Professor Lee Harris and prominent corporate law professors have submitted an Amici Brief in support of the Securities and Exchange Commission. To read the brief in its entirety, click here.

Legal Methods Adjunct Professor, Kevin Ritz, was appointed appellate chief for the civil section of the United States Attorney's Office on December 20, 2010. Read the complete release here.

Emeritus Professor, Dan S. Murrell, passed away on December 5, 2010. He will be greatly missed by many law school faculty, staff and alumni.

Professor Daniel Kiel published a guest column entitled, “We must learn from past educational failures,” in the December 10, 2010 edition of the Commercial Appeal.

Professor Lawrence A. Pivnick's article, "Offering Objectionable Evidence--Does an Adversary's Failure to Object Make the Practice Right" was recently published as the feature story in the December 2010 edition of the Tennessee Bar Journal.

Since July, publications by Professor and Herff Chair Andrew J. McClurg have appeared in nineteen different top ten downloads lists in specific subject areas on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN).

Professor and County Commissioner Steve Mulroy recently published article in the Tennessee Law Review became a Top Ten download for a topic-specific e-journal on the Social Science Research Network.

Professor Lee Harris has co-founded a speaker’s bureau and think tank called New Voices for Social Progress. Also, his latest article is now in print, Shareholder Campaign Funds: A Campaign Subsidy Scheme for Corporate Elections, 58 UCLA Law Review 167 (2010). Finally, Professor Harris has inked a contract with Lexis-Nexis to author his third book, CASES AND EXERCISES ON MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS. The book will be in print in 2013.

Alum and adjunct professor, the Hon. David S. Kennedy (JD ‘70) is celebrating 30 years on the bench this year. He was featured in a Commercial Appeal article.

Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Yolanda Ingram was a panelist The National Black Pre-Law Conference and Law School Recruitment Fair at the University of Houston. Dean Ingram participated on a panel addressing LSAT Achievement Gaps and The Law School Preparation Programs panel. 

Estelle Gaerig Winsett (JD ’93) has joined the law school family as Assistant Dean for Career Services. Dean Winsett was heavily involved in Moot Court as a student and has a vast background of legal experience, making her a great fit for the office. 

Chelsea Dubey has joined the law school Director of Special Events and Communication. Chelsea comes from the UM Alumni Association where she worked with the law alumni chapter. She’s the one to call when it comes to events, tours, publicity and the like.

Professor Janet Richards is chairing a workgroup appointed by the Tennessee Supreme Court to review Rule 40A dealing with guardian ad litem appointments in divorce cases. IN October, she also participated in a CLE panel at the Tennessee Judicial Conference and discussed, "The Import of the Tennessee Community Property Trust   Act of 2010.

Professor Daniel Kiel has been selected to represent the law school in the 2011 Scholar-Exchange Program.  Each year the law school partners with another law school to “exchange” rising scholars for reciprocal presentations.  The partner institution for 2011 will be the University of Tulsa Law School.  Kiel will travel there in the spring to present his new paper on educational reform in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Professor Chris Zawisza presented a series of training around the state during the summer months on behalf of the Administrative Office of the Courts on “Expert Witnesses in Juvenile Court” and “Cross Cultural Competence.  On October 1, she presented a CLE in Memphis, in conjunction with the 100th anniversary celebration of Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County.  The topic was “Basic Ethics Refresher for Juvenile Court Practice.”  She will present the same CLE in Nashville on December 17.  On December 16 she will participate as a trainer in the Administrative Office of the Courts “Train the Trainer” program.

Professor Donna Harkness had an article entitled The Credit Card Act of 2009: Welcome Relief or Too Little,Too Late for Vulnerable Seniors, that appeared in the September 2010 issue of the  Banking and Financial Serivces Policy Report, Vol. 29, No. 9.   Along with attorney King Self, of the Apperson, Crump law firm, Professor Harkness co-presented  the Memphis Bar Association CLE on Elder Law Issues in October. Finally, Professor Harkness was recertified as a Certified Elder Law Attorney this fall by the National Elder Law Foundation, effective through September, 2015. 

Several of our faculty and staff members celebrated milestone anniversaries at the University of Memphis. Here’s to another 10-20 years of service! Professor Ralph Brashier (20 years), Professor Steven Mulroy (10 years), Dorothy Colburn (20 years), Penny Kelly (20 years) and Sue Ann McClellan (15 years).

Dan Brown resigned from the law school as Business Officer earlier this fall to run for Bartlett Municipal Judge. We are proud to say Dan was elected to the bench.

Career Services Secretary Penny Kelly retired in October. Ms. Kelly plans to spend time with her family.

Professor and Herff Chair, Andrew J. McClurg, has co-authored (with Robert W. Bailey and Philip M. Gerson) a chapter titled Minimizing Medical Malpractice Exposure for the QUALITY, OUTCOMES AND SAFETY MANUAL, SOCIETY OF GASTROINTESTINAL & ENDOSCOPIC SURGEONS, which will be published in 2011.

Professor Ralph Brashier is the 2010 recipient of the University of Memphis Alumni Excellence in Legal Education Award.

In October, Professor Chris Zawisza will make a Continuing Legal Education presentation titled, “Basic Ethics Refresher for Juvenile Court Practice,” in Memphis as part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County.

In August, Professor Ralph Brashier served on a panel with Uniform Trust Code Reporter David English at the SEALS conference at the Breakers in Palm Beach. The panel discussed the impact of recent uniform law development on teaching trusts and estates.  Professor Brashier also presented his proposals for reforming inheritance statutes for half-blood relatives, which were recently considered by the Joint Law Commission when amending the Uniform Probate Code.

Visiting Professor Daniel Schaffzin’s co-authored article “Preaching to the Trier: Why Judicial Understanding of Law School Clinics is Essential to Continued Progress in Legal Education,” will be published in the CLINICAL LAW REVIEW, a peer-edited journal jointly sponsored by the New York University School of Law, the American Association of Law Schools, and the Clinical Legal Education Association. 

Professor Ralph Brashier’s article, “Policy, Perspective, and the Proxy Will,” was published in the SOUTH CAROLINA LAW REVIEW.  The article was “strongly recommended” in a review in the July 2010 issue of Trusts & Estates, a prominent periodical for estate planners

Professor and Herff Chair Andrew J. McClurg has received a contract from THOMSON-WEST to author a follow-up book to his highly successful 2009 book, “1L of a Ride: A Well-Traveled Professor’s Roadmap to Success in the First Year of Law School.”

Professor Brashier’s book, “Mastering Elder Law,” was published in March 2010 by the CAROLINA ACADEMIC PRESS.  Florida State University Law Professor Charlee Taylor, who has adopted the book for her elder law course, writes, “I LOVE this textbook!  It's clearly written, well-organized, and anticipates the reader's questions. My only concern is that I'll have nothing to add during class!”

Professor Lee Harris has entered into a contract with Lexis-Nexis to co-author a casebook on Mergers & Acquisitions with Professor William Sjostrom, University of Arizona School of Law.  Also, Harris’ recent study on corporate elections, “Missing in Activism,” was recently cited and discussed in an article in The Economist magazine.

Professor Lee Harris has co-founded a new speaker’s bureau/think tank called New Voices for Social Progress.

Professor Barbara Kritchevsky’s article, “Tort Law is State Law: Why Courts Should Distinguish State and Federal Law in Negligence-Per-Se Litigation,” has been accepted for publication in the AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW.  It will appear in Volume 60, due out in October 2010.

Professor Gene Shapiro’s article, “Miranda Warnings and Terry Stops: Another Perspective,” will appear in the Fall 2010 volume of the BARRY LAW REVIEW.

 In June, Professor Steven Mulroy gave a presentation on the recent Citizens United Supreme Court decision on campaign finance reform to the Public Issues Forum, a nonpartisan group dedicated to informing the public about policy issues.  The panel, held at the Benjamin Hooks Library, also featured Dr. Heather Price of the University of Memphis Political Science Department.  In July, Mulroy gave a CLE presentation on both the Citizens United case and “Recent Supreme Court Developments In Criminal Law and Procedure.”  The CLE event, held at the law school, was sponsored by the Law School Alumni Association, with proceeds to benefit both the Alumni Association and the Memphis Bar Association.

Professor Katharine T. Schaffzin’s article, “Out with the Old: An Argument for Restyling Archaic ‘Sacred Phrases’ Retained in the Proposed Amendments to the Federal Rules of Evidence,” will appear as the lead article in Volume 77, Issue 4 of the TENNESSEE LAW REVIEW.

Professor Lee Harris’s article, “Shareholder Campaign Funds: A Campaign Subsidy Scheme for Corporate Elections,” has been accepted for publication by the UCLA LAW REVIEW.  The article will appear in volume 58.

Professor Chris Zawisza’s 2010 got off to a busy start. In January, she presented a refresher ethics course in juvenile court practice in Nashville for the Administrative Office of the Courts.  Also, in January, she gave a presentation titled “Our Friend, The Lawyer, Say Whut?” at the LeBonheur Children’s Hospital/UT Health Sciences Center with Dr. Haavi Morreim. The presentation discussed opportunities for medical-legal partnerships. In February, Professor Zawisza taught the Legal Issues Seminar for student teachers at the University of Memphis School of Education.  In March, she initiated and served as faculty advisor to the Public Action Law Society’s Alternative Spring Break Project, in which fifteen University of Memphis law students traveled to Miami to assist Haitian residents in obtaining Temporary Protected Status after the earthquake struck Haiti.

In February, Professor Ernest Lidge spoke on the issue of standing to bring employment discrimination claims at the UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS LAW REVIEW symposium, “Labor and Employment Law Today: Evolution or Revolution.”  His article on the topic, “A Person Aggrieved: Who May Sue Under Title VII?,” will be published in the law review’s upcoming symposium issue.

In April, Professors Kate Schaffzin and Jodi Wilson will participate in and make presentations at the University of Kentucky College of Law’s Developing Ideas Conference, designed as a research incubator workshop for untenured or recently tenured law faculty.

Professor Ernest Lidge’s article, “Client’s Interest and a Lawyer’s Duty to Expedite Litigation: Does Model Rule  3.2 Impose any Independent Obligations?” 83 ST. JOHN'S LAW REVIEW 307 (Winter 2009), will be reprinted in the volume 59 of the DEFENSE LAW JOURNAL.

Scholarship by the University of Memphis law faculty continues to make a national impact.  In 2009, publications written by Memphis law professors were cited by more than a dozen federal and state courts and in 67 law journals and 26 books.

Professor Lynda Black has received the Professor of the Year award for 2009-10.  Representatives of the third-year class select the recipient each Spring.

Professor William Kratzke’s article, “Tax Subsidies, Third-Party Payments, and Cross-Subsidization: America’s Distorted Health Care Markets,” was published at 40 UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS LAW REVIEW 279-422 (2009).

Professor and Herff Chair Andrew J. McClurg’s article, “Fight Club: Doctors vs. Lawyers─A Peace Plan for America’s Most Prestigious, Antagonistic Professions,” has been accepted for publication by the TEMPLE LAW REVIEW.

Professor and Herff Chair Andrew J. McClurg received the University of Memphis’s 2009-10 Distinguished Teaching Award, one of four professors in the University to receive the award.

In March, Professor Steve Mulroy gave a presentation at the University of Mississippi School of Law as part of our Scholar Exchange Program titled “Open Meetings Acts: Constitutional and Policy Problems.”  (Professor Matthew Hall of Ole Miss gave a presentation at the University of Memphis in February as part of the same program.)  Also in March, Professor Mulroy moderated a panel discussion on “Green Tennessee” sponsored by the University of Memphis Papasan Policy Institute.  The 100-person forum was held at Legislative Plaza in Nashville, and attended by many state legislators and other state government officials.

In August 2010, Professor Kate Schaffzin will present her recent manuscript, “Out with the Old: An Argument for Restyling ‘Sacred Phrases’ Retained in the Proposed Amendments to the Federal Rules of Evidence,” at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools’s Workshop on Evidence in a panel discussion on proposed changes to the Federal Rules of Evidence.

Professor Daniel Kiel has been awarded a faculty research grant from the Benjamin Hooks Institute for Social Change.

In January, Professor Daniel Kiel presented a paper titled “It Takes a Hurricane: Might Hurricane Katrina Deliver for New Orleans Students What Brown Once Promised?” at the Association of American Law Schools annual meeting for the Section on Education Law.  Kiel’s piece was selected as part of a program entitled “Five Years After Katrina: Access to Education.”  Articles presented at the program will be subsequently published in the JOURNAL OF LAW AND EDUCATION.

In January, Professor Lee Harris participated in the Faculty Workshop Series at the University of Tulsa School of Law.  Harris spoke on “A Political Theory of Shareholder Activism and Its Implications,” an area of his current research.