Highlights include the following:

• Steven K. Green was quoted in a number of newspapers and magazine this summer, including coverage of a faith-healing trial held in Portland and an article on church-state issues in Harper’s Magazine.

• Jeffrey Standen was interviewed about sports law issues by The New York Times in mid-May. He also appeared on the Sirius Radio news program UnderScore Sports.

• Susan L. Smith appeared on OPB Radio in June to discuss a potential recall against Portland Mayor Sam Adams.

• Warren H. Binford wrote an opinion piece for the Statesman Journal on the constitutional rights of teens in May.

• Jeffrey C. Dobbins was interviewed about the Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings on KPOJ AM 620, a progressive talk radio station in Portland.

• Norman R. Williams appeared on KGW TV News Channel 8 in Portland to discuss Oregon House Bill 2556, which limits the federal government’s control over the National Guard.

• Professor Richard Birke discussed the value of negotiation in commerce in the business section of The Oregonian in July.

In early June, Gov. Ted Kulongoski announced the appointment of WUCL alumna Frances Burge JD'98 to the Douglas County Circuit Court bench.

“Frances Burge will bring her extensive knowledge of criminal law to the court,” the governor said in a press release. “I am very pleased to appoint a lawyer of her work ethic to serve as a judge. I am also pleased to appoint the first Hispanic judge to the Douglas County Circuit Court bench. I believe her service on the bench will be an asset to the citizens of Douglas County and the state of Oregon.”

Burge received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California–Davis and her Doctor of Jurisprudence from Willamette University. She has worked for the Douglas County District Attorney's Office for nearly 10 years, including the Douglas Interagency Narcotics Team and the Douglas County Drug Court.

Burge was selected from among 10 local attorneys who applied for the position. She will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge William Lasswell, also a Willamette University graduate.

Burge's appointment will last until May 2010, when she plans to run in the election for a full term. The appointment becomes effective July 1, but the date she will begin serving as judge has not been set.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski announced the appointment of WUCL alumnus Angel G. Lopez JD’78 to the Multnomah County Circuit Court on May 8, 2009. The governor said he was pleased to appoint Lopez to the Multnomah County bench, adding that Lopez will bring a strong work ethic, judicious temperament and a great breadth of experience to the judicial position.

Lopez earned his Bachelor of Arts from Occidental College in 1975 and his Doctor of Jurisprudence from Willamette University College of Law in 1978. He is a partner in the Portland law firm Squires & Lopez PC with his spouse, Wendy J. Squires JD’79. Their practice covers all aspects of criminal law, with a special focus placed on representing Spanish-speaking individuals.

Lopez was president of the Oregon State Bar in 2002. He now serves as a board member of the Guadalajara Sister City Exchange, Northwest Justice Project and Portland Defense Consortium, as well as legal adviser to the Mexican Consulate. In February 2008, Lopez received the Honorable Paul J. De Muniz Professionalism Award from the Oregon Hispanic Bar Association.

Lopez’s appointment to the Court will be effective July 1, 2009.

The graduates were introduced by Professor Paul A. Diller and Professor Jeffrey A. Standen and hooded by Professor Yvonne A. Tamayo and Professor Emeritus Ross R. Runkel, all of whom were selected by the graduates to participate in the ceremony.

The Class of 2009 was led by John C. Davis, who graduated summa cum laude. Julie M. Jarvis, Marcus R. Whitney, David A. Anderson, Angela W. Bennett, Jeffrey C. Rhoades, Dorothy R. Ryan, Sara A. Cassidey and Stephanie E. Carter graduated magna cum laude. Scott W. Bennett, Jon C. Kulas, Brian R. Wilson, Patrick M. Gregg, Andrea J. Breinholt, David L. Anderson, Emily J. Pringle, Tatjana T. Queener, David L. Fox and Christine R. Olson graduated cum laude.

Professor Valerie J. Vollmar JD’75 introduced the commencement speaker, Justice Virginia L. Linder JD’80 of the Oregon Supreme Court. A Colorado native, Linder earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Southern Oregon University before enrolling in Willamette University College of Law. After graduating in 1980, she began her career as assistant attorney general in the Appellate Division of the Oregon Department of Justice. She was named assistant solicitor general of Oregon in 1984. Two years later, she was promoted to solicitor general, the chief appellate lawyer for the state. Linder was appointed to the Oregon Court of Appeals by Gov. John Kitzhaber in 1997. She made a successful bid for a seat on the Oregon Supreme Court in 2006 and was sworn in as the 99th justice of the Oregon Supreme Court in 2007.

The College of Law is pleased to announce that Professor Gilbert Paul Carrasco was nominated for the Oregon Commission on Hispanic Affairs by Gov. Ted Kulongoski in early May. The commission, which is comprised of nine appointees, the speaker of the House and the Senate president, works for the implementation of economic, social, legal and political equality of Hispanics in Oregon.

Carrasco 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. He has taught as a visiting professor at Lewis & Clark, Oregon, San Diego, Seton Hall and Willamette. He also studied for extended periods at Oxford, Stanford, Hastings and George Washington. He teaches Civil Rights, Constitutional Law and Employment Discrimination.

Carrasco gathered a wealth of practical experience in civil rights litigation in Washington, D.C. He served in the U.S. Department of Justice, first as a special assistant to the deputy assistant attorney general, then as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division and finally as a consultant. He also worked in the National Center for Immigrants’ Rights and as the national director of Immigration Services for the U.S. Catholic Conference. In 2008, he joined the board of directors of the Oregon chapter of the American Constitution Society.

Carrasco, who expects to testify on the nomination for the Oregon Commission on Hispanic Affairs for final confirmation within the month, said he hopes “to bring legal expertise to the policy positions the commission takes and to assist in initiating and developing responses to legislative proposals that implicate the rights of Latinos in Oregon.”

Professor Emeritus Ross R. Runkel was presented with an Award of Excellence from Willamette University President M. Lee Pelton at a university-wide faculty awards ceremony on April 30, 2009. Runkel received the Jerry E. Hudson Award for Excellence in Teaching. Named for the former Willamette University president, the Hudson Award celebrates distinguished teaching and leadership.

“Professor Runkel personifies the highest ideals of the College of Law,” said Dean Symeon C. Symeonides. “He has devoted all his considerable energy to teaching and has always proved to be an outstanding legal educator and mentor. His students, colleagues and peers all admire and respect him tremendously.”

An employment law specialist, Runkel taught at Willamette for 30 years before retiring in 1999. At the request of the law school, he returned in 2005 to teach for another four years as a visiting professor. His great humor, intelligence and steadfast nature have made him a favorite among students for decades.

Throughout his impressive legal career, Runkel has served as chair of the Oregon State Bar Section on Labor and Employment Law, commissioner and vice-chair of the Oregon Dispute Resolution Commission, director of the Willamette University Center for Dispute Resolution, director of the Portland Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, as well as in a number of other professional and civic positions.

He received his bachelor’s degree and law degree from the University of Washington, where he was associate editor of the Washington Law Review and a member of Order of the Coif. He was a teaching fellow at Stanford University Law School, practiced law in Seattle with Riddell, Williams, Voorhees, Ivie & Bullitt, and served on the law faculties at Lewis and Clark College, Texas Tech University and the University of Washington before joining Willamette University.

In early April, dedicated attorney mentors from across Oregon gathered at the College of Law for the school’s 2009 Attorney Mentor Program awards reception. The annual event, hosted by the office of Career Services, honors those attorneys and judges who volunteer their time as mentors to Willamette’s law students.

Jeffrey L. Dover JD’04 received the 2008–09 Justice Edward H. Howell Mentor of the Year Award, which recognizes a member of the legal community for providing outstanding guidance and support to a Willamette law student. The award is named for the late Justice Howell, who enthusiastically mentored Willamette law students throughout his judicial career.

An assistant attorney general in the General Counsel Business Activities Division of the Oregon Department of Justice (DOJ), Dover was nominated by three Willamette law students. Second-year students LaReé Felton and Jennifer Paul both nominated Dover for the second year in a row. They were joined by Dover’s new first-year mentee, Chris Lybeck. “The most important things Jeff has provided has been his honest perspective and insights on real-life practice,” Felton said in her nomination letter. “Since he is a rather recent graduate from Willamette, we can talk about common experiences. He has always been there for me, despite having work, a family and two other mentees. He is really an awesome guy.”

Tom Elden, a longtime mentor and supporter of Willamette’s Attorney Mentor Program, received special recognition for his unwavering dedication to WUCL students. Elden typically mentors two or three new ILs each year, in addition to those 2Ls and 3Ls he continues to advise. “He is very active in the lives of his mentees, as well as with the Willamette law community as a whole,” second-year student Megan Banks wrote in her nomination letter for Elden.

In addition to Dover and Elden, several other WUCL mentors were honored during the awards reception:
• Mary Doughtery, judicial clerk at the Oregon Tax Court, was nominated by Ilsa Lundren.
• Rachel Kittle JD’08, from the Law Office of Gordon Dick, and Concetta Schwesinger JD’88, from the Oregon DOJ, were nominated by Rebecca Russell.
• Darleen Ortega, Oregon Appeals Court judge, was nominated by mentees Terrence Green and Chris Ramirez.
• Liani Reeves JD’01, assistant attorney general in the Trial Division of the DOJ, was nominated by Emi Torres and Soohyun Park.
• Kate Cooper Richardson JD’00, who works in the governor’s office, was nominated by her student mentee.
• Daniel Santos JD’86, from the governor’s office, was nominated by Zachary Brugman.
• Paul Smith JD’95, of the Appellate Division of the DOJ, was nominated by Tristan Burnett.
• Susan Tripp, Marion County Circuit Court judge, was nominated by Rena Jimenez-Blount.
• Amy Vandenbroucke, OHSU associate legal counsel, was nominated by Kellen Hade.
• Jefry Van Valkenburgh JD’85, in the General Counsel Government Services Division of the DOJ, was nominated by Tim O’Donnell.

The College of Law’s Attorney Mentor Program enables students to develop a close, personal relationship with experienced legal practitioners who provide invaluable insights and advice on the practice of law. For more information about becoming an attorney mentor, please contact Career Services at law-career@willamette.edu or register online at www.willamette.edu/wucl/careers/mentor/ for the 2009–10 Attorney Mentor Program, which begins in September.

Each year, a highlight of the reception is the presentation of the Col. Rupert E. Park Jr. Pro Bono Student of the Year Award, which is given to the third-year student who made the greatest pro bono contribution during law school. The award is named for alumnus Col. “Rudy” Park Jr. LLB’47, who contributed a significant amount of time to pro bono activities throughout his distinguished legal career. Park was a great supporter of Willamette’s pro bono program and, until his death this past February, always attended the awards banquet to present the awards. Associate Dean Peter V. Letsou stood in for Parks and recognized award recipients.

This year, the Col. Rupert E. Park Jr. Pro Bono Student of the Year Award was presented to two third-year students, Angela Wanak and Ruby Herriott. Wanak amassed 524 total volunteer hours during her three years of law school, working as a court appointed special advocate and for the Elizabeth Bowers Zambia Education Fund, Trinity Covenant Church and the Street Law Program. Herriott volunteered 325 pro bono legal hours to the Street Law Program and the Sacramento County Public Defender’s Office.

Also recognized during the awards reception were the members of each law class who volunteered the most pro bono hours during the academic year. Second-year student Mary L. Lang volunteered 236 hours, working at Catholic Charities Immigration Legal Services. First-year student Tiffany Hamilton also was honored for volunteering 18 hours to the Willamette University Public Interest Law Project.

For more information on the Pro Bono Honors Program, contact Career Services.

John Spencer Stewart JD'71 was named Professional of the Year in Business and Corporate Law by Cambridge Who's Who, an exclusive membership organization that recognizes and empowers executives, professionals and entrepreneurs throughout the world.

Stewart is senior partner with Stewart Sokol & Gray LLC in Portland, Ore., where he is responsible for consulting with clients, lecturing for various state bar associations and representing large general contractors and developers. He has worked in the legal field for 37 years, excelling in the areas of business and commercial litigation, construction and design, surety and fidelity, and insurance coverage and defense. He was listed as one of the top lawyers in the state by Oregon Super Lawyers magazine in 2006–2008.

Stewart graduated magna cum laude from Willamette University College of Law in 1971. He is a member of the Litigation Counsel of America and the American, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska and District of Columbia bar associations.

Only two male and two female members in each discipline are named the Cambridge Who's Who Professional of the Year. Honorees are chosen based on their professional accomplishments, academic achievements and leadership abilities.

For more about the Cambridge Who's Who, go to www.cambridgewhoswho.com.

The Santizo investigation was conducted by two law students enrolled in the Clinical Law Program at Willamette University. Second-year student Katherine Silva and third-year student Casey Bieberich worked on the case while enrolled in the Law and Government Clinic. Caren Rovics, senior assistant attorney general at the DOJ and adjunct law professor in the Clinical Law Program, supervised their progress.

“As our students’ work on the Santizo case illustrates, the Law and Government Clinic embodies a joint commitment by the Department of Justice and Willamette University College of Law to work together to protect the rights of all Oregonians in these challenging times,” said Professor Norman R. Williams, director of the Center for Law and Government.

Willamette’s Clinical Law Program has enjoyed a successful working relationship with the DOJ since 2006, when clinic professors were deputized special assistant attorney generals. Through the partnership, clinic students, in conjunction with the Oregon DOJ, prosecute civil cases involving financial fraud and consumer protection issues on behalf of the state.

“With the current financial crisis, it is more important than ever to think about the benefits that public-private partnerships provide everyone involved, including the taxpayer and potential victims of fraud,” said Professor Warren Binford, director of the Clinical Law Program. “The Santizo case is a perfect example of how Willamette and the DOJ continue to work together to serve Oregon while teaching the next generation of lawyers the challenges and importance of government lawyering.”

According to state officials, Olimpia Santizo, who operated Access to the System LLC, advertised translation services in a Spanish business directory and accepted money to complete divorce legal forms. Although she is not a lawyer, Spanish speakers who paid her thought Santizo had the authority to represent them in their legal matter. Access to the System is no longer in business.

Earlier this year, a Washington County judge entered a judgment against Santizo involving similar allegations that she victimized a Spanish-speaker by misrepresenting translation services as legal services in connection with the filing of a divorce. Misrepresenting “services” is a common scam that targets the Spanish-speaking community.

Willamette Law Professor Robin Morris Collin has been named a 2009 Oregon Civic Engagement Award Winner by Oregon Campus Compact, a statewide organization that promotes civic engagement and community partnerships with higher education. Morris Collin will receive the Judith Ramaley Faculty Award for engagement in sustainability at the organization’s fourth annual award ceremony later this month. The award recognizes excellence in faculty leadership on sustainability issues both on campus and in the community.

In 1993, Morris Collin became the first law professor to teach sustainability at an American law school. She joined the Willamette law faculty in the fall of 2003 and later helped develop the Certificate Program in Sustainability Law, which she now directs. She also was a founding member of Oregon Lawyers for a Sustainable Future. A descendant of a long line of African-American civil rights activists, Morris Collin is a writer, speaker and advocate for environmental justice. Her most recent work, a three-volume encyclopedia of sustainability, will be released later this year.

“This award appropriately recognizes Robin’s early vision of sustainability — well before the term entered the public lexicon — and her leadership role since then,” said Dean Symeon C. Symeonides in congratulating Morris Collin.

The fourth annual Oregon Civic Engagement Awards will be held Thursday, April 23, 2009, at The Ace Hotel in Portland. Award winners will present their work at a Sustainability Forum at 3:30 p.m. in the US Bank Room of the Central Library. The awards reception will begin at 5:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.oregoncampuscompact.org/CivicEngagementAwards.htm.

Meet the newest members of the law school community at a reception in the Student Lounge from 4:30-5:30 p.m. Send RSVPs to Jeni Lindorfer at jlindorf@willamette.edu.

Schedule of Events

1:30 Check In, Second Floor Lobby

2 p.m. Welcome Address, Room 201
Carolyn Dennis, Director of Admission and
Dean Symeon C. Symeonides, Alex L. Parks Distinguished Professor of Law

2:30 p.m. Mock Class, Room 218
Professor Emeritus Ross Runkel

3:30 p.m. Information Sessions
(A) Balancing law school, family and budget: A chat with law graduates and current law students; Suggested attendees: married students, students with life partners, students with children; Room 217
(B) Transitioning to life as a IL and financial budgeting: A chat with current law students; Room 201
(C) Professional opportunities for students: Pro Bono Honors Program, Externships, Mentoring Program, Room 216

4:15 p.m. Tours of the College of Law, Meet at the Second Floor check-in area in lobby

4:30 p.m. Reception, Student Lounge on the First Floor

Professor Ana Grammaticaki-Alexiou presented the final lecture in the law school's 14th Annual Speaker Series on April 2, 2009. If you missed Grammaticaki-Alexiou's lecture, “New Challenges of Family Law in Europe: Same-Sex Marriage and Surrogate Motherhood,” you can download the file here.

Professor Grammaticaki-Alexiou
Ana Grammaticaki-Alexiou is a professor of conflict of laws at Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki School of Law in Greece. She is a graduate of the same law school, from which she also received her doctoral degree. She is the author or co-author of several books and has published widely in the areas of conflict of laws, international protection of cultural property, international child abduction, and the law applicable to individual employment contracts.

Grammaticaki-Alexiou has taught at graduate and post-graduate levels, Conflict of Laws, Comparative Law, Comparative Conflict of Laws, International Transactions, International Commercial Arbitration, Uniform Law, International Protection of Cultural Property, Human Rights Law, Nationality Law, Economic European Community Law and International Litigation in both Greece and abroad. She has been a visiting professor at Loyola Law School and Tulane Law School in New Orleans, as well as at the inter-university European Master’s Program on Human Rights and Democratization in Venice, Italy. She also served as a judge on the Greek Special Supreme Court for three years, vice chairperson of the Greek Delegation in the Civil Law Commission of the Council of the European Union, and head of the Greek delegation of the Greek Ministry of Justice in the same commission, working on the proposal of a regulation on the law applicable to contractual obligations.

Professor James A.R. Nafziger co-edited a 1,100-page collection of selected research by legal scholars and practitioners from around the world in a new text for the Hague Academy of International Law. The Cultural Heritage of Mankind (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2008) is the culmination of several years of scholarship, which began during the 2005 summer programme at the Hague Academy of International Law’s Centre for Studies and Research, which Nafziger co-directed.

“Each year, summer researchers at the Centre for Studies and Research examine a different international law topic,” explained Nafziger, who was invited to supervise the research of young up-and-coming scholars throughout the summer program and during the next two years of the book’s preparation.

The Cultural Heritage of Mankind offers analysis of the rules and institutions that protect the world’s cultural heritage from such risks as armed conflicts, looting of archeological sites and illegal trafficking in stolen art. The collection puts substantial emphasis on dispute resolution. Nafziger co-edited and wrote a comprehensive introduction to the collection with Professor Tullio Scovazzi of the University of Milano-Bicocca.

“As a Hague Academy research text, the book is expected to become part of the international law canon within the specific field of cultural heritage law and more generally in the larger field of international law,” Nafziger said.

Among Nafziger’s current book projects are Cultural Heritage Issues: The Legacy of Conquest, Colonization and Commerce, which is forthcoming later this year from Brill/Nijhoff, and Cultural Law: International, Comparative and Indigenous, which is scheduled for publication by Cambridge University Press early next year.

The College of Law recently hosted a public lecture and private dinner with Dean Symeon C. Symeonides, the first holder of the Alex L. Parks Distinguished Chair in Law. More than 120 members of the legal community gathered to hear Symeonides present “The Grand Dilemmas of Private International Law,” the inaugural Parks Distinguished Chair lecture.

Introducing Symeonides to the audience, University President M. Lee Pelton thanked Penelope Parks Knight and Philip H. Knight, who donated $5 million to the College of Law to endow the chair named for Mrs. Knight's father. “As exceptional as the Knights are, so is the first holder of this chair,” Pelton said. “It is an understatement to describe Symeonides as an outstanding scholar; he may in fact be the world’s top scholar in his field.”

Pelton officially presented the Parks Distinguished Chair to Symeonides following dinner that evening. In his acceptance speech, the dean recounted his unlikely journey from a small village in Cyprus with no electricity or running water to being named the Alex L. Parks Distinguished Chair in Law. Along the way, he witnessed his father’s false imprisonment by the British government, farmed olives and tomatoes to help support his family, served in the Cypriot army during the 1974 Turkish invasion, earned four law degrees, and dedicated his life to academic excellence. Symeonides also reminisced about the many people who helped him along that journey. Quoting his favorite Southern playwright, Tennessee Williams, Symeonides said he “owes much of his success to the ‘kindness of strangers.’”

“Just as I was supported by countless selfless acts of others throughout my life, future generations of Willamette students will benefit from the generosity of Penny and Phil Knight,” he said. “I thank these two noble philanthropists from the bottom of my heart.”

Video of The Inaugural Alex L. Parks Distinguished Lecture and Dinner Presentation