of
international law through the cases it
considers, Donoghue said.
“If you think about it, it’s impossible
to do otherwise,” she said. “Treaties and
international law, like any legal instrument,
don’t answer all questions as nicely as
we might sometimes like within the four
Law School News
…
corners of the instrument. They require
interpretation, they require application, and
when the court interprets those instruments
as it does in every decision, we inevitably
develop international law.”
Unlike in traditional common law
courts, ICJ decisions do not serve as
precedent and only bind the parties before
the court, she said.
“But of course when lawyers look to
figure out the content of international
law generally, they give weight to what
the International Court of Justice has said
about international law, so states have to be
concerned about the possibility that their
conduct could be judged in our court.”
In offering decisions, Donoghue said it
was important for the ICJ to equip leaders
with reasons they can use in their own
domestic political environment to explain
why the court reached a particular decision,
and what steps are needed to comply.
“The more we can lay out the reasons
for our decision, the easier it is for the state
to discern why we acted and therefore what
the implications might be elsewhere.”
Offering an explanation of the judges’
reasoning also has an added benefit, she said.
“It’s very clear that this court is by no
means a court of unquestioned legitimacy.
The court has in fact been criticized for
many of its decisions, especially from
within the United States. And so the more
we can do to lay out our reasons, the better
off we are being in a position substantively
to justify the results [of the decision].”
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals
are conferred each year during the University’s
Founder’s Day celebrations, held around
Jefferson’s April 13 birthday. Sponsored
jointly by UVA and the Thomas Jefferson
Foundation, the nonprofit organization that
owns and operates Monticello, the medals are
UVA’s highest external honors and recognize
the achievements of those who embrace
endeavors in which Jefferson, author of
the Declaration of Independence and the
third U.S. president, excelled and held in
high regard, including law, architecture
and leadership.
Public Interest Law Association | Kimberly Reich
Students Working in Public Service Summer
Jobs to Receive $357,900 in Grants
T
He added that the grants also encourage
he Law School and the student-run
students to recognize the importance of
Public Interest Law Association are
giving back.
funding 84 students who will work in public
“Many people will have their first
service this summer through grants totaling
experience in a public interest position
$357,900. For the second year in a row,
through a PILA grant,” Swanson said. “For
every student who applied and qualified for
the funding is receiving a grant.
The PILA grants—
Every student who applied and qualified for the
$3,500 for first-year
funding is receiving a grant.
students and $6,000
for second-years—
a lot of people, that can be a life-altering
offer qualifying students an opportunity
experience. Even if they go into private
to explore a wide range of public service
employment down the line, they will be
careers, including with the government,
more active pro bono partners or doing
nonprofits, legal aid organizations, and
community service projects because they
prosecutors’ and public defenders’ offices.
saw how rewarding the work they got to do
The funding is “crucial” for students seeking
on their PILA grant was.”
experience in the public sector, said PILA
Find an in-depth look at where PILA
President Reedy Swanson ’16.
grantee students will work this summer at:
“[The grants] provide support for stuwww.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2015_spr/
dents who have no other way to get by over
pila.htm.
the summer,” Swanson said. “There are very
few paid public service legal internships
available, especially for first-year students.
First-year internships are important for
students to give them the experience they
From left, Cherice L. Lawson ’16, Kate Perino ’16, Alvin Williams ’17,
need to make them attractive candidates for
Elizabeth Douglas ’17, and Justin Wilson ’16 are five of the 84
positions down the line.”
students receiving grants to work in public service this summer.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 15
Law School News
…
Students on the Go
Students continue to travel throughout the United States, Asia, Africa, and Latin America to volunteer their time
and skills in a wide variety of programs that defend human rights and provide legal and humanitarian aid.
Here are some of this year’s highlights.
Human Rights in Myanmar
S
tudents in the Human Rights Study
Project traveled to Myanmar, a Southeast Asian country attempting to transition
toward democracy, to research a range of
human rights issues.
“Myanmar is a complicated place,” says
David Ledet ’16. “The country’s startling
beauty contrasts uneasily with its history
of human rights violations and the myriad
challenges before it. Despite the obstacles,
the commitment and kindness of the
residents and workers we met provide hope
that positive changes will continue.”
Known as Cowan Fellows, student
project members Ledet and Tanner Camp
’16, Tony Greene ’16, Tawnie Gulizia ’15,
Sejal Jhaveri ’15, Monica Kim ’15, Reedy
Swanson ’16, and George Zaras ’16 spent
16 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
15 days in the country studying issues
ranging from the impact of foreign
investment to health care and Myanmar’s
constitution. More at: www.law.virginia.
edu/html/news/2015_spr/hrsp.htm.
the observer is designed to help increase
the transparency of the proceedings in
Guantanamo Bay. More at: www.law.virginia.
edu/html/news/2015_spr/guantanamo-bayobservers.htm.
Monitoring Detainee
Hearings in Guantanamo Bay
BLSA Members Share Best
Legal Practices in Uganda
F
S
ive students traveled to the Guantanamo
Bay Naval Base in Cuba this year for a
week-long trip to monitor pretrial hearings for
detainees facing charges related to terrorism.
The students, Maggie Cleary ’17,
Nate Freeman ’17, Drew LaFountaine ’15,
Andrew Lanius ’15, and Rhett Ricard ’15,
volunteered to serve as nongovernmental
observers with Judicial Watch, a nonprofit
public interest organization. The role of
ix members of the Black Law Students
Association traveled to Uganda during
the winter break to help build a continuing
education platform for judges, attorneys, and
professionals who use the nation’s legal system.
The students in the nine-day January
service trip worked on behalf of the
International Law Institute’s African Centre for
Legal Excellence, an organization contracted
by Uganda to help restructure the judiciary.
Law School News
…
The institute’s larger mission is to improve law,
governance, finance, and project management
so that African nations can better compete
globally. More at: www.law.virginia.edu/html/
news/2015_spr/blsa-uganda.htm.
In the Desert
and on the Docket
F
rom helping poor defendants on
crowded court dockets in New York and
Louisiana, to providing relief to migrants in
the Arizona desert, students aided legal and
humanitarian efforts as volunteers through
an alternative spring break program.
The law students—29 in total—worked
at seven locations across the country,
donating more than 1,000 pro bono hours.
Now in its seventh year, the Public Interest
Law Association’s Alternative Spring Break
Program allows students to learn about
careers in public service while also helping
a range of government and public-interest
organizations. More at: www.law.virginia.
edu/html/news/2015_spr/pilabreak.htm.
From top: Judicial Watch observers headed to Guantanamo Bay.
Students participated in this year’s BLSA service trip to Uganda.
The Human Rights Study Project’s Cowan Fellows in Myanmar.
Opposite page: Students volunteered for the relief organization
No More Deaths during Alternative Spring Break. The Arizona
nonprofit was one of seven groups students helped.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 17
Law School News
…
A sample of the video and MP3 offerings found online, on YouTube, in iTunes, and on SoundCloud
Seen and Heard at
www.law.virginia.edu/news
Magna Carta: 800 Years After
Runnymede
Robert Pozen on Corporate
Governance
Professor A. E. Dick Howard ’61 speaks to
alumni on the importance of Magna Carta to
today’s legal traditions during the 2015 Law
Alumni Weekend.
Robert Pozen, a former chairman of MFS
Investment Management, noted author, and
senior lecturer at Harvard Business School,
speaks on corporate governance at “The 1940
Acts at 75: Reflecting on the Past, Present and
Future Regulation of Investment Companies and
Investment Advisers.” Paul Schott Stevens ’78,
president and CEO of the Investment Company
Institute, offers introductory remarks.
Why Civil Procedure Matters
Professor A. Benjamin Spencer discusses the
state of civil procedure and why it matters in
connection to access to the courts and the U.S.
justice system.
The Four Women Justices
18 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
Jean-Pictet Competition in
International Law
Dahlia Lithwick, a senior editor at Slate who
covers the U.S. Supreme Court, speaks about
gender representation and the four women
who have been justices. Lithwick is writing a
book on the subject.
The Université Paris II Panthéon Assas, Geneva
Academy of International Humanitarian Law
and Human Rights, and National University of
Singapore teams compete in the final round
of the Jean-Pictet Competition, and Singapore
is later named the winner.
SEC Commissioner on Financial
Regulation
A Fireside Chat with NFLPA
Executive Director
Daniel M. Gallagher, a commissioner of the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,
delivers the keynote address at “The 1940 Acts
at 75: Reflecting on the Past, Present and Future
Regulation of Investment Companies and
Investment Advisers.”
NFL Players Association Executive Director
DeMaurice Smith ’89 speaks about his
experiences as chair of a white-collar crime
practice group at a D.C. law firm, serving as
counsel to then-Deputy Attorney General Eric
Holder and the 2011 NFL player lockout. Law School News
…
COLLECTING
IT ALL
THE VIRGINIA LAW & BUSINESS REVIEW and the INVESTMENT COMPANY INSTITUTE Present:
1940
ACTS
at
75
Reflecting on
the Past,
Present and
Future
Regulation of
Investment
Companies
and
Investment
Advisers
FRIDAY,
APRIL 10
RSVP: http://ici.org/uva75
CAPLIN PAVILION
8:00-8:45 A.M.
CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST
8:45-8:55 a.m.
WELCOME
PAUL G. MAHONEY, Dean, David and Mary Harrison
Distinguished Professor of Law and Arnold H. Leon
Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
8:55-9:15 a.m.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
PAUL SCHOTT STEVENS ’78, President and CEO,
Investment Company Institute
NEW TECHNOLOGY AND THE
FUTURE OF PRIVACY
9:15-9:45 a.m.
MORNING ADDRESS
ROBERT POZEN, Former Chairman, MFS Investment
Management
9:50-10:55 a.m.
PANEL I: MUTUAL FUND REGULATION AFTER THE
FINANCIAL CRISIS. ARE FUND COMPLEXES
SYSTEMICALLY IMPORTANT?
1-2 p.m.
PANEL ON VIRGINIA
SENTENCING
John Monahan
John S. Shannon Distinguished Professor
of Law, Professor of Psychology and
Psychiatric Medicine, University of Virginia
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Meredith Farrar-Owens
Legislative Director, Virginia Sentencing
Commission
1:45-2:50 p.m.
QUINN CURTIS, Associate Professor of Law,
University of Virginia School of Law
PAUL SCHOTT STEVENS ’78, President and CEO,
Investment Company Institute
DANIEL M. GALLAGHER, Commissioner,
Securities and Exchange Commission
3:30-3:40 p.m.
CLOSING REMARKS
uni v ers i ty o f
VS CHirginia
O O L O F LAW
Sponsored by the JOHN W. GLYNN, JR. LAW & BUSINESS PROGRAM
“Defending the Most-Hated Man
in America: The Search for the
Illusive Truth”
Stephen Jones, the lead public defense
attorney for Timothy McVeigh in the
Oklahoma City bombing case, has been
attached to high-profile cases involving
alleged acts of terrorism and disloyalty
stretching back to the Vietnam War.
Southern District of New York
12-1 p.m.
LUNCH
LUNCH AND KEYNOTE ADDRESS
3-3:30 p.m.
U.S. JUDGE JED RAKOFF
11:30 a.m.-12 p.m.
QUESTIONS
DANIEL M. GALLAGHER, Commissioner,
Securities and Exchange Commission
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
with keynote address by
SCHEDULE
10:30-11:30 a.m.
KEYNOTE SPEECH
U.S. Judge Jed Rakoff
Southern District of New York
11:10 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
PAULITA PIKE, Partner, K&L Gates
JOHN COATES, John F. Cogan, Jr. Professor of Law and
Economics; Research Director, Center on the Legal Profession,
Harvard Law School
PAULA CHOLMONDELEY, Independent Director,
Nationwide Funds Board
MODERATOR: JOHN E. BAUMGARNDNER JR.,
Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell
ROBERT ZACK ’75, Counsel, Dechert
MARIANNE SMYTHE, Retired Partner, Wilmer, Cutler,
Pickering, Hale & Dorr
SIMON LORNE, Vice Chairman and Chief Legal Officer,
Millennium Management
ANDREW DONOHUE, Deputy General Counsel, Goldman
Sachs Asset Management
MODERATOR: DAVID BLASS, General Counsel,
Investment Company Institute
SENTENCING
10:15-10:30 a.m.
INTRODUCTIONS
PANEL II: LARGER LESSONS FROM FUND
GOVERNANCE
PANEL III: THE FUTURE FOR INVESTMENT
COMPANIES AND ADVISERS
Presented by the Virginia Journal of Criminal Law
THE FUTURE OF
9:30-10 a.m.
CHECK IN
LAURA MERIANOS, Principal, Vanguard
SCOTT GOEBEL, Senior Vice President and
General Counsel, Fidelity
JOHN MORLEY, Associate Professor of Law,
Yale Law School
MODERATOR: JOHN DUGAN, Partner, Covington &
Burling
BEN WIZNER
with
The
Linda Bryant
Deputy Attorney General, Virginia;
Member, Virginia Sentencing Commission
Director of the ACLU Speech,
Privacy & Technology Project
Ben Wizner has litigated numerous cases involving post-9/11 civil liberties abuses, including
challenges to airport security policies, terrorism watchlists, extraordinary rendition, targeted
killings, and torture. He is a legal advisor to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
MARCH 25, 5 P.M.
Caplin Pavilion
Steven Benjamin
Special Counsel to the Virginia Senate's
Courts of Justice Committee; Past President,
Virginia Association of Criminal Defense
Lawyers
FRIDAY,
FEB. 27
Caplin Pavilion
RSVP
bit.ly/1ABEYNd
King v. Burwell and the Future of
Obamacare
Professor Margaret Foster Riley and
Washington and Lee University School of
Law Professor Timothy Jost discuss Supreme
Court case King v. Burwell and the future of the
Affordable Care Act.
“Nelson Mandela as a Statesman”
“Collecting It All: New Technology
and the Future of Privacy”
ACLU attorney Ben Wizner, a legal advisor to
Edward Snowden, speaks about protecting
privacy in an era in which government
organizations and businesses wish to gather
increasing amounts of information about
people’s everyday lives.
Students Celebrate Diversity Week
More than 500 law students signed this year’s
Student Bar Association Diversity Pledge. The
statement of respect and tolerance, now in its
ninth year, kicked off Diversity Week events,
which began the last week in March.
Adjunct Professor Richard Goldstone
is the former chief prosecutor of the U.N.
international criminal tribunals for the former
Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He served as a judge
in South Africa for 23 years, the last nine as a
justice of the Constitutional Court. Views From the Bench
“The Future of Sentencing”
U.S. Judge Jed Rakoff speaks about
abolishing federal sentencing guidelines at a
symposium hosted by the Law School.
“Giving College Athletes Their Due”
Sports marketing pioneer Sonny Vaccaro
headlined a symposium focusing on change
in the sports and entertainment industries.
“The Law of Body Parts”
During a lecture for a course, Dr. Kenneth
Brayman, division chief of transplant surgery
at the University of Virginia, discusses the
history of organ donation and current
issues affecting the market and health care
professionals.
Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain LL.M. ’92 of
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
discusses how the U.S. constitutional structure
affects the work of a federal judge.
Fight for Racial Justice
Civil rights pioneer Morris Dees, founder of
the Southern Poverty Law Center, discusses
the fight for racial and social justice in the
post-Jim Crow landscape of the South in the
1960s and ‘70s, as well as the challenges facing
the civil rights movement in the 21st century.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 19
20 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
The Citizen-Lawyer:
Leadership in State
and Local Government
by Cullen Couch
T
he University of Virginia, especially the Law School,
was conceived as a gift to a nation still finding faith in
its public institutions. Davison Douglas, in the Journal
of Legal Education (2001), noted that Thomas Jefferson
had “a sophisticated vision of the role of both lawyers and education in the
preservation of America’s republican form of government. He believed that
the new nation desperately needed virtuous leaders who would place the
public interest above their own private interest. Proper education could help
develop this needed virtue, Jefferson concluded, particularly among lawyers,
who by the nature of their work were well positioned to provide direction
and leadership to the new nation.”
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 21
“It’s the mission. It’s serving people other than
yourself. It’s why you get out of bed every day …”
Today, the Law School claims graduates in every
sphere of public service. Those in Congress, the White
House, and federal agencies are well known and
familiar. But the laws and policies they advance are
felt at the state and local level, where the work of the
people actually gets done. These alumni—governors,
mayors, county supervisors, public executives—answer
to constituents with closely held interests. They are
expected to share them, even when they conflict with
party politics or the national will. So why do they do it?
“It’s the mission,” says Janet Napolitano ’83, who
is now president of the University of California after a
long stint as secretary of the Department of Homeland
Security and two terms as governor of Arizona. “It’s
serving people other than yourself. It’s why you get out
of bed every day even if you’ve had, as I have just had,
two 15-hour days in a row—you get up and you get
ready to go again.”
For Nancy McFadden ’87, chief of staff to
California Governor Jerry Brown, it’s also about the
people. “I have worked with people I greatly respect
and whose fundamental values I share,” she says. “I
think that’s what ultimately draws people to public
service. Sometimes it’s ambition. Sometimes it’s just
luck. But I think shared values is something that brings
people into public service.”
The urge to serve
R
yan Coonerty ’01, a member of the Santa Cruz
County Board of Supervisors and former two-time
mayor of the California city, was in high school when the
Loma Prieta earthquake destroyed 70% of the downtown.
“My dad ran for city council to help rebuild the town and
what I saw really humanized the process,” he says. “It made
me realize that the people making these big decisions
about our community are regular people doing their
22 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
best. They’re actively engaged and they’re having a huge
impact on what this community looks like.”
U.S. Senator Angus King ’69 (I-ME), was worried
about Maine’s economy when he was governor of
the state during the recession in the early 1990s. He
wanted to transfer his private sector experience to
government service.
“We were in real trouble,” says King, who was
governor for two terms. “Maine was at a tipping
point and it made sense to have somebody who had
a business background try their hand. I used to say
I was the only candidate for governor who shopped
for workers’ comp and went to the DEP for an
environmental permit.”
“Decisions are made by people in the room at the
time, so, if you want change, then you’ve got to get in
the room,” says David Toscano ’86, minority leader
in the Virginia House of Delegates and former mayor
of Charlottesville. “I have been fortunate to find my
way into many rooms at both the local and state level­
where I have helped make decisions that have a positive
impact on people’s lives.”
Frank Buck ’71, Toscano’s law partner and himself
a past mayor of Charlottesville, spent many years
in Charlottesville civic affairs, hammering nails for
Habitat for Humanity, coaching soccer teams, providing
leadership to a camp for children with special needs.
“A fair number of people were asking me to run
for city council,” Buck says, “and I was a product of the
Kennedy years—the best and the brightest, and all that.
Part of the reason I went to law school was my interest
in public service. I enjoyed being involved. All those
clichés about getting back more in return for doing it
are really true.”
When the opportunity for public service presented
itself for former Virginia Governor Gerald Baliles ’67,
he seized it. “I gambled that I could win,” he says, “and
so I did six years in the legislature, four as attorney
Janet Napolitano ’83:
“I recognized it was important
to develop my own credibility,
to listen and learn, and then
say, ‘Okay, I think we ought
to be doing this and this,’ and
move forward.”
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 23
Luis Fortuño ’85:
“Once I decided the right thing to
do, I would explain why, and then
move forward and not look back.”
24 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
general, four as governor, and I was out before I was 50.
Then I thought it was time to address the balance sheet
of my life.”
The move from campaigning
to governing
T
he day former governor of Puerto Rico Luis Fortuño ’85
moved into the governor’s mansion, he thanked the
kitchen staff and asked them to leave the dishes on the
table so his family could clear them. “I wanted to make
a point for everyone, including my family, that this was
temporary—a great opportunity to serve and transform
the lives of many people, but you move on.” Fortuño is
now a partner at Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, D.C.
For Baliles, the one-term gubernatorial limit in
Virginia codified the meaning of “temporary.” “In
a democracy, the players are not on stage very long.
Whether it’s four years or eight years, it is a finite
period of time,” Baliles says. “[The term limit] helped
me focus on the importance of taking my plan and
recognizing that I had very little time to achieve it.”
Napolitano valued her second term. “I must say
having only a one-term governorship is problematic
in this day and age,” she says. “It makes it very difficult
to do things. It takes a while to get your arms around
the job of being a governor and to know how to move
things forward, what levers need to be pulled, and what
things you don’t really need to concern yourself with.”
Coonerty makes “temporary” the central point
of his approach. “One of the things I try not to
do is to think about a second term, because if I’m
worried about getting re-elected I may not make the
decisions I need to make that are in the best interest of
the community.”
Theories of leadership
F
or every decision that Fortuño had to make, he tried
to listen to everyone and be as fair as possible, but
then be decisive. “One thing I always did and always told
my cabinet members to do was once you have heard
everyone, act,” he says. “Once I decided the right thing
to do, I would explain why, and then move forward and
not look back. That’s what I told my cabinet members
all the time, ‘You will be criticized not for what you do,
but for what you don’t do.’”
King had a formative experience in his first several
months as governor when he had to decide where to site
a new bridge. Two communities were lobbying for it.
Frank Buck ’71:
“Part of the reason I went
to law school was my
interest in public service.
I enjoyed being involved.”
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 25
“I remember having the insight that whatever
I decided, I was going to make somebody really angry,”
he says. “So why not just try to do the right thing that
makes the most sense for Maine? That guided my
decision-making. If you can explain what you’re doing
and why, the politics generally take care of themselves.
People often come up to me on the street and say,
‘I don’t agree with everything you do, but you always
tell me why you did it.’”
Baliles has found that introducing major programs
works best when you provide context. Once you have
that, he says, you have a case to bring people along.
“Bill Parcells, who coached two different Super Bowl
teams, used to say that the better prepared he felt, the
better his players played,” says Baliles. “But you can’t
persuade if you’re not prepared. You can’t prepare
unless you understand the context. That’s the way
I approached everything.”
Baliles also used what he calls the “3P audience”:
the press, the public, and the politicians. “You think
about who’s the audience,” he says. “They all respond
to some of the same stimuli but sometimes you have to
change the order in which you do that. If you can’t get
the political leaders to move, then you go to the press.
You go to the press, you get your stories out. Political
leaders pay attention. The public gets informed. They
create the climate for activity, for action, for success.
All of those factors come into play whether one is
campaigning or governing.”
Baliles likens governing to focusing a camera’s lens.
“If it’s a close-up, you can find a lot of reason to be
concerned. But if you pull the camera back, you see life
and human nature and government action somewhat
differently. And I tend to be an optimist. I think
this country has met adversity with determination,
complexity with innovation, and I think we’ll do it
again. I always put things in perspective.”
Napolitano strives to avoid the “tyranny of the org
chart.” Instead, she thinks about how different people
should be working together and how to persuade them
to buy into the same vision. She adopted this approach
after she was appointed by President Clinton to be the
U.S. Attorney in Arizona.
“The first thing I’ve always done is listen,” she
says. “I learned this lesson when I suddenly came in
as the presidential appointee in charge of more than a
hundred professionals in the U.S. Attorney’s office. Of
course, the initial reaction is going to be, ‘Who is she,
what does she know?’ I recognized it was important to
develop my own credibility, to listen and learn, and then
David Toscano ’86:
“Decisions are made by people
in the room at the time, so, if
you want change, then you’ve
got to get in the room.”
26 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
Angus King ’69:
“If you can explain what
you’re doing and why,
the politics generally
take care of themselves.”
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 27
Gerald Baliles ’67:
“You can’t persuade without
educating and you can’t educate
without your preparation.”
28 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
say, ‘Okay, I think we ought to be doing this and this,’
and move forward. That’s probably the smallest office
I’ve run, but it’s really been the same methodology that
I have perfected the longer I’ve done it.”
Napolitano also learned quickly that one has to
walk away periodically from the demands of public
office and recharge. “You have to develop the ability
to compartmentalize, to make sure that you live your
life even as you’re running this large entity, and those
are lessons I’ve learned over time. I don’t think I took
a day off my first three months as governor. Finally,
somebody said, ‘We’ve got to make sure that we protect
time for you so you can rest and regenerate.’ They
actually built that into the schedule. I’ve realized that’s
a very important thing to do.”
Coonerty found that trying to sell a “fully baked”
idea without letting others contribute and build
on it doesn’t work. “You can’t be so rigid with your
vision that you don’t leave room for other people to
contribute. You have to listen. In the campaign, you
spend a lot of time talking. In governing, you spend
most of your time listening. You have to make a
conscious transition.”
Best laid plans …
A
prison riot, a shooting, a natural disaster; the world
disrupts every schedule and agenda. Everyone
wants a decision, now. But one of the arts of governing
is timing—knowing when to intervene, when to do
something, and when to refrain. Sometimes entering
the fray too quickly makes things worse.
Coonerty recalls a Santa Cruz gang killing. As
mayor, he received information from the police that
the victim had picked a fight with gang members. The
local newspaper called him and asked whether he felt if
it was too dangerous to go downtown. Coonerty wishes
he had answered differently.
“My answer was no,” he recalls, “because it was safe
to be downtown. But the community was rightfully
focused on the fact that this young man had just died.
They didn’t know the back story and they were scared.
Their criticism was vicious and immediate; that I didn’t
care about this child’s life or his family. What I needed
to do better was understand that not everyone has all
the information that I had and that you have to start
from a place of sympathy. Eventually the full story
came out, and that helped put my initial comments
in context.”
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 29
Nancy McFadden ’87:
“Sometimes the situation
really demands a statement
or intervention, but history is
replete with examples where
people were too slow or
jumped in too quickly.”
30 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
“Make sure that you’re talking to a lot of different
people. That’s very important and something that we
do here a lot,” says McFadden, who was complimented
by the Los Angeles Times “for her finesse and shrewd
political instincts” as Governor Brown’s top aide. Her
reputation is supported by experience. “Sometimes the
situation really demands a statement or intervention,”
says McFadden. “But history is replete with examples
where people were too slow or jumped in too quickly.
You see leaders all the time reacting off the cuff to
something without full information and regretting a
statement they made. We’re pretty cautious about that.”
Baliles remembers the G8 Summit being held in
Scotland when the London subway bombing occurred.
Within minutes, all the G8 leaders were assembled
responding to press questions about what happened.
“They probably knew less than the press at that point,”
he says. “Sometimes we’re under too much pressure to
react to something instead of anticipating it or reflecting
upon what’s happened before speaking. But you can’t
persuade without educating and you can’t educate
without your preparation. You need time to reflect, which
is part of our problem today. We are in a world of 24/7
press coverage. People don’t have time to pause.”
Fortuño also took care to wait and see. “In the
private sector, the quicker you can address something,
the better,” he says. “But in public service, the passing
of days or weeks will often offer you the correct
answer to a situation. It’s like cooking a stew. You can’t
just throw everything in and serve it. You have to let
it simmer.”
Balancing conflicting constituencies
A
chief executive can’t say yes to everybody or
everything. That means disappointing someone.
“It you want to get things through a legislature,
you usually have to compromise,” says Napolitano.
“That can disappoint your supporters. You have to talk
with them and explain why and what the constraints
were. About 80% or 90% are pretty reasonable about
it, but there will always be 10% who are permanently
unhappy. You have to be strong enough to understand
that and be willing to absorb that disappointment.”
Within two months of Coonerty being elected to
the Santa Cruz City Council for the first time at 29,
one of his most powerful backers told Coonerty that
Ryan Coonerty ’01:
“In the campaign, you spend a lot of
time talking. In governing, you spend
most of your time listening. You have
to make a conscious transition.”
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 31
he didn’t vote for him to do what Coonerty wanted, he
voted for Coonerty to do what he wanted.
“I said, ‘No, I’m going to make my own decisions
and try to balance your and everyone else’s opinion.’
Once that happened, it was really freeing to realize that
at the end of the day, you’re not just a rubber stamp.
You have to balance all these different interests and
complexities. It was an early and valuable lesson, and
the job became a lot more fun.”
Though young, Coonerty learned an important
lesson. “I once heard that the job of a leader is to
disappoint your supporters at a rate they can tolerate, so
you always want to be on the boundary pushing policies
and pushing your constituents to get to a better place.”
Government by the people …
C
ivil servants have jobs to do just like private sector
employees. But they are sometimes judged differently
because of the nature of their work.
“I understand why the general public has a low
opinion of public service and politicians, and even
government workers,” says McFadden. “Some of
it is deserved. Government sometimes is not as
customer service oriented as it should be. And there
are the headline mistakes that people ascribe to all
of government. That’s somewhat human nature, but
I think for the most part people who go into public
service do it because there’s something about the
purpose that drives them.”
Having worked in both government and the private
sector, McFadden thinks she is better at both for the
experience. “It has enabled me to call people on things,”
she says. “People in the private sector often love to talk
about how terrible government is and how much better
it is in corporate America. I don’t think the lines are
so clear.”
King, of Maine, agrees. “I was 50 years old when
I came to be governor, and I had a kind of conventional
view that many people have about bureaucrats,” he
says. “Totally changed. These are great people—young,
idealistic, passionate, patriotic, smart people who could
be making a lot more money in the private sector.
There is too much negative stuff about the bureaucrats.
These are good people trying to do the right thing and
we don’t treat them very well.”
32 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
Baliles, who was governor of Virginia from 1986 to
1990, makes a similar point. “It’s not easy to govern,” he
says. “There are no simple solutions to most problems.
It’s messy. It’s imperfect. It’s fraught with risk.”
The reward of service
T
he payback is seeing your work brought to life in the
place you live or in the betterment of institutions that
deliver services to people you know.
“The part I like best is the evident real impact,
especially in local government,” says Coonerty. “You
drive down the street and see a park. Chances are you
created it or maintain it, so you get to see the fruit of
your work every day.”
“You can change the lives of so many people,”
Fortuño says. “In the private sector, I can help people,
but it’s not the same. In public service, you can truly
transform their lives.”
“I met this old guy when I was in my 20s,” says
King, “and he said when you get to be my age, you’re
going to regret things about your life. See that you
regret the things you did, and not the things you didn’t
do. That’s the single most profound piece of advice I’ve
had in my whole life. It’s guided me in a number of
turning points to err on the side of action.”
Toscano enjoys reaching out to people as much as
he can, attending events, doing surveys, sending letters,
anything to seek feedback “about what my bosses want
me to do. I have a pretty good read about what people
think in my district, but it’s always changing. People
are coming and going, so that contact is critically
important for me to do my job. And that’s what I
love to do.”
Baliles has always been interested in American
culture and how it is organized. “I have a certain
intellectual curiosity about things—why is that, how
does it work, could it be better? Public life offers the
opportunity to change some of those policies, and that
appealed to me.”
For McFadden, it’s exciting to know the morning
headlines could drive the day’s events. “I love that
there’s a purpose bigger than the job, as well as those
little moments where you’re able to do something for
someone that but for you might not have happened.”
In their own words:
What was your most challenging moment
in public service?
Fortuño: We had a major
fire in an oil and gas facility
in the bay early one Friday
morning. It was next to an
expressway which was
impassable. I mobilized the
state national guard. We
brought water from many miles
away from the ocean. I even went in with the firemen
and women. These tanks could have exploded when we
were there.
There were other instances when I was directly
involved in breaking up drug cartels that were operating in Puerto Rico. I didn’t mind going into very
rough neighborhoods wearing a bulletproof vest. My
staff, and of course my wife, were not pleased. But you
cannot lead from behind. You have to lead from the
front, and that’s my definition of leadership.
McFadden: In the early days
of the Clinton administration,
the entire time was
challenging. That first year
in particular I was at the
Justice Department and we
didn’t have an Attorney
General. The first nominee, Zoe
Baird, had to withdraw her name.
Then Janet Reno was confirmed and we went from that
to Waco to Vince Foster’s suicide to gays in the military.
It was just one thing after another. I worked very
closely with the White House and the White House
Counsel’s office so that was a very challenging start. I
learned a lot. I think it definitely made me somebody
who’s good at dealing with crises.
Napolitano: When I was
fairly new as a governor, we
had two of our prison
correction officers, a man
and a woman, taken hostage
at our maximum security
prison. They got them into a
tower in the middle of the prison
yard that had been built to be
impregnable. And it was impregnable, and was also the
storage place for the prison pharmacy and the armory.
We spent two weeks. We had an FBI negotiating
team, and we had our own hostage team. The prisoners
were already lifers and they started off wanting a plane
and a bunch of money. We didn’t do that. We didn’t
negotiate on their convictions. We didn’t negotiate on
their sentences.
We were using a robot to deliver food to the tower.
But one time we delivered the wrong kind of hamburger. We had audio and one of the hostage takers
went nuts and he took Lois’s hand and he put it down
and with a piece of rebar started sawing off her finger.
She was screaming and we’re telling them to stop, we’ll
get you the right hamburger, which we did. Thankfully,
they didn’t saw off her finger.
Something like a prison hostage crisis, not only is it
serious in and of itself, but it can destroy a governorship and a career, and there was a lot of pressure on me
just to send in the troops and storm the tower, which
would’ve meant our officers, the ones who were being
held, would’ve been dead in a nanosecond. These guys
were so well armed that there likely would’ve been serious injury or a fatality to anyone storming the tower.
And so my position was as long as there’s some thread
of negotiation going on, we will not storm the tower.
After the first week, they let out the man. They
didn’t let out the woman until Super Bowl Sunday. I’ll
always remember this because in the end, we resolved
this crisis by delivering a tray with steak dinner and a
6-pack of beer and the guys watched the Super Bowl.
After the game, they came out of the tower.
They immediately put the female guard on a gurney
and air lifted her to Maricopa County Hospital. The
director of corrections, Doris Schriro, and myself
met her on the roof as the helicopter landed and she
grabbed Doris’s hand and said, ‘Thank you for not
storming the tower. They would’ve killed me.’
Baliles: The Virginia Tech
sports scandal was a story on
the front pages and every
little dispute got magnified
[investigations into the
basketball and football
programs led to NCAA sanctions
in 1987: ed.]. There were lawyers by
the thousands and the question was what to do about it
and when. I remembered that George Marshall, the
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 33
In their own words
great army general and Secretary of State after World
War II, used a Harvard commencement address to
announce a major doctrine in this country about
economic recovery in Europe, the Marshall Plan. I had
a commencement invitation to speak at Virginia Tech,
the very institution that was the subject of so much
negative publicity. And after that commencement
ceremony my remarks that drew a bright line between
academic preeminence and athletic ambitions became
known all across the country as ‘The Speech.’ It was a
high risk occasion where it had to be done with a
certain amount of focused attention, especially in that
one place, with 30,000 people in Lane Stadium and all
the press watching, because nothing had been said
from the governor’s office to that point, even as
pressure built. It was a moment of high risk and high
drama, but it was the appropriate time and place.
Toscano: When I was mayor
[of Charlottesville], we had
this debate about whether
we were going to open a
street across the mall to
facilitate bringing in a couple
of restaurants, a movie theater,
and an ice park to downtown. It
was a huge issue and I was right in the middle of it
because I was advocating for it. I had some of my best
friends up there telling me I was crazy, it was a
pedestrian mall and kids would walk across the street
and be run over by cars. Now it’s been open for 20
years. Nothing’s happened and we got all this economic
development as a result of opening that street. That
was the most difficult thing I had to face when I
was mayor.
Buck: Getting the Omni deal
put together [the building
that anchored the Downtown
Mall project in Charlottesville
in the 1980s: ed.] was
probably the most difficult
thing. Under the Dillon Rule,
we were really pushing the
envelope of what was legally permissible. We were
involved in lawsuits and people were trying to shut it
down. It got to the point where we had to pay a couple
of million dollars or the contractors were going to walk
off and probably never come back. The city manager
and the treasurer and others were saying we can juggle
34 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
these things, and we’re not sure it’s 100% proper, but
we’ll do it if you say go ahead. It’ll be your decision. We
took the gamble, things turned out all right in court,
and we moved forward with our project. It provided
not just a building, but a place where activities could
take place, giving a whole host of reasons for people to
come to the downtown.
Coonerty: I had a couple of
situations where terrible
crimes happened, people
were angry and scared. One
of the things you realize is
that the people need a mayor.
They just need somebody to
step forward in a crisis and say
they’re in charge and this is the direction we’re going to
go. That’s a really important role to play. At the end of
the day, you’re the elected official, you need to rise to
the occasion.
The second is that when people are angry and scared,
part of your job is to absorb the abuse. They’re not mad
at you, they’re mad at the institution, and they’re mad
at their lack of power. You have to get to the place where
you’re comfortable with the idea that people have to let
loose and your job is to listen and take it. I think it’s
hard for a lot of people, especially hard on families of
politicians.
The events in Ferguson, Missouri, started
a national conversation about the
militarization of police forces around the
country. How is that affecting community
relations programs?
Napolitano: I don’t think it’s a choice between
militarizing the police instead of building community
relationships. If that happens, that’s a false dichotomy.
You’ve got to properly train and have a protocol and
know when it’s appropriate to bring out the hard stuff,
and when it’s not. That ought to be rehearsed and
exercised and be part of policing, while simultaneously
thinking about the community that you’re protecting.
What was interesting to me is those communities
that stayed calm after Ferguson, even communities
with large minority populations—Los Angeles, for
example. They tended to be communities where you
had strong community policing strategies already in
place, where you had a human connection between
In their own words
those wearing the badge and the people they are sworn
to protect. They know each other, they understand
the neighborhoods. They understand the stresses in
a particular neighborhood. They understand who
the local leaders are. It can be a minister, it can be the
principal of a school. So, rather than a militarized
police response, it’s really about that community
integration before there’s an incident, because there
will be incidents.
Fortuño: I was displeased with how the police handled
some riots and I called friends who were also executives
in the public arena whom I thought were doing a better
job and I asked for help. They helped retrain our police
force. Not everyone was happy, of course, but again
you’ve got to do what you think is right. I would even
meet with groups of policemen and tell them, ‘You
are professionals. Any professional—a physician, a
lawyer—has to be retrained on a constant basis because
circumstances change, so you’re no different from a
lawyer or a physician.
Coonerty: Policing is obviously one of the most
difficult and complex jobs that exists. Overseeing police
in a democracy is also difficult but critically important. The best results are when you have community
policing that puts police officers out there problem
solving with the community. If the job is just about the
application of force, neither the community nor the
officer on the street will be safe.
McFadden: It is an issue here and it’s one I think bears
looking at in every jurisdiction. I know our attorney
general is taking a lead on it. I know we’ve worked
with our California Highway Patrol, which is the law
enforcement group that’s under the governor’s control,
on issues of use of force.
I remember in the Clinton administration
one of the things that we created was the Office of
Community Policing. It had not existed before and it
was one of the things that Bill Clinton felt was very
important. He wanted to bring 100,000 cops on the
street, and he wanted them to be trained and schooled
in community policing. In some places we have really
lost that and we’re paying the price.
Toscano: Our chief of police—I’ll never forget when
I first interviewed him—the first thing he said is,
‘I believe in the 4th Amendment and I believe in the
Constitution and my role is to make sure that while
I’m doing my job, I don’t violate constitutional rights.’
That’s a very different attitude than what you might
expect from a police chief.
Militarization is an interesting issue because it
brings together certain elements of the left and certain
elements of the right. There are a lot of people who
are very conservative who are worried about too much
firepower in the hands of police. There are a lot of
people on the left who are worried about that, too.
This debate has not really found its way into the state
legislature, but it could.
How hard is it to transition from
campaigning to governing?
Toscano: The first time I ran I talked about giving a
voice to the voiceless, those folks who were economically
disadvantaged. But what I found out after I won was
there were a lot of people in the city who didn’t feel
like they had a voice. A lot of them were disadvantaged
economically, but some of them weren’t. A lot of the
business leadership didn’t feel like they had much of a
voice in the decisions that were affecting their lives.
I realized that in order to have the resources to
support social services and help people who are
disadvantaged, we had to have an economic base and we
had to strengthen that base. That’s why I reached out to
folks in the business community to try to engage them
in redeveloping the city.
Coonerty: When I came into office, there were about
a dozen lawsuits between the city and the university,
and tensions between the institutions that lasted
almost 30 years. It was a poisoned relationship. The
problems weren’t really getting solved. So, we had a
new chancellor and I was a new mayor and we sat
down to look at this problem in a different way, its
impacts on the community and what we could do
together to fix it. We came up with this comprehensive
settlement agreement, got rid of all the lawsuits,
created a good relationship between the city and the
university. Now we’re seeing the fruits of that, both in
better quality of life and also in partnerships around
economic development and spinning research out of
the university.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 35
Karl Racine ’89:
New Role,
New Goal
From Washington Lawyer, February 2015.
Excerpt reprinted by permission.
By David O’Boyle
Last fall Karl Racine ’89 became the
first elected attorney general of the
District of Columbia. A native of
Haiti who was raised and educated
in Washington, D.C., Racine has
served as managing partner at
Venable and also as associate White
House counsel under President
Clinton. Washington Lawyer sat
down with Racine, who took office
in January, to discuss his plans as
he settles into his new role in the
District of Columbia Office of the
Attorney General (OAG).
36 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
How did you end up at the University of Virginia School
of Law?
Y
ou could probably lump me in with many, many of my law
school graduate friends who didn’t really plan on attending law
school, but became interested as the work world appeared. I didn’t
know what I wanted to do with my life. I certainly knew that politics
and the law were extraordinarily important, and I was familiar with
history—civil rights, especially—and so I was attracted to law school.
Did you find law school interesting?
W
ell, in law school one of the activities that the university
provided was a whole slew of practical legal clinical courses,
which were very interesting. I gravitated to what was called the migrant
farmworkers law clinic. There were migrant farmworkers around
Albemarle County in Virginia who worked in the apple orchards and
did other farming work.
We focused on … making sure that farmworkers had their
basic rights, were getting paid consistent with Virginia law, had the
same rights to lodging and food that the law provided. I got a very
clear indication of the power of the law and the impact it could
have on real people’s lives.
I was interested in law, I went to law school, and certainly
went to law school primarily to use the law to have a positive
impact on the lives of real people with real needs.
Professionally, you have worked in both the public and
private sectors. Tell us about your experiences in those
two areas.
I
think it’s just one of the magical opportunities that the District of
Columbia provides uniquely robust opportunities to work in both
the public and private sectors. That is highly encouraged. Not only was
it highly encouraged in law school, but certainly highly encouraged
at the firm that I began my legal career at, Venable.
I worked at Venable for the first three years of my professional
career. I had a tremendous experience. I tried at least three cases. I
had a chance to argue before two federal courts of appeal, and I had
other excellent experiences because of lawyers who were selfless.
I was encouraged to apply to be either a prosecutor or a public
defender. From my own personal sensibilities, and really focusing
on the work of providing legal services to the indigent community,
it was an easy decision for me to accept the offer to join the Public
Defender Service for the District of Columbia.
That was my entrée into public service, government service.
It was extraordinary. The Public Defender Service has an excellent
reputation. It is the preeminent public defender service in the
country. Sure enough, the training that all of the lawyers received
was beyond my wildest dreams. I made tremendous friends and
had great practical experience in the courtroom. That was an
important experience in my life and career.
After that I returned to the private sector. I joined a good
friend of mine, Gerry Treanor, who had started a firm with Plato
Cacheris. That was an opportunity to continue my work in the
criminal area, all the while expanding my work in a complex civil
litigation area.
After that experience, through volunteering in the city I
developed personal relationships with lawyers who were at the
White House under President Bill Clinton. Sure enough, I got an
offer to come and interview for a job as an associate White House
counsel. Fortunately, they hired me. That was a return to public
practice. Again, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
You might remember, those times were challenging,
difficult, uncertain, and even unprecedented with regard to the
impeachment of the president. There were numerous independent
counsel investigations of the administration. I was part of a
group of lawyers who defended the president, the first lady, and
the White House staff regarding those investigations. It was an
immense learning experience and an opportunity to develop
lifelong relationships with friends.
What inspired you to run for attorney general for
the District of Columbia?
I
am a lifelong Washingtonian. As I have just recounted, I’ve had
an extraordinary set of circumstances and experiences with great
teachers, great coaches, great mentors, and great guides who were
lawyers, and I have a passion for public service. The opportunity
to serve in the D.C. government in my chosen vocation was what
attracted me to the position.
I also have a healthy respect for the institutions in the District,
particularly the Office of the Attorney General and the hard work
that it does on behalf of the citizens of the District.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 37
I’ve had an extraordinary set of circumstances and
experiences with great teachers, great coaches,
great mentors, and great guides who were lawyers,
and I have a passion for public service.
How would you describe the campaign process?
W
ell, the campaign process was a wild ride. It was like getting
on a rollercoaster for the first time: It was exciting, there were
people all around, there were ups and downs, there were thrilling
moments, and there were moments where I just wanted to get off.
As someone who has never run for office before, it was an
experience that, after a few bumps and bruises and stumbles, I took
to. I enjoyed the process of campaigning, getting out there and
meeting people, and trying as best as I could to explain what OAG
does and how it’s relevant to their lives.
What was easily more important than my doing the talking
was just listening to the concerns of the citizens of the District:
Ward 1, Ward 8, Ward 3, Ward 7. I found that to be extraordinarily
meaningful.
It was a privilege to work so hard with so many people. We
had young people, folks who were in high school and college and
law school, volunteering for our campaign. We had older folks,
some were paid and most were not, who volunteered for the
campaign. And then we had a group of inspiring seniors who were
quite active. Being a part of that broad coalition for the good of the
District was one of the most meaningful experiences that I’ve ever
had in my life.
Running the campaign was extraordinarily enjoyable. The
rollercoaster ride was, at the end of the day, full of joy.
This was the first time the District of Columbia had ever
elected an attorney general. Was voter participation in
the election what you expected?
I
didn’t know what to expect, so I relied on the judgment and the
experience of the political people in our campaign. It was pretty
much the consensus view that the turnout would be low, and that the
interest in particular in this new office and the new attorney general
would also be low.
The folks who know politics estimated the turnout would be
in a range of 50,000 to 70,000, but the final turnout for our election
was about 165,000. So, as it turned out, folks were interested and
engaged. They came out to vote in very high numbers. I think that’s
38 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
a credit to all of the candidates who all ran spirited campaigns. At
times it was quite tough out there with such worthy opponents.
You fielded a transition team to coordinate your move.
How did the transition go?
T
he transition went well. We were led by two transition co-chairs,
eminent lawyers and fantastic citizens of the District of Columbia:
Pauline Schneider, of counsel at Ballard Spahr and a former D.C. Bar
president; and Natalie O. Ludaway, managing member at Leftwich
& Ludaway.
In addition to focusing on the priorities of our administration, we had tremendous assistance internally from our colleagues
at OAG, the great lawyers and staff who are already here. They
brought me up to speed on the work of the office, the challenges of
certain areas, and where we might use more resources.
Former [mayor-appointed—ed.] attorney general Irvin
Nathan has been invested in a smooth transition. Following Irv’s
lead, the office has been extraordinarily welcoming.
How do you plan to improve engagement with D.C.
citizens?
T
hat’s another outgrowth of the office being independent [from
the mayor’s office­—ed.]. Whereas before when the office was not
independent, I think the office did a good job of communicating what
it was doing and how it impacted the lives of the citizens of the District
of Columbia, but the office kind of reported through the mayor.
It was clear to us in the campaign that the citizens want to
hear directly from the attorney general’s office as to its work and
how [it] might have a positive impact on their lives.
Another initiative that we have is to ramp up our efforts
in regards to community outreach. We’re going to establish an
office of community outreach where we fulfill our very important
function of not only serving as counsel to the agencies, but also
serving the people’s needs. That’s going to be a major change
of emphasis in this new world of the independent, elected
attorney general.
Meet Donald Lemons ’76: Virginia’s Chief Justice
By Michelle Koidin Jaffee
A
s a circuit court judge for the city of
Richmond, Donald W. Lemons ’76 was looking for a better way
to handle nonviolent drug offenders, whose incarceration was costly
and, in his view, failed to address the root problem of addiction.
With no money for a new program and in the face of criticism
that he would appear “soft on crime,” the former probation officer
pulled together a novel alternative called a “drug court,” sentencing
eligible convicts to probation-supervision including substance
abuse treatment, mental health counseling, and job training. To
get it off the ground, he persuaded the Department of Corrections
to provide probation officers, teachers, and job counselors. “I just
begged and borrowed resources from everywhere,” he recalls.
The new approach was not a fit for everyone: “There are
people who got into the program and within two weeks said,
‘Please take me out of this program—just go ahead and send me
to prison,’ because it was so hard,” Lemons says. “But the ones who
persevered came out the other end with a new opportunity and a
new way of coping with their own lives, and many became very
productive people.”
Today, 16 years later, there are 38 drug courts in Virginia. And
Lemons, who went on to ascend to the state’s Court of Appeals
and then to its highest court, in January became chief justice of the
seven-member Supreme Court of Virginia.
Currently the most senior member with more than 14 years
on the high court, Lemons, 66, was elected by his peers to a fouryear term to replace (the retiring) Chief Justice Cynthia Kinser ’77.
Kinser recently returned to private practice with Gentry Locke
in Roanoke, serving as senior counsel and focusing on appeals,
criminal matters, and government investigations. “For more than
17 years, I had the privilege to serve with outstanding jurists on
the Supreme Court of Virginia. Like me, several of them UVA Law
alumni. All my colleagues were not only dedicated public servants
committed to the administration of justice, but also my friends.”
“The choice, to me, seemed natural,” says Justice Cleo E.
Powell ’82. “In the few months he has been chief, it has been
confirmed for me that it was the right choice. He has great ideas
about moving things forward, he is very collaborative, [and] wants
to get all of our opinions on how things should work. He brings
to us innovative ideas he
might be considering, lays
UVA Law alumni of the Supreme Court of
Virginia, from left, Justice Cleo Powell ’82,
them out on the table, and
Chief Justice Donald Lemons ’76, and
Justice Bernard Goodwyn ’86
gets everyone’s opinion. He’s
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 39
just very thoughtful, very contemplative, and very inclusive, all of
which make for a good leader.”
With Lemons, Powell, and Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn ’86,
there are currently three Law School alumni on the high court;
additionally, Senior Justices Charles S. Russell ’48 and Elizabeth B.
Lacy LL.M. ’92 attended the Law School.
“I think for a lot of people who go to UVA Law School,” says
Goodwyn, “there’s a certain sense of obligation to the community
and to the law, and it’s that sense of obligation that encourages
them to go into public service.”
Lemons takes over an extremely young court: In the last eight
years, every seat except for his has turned over.
In some sense, it’s a new day for the court. “We’re still feeling
our way, I think as far as an identity for the court overall, just
because we haven’t been together that long,” Goodwyn says.
All three alumni bring experience from the circuit court level.
“I think that having that experience in the trenches as busy and not
terribly well-supported trial judges informs their error review and
abuse-of-discretion review which appellate courts have to engage
in,” says Professor Kent Sinclair, director of advocacy and lawyer
training. “So they have a better appreciation of how the system
operates on the ground than many appellate judges around the
country might have without that trial court experience.”
Choosing Lemons as the new chief justice shows the justices’
confidence in his administrative abilities as well as his diplomatic
skills in dealing with the General Assembly, Sinclair says.
From an early age, Lemons wanted to be a lawyer. He grew up
in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., where his dad worked
protection detail for President
Truman as a Secret Service agent.
Donald W. Lemons ’76 is the new chief
“My experience as a
justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia.
He was sworn in January 8.
probation officer allowed me to
40 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
watch lawyers in private practice as they represented their clients
and gave me a very interesting look at prosecution from the
Commonwealth’s side,” he says. “It gave me the opportunity to see
how judges operate.”
The experience inspired him to go to law school, where one
day his friend and classmate G. Moffett Cochran ’76 rounded up
students for a cocktail party to be hosted by his parents, Lee and
George M. Cochran ’36, then a justice on the Supreme Court of
Virginia and formerly a state legislator.
“It’s one thing to talk about the things that you’d like to do; it’s
another thing to actually talk to someone who is doing it,” Lemons
says. “That’s the sort of experience that allows people to visualize
what their future might be.”
Not to say that he imagined reaching his current position.
“I never in a million years thought I’d be on the Supreme
Court of Virginia—goodness, no,” he says. “That’s not the sort of
thing you realistically anticipate when you’re a law student. But
what you saw in George Cochran was an extraordinarily successful
person who was engaged in public service and politics and the
practice of law at the highest possible professional level. It was
inspiring.” (Years later, Lemons had the chance to appear before the
elder Cochran in court, and eventually even got to sit beside him
when Cochran was called back to the bench after retirement.)
During law school, Lemons became a student assistant to
Al Turnbull ’62, then assistant dean for admissions and career
services. The experience helped propel Lemons straight from
graduation onto the faculty, where he served as an assistant
professor and assistant dean for two years.
“This is an amazing thing, that he would graduate and
instantly become an assistant dean,” Turnbull says. “He’s rigorous,
he’s firm, but he’s also compassionate and thoughtful. It was these
qualities that led us to feel confident that he would do a great job.”
“If you have people who are not presenting a threat to the
public safety but they have an addiction problem, it seems to
me that it makes a lot of sense to try to deal with it differently
than a one-size-fits-all, lock-’em-up mentality.”
AP Images
Though Lemons left the University to go into
private practice in 1978, he did not stop teaching.
One of the themes at his chief justice investiture
ceremony was his longstanding commitment to the
education of lawyers; while serving as a judge at
multiple levels, Lemons has continued to teach in
law schools at the University of Richmond as well
as Washington and Lee University.
During his years in private practice with
Durrette, Irvin, Lemons & Bradshaw in Richmond, Lemons
handled civil and criminal trial work, working juvenile-court cases
pro bono on the side.
By the time he ascended to the bench of the circuit court
in Richmond in 1995, he was mulling alternatives for handling
drug defendants.
“If you’re a probation officer in Virginia, in juvenile or adult
courts, you will quickly find out that addiction to substances—
alcohol, prescription drugs, or other illegal narcotic drugs—is a
major problem,” Lemons says. “If you have people who are not
presenting a threat to the public safety but they have an addiction
problem, it seems to me that it makes a lot of sense to try to deal
with it differently than a one-size-fits-all, lock-’em-up mentality.”
Lemons’ drug court—a special docket within the existing
court, not a separate court—was one of three being developed in
Virginia at the time; the others were in Roanoke and Charlottesville.
Today there are more than 2,800 such courts across the country.
“Justice Lemons was a pioneer in that process in the Richmond
area,” Sinclair says. “The fact that it was handled so well and so
successfully helped the Commonwealth to develop a broader version
of that drug-court type program to divert appropriate candidates
from the revolving door of the prison system.”
At a ceremony in 2013 marking the 15th official year of the
Richmond Adult Drug Treatment Court, Lemons spoke openly
about his own cousin, a nurse and honorably discharged service
member, who weeks earlier had died of a heroin overdose.
“Addiction is no respecter of persons,” Lemons says. “It’s all
races, all genders, all religious traditions—from the poorest to the
most wealthy people.”
While some judges once warned him that becoming a
so-called drug-court judge could derail his career—that legislators would oppose it and decline to re-elect him—and though
the concept maintains detractors, Lemons considers it one of his
greatest accomplishments.
“He is one of the leaders in America on the role of professionalism and lawyer professional self-development,” Sinclair says.
“He has devoted a tremendous amount of time to those projects as
part of his judicial mission. If there’s anyone who would exemplify
professionalism and thoughtful discharge of the lawyer’s and judge’s
responsibilities, Justice Lemons would certainly be that person.”
Professionalism is among the values Lemons reiterates
when swearing in lawyers as new members of the Virginia
bar. Professionalism “is distinct from ethics,” says L. Steven
Emmert ’82, a leading appellate litigator in Virginia who closely
watches the court and publishes the website Virginia Appellate
News & Analysis. “Ethics is the bare minimum that you have
to do in order to ensure the bar doesn’t yank your license. But
professionalism is far higher, far more aspirational. And you can
expect him to emphasize that.”
When court is not in session, Lemons draws strength from
the vistas surrounding his office in the foothills of the Blue Ridge
Mountains. Like the other justices, he maintains chambers in
downtown Richmond as well as an office where he primarily lives.
The Supreme Court of Virginia is unlike most appellate courts in
that it hears oral arguments in six separate weeks of the year and
releases its decisions on six specified days, rather than releasing
opinions on a rolling basis as they get signed off on by members of
the court.
When in Nellysford, his home of six years, Lemons works on
opinions with his 11-year-old French Bulldog rescue, Kirby, asleep
at his feet.
And in Richmond, he works beside an artificial lemon tree—a
gift from a group of drug-court defendants who wrote notes of
thanks on the lemons.
“It reminds me every day,” Lemons says, “that there are real
people behind these cases.”
EXTRA ONLINE:
Find Donald Lemons’ remarks delivered at his investiture in January
at www.bit.ly/cjlemons
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 41
Through the Years
UVA Law Alumni on the Supreme Court of Virginia*
William Daniel Jr. 1829 ‡
1847–1865
Martin Parks Burks 1872
1917–1928
William Carrington Thompson ’39
1980–1983
William Joseph Robertson 1842
1859–1865
Edward Watts Saunders 1882 ‡
1920–1921
Charles Stevens Russell ’48
1982–1991
Alexander Rives 1829 ‡
1866–1869
Jesse Felix West 1886 ‡
1922–1929
John Charles Thomas ’75
1983–1989
Edward Calohill Burks 1842
1877–1882
Richard Henry Lee Chichester 1892 ‡
1925–1930
Henry Hudson Whiting ’49
1987–1995
Lunsford Lomax Lewis 1867
1882–1894
Joseph Chinn 1890 ‡
1931–1936
Elizabeth Bermingham Lacy LL.M. ’92
1989–2007
Thomas Turner Fauntleroy Jr. 1844
1883–1894
Claude Vernon Spratley 1906
1936–1967
Barbara Milano Keenan LL.M. ’92
1991–2010
John Alexander Buchanan 1871 ‡
1895–1915
Lemuel Franklin Smith ’16
1951–1956
Cynthia D. Kinser ’77
1997–2014
George Moffett Harrison 1870 ‡
1895–1917
Lawrence Warren I’Anson ’31
1958–1981
Donald W. Lemons ’76
2000–present
James Keith 1860 ‡
1895–1916
Thomas Christian Gordon Jr. ’38
1965–1972
G. Steven Agee ’77
2003–2008
Stafford Gorman Whittle 1871
1901–1919
Albertis Sydney Harrison Jr. ’28
1967–1981
S. Bernard Goodwyn ’86
2007–present
Joseph Luther Kelly 1889
1915–1924
George Moffett Cochran ’36
1969–1987
Cleo E. Powell ’82
2011–present
Robert Riddick Prentis 1876
1916–1931
Richard Harding Poff ’48
1972–1988
* J.D. or LL.B. earned unless otherwise noted ‡ studied or read the law
42 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
Remarks on Race by Mississippi Judge
Carlton Reeves ’89 Reaches National Audience
In 2011 a gang of ten white teenagers killed James Craig Anderson, a
48-year-old black man in Jackson, Mississippi, a city called “Jafrica” by
the group. They cornered Anderson in a parking lot, beat him severely,
and then drove over his body with their truck, screaming “white power.”
In February three of them—Deryl Paul Dedmon, Dylan Wade Butler,
and John Aaron Rice—were convicted of a federal hate crime (they had
already been convicted in state court for various degrees of murder and
conspiracy).
At their sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ’89,
the second African-American appointed a federal judge in Mississippi,
offered remarks on the history of racism and lynching they were widely
picked up in the media. After many alumni alerted us to the remarks,
we asked Judge Reeves if we could share them. We have excerpted them
below (full text at www.bit.ly/judgereeves).
O
ne of my former history professors, Dennis
Mitchell, recently released a history
book entitled, A New History of Mississippi.
“Mississippi,” he says, “is a place and a state
of mind. The name evokes strong reactions
from those who live here and from those who
do not, but who think they know something
about its people and their past.” Because of
its past, as described by Anthony Walton in
his book, Mississippi: An American Journey,
Mississippi “can be considered one of the
most prominent scars on the map” of these
United States.… Mississippi has expressed its
savagery in a number of ways throughout its
history—slavery being the cruelest example,
but a close second being Mississippi’s infatuation with lynchings.
Lynchings were prevalent, prominent and participatory. A lynching
was a public ritual—even carnival-like—within many states in our
great nation. While other States engaged in these atrocities, those in
the Deep South took a leadership role, especially that scar on the map
of America—those 82 counties between the Tennessee line and the
Gulf of Mexico and bordered by Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama.…
In Without Sanctuary, historian Leon Litwack writes that
between 1882 and 1968 an estimated 4,742 Blacks met their deaths
at the hands of lynch mobs. The impact this campaign of terror had
on black families is impossible to explain so many years later.…
Those who died at the hands of mobs, Litwack notes, some were
the victims of “legal” lynchings—having been accused of a crime,
subjected to a “speedy” trial and even speedier execution. Some were
victims of private white violence … murdered by a variety of means
in isolated rural sections and dumped into rivers and creeks.…
How could hate, fear, or whatever it was transform genteel, Godfearing, God-loving Mississippians into mindless murderers and
sadistic torturers? I ask that same question about the events which
bring us together on this day. Those crimes of the past as well as
these have so damaged the psyche and reputation of this great State.
Mississippi soil has been stained with the blood of folk whose
names have become synonymous with the Civil Rights Movement
like Emmett Till, Willie McGee, James Cheney, Andrew Goodman,
Michael Schwerner, Vernon Dahmer, George W. Lee, Medgar Evers,
and Mack Charles Parker. But the blood of
the lesser-known people like Luther Holbert
and his wife, Elmo Curl, Lloyd Clay, John
Hartfield, Nelse Patton, Lamar Smith, Clinton
Melton, Ben Chester White, Wharlest Jackson,
and countless others, saturates these 48,434
square miles of Mississippi soil. On June 26,
2011, four days short of his 49th birthday,
the blood of James Anderson was added to
Mississippi’s soil.
The common denominator of the deaths
of these individuals was not their race. It was
not that they all were engaged in freedom
fighting. It was not that they had been engaged
in criminal activity, trumped up or otherwise.
No, the common denominator was that the
last thing that each of these individuals saw
was the inhumanity of racism. The last thing that each felt was the
audacity and agony of hate; senseless hate: crippling, maiming them
and finally taking away their lives.
Mississippi has a tortured past, and it has struggled mightily to
reinvent itself and become a New Mississippi. New generations have
attempted to pull Mississippi from the abyss of moral depravity in
which it once so proudly floundered.
Despite much progress and the efforts of the new generations,
these three defendants are before me today. They and their coconspirators ripped off the scab of the healing scars of Mississippi …
causing her (our Mississippi) to bleed again.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 43
Hate comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, and from this case, we
know it comes in different sexes and ages. A toxic mix of alcohol,
foolishness, and unadulterated hatred caused these young people
to resurrect the nightmarish specter of lynchings and lynch mobs
from the Mississippi we long to forget. Like the marauders of ages
past, these young folk conspired, planned, and coordinated a plan of
attack on certain neighborhoods in the City of Jackson for the sole
purpose of harassing, terrorizing, physically assaulting, and causing
bodily injury to black folk. They punched and kicked them about
their bodies—their heads, their faces. They prowled. They came
ready to hurt. They used dangerous weapons; they targeted the weak;
they recruited and encouraged others to join in the coordinated
chaos; and they boasted about their shameful activity.
Though the media and the public attention of these crimes have
been focused almost exclusively on the early morning hours of June
26, 2011, the defendants’ terror campaign is not limited to this one
incident…. There are unknown victims like the John Doe at the
golf course who begged for his life and the John Doe at the service
station. Like a lynching, for these young folk going out to “Jafrica”
was like a carnival outing. It was funny to them—an excursion
which culminated in the death of innocent, African-American
James Craig Anderson.
But even after Anderson’s murder, the conspiracy continued.…
And, only because of a video, which told a different story from that
which had been concocted by these defendants, and the investigation
of law enforcement—state and federal law enforcement working
together—was the truth uncovered.
What is so disturbing … so shocking … so numbing … is that
these … hunts were perpetrated by our children … students who
live among us … educated in our public schools … in our private
academies … students who played football lined up on the same
side of the scrimmage line with black teammates … average students
and honor students. Kids who worked during school and in the
summers; kids who now had full-time jobs and some of whom were
even unemployed. Some were pursuing higher education and the
Court believes they each had dreams to pursue. These children were
from two-parent homes and some were the children of divorced
parents, and yes, some even raised by a single parent. No doubt, they
all had loving parents and loving families.…
I asked the question earlier, but what could transform these
young adults into the violent creatures their victims saw? It was
nothing the victims did … they were not championing any cause
… political … social … economic … nothing they did … not a
wolf whistle … not a supposed crime … nothing they did. There is
absolutely no doubt that in the view of the Court the victims were
targeted because of their race.
The simple fact is that what turned these children into criminal
defendants was their joint decision to act on racial hatred. In the eyes
of these defendants (and their co- conspirators) the victims were
doomed at birth … their genetic make-up made them targets.…
44 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
In the Mississippi we have tried to bury, when there was a jury
verdict for those who perpetrated crimes and committed lynchings
in the name of White Power … that verdict typically said that the
victim died at the hands of persons unknown. The legal and criminal
justice system operated with ruthless efficiency in upholding what
these defendants would call White Power.
Today, though, the criminal justice system (state and federal) has
proceeded methodically, patiently, and deliberately seeking justice.
Today we learned the identities of the persons unknown … they
stand here publicly today.
The sadness of this day also has an element of irony to it: each
defendant was escorted into court by agents of an African-American
United States Marshal; having been prosecuted by a team of lawyers
which includes an African-American AUSA from an office headed
by an African-American U.S. Attorney—all under the direction of
an African-American Attorney General, for sentencing before a
judge who is African-American, whose final act will be to turn over
the care and custody of these individuals to the BOP—an agency
headed by an African-American.
Today we take another step away from Mississippi’s tortured
past … we move farther away from the abyss. Indeed, Mississippi is
a place and a state of mind. And those who think they know about
her people and her past will also understand that her story has not
been completely written. Mississippi has a present and a future. That
present and future has promise. As demonstrated by the work of the
officers within these state and federal agencies—black and white,
male and female, in this Mississippi, they work together to advance
the rule of law.
Having learned from Mississippi’s inglorious past, these officials
know that in advancing the rule of law, the criminal justice system
must operate without regard to race, creed, or color. This is the
strongest way Mississippi can reject those notions—those ideas
which brought us here today.
At their guilty plea hearings, Deryl Paul Dedmon, Dylan Wade
Butler, and John Aaron Rice told the world exactly what their roles
were … it is ugly … it is painful … it is sad … it is criminal.…
These sentences will not bring back James Craig Anderson nor
will they restore the lives they enjoyed prior to 2011. The Court
knows that James Anderson’s mother, who is now 89 years old,
lived through the horrors of the Old Mississippi, and the Court
hopes that she and her family can find peace in knowing that
with these sentences, in the New Mississippi, Justice is truly blind.
Justice, however, will not be complete unless these defendants use
the remainder of their lives to learn from this experience and fully
commit to making a positive difference in the New Mississippi. And,
finally, the Court wishes that the defendants also can find peace.
[ed. Note: Reeves sentenced Dedmon to 50 years, Rice 18.5 years, and
Butler seven years.]
Five Alumni
Five Former Supreme Court Clerks
One Firm
By Michelle Koidin Jaffee
F
or Brian Schmalzbach ’10, Rebecca Gantt ’11, and Katherine
Mims Crocker ’12, serving on the Virginia Law Review was
only the start of their intersecting career paths.
After graduating, each went on to clerk at the Supreme Court
of the United States—and now all three have returned to Virginia
to practice with McGuireWoods.
It’s a recruitment win for the Richmond-based firm, bringing
to five the number of former U.S. Supreme Court clerks among
its ranks—all UVA Law alumni. The Law School is fourth in
contributing the most clerks to the Supreme Court from 2005
through 2014, after Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. In the fall, four
Law School graduates will clerk for the Court, tying a school
record from the 2009–10 term.
“The culture of UVA produces lawyers who are well rounded,”
says John D. Adams ’03, who serves as the firm’s hiring partner.
“They know how to work hard. They’re obviously smart. But they
also know how to treat people.”
McGuireWoods, with its growing appellate practice, is
intentionally focused on pursuing recruits of the Supreme Court
level, says Adams, a former clerk for
Above from left ,
Justice Clarence Thomas.
Katherine Mims Crocker ’12,
“There’s something about the
Rebecca Gantt ’11,
Brian Schmalzbach ’10,
young people who make it all the way
John Adams ’03,
Matt Fitzgerald ’08.
to the Court—they really love the law,”
he says. “They attack assignments with intensity because of their
passion for the law.”
The three new hires have joined the appellate practice, with
Schmalzbach and Crocker based in Richmond and Gantt in Norfolk.
“There’s been a lot of conventional wisdom in the past that you
had to go to a big D.C. firm in order to get the most sophisticated
work and have good opportunities moving forward in your career,
but that’s really not necessarily true,” says Matt Fitzgerald ’08, who
came to McGuireWoods following a clerkship for Justice Thomas.
“McGuireWoods is a good example of a firm with a major national
presence [that’s] every bit as sophisticated as many of the big D.C.
firms, and so the clerks realize that.”
In recent interviews with UVA Lawyer, the three new associates
elaborated on the experiences that shaped them, their roads to the
Supreme Court, and their new roles.
Katherine Mims Crocker ’12
F
or Crocker, a Harvard grad and native of Sterling, Va., one
formative Law School experience was A. E. Dick Howard’s seminar
on the Supreme Court; she later led a team of research assistants for
the professor in a project involving the Court.
“At the time I didn’t know I might have the opportunity to clerk
there, but it really taught me a lot about the Court and built my
interest in it,” says Crocker, who clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 45
Crocker, 29, also points to Michael Collins’ classes in federal
courts and civil rights litigation: “Those classes are both very
focused on jurisdictional issues, and I would often rely on what I
learned during both of my clerkships.”
Serving as an articles development editor of the Law Review
was a key experience for Crocker. “Being able to work in a small
group of people, discuss big and exciting ideas, and challenge each
other prepared me for working collaboratively with my co-clerks,
both at the Fourth Circuit and the Supreme Court,” she says.
Crocker clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III ’72 of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, as did Schmalzbach
before her. “We were both really fortunate to be able to clerk for
him for many reasons. Plus he has such a great track record of
sending clerks on to the Supreme Court,” Crocker says. “I know
that experience helped prepare us for clerking there.”
Crocker enjoyed the collaboration among the clerks. “It’s an
amazing concentration of young legal talent that you get to be part
of for a year,” she says. “I learned a lot of things just from hearing
how people approach problems from different perspectives. And
I’m not referring to ideological differences—people just think
through things differently, and getting to see that process in action
was really amazing.”
McGuireWoods offered an opportunity to work with Adams
and Fitzgerald. “Especially being at the very start of my career,
having strong mentors with appellate experience means a lot to
me,” Crocker says.
And the move to Richmond has brought her closer to family:
Crocker’s father is Justice William C. Mims of the Supreme Court
of Virginia.
“He has influenced me in so many positive ways, since long
before he was a Supreme Court justice,” she says. “It’s been really
inspiring to see him give so much of his life to public service.”
Rebecca Gantt ’11
G
antt, who grew up on a cattle farm in Nelson County, Va., and
went to Harvard on a U.S. Navy ROTC scholarship, served as a
Surface Warfare Officer for five years before coming to the Law School.
“We had really, really excellent professors who were willing to
spend time with you and cared about teaching,” she says.
One class that was especially useful for Gantt was Rachel
Harmon’s criminal investigation class. “I used that class the
most during my clerkships,” Gantt says. “It was thorough and
comprehensive.”
Gantt completed three clerkships, including one for Justice
Stephen G. Breyer. She notes that strong relationships between
students and professors pave the way toward clerkships. “For me,
Micah Schwartzman was incredibly helpful and is really an asset to
the school,” she says.
46 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
A former lieutenant in the Navy who twice deployed on
a destroyer to the Persian Gulf during the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, Gantt, 33, continues to draw on the skills she
developed during her military service.
“The military gives young people generally an incredible
amount of responsibility at a really young age, which initially
terrified me, but eventually I became accustomed to it and found
out how rewarding it could be,” says Gantt, who received a Navy
Commendation Medal and two Navy Achievement Medals.
“I think that was part of my decision to come to a firm like
McGuireWoods rather than a bigger firm—I felt I could get some
of that autonomy and responsibility.”
Brian Schmalzbach ’10
I
n both private practice and in his clerkships for Judge Wilkinson
and Justice Thomas, Schmalzbach says he could hear the words of
his UVA Law professors echoing in his mind.
“I think Caleb Nelson’s legislation class should be required for
everyone, but certainly anyone who’s going to clerk in the Court of
Appeals or the Supreme Court,” Schmalzbach says. “I think about
that class just about every day in my practice but certainly during
the clerkships.”
A native of Arlington, Va., Schmalzbach is a Double Hoo, an
Echols Scholar with a bachelor’s focusing on classics and religious
studies. “One thing that strikes me when I hear other people
describe their experiences at other law schools is the ideological
slant you sometimes get in classes,” Schmalzbach says. “I really
can’t come up with a time when that happened at UVA.”
In private practice in Washington, D.C., he worked on a Fourth
Amendment case that went to the Supreme Court. “I remember
hearing the facts of the case and immediately Professor [Anne]
Coughlin’s criminal investigation class came flooding into my
mind. Almost by the time I had finished hearing about the facts of
the case, I knew exactly what the arguments were going to have to
be, and which cases we were going to cite. It struck me at the time
that Professor Coughlin had done a wonderful job preparing us for
something like that.”
Coming out of clerkship, Schmalzbach wanted to join a firm
that had the infrastructure for an appellate practice already in
place, but away from D.C.
“McGuireWoods recognized that it could attract really good
talent to places outside of D.C. that are in some ways more livable,”
says Schmalzbach, 29. “I wanted to do great appellate work of the
sort I had been doing in D.C., but I just didn’t want to live in D.C.
So when McGuireWoods made me an offer to come to Richmond,
it seemed like a great opportunity to do the work I wanted to do,
but also to live the lifestyle I wanted to live, and that’s why I ended
up here.”
Faculty News & Briefs
KennethAbrahampublished
Insurance Law and Regulation
(6th ed. 2015; co-authored with
Daniel Schwarcz); “Prosser and
His Influence” in the Journal of
Tort Law 1 (co-authored with
G. Edward White); and “Review
of Merkin & Steele, Insurance and
the Law of Obligations” in the
Journal of European Tort Law.
In February he presented a
paper, “The Liability Insurer’s
Duty to Settle Uncertain and
Mixed Claims,” to the RutgersCamden Law School Conference
on the Restatement of the Law of
Liability Insurance.
In September MargoBagley was
a panelist on “Synthetic Biology
Night” at UVA’s International
Genetically Engineered Machines
(iGEM) event in Charlottesville.
In October she presented
“The Nagoya Protocol and
Synthetic Biology: A Look at the
Potential Impacts” at the First
Meeting of the Conference of the
Parties to the Nagoya Protocol
48 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
to the Convention on Biological
Diversity, Woodrow Wilson
Center Side Event, Pyeongchang,
South Korea.
In February she presented
“Of Indigenous Group ‘Straws’
and Developed Country
‘Camels’: Patents, Innovation,
and the Disclosure of Origin
Requirement” at the Works-inProgress Intellectual Property
(WIPIP) Workshop, U.S. Patent
& Trademark Office; and
“Towering Wave or Tempest
in a Teapot? Synthetic Biology,
Access & Benefit Sharing, and
Economic Development” at
the New Zealand Centre of
International Economic Law
Workshop on “Intellectual
Property and Regulation of the
Internet: The Nexus with Human
and Economic Development” in
Wellington.
In March Bagley presented “Is an International Law
of Intellectual Property a Good
Thing?” at the symposium
“The Promise and Perils of an
International Law of Property”
at the University of the Pacific
McGeorge School of Law in
Sacramento, Calif.
In February and March
Bagley continued to provide
expert technical assistance to the
government of Mozambique in
the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO) Standing
Committee on Trademarks
33rd Session and WIPO
Intergovernmental Committee
(IGC) on Intellectual Property
and Genetic Resources,
Traditional Knowledge, and
Folklore related meetings in
Geneva, Switzerland, and
Wellington.
In March the Institute of
Medicine of the National
Academy of Sciences released
its report on the “Public Health
Implications of Raising the
Minimum Age of Legal Access
to Tobacco Products.” The study,
chaired by RichardBonnie ’69,
was sought by the Food and
Drug Administration in response
to a congressional mandate in
the 2009 Tobacco Control Act.
According to the findings in the
report, almost all adult smokers
begin smoking and become
addicted by their early 20s. If the
minimum age of legal access were
raised now to 21, there would
be about three million fewer
adult smokers in 2060. Reducing
initiation of smoking would have
a substantial long-term public
health payoff. Over the lifespan
of the cohort of children born
in the first two decades of the
21st century, there would be
approximately 10 percent fewer
lifetime premature deaths, lung
cancer deaths, and years of life
lost from cigarette smoking.
(Given the status quo projections,
this translates to approximately
249,000 fewer premature deaths,
45,000 fewer deaths from lung
cancer, and 4.2 million fewer
years of life lost.)
In May Bonnie, Anne
Coughlin, John Jeffries ’73, and
Peter Low ’63 published the 4th
edition of their popular Criminal
Law casebook. Bonnie and Ruth
Gaare Bernheim ’80, current
chair of the Department of Public
Health Sciences at UVA’s School
of Medicine, published a pathbreaking casebook, Public Health
Law, Ethics and Policy, after more
than a decade of co-teaching a
course for Law students as well
as students in the public health
master’s degree program.
Bonnie also published companion articles in the January issue of
the journal Psychiatric Services on
a four-year effort to implement
provisions of Virginia’s Health
Care Decisions Act empowering
persons with mental illness to
execute advance directions to
govern their care in a psychiatric
crisis if their decisional capacity is impaired. These statutory
innovations, adopted in 2009 and
2010, were a key component of the
reform plan recommended by the
Commission on Mental Health
Law Reform chaired by Bonnie
from 2006–11. He also spoke
about these activities at the annual
meeting of the Psychiatric Society
of Virginia in Richmond in March.
In February Bonnie presented a lecture entitled “The
Sudden Collapse of Marijuana
Prohibition: What Next?” at the
UVA Medical Center Hour and
in April at the Johns Hopkins
Berman Institute of Bioethics.
He also presented a keynote
address on the history of drug
policy in the United States at
Emory Law School in March
and spoke at the annual meeting
of the American Psychiatric
Association in Toronto in May
Faculty News and Briefs
…
on the challenges being faced by
medical emergency departments
as a result of the shortage of acute
care psychiatric services.
JonathanCannon published
Environment in the Balance:
The Green Movement and the
Supreme Court. The University’s
Open Forum featured a discussion of the book on March 28
at the Law School, and in April
Cannon made a presentation on
the book to the faculty at UCLA.
For an in-depth article and video
about the book, visit www.bit.ly/
environmentinbalance.
The Law School’s Environmental and Land Use Law Program
hosted a panel discussion in April
with Mary Nichols, chairman
of the California Air Resources
Board. Nichols is leading the
implementation of AB 32,
California’s climate change law.
With colleagues in the
Environmental Sciences
Department and student researchers, Cannon is working on a
meta-study of nongovernmental
conservation efforts. The goal is to
isolate factors that are crucial to
long-term success across a range
of conservation programs.
Albert Choi has published
“Should Consumers Be Permitted
to Waive Products Liability?
Product Safety, Private Contracts,
and Adverse Selection,” with
Kathryn E. Spier at Harvard Law
School, in the Journal of Law,
Economics, and Organization,
and “Contract’s Role in Relational
Contract,” with Scott Baker at
Washington University Law
School, in the Virginia Law
Review. Choi presented that paper
at Tel Aviv University Law School
and the University of Haifa Law
School in June of 2014.
Also in 2014, Choi presented “Facilitating Mergers and
Acquisitions with Earnouts and
Purchase Price Adjustments”
at the National Business Law
Scholars Conference at Loyola
Law School in Los Angeles, Calif.,
and at the Division of Research
and Statistics at the Federal
Reserve Board in Washington,
D.C. He presented “Non-Profit
Status and Relational Sanctions:
Commitment to Quality
through Repeat Interactions
and Organizational Status” at
the University of Toronto Law
School, and will present it at
the International Society for
New Institutional Economics
Conference at Harvard Law
School this June.
Choi participated in the
Penn Corporate Roundtable at
University of Pennsylvania Law
School in December 2014; at
the NYU/Penn Law and Finance
Conference at NYU Law School in
February 2015; and as a commentator at Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Corporate Law Roundtable at
Yale Law School in March.
In the fall of 2014 Michael Doran
published “Tax Legislation in the
Contemporary U.S. Congress” in
Tax Law Review.
In February George Cohenparticipated in a symposium on
the proposed Restatement of
the Law of Liability Insurance.
Cohen presented “Vicarious
Liability of Insurers for Defense
Counsel Malpractice.” The paper
will be published by the Rutgers
Law Review.
AshleyDeeks wrote a chapter
for a book on intelligence
community oversight. The
chapter analyzes ways in which
one intelligence community can
influence the legal compliance
of peer intelligence services.
She presented that chapter this
spring at a University of Chicago
international law workshop and
at a workshop run by NYU Law
School’s Center on Law and
Security.
This spring Deeks spoke
on foreign surveillance and
international law at Washington
and Lee’s Cybersurveillance
Symposium, and spoke on
the same topic in Tallinn,
Estonia, this spring at NATO’s
International Conference on
Cyber Conflict.
In June she will present a paper
on national security, technology,
and the separation of powers at a
University of Chicago Law School
symposium.
She has also contributed a
number of blog posts to Lawfare,
including posts on issues related
to the use of force by the United
States, Jordan, and the United
Kingdom in Iraq and Syria; the
Sony hack; and the structure of
U.S. intelligence statutes.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 49
Faculty News and Briefs
…
In January KimberlyFerzanwas
elected to the American Law
Institute. She is currently an adviser
on the ALI project that is revising
the Model Penal Code’s sexual
assault provisions, and she has
joined the members consultative
group for the Project on Sexual
and Gender-Based Misconduct
on Campus: Procedural
Frameworks and Analysis.
Two of her accepted papers
are to appear in print soon.
Her paper “On Jeffrie Murphy’s
‘Involuntary Acts and Criminal
Liability’” will be published by
Ethics. Her essay, “Of Weevils and
Witches: What Can We Learn
from the Ghost of Responsibility
Past?,” that comments on Niki
Lacey’s contribution will appear
In the Virginia Law Review’s
Symposium on Jurisprudence and
(Its) History.
In April Ferzan commented on
Kit Wellman’s Berger Prize–winning article, “The Forfeiture
Theory of Punishment,” at
the American Philosophical
Association, Pacific Division,
Annual Meeting. She will also be
taking part in a conference on the
Ethics and Law of Omissions held
by the University of San Diego’s
Philosophy Department.
This summer Ferzan will be
working on a paper on rape law
reform for a symposium issue
of the Ohio State Journal of
Criminal Law.
50 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
Over the past six months
BrandonGarrett discussed
his book, Too Big to Jail, at the
Brennan Center in Washington,
D.C., in a call with the Council
of Institutional Investors; at a
conference about the book at Lille
University, France; a seminar at
All Souls College at Oxford; the
Bristol Festival of Ideas; a briefing
to U.S. House of Representatives
Finance Committee’s legislative
aides; the Virginia Festival of the
Book; the UVA Darden/McIntire
Finance Seminar; in a lunchtime
talk at the 92nd Street Y in New
York; at Columbia Law School;
and at the Cato Institute, which
was also featured on C-SPAN’s
Book TV.
In February Garrett presented
his draft paper “Why Guilty Pleas
Are Not Confessions” at William
& Mary School of Law and at a
plea bargaining symposium. He
participated in a conference on
corporate constitutional rights
at University College London.
He also helped to organize the
Virginia Criminal Law Journal’s
annual symposium, featuring a
keynote talk by U.S. Judge Jed
Rakoff and an afternoon panel
on the Virginia sentencing
guidelines, and helped to organize
a career event on White-Collar
Criminal Practice.
In March Garrett organized
a roundtable works-in-progress
conference at UVA on policing.
He presented a draft titled “A
Tactical Fourth Amendment,”
a work in progress with Seth
Stoughton. He gave a talk on
recent developments in criminal
procedure and practices to the
Charlottesville Criminal Bar.
He also helped organize and
moderate a panel, Policing After
Ferguson. He also discussed a
newer article, “The Corporate
Criminal as Scapegoat” at Pace
Law School. He presented a
new paper, “The Decline of the
Virginia (and American) Death
Penalty,” at Cornell Law School.
Articles to be published later
this year include “Constitutional
Law and the Law of Evidence”
in Cornell Law Review; “The
Corporate Criminal as Scapegoat”
and “Confession Contamination
Revisited” in the Virginia Law
Review; “Interrogation Policies”
in the University of Richmond Law
Review; and “Why Plea Bargains
Are Not Confessions” in the
William & Mary Law Review.
A book chapter to be published
later this year is “Blinding
Eyewitness Identifications,”
a chapter in Blinding as a
Solution to Bias in Biomedical
Science and the Courts: A
Multidisciplinary Approach,
Kathi Hanna, Chris Robertson,
and Aaron Kesselheim, eds.,
forthcoming 2015, Elsevier Press.
A short piece, “Rehabilitating
Corporations,” published last fall
in the Florida Law Review Online.
Garrett was appointed to
be an associate reporter on an
American Law Institute project,
Principles of the Law, Police
Investigations, and he continues
to advise law enforcement in
Virginia on matters related to
lineups and interrogation policies,
as well as a potential “Justice
Commission.” He advises policymakers concerning approaches to
corporate crime.
Garrett received a grant from
Proteus Action League to conduct
research on Virginia capital trials.
Also, the National Academy of
Sciences published its report
to which he contributed as a
committee member: National
Research Council, “Identifying
the Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness
Identification” (2014).
His recent op-eds include
“A Time Out for the Death
Penalty” in Jurist; “The Corporate
Criminal as Scapegoat” in CLS
Blue Sky Blog; “Prosecutors
Must Hold Corporate Offenders
Accountable” in The New York
Times; “Too Big to Jail” in ACS
Blog and CLS Blue Sky Blog; “The
Department of Justice Must Get
Serious on ‘Too Big to Jail,’” in
The Conversation; and “Delusion
and Execution” in ACS Blog.
“DNA and Distrust,” by Garrett
and Kerry Abrams will be
published in an upcoming issue
of Notre Dame Law Review.
Between April and June Garrett
is a visiting fellow at All Souls
College, Oxford.
Michael Gilbert’s paper
titled “The Problem of Voter
Fraud” was published in the
Columbia Law Review in April.
In November he presented a
paper titled “Insincere Rules” at
a faculty workshop at UVA and
that paper will be published in the
Virginia Law Review in 2016.
Gilbert presented a paper, coauthored with Brian Barnes ’16,
titled “The Coordination Fallacy”
at a symposium on voting rights
at Florida State University; the
Faculty News and Briefs
…
paper will be published in the
Florida State University Law
Review. He continues to work
with Andrew Hayashi on an economic analysis of rules, standards,
and enforcement, and is beginning work with Robert Cooter,
a law professor at University of
California–Berkeley, on a book
on public law and economics.
In February RisaGoluboff
appeared on the radio show
Backstory, speaking about
protective legislation for women.
In May she presented at the
University of Pennsylvania Law
School Legal History Workshop
on her forthcoming book on
vagrancy law and the 1960s.
In March Rachel Harmon
gave the annual Soll Lecture at
the University of Arizona Law
School. The title of the lecture was
“Why Arrest?” She also presented
a paper by the same name at the
Virginia Policing Roundtable.
Harmon has been appointed
associate reporter of the
American Law Institute’s new
project, Principles of Law, Police
Investigations, and she is serving
on the Law Enforcement Course
Advisory Committee for the
Virginia Department of Criminal
Justice Services.
She presented her paper
“Federal Programs and the Real
Costs of Policing” at a workshop
at the University of Toronto Law
School. That paper is forthcoming in the New York University
Law Review.
AndrewHayashi’s paper
“Determinants of Mortgage
Default and Consumer Credit Use:
The Effect of Foreclosure Laws and
Foreclosure Delays,” co-authored
with Sewin Chan at New York
University and Wilbert Van der
Klaauw and Andrew Haughwout
of the Federal Reserve Bank of
New York, will shortly undergo a
second review at a peer-reviewed
finance journal.
He continues to work with
Michael Gilbert on a paper
analyzing the strategic behavior
of government agencies and regulated parties when the costs of
enforcing the law are uncertain.
Last fall Hayashi published
“The Legal Salience of Taxation”
in the University of Chicago Law
Review and “Who Benefits from
Property Assessment Caps:
Evidence from New York City” in
State Tax Notes.
In June he is helping to
organize the Junior Tax Scholars
Conference in Austin, Tex.
TobyHeytens’ article
“Reassignment,” which appeared
in the Stanford Law Review, was
one of two long articles—and the
only article published in a law
review—selected for inclusion in
the Green Bag’s 2014 Almanac and
list of Exemplary Legal Writing.
A. E. Dick Howard’61 was
featured in a March Richmond
Times-Dispatch column by Jeff
Schapiro titled “World is U.Va.
law professor’s classroom.” The
article notes that Howard is
observing his 50th year at the Law
School, “making him the longest
­serving member of its faculty.
‘Saying that retirement is not
here yet’ the 81 ­year-old Howard
is surpassing John B. Minor, an
instructor from 1845 until his
death in 1895.”
The article also quotes
Hullie Moore ’68, a former state
corporation commissioner whom
Howard hired out of the Law
School as assistant counsel to the
Howard-directed revision of the
Constitution of Virginia in 1971.
“He has done stuff,” says
Moore. “He led the commission
to produce that constitution.
That’s a big deal. He’s worked
with emerging democracies,
something that goes far beyond
his scholarship.… Dick did make
a difference in the world.”
“Law should not be seen as a
vocation,” says Howard in the
article. “It’s a way of understanding much larger issues—life in
America, life in the world.”
Douglas Laycock won a 9-0
decision in the Supreme Court
in Holt v. Hobbs, protecting
the right of a Muslim prisoner
to grow a half-inch beard for
religious reasons and giving full
scope to the prisoner provisions
of the Religious Land Use and
Institutionalized Persons Act.
He filed an amicus brief in this
year’s marriage cases (Obergefell
v. Hodges and three companion
cases) urging the Court to protect
the right to same-sex marriage
and then to protect the religious
liberty of dissenters.
Laycock was the Dunn Scholarin-Residence at the William
& Mary Law School in March,
gave the annual lecture of the
Boston University Department of
Religion (jointly sponsored this
year by the Boston University Law
School) in February, and gave the
annual lecture commemorating
Jefferson’s Statute for Religious
Freedom at the University of
Mary Washington in January. He
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 51
Faculty News and Briefs
…
spoke in each case on “Religious
Liberty and the Culture Wars,”
a constantly evolving look,
regularly updated in response to
rapid new developments, at the
presumed conflict between rights
to sexual autonomy and rights to
religious liberty.
In March the D.C. Circuit
ruled in Center for Biological
Diversity v. Jewell, a case argued
by Michael Livermore that
was based in part on his 2013
article, “Patience Is an Economic
Virtue: Real Options, Natural
Resources, and Offshore Oil,”
in the University of Colorado
Law Review. The court endorsed
the legal theory advanced by
Livermore that the Department
of the Interior must account for
the information value of delay
(referred to as “options value”)
when making offshore oil decisions. In its new draft offshore
exploration plan released a month
earlier, Interior also includes an
extensive discussion of options
value, tracking Livermore’s
recommendations in Patience Is
an Economic Virtue.
Livermore’s article “A
Quantitative Analysis of Writing
Style on the U.S. Supreme Court,”
(with Keith Carlson and Daniel
Rockmore) will be published by
the Washington University Law
Review next year. The piece uses
advanced computational tools to
examine how writing style has
evolved on the Court over time.
52 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
Although snowed in by a
rare early March snowstorm
in Charlottesville, Livermore
presented his paper “Rethinking
Health-Based Environmental
Standards” (New York University
Law Review, with Richard Revesz)
via videoconference as a panelist
at the 20th Annual Stegner
Symposium on Air Quality:
Health, Energy, and Economics,
at S. J. Quinney College of Law in
Salt Lake City, Utah.
Livermore’s article “Interest
Groups and Environmental Policy:
Inconsistent Positions and Missed
Opportunities” (with Richard
Revesz) will appear in the journal
Environmental Law this spring.
He is currently editing his article
“Political Parties and Presidential
Oversight,” which he presented at
Duke Law School in April.
Dean Paul Mahoney’s new book,
Wasting a Crisis: Why Securities
Regulation Fails, questions the
rush to regulate after the 2008
financial meltdown. Wasting a
Crisis, published in March, is
the dean’s first book and draws
on his scholarship covering the
history of securities regulation.
For an in-depth article and
video about the book, visit
www.bit.ly/wastingacrisis.
In October the Journal of
Law and Politics and UVA’s
Immigration Law Program
cosponsored a conference titled
“The Future of Immigration
Enforcement: A Symposium in
Honor of Professor David Martin,”
in observance of his 35 years on
the faculty and his impending
retirement in 2016. The event
featured several leading
academics in the immigration
field, along with four prominent
former officials from U.S.
immigration agencies. Former
Commissioner of Immigration
and Naturalization Doris
Meissner, a long-time friend
and colleague of Martin’s, gave
the keynote address. Martin
presented a brief version of his
paper “Resolute Enforcement
Is Not Just for Restrictionists:
Building a Stable and Efficient
Immigration Enforcement
System.” The journal will publish
the full essay in its symposium
issue in 2015.
In 2014 Martin completed ten
years of service (the term limit)
as a member of the board of
editors of the American Journal
of International Law, and was
then elected an honorary editor
for the coming four years. In
January 2015, Jeh Johnson, the
Secretary of Homeland Security,
named Martin to the 35-member
Homeland Security Advisory
Council, which is chaired by
Judge William Webster, former
director of the FBI.
Martin arranged for a visit to
the Law School in September by
Brigadier General Mark Martins,
the Chief Prosecutor, Office of
Military Commissions, who
spoke at a public session and
also held a special meeting with
the Law School’s Presidential
Powers class. Martin and
Martins had worked together
on Guantanamo-related issues
during Professor Martin’s latest
government service in 2009–10.
Martin spoke in many
settings over the past year on
the ongoing controversy over
executive actions using prosecutorial discretion to permit certain
undocumented aliens to avoid
deportation and to obtain work
authorization. He was interviewed and quoted by numerous
journalists, including in The New
York Times, in The Washington
Post, and on Al Jazeera’s America
Tonight television show. At the
biennial conference of immigration law professors, held in
May 2014 at the University of
California–Irvine, Martin was
featured on a plenary session
panel addressing “Administrative
Alternatives to Comprehensive
Immigration Reform.” He
joined a roundtable of scholars,
practitioners, and government
officials at New York University
Law School in October discussing
“The President and Immigration
Reform,” which led to a collection
of essays from roundtable participants commenting on the actions
announced by President Obama
in November. The collection was
published on the Balkinization
blog. Martin and John Harrison
participated in a panel presentation at the Law School
in February titled “Executive
Amnesty?—Immigration and
Executive Power,” cohosted by the
Immigration Law Program and
the Federalist Society.
Faculty News and Briefs
…
Martin was a featured debater
in a series hosted by UVA’s
Miller Center and telecast on
PBS stations in October. He
was part of a two-person team
arguing the negative on this
topic: “The number of undocumented immigrants must be
dramatically reduced through
greatly expanded enforcement.”
Martin argued for enactment by
statute of a well-crafted one-time
legalization program covering
current long-resident unauthorized immigrants, but emphasized
how that step is the most effective
way to empower resolute and
consistent immigration enforcement in the future, using tools
and capabilities not available at
the time of the 1986 amnesty.
In November Martin presented
a paper called “Why the Plenary
Power Doctrine Endures” at a
conference at Oklahoma Law
School, held in observance of
the 125th anniversary of the
Supreme Court’s decision in Chae
Chan Ping v. United States. That
case, also known as the Chinese
Exclusion Case, is widely considered the source of doctrine giving
Congress plenary power, with
very limited judicial constraint, in
the immigration field.
GregMitchell and co-authors
published the article “Predicting
Ethnic and Racial Discrimination
with the IAT: Small Effect Sizes of
Unknown Societal Significance”
in the Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology.
In January Mitchell and
Hunter Hughes ’70, an accomplished lawyer and mediator,
taught a new class, Law &
Psychology of Dispute Resolution.
In March Mitchell was a panelist in the Searle Center Roundtable
on Women in the Workplace—
Perspectives from the Academy
and the Corporate World, which
was held at the Northwestern
University School of Law.
DotanOliar’s recent co-authored
paper on copyright registrations
was selected as one of the best
IP law review articles of the year
by Thomson Reuters (West) for
inclusion in their 2015 Intellectual
Property Law Review, an
anthology. The article, “Copyright
Registrations: Who, What, When,
Where, and Why,” by Oliar, economics Ph.D. student Nathanial
Pattison, and third-year law
student K. Ross Powell is the first
to study the contents of individual
copyright registration records,
and is intended to help lay down
an empirical basis for evidencebased copyright lawmaking. (See
Law School News.)
In March Robert O’Neil presented “Academic Freedom in
the Age of Digital Media” to the
Academic Freedom Forum of the
Professional Staff Congress of the
City University of New York, a
union group.
Daniel Ortizwas counsel of
record in Henderson v. United
States and led the Supreme Court
Litigation Clinic’s drafting of the
opening and reply merits briefs
in Henderson. He argued the case
in February, and also spoke at
Stanford University at a conference called “The Supreme Court
at Midterm.”
MildredRobinson published
“‘Skin in the Tax Game’: Invisible
Taxpayers? Invisible Citizens?”
in the Villanova Law Review.
The essay is a longer version of
an address that she delivered in
January of 2014 at the Villanova
Law School as a part of their
observance of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. Day.
This spring George Rutherglen
attended a conference in Seattle
on the Thirteenth Amendment
and Labor. His article for this
conference was “The Thirteenth
Amendment and Slavery
Overseas.” He also has related
articles coming out on “Private
Rights and Private Actions:
The Legacy of Civil Rights
Enforcement in Title VII” and
“The Origins of Arguments
Against Reverse Discrimination.”
Rutherglen is also working on a book, International
Civil Litigation: Principles
and Prospects. A couple of
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 53
Faculty News and Briefs
…
related articles are “Reconceiving
Personal Jurisdiction: Sovereignty,
Authority, and Individual Rights”
and “Rule 1 and the Conflicting
Ambitions of Procedural Reform.”
In February FredSchauer’s book
The Force of Law was published
by the Harvard University Press.
For more on the book, including
a video interview, visit www.bit.ly/
forceoflaw.
Schauer also published “Free
Speech on Tuesdays” in Law and
Philosophy and “Do People Obey
the Law?” in a symposium issue
of the San Diego Law Review. A
19-page interview with Schauer,
done in English and translated
into Spanish, was published
in Doxa, the Spanish (Alicante,
Spain) journal of legal philosophy.
He has had 26 of his articles
on freedom of speech translated
into Hungarian and published
in Hungary as a book edited
and translated by Koltay Andras,
with the title A Demokracia es a
Szolasszabadsag Hatarai.
Schauer has also given lectures
on legal theory, with a particular
focus on law and coercion, at the
National University of Singapore
in January, and again at the
European University Institute,
Florence, Italy, and Bilkent
University in Ankara, Turkey,
in May.
54 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
In February he gave a lecture
entitled “On the Distinction
between Speech and Action” at
a conference on freedom of
speech at the Emory University
School of Law and at the Public
Law Workshop at the University
of California–Berkeley. He gave
lectures on freedom of expression
and on legal positivism to the
Master Course in Legal Theory,
University of Genoa, Italy.
Schauer also delivered
the Nathaniel L. Nathanson
Memorial Lecture at the
University of San Diego, with
the title “Is Law a Technical
Language?”; and spoke on
“Plans, Instructions, Recipes,
and the Freedom of Speech” at
Dartmouth College in April.
In December 2014, RichSchragger
presented (with co-author
Micah Schwartzman ’05) a
paper entitled “Some Realism
About Corporate Rights” at
the University of Pennsylvania
Wharton School, in a conference
exploring the implications of the
Supreme Court’s decision in the
Hobby Lobby case.
In January he presented a draft
chapter of his forthcoming book,
City Power, at a faculty workshop
at the George Washington
University School of Law.
Published by Oxford University
Press, the book is expected to
publish in 2016. Schragger gave a
workshop on the same subject at
Notre Dame Law School in April.
Barbara Spellman will be
publishing this summer (with
Michael J. Saks), The Psychological
Foundations of Evidence Law. The
book is one of the first two in
a series on psychology and law
from New York University Press.
The other is The Psychology of
Tort Law.
Spellman also published
two law-related papers with
students: “Counterfactuals,
Control, and Causation: Why
Knowledgeable People Get
Blamed More” in Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin (with
Elizabeth A. Gilbert, Elizabeth R.
Tenney, Christopher Holland [in
press]); and “Blame, Cause, and
Counterfactuals: The Inextricable
Link; Comment on ‘A Theory of
Blame’” (with Gilbert [2014] in
Psychological Inquiry).
In May she presented
“Distributing Justice: What the
Law Intends v. What the Law
Delivers” at a symposium at the
Association for Psychological
Science in New York; and in
March with Siny Tsang and
Megan Clemency, “Shouldn’t
the quality of expert testimony
matter?” at the 2015 American
Psychology-Law Society
Conference in San Diego.
Spellman continues as editorin-chief of the journal Perspectives
on Psychological Science until the
end of 2015.
Paul Stephan ’77 published a
paper in the Capital Markets Law
Journal, a British publication,
on the relationship between the
international law of investment
protection and the domestic law
of a host state. He also edited
and contributed to the publication, this past fall, of the papers
presented at the 2013 Sokol
Colloquium.
In March he spoke at a roundtable hosted by Duke Law School
on international corruption, and
at a conference organized by the
Federalist Society on U.S. treaty law.
In April he spoke at a conference organized by Georgetown
Law Center on current issues
in foreign affairs law. In July he
will speak at an international
conference in Geneva, Switzerland,
on foreign affairs law, organized by
Duke Law School to include the
International Law Commission. In
August he will teach at Melbourne
University and Sydney University
in Australia, and in September
at the Peking University
School of Transnational Law in
Shenzhen, China.
Stephan will spend the
remainder of the fall at Paris I
(Panthéon-Sorbonne, in France)
teaching a course and conducting research. He continues to
work as coordinating reporter
for the Restatement (Fourth)
of the Foreign Relations Law of
Faculty News and Briefs
…
the United States. A meeting to
discuss the preliminary draft with
foreign advisers took place in
April, and one with U.S. advisers
is set for October.
Pierre-Hugues Verdier is
working with Mila Versteeg on
a large-scale empirical project
on the reception of international
law in national legal systems
around the world. He presented
a first paper based on this data
at the University of Chicago Law
School, where he visited last fall,
and will present it this summer
at a conference at Northwestern
University. The paper investigates
whether countries whose
constitutional law imposes
constraints on treaty-making by
the executive and makes treaties
directly applicable by courts are
able to enhance the credibility
of their promises, making them
more desirable partners for
bilateral investment treaties. Verdier is also organizing the 2015 edition of the
Sokol Colloquium on Private
International Law, which will
continue to explore the theme
of Comparative International
Law—or how and why the
interpretation, application, and
understanding of seemingly
uniform international law rules
differ across legal systems. The
contributions to the 2014 and
2015 colloquia will be published
in a collective volume by Oxford
University Press, co-edited with
Paul Stephan, Mila Versteeg, and
Anthea Roberts of Columbia Law
School. Verdier is also beginning
work on a book-length project on
international financial regulation
after the financial crisis.
Rip Verkerke participated as a
speaker on a showcase panel
at the 2014 Federalist Society
National Lawyers Convention.
His remarks will be published
in the Harvard Journal of Law &
Public Policy this summer.
Last October he also
participated as a panelist in a
discussion at the Law School
titled “The War on Women:
What Are the Real Issues?”
co-sponsored by the Federalist
Society and Virginia Law Women.
He was a commentator at the
Disclosure Conference organized
by Jason Johnston at the Law
School. Verkerke also commented
on Christopher Drahozal’s paper
“Displacing Disclosure: Mandated
Disclosure, Unconscionability,
and Arbitration Clauses.” His
article, “Legal Ignorance and
Information-Forcing Rules,”
appeared in the William & Mary
Law Review in the March issue.
Ted White’s article “The Origins
of Civil Rights in America” was
published early this year in Case
Western Law Review. White
also published this year, with
Ken Abraham, “Prosser and
His Influence” in the Journal of
Tort Law.
In June he will present at a conference at Harvard Law School,
“Contemporary Legal Thought:
Origins and Consequences,” which
will appear in the Cambridge
Companion to Contemporary Legal
Thought in 2016.
White has also published “The
Lost Episode of Gong Lum v.
Rice,” in volume 18 of the Green
Bag 2d; “Intellectual History and
Constitutional Decision Making,”
in volume 101 of the Virginia
Law Review; and “The Origins
and Emergence of Tort Law,” in
volume 11 of the St. Thomas Law
Journal.
Volume 2 of White’s Law in
American History book series, From
Reconstruction Through the 1920s,
is in production and expected to
be published by Oxford University
Press in the spring of 2016.
In the fall Ethan Yale organized
the 2014 UVA Invitational
Tax Conference. The two-day
conference included academics
specializing in tax law and policy
from leading law schools across
the United States.
In May Yale made a
presentation to the Tax Court
Judicial Conference on statutory
construction in cases before
the Tax Court. Yale also wrote
a forthcoming article entitled,
“Anti-basis” in the North Carolina
Law Review.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 55
Based on the popular Humans of
New York series on Facebook and
Tumblr, the Law School’s Humans of
UVA Law site showcases what makes
the school special through personal
portraits of people in the community,
including students, faculty, staff,
visitors, and alumni. See more at
humansofuvalaw.tumblr.com.
When were you happiest in law school?
“I enjoyed my time at UVA Law so much,
but my happiest moment at the Law
School took place on my graduation
day—it was sharing a special moment
with my grandfather, who was crying
tears of joy because I had officially
received not only one but two degrees
from the University of Virginia, and that
was a palpable reminder to him that
everything he had fought for in the past
had made a difference and the world
was moving in a positive direction.”
“I love LinkedIn because I love to
see the success of the students I’ve
taught. You can see—down here where
it says their degree, that’s when we
knew each other, and then the jobs get
progressively more interesting. The
longer they’ve been out of school, the
more interesting their work gets. I’ve had
several students become tax professors,
which is great.”
“Everyone talks about UVA having such
a collegial and friendly community, but
this past semester, a tough semester,
showed me that we genuinely treat each
other like family.”
56 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
How did you all become friends?
“It’s a really funny story actually—”
“Are we telling that story?”
“Which story? About how we plotted to
be your friends?”
“I’m from Los Angeles, but I grew up
spending my summers in the countryside
in Lebanon. Charlottesville reminds me
of that—a small city, everyone’s friendly,
especially at the Law School. So even
though it’s thousands of miles from L.A.,
I’m very comfortable here.”
Where are you from?
“Australia.”
What’s the hardest part of the JeanPictet Competition in International
Humanitarian Law?
“Probably facing your own weaknesses.
The simulations are set up in a way
that get you to explore your strengths
and weaknesses. It’s a lot of stuff you
don’t expect, and you can’t prepare
for them, so when you confront them,
that’s probably the hardest part—and it’s
also the best part because it helps you
learn a lot.”
“‘Don’t look back. Something might be
gaining on you.’ That’s from Satchel
Paige.”
Dad: “He might not remember his
experiences here, but the people he has
met will remember him. He’s already
ahead of the game. People will remember
him before they remember me.”
“When I was young, people told me that
I was ‘bossy.’ And what is bossy? We
don’t call boys bossy. Bossy is a word
we only use for girls and women who
say what they want. Like, ‘Oh, you’re
trying to act like a boss …’ Yeah! And
that’s not a bad thing!”
“I’m painting all the light poles here. I
painted 212 light poles over at John Paul
Jones Arena. It takes a million people to
keep things going here.”
“I was thinking about going into medicine
and I wasn’t too sure about it. I spent
two summers at Cornell Med in their
stem cell lab and it actually confirmed
that I didn’t want to be a doctor. So,
instead of assuming you know what you
want to do, get out there and try it before
you commit to something. It would be
pretty terrible to look back on your life
and think, ‘I really just didn’t enjoy doing
what I did.’”
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 57
Class Notes
We welcome submissions for inclusion in Class Notes.
Online, submit them at www.law.virginia.edu/alumni; e-mail them to lawalum@virginia.edu;
mail them to UVA Lawyer, University of Virginia School of Law, 580 Massie Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903; or
fax them to 434/296-4838. Please send your submissions by September 15 for inclusion in the next issue.
1948
Kemper Goffigon III sends
his greetings. He is now
95 years old. In between
earning a B.A. from UVA in
1941 and returning for law
school, he commanded
three U.S. Navy ships during World War II. He was
awarded the Navy Cross
and Purple Heart for his
service. Goffigon retired in
1986 as owner and CEO of
the Goffigon Equipment
Company, a farm equipment dealership near Cape
Charles, VA.
Bob Nusbaum wrote to let
us know of his upcoming
plans. Instead of attending his 70th reunion at
Harvard, he’s headed to St.
Barts. “Linda and I enjoy
the French cuisine and
the opportunity to refresh
our conversational French
language skills.”
Former University of Virginia Board of Visitors member James S. Cremins ’49 died on
March 10 at the age of 93. He retired in 1986 as assistant general counsel with CSX, a
38-year career that combined his love of trains and the law. He served on the board
of the American Judicature Society, was a life fellow of the American Bar Foundation,
and chaired committees of the Norfolk, Richmond, and American Bar Associations.
Cremins served as a communications officer in the U.S. Navy in World War II. He
was active in the Richmond Council of the Navy League and was a judge advocate.
A descendant of an officer in the Revolutionary War, he joined the Sons of the
American Revolution and was president of the Richmond and Virginia chapters and
a trustee of the National Society.
In 1985 he received the Humanitarian Award from the Virginia Center for Inclusive
Communities for decades of volunteer service. He was a trustee of Commonwealth
Catholic Charities and was deeply involved in volunteer work within the Catholic Diocese of Richmond and the
Knights of Columbus. He served on the boards of the Maymont Foundation and the Boy Scouts of America’s Heart
of Virginia Council.
Of Irish ancestry, Cremins was a charter member and president of the Ancient Order of Hibernians Major James
Dooley Division and served on the Greater Richmond St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee. He was the parade’s
grand marshall in 2000.
“Who Murdered Mom,” and
“Spreading Murder and
Happiness.” (See In Print.)
1951
Charles B. Reeves Jr.
Frank Warren Swacker’s
e-book, Murder Trilogy:
Three Two-Act Plays,
recently became available
online from Amazon and
Barnes & Noble. The collection includes plays based
on his courtroom dramas:
“Boardroom Conspiracy,”
writes: “I continue to enjoy
‘riotous living,’ thanks to
my ‘training’ at UVA Law
School. And thanks always
to God! Hoo-rah-ray! U-V-A!”
Edward T. Caton ’56 died on November 18 at 86 years old.
As an undergraduate at the School of Commerce ’51, he
lived on the Lawn and was a member of Phi Kappa Sigma.
He enrolled in the Law School and joined the International
Legal Honor Society, Phi Delta Phi. Following graduation,
he set up his practice in Virginia Beach. He renovated a
beach cottage on Pacific Avenue in which he practiced law
for more than 50 years.
Caton served in the U.S. Coast Guard and was active in
the reserve for many years. As a member of the local city council he was involved in
the merger of the City of Virginia Beach and Princess Anne County, which became
the City of Virginia Beach as it is known today. He served in the Virginia House of
Delegates from 1966 to 1968, in the Virginia Senate from 1968 to 1972, and on
the local school board until the early 1980s. He was also a commissioner in the
chancery for the Virginia Beach court system.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 59
Class notes
…
1958
By Ted Torrance, Corresponding Secretary
1955 Windward Way, Vero Beach, FL 32963
Email: etorr@cox.net
With presumably all of our surviving Class of
1958 members (currently totaling 70) now
well into their ninth decades, your scribe asked
them to share their thoughts on what has kept
them ticking for such an impressively long time.
No information as to professional honors or
accomplishments was solicited, although the
Class enjoys an abundance of both. What follows
is a distillation of a wide variety of responses to
my request.
A newsy, handwritten note from Barbara
Coppeto, in Sarasota, Fla. (she still eschews a
computer): extensive traveling in her earlier
years, and researching and planning her trips,
largely consumed her non-professional time,
but that has now for the most part morphed
into vicarious enjoyment of the New York Times
travel section. But she continues to exercise her
mind by doing pre-trial work on a weekly basis
when she is in Connecticut over the summer
months, having served for many years on the
Connecticut Superior Court.
I caught up with George Harris in his car as
he was driving through Arizona on the way to
a meeting at Arizona State University. George
is heavily involved with a foundation whose
ambitious goal is to ensure the education,
largely, as I understand it, by charter schools, of
every Arizona Latino child from kindergarten
through twelfth grade. That project, along
with the obvious attraction of dividing his life
1957
John Corse and three
friends are known as
the “Fab Four” in the
U.S. Masters swimming
circuit. Last October they
captured a lot of attention
when they set world
and USMS records in the
200-, 400-, and 800-meter
60 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
between Palo Alto, Calif., and Wilson, Wyo. (near
Jackson Hole), has kept his interests vitally alive
over the years.
Jesse Vogtle writes from Mountain Brook, Ala.,
that it is his wife who keeps him “hopping” with
daily walks, but he also mentions in passing
having eight grandchildren, who undoubtedly
have had a salutary effect on his longevity.
Readers may recall that Jesse was, and indeed
may still be, in the running for being named the
youngest member of our class, so “longevity” is
a relative term.
From Boston’s North Shore (Manchester-bythe-Sea) comes word from Fred Goldstein; a
fair conclusion is that it is Fred’s perpetually
busy schedule that has kept him thriving over
the years. For instance, his February response
recited a calendar of “a few duty days in
New Haven, two days in Charlottesville for
the Tax Study Group, a few weeks in London,
and a visit to New Orleans,” which he hoped
would keep him out of trouble—and his mind
functioning—for the next six months.
Bill Edwards’ e-mail to me from Corpus Christi,
Texas, was straightforward: his secret to a
long and happy life is, simply, continuing to
work, and work hard, around 40 to 50 hours a
week in his case, and to lecture occasionally.
Much of his work centers on barratry and
deceptive advertising, and even a cursory
reading of his note demands the conclusion
that his continuing professional activity works
admirably for him.
At perhaps the other end of the occupational
field is Bruce Williams, who reported on the
freestyle relays and the
200-meter medley relay at
the Annual Rowdy Gaines
Masters Classic, in Orlando,
Fla. Corse broke the U.S.
Masters swimming record
in his age group in the
50-meter breaststroke.
Corse and his friends,
whose average age is over
90 years, meet three times
a week to swim together.
Their hard work, endurance, and good cheer
earned them the Growing
Bolder Inspiration Award
at the Masters Classic. They
were featured in an article
in the January/February issue of Swimmer magazine
entitled, “The Men Behind
the Records.”
extensive travels he has undertaken with his
wife on his Grand Banks 36 (for landlubbers:
a magnificent 36-foot recreational trawler),
which he acquired in 1998. They have cruised
from Maine to the Florida Keys, to the Bahamas
and points in between, but Bruce says that
from now on he expects to be cruising locally,
on the Chesapeake Bay, “since I find it harder to
climb in and out of the bilge.”
Also to the point was Michael Kaplan, in
New York City: “I’ve done two things to
keep me “young.” I decided years ago that
exercise shortens your life, so I’ve basically
done none.” But what he did do was marry
Harriet, a prominent dental practitioner and
administrator, who “puts on my flea collar and
drags me all over the western world.”
A possible convert to Michael Kaplan’s
approach to exercise is Hobart McWhorter,
who wrote that at the end of December,
while working out on a treadmill, he suffered
a coronary arrest and woke up a week later
in a strange hospital. He is currently going
through cardiac rehabilitation, and, in light of
his experience, he says he is not inclined to
boast about longevity. To the contrary, he notes
that, for him, “every day is a lagniappe,” and
cautions that we should not make the mistake
of postponing our fishing trips. Well said.
Bill Griesar writes from Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. that
he has always been a bit of a hobbyist and doit-yourselfer, with woodworking, woodcarving,
and clay sculpting filling his non-legal time,
along with horology and the collection and
repair of old clocks. Add a Maine waterfront
cottage and fishing and boating to the picture
1958
1959
George M. “Ted” Rogers
In October Robert G.
Sullivan was honored,
passed away on March 31,
and is survived by his wife,
Patricia. Rogers was a resident of Gulf Stream, Fla., at
the time of his passing.
along with three of his
contemporaries, as a
recipient of the inaugural
Ross M. Pyle Career
Achievement Award
in recognition of his
expertise, integrity, and
Class notes
…
and you can understand he has not been idle
these many years. But in Bill’s words: “Best of
all, a wife and four children to keep track of” are
critical to his enjoyment of life.
With a creaky back sidelining his beloved
golf game, John Oram has been studying the
masters of English literature, taking courses at
the Savannah (Ga.) Senior Center and, over five
summers, in England at Cambridge University.
“To see if I have learned anything from all this,
I am also trying my hand as a writer of short
stories. The Pulitzer Prize Committee has so
far ignored these efforts, but if nothing else,
I now have an even greater appreciation for the
genius, both ancient and modern, that can be
found on our library shelves.”
From Louisville, Stuart “Blue” Jay writes that
he takes a little different approach to dealing
with longevity, “by playing bridge about
daily,” wagering on horses, and attending all
University of Louisville basketball games.
From the Far West, Bill O’Connor, now
of Eugene, Ore., sent along a good and
extensive summary of what keeps him alert
and interested in the world: primarily a
keen interest in work and study, for the pure
enjoyment of both. Bill didn’t retire until 2011,
when he converted four state bar memberships
to inactive status, retaining, for nostalgic
purposes, only his license in American Samoa,
where he was chief justice in the late 1970’s.
Since retiring he has finished writing a twovolume historical novel about the American
Revolution, but from a British point of view. It
is titled At War in America and is available on
Kindle and the Web. Rounding out all this is
outstanding contributions
to bankruptcy issues in
the San Diego, Calif., area.
He was unable to attend
the event, and his three
children accepted the
award on his behalf.
his continuing study of world mythology and
generally keeping abreast of current events.
I suggest that Bill is representative of
many of us who have found that keeping life
meaningful and enjoyable at our ages calls for
a real effort to keep engaged with the world
at large and to pursue vigorously whatever
interests happen to turn us on.
By the way, if you should meet up with Bill
while out walking some evening, I suggest you
give him a wide berth: he is often accompanied
by his 185-pound Rottweiler, Thunder.
I was delighted to hear from Murray Falk after
all these years. Murray immediately attributed
his longevity to “lots of luck,” including meeting
and marrying “Margie, my wonderful wife of
35 years and still going, and finding and acquiring Frosty, our Bichon Frise joy of 13 years and
still going.”
A verbatim reply from Henry Williams: “Some
of my missing the reaper has been luck: a
near miss in the Navy; another, 35 years ago
on Main Street when a concrete cornice on
a nearby building landed next to me; a close
call with a bus; and the luck of having a very
capable sailor with me in Newfoundland when
I had a heart attack. He took the boat into an
impossibly shallow fishing port. From there
I was driven by truck to Gander and plane to
St. John’s. Tennis since high school has helped.
Skiing, hiking and exercise, too. Vitamins and
supplements have been good.”
present Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian is,
he notes, limited for recording and projecting
past and future cosmic and evolutionary events
and does not include spacetime, whereas Bob’s
does. With a cosmic year equaling 250 million
Earth years, we are now in Cosmic Year 56,
dating from the Big Bang. “I am now about
10½ cosmic seconds old. I hope to reach 12½
cosmic seconds of age. I will let you know if
I make it.” Help! I am out of my depths; even
Hardy Dillard never prepared me for this.
Lastly, I know that Karl Velde is alive and well,
for he recently took me on a tour of the lovely
home he is refurbishing, not far from mine here
in Vero Beach, Fla. And I have seen his name
in the winners’ circle at our local golf club, so
keeping athletic and domestic must be in large
part his key to extending his later years.
What is a fair conclusion to be drawn from the
foregoing? I submit that it demonstrates that it
is not the particularity of the varying interests
captivating us that is critical in extending our
enjoyable years, but rather the intensity and
enthusiasm with which we pursue them—thereby
crowding out Old Man Time as a factor in our
lives. So, whatever your interests may be, keep
after them!
Many thanks to all those who contributed to
this column.
I need a little assistance with Bob Smith’s
response. His “keep on ticking” hobbies include
cosmology and astronomy, and he is working
on a cosmic calendar to supplement our
1960
Philip V. Moyles was
inducted into the alumni
hall of fame at Mount
St. Mary’s University in
Emmitsburg, Md. The
honor was bestowed for his
loyalty and contributions to
“The Mount,” his professional achievements, and
his charitable work.
Moyles practiced law
in New York, with a focus
on maritime law, and
participated as a delegate
of the Commité Maritime
Internationale in Montreal
and Venice. He established
the Margaret E. and
William P. Moyles Award
for Excellence in Pre-Law
Studies, given each year
to a rising senior who exhibits academic excellence
in the pre-law program at
Mount St. Mary’s.
1961
Montague IV ’97, teamed
up on the weekend
of October 3–5 to win
first place in their class
in the Turkey Shoot
Sailing Regatta on the
Rappahannock River. “I’m
enjoying old boats, old
cars, and old houses!”
Robert L. Montague III
and his son, R. Latane
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 61
Class notes
…
1962
G. Marshall Mundy
received the Roanoke
Bar Association’s highest
honor, the Frank W.
“Bo” Rogers Jr. Lifetime
Achievement Award.
The award is given to an
outstanding lawyer in
southwest Virginia with
the highest standards of
personal and professional
excellence. Mundy has
served on the board of the
Roanoke Bar Association
and as its president, as
well as on the board of
governors of the Virginia
State Bar senior law
section, the Virginia State
Bar criminal law section,
and the Virginia State Bar
litigation section.
He has taken on
numerous roles over
the years in support of
his alma mater, Virginia
Military Institute, and has
established a scholarship
for a worthy cadet in
memory of his father
and brother, who were
also graduates. He and
his wife, Monika, have
also established a fund
with the Foundation
for Roanoke Valley to
provide grants to worthy
organizations.
Mundy is a founding
partner of Mundy Rogers
in Roanoke, where he
focuses his practice on
personal injury law.
William A. Pusey died on
March 6. Pusey began his
law career with McCutchen
Doyle Brown & Enerson in
San Francisco, Calif., and
later served as a prosecutor
in Alameda County. He
moved east to join Hunton
62 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
& Williams in Richmond,
Va., and later led business
development for the
firm in Fairfax, Va. and
Washington, D.C. His practice focused on acquisitions
and mergers, securities
law, natural resources, and
international transactions.
He was general counsel for
the Wolf Trap Foundation
and the American
Horticultural Society and
served on the boards of the
Community Idea Stations,
Richmond CenterStage,
and family entities
Velpar Investments, Inc.,
James River Investment
Corporation, and the Paul
H. Pusey Foundation.
W. Scott Street III ’68 passed away on February 1, from a rare form of cancer.
After graduating from the Law School, he practiced with several law firms in the
Richmond area; for the last 34 years he was at Williams Mullen. His legal work
focused on trial and appellate practice in civil and criminal matters, commercial real
estate development, and the resolution of business disputes. He helped rebuild
the financial structure of Liberty University, which has grown into the largest
private university in Virginia. He chaired the Virginia State Bar section on education
of lawyers, represented Virginia in the House of Delegates of the ABA, and was
president of the Virginia State Bar for the 1999 to 2000 term.
He was secretary-treasurer of the Virginia Board of Bar
Examiners from 1972 until January 1 of this year.
An avid golfer, Street visited Scotland every
summer from 1988 on and was a member of
golf clubs in Scotland and Virginia. He was also a
bluegrass musician and played the five-string banjo
with different groups over the years. With JAMinc.org,
a nonprofit organization, he played music that reached
thousands of students and other music devotees in the
Richmond area.
1964
David Bottoms is executive
managing director of
Banyan Partners in Boston,
where he manages a portfolio of over $100 million
in assets.
David Whittemore writes
“since our fabulous 50th
reunion we traveled to
Normandy, where the
people were wonderful, the
museums were first class,
and we even visited with a
92-year old veteran on Utah
Beach where he had landed
the day after D-Day.”
as commissioner of the
Southeastern Conference
since 2002, during which
time the SEC won 75
national championships
in 17 of its 21 sports. He
presided over the addition
of two institutions to
the conference, led the
adoption of a leaguewide NCAA compliance
initiative, and oversaw
the launch of the highly
successful SEC Network
on cable last August. Slive
will retire from his position
in July and will serve as a
consultant to the SEC for
four years.
1965
Mike Slive was named
the Alabama Sports Hall
of Fame Distinguished
American Sportsman
for 2015. Slive has
helped shape college
sports throughout his
career. He has served
1967
Gene Dahmen was included
in New England Super
Lawyers 2014 in family
law. She is senior counsel
with Verrill Dana in
Boston, Mass.
1968
William Norman is a
partner with Cooper, White
& Cooper in San Francisco,
Calif. He chairs the real
estate solutions group and
handles a full schedule
of jury trials, primarily in
partnership, real estate,
and probate litigation.
Robert D. Pannell
published an article, “Legal
Opinions in Business
Transactions: The Modern
Roots of a Professional
Discipline” in the journal
of the business law
section of the American
Bar Association (69 Bus.
Law. 923, May 2014). He
has been a member of the
Working Group on Legal
Opinions in New York, a
forum on legal opinions
to third parties in business
transactions, since 2008.
An adjunct professor of
law at Emory University
Law School since 2009,
Pannell teaches venture
capital in the school’s
“Doing Deals” business law
clinical program.
1969
Thomas G. Slater Jr.
received the Richmond
Bar Association’s Hunter
W. Martin Professionalism
Award in October. The
award recognizes those
who exemplify the highest
standards of professional
conduct. Slater is a partner
with Hunton & Williams,
where he focuses his
practice on complex
litigation matters with
emphasis on antitrust,
intellectual property, and
unfair trade practices.
Class notes
…
1971
Ronald D. Castille, at far right,
In March J. Rutledge Young Jr. ’68 (left) and
Gordon D. Schreck ’69 attended the 225th anniversary celebration of the first convening of the
U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina
on December 14, 1789.
Young, who practices with Duffy & Young in
Charleston, and Schreck, an admiralty lawyer
in the Charleston office of Womble Carlyle
Sandridge & Rice, were invited by U.S. District
Judge Richard M. Gergel to serve on the court’s
organizing committee for the celebration and to
make presentations during the program. Young
gave a talk on his ancestor, John Rutledge, a
Charlestonian and the second chief justice of the
United States, while Schreck spoke on admiralty
practice in the district court, the primary source
of the early court’s business. In addition to being
fellow grads of UVA Law and long-time friends,
both Young and Schreck are past presidents of the
Charleston Lawyers Club.
Kirk C. Shaw has been recognized as Lawyer of the
Year in Best Lawyers 2015
for litigation-labor and employment in Mobile, Ala.
He is also listed in employment law-management;
labor law-management;
and litigation-labor and
employment.
Shaw is a partner with
Armbrecht Jackson.
The Hon. Louis A. Sherman
has retired from the circuit
court of the City of Norfolk
and continues to serve as
a retired/recalled judge.
He is married to Carol
Sherman and they have
two sons, Eric and Scott,
and three granddaughters:
Elizabeth, Lily, and Ashley.
1972
George W. House was
recognized as a member of
the legal elite hall of fame
in environmental law in
Business North Carolina and
is listed in North Carolina
Super Lawyers 2015 in environmental litigation. He is a
partner with Brooks, Pierce,
McLendon, Humphrey &
Leonard in Greensboro.
received the Bar Medal, the highest
honor given by the Pennsylvania Bar
Association. The medal is awarded
to the PBA member whose work has
made a significant improvement
to the administration of justice or
the legal profession or who has
given outstanding service to the
association, the legal profession, or the community.
Castille served as Philadelphia’s Assistant and Deputy District Attorney, and
was twice elected District Attorney. He was elected to the Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania in 1993 and became chief justice in 2008. He stepped down from
the bench in December after turning 70, the mandatory retirement age for
Pennsylvania judges.
At the awards ceremony in Harrisburg in November, Castille was honored
for his leadership in better funding for legal aid and his work to increase pro
bono service for low-income Pennsylvanians. He led in the creation of a loan
repayment system that helps lawyers in public service manage their education
debt so they can afford to stay in their chosen career. He has been a leader in
improved legal services for juvenile offenders and started one of the state’s first
diversionary programs for juvenile offenders. Castille is honorary chair of the
Pennsylvania Civil Legal Justice Coalition, which addresses the need for civil legal
services in the state.
The Pennsylvania Bar Foundation has created the Chief Justice Ronald D.
Castille Judicial Pro Bono Service Award to recognize judicial officials who have
made significant contributions in providing legal services to indigent citizens.
J. Michel Marcoux retired
from law practice at the
end of 2014. He was a
partner with Bruder,
Gentile & Marcoux in
Washington, D.C., which
became Schiff Hardin
in 2013.
William G. Ross Jr. has
been named among the
legal elite in environmental law in Business North
Carolina. He is of counsel
with Brooks, Pierce,
McLendon, Humphrey &
Leonard in Raleigh.
Since stepping down
in 2000, Judge Roland
Vaughan continues to
enjoy retirement. Travel
has been a priority, but he
is also busy with volunteer
work at St. Stephen’s
United Methodist Church
in Burke, Va., and at the
Jewish Community Center
of Northern Virginia,
where he was recognized
at a gala in December as a
five-year trustee.
1973
Benson Everett Legg
retired in 2013 after
spending 22 happy years
on the federal bench with
the U.S. District Court for
the District of Maryland.
He is a mediator and
arbitrator with Judicial
Arbitration and Mediation
Services, and writes that
he enjoys his new career.
George Yates has
established his firm, Yates
Avocat, in Paris, where he
specializes in mergers &
acquisitions and dispute
resolution, including
sports arbitration.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 63
Class notes
…
1974
Professor Jim O’Reilly of
the University of Cincinnati
College of Law has signed
the contract for his 50th
textbook, “When Products
Kill,” for the American Bar
Association Press. This text
will evaluate regulatory
and liability responses to
fatal accidents. His prior
work on regulatory and liability law has been widely
cited by courts and quoted
by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Frank E. Riggs Jr. has been
named Atlanta Lawyer of
the Year in litigation-construction in Best Lawyers
2015. He is a partner with
Troutman Sanders and
member of the construction practice group.
Bruce M. Stanley Sr. has
maintained Florida Bar
board certification in
civil trial law for 30 years.
He is a stockholder with
Henderson, Franklin,
Starnes & Holt in Fort
Myers, where he handles
appellate work and
practices civil litigation
of all kinds, with a focus
on medical malpractice,
aviation, products
liability defense, and
eminent domain. He is
listed in Best Lawyers 2015
in personal injury defense
litigation and in Florida
Super Lawyers 2015 in
personal injury-medical
malpractice: defense;
personal injury-general:
defense; and personal
injury-products: defense.
64 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
John Eckstein was named
Peggy O’Neal has been
one of the top five securities lawyers in the Denver
metropolitan area in 5280
magazine and is listed
in Super Lawyers 2015 in
corporate finance. He is a
shareholder with Fairfield
and Woods.
named among Australia’s
top 100 Women of
Influence by The Australian
Financial Review. She
was also named in the
Australian Women’s Weekly
power list, as one of 50
women who are making
an impact in Australia—in
the workplace, in
boardrooms, and everyday
lives. She is the first
female president of the
Richmond Football Club in
Melbourne.
O’Neal has lived in
Australia for 25 years. She
has been recognized in
the Australian Financial
Review as one of the
best lawyers in Australia
from 2010–14 and in
2013 was named Best
Superannuation Lawyer
in Melbourne. She is
currently a consultant with
Lander & Rogers.
Ross E. Wales is listed in
Best Lawyers 2015 in
international trade and
finance law. He has also
been honored by the
magazine as the Cincinnati
Lawyer of the Year in
international trade and
finance law. He is a partner
with Taft Stettinius &
Hollister.
Nicholas A. Lotito was
John F. Wymer III left
1976
Paul Hastings in 2013 to
open the Atlanta office of
Sherman & Howard, which
had been a regional firm
in the Rocky Mountains.
It’s now the only Denverbased law firm with an
Atlanta, Ga., office. Wymer
focuses his practice on labor and employment law.
listed in Super Lawyers
2014 in white-collar
criminal defense and as a
legal elite in Georgia Trend
magazine for 2014. He is
a partner with Nick Lotito
& Seth Kirschenbaum in
Atlanta.
William P.H. Cary was
recognized in Super
Lawyers Business Edition
2014 in employment &
labor and is listed in North
Carolina Super Lawyers
2015 in employment
law. He is a partner with
Brooks, Pierce, McLendon,
Humphrey & Leonard in
Greensboro.
Albert W. Patrick III has
been reappointed by the
Virginia General Assembly
to the 8th Judicial District
in Hampton.
1975
W. Stuart Dornette is
listed in Best Lawyers 2015
in bet-the-company
litigation, commercial
litigation, litigationmergers & acquisitions,
litigation-municipal, and
and litigation-securities.
He is a partner with Taft
Stettinius & Hollister in
Cincinatti, Ohio.
the top 100 attorneys in
Missouri and Kansas for
2014 by Super Lawyers.
He is a partner with
Armstrong Teasdale in
Kansas City, where he
leads the employment and
labor law practice group.
1977
Barry R. Kogut has been
recognized in Chambers
USA 2015 and Best Lawyers
2015 in environmental law.
He is a member with Bond,
Schoeneck & King in
Syracuse, N.Y., where his
practice in environmental
law includes federal and
state regulatory compliance and enforcement
matters.
Michael G. Kushner joined
Daniel J. Hoffheimer has
F. Bradford Stillman
been elected to the board
of directors of Linton
Music, one of the nation’s
premier chamber music
organizations under the
artistic leadership of
internationally acclaimed
musicians Jaime Laredo
and Sharon Robinson.
Hoffheimer is a partner
with Taft Stettinius &
Hollister in Cincinnati.
He was selected for
inclusion in Best Lawyers
2015 in trusts and estates
and Ohio Super Lawyers
2015 in estate planning
and probate.
retired in 2012 from the
bench of the Eastern
District of Virginia, where
he served for 12 years as
a U.S. magistrate judge.
He is a mediator certified
by the Virginia Supreme
Court and works with the
McCammon Group in
Richmond.
John A. Vering III was
named as Best Lawyers
2015 Lawyer of the Year
in labor and employment
law for the Kansas City
metropolitan area and
was recognized as one of
Blank Rome as of counsel
in the corporate, mergers
& acquisitions, and securities group in New York
City. He was previously
with Locke Lord.
1978
Christopher Scott
D’Angelo was a featured
speaker for the program
“Ethical Challenges Facing
In-House Counsel” at the
annual meeting of the
Product Liability Advisory
Council in Chicago, Ill. He
discussed conflicts of laws
Class notes
…
The former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, Cynthia D. Kinser ’77,
joined Gentry Locke in Roanoke as senior counsel in May. “I am excited about
working on appellate, criminal, and government investigation matters and once
again serving clients. With this new step in my professional career, I also hope
to serve my community and the legal profession, and to provide pro bono legal
services,” Kinser said.
As Virginia’s first woman chief justice, Kinser spent 17 years on the court,
with more than three as chief justice. Previously she worked in private practice
in southwest Virginia, served a term as the Commonwealth’s Attorney of Lee
County, served as bankruptcy trustee, and was a magistrate judge for the
Western District of Virginia.
Kinser is the recipient of several notable awards, among them
the Virginia Bar Association’s Gerald L. Baliles Distinguished
Service Award in 2015, and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation
Medal in Law in 2011. The Baliles award is the Virginia Bar
Association’s highest honor. It recognizes exceptional
service and contributions to the bar and public at large.
Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals are the highest
external honors bestowed by the Thomas Jefferson
Foundation at Monticello, along with the University of
Virginia, which grants no honorary degrees. The award
recognizes the achievements of those who embrace
endeavors in which Jefferson excelled and held in high
regard, namely, architecture, law, and citizen leadership.
pertaining to attorneyclient privilege and the
issue of waiver of the
attorney-client privilege in
internal corporate investigations. Most recently he
was invited to speak at the
2015 National Conference
on Class Actions: Recent
Developments in Quebec,
in Canada, and the United
States. His talk focused
on what the EU is doing
with collective redress or
class actions.
D’Angelo is a partner
and co-chair of the
product liability, toxic
torts & risk management
practice and chair of the
international practice with
Montgomery McCracken
Walker & Rhoads based in
Philadelphia, Pa., and New
York City.
Lawrence Foust ’78 LL.M. ’80
is the executive vice
president and chief legal
officer of the Children’s
Health System of Texas,
located in Dallas. He was
formerly general counsel
of Children’s Hospital
Los Angeles.
Jon Sallet is general
counsel of the Federal
Communications
Commission. He has
previously served as chief
policy counsel for MCI
Telecommunications
(later MCI WorldCom),
as director of the office
of policy and strategic
planning for the
Department of Commerce,
and a partner with
O’Melveny & Myers.
Paul S. Stevens was
elected chairman of the
International Investment
Funds Association
in October. IIFA is an
association of organizations representing funds
and asset managers in 40
countries worldwide. In
June of 2014 he marked
his tenth anniversary as
president and CEO of
Investment Company
Institute.
Roliff Purrington ’77 (back row, center, above) returned in April from a stint as a visiting professor at the
University of Basrah in Basrah, Iraq. While in Iraq , he also visited Kut, Amara, and Qurna, Iraq, and then Dubai
and Addis Ababa for a few days in transit to Houston where he resides. Roliff serves on the U.S. Secretary of
Commerce’s U.S.–Iraq Business Dialogue and the mayor of Houston’s International Trade and Development
Council for the Middle East and North Africa.
Andy Wright launched
Wright Strategies, a
government relations firm
based inside the capital
beltway, in December (see
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 65
Class notes
…
http://wrightstrategies.
us). His focus is on energy,
the environment, natural
resources, chemicals,
financial services,
transportation, and telecommunications issues.
He was most recently a
shareholder with Polsinelli.
1979
John B. Harris Jr. was
appointed to the board of
directors of the University
of Virginia Investment
Management Company by
the rector and visitors of
UVA. UVIMCO manages
the University’s endowment fund, which ranks
among the 20 largest of all
colleges and universities in
the U.S.
Anne Kleindienst is
included in Best Lawyers
2015 in corporate and
franchise law. She is a
shareholder with Polsinelli
in Phoenix, Ariz.
66 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
Merriann Panarella
serves as an independent
arbitrator, mediator, and
consultant in Boston and
New York City, focusing on
complex commercial and
intellectual property
disputes. Formerly a
partner at Wilmer Cutler
Pickering Hale and Dorr, for
over 27 years she served as
trial counsel and advised
clients on all aspects of the
litigation process.
Patricia Hatler ’80, at far right,
executive vice president and
chief legal and governance
officer at Nationwide, was
honored with the Anastasia D.
Kelly Award. The honor is one
of the 2014 Transformative
Leadership Awards from
InsideCounsel magazine and
reflects Hatler’s steadfast
commitment to positively
impacting the careers of
women in the legal profession. The awards program honors general counsel
and law firm partners who have demonstrated a commitment to advancing the
economic empowerment of women in law departments and firms.
Hatler “help[s] the women who work with her [and] strives to create a work
culture that empowers women to construct the lives they really want. Lives that
are personally fulfilling, which contribute to society, that touch others, and have
professional accomplishment as defined by each individual,” say her colleagues.
In her role at Nationwide, Hatler oversees the legal, government relations, ethics,
compliance and corporate citizenship functions for the corporation.
1980
office of New York–based
Boies, Schiller & Flexner.
John F. Brenner was
Ronald L. Saxton joined
Schwabe, Williamson &
Wyatt as a shareholder in
Portland, Ore. He was
previously executive vice
president and global chief
administration officer at
JELD-WEN, a global door
and window
manufacturer.
Lydia C. Stefanowicz joined
Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith
& Davis in Woodbridge,
N.J., as a partner in the real
estate department and
member of the interdisciplinary banking, business
financing, and creditors’
rights practice group. She
was previously a partner
with Edwards Wildman.
named vice president for
litigation of C.R. Bard, Inc.,
a manufacturer of medical,
surgical, diagnostic, and
patient care devices
headquartered in Murray
Hill, N.J.
1981
Lindsay R. Barnes Jr. is
completing his seventh
year as headmaster
of Hawaii Preparatory
Academy, following nine
years as headmaster
at the Miller School of
Albemarle. He practiced
law in Charlottesville from
1981–99 and served on the
Charlottesville City Council.
Spence Chubb has opened
the Law Office of T. Spence
Chubb in Washington, D.C.,
specializing in intellectual
property litigation before
the U.S. International
Trade Commission and the
federal courts.
Richard J. Pocker has been
appointed to serve on
Nevada Attorney General
Adam Paul Laxalt’s advisory
committee for the Office of
Military Legal Assistance.
He is the administrative
partner for the Nevada
Donald A. Baer was
James E. Dorsey received
appointed chair of the
board of directors of PBS
in October. He has been a
member of the board
since 2011. He has also
been elected to the board
of directors of the
Meredith Corporation for a
three-year term. Baer is
worldwide chair and CEO
of global public relations
and communications for
Burson-Marsteller, based
in Washington, D.C.
the American Civil Liberties
Union of Minnesota Earl
Larson Award in November
for his commitment to
preserving civil liberties.
Throughout his career he
has represented indigent
clients in a wide range of
matters including landlord/
tenant disputes, juvenile
protection, debtor/creditor
issues, family law, and
contract disputes. He has
worked on cases for the
ACLU, the ACLU-MN, and
Class notes
…
the NAACP, and death
penalty cases, voting rights
cases, and a Guantanamo
Bay detainee case.
He is a founding
member of Advocates for
Human Rights (originally
called the International
Human Rights Committee)
and has worked on human
rights issues in China,
Uganda, El Salvador, South
Africa, Liberia, Mexico,
Nicaragua, and Guatemala.
He currently serves as
conference director for
Minnesota 2015: Democracy in a Sustainable
Future, which will host
nearly 100 democratically
elected former heads of
state with the goal of
working together to solve
sustainability challenges.
Dorsey is a shareholder
with Fredrikson & Byron
in Minneapolis, where he
handles a broad range
of commercial litigation
cases, particularly closely
held business disputes.
James P. Rutherfurd has
joined Pine Brook, an
investment firm specializing in energy and financial
services with offices in
Houston, Tex., and New
York City. As a managing
director, Rutherfurd will
lead investor relations and
communications efforts
and will serve on the
investment committee. He
was previously a partner
with 3i Group.
1982
William B. Baker is a
partner with the Potomac
Law Group, a virtual law
firm based in Washington,
D.C., and will continue
his practice in the areas
of postal and privacy law.
He was previously with
Wiley Rein.
1983
Mark A. Bradley was
awarded the 2015 George
Pendleton Prize by the
Society for History in the
Federal Government for
his book, A Very Principled
Boy: The Life of Duncan Lee,
Red Spy and Cold Warrior.
The award is given for
an outstanding major
publication on the federal
government’s history,
produced by or for a
federal history program.
Bradley, a former CIA
intelligence officer, is an
attorney with the U.S.
Department of Justice.
C. Allen Gibson Jr. was
elected president of the
American College of
Construction Lawyers for a
one-year term. He served
as president-elect in
2014–15. He is
construction practice
group leader for Womble
Carlyle Sandridge & Rice in
Charleston, S.C., and
represents owners,
developers, design
professionals, general
contractors,
subcontractors, suppliers,
and sureties.
Edmond M. Ianni chaired
and presented at the
American Bar Association’s
webinar on enterprise
risk management and
insurance last summer.
He was joined on
the panel by, among
others, Dianne P. Salter,
executive vice president,
insurance for the Jefferson
Health System.
James M. Campbell was
elected as a fellow of the
International Society of
Barristers. He is a shareholder and president of
Campbell Campbell
Edwards & Conroy in
Boston, Mass., where he
focuses his practice on civil
litigation and the defense
of catastrophic product
liability, toxic tort, medical
device, pharmaceutical,
professional liability, and
negligence matters.
Mark Davidson was recognized in the 2014 Super
Lawyers (business edition)
for business and corporate
law. He is a partner with
Brooks, Pierce, McLendon,
Humphrey & Leonard in
Greensboro, N.C., and
focuses his practice on
corporate, tax, and trusts
and estates.
Janet A. Napolitano
currently serves as the
20th (and first female)
president of the University
of California, the nation’s
largest public research
university. “It’s a privilege
to lead it,” she writes. She
was previously Secretary
of Homeland Security.
Jeffrey E. Oleynik was
recognized in the 2014
Super Lawyers (business
edition) for bankruptcy
and business law, in North
Carolina Super Lawyers
2015 in bankruptcy law,
and listed as one of the
legal elite in bankruptcy
law and antitrust law in
2015 by Business North
Carolina magazine.
Oleynik is a partner with
Brooks, Pierce, McLendon,
Humphrey & Leonard in
Greensboro.
Irwin M. Shur was
appointed by U.S.
Secretary of Commerce
Penny Pritzker to a
two-year term on the U.S.
Manufacturing Council.
The council serves as the
principal private sector
advisory body to the
Secretary of Commerce
on matters relating to
the U.S. manufacturing
industry. Shur is vice
president, general counsel
and secretary for Snap-on
Incorporated, an S&P 500
company.
Robert Simmons was
appointed executive
director of the Council
for Children’s Rights,
one of the largest and
most comprehensive
advocacy and legal service
programs for children
in the Southeast. The
organization, located in
Charlotte, N.C., serves
approximately 2,500 at-risk
children each year.
Simmons began
his pro bono work in
Charlotte as a volunteer
with the Children’s Law
Center in 1987, working
mainly on cases involving
school discipline and
special education. He
joined the board in
1994 and later served
as president. In 2002 he
moved to the board of
the Council for Children
and was president of
that organization when it
merged with the Children’s
Law Center to form the
Council for Children’s
Rights. During this time
he was also a co-founder,
president, and general
counsel of the Children
and Family Services
Center, served as a
member of the CharlotteMecklenburg County
Board of Education, and
volunteered in educationrelated work with the
Mecklenburg County Bar.
Simmons is leaving
McGuireWoods, where
he has been a partner. In
taking on his new position
he sets aside a 32-year
career in commercial real
estate. “I am dedicated
to improving the lives of
children in our community,
and the council plays
a key role in standing
up to protect our most
vulnerable children and in
speaking up to improve
the systems that serve all
children,” Simmons said.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 67
Class notes
…
1984
Mark Wiggs was appointed
liaison for religious liberty
at the United Nations
by the Baptist World
Alliance. In that role he
will be the primary Baptist
presence at the UN. Wiggs
is a noted advocate for
religious freedom. He is an
attorney in Jackson, Miss.,
and former chair of the
Baptist Joint Committee
for Religious Liberty in
Washington, D.C.
1985
J. Keith Ausbrook joined
Guidepost Solutions, a
leading security, investigations, and compliance firm
in Washington, D.C., as
senior managing director.
He focuses on the firm’s
high-profile monitoring
and compliance engagements and business
development efforts. He
was previously general
counsel and senior vice
president at Civil Defense
Solutions.
McAdams is the Bernard D.
Meltzer Professor of Law
and Aaron Director
Research Scholar at the
University of Chicago Law
School and teaches mainly
in the areas of criminal law
and procedure.
Jim McDermott was
Joseph M. Leccese was
featured in The American
Lawyer cover story “Surge
in Sports Megadeals a
Boon to Proskauer, Others”
in March. Leccese is
chairman of Proskauer and
co-head of its sports law
group. In recent years, with
multibillion-dollar deals
for national and global
media rights making
sports law increasingly
lucrative, competition for
the opportunity to work
on new deals has become
more intense. “Of all the
lawyers laying claim to a
piece of the global sports
universe,” notes the article,
“Proskauer’s Leccese is the
top dealmaker.”
Lawrence J. Bracken II
will receive the Southern
Center for Human Rights’
2015 Justice Ally of the
Year award in recognition
of his commitment to
pro bono counsel. He is
a partner with Hunton &
Williams in Atlanta and
New York City, where he
focuses his practice on
litigation and class action,
technology, insurance,
environmental, and commercial matters.
68 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
1987
elected chairman of Ball
Janik, where he has been
a partner for the past
20 years. He heads the
litigation and insurance
recovery practice groups
in Portland, Ore.
1986
Judge Peter H. Beer LL.M.
is featured in the cover
story, “Beer v. United States:
The Case of Article
III Judges and the
Compensation Clause,” in
the April/May issue of the
Louisiana Bar Journal. In
the case, Beer, who serves
the Eastern District of
Louisiana, and five other
federal judges challenged
Congress’s denial of costof-living adjustment raises
to the judiciary. As a result,
all Article III judges, bankruptcy judges, and U.S.
magistrates will receive
adjustments promised to
them by Congress over
25 years ago.
Nanette Beaird is a partner
with Gardere in Austin,
Tex. Beaird is a
government affairs
attorney representing
national and international
clients in all regulated
industries before state
agencies throughout Texas
and beyond. She has
extensive experience
drafting legislation on
behalf of clients.
David L. Dallas Jr. and his
wife, Susan, celebrated
their 30th wedding
anniversary last summer
with a trip to Cape Breton,
Nova Scotia, and the
Gros Morne National
Park in Newfoundland.
“Cape Breton,” he writes,
“is similar in beauty to
northeastern Maine,
while the west coast of
Newfoundland reminded
us of Alaska. Both are
wonderful vacation
destinations!”
Calvin W.“Woody” Fowler Jr.
William Eigner was named
Richard H. McAdams
published his first book,
The Expressive Powers of
Law, with Harvard
University Press (see In
Print). His work explains
how law creates compliance through its ability to
affect our behavior and
inform our beliefs.
to the San Diego Business
Journal Best of the Bar
list for 2014. Chosen by
his peers for this honor,
he was referred to as the
“go-to” guy for mergers &
acquisitions and corporate
business. He is a partner
with Procopio.
was elected president and
CEO of Williams Mullen
in Richmond, Va. He has
served for two years as
the practice group chair
and 11 years as head of
the litigation section,
one of the firm’s two
largest practice groups.
Fowler will continue as a
practicing litigator.
Jesse J. Richardson Jr. is
an associate professor and
the lead land use attorney
for the Land Use and
Sustainable Development
Law Clinic at the West
Virginia University College
of Law in Morgantown.
In addition to clinical
teaching duties, he teaches
doctrinal courses in land
use and resilience law,
and water law. He also
conducts research on land
use law, water law, and
agricultural law. Richardson
was previously an associate
professor in the urban affairs and planning program
at Virginia Tech.
Robert W. Saunders was
named chair of the Chapel
Hill-Carrboro Chamber
of Commerce Board
of Directors for 2015.
Saunders is a partner with
Brooks, Pierce, McLendon,
Humphrey & Leonard in
Greensboro and Raleigh,
N.C., where he has a
general corporate and tax
practice with a particular
focus on tax-exempt
organizations, tax-exempt
financing, and state and
local tax planning.
Richard C. Sullivan Jr.
joined Bean, Kinney &
Korman as a shareholder
in Arlington, Va., where
he focuses on commercial
litigation. Sullivan was recently elected to represent
Virginia’s 48th District in
the House of Delegates. He
was selected for inclusion
in Virginia Super Lawyers
2015.
Class notes
…
Bart Goossens LL.M. ’87 and
Christel Vergauwen LL.M. ’87 hosted
31 UVA Law alumni and guests who
gathered in Ghent, Belgium, for the
European alumni reunion last July. A
day trip to Ieper enabled everyone
to see the area of Flanders, which
played a key role in World War I. The
reunion also featured a walking tour
of Ghent, a formal dinner, and a cruise
around the city. The guest speaker for
the academic session was Professor
Dr. Koen Geens, the federal minister of
finance and professor of company law
at the KU Leuven.
The 2016 reunion is scheduled to
take place in Poland. Email lawalumnievents@virginia.edu for more
information.
Ben Webster writes, “Twins
finally made it to college.”
Grant is a freshman at
Chapman University in
Orange and Ethan is a
freshman at U.S.C. in Los
Angeles, both in California.
“Son number three, Keith,
is a junior in high school.”
Ben maintains his practice
at Littler Mendelson in
Sacramento.
has also served as a senior
trial attorney for the U.S.
Department of Justice
Antitrust Division.
1988
William Berlin has joined
Hall, Render, Killian, Heath
& Lyman as a shareholder
in Washington, D.C. He
counsels and defends
hospitals, health systems,
physicians, and other
health care providers in
federal and state antitrust
enforcement agency
investigations and litigates
in a range of health care
matters. He was previously
in private practice and
John Cooper has been
recognized on the Best
Attorneys of America List,
and is among only 100
Virginia attorneys to be so
honored. Cooper has been
re-elected as a district
governor from the Virginia
Beach/Norfolk area to the
Virginia Trial Lawyers
Association’s Board of
Governors, a position he’s
held since 2012. At the
VTLA’s recent convention,
Cooper was also appointed as co-chair of the
fundraising committee.
The Virginia Trial Lawyers
Association is a trial bar
group which boasts
thousands of members
from across the
Commonwealth.
Cooper is a founding
partner of Cooper Hurley
Injury Lawyers based in
Norfolk, Va. He and his
wife, Monica, are proud
parents of Matthew, a
first-year at UVA. John
writes that he enjoys his
torts-only practice and
has regular flashbacks to
Professor Ken Abraham’s
torts class.
Harry M. Johnson III was
installed as the 127th
president of the Virginia
Bar Association at the
annual bar meeting in
Williamsburg in January.
He is a partner with
Hunton & Williams in
Richmond, where he
focuses his practice on
environmental litigation
and trial work. He has
been recognized in
Virginia Super Lawyers
2015 in environmental
litigation and is listed in
Chambers USA 2015 in
environmental law.
Jonathan Lowy is listed
in Lawdragon magazine
as one of its 500 Leading
Lawyers in America for
2014-15. He is director of
the Brady Center’s Legal
Action Project, and for the
past 17 years has been
the main voice for the
nation’s only law group
fighting in the courts to
prevent gun violence.
Lowy leads a team that
works to reform practices in the gun industry,
defend “common sense”
gun laws, and challenge
laws backed by the gun
lobby that are threats to
citizen safety. He recently
established Lawyers for a
Safer America, a national
team of lawyers and law
firms dedicated to working
toward a nation free from
gun violence.
Wesley G. Marshall was
inducted as a fellow of
the College of Workers’
Compensation Lawyers
in March in Naples, Fla.,
following the organization’s
seminar and conference.
He was also appointed
to the Virginia Workers’
Compensation Commission
by the Virginia General
Assembly in 2012.
Jennifer McCammon of
Bean, Kinney & Korman in
Arlington, Va., was named
as a Virginia Rising Star in
Super Lawyers, in the area
of family law.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 69
Class notes
…
Russell S. Thomas has
joined the board of directors of Connecture, Inc.,
a provider of Web-based
information systems used
to create health insurance
marketplaces. He also
serves on the board of
the eHealth Initiative,
a nonprofit based in
Washington, D.C., that
works to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency
of care through the use of
information technology.
Since 2012 Thomas has
served as CEO of Availity,
a health care information network based in
Jacksonville, Fla.
James Williams received
the American Civil
Liberties Union’s Civil
Libertarian Award
in November for his
trial team’s dedication,
advocacy, and “superb pro
bono work” as cooperating counsel in the
groundbreaking Wilbur
v. City of Mount Vernon.
The suit challenged the
public defense system in
the cities of Burlington
and Mount Vernon in
Washington State, where
attorneys were taking on
650–1,000 cases each year
on a part-time basis.
In 2013 the U.S. District
Court in Seattle found
that public defense in
the two cities was so
inadequate it was a “meet
and plead” system. The
cities are now required
to hire a supervisor to
make sure that the public
defense system meets
constitutional standards.
The U.S. Department of
Justice filed a statement
in the case that endorsed
70 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
workload limits for public
defenders—the first time
such a statement has ever
been filed by the DOJ in a
public defense case.
Williams’ work on Wilbur
also earned him the 2013
Perkins Coie Annual Pro
Bono Leadership Award;
the 2014 President’s Award
from the Washington
Defender Association; the
2014 Champion for Justice
Award by the Washington
Association of Criminal
Defense Lawyers; and
the 2014 Loren Miller
Bar Association Social
Justice Award.
Williams is listed in Best
Lawyers 2015 in commercial litigation. He is a
partner in the litigation
practice with Perkins Coie
in Seattle.
Stephen H. Price joined Burr
Terri Diaz Ellenburg
& Forman as a partner in
Nashville, Tenn., where
his practice focuses on
complex and commercial
litigation, employment
law, and intellectual
property litigation. He was
listed in Best Lawyers 2015
in employment lawmanagement, labor, and
employment.
will celebrate 20 years
with Sodexo in June.
After serving as assistant
general counsel, she
created Sodexo’s office of
employment rights, and
is now vice president of
employee relations. She
lives in Bethesda, Md.,
with her husband, Matt,
and their golden retriever,
Lindy.
1990
Brett G. Kappel joined
Akerman in Washington,
D.C., where he is a partner
in the government affairs
& public policy practice
group. He focuses on
political law, including
federal, state, and local
laws and regulations governing campaign finance,
lobbying, and government
ethics. His clients include
corporations, trade
associations, members of
Congress, political candidates, and political action
committees. He is listed
in Washington, D.C. Super
Lawyers 2015 for legislative
and governmental affairs
and administrative law.
James H. Barker III practices communications law
and serves as the deputy
office managing partner
with Latham & Watkins in
Washington, D.C. He and
his wife live in Alexandria,
Va., and have six children:
Vivian (14), Eliza (12),
James (10), Bridget (9),
Sam (7), and Meredith (3).
1989
Deborah Platt Majoras,
chief legal officer and
secretary of Procter &
Gamble, was honored
with the Mary Ann Hynes
Pioneer Award in 2014.
The honor is one of the
Transformative Leadership
Awards from InsideCounsel
magazine and is
presented to a woman
general counsel who has
transformed being the
“first” into being a catalyst
for change. She indelibly
raises the bar for attorneys
and corporations
by consistently
demonstrating her
dynamic expertise, core
values, and ideals that
drive unprecedented
collaboration, innovation,
and achievement to
deliver sustainable results.
2015. He is a partner with
Taft Stettinius & Hollister
and co-chair of the
litigation group.
Mark Trank writes that
after practicing law and
working for local government and private law firms
owned by others he has
established his own law
firm, the Law Office of
Mark A. Trank, P.A., in Fort
Myers, Fla. He practices
labor and employment
law, business/real estate
law, education law, local
government law, “and
anything else that comes
through the door that
looks interesting!”
1991
Carl Hahn was named
vice president and chief
compliance officer of
Northrop Grumman
Corporation in Falls
Church, Va. Previously
he was associate general
counsel and trust and
compliance officer
with IBM.
Timothy J. Heaphy joined
Theodore H. Davis Jr.
received the 2014
Volunteer Service Award
for the advancement of
trademark law at the
International Trademark
Association leadership
meeting in November.
Davis is a partner with
Kilpatrick Townsend &
Stockton in Atlanta, Ga.,
where he focuses his
practice on trademark,
copyright, false advertising, and unfair
competition law.
Russell S. Sayre is listed in
Best Lawyers 2015 in
appellate practice,
commercial litigation, and
litigation-banking &
finance. He has also been
named as Cincinnati’s Best
Lawyers appellate practice
Lawyer of the Year for
Hunton & Williams as a
partner and chair of the
white-collar defense and
internal investigations
practice. He will split his
time between Hunton’s
Washington, D.C., and
Richmond offices. He
previously served as
U.S. Attorney for the
Western District of
Virginia and during his
tenure served on the
U.S. Attorney General’s
Advisory Committee,
Class notes
…
advising the Attorney
General on emerging
policy issues. Heaphy also
served as chairman of the
AGAC’s subcommittee on
enforcement coordination,
victims issues, and
community outreach,
and was a member of
the subcommittees on
criminal practice, violent
and organized crime, and
civil rights. He has testified
before Congressional
committees several times
on issues ranging from
guns to synthetic drugs to
sentencing reform.
1992
Ken Paxton was elected
1993
as Attorney General of
Texas, garnering nearly
60 percent of the votes
cast statewide during the
2014 general election.
He was first elected
to the Texas House of
Representatives in 2002,
representing House
District 70. In 2012 he
was elected to the Texas
State Senate, representing
Senate District 8.
Tim Spong is executive
director of safety, security,
and risk for Chipotle
Mexican Grill, Inc., and
oversees liability and
worker’s comp litigation,
customer service,
restaurant cash-handling
audits, and insurance.
Tim and Leslie have five
children: Virginia (19),
Mason (17), William (14),
David (11), and John (9).
“Virginia is considering law
school!”
Jeffrey W. Shaw was
elected by the Virginia
General Assembly to
an eight-year term as a
judge of the Ninth Judicial
Circuit. He is the presiding
circuit court judge in
Gloucester, Mathews, and
Middlesex counties. He
was sworn in by his father,
William H. Shaw III ’71,
who retired from the same
position in 2009. Jeffrey
and his wife, Barbara, live
in Locust Hill.
a global leader in flash
memory storage solutions headquartered in
Milpitas, Calif. He focuses
on intellectual property,
licensing, and other
matters, including M&A
transactions, litigation,
commercial agreements,
corporate securities
law, and governance.
Previously Brazeal was
with Broadcom, where he
was senior vice president
and senior deputy counsel.
Monica Derbes Gibson
David T. Andrews is an
attorney in the labor and
employment litigation
practice groups with Day
Ketterer in Hudson, Ohio.
He works with employers
to address discipline and
discharge matters,
including compliance with
the Americans with
Disabilities Act, Family and
Medical Leave Act, and
equal employment
opportunity laws. Andrews
was a founding member of
Andrews & Wyatt, a labor,
employment, and worker’s
compensation firm that
merged with Day Ketterer
on January 1.
Mark Brazeal has
been appointed senior
vice president and
chief legal officer with
SanDisk Corporation,
returned to her hometown
of New Orleans, La., where
she practices environmental and administrative law
with Liskaw & Lewis. She
was previously with
Venable in Washington,
D.C. She is engaged to be
married, “proving,” she
notes, “that optimism
trumps experience.”
founded. He has served as
senior vice president and
general counsel for
Syracuse University and as
senior legal counsel at
Tufts University.
Lisa Reisman published her
memoir, 5 Months 10 Years
2 Hours, an account of her
ordeal: after deciding to
leave the practice of law,
she didn’t expect to “wake
up in a hospital room
with a malignant brain
tumor and a prognosis of
one year to live. Or that
ten years later, [she’d] be
competing in a grueling
triathlon as a cancer
patient and survivor.” (See
In Print.)
Reisman studied
Ancient Greek and Latin
at Oxford and Yale before
getting her JD. She practiced law in New York for
four years. A dean’s fellow
at Columbia University’s
School of the Arts, she
also has been supported
by fellowships from the
MacDowell Colony, the
Ucross Foundation,
the Bread Loaf Writers’
Conference, and Wesleyan
University. Currently she
is a freelance reporter and
manages a local band.
1994
Dickens “Deke” Mathieu ’93
has been appointed
general counsel at Trinity
College in Hartford, Conn.
He was previously with
Mathieu Consulting, a
higher education
consulting firm he
Amelia A. Fogleman was
named Best Lawyers 2015
Lawyer of the Year in
antitrust litigation in Tulsa,
Okla. She is a shareholder
with GableGotwals, where
she focuses her practice
on litigation in the areas
of appellate law, complex
commercial litigation,
antitrust law, and oil & gas.
Robert C. Grohowski has
joined the Investment
Advisor Association
as general counsel in
Washington, D.C. He was
previously associate
general counsel for the
Investment Company
Institute.
Craig M. Kline is the
managing partner for
Troutman Sanders’ new
office in San Francisco. The
new office will serve as a
gateway for cross-border
transactions with China.
Kline, who relocated
from the firm’s New York
office, serves on the firm’s
executive committee
and heads the renewable
energy practice.
Cary D. Pugh was
nominated by President
Obama to a 15-year term
on the U.S. Tax Court and
was confirmed by the
U.S. Senate in November.
She took the oath of office
on December 16. She was
previously with Skadden.
Alex E. Sadler has written
a new book, Legal Guide
to the Research Credit,
that reviews the legal
principles and authorities
that govern the research
and development tax
credit provided by
section 41 of the Internal
Revenue code (see In
Print). He is a partner with
Ivins, Phillips & Barker in
Washington, D.C., where
he focuses on representing
taxpayers in litigation
and administrative
controversies with the
IRS, the U.S. Department
of Justice, and state tax
authorities.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 71
Class notes
…
1995
Chris Akin and his colleagues at Lynn Tillotson
Pinker & Cox represented
a plaintiff in a high-profile
trial that lasted almost
six weeks and resulted
in a verdict awarding
more than $1 billion to
their client, including
pre-judgment interest. The
verdict has been reported
as the largest ever in Dallas
County, the largest verdict
in the State of Texas in
2014, and the third largest
verdict in the nation in
2014. Chris is a partner
with the high-stakes litigation firm, and Trey Cox is
one of the name partners.
Chris lives in Dallas with
his wife, Marjorie, and their
two children, Graham (8)
and Amelia (5).
In Print.) Broyles was
interviewed in January on
ION TV’s Metro Magazine
with Bonnie McDaniel and
in April gave a talk at the
University of Cincinnati
Blue Ash College entitled,
“Started from the Bottom:
From Struggling High
School Student to CEO.” He
spoke at the Law School
in March at an event
sponsored by the Black
Law Students Association.
Broyles is chief
executive officer with
ExpertConnect, a company
that helps attorneys find
the most knowledgeable experts to serve as
witnesses.
general counsel of the
Salesforce Foundation in
San Francisco, Calif.
Jeffrey W. Cottle is a partner in Steptoe & Johnson’s
London office, where he
practices in the area of
international regulatory
compliance with an emphasis on export controls,
anti-corruption, and trade
sanctions compliance.
Christopher L. Bennett
Trey Cox was listed as
has joined Eckert Seamans
Cherin & Mellott in
Washington, D.C., as a
member. He is a general
corporate attorney with
particular focus on the
hospitality and gaming
industries. He was previously chief administrative
officer and general counsel
with Interstate Hotels &
Resorts, Inc.
a leader in his field by
Chambers USA 2014 in general commercial litigation.
He is a founding partner
with Lynn Tillotson Pinker
& Cox in Dallas, Tex., where
he focuses his practice
on business litigation,
intellectual property litigation, and appellate law.
His firm represented SCA
Promotions in a recent
ruling that has ordered
Lance Armstrong to pay
$10 million for lying under
oath about doping.
Shanti Ariker is global
Eric C. Broyles has
co-authored, with a police
officer/lifelong friend, a
timely book, Encounters
With Police: A Black Man’s
Guide to Survival. (See
72 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
Norman S. Fletcher LL.M.
received the Southern
Center for Human Rights’
Gideon’s Promise Award on
May 12, for his leadership
as chief justice in the creation of a public defender
system in Georgia. He was
appointed to the Georgia
Supreme Court in 1989 and
served as chief justice from
2001–05. He is of counsel
with Brinson, Askew, Berry,
Seigler, Richardson & Davis
in Rome, Ga.
Hill B. Wellford was
elected to the governing
council of the ABA
antitrust section. He is with
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
in Washington, D.C., as
the result of that firm’s
merger with his former
firm, Bingham McCutchen,
at the end of 2014. He lives
in Arlington, Va., with his
wife, Michelle Boardman,
who is a law professor at
George Mason University,
and their three boys.
Peter S. Vincent joined
Thomson Reuters Special
Services in Washington,
D.C., as general counsel.
He provides legal counsel
and advice on matters
related to intelligence
collection; cybersecurity; counterintelligence;
threat finance; identity
determination; insider
threat; political, social, and
military issues; continuous
monitoring and evaluation
of cleared personnel;
targeting and networks;
risk management;
and law enforcement
investigations.
For nearly six years
Vincent served as a
political appointee with
the Obama administration
as principal legal advisor,
senior counselor for
international policy, and
acting director of the Office of International Affairs
with the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security, U.S.
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement.
1997
Brian W. Byrd was listed
in the 2014 Super Lawyers
business edition in real
estate and recognized in
Chambers USA 2014 as a
leader in North Carolina
real estate. He is listed in
Best Lawyers 2015 in real
estate and land use &
zoning law and recognized
in Business North Carolina
2015 as a legal elite in
real estate law. He is with
Smith Moore Leatherwood
in Greensboro.
1996
Jeffrey B. Hubbard and
Gavin E. Hill has joined
Bracewell & Giuliani as a
partner in the litigation
practice group in Dallas,
Tex., where he advises
energy, technology,
telecommunications,
and other companies
about risks and liabilities
and represents clients
in complex commercial
litigation.
his wife, Laura, established
Elysian Ridge Farms
and Apiary (see www.
elysianridgefarms.com).
They are registered breeders of purebred Berkshire
pigs and Nigerian dwarf
goats and purveyors of
raw organic honey from
their mountaintop home
in Bedford County, Va.
Andrea Sullivan Gould
Claudia Jaques joined TTR
Sotheby’s International
Realty in McLean, Va., as
a real estate professional.
She has nearly 20 years
of corporate legal
experience and four years
of international banking
experience.
Mark Knueve is listed in
Ohio Super Lawyers 2015
in employment and labor
law. He represents employers in matters involving
complex litigation such
as wage and hour class
actions and collective actions. Knueve is a partner
with Vorys, Sater, Seymour
and Pease in Columbus.
recently argued the case
of Sheppard v. Junes (287
Va. 397 (2014) before
the Virginia Supreme
Court. The court analyzed
intestacy succession in
Virginia and held that a
“half-blood” uncle was
entitled to one half of a
decedent’s estate, rather
than one quarter. Andrea
was with Troutman Sanders
in Richmond for 12 years
before joining Andrew
Mauck in 2013 [now Mauck
& Brooke], where she
practices business litigation
and trusts and estates
litigation with classmate
Melissa Roberts Tannery
and Andy Mauck ’91.
Class notes
…
Jeffrey Bartos ’97 (right), and
Yuri Horwitz ’06 attended the EY
Entrepreneur of the Year Strategic Growth
Forum in Palm Springs, Calif., where they
were honored as regional winners of
the Entrepreneur of the Year program.
Horwitz, the winner for an emerging
company, is CEO of Sol Systems in
Washington, D.C., and Bartos, who was
the cleantech winner, is CEO of Mark
Group, Inc.’s North American division
headquartered in Philadelphia, Pa. Both
are involved in renewable energy and
home energy efficiency.
Jan Brunner has been
named senior energy
policy advisor to U.S.
Senator Shelley Moore
Capito of West Virginia. A
native of Bluefield, Brunner
previously served as senior
counsel for fossil energy
on the Senate Energy
and Natural Resources
Committee and as senior
energy advisor for U.S.
Senator Joe Manchin
of W. Va.
Tim Freilich is the new
Rachel Spears was named
as one of Atlanta magazine’s “Women Making a
Mark” for 2015. Spears has
been the executive director of Pro Bono Partnership
of Atlanta since the
organization’s founding
in 2005. The organization
connects a network of
volunteer attorneys from
Atlanta-based corporations and law firms with
nonprofits in need of legal
services. These partnerships improve the lives of
the homeless, domestic
violence survivors, at-risk
youth, senior citizens, individuals with disabilities,
and others in need. Prior
to joining the partnership,
Spears was an associate in
the public finance department at King & Spalding,
also in Atlanta.
Spears also serves as
chair of the State Bar of
Georgia nonprofit law section and is a member of the
public interest executive
roundtable of the Atlanta
Bar Association. She has
been recognized as one of
Georgia Trend magazine’s
Legal Elite and the Daily
Report’s On the Rise attorneys. In 2014, she received
the EPIC Inspiration Award:
Unsung Devotion to Those
Most in Need awarded by
Emory University.
1998
Christopher Brearton
joined Latham & Watkins
as a partner in the
entertainment, sports, and
media practice in Century
City, in the heart of Los
Angeles, Calif. He is also
deputy office managing
partner. He advises motion
picture studios, independent producers, financial
institutions, investment
funds, television networks,
and sports organizations,
and his high-powered
work in sports law was
highlighted in the cover
story for the March issue of
The American Lawyer.
Yared Getachew is working
as an American legal
adviser in the international
law department of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of the Federal Democratic
Republic of Ethiopia,
located in Addis Ababa.
Neale T. Johnson was
included among Business
North Carolina’s legal
elite in construction in
2014. He was also listed
in the 2014 Super Lawyers
business edition and
in North Carolina Super
Lawyers 2015 in real estate.
Johnson is with Smith
Moore Leatherwood
in Greensboro, where
his practice focuses on
commercial litigation,
including construction,
contract, real estate, title
insurance, and landlordtenant matters.
Stan McCoy has been
named president of the
Motion Picture Association
of America’s Europe/
Middle East/Africa region
headquartered in Brussels,
Belgium. He was previously senior vice president
and regional policy
director for the region.
Robert McGlarry was
named president of Major
League Baseball Network,
where he has oversight of
all day-to-day operations.
He has been with the
network since its launch
in 2009, first as senior vice
president of programming
and business affairs,
and most recently as
executive vice president
for content. Prior to that
McGlarry worked for Major
League Baseball from
2003–08 and was vice
president of broadcasting
business affairs.
1999
Klint Alexander has
been named dean of the
University of Wyoming’s
College of Law and will
begin his new position
on July 1. He has had
teaching and leadership
roles at several institutions,
including Yale, Vanderbilt,
and the University of
London. Since 2013 he
has been a member of the
global business team at
Baker, Donelson, Bearman,
Caldwell and Berkowitz.
executive director of the
University of Virginia’s
Madison House. He was a
Madison House volunteer
and program director
while an undergraduate
at UVA and has been
honored (in 2005) as
Alumni of the Year by the
organization’s alumni
council. Most recently
Freilich was the legal director of the Legal Aid Justice
Center’s immigrant
advocacy program.
Thomas G. Funke LL.M.
leads the antitrust practice
at European law firm
Osborne Clarke, which is
shortlisted for “competition law firm of the year”
in Germany. The nomination recognizes Funke’s
successes before the
European Court of Justice
and the German Supreme
Court in the areas of cartel
damages litigation and
automotive matters. Funke
spoke on the EU framework for online retailing at
the ABA Antitrust meeting
last spring in Washington,
D.C. He lives with his wife,
Alexa, and their two sons
in Cologne.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 73
Class notes
…
Thomas J. Mattei Jr. has
been appointed general
counsel and executive
officer with Farmer Bros.
Co., headquartered
in Torrance, Calif. He
joined the company in
January 2013 as vice
president and corporate
counsel. His main areas
of responsibility include
corporate governance, SEC
compliance, mergers &
acquisitions, and litigation
management. He also
oversees the risk management and real estate
departments.
Scott Spence ’99 was appointed programme director for national implementation by the board of trustees
of the London-based VERTIC. Spence oversees the strategic vision and technical delivery of the programme,
which works with interested governments on comprehensive national implementation of UN Security Council
Resolution 1540 on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the Biological and Chemical Weapons
Conventions, and certain international legal instruments to secure nuclear and other radioactive material. This
includes awareness-raising activities, promoting universal membership in several treaties, and
legislative assistance.
Spence developed the “National Legislation Implementation Kit on Nuclear Security,” which
was presented by the vice president of Indonesia to the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague
in March 2014. He also wrote VERTIC’s “Legislative Guide to National Implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1540,” which was presented to the Security Council in October
2014 by the permanent representatives of Canada and the United Kingdom to the UN
in New York. He and his partner, Pere, who works for UNAIDS, live in Geneva.
Robert T. Trammell Jr.
was elected to the Georgia
House of Representatives,
District 132, in November.
He practices law with
The Trammell Firm in
Luthersville.
Joanna M. Silverstein is
now a shareholder with
Littler in Seattle, Wash.,
where she advises and
represents employers in a
wide range of employment
law matters involving state
and federal law.
Amy Todd-Gher has joined
Littler as a shareholder
in San Diego, Calif. She
focuses her practice
on employment law,
including discrimination
and harassment, complex
litigation and jury trials,
hiring and performance
management, and competition and trade secret law.
She was previously with
Valdez Todd & Doyle.
74 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
2000
Chris Converse has been
recognized as a rising star
in business/corporate law
for 2015 by Texas Super
Lawyers. He is a partner
with Gardere Wynne
Sewell in Dallas, where he
is chair of the securities
and corporate governance
team and a member of
the private equity industry
team. He focuses his
practice on mergers &
acquisitions, recapitalizations, financing, and public
and private offerings of
debt and equity.
November on how women
can succeed in business
school and beyond. A
former MBA admissions
officer and corporate MBA
recruiter, she is currently
director of leadership development for the ZOOM
Foundation in Fairfield.
Her recent book, The MBA
Slingshot for Women: Using
Business School to Catapult
Your Career, explains how
women can make the
most of graduate school
experience and their
professional careers.
After more than a dozen
years in and around
New York City, Marc and
Amy Strauss relocated
to Dallas, Tex. Marc is
currently a member with
LStar Capital, a middle
market lending platform.
Amy continues to work in
labor and employment law
as a consultant.
Nicole M. Lindsay, a recognized expert in career
development and diversity
in graduate management
education, spoke at
the Ferguson Library
in Stamford, Conn., in
2001
Andrew S. Boutros
is a prosecutor in the
U.S. Attorney’s office in
Chicago, where he focuses
on white-collar crime
prosecutions. As a federal
prosecutor, he has conducted some of the office’s
largest and most complex
multi-district, international
fraud investigations and
prosecutions of business
organizations and corporate executives. In 2014
he was selected by the
American Bar Association
as its recipient of the
criminal justice section’s
Norm Maleng Minister
of Justice Award. That
award, which is conferred
upon one federal, state,
or local prosecutor in the
United States each year, is
bestowed on a prosecutor who exemplifies the
principle that the “duty
of the prosecutor is to
seek justice, not merely
to convict.”
Brendan Johnson has
joined Robins Kaplan as a
partner and will co-chair
the government and
internal investigations
group and the American
Indian law and policy
group. He will open a new
office in Sioux Falls, S.D.,
for the Minneapolis-based
firm and will focus his work
on internal investigations,
commercial litigation,
and legal issues involving
Native American tribes.
Johnson previously
served as U.S. Attorney
for the District of South
Dakota for six years, a
role in which he handled
cases including public
corruption, violent crime,
financial and health care
fraud, narcotics trafficking,
child exploitation, and
Indian Country and civil
rights. Johnson helped
develop a strategy that
led to an increase in
prosecutions by more
than 90 percent on South
Dakota’s largest reservations. He received the 2014
Pathbreaker of the Year
Award from Shared Hope
International for his work
against human trafficking
and was recognized by the
Washington Post as among
the top 40 political rising
stars under 40 for 2014.
Class notes
…
2002
Carter Burwell is on
detail to the U.S. Congress
from the U.S. Attorney’s
Office for the Eastern
District of Virginia. He
serves as a counsel for
Chairman Charles Grassley
on the Senate Judiciary
Committee, where he works
on national security issues
and surveillance reforms.
for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
In addition to his active
role in the club’s baseball
operations department,
his responsibilities include
player salary negotiations
and all legal matters for
the club. He also manages
strategic projects,
including development
efforts around PNC Park.
Nathan Taylor was
elected to partnership
with Morrison & Foerster
in Washington, D.C.,
where he is a member
of the financial services
and the privacy and data
security practice groups.
He focuses his practice
on assisting companies
navigate their way
through complex privacy
and data security issues.
environment, land, and
resources department.
His practice focuses on
representing policyholders
in complex insurance
coverage and bad faith
disputes. He also counsels
clients in negotiation
and placement of
representation and
warranty policies in M&A
transactions.
2003
2004
David Posner was elected
to partnership with Willkie
Farr & Gallagher in New
York, where he practices in
the private clients group.
Meng Ru LL.M. has been
elected partner at Akin
Gump in New York. She is
a member of the corporate
practice and focuses her
work on complex finance
deals, including debt
financings in connection
with leveraged buyouts
and distressed debt
transactions.
Kelly A. DeMarchis
Afi Johnson-Parris was
elected to Business North
Carolina’s 2015 list of legal
elite in family law, the third
consecutive year she has
been so recognized. She is
with Ward Black Law in
Greensboro, where she
practices divorce and
family law and veterans’
disability law.
Brian M. Feldman has
been elected partner with
Harter Secrest & Emery in
Rochester, N.Y. He focuses
his litigation practice on
government and internal
investigations and trials
and appeals in New York
state and federal courts.
William Sinclair was
named partner with
Silverman, Thompson,
Slutkin, and White in
Baltimore, Md., where he
focuses his practice on civil
litigation.
vice president, business
affairs and general counsel
Michael Signer is the
Jason E. Hazlewood has
been promoted to partner
at Reed Smith in
Pittsburgh, Pa., where he is
a member of the
commercial litigation
group. He focuses his
practice on complex
commercial and financial
service litigation.
author of a recent
biography of James
Madison, Becoming
Madison: The Extraordinary
Origins of the Least Likely
Founding Father, published
by PublicAffairs (see In
Print). He is managing
principal of Madison
Law & Strategy Group in
Charlottesville, where he
practices corporate and
regulatory law.
Andrew Falevich has
Andrew P. Pontano has
Bryan F. Stroh ’02 is senior
has been promoted to
counsel at Venable in
Washington, D.C. She
advises and represents
clients on issues related
to privacy, data security,
advertising and marketing,
consumer protection,
and e-commerce,
concentrating on
regulatory compliance
and adversary actions in
front of the Federal Trade
Commission and state
attorneys general.
been promoted to partner
at Dechert in New York City.
He focuses his practice on
asset-backed financing and
securitization and advises
clients regarding public
and private securities
offerings and other
complex financial
transactions involving a
wide range of asset classes.
been promoted to special
counsel in tax law with
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver
& Jacobson in New York.
He advises on domestic
and international mergers
& acquisitions and capital
markets transactions,
partnership taxation, state
and local taxation, and real
estate taxation.
Thomas G. Saylor LL.M. ’04 was sworn in as chief
Drew T. Gardiner was
promoted to counsel
with Latham & Watkins in
San Diego, Calif., where
he is a member of the
justice of Pennsylvania on January 6. He was
elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in
1997 and retained for an additional ten-year term
in 2007. He served on the Pennsylvania Superior
Court from 1993–97.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 75
Class notes
…
Sean S. Suder has
expanded his commercial
real estate, land use, and
zoning practice to
Kentucky and Tennessee
to represent clients in an
area of rapid growth along
the I-65 corridor between
Louisville and Nashville. He
is a partner with Graydon
Head in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Council on Legal Diversity
fellows. She is a partner in
Washington, D.C., where
she concentrates her
practice in commercial
litigation, complex
litigation and class
actions, and government
enforcement. She was
selected as a rising star
in business litigation by
Washington, D.C. Super
Lawyers in 2014 and 2015.
Rachel B. Cochran is
associate general counsel
at Navient Solutions, Inc., a
company focused on loan
management, servicing,
and asset recovery in
Reston, Va.
Jason D. Cruise has been
Brett R. Tobin has been
promoted to partner with
Goodsill Anderson Quinn
& Stifel in Honolulu,
Hawaii, where he focuses
his practice on business
and commercial litigation.
promoted to partner
with Latham & Watkins in
Washington, D.C. He is a
member in the litigation
department, where he
focuses on antitrust
matters. He is also a
member of the global
merger control team and
advises on regulatory
reviews and investigation
matters in foreign
jurisdictions.
clients in matters including
wireless LAN, semiconductor fabrication, and
telecommunication
systems and standards.
commercial litigation,
including mergers &
acquisitions, insurance,
securities, bankruptcy, and
media/First Amendment.
Joshua C. Johnson has co-
Sam Towell was appointed
founded Johnson, Rosen
& O’Keeffe in Roanoke, Va.,
where his practice focuses
on complex commercial
litigation. He also currently
serves as president of the
Roanoke chapter of the
Federal Bar Association.
Deputy Secretary of
Agriculture and Forestry by
Virginia Governor Terence
McAuliffe in the fall. On
January 6 he and his wife,
Sarah, welcomed their first
child, Eleanor Carol Towell.
Shepard Liu has been
promoted to partner with
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley &
McCloy in Beijing, where
he is a member of the
project finance group and
the firm’s chief representative in China.
2006
Benjamin P. McCallen
Jason R. Brege was elected
partner with Smith
Anderson in Raleigh, N.C.
He advises technology
companies in developing
and commercializing
made partner in the
litigation department with
Willkie Farr & Gallagher
in New York. He focuses
his practice on complex
their intellectual property
and technology assets
through structuring and
negotiation of research,
development, licensing,
and other strategic
transactions.
Jonathan W. Cannon has
been promoted to counsel
with BuckleySandler in Los
Angeles, Calif. He advises
financial institutions, including financial services
companies, mortgage
companies, mortgage
servicers, banks, securities broker-dealers, and
others on federal and state
regulations.
Katherine DeLuca was
promoted to partner
with McGuireWoods in
Richmond, Va., where
she focuses her practice
on matters involving
compliance with federal
securities laws, mergers &
acquisitions, and corporate
governance.
2005
Christian T. Becker has
been promoted to partner
at Kasowitz Benson Torres
& Friedman in New York,
where he focuses his
practice on white-collar
criminal defense, internal
investigations, and
complex commercial
litigation.
Soyong Cho has been
selected by K&L Gates as
its representative to the
2015 Class of Leadership
76 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
Alison Haddock Hutton
has been promoted to
partnership with Duane
Morris in Atlanta, Ga.,
where she focuses her
practice on intellectual
property law and patent
litigation. She represents
Ben and Jessica Jackson Angelette ’06 welcomed their fourth child, Bianca
Elizabeth, on May 5, 2014. She joins older siblings Jackson Thomas (7), Graham
Joseph (4), and Daphne Catherine (2) with their parents in St. Louis, Mo., where
Ben is assistant general counsel at Energizer Holdings.
Class notes
…
Three from Class of 2006 work “Towards Justice” in Denver
A
dozen years and 1,500 miles from
As Towards Justice was developing, Schmidt
DiSalvo also recruited a strong board of
their first meeting at UVA Law,
knew that his strengths came in areas such as
directors. One of the first people she looked
three members of Section A of the
developing unique litigation strategies, not in
to add as a board member was Stavers, an old
networking and building the organization.
friend from Section A. Stavers is an associate
Class of 2006 reunited to fight wage theft on
behalf of low-income workers. Andy Schmidt,
“I had this vision that I knew could happen
Nina DiSalvo, and Jason Stavers all play an
if we had a great leader. I got lucky that Nina
integral role in Towards Justice, a nonprofit
[DiSalvo] wanted to move to Denver,” he said.
organization in Denver, Colo.
“Nina had all the skills that I was missing.”
Towards Justice represents low-income
DiSalvo had been working as special counsel
with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Denver and
now serves as president of the board.
In an effort to help more people, the
organization shifted its focus from legal
services to impact litigation. For example,
workers—many of them immigrants—whose
to the New York Secretary of State but wanted
Towards Justice and co-counsel represent a
employers are not paying them the wages they
to move to Denver with her fiancé, who had
class of civil detainees suing the Geo Group,
have legally earned. Wage theft is a pervasive
grown up in Colorado. She was looking for a
Inc., which operates an immigrant detention
problem in the United States, with many
job. Schmidt suggested that she take his.
center and pays detainees $1 a day or no wages
employers improperly depriving workers of
DiSalvo took a leap of faith to work for the
at all for their work.
In another case they represent a national
state and federal minimum wage, time-and-
start-up legal services organization in part
a-half for overtime hours, or even pay for all
because of her strong interest in Latino issues.
class of workers suing a large staffing company
hours worked.
She had lived in Puerto Rico as a child and had
and a luxury hotel, drawing attention to the
worked on human rights issues in Argentina
concern that employers rely on temp agencies
during and after law school.
or other labor brokers to confuse workers about
Schmidt conceived of Towards Justice when
he was working as a solo practitioner, largely
representing Spanish-speaking immigrants.
“Andy and Alex created a tremendous
The most pressing issue his clients faced was
organization, and having the opportunity to
wage theft.
expand its reach and draw attention to their
who employs them and evade responsibility for
following wage and hour laws.
“We are prepared to push the law and to
Originally Schmidt and Alexander Hood,
work is wonderful,” she said. “Meanwhile, I
remind us all what the American Dream is all
now Towards Justice’s director of litigation,
get to make a real difference in the lives of
about,” DiSalvo said.
represented individual workers who had not
immigrant families.”
In 2014 Schmidt headed across the country
DiSalvo quickly worked to expand the
to start his own firm in Portland, Maine. He
cases,” they realized they needed to find a
organization and bring about changes, such
continues to work with Towards Justice pro
new approach.
as finding office space, hiring new staff, and
bono. With a fourth attorney preparing to join
partnering with the local law school.
the group and a busy litigation docket, Towards
been paid. But facing a “never-ending sea of
The two formed a nonprofit, initially working
out of their basements, meeting clients at a
“Nina gets all the credit for coming in and
Chipotle restaurant, and holding firm meetings
quickly raising money and building up the
at a local microbrewery to keep costs down.
institution,” Schmidt said.
Justice has ambitious plans to empower
immigrant workers.
—Rachel Graves
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 77
Class notes
…
Stacie B. Fletcher was
elected partner with
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
in Washington, D.C. She
focuses her practice on
environmental litigation
and mass tort defense and
represents companies that
are facing enforcement
actions that arise from
alleged violations of
environmental laws.
Michael N. Nemelka was
named partner with
Kellogg, Huber, Hansen,
Todd, Evans & Figel in
Washington, D.C., where
he focuses his practice
on complex commercial
litigation.
James M. Pinna is now
partner with Hunton &
Williams in Richmond, Va.
He represents health care
providers in transactional,
corporate, regulatory and
compliance matters.
William I. Sanderson
was promoted to partner
with McGuireWoods in
Washington, D.C., where
he is a member of the
fiduciary advisory services
and private wealth services practice groups. He
works with high net worth
individuals and families in
a range of complex estate
and business planning
matters.
78 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
Katherine V. A. Smith
was elected partner with
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
in Los Angeles, Calif. She
represents employers in
all aspects of labor and
employment law and has
extensive experience in
single plaintiff and class
action litigation at both
the trial court and appellate level.
Audrey Wagner was
recognized in the 2014
U.S. edition of Legal 500,
which noted that she
“garners high praise for her
industry knowledge and
ease with clients.” She is an
associate with Dechert in
Washington, D.C., where
she focuses her practice
on diverse investment
management, derivative,
and commodity matters.
Randall Warden received
the Young Lawyer of the
Year award at the Bar
Association of the District
of Columbia presentation
in December. He received
recognition for his dedicated service to the D.C.
Bar, including serving on
the board and as chair of
the young lawyers section.
The award also recognizes
his leadership in the bar’s
Operation Crackdown
pro bono program, which
matches attorneys with
community groups to
use civil nuisance laws to
pursue property owners
who allow drug activity
on their property. He is a
trial attorney in the money
laundering and bank
integrity unit at the U.S.
Department of Justice.
Class notes
…
Matt Watson ’07 and Steve Glasgow ’07:
Dressed for Success
One day in their third year of Law School, Matt Watson
and Steve Glasgow took the afternoon off to play golf at
someone to design a website (the name Country Club Prep
Birdwood and lamented the fact that they’d have to work
conveniently pops up when someone Googles “preppy belt”
until they were 50 before they could have the lifestyle they
or “shirt”), took customer service calls, and handled shipping
had that afternoon.
and delivery while holding down their firm jobs.
They’d been friends since being assigned to the same
“In the beginning,” says Watson, “we overestimated our
section as 1Ls, and even before speaking they knew they had
abilities and underestimated the challenges. We thought
something in common—a fun sense of style that favored the
things like contracts and purchase orders were all but-
preppy look—bright bow ties, seersucker, and madras that
toned up, but learned we’d have to roll with the punches.”
made them standouts at social events.
Sometimes they’d place an order, and instead of placing the
After graduation, Glasgow practiced with Alston & Bird,
item on backorder, a company would send them something
and Watson with Bryan Cave in the same office building in
similar and they’d have to deal with it. “In some ways,” Watson
Atlanta. They often met for lunch. “We weathered the layoffs
says, “the Internet is like the Wild West.”
in 2010,” says Watson, “but the way things were going, we
The new business started in Watson’s basement, and as it
were pretty sure we weren’t going to make it to the top of
grew it took over more rooms of his house. “When it moved
the totem pole.” They were close to 30, both married and with
into the guest room my wife said, ‘It goes or you go.’” By that
children, and couldn’t keep doing the work they were doing.
point sales were skyrocketing and they were ready to make
“We’d had experience in leadership roles, and we wanted to
the leap to running the company full time. Classmate Toby
get back to that,” says Glasgow. “After sitting in on meetings
Mergler is also a partner, but he’s not involved in the day-to-
as litigators with retail clients, we thought we could do that.”
day operations.
They came up with a plan that seemed a natural for
Country Club Prep (www.countryclubprep.com) was
them—an online business focused on preppy clothes. They
officially launched in 2012, and is headquartered in a
knew the brands, and wanted to be the first to offer all the
12,500-square-foot warehouse and shipping facility in
best ones on one website: High Cotton, Southern Proper,
Atlanta. Glasgow and Watson put in more hours than when
Sperry Topsider, and Smathers & Branson among them.
they were practicing law, but they say it doesn’t really seem
“For us, in the beginning, being a UVA lawyer was helpful
like work. Imagine two good friends working side by side,
in several ways,” says Watson. “We had to convince the top-
leaving room for breaks at the putting green they installed at
drawer brands to work with us, two guys who had no retail
the warehouse.
background.” They were confident that if they could talk with
“The most meaningful way I’d describe our success in
the person who could say yes to selling to them wholesale,
numbers is probably the fact that I don’t have to write down
they could convince them to do it. And they did.
my billable hours anymore,” says Watson. There’s also the fact
“I’ll thank UVA for that,” says Glasgow. “We might have been
smart enough and cocky enough to start a business after
college, but the Law School gave us the critical thinking skills
that in their second year they beat the profits they projected
for year four.
Their first bricks and mortar store opened on The Corner
and the ability to pivot and adjust quickly in a business.” A
in Charlottesville in 2014. They chose the location to return
UVA Law degree had caché in this market, and that helped.
to their roots and because there’s a proven market for their
They knew their customers.
goods here. The next opening was in Lexington, Ky., and
People over 40 might think of preppy style as kind of
they have their sights set on other strong markets. The next
stuffy—ironed khakis, a buttoned-down shirt, a navy blazer
physical space will be a pop-up shop in Southampton, N.Y.,
with gold buttons. Preppy in the past had an elitist identity.
scheduled to open a week before Memorial Day.
The “new preppy” is bright, fun, and irreverent. “In the ’90s
Austin Holt
For the first 18 months they developed social media, hired
The clothes you can find at Country Club Prep bring to
the preppy style had a kind of reawakening,” says Glasgow.
mind breezy spring and summer days, but once you get
A younger audience emerged, especially in the South. At
hooked on this style, you’re likely to find yourself breaking
weddings, horse races, and other social events the bright
all the old sartorial rules and wearing whites, brights, and
outfits stood out. Events became opportunities to show off
seersucker before the end of winter.
your brights.
—Rebecca Barns
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 79
Class notes
…
2007
Catherine S. Bernard
recently chaired a
committee to educate
residents of Brookhaven,
a city in the northeastern
suburbs of Atlanta, about
the Redevelopment
Powers Law Referendum
and to get it defeated.
The referendum was
voted down, 60 percent to
40 percent, in November.
Bernard encourages those
interested to visit www.
brookhavenreferendum.
org. Bernard is a constitutional and criminal defense
lawyer in private practice.
Members of the Class of 2007 returned to Charlottesville for a program around the 50th anniversary of the Law
School’s annual giving program in fall of 2014. From left, Tiffany Miller, Khang Tran, Laura Golden, Kwame
Carter, Courtney Dredden Carter, Eli DeJarnette, and Beth DeJarnette.
Jacqueline Gharapour
Wernz was been named
partner with Franczek
Radelet in Chicago, Ill. She
is a member of the
education practice group
and represents Illinois
school districts, private
schools, and higher
education institutions.
Wernz works on a range of
education law issues,
including policy and
governance, business
matters, labor and
employment, student
rights and responsibilities,
and technology, and is the
main author of the firm’s
Education Law Insights
blog (www.edlawinsights.
com).
80 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
David M. Irvine has joined
Allen, Allen, Allen & Allen
as a trial attorney in
Charlottesville. He focuses
his practice on personal
injury and medical
malpractice.
Joseph A. Ponzi has
been named a rising
star in environmental
litigation for 2015 by
North Carolina Super
Lawyers. He is a partner
with Brooks, Pierce,
McLendon, Humphrey &
Leonard in Greensboro,
where he focuses his
practice on business
litigation, environmental
law, construction law,
and alternative dispute
resolution.
Courtney Dredden ’07 married Kwame Carter on June 14, in Frederick, Md.
Megan Callahan Orme ’08 was a bridesmaid, Tiffany Miller gave a reading,
and Scott Kelly ’10, Jenise Smith, Kathy LaBarre, Laura Golden, and Jennifer
Jessie ’09 were all in attendance. Courtney is a consultant in Washington, D.C.,
and loves living close to so many of her Law School friends.
Class notes
…
Adam B. Schwartz joined
Paul Weiss in Washington,
D.C., where his practice
focuses on litigation and
internal investigations. He
previously served at the
Department of Justice for
six years.
Kelu L. Sullivan was
elected partner with
BakerHostetler in
Washington, D.C. She
is a member of the
intellectual property
group and represents
clients in federal district
and appellate court
litigation, manages large
international trademark
and copyright portfolios,
and counsels clients on
intellectual policy, licenses,
and agreements.
Last year Lauren J. King
became an appellate court
judge for the Northwest
Intertribal Court System,
a court system for various
Indian tribes based in
western Washington. King
is of counsel with Foster
Pepper in Seattle, where
she is a member of the
media, entertainment, and
gaming practice.
Jennifer McCammon joined
Bean, Kinney & Korman as
an associate in Arlington, Va.
She represents individuals in divorce and other
family law matters and
was recognized as a rising
star in family law by Super
Lawyers in 2014 and 2015.
2008
Les S. Bowers was
promoted to partner with
Gentry Locke in Roanoke,
Va. He focuses his practice
on personal injury, medical
malpractice, and products
liability.
Dawn Crowell married
Colin Murphy on
May 25, 2014, in Annapolis,
Md. Laura Holland and
Kristina Yost were in
attendance. The couple
lives in the Washington,
D.C., area, where Dawn
is an associate in the
nonprofit organizations
practice at Pillsbury
Winthrop Shaw Pittman
and Colin works in global
compensation at Marriott
International.
2009
Eric K. Gerard joined the
Texas-based team of trial
lawyers at Abraham,
Watkins, Nichols, Sorrels,
Agosto & Friend in Houston,
where he represents
plaintiffs in cases involving
catastrophic injury,
industrial disasters,
offshore accidents, and
environmental litigation.
His move to the plaintiff’s
side comes after three
years in the trial division of
the Manhattan District
Attorney’s office and a stint
at the Houston office of
Hogan Lovells.
Bryan Starrett has
been named to the 2015
Triad Business Journal
40 leaders under 40 list.
He is an associate with
Brooks, Pierce, McLendon,
Humphrey & Leonard in
Greensboro, N.C., where
he focuses his practice
on commercial litigation,
special investigations/
compliance, and labor and
employment law.
2010
Andy Howlett practices tax
law with Miller & Chevalier
in Washington, D.C. He
and Jessica Brown were
married on January 4,
2014, and he reports that
he continues to improve at
softball.
Serge Martyn joined
Credit Agricole Corporate
and Investment Bank as
director of legal debt
capital markets in London.
He was previously an
associate at Ropes & Gray
in London.
Mike Menssen moved to
Salt Lake City, Utah, and
started a new job at Stoel
Rives. He is an associate in
their litigation and labor
and employment practice
groups. He previously
practiced with Gibson
Dunn & Crutcher in Los
Angeles.
Edward A. Mullen was
promoted to counsel in
the global regulatory
enforcement group at
Reed Smith in Richmond,
Va. Last year he was
named a rising star by
Virginia Super Lawyers for
his administrative law
practice and was
recognized among the
legal elite in legislative/
regulatory/administrative
law by Virginia Business
magazine.
In 2014 Ryan Searfoorce
and his wife, Michaela,
moved their five children
to Houston, Tex., and Ryan
moved his finance practice
to Norton Rose Fulbright.
Members of the Class of 2010 at the beach last year (left to right): Jordan McKay,
Crystal Shin, Jessica Childress, Kyle Brinkman, Anna Ruth Myers, and
Adam Jantzi.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 81
Class notes
…
Nick Timmons and his wife
welcomed a son, Bobby
(Robert R. Timmons III),
in January 2014. Nick is
corporate counsel at H&R
Block in Kansas City, Mo.
2011
Johnathan S. Perkins was
recognized by the Cystic
Fibrosis Foundation’s
Delaware Valley Chapter as
one of “Philadelphia’s Finest
Young Professionals.” As
associate with Montgomery
McCracken, Perkins
concentrates his practice on
commercial litigation and
higher education. He has
experience representing
various universities and
corporations on a wide
range of matters including
employment decisions,
contract disputes and
product liability. Perkins
serves as a mentor with
Minds Matter Philadelphia,
is involved as a volunteer
reading coach with
Philadelphia Reads, and
serves as a pro bono
attorney volunteer with the
Homeless Advocacy Project.
82 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
2012
Kate Gilman is founder and
CEO of a Petal by Pedal,
a floral delivery service
that brings environmentally friendly bouquets to
customers via bicycle messenger (www.petalbypedal.
com) throughout New York
City. While most flowers
sold in the U.S. come from
Holland or South America;
many of the flowers sold
by Gilman’s company
are grown on Brooklyn
rooftops.
Emily Renzelli is included
on the Forbes 30 under
30 list for 2015 in law and
policy. She is an HIV/AIDS
activist who worked on legal protection and privacy
rights in South Africa and
has taught criminal law at
West Virginia University,
her alma mater. She is a
law clerk for the U.S. Court
of Appeals, Fourth Circuit
in Richmond, Va.
Mary Frances Ritten
joined Winstead as an
associate in the real estate
finance practice group in
Charlotte, N.C. She
represents financial,
investment, and other
lending institutions in a
range of commercial real
estate and finance
transactions.
Sally J. Sullivan joined
Caplin & Drysdale in
Washington, D.C., as an
associate in the complex
litigation and creditors’
rights practice groups.
2014
Logan B. Christenson
2013
Michael Cirino joined
Kilpatrick Townsend &
Stockton in Atlanta, Ga.,
as an associate on the
medical and mechanical
devices team in the
intellectual property
department. Following
graduation Cirino received
a Robert F. Kennedy ’51
Public Service Fellowship
to work as a patent attorney at UVA Innovation,
working directly with
inventors and reviewing
invention disclosures and
patent applications.
joined Workman Nydegger
as an associate in Salt
Lake City, Utah, where he
focuses his practice on U.S.
and international patents.
His work emphasizes
preparing and prosecuting
patent applications related
to life sciences, chemical,
and mechanical arts.
James Wesley Fischer has
joined Wyatt, Tarrant &
Combs in Louisville, Ky., as
a member of the corporate
& securities team.
Elysse Stolpe joined
McKenna Long & Aldridge
as an associate in
Washington, D.C. She is a
member of the litigation
practice.
Abby Kobrovsky is clerking
for the Honorable David
C. Norton and Richard
M. Gergel of the U.S.
District Court for the
District of South Carolina
from September 2014 to
December 2015, and plans
to join K&L Gates as an
associate in January 2016.
Sarah A. Vonderbrink
Kayla Marshall joined
Smith Anderson as an
associate in Raleigh,
N.C., where she focuses
her practice on general,
commercial, and employment litigation. Prior to
joining Smith Anderson,
she completed an internship with Judge James
Jones ’65 of the Western
District of Virginia.
Brian Mink joined
McKenna Long & Aldridge
as an associate in Atlanta,
Ga., where he is a member
of the real estate practice.
joined Keating Muething &
Klekamp as an associate in
the litigation group in
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Previously, she was a
co-mediator for the Family
Alternative Dispute Clinic
at the Mediation Center of
Charlottesville.
In Memoriam
Robert G. Harper ’41
Chevy Chase, Md.
January 6, 2015
Stanley J. Magenheimer ’53
Miami, Fla.
December 10, 2014
Martin A. Purcell ’60
West Palm Beach, Fla.
February 12, 2015
John P. Barnett ’69
Danville, Va.
October 23, 2014
Stephen Wade Adkins ’81
Mc Gaheysville, Va.
March 18, 2015
Lew D. Brundage ’42
Yakima, Wash.
March 7, 2015
Philip L. Avis ’55
Henrico, N.C.
November 28, 2014
J. Hume Taylor, Jr. ’60
Mc Dowell, Va.
December 7, 2014
Sathitya Lengthaisong ’69
Bangken Nonthabur, Thailand
November 24, 2014
Marshall B. Martin ’81
Norfolk, Va.
February 20, 2015
A. Adgate Duer ’42
Easton, Md.
March 7, 2015
James W. Franklin, Jr. ’55
Beverly Hills, Calif.
January 10, 2015
George V. Allen, Jr. ’62
Washington, D.C.
December 11, 2014
William H. Vincent ’69
Winchester, Mass.
November 29, 2014
Jacqueline M. Gordon ’82
Vienna, Va.
January 4, 2015
Norborne G. Smith, Jr. ’47
Goldsboro, N.C.
September 16, 2014
Russell Alton Wright ’55
Henrico, Va.
January 28, 2015
Edwin B. Brown ’62
Staunton, Va.
March 3, 2015
Thomas Aloysius
Twomey, Jr. ’70
New York, N.Y.
November 16, 2014
Michael James Kelly ’82
Saint Clair, Mich.
December 31, 2013
James S. Cremins, Sr. ’49
Richmond, Va.
March 10, 2015
Edward T. Caton ’56
Virginia Beach, Va.
November 18, 2014
William R. Dorsey III ’62
Baltimore, Md.
January 15, 2015
Richard L. Jones ’49
Chester, Va.
February 1, 2015
Stanley E. McKinley ’56
Waxhaw, N.C.
April 2, 2015
John E. McDonald, Jr. ’62
Glen Allen, Va.
December 31, 2014
Edwin F. Stetson II ’49
Chevy Chase, Md.
January 5, 2015
William L. Standish ’56
Sewickley, Pa.
January 1, 2015
William A. Pusey ’62
Boca Grande, Fla.
March 6, 2015
C. Thomas Wyche ’49
Greenville, S.C.
January 23, 2015
Thomas H. Tullidge ’56
Richmond, Va.
December 27, 2014
Jack P. Chambers ’63
Tazewell, Va.
January 31, 2015
N. Wescott Jacob ’50
Onancock, Va.
April 13, 2015
E. Kemper Uhler, Jr. ’56
Ashburn, Va.
January 23, 2015
Peter H. Ramm ’65
Winston-Salem, N.C.
December 21, 2014
Samuel B. Sterrett ’50
Chevy Chase, Md.
September 8, 2013
Alan D. Groseclose ’57
Pulaski, Va.
November 13, 2014
Michael F. Doyle ’67
Dublin, Ohio
November 12, 2014
Russell D. Thomas ’51
Sarasota, Fla.
December 21, 2013
John R. Helm ’57
Montclair, N.J.
November 29, 2014
William F. Roeder, Jr. ’67
Vienna, Va.
January 6, 2015
Joseph H. Young ’51
Baltimore, Md.
March 15, 2015
Frank E. Specht ’57
Atlanta, Ga.
February 14, 2015
Lawrence A. Dorsey, Jr. ’68
Woodsboro, Md.
March 16, 2015
Harry W. Colmery, Jr. ’52
Santa Barbara, Calif.
December 18, 2014
H. Foster Pettit ’58
Lexington, Ky.
November 22, 2014
P. Donald Moses ’68
Staunton, Va.
January 1, 2015
Robert D. McIlwaine III ’52
Colonial Heights, Va.
February 21, 2015
George M. Rogers, Jr. ’58
Delray Beach, Fla.
March 31, 2015
W. Scott Street III ’68
Manakin Sabot, Va.
February 1, 2015
M. Lauck Walton ’59
Woodstock, Va.
February 8, 2015
Jean A. Bennett ’72
Coaldale, Pa.
January 21, 2015
Michael F. Blair ’72
Bristol, Va.
January 3, 2015
Ezra B. Perry, Jr. ’72
Birmingham, Ala.
December 31, 2014
Julia T. Cannon ’74
Hamilton, Va.
October 16, 2014
John H. Mossholder ’76
Charlottesville, Va.
March 15, 2015
Richard E. Connor ’78
Arlington, Va.
November 25, 2014
Walter W. Simmers ’79
Vernon Rockville, Conn.
October 28, 2014
Kevin M. Smith ’79
Dedham, Mass.
October 27, 2014
Stanley E. Alderson, Jr. ’80
Mountain City, Tenn.
February 27, 2015
T. James Binder ’80
Manassas, Va.
January 9, 2015
Joan L. Markman ’83
Philadelphia, Pa.
January 14, 2015
Roger D. Roberts II ’83
Roanoke, Va.
January 4, 2015
Richard A. Enslen ’86
Richland, Mich.
February 17, 2015
Dale E. Fahrnbruch ’86
Lincoln, Neb.
June 1, 2005
Claire L. Gregory ’87
Alexandria, Va.
January 21, 2015
Glynn D. Key ’89
Philadelphia, Pa.
November 20, 2014
Joan C. Woods ’93
Pasadena, Calif.
February 14, 2014
Catherine A. Zanga ’98
Charlotte, N.C.
November 21, 2014
Thomas F. Daley ’04
Gretna, La.
January 31, 2015
Matthew Joseph Cooper ’05
Stamford, Conn.
November 30, 2014
John M. Cunningham Jr. ’14
Chicago, Ill.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 83
In Print
NON
FICTION
Encounters with Police:
A Black Man’s Guide to
Survival
Eric C. Broyles ’95 and Adrian O. Jackson
In Encounters with the Police: A
Black Man’s Guide to Survival,
Eric Broyles and his friend and
colleague, a 25-year veteran
of the Ohio police force, draw
on their experience to give
other black men and boys the
basic information they need to
survive encounters with police:
Comply now, contest later.
They didn’t set out to
solve the complex problems
that underlie some racial
interactions. They give examples
of the kinds of words and
actions to avoid—the kind
that can quickly create charged
situations in which violence is
more likely to occur.
Bad police are out there,
and they can be punished in
the legal system. Broyles gives
advice about that. But the
84 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
majority have good intentions
and deserve respect. It’s
important for anyone to see
them as human beings who
deal with tragic and dangerous
events all the time and arrive on
the scene on edge and expecting
the possibility of danger.
The most important thing
is to stay calm and show that
you are not a threat to a police
officer: stay in the car, turn
on the overhead light, keep
hands on the steering wheel, no
sudden moves. Comply on the
spot; you can contest later if you
feel you’ve been treated unfairly.
They don’t excuse police who
abuse their jobs, but when
police act outside the law, the
victim’s self-control is crucial.
Broyles writes from a
wide arc of experience. He
grew up in poverty and was
a juvenile delinquent who
distrusted police. Today he’s
a Washington, D.C.-based
lawyer and entrepreneur with
sharp memories of every time
he’s been pulled over—with
cause and without. He and his
co-author present a cogent
and balanced approach to
encounters between black
and white. Additional content
may be found at www.
survivethepolice.com.
Talk of Many Things: Law,
Sports, Politics, Nature
George W. Gowen ’57
Xlibris
George Gowen was born in
Italy, the son of an American
vice consul with the U.S.
Foreign Service and an English
mother. His memoir, Talk of
Many Things, looks back on a
remarkable life. It was certainly
one of privilege—as a young
boy he saw the Prince of Wales,
glimpsed the exiled Emperor
Haile Selassie, and played
with Teddy Kennedy [’59] in
the Court of St. James. But he
recalls the danger in Europe
then, too: buses blown up by
the IRA, his father’s car being
jostled by a jeering crowd on
the streets of Rome, the wail of
sirens in London on the first
day of the war.
He recalls his mother
delivering him to Princeton
at a time when he says having
a reasonably good record
in sports, leadership, and
academics more or less assured
acceptance into an elite school.
Steeped in the traditions of
the school, he reminisces
about some of the interesting
traditions that contribute to
what he calls the tribal bonding
of Princetonians.
Gowen headed south to UVA
Law, but not before taking a
summer job as a smokejumper
in Montana. He wanted to see
more of America, but also, he
writes, he had a vague feeling
that “like the spoiled boy in
Kipling’s Captain Courageous, I
would benefit by being knocked
about a bit.” It wasn’t the first
or last time he would challenge
himself by getting out of his
comfort zone.
One of the delights of this
book is the author’s candor
on every subject he recollects,
including his work ethic, his
reasons for changing political
parties, the obvious skepticism
of his prospective parents-inlaw when he asked for their
daughter’s hand in marriage. “At
an early age,” the author notes,
“I learned man doesn’t control
nature and not to panic in the
face of challenges.’’
Gowen is a member of
Dunnington Bartholow &
Miller’s estate, trust, and private
clients, corporate, and not-forprofit religious and charitable
institutions practice areas in
New York.
The Expressive Powers of
Law: Theories and Limits
Richard H. McAdams ’85
Harvard University Press
Why do people obey the law?
Legal scholars usually say for
two reasons. Law deters crime
by creating sanctions, and the
law has legitimate authority
in the eyes of society. In The
Expressive Powers of Law:
Theories and Limits, Richard
McAdams explains another way
the law encourages compliance:
through its power to coordinate
our behavior and inform our
beliefs.
There are mutual benefits
when people can expect
others to behave in certain
ways because of laws. Traffic
regulations are obvious
examples that help keep order
and keep us safe. In this book
the author explores more
complex areas, including
constitutional and international
law.
Legislation such as antismoking laws reflects both
the public’s changing attitude
toward smoking and lawmakers’
recognition of the health risks
associated with smoking.
Individuals are influenced by
these trends and update both
their beliefs and their behavior
as a result.
McAdams gives examples
of puzzling instances where
entities with little power
themselves, such as tribunals,
are able to influence the
resolution of a dispute. He
shows how law can bring about
compliance by what it says, not
just what it sanctions.
The author is the Bernard
D. Meltzer Professor of Law
and Aaron Director Research
Scholar at the University of
Chicago Law School.
5 Months, 10 Years,
2 Hours
Lisa Reisman ’93
Outpost 19
At first the words “Good job,
Reisman” were enough to
motivate her through all the
late nights at her Manhattan law
firm. But four years into her law
career, despite the perks and
feedback, on her 32nd birthday
she announced her resignation.
Reisman had a plan to buy
a convertible and drive across
the country while she figured
out the next stage of her life.
But her life took her down a
very different road. After going
for her usual five-mile run, she
fell asleep and woke up in a
hospital to learn that she had
a malignant brain tumor, the
most aggressive type. No one
had lived more than five years
with her disease.
Five months after her
diagnosis she underwent an
MRI that showed that the
cancer had not spread. Ten
years after her diagnosis she
competed in a triathlon.
Two hours is the length of
the grueling race during which
she realizes she has everything
she needs to live fully in the
world. Her vivid description of
each stage of the race propel her
story forward.
Reisman’s account is
unflinching and honest, a story
of endurance and grit rather
than heroism. Confronted
with such a grim diagnosis,
she learns a great deal about
herself and her relationship to
her family and everyone else
around her. “There’s something
exhilarating about being lost,”
she writes. “But only in the
memory of it. In knowing you
eventually found your way.”
“Lisa Reisman’s account of
her ordeal reads like a noir
thriller—swift, merciless,
unsparing,” writes one reviewer.
“High-strung and brilliant, she
navigates her terrifying passage
with swagger and wit, never
mind courage. I couldn’t put it
down.”
Reisman is a freelance
reporter. This is her first book.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 85
In print
…
Legal Guide to the
Research Credit
Alex E. Sadler ’94
Thomson Reuters
In this book Alex Sadler
reviews the legal principles
and authorities that govern
the tax credit for research and
development that is provided
by section 41 of the Internal
Revenue Code. This credit
has broad application to U.S.
businesses of all sizes. One
of the most widely claimed
federal income tax incentives
for corporate America, it is also
a source of controversy because
of its complexity and the
somewhat subjective nature of
the qualification standards.
Legal Guide to the Research
Credit is a comprehensive
review and distillation of
the subject, and will serve as
an important reference for
law firms, accounting firms,
corporate tax departments,
the IRS, policy makers, and
academia. The volume includes
applicable Code sections,
regulations, legislative history,
IRS guidance, and case law.
The author practices tax law
as a partner with Ivins, Phillips
& Barker in Washington, D.C.
Becoming Madison
The Extraordinary
Origins of the Least
Likely Founding Father
Michael Signer ’04
PublicAffairs
Michael Signer’s engaging and
thoroughly researched study
of James Madison’s early years,
86 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
Becoming Madison, reveals
the depth of one of the most
important, yet among the least
known, American leaders.
Signer focuses on Madison’s
life to the age of 36, by which
time the determined patriot had
introduced his plans for a strong
central government, made
his mark on the Constitution,
and played a central role at
Virginia’s convention to ratify
the Constitution in 1788.
Madison steered the course of
the nation through the roughand-tumble politics of his day,
not for wealth or fame, but
because he believed it was his
duty as an American to fight for
the common good. He was five
feet four, weighed about 100
pounds, was exceedingly shy,
and suffered terrible bouts of
anxiety. And yet he carried on.
Madison’s coming of age is
an inspiring story of a leader
who fought for ideas rather than
grandstanding or attacking his
opponents. A statesman to his
core, Madison is a role model
for our times. Signer’s portrait
goes a long way to bringing
Madison out of the shadows of
history and into the light.
“Becoming Madison is
superb,” writes Anne-Marie
Slaughter, former director of
policy planning, U.S. State
Department. “The history
is lively and engaging. But
Michael Signer’s greatest
contribution is to turn a
biography of Madison into a
manual on leadership that is as
relevant and valuable today as it
was 200 years ago.”
Signer is a political theorist,
lawyer, advocate, and author
who practices corporate
and regulatory law with the
Madison Law & Strategy Group
in Charlottesville. He is the
author of Demagogue: The Fight
to Save Democracy from Its
Worst Enemies.
FICTION
The Escape
David Baldacci ’86
Grand Central
In The Escape, David Baldacci
spins another thriller with John
Puller, the combat veteran and
special agent. Puller is the go-to
man to investigate the nation’s
toughest cases, but all of his
experience and skills may not
be a match for bringing in the
most elusive target he has ever
pursued—his brother, Robert.
Robert, convicted of treason,
has somehow managed to
escape the U.S. Disciplinary
Barracks in Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas, the most secure prison
in the country, and he’s now
the most wanted criminal in
the nation. While his captors
wonder how on earth he got
out, he disguises himself, hacks
into a national database, and
heads out to clear himself of
the charges against him. He’s
brilliant and elusive, and Puller’s
challenge is to bring him
in alive.
There are others who want
to see his brother dead. There
are details about his brother’s
conviction that warrant
investigation, and there’s at
least one person who will do
anything to prevent the truth
coming out. Whatever the
outcome, Puller will be tested to
the limit to save his brother and
himself. He reluctantly teams
up with Capt. Veronica Knox
whose motives he questions and
whose allure he does not.
Baldacci’s novels have been
translated into 45 languages and
sold in more than 80 countries.
Finding Roda Anne
Bert Goolsby, LL.M. ’92
Rebecca J. Vickery Publishing
Deloris Meek is a fast-talking
young man, a Southern lawyer
with an unlikely name and
unlikely office—a converted
milk truck with a two-tone
purple paint job. Meek draws
quite a cast of characters for
clients, including an auctioneer
who hires him to draft his will.
When the auctioneer dies, Meek
has his hands full tracking
down the missing heiress, Roda
Anne, and fending off three
unhappy claimants to the estate.
The story, set in the mid-1960s,
is Southern to the hilt. “I
practice law in a place way
down in the really Deep South
where they say the only thing
that separates its summer heat
from the heat of Hell is a screen
door,” Meek observes.
Dixie St. John, his friend’s
legal secretary, accompanies
him on his adventure. Meek
wends his way in and out of
two courtrooms, a honky-tonk,
a tent revival, and a hospital
before he ends up in front of
In print
…
a probate judge who’s a font
of baseball metaphors, if not
jurisprudence.
Goolsby is a former chief
deputy attorney general of
South Carolina and criminal
prosecutor.
Murder Trilogy: Three
Two-Act Plays
Frank W. Swacker ’49
James A. Rock & Co.
This collection of Frank
Swacker’s two-act stage plays
involve murder, mayhem,
malfeasance, and hilarious
corporate shenanigans. The
plays included are “Spreading
Murder & Happiness: A TwoAct Play,” “Arbitrating Murder:
An Arbitration Drama in Two
Acts,” and “Who Murdered the
Chairman? A Comic Corporate
Satire in Two Acts.” Two of the
plays are based on previously
published novels by the author.
Swacker wrote the story on
which “Arbitrating Murder”
is based to entertain students
and encourage their interest
in arbitration for dispute
resolution after teaching at
Stetson University College of
Law. Murder mysteries are the
genre for Swacker’s plays and
novels, in part because the
public never seems to tire of the
subject. He remembers, in fact,
that the most exciting course
he took in Law School was
criminal law.
Swacker is a devotee of
the theater, and he grants
educational organizations a
royalty-free license to produce
the plays, which makes them
ideal for small companies and
theater groups with limited
budgets. He includes a handy
synopsis of each play at the
front of the book.
A Southern Girl
John C. Warley ’70
University of South Carolina Press
At the outset of A Southern
Girl, Coleman Carter is a
successful trial lawyer with
a happy marriage and two
young sons. He grew up in
the Old South, living a life of
privilege guaranteed by his
family’s bloodlines. He barely
questioned the subtle racism
and practice of exclusion in
the society around him. But
his wife, Elizabeth, a transplant
from the Midwest, lobbies
hard to adopt a daughter from
Korea, and Coleman reluctantly
gives in.
From the moment they move
forward in their plan to adopt,
their cozy world turns upside
down. Coleman’s parents and
his peers were judgmental and
severe in their reaction. “She
will have doors slammed in
her face,” his mother warns.
Adoption was questioned in
their society, to say nothing
of adopting an Asian child.
Coleman realizes that the
insular world he grew up
in, which had always been a
comforting source of pride
and security, now shuns the
daughter he loves. The Carters
have to confront Southern
traditions as they pull together
for their new family to find their
true place in the town they had
assumed would always be home.
“John Warley’s marvelous
novel A Southern Girl is the
best book I’ve ever read about
Charleston’s mysterious and
glittering high society,” writes
novelist Pat Conroy. “Its
affirmation of the enduring
power of parental love vying
against that enigmatic realm
is reverential and stunningly
original, as stylish as a novel
by John Irving and as tightly
written as one by John Grisham.
I wish I’d written this book.”
The author, a native South
Carolinean, based A Southern
Girl in part on his family’s
adoption of a baby girl born
in Seoul, Korea. He lives in
Beaufort, S.C., and San Miguel
de Allende, Mexico. This is his
third book and is the first book
in Pat Conroy’s Story River
Books new Southern fiction
imprint.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 87
Opinion
The Voting Rights Act
Fifty years ago Congress passed and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Act.
Coming at a seminal moment in the civil rights movement, the Act ensured the right to vote as guaranteed in
the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Congress amended the Act reauthorizing
and extending its protections in 1970, 1975, 1982, 1992, and 2006. In the 2013 Shelby County decision, the
Supreme Court found unconstitutional one of the key enforcement provisions of the Act.
We asked three of our faculty who have expertise on voting and civil rights issues to give us their
analysis of what the Act means today.
The Voting Rights Act Turns 50
Risa Goluboff
John Allan Love Professor of Law
Justice Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Professor of Law
Professor of History
A
nniversaries can, and
should, serve as moments
not only of celebration
but also of reflection and
reconsideration. This 50th
anniversary of the passage
of the Voting Rights Act of
1965 is no different. The
Act stands as a monument
to the power of ordinary
Americans to create dramatic
social, legal, and political change. The Act passed because ordinary
people were willing to put their livelihoods, their safety, and their
lives on the line in order to publicize not only the injustices they
faced but the certainty of their conviction that the United States
government could, indeed had to, do something about it. In turn,
this anniversary prompts celebration of the will of the federal
government to take on the systematic exclusion of millions of
Americans from meaningful citizenship and to devote prodigious
resources toward its eradication.
88 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
But this anniversary of the Voting Rights Act also calls forth
more sober reflections. The very enormity of the Act’s interventions is a reminder that the complex of public law and private
custom that was Jim Crow systematically attempted to subordinate,
exclude, and exploit African Americans—not only in the South but
elsewhere as well.
Finally, reflecting on the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act
calls forth not a small amount of regret. There is the regret that
50 years of effort has brought substantial, but hardly complete,
eradication of racial inequality in American society. And there is
the regret that on the eve of this anniversary, the Supreme Court of
the United States prematurely deemed that project of transformation complete. The justices who struck down a key portion of
the Act misunderstood the nature of Jim Crow, downplayed the
monumental undertaking that was the civil rights movement, and
underestimated the tenacity of structural racism. Perhaps the most
appropriate commemoration of the original passage of the Voting
Rights Act, then, would be to see it as impetus for renewed federal
commitment to uprooting the different but still powerful racial
inequalities that persist today.
OPINION
…
From Selma to Shelby County in Three Generations
Daniel R. Ortiz
Michael J. and Jane R. Horvitz Distinguished Professor of Law
Director, Supreme Court Litigation Clinic
T
he Voting Rights Act
has developed in three
generations. The first began
with its enactment in 1965.
That generation focused on
immediate and direct burdens
on African-American voting,
outlawed practices like literacy
tests, and required many
jurisdictions in the South to
get approval from the U.S.
District Court in Washington, D.C., or the U.S. Department of
Justice before instituting any change in voting procedures. Everyone
understood who the practices’ victims were and most thought
these practices discriminatory and unjust. The Supreme Court
upheld the law from constitutional attack and it enjoyed bipartisan
support. Both the majority and minority leaders in the Senate, in
fact, sponsored it.
As those practices easiest to understand as racially discriminatory fell, attention turned to less direct and obvious ways of
impairing minority groups’ voting power. During this second
generation, which stretched roughly from the early-1980s to the
late-2000s, voting rights litigation focused on practices that diluted
overall minority group voting strength while not barring individual
minority voter’s participation—practices like gerrymandering
and use of at-large, as opposed to single-member-district, voting
systems. These practices were less visibly discriminatory, more
difficult to evaluate, and could, in some cases at least, be thought to
promote good ends, like making every city council member responsible to all of a city’s residents rather than just to those in a small
geographic area. Second-generation suits enjoyed less support in
the courts, particularly the Supreme Court, and engendered debate
in Congress about whether they led to a form of racial quotas. Still,
although opinion was more equivocal, the courts and Congress
approved wider application of the Voting Rights Act to reach many
practices and situations it did not before.
In 2009 the Supreme Court signaled the shift to the latest generation. In Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder,
a constitutional challenge to section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, one
of the Act’s two central sections, the Court noted that section 5 and
its closely related coverage provision “raise serious constitutional
questions” because they treat states differently based on 40-year-old
findings of past discrimination. And, although it ultimately held in
favor of the utility district on statutory grounds, the Court’s constitutional rumblings sent a strong signal that unless Congress modified
the law, particularly its coverage formula, the Court would likely hold
it unconstitutional in the future. Many also saw the case as signaling a broader change in how the Court would balance federalism
concerns against more diffuse burdens on group voting rights.
Congress did not revisit the law. The state-rights arguments
resonated with some more deeply than before and states were now
burdening individuals’ ability to vote in new ways that some argued
strengthened democracy. Increasingly, for example, jurisdictions are
enacting practices, like requiring certain forms of identification to
vote, and restricting early voting and voting registration windows,
that have disproportionate effects on different racial and political
groups for what the jurisdictions claim is good intent: preventing
voting fraud. One side argues that the disproportionate burdens
are the actual purpose and that little, if any fraud, is prevented. The
other side argues that any burdens are small and incidental and that
fraud is significantly reduced. The initial constitutional challenges
to these practices largely failed and hope turned to section 5.
Then in 2012 the Supreme Court revisited the constitutionality of
section 5 and its coverage provision. In Shelby County v. Holder, it
followed through on the warnings it had given three years before
and struck down section 5’s coverage provision on federalism
grounds. This effectively nullified one of the two central pillars
of the Voting Rights Act at a time when Congress is so politically
gridlocked that it would be unlikely to revisit the law.
The effective loss of section 5 will not lead states to reinstitute
their first-generation practices. They don’t need to. Those interested
have discovered other ways of achieving some of the same results
that can be more easily defended on both legal and democratic
grounds. The United States and others are now challenging some
of these practices in places like Texas and North Carolina through
section 2, the remaining pillar of the Voting Rights Act. But it is a
much more difficult path than section 5 was.
Will these challenges succeed? I’m not optimistic. That many
claim the new practices prevent voting fraud means the courts will
be less inclined to strike them down absent smoking-gun evidence
of invidious intent, which is always hard to find. And these new
laws’ partisan benefits to one side in our deadlocked political
system mean that Congress is unlikely to revise the Voting Rights
Act to address them.
UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015 89
OPINION
…
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 in Historical Perspective
George Rutherglen
John Barbee Minor Distinguished Professor of Law
T
he Voting Rights Act
of 1965 represented
the culmination of a long
struggle to make the right
to vote regardless of race
finally effective. The Fifteenth
Amendment guaranteed this
right upon its ratification
in 1870, but it took nearly a
century to provide adequate
means for enforcing it. Except
for a brief period in Reconstruction, the Fifteenth Amendment
had been observed more in the breach than in compliance. The
repeal of the federal statutes protecting voting rights, just as much
as Plessy v. Ferguson, marked the ascendancy of the regime of
Jim Crow.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was preceded by the Civil
Rights Act of 1957 and then the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The first
protected voting, but in a manner that was severely compromised
by leaving the burden of proof entirely on the government and
guaranteeing defendants a right to jury trial, which southern
officials could use to nullify the act. The 1964 Act stopped short
of protecting voting in any significant way, addressing mainly
discrimination in public accommodations, employment, and federally funded programs. The 1965 Act went far beyond these earlier
acts, essentially in switching the burden of proof to defendants,
in states that had historically denied the right to vote, to establish
that any change in their voting procedures did not result in further
discrimination. This “preclearance” evidence had to be presented
to the attorney general or the District Court for the District of
Columbia. This preclearance procedure was renewed repeatedly,
and the list of covered states and localities evolved, in a series of
extensions, the latest in 2006.
90 UVA Lawyer / SPRING 2015
It was this last extension that was held invalid in Shelby
County v. Holder, a decision in which the Supreme Court found
that Congress had not done enough to update the evidence used to
identify covered jurisdictions subject to the preclearance requirement. Although this decision stopped short of invalidating the
preclearance procedure, it now requires Congress to re-examine
the evidence of persistent voting discrimination and re-enact the
provision identifying covered jurisdiction, a step that Congress is
not likely to take in the short term. For this reason, Shelby County
has been widely criticized, but the history of voting rights offers
two further reasons to be uneasy with the decision: first, the difficulty of enforcing voting rights without stringent procedures that
put the burden of compliance on potential violators; and second,
the need for congressional and judicial cooperation in putting
those procedures in place. The decision is a major step back from
recognizing what the historical record reveals and what the Voting
Rights Act of 1965 accomplished.
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