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Willamette University
900 State Street
Salem, Oregon 97301
503-370-6014 voice
503-370-6153 fax
Willamette University will bid adieu to the Class of 2008 in four commencement ceremonies Sunday, May 11.
The College of Liberal Arts commencement begins at 3 p.m. on The Quad. The Atkinson Graduate School of Management ceremony is at 9:30 a.m. in Hudson Hall, and the College of Law commencement is at 11:30 a.m. on The Quad. The School of Education ceremony is at 11 a.m. in Smith Auditorium.
The College of Liberal Arts will honor 500 students with bachelor’s degrees. The College of Law will award 114 JD and LLM degrees, and the School of Education will award 101 MAT degrees. Atkinson will recognize 47 early career MBA graduates (18 professional MBA graduates were honored in January).
Helen Vendler, the A. Kingsley Porter University Professor at Harvard and a well-recognized poetry critic, will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters and deliver the CLA commencement address. The Honorable Wallace P. Carson Jr., former Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court and a 1962 College of Law graduate, will receive an honorary doctor of laws.
Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul DeMuniz, a 1975 College of Law graduate, will deliver the law commencement address, and Jack McGowan, recently retired executive director of SOLV, will speak at the Atkinson ceremony.
For more information on Willamette’s commencement activities, go to www.willamette.edu/events/commencement/.
Update: Jonathan Kozol, a longtime educator and social justice advocate who was scheduled to receive an honorary degree and speak at the School of Education commencement, has canceled his appearance due to medical reasons. The School of Education speaker will be Dean Nakanishi '98, MAT'00, who teaches in a special education academy near Seattle and has researched and lectured on the history of Salem Japanese-American students sent to internment camps during World War II.
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In 1912, the Carnegie Building opened as Salem’s first public library. The stately structure at the corner of State and Winter streets soon will return to its position as a prominent community resource through a series of renovations by the Willamette University College of Law.
The college recently received $300,000 in new foundation grants to help transform the building into the Oregon Civic Justice Center, which will house the college’s Clinical Law Program, the Oregon Law Commission, the Center for Law and Government and the Willamette Law Review.
“We will restore this magnificent building to its former elegance and glory,” said Symeon C. Symeonides, dean of the College of Law. “This is a unique project because it benefits the state, the city of Salem and the university, working in partnership.”
Several of the programs slated to move into the building are ones that connect the law school with the community and with the workings of the State Capitol, located across the street.
The Clinical Law Program provides free legal services to Marion and Polk county residents who cannot afford them, while giving students real-life experience in handling cases. The Oregon Law Commission is an independent state agency that works with the legislature to clarify Oregon laws. Willamette University funds 50 percent of the commission, and it is housed on campus. The Center for Law and Government conducts research and provides education opportunities for public and elected officials. Two of these programs already are endowed for a total of $5 million.
A $250,000 grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation and a $50,000 grant from the Ben B. Cheney Foundation recently were awarded to the college to help pay for renovations. These add to the $600,000 challenge grant the college received last winter from the Meyer Memorial Trust, contingent upon the school raising $1.8 million in construction funding. The new grants, along with a $700,000 award from the Collins Foundation, bring the college within $200,000 of that goal. The total projected cost of the renovation is $3.2 million.
Renovations are scheduled to begin next summer and will include reestablishing the integrity of the building, demolishing a swimming pool structure and constructing a new south entry for the building.
At the time the Carnegie Building was constructed, communities across the country raised money to build libraries through matching funds provided by Scottish-born philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Salem’s library cost $55,000 and included two-story windows, crown molding, hardwood floors and period detail.
The building served as the library until the early 1970s, when it was purchased and modified by the YWCA of Salem. Modifications included building a mezzanine around the top of the first floor, cutting down the lobby’s original openness and high ceilings. Willamette bought the building from the YWCA in October 2003, and renovation plans include removing the mezzanine.
Transforming the Carnegie Building will return an important landmark to Salem’s residents, Symeonides said.
“A lot of people I talk to who grew up in Salem are very attached to this building,” he said. “We are reclaiming the building to return it to the public.”
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Professor S. Allen Counter, director of The Harvard Foundation of Harvard University and a neurophysiologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, will deliver the College of Liberal Arts commencement address at Willamette University Sunday, May 14.
An honorary Doctor of Science degree will be awarded to Counter and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree will be awarded to philanthropist Catherine B. Reynolds, Los Angeles schoolteacher Rafe Esquith, and Columbia Sportswear Company chairwoman Gert Boyle.
Willamette University College of Law alumnus, the Honorable Wallace P. Carson Jr., will deliver the law commencement address.
Honorary degree recipient Catherine B. Reynolds will give the commencement address for the Atkinson Graduate School of Management.
The College of Liberal Arts will award 334 degrees, the College of Law 146, Atkinson Graduate School of Management 60 and the School of Education 94 degrees.
The College of Liberal Arts and the School of Education will hold commencement at 3 p.m. on the Quad; Atkinson commencement is 9 a.m. in Hudson Hall, and the College of Law commencement is at 11:30 a.m. on the Quad.
CLA Commencement
For more than 20 years, commencement speaker Counter has engaged students at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School. As a neurophysiologist, he conducts both clinical and basic research studies on nerve and muscle physiology, auditory physiology, and neurophysiological diagnosis of brain-injured children and adults. His latest research focuses on toxic lead and mercury exposure in Ecuadorian children.
He is the first and only director of the Harvard Foundation for intercultural and race relations. The Foundation programs and mission have been replicated at universities across the country. His work through the Foundation earned him the distinguished NAACP Image Award in 1989. In 1994, the National Medical Association awarded Counter the Hall of Fame Award honoring his achievements in medicine.
He has published extensively in both cultural and scientific journals, including National Geographic and Scientific American. He has appeared on local and national television promoting scientific literacy of young people. He continues to work in the areas of ethics in science and technology, nature conservation, and human rights at the international level. He is presently co-host of EcoForum, a nationally televised program on earth conservation.
Law Commencement
Carson joined the Oregon Supreme Court in 1982 and was Chief Justice from 1991-05. Prior to joining the Supreme Court, he served as a judge for Marion County Circuit Court from 1977-82. He graduated from Stanford University in 1956 and Willamette University College of Law in 1962.
Atkinson Commencement
Reynolds created a new and affordable way for Americans to finance a college education. She developed a privately funded alternative to government student loan programs that has enabled hundreds of thousands of Americans to attend college. In only 10 years, this approach to private educational financing revolutionized student lending and spawned a multibillion-dollar industry of 65 lenders offering more than 200 financial products.
She is the creator and chairman of the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation, one of the largest foundations in the nation. In 2004, Reynolds was selected by Business Week as one of the 50 most philanthropic living Americans and the first self-made woman ever to make their list. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University.
Honorary Degree Recipients
Rafe Esquith introduces Shakespeare’s masterpieces to inner city fifth graders at Hobart Boulevard Elementary School in central Los Angeles. He molds his students into latter-day Renaissance scholars and shows them a world outside their neglected neighborhoods. His students spend an entire year studying and rehearsing one play and then perform it at Shakespeare festivals across the county. By any measure, these student actors, many of whom speak English as their second language, have been wildly successful including opening for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
As a result of his commitment to his students both inside and outside the classroom, Esquith’s students consistently score in the top 5 to 10 percent nationally in standardized tests and many of his students have moved onto college and law school.
Esquith has received several accolades for this dedication including the Walt Disney American Teacher Award for National Teacher of the Year and Oprah Winfrey’s $100,000 Use Your Life Award. He used his award money to create a charitable fund at his school. He is currently working with the NEA to help put Shakespeare in 10,000 American classrooms.
Gertrude Boyle is the matriarch and chairwoman of the board of the international outdoor apparel and footwear manufacturer Columbia Sportswear Company. Hailed by Working Woman magazine as one of America’s Top 50 Women Business Owners – and named one of 1994’s “Best Managers” by Business Week – Boyle is the center of Columbia’s irreverent, award-winning advertising campaign. She portrays cantankerous “Mother Boyle,” the stern taskmaster who enforces Columbia’s demanding quality standards.
Since Boyle and her son Tim began managing the company, Columbia Sportswear has gone from near bankruptcy to become one of the world’s largest outerwear manufacturers and the leading seller of skiwear in the United States. Columbia’s sales have soared from $12.9 million in 1984 to $1.1 billion in 2004, and the company continues to forge ahead with product diversification and innovation.
Throughout her career, Boyle has been a leader in the Portland community. She has received many honors recognizing her business savvy and philanthropic endeavors. Most recently she received Oregon’s prestigious First Citizen Award in 2005.
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Correction (12/15/05): Eisenberg is scheduled to teach several upper-level courses covering a range of securities issues, including securities regulation and corporate governance.
Meyer Eisenberg, deputy general counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), recently announced that he will retire from the SEC in January and join the Willamette University College of Law faculty as a visiting professor of law.
Eisenberg will join the College of Law beginning with the spring 2006 semester. He is scheduled to teach a number of upper-level courses, including Securities Regulation and Banking & Finance Law.
“We are delighted to have Professor Eisenberg join our faculty,” said Willamette University College of Law Dean Symeon C. Symeonides. “He brings tremendous, front-line experience and sophistication to the classroom, having handled some of the most complex, high-profile cases of the decade at one of the most important regulatory institutions in the country. We look forward to learning from him.”
Eisenberg has served as deputy general counsel of the SEC since December 1998. He previously worked at the Commission from 1959-70 and worked in private practice from 1970-98. He was director of the National Center on Financial Services and visiting professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley from 1985-86. He also served as adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University from 1988-90.
Eisenberg earned his law degree from Columbia University and his undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He was law clerk to Chief Justice William M. McAllister of the Oregon Supreme from 1958-59.
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The Honorable Margaret H. Marshall, chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, will present the Willamette University College of Law 2005 John C. Paulus Lecture on Monday, October 17, 2005. The subject of her presentation will be “Justice in Jeopardy: Whither Judicial Independence.”
Appointed to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in 1999, Marshall is the court’s first female chief justice. Born and raised in South Africa, she obtained her B.A. in 1966 from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. She went on to earn a master’s degree in education from Harvard University and law degree from Yale Law School. In 1992, Marshall was appointed vice president and general counsel of Harvard University; she was the first woman to hold the position.
Marshall will speak at 4:00 p.m. in the John C. Paulus Great Hall, room 201, of the award-winning Truman Wesley Collins Legal Center, which houses the College of Law. This event is free and open to the public.
Marshall ’s presentation is the final lecture in the College of Law’s 10th Annual Speaker Series. In addition to Marshall’s talk, the series has included lectures by Bruce Botelho, mayor of Juneau, Alaska, and Edith Brown Weiss, chair of the inspection panel of the World Bank.
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Edith Brown Weiss, professor of international law, Georgetown University Law Center, will discuss Compliance, Accountability, and International Financial Institutions: Listening to the Poor Tuesday, March 8, at 4 p.m. in Room 218 at the College of Law at Willamette University.
Her lecture, which is free and open to the public, is the second of three lectures in the College’s Annual Speakers Series.
A native of Salem, Weiss obtained an undergraduate degree from Stanford, a law degree from Harvard and a Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley. She is the Francis Cabell Brown Professor of International Law at Georgetown University Law Center and is currently on leave to serve as the chair of the Inspection Panel of the World Bank. Weiss, a former president of the American Society of International Law, is a member of the board of editors of the American Journal of International Law and more than six other journals, particularly in the field of environmental law.
Her broad professional experience includes positions as associate general counsel for International Activities at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and professor of civil engineering and politics at Princeton University. She is the author of numerous articles in international and environmental law as well as the author of several books, including In Fairness to Future Generations: International Law, Common Patrimony, and Intergenerational Equity (1989) which received the Certificate of Merit Award in 1990 from the American Society of International Law and has been published in French, Japanese, Spanish and Chinese.
In 1995, she won the Elizabeth Haub Prize for International Environmental Law given by the Free University of Brussels and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, and in August 2002, the American Bar Association’s Individual Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy. She received an Honorary LL.D. from the Chicago Kent College of Law.
For further information, call 503-370-6877 or Email: cstrum@willamette.edu.
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Sports violence, the politics and funding of major league baseball, labor issues in sports, and negotiating contracts for some of the most highly paid athletes in the country are a few of the topics to be covered in the Sports Law Conference schedule for Oct. 10 at the Multnomah Athletic Club in Portland. The conference, sponsored by the Willamette University College of Law (WUCL), runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. and concludes with a reception.
The registration fee before Sept. 25 is $100 for general admission and $25 for students. After Sept. 25, the fee is $125 and $50. To register by phone, call 503-370-6877 or by email contact dlohof@willamette.edu.
The conference sessions and their presenters are:
Conference speakers are: Alvin Attles, vice president and assistant general manager of the Golden State Warriors, has witnessed it all as a player, coach and executive, including the magical 1974-75 championship season. Attles' stint with the same team represents the second-longest active streak in the NBA. The 66-year-old Attles joined the Warriors in 1960 and has since been affiliated with the club in one capacity or another, building a unique relationship based on commitment, loyalty and dedication. A native of Newark, N.J., Attles was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1993, into the New Jersey Sports Hall of Fame in 1996 and the New Jersey Sportswriters Hall of Fame in 1991.
Gilbert P. Carrasco, professor of law at Willamette, is an expert in civil rights law, immigration law and constitutional law. He is the author of three national casebooks on these subjects and numerous law review articles. Carrasco gathered a wealth of practical experience in civil rights litigation in Washington, D.C., where he served in the U.S. Department of Justice. Carrasco teaches Civil Rights, State and Local Government Law and Legislative Process at Willamette.
Cara Frey, an associate in the Portland office of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, focuses on corporate and sports law issues. Frey, a former college basketball player at Harvard, was the director of client relations for Intersport Management where she managed and coordinated recruitment of professional basketball players, international and domestic placement of players, negotiation of players' contracts with the WNBA, ABL and international teams and the negotiation of players' endorsement agreements.
William B. Gould IV joined the faculty of Willamette in the fall of 2002 as the William M. Ramsey Distinguished Professor of Law. In 1994, Gould was appointed by President Clinton to a four-year term as chairman of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), one of only three academics to ever serve in that position. Gould is a prolific author of books and articles on labor law and employment discrimination law, as well as shorter essays on sports law and baseball. Gould is currently at work on a book about baseball and how the sport has changed over the last 60 years.
Stephen Kanter is professor at Lewis and Clark Northwestern School of Law. He served as dean from 1986-94. His areas of specialty include constitutional and criminal law. He helped Kazakhstan write a new constitution for independence from the Soviet Union. He is working to bring Major League Baseball to Portland as president of the Portland Baseball Group, and is a member of the executive committee of the Oregon Stadium Campaign (a coalition including the Portland Baseball Group and the Oregon Sports Authority.)
Paul Loving is of counsel in the Portland office of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. His practice focuses on structuring, negotiating and drafting domestic and international sports marketing, sponsorship, endorsement, strategic partnership and licensing agreements. He is outside sports marketing counsel for Adidas America. He was formerly assistant general counsel at NIKE. Loving has taught sports law at the Willamette and sports marketing at the Portland State University School of Marketing.
Drew Mahalic is the chair of the National Association of Sports Commissions and is in his eighth year as CEO of the Oregon Sports Authority, a non-profit organization with a mission to make the state of Oregon a world-class sports destination. Mahalic was a three-year starting linebacker and All-American at Notre Dame, graduating in 1975. He played five years in the NFL with the San Diego Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles. In 1983, Mahalic became the first NFL veteran to earn a degree from Harvard Law School, and he published a major legal article on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination.
James A.R. Nafziger is the Thomas B. Stoel Professor of Law and Director of International Programs at Willamette. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Nafziger is president of the American Branch of the International Law Association and treasurer of the American Society of Comparative Law. He also serves as vice president of the International Association of Sports Law. Nafziger is a lecturer and legal consultant worldwide, having worked, for example, on projects with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration. He writes extensively in the fields of international law and dispute resolution, international business transactions, immigration and refugee law, comparative law, conflict of laws and sports law. Nafziger is currently working on a second edition of his book, “International Sports Law.”
Steve Patterson is president of the Portland Trailblazers. He has also served as senior vice president and chief development officer of the Houston Texans, Houston's new NFL team. He also served as president, general manager and governor of the Houston Aeros of the International Hockey League. Patterson was also president and partner of Arena Operating Company, which manages and operates Compaq Center, Houston's premier sports and entertainment facility. Patterson joined Aeros following a nine-year stint with the NBA's Houston Rockets during which he was the chief architect of the 1993-94 Rockets first World Championship. In 1992, he negotiated, produced and promoted the NBA's first games in Mexico. Patterson sits on the boards of the Texas Special Olympics and the Sam Houston Area Boy Scouts.
Geoff Petrie, a two-time NBA Executive of the Year award winner, is the key figure behind the resurrection of the Sacramento Kings. Petrie inherited a Kings team in 1994 that had not advanced to the postseason in eight years. In his second season, Petrie's 1995-96 squad qualified for the NBA Playoffs. Petrie oversees all aspects of the Kings' basketball operations department, including the coaching and scouting staffs, team negotiations and player acquisitions. Petrie was the first-ever selection of the Portland Trailblazers in the 1970 NBA draft (#8 overall). Petrie's scoring average remains the highest ever by a Portland rookie.
Dean M. Richardson, professor of law at Willamette, served as legal counsel to the Rochester, N.Y., Urban Renewal Agency from 1970-72 and was a partner with Wood, Richardson and O'Bryne in 1973-74. He joined Willamette in 1974 and was an NEH Fellow at Harvard Law School during 1980. He helps direct the school's tutorial and minority affairs programs and speaks on racial discrimination issues. Richardson introduced the first Sports Law course into Willamette's curriculum nearly 20 years ago. He acts as faculty advisor to Willamette's Sports Law Society. Richardson played college football at both Penn State and the University of Rochester.
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Neil E. Harl, the Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture and a professor of economics at Iowa State University, will present the John C. Paulus Lecture “Biotechnology: Global Economic Issues--Genetically Modified Crops and Food Labeling” Monday, April 14, at 5 p.m. at the Collins Legal Center, Room 201, Willamette University College of Law.
Co-sponsored by the Estate Planning and Administration Law Sections of the Oregon State Bar and Oregon State University College of Agriculture, the lecture is free and open to the public.
Harl, a member of the Iowa Bar, is also director of the Center for International Agricultural Finance, which conducts training principally for professionals from Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and China.
Harl has served as president of the American Agricultural Economics Association and president of the American Agricultural Economics Foundation. He has been named a Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association and was an organizer and first president of the American Agricultural Law Association. He has received more than 30 major awards for his distinguished work.
Harl served for seven years by congressional appointment in the Office of Technology Assessment, Technical Assistance Advisory Committee, and chaired that group in 1993-94. From 1981-86, he served on the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges Biotechnology Committee; from 2000-03 he served on the National Advisory Committee on Agricultural Biotechnology and this year is a member of the National Payment Limitation Commission.
He has published 27 books including the 15-volume treatise, “Agricultural Law, Agricultural Law Manual”; 15 editions of "Farm Estate and Business Planning, The Law of the Land and Principles of Agricultural Law" and co-authored more than 350 professional articles and bulletins and more than 850 articles in farm and financial publications.
For further information, call 503-370-6877.
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Willamette University College of Law, led by Karolyn R. Klohe ’03 and S. Aaron Young ’04, won the National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition in New York on February 22. Willamette defeated Louisiana State University and Drake University in the final round. In a rare accomplishment, Willamette’s team earlier captured the Best Brief award, as well, which was co-authored by Deborah Dunn ‘03. Professor Susan S. Smith was the team’s coach. Willamette’s victory takes the national championship trophy from Lewis and Clark Law School, the winner of the 2002 competition.
The 15th Annual National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition was held at Pace University School of Law in White Plains, New York. The competition, which begun in 1989, today draws more than 200 competitors from a diverse group of law schools. More than 200 attorneys serve as judges for three days of oral arguments, creating a rigorous academic experience for student participants. The Pace-sponsored competition is recognized as the preeminent environmental law moot court competition in the United States. The competition is distinctive in that three adverse teams argue the issues. It mirrors the reality of environmental litigation that often involves multiple parties—the government, a public interest group and a member of the regulated industry.
This year’s competition centered on the Federal Clean Water Act and the discharge of polluted wastewater from a mining operation. Previous legal problems have included vicarious criminal liability of corporate offices for their company’s environmental crimes and commerce clause limits on water pollution regulation.
Teams wrote and filed briefs for their respective parties in early December, hoping for a place in the oral phase of the competition in New York. Those with the highest combined scores for both the written brief and oral argument advanced to succeeding rounds. Klohe and Young faced a judging panel comprising a judge from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, a judge from the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, and a judge from the Environmental Appellate Board.
In addition to Lewis & Clark, recent winners of the competition include the University of California, Berkeley in 2001 and the University of Texas, Austin in 2000. In 2002, the University of Washington, Seattle won Best Brief. Yale University won in 2001 and Vermont Law School won Best Brief in 2000.
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The 11th annual auction for Willamette University’s Public Interest Law Project (WUPILP) will be held at Cascade Hall, Oregon State Fairgrounds, Saturday, March 15th. While donations are encouraged, the auction is free and open to the public. Wine glasses for the wine tasting are $9 at the door. Doors open at 6:30 pm and the auction begins at 8 p.m.
The Oregon State Fairgrounds is located on the corner of Sunnyview Road and 17th St. at 2330 17th Street NE Salem. To reach Cascade Hall, participants should use the parking lot entrance located on Sunnyview Road.
Auction items include season ski lift passes, gym memberships, a weekend at Sun River, Lincoln City vacation discounts, the use of a vacation home for the weekend in the Tillamook forest, student-donated work hours, a singing telegram, and Spanish lessons.
WUPILP’s mission is to educate and prepare future public interest lawyers for work in public service positions. The Auction supports the Summer Fellowship Program which provides funds for law students who work for non-profit organizations during the summer. The program assists people who cannot afford legal council, defends at-risk youth and those victimized by domestic violence, child abuse and homelessness. Last year’s auction funded four fellowship positions to help serve the Salem community.
For more information, contact Kelly E. Holmes, WUPILP co-chair, at 503-370-6434.
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The Willamette University College of Law Eighth Annual Speaker Series presents Leonel Pereznieto Castro, professor, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and member of the Mexico City Bar.
He will discuss “The Influence of U.S. Law in Mexico as a Result of NAFTA” on Tuesday, March 18, at 3 p.m. in Collins Legal Center, John C. Paulus Great Hall, College of Law.
The lecture is free and open to the public.
Castro is a member of the Mexican Bar Association; Consulting Commission on Private International Law of the Ministry of Foreign Relations; international arbitrator at the American Arbitration Association; member of the Mexican Arbitral Commission Section of the International Chamber of Commerce; member of the London Court of International Arbitrators and member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators; former president of the Mexican Academy of Private and Comparative Law; former president of the Texas-Mexico Bar Association and former commissioner of the Mexican Antitrust Commission.
His areas of practice include international, foreign investment, antitrust, international arbitration and government procurement law.
He obtained his law degree from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, his master’s degrees from Escuela Nacional de Administraci¢n Publica, Spain, and from the Institut International d'Administration Publique, France, and his doctorate from Paris University.
He is a professor of private international law at U.N.A.M.; professor of antitrust law at the Instituto Tecnologico Aut¢nomo de Mexico; and lecturer on arbitration at the Escuela Libre de Derecho.
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Symeon C. Symeonides, dean of the School of Law At Willamette University, has been awarded the first Friedrich K. Juenger Prize in Private International Law for his article "Choice of Law in the American Courts in 2000: As the Century Turns" published in the American Journal of Comparative Law.
The prize was established in 2001 by the American Society of Comparative Law in honor of its late former president Juenger, a long-time professor of the University of California and one of the top private international law scholars in the world. Symeonides is the first recipient of this prize.
Symeonides donated the $1,500 prize to the Fund for Faculty Excellence at the College of Law.
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The Peterson Family Foundation, established by Ken and Claudia Peterson, has donated a $2 million endowed gift to the Willamette University College of Law to establish The Willamette Center for Law and Government. It is the largest single gift from an alumnus in the 119-year history of the law school.
"I have expressed to Ken and Claudia our deepest gratitude for believing in our vision for a center of excellence and for investing in its future,” said College of Law Dean Symeon Symeonides. “They personify the Willamette motto `not unto ourselves alone are we born.’ I am also full of admiration for Ken's meteoric success as a Willamette alumnus, a success that is based solely on hard, honest work and perseverance. His investment in his alma mater reinforces his role as a model for future generations of Willamette students."
Peterson, raised in Hermiston, Oregon, and now a resident of Camas, WA., graduated from the College of Law in 1980. His wife was born and raised in Salem. Ken is CEO of Columbia Ventures Corporation, a private entrepreneurial investment company located in Vancouver, WA., with domestic and international operations primarily in the aluminum and telecommunication industries.
Peterson said, "Given Willamette's proximity to the state capitol and the historic relationship with state government, I thought something with an emphasis on that relationship was particularly relevant. I believe the Center will provide an additional avenue for students to learn about our unique American system of limited government and what makes it so precious in the struggle to maintain liberty in a world that has so often been hostile to freedom."
Symeonides said the center will administer a specialization program in law and government to train students to work effectively in and with government at the national, state, and local levels and provide an impartial forum for the study, discussion and improvement of public policy and the role of government.
The dean added, “The center will also sponsor scholarly research and publications, conferences, distinguished visitors, and a national essay competition on the 10th Amendment which stresses that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The 10th Amendment is of particular interest to Ken Peterson.
“My honors thesis for my bachelor's degree was about liberty and its importance, so you can see it is a topic I have been interested in for a long time,” Peterson said. “I have both participated in and observed government and how the law interacts. I have come to an even greater appreciation for the special genius of the American Constitution and the system of government it set up. I have become more and more concerned about whether and to what extent this system remains as vigilant on behalf of liberty as it once was. The bottom line is that I want to do what I can to help make sure our special American system of government remains vibrant and is one of those things that will be passed along to my children and their children for generations to come.”
The Center for Law and Government is one of three new centers of excellence at Willamette. As funding permits, it will be complemented by the Center for Law and Business and the Center for International and Comparative Legal Studies. These three new programs will be modeled after the existing program in Dispute Resolution, which is ranked among the top five such programs in the country.
“Ken Peterson is an astute and successful entrepreneur,” said Willamette University President Lee Pelton. “The reputation of our College of Law is clearly enhanced when a man with Ken’s level of business acumen commits to this level of investment in Willamette. We are all touched by his and by Claudia’s generosity.”
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At its recent annual meeting in Brisbane, Australia, The American Society of Comparative Law elected David S. Clark president for the next two years. Clark was recently hired as the first Maynard and Bertha Wilson Professor of Law at Willamette University.
The American Society of Comparative Law, founded in 1951, consists of 100 U.S. law schools as well as a few law schools in foreign countries. In recent years, it has become the world’s most recognized organization for supporting and communicating research about foreign and comparative law.
“The United States has an important role to play in continuing global trade, environmental cooperation, and the development of human rights norms,” said President Clark. “Moreover, the spread of dispute resolution skills across cultural divides has never been more important. Legal scholars working with their foreign colleagues develop the ideas that governments later utilize.”
Clark has taught in Europe, Latin America, and Asia and published 10 books and more than 50 articles on comparative law, procedure, courts, and law and society, which track his teaching areas. He recently finalized plans for Willamette's newest foreign study program at the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, which this fall semester will have five Willamette students in residence. This is the largest contingent of any American law school.
“This demonstrates how well our commitment to globalize the law curriculum is paying off,” said Symeon Symeonides, dean at the College of Law. “We have several members of the Willamette law faculty who are actively involved in foreign and international law. Our students benefit by using these opportunities to prepare for the growing global practice of law. Within the international law community and among law schools around the country, Willamette is highly regarded.”
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Willamette University College of Law Dean Symeon C. Symeonides will deliver the prestigious lectures in Private International Law at the Academy of International Law at the Peace Palace at The Hague, July 8-12. This is the highest international recognition bestowed on a scholar in this field. During the 78 years of the Academy's existence, only 17 American scholars have been invited to lecture on private international law. Symeonides is the 18th.
The annual lectures were established when the Academy was created in 1923 through a grant from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Lecture attendees include diplomats, judges, law professors, and attorneys from all over the world. The Academy’s Curatorium selects the lecturers on the basis of their publications and other accomplishments.
Each lecturer is required to produce an original monograph reflecting the content of his or her lectures. The book is published by the Academy in the Recueil des Cours, a collection that is read widely around the world. Symeonides' book, which is entitled "Choice of Law in the American Courts," is a study of the conflict-of-law decisions of all American courts in the last 30 years.
Symeonides began his teaching career in 1976 at the University Thessaloniki, Greece. In 1978, he joined the faculty at Louisiana State University Law Center, where he became the Judge Albert Tate Professor of Law (1987) and vice chancellor (1991-97).
In January 1999, he was nominated for the Boyd University Professorship, the highest distinction in the LSU System, which he declined in order to assume the deanship at Willamette. He has lectured widely at several European and American universities and has taught at Tulane, Loyola (New Orleans), Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium), and the Universities of Paris-V and Aix-en-Provence (France).
Symeonides is a titular member of the International Academy of Comparative Law; secretary of the American Society of Comparative Law; former president of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Conflict of Laws; and a member of the Order of the Coif; the American Law Institute; the Oregon Law Commission; the Louisiana State Law Institute; and the Bartolus Society.
He is also a member of the Board of Editors of the American Journal of Comparative Law; the Electronic Journal of Comparative Law (Netherlands); the International Yearbook of Private International Law (Switzerland), and a scholarly consultant for the 8th edition of Black's Law Dictionary.
Symeonides has authored or co-authored more than 70 publications. In 1999, he was recognized by an unprecedented Resolution of Appreciation of the Association of American Law Schools Section of Conflict of Laws, which praised him for his "enormously influential" publications which "have proved extraordinarily helpful to the members of the Section, other academics, the Bench and the practicing bar."
In 2000, the Louisiana Law Review published “A Tribute to Symeon C. Symeonides,” a collection of 26 essays authored by prominent American and foreign academics honoring him for his contributions to the development of comparative law, conflicts law, and civil law.
Symeonides has been active in law reform, having drafted Book IV of the Louisiana Civil Code on Conflict of Laws, the new law of leases for the same state, and a Draft Code of Private International Law for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. He has also provided legislative advice to the governments of the Russian Federation, Estonia, and Tunisia. Currently he is involved in a project to codify Oregon's conflicts law under the auspices of the Oregon Law Commission. His teaches Conflict of Laws, Comparative Law, International Litigation, and Property.
He received his S.J.D. and LL.M. from Harvard University Law School; his LL.B. (Public Law) from Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki Law School, Greece; and an LL.B. (Private Law) also from Aristotelian University.
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William K. Suter, clerk of the U.S. Supreme Court, will discuss “Today's Supreme Court” Tuesday, April 9, at 7:30 p.m. at the Willamette University College of Law, Paulus Lecture Hall, Room 201. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Suter, a retired U.S. Army major general, became clerk of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991. Previously he was the assistant judge advocate general of the Army and chief judge of the U.S. Army Court of Military Review and commander of the U.S. Army Legal Services Agency.
He received his undergraduate degree at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, and his J.D. from Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans, La. He completed his graduate law program at the Judge Advocate General's School, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.
His lecture is the final in the College of Law annual speaker series for 2002.
For more information, call 503-370-6877.
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Ted McDorman, professor of law at the University of Victoria, will discuss “Whatever Happened to the Law of the Sea Treaty? Ocean Law in the 21st Century” Tuesday, March 12, at 7:30 p.m. at the Collins Legal Center, Paulus Hall, Room 201, Willamette University College of Law.
The lecture is free and open to the public.
McDorman joined the University of Victoria (British Columbia) faculty in 1985. In addition to teaching international law, he has taught Canadian constitutional law, Canadian environmental law and comparative Asian law. He has a cross-appointment with the Department of Geography and is an associate of the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives.McDorman has been a visiting professor at institutions in Thailand, Sweden, the Netherlands and Canada. He has more than 80 publication credits in the areas of ocean law and policy, international trade law and comparative constitutional law. Since 2000 he has been the editor-in-chief of Ocean Development and International Law: The Journal of Marine Affairs.
In recent years he has undertaken several projects for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In 2001 McDorman was an invited lecturer at The Hague Academy of International Law External Programme held in Manila.
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Charles J. Ogletree Jr., the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law at Harvard University, will present the John C. Paulus Lecture Tuesday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the Collins Legal Center, Paulus Hall, Room 201, at the Willamette University College of Law, Salem.
His topic is “With Liberty and Justice For All? Reparations and Immigration in America.” The event is free and open to the public.
Ogletree earned his master's and bachelor's degrees in political science from Stanford University and holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is co-author of the award-winning book, “Beyond the Rodney King Story: An Investigation of Police Conduct in Minority Communities.” He regularly contributes to the Harvard Law Review, among other publications.In 2000, the National Law Journal selected Ogletree as one of the “100 Most Influential Lawyers in America”. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the People's Lawyer of the Year Award from the National Conference on Black Lawyers, the Man of Vision Award from the Museum of Afro-American History in Boston, and the Albert Sacks-Paul A. Freund Award for Teaching Excellence at Harvard Law School. Twice during the 2001-02 school year, he visited the University of Oregon as the annual Wayne Morse Chair of Law and Politics.
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The Willamette Law Review and the Willamette University College of Law will present a "Symposium on Education and the Law" March 2 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the College in Salem. The keynote address will be given by Lee C. Bollinger, president elect of Columbia University and former president of the University of Michigan.
The symposium will address current legal and policy issues related to education in the United States. Panel topics include student privacy rights, school vouchers and charter schools. Also Rep. Janet Carlson, who served on the State Interagency Coordinating Council on Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education and the State Commission on Children and Families, will give an update on 2001 legislative issues in education as well as expectations for the 2003 legislative session.
The first panel on school voucher programs and constitutional concerns will focus on school voucher movements and their propriety under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Panelists include:
The moderator for this panel is: Claudia Burton, professor of law emeritus, Willamette University College of Law.
The focus of the second panel is charter school movements and legal relationships between such schools and governmental entities. Particular attention will be given to issues involving accountability of the charter school to local authorities, control of the charter school by state and local authorities, and funding of the charter school by all levels of government. Panelists include:
The moderator for this panel is Leroy J. Tornquist, professor of law, Willamette University College of Law.
The focus of the third panel is student privacy rights. Drug testing of high school athletes and non-athletes and punishment for students for out-of-school speech and conduct will be covered. Panelists include:
The moderator for this panel is Gilbert P. Carrasco, professor of law, Willamette University College of Law.
Richard L. Biffle III, director of the School of Education at Willamette University School of Education, will give closing remarks.Symposium fees are $60 for attorneys, $20 for judges, $30 for students and non-attorneys. Willamette University students are admitted free. For more information or to register, please contact Andrea Whalen at 503-375-5435.
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More than 100 distinguished international and comparative law experts will gather at the Truman Wesley Collins Legal Center of Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Ore., Oct. 5-6, for the 50th anniversary meeting of the American Society of Comparative Law.
Presenters will include prominent international faculty from the London School of Economics, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Mexican Comparative Law Academy as well as distinguished faculty from Harvard, Berkley, the University of Southern California, Washington, Rutgers, St. Louis, Connecticut, New York University and Stanford law schools.
The Friday, Oct. 5, all-day symposium, which begins at 8:30 a.m. at the Willamette University College of Law, room 201, is free and open to the public. Seating is limited. To make a reservation or for more information, call Diane Lohof at 503-370-6877 or dlohof@willamette.edu.
The American Society of Comparative Law was founded in 1951 for the purpose of "promoting the study, understanding, research and writing on foreign and comparative law in the United States." Three of the Society's five officers are Willamette University College of Law professors. They include Symeon C. Symeonides, dean of the College of Law; James A. R. Nafziger, Thomas B. Stoel professor of law; and Professor David S. Clark, who will join the Willamette faculty next spring as the first holder of the Maynard and Bertha Wilson Endowed Professorship.
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Willamette University's Public Policy Research Center will sponsor a policy forum entitled "Initiatives and Mandates: The Status of Measure 7 and "Takings' in Oregon" on Wednesday, April 18, 2001, from 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. in the Hatfield Room, 2nd Floor - Hatfield Library. The forum will feature two panel discussions: "The Rationale for "Takings' Policies" at 1:30 p.m. and the "The Future of Measure 7" at 3:00 p.m.
The passage of Measure 7 has become a catalyst for debate about land use regulation, property rights, environmental protection and quality of life issues for all Oregonians. The purpose of this forum is to engage the general public, the capitol community and the campus community in a dialogue beyond the pros and cons of the measure.
The forum aims to place the passage of Measure 7 in context with "takings' policies within and beyond Oregon, to explore the rationale behind "takings' policies and to look at alternative policy options. The forum will also provide up-to-date information on the status of Measure 7 and legal and legislative responses to the measure and offer differing perspectives on the future impact of the measure for local and municipal governments, individual property owners and for Oregon as a whole. The panelists will include representatives of grassroots land use, property rights and environmental advocacy groups, legal and legislative experts, researchers, and urban and rural policy makers.
This forum is free and open to the public. For a tentative schedule, visit the Public Policy Research Center web site or contact Carol Freedman.
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Willamette University College of Law Prof. James Nafziger was elected to a two-year term as president of the International Law Association - American Branch. This election recognizes Nafziger's distinguished career in international law and his multiple contributions to the advancement of the field.
The International Law Association, with several thousand worldwide members, has over 40 national branches, of which the American Branch is the largest branch. Prior to his presidential election, Nafziger held positions in the organization as director of studies and vice president.
The International Law Association was founded in 1873 and is considered the preeminent non-governmental organization devoted to the development of international law. It has a consultative status in the United Nations and drafts resolutions, model treaties, and other documents which often influence the development of international law. Its current agenda includes some 25 projects involving committees of experts from around the world. Last July, the Association had its annual meeting in London. The meeting opened in Westminster Hall and included a reception hosted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Nafziger has also recently been appointed as a member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, one of the world's most prestigious international legal organizations. The Academy, founded at The Hague in 1924, plays an important role in stimulating research in comparative law throughout the world.
Nafziger has taught international and comparative law at Willamette for 23 years.
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Willamette University College of Law Dean Symeon Symeonides was elected as a titular, or life, member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, one of the world's most prestigious international legal organizations.
The Academy has 70 titular members worldwide, with seven from the United States including Symeonides. The other six U.S. members are from Harvard, Columbia, University of Michigan, University of California at Davis and University of California at Berkeley.
The Academy, founded at The Hague in 1924, plays an important role in stimulating research in comparative law throughout the world. As part of this role, the Academy holds an International Congress of Comparative Law every fours years. Symeonides, dean of the College of Law since July of 1999, will be a presenter at the upcoming conference in Brisbane, Australia, in 2002.
In addition to becoming a titular member of the Academy, Symeonides has also recently been re-elected for a record fourth time as secretary of the American Society of Comparative Law. The Society used to limit officers to two two-year terms. However, the Society amended its by-laws so as to permit Symeonides to be re-elected a third and, most recently, a fourth term.
The American Society of Comparative Law will hold its 2001 annual meeting at Willamette University College of Law. As many as 70 professors of comparative law from throughout the United States and abroad will be attending this meeting on Oct. 11-13, 2001.
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Willamette University's Public Policy Research Center and the Office of Governor John Kitzhaber present "The Internet and Oregon's Future" on Wednesday, Oct. 18 from 9:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. in the Hatfield Room of the Mark O. Hatfield Library. The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited.
The forum will consist of three sessions, each a discussion of a particular aspect of the relationship between the growth of the Internet and the future of policy. Each session will be run by a moderator who will foster conversation among a panel of professionals. Panelists include Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, Intel Vice President Jim Johnson, representatives from a range of private and public sector organizations, and Willamette University faculty, including David Douglass, professor of rhetoric and media studies, and Alan Eliason, professor of management information technology at the Atkinson Graduate School of Management.
The three sessions are as follows:
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Willamette University College of Law has established a new endowed professorship, the Maynard and Bertha Wilson Endowed Professorship, made possible by a generous bequest from the estate of Maynard and Bertha Wilson.
The Maynard and Bertha Wilson Endowed Professorship will be used to recruit an outstanding, nationally acclaimed scholar who will lead Willamette’s revitalized Law and Government Program. A nationwide search is underway.
Maynard Wilson graduated from Willamette University College of Law in 1940 and practiced law for more than 50 years in Cottage Grove, Ore. He was a hard-working, honorable and dignified man. He was a pillar of his community and gave back to it in multiple ways, including his help in establishing the Cottage Grove Hospital.
As a result of this bequest, the Maynard and Bertha Wilson name will be associated with Willamette and academic excellence in perpetuity. In honoring their memory, this endowed professorship also recognizes the value of the legal careers of many Willamette graduates who lead quiet, productive lives, meeting the needs of ordinary citizens throughout Oregon.
This is the second endowed professorship established at the College of Law this year. The Van Winkle Melton Endowed Professorship is also being used to recruit a nationally acclaimed scholar for the new Law and Business Program, which will begin in the fall 2001.
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