2016 INNSBRUCK PROGRAM FACULTY AND ADMINISTRATION
The Hon. Patrick Higginbotham, Senior Judge, 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. J.D., University of
Alabama School of Law. The author of numerous scholarly works, Judge Higginbotham was the youngest
sitting federal judge when he was appointed to the U.S. District Court. A widely respected jurist and
frequent lecturer and visiting professor, Judge Higginbotham has on many occasions been honored for
his contributions to the legal profession and the quality of his influential opinions.
Prof. Richard Flint, J.D., Ph.D., University of Texas School of Law. Professor Flint practiced civil litigation
for 24 years, primarily in the areas of commercial litigation, insurance defense, oil and gas, and
bankruptcy. As a practicing lawyer, he served as a bankruptcy trustee and was active in the grievance
process, serving as member of both state and federal bar grievance committees and as Chairman of the
State Bar of Texas District Grievance Committee for Nueces and surrounding counties.
After his law firm experience, he became a tenured professor of the St. Mary’s University School of Law
and has taught at Institute on World Legal Programs in Innsbruck, Austria, as well as in Mexico.
His published work focuses on the areas of civil procedure, pretrial procedure, bankruptcy and
mortgages.
Dean Victoria Mather, J.D., LL.M., University of Illinois College of Law. Professor Mather teaches in the
areas of property, wills and estates and family law. She has also taught courses in estate planning,
community property, environmental law and intellectual property as well as the human rights course
with an emphasis on population law and policy. She practiced law in Illinois after law school and joined
the St. Mary’s faculty in 1985. She served as the Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs at St.
Mary’s for the last 10 years. Professor Mather is a frequent teacher in the Institute for Legal Problems
and will again teach the course in Human Rights: Population Law and Policy.
Prof. Bernhard Koch, Dr. jur., LL.M. (Michigan). Prof. Koch Austrian, teaches, researches, and writes in
the areas of Austrian, German, and European private law, comparative law, and conflicts of laws, with a
particular focus on torts, family and real estate law. A regular member of the Institute’s faculty, he is the
Deputy Director of the Institute for European Tort Law of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Vienna,
Austria) and a chaired professor at the University of Innsbruck.
Prof. Colin P. Marks graduated magna cum laude from the University of Houston Law Center in 2001
where he served as an associate editor on the Houston Law Review. After law school, Professor Marks
clerked for the Honorable Harold R. DeMoss Jr. on the United States Fifth Court of Appeals for two
years. In the fall of 2003, Professor Marks joined the law firm of Baker Botts, L.L.P., in Houston, Texas
where he was an associate in the trial department. At Baker Botts, his practice concentrated on
commercial litigation, as well as some pro bono criminal work. Professor Marks left Baker Botts in the
summer of 2006 to join St. Mary’s University School of Law. Professor Marks teaches a variety of
commercial and business law courses, including Contracts, Sales, Secured Transactions, Business
Associations, and Business Torts. His scholarship focuses primarily on issues in Contract and Business
Association Law.
Co-Directors of the Program:
Prof. Michael Ariens, J.D., Marquette University, LL.M., Harvard University. After graduating from law
school, Professor Ariens was a law clerk at the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and an associate in a
Washington, D.C. firm. In 1987 he joined St. Mary’s faculty and for over 25 years he has taught in areas
of Constitutional law, Church and state, American legal history, and Evidence. He also serves as the
Director of Faculty Scholarship at St. Mary’s School of Law. Prof. Ariens is a frequent teacher and
director of the Institute.
Prof. Chad Pomeroy, J.D., Brigham Young University. After graduating from law school in 2001,
Professor Pomeroy practiced law in Salt Lake City for 10 years. During that time, he did both litigation
and transactional work, focusing on real estate issues. He joined the St. Mary’s faculty in 2011 and has,
since that time, focused his teaching and research on business and property issues. He has taught in the
Innsbruck program twice and is co-directing for the first time this year.