Part I

Hello and welcome back for spring semester 2008! I hope you all had a chance to enjoy the love and warmth of the holidays with friends and family and that you’re refreshed and looking forward to the challenges of a new semester. Class of 2008 you are on your way—graduation is just around the corner.

The first week of this semester—actually, the first week of the year—was a busy one. As a matter of fact, it was too packed to write about it all in one entry! I, along with some of my associates, attended the Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting. Law faculty from across the country participate in this event, and this year it was held in New York. I left for the conference bright and early on Wednesday, January 2, and checked in at the Marriott Marquis Hotel before walking over to the Hilton, where most of the conference was held. That evening I was able to go and enjoy a quiet Indian dinner at Utsav Festive India Restaurant off of Times Square that was recommended by the concierge. The restaurant was on the second floor of a big building, where patrons could look out on the passersby while enjoying a candlelit dinner. The restaurant was lovely, and I was able to enjoy some samosas, naan, saag with chicken and rice and a glass of wine.

The weather was very, very cold the next morning, so I hailed a cab over to the Hilton. At 9 a.m. there were two competing panels. Malcolm McNair—who also served as the Planning Chair for all the programs in the advancement section of the conference—chaired the section on Institutional Advancement and gave the welcome in the Sheraton, and Mike Mullane was featured in a panel on “Attractions and Distractions: Student Use of Laptop Computers in the Classroom” that was held at the Hilton. Unfortunately, Mike was on the second panel of that three-hour session, and I had to leave for a meeting of the AALS Committee on Libraries and Technology. I was sorry to miss his session but was able to have a friend Barabra Glassner-Fines from UMKC snap a few photos..

At noon Dave Gearhart, Vice Chancellor for University Advancement and an alum of the law school, spoke to the AALS Section on Institutional Advancement during their luncheon at the Sheraton Hotel. Since the Sheraton is about a block away from the Hilton, I really had to hustle to get there. Dave spoke about “21st Century Issues Facing Higher Education and the Importance of the Advancement Professional,” and his address was interesting and well received. We were able to welcome Teri Stafford, the law school’s new director of development, who joined us at the conference. It’s good to have her aboard and was a pleasure to have her there. Again, Malcolm was the Planning Chair for all the programs in the advancement section this year. Following the lunch, we all went to listen to Dave talk about major gifts in terms of development. It was very helpful to me, and I was able to glean a lot of advice and encouragement from Dave’s presentation. Afterwards, I rushed back to the Hilton for more presentations.

Later that afternoon there was a public hearing on a new ABA Standard held by the American Bar Association’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. The Standard is Standard Interpretation 301-6, and that hearing was packed – standing room only. The hearing was held to decide whether the Standard would adopt a new requirement for accreditation, which would explicitly use bar passage rate as a measure to determine whether a school was actually preparing students for the practice of law. It’s been controversial for a number of reasons. First of all, as you know, bar pass rates tend to vary across various states; each state sets its standards at a different level. Also, some schools have students who take the bar in different states. This new standard would require schools to keep up with the bar pass rate of their students in other states up to a certain percentage. It would also look at bar passage rates over a number of years, an issue which many schools have expressed concern with. As you can imagine, these two things are very complicated for law schools to monitor: first you have to know where each of your students are sitting on the bar, and then you must keep meticulous records for multiple years. The last issue is that the bar pass rate is set at a 75 percent, and there are some schools (specifically mission schools) that perform outreach to under-represented communities. The National Bar Association’s preliminary work on this new Interpretation found that some of these schools would not be accredited based on the new Interpretation. A number of people spoke very passionately about this issue. The current plan is for the ABA House of Delegates to vote upon the Interpretation at its mid-winter meeting in February.

At 5:15 p.m. we went to the first meeting of the Association of American Law Schools House of Representatives and heard a report. I sat with Phil Shelton and Leigh Taylor. The highlight of that session was the report of Carl Monk, who is retiring. This was his last presentation, and the room was packed. Everyone gave him a standing ovation, which was very emotional for Carl. That evening was our law school’s New York Law Alumni Society reception, and a number of our alums attended, including Karen Callahan (’88), Patti Evans (’83), Charles Finelli (’93), Robert Dean (’88) and James Frazier (’96). We were very excited to see them and very proud to have hosted a reception. A number of luminaries in legal education also stopped by including Rick Geiger, Steven Hobbs,Barabra-Glassner-Fines, Terry Seligmann and Len Strickman.

All of that in just one day! If you can believe it, the rest of my trip was even more jam-packed, but more on that a little later. Until then, study hard and check back often.

Part II

In the words of the famous broadcaster Paul Harvey, “And now, the rest of the story…”

The breakfast for the Labor and Employment Law Section was held bright and early Friday morning, and this year I’m delighted to say that Jim LaVaute, Chair of American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section, was my guest and attended both the breakfast and business meeting. He was able to meet a number of legal academics in labor and employment law, talk about some of the programs and invite them to become more active in the ABA. We also honored Carin Clauss, the Nathan P. Feisinger Professor of Labor Law at the University of Wisconsin, with the Section’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Carin served as the U.S. Solicitor of Labor from 1977 to 1981 and was the chairperson of Wisconsin’s Worker Compensation Study Commission as well as the vice-chairperson of the Wisconsin Task Force on Comparable Worth. She is a former member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for the Group Health Cooperative of Wisconsin; was a member of the Litigation Committee for the ACLU’s National Women’s Rights Project; was a past secretary for the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section and the former co chair of both the Federal Bar Association’s Labor Committee and Wage and Hour Subcommittee. In the past, Carin has participated in some of the discussions between the U.S. and Mexico on labor standards as part of the NAFTA agreement, and she chaired an intergovernmental committee charged with examining the possible adoption of specific ILO conventions on labor standards by the United States. She currently is a member of the Joyce Foundation’s Board of Directors, writes extensively about employment law issues, engages in pro bono law practice specializing in sex discrimination cases and is an accomplished speaker. Congratulations again, Carin!

Following that was a session on the Section for the Law School Dean, and the topic was “The Carnegie Report: Educating Lawyers from the Vantage Point of the Law School Dean.” The moderator was Rex R. Perschbacher of University of California at Davis School of Law, and the speakers were Mary C. Daly of St. John’s University School of Law; Michael A. Fitts of University of Pennsylvania Law School; Carolyn C. Jones of University of Iowa College of Law; Thomas M. Mengler of University of St. Thomas School of Law; Emily A. Spieler of Northeastern University School of Law and Judith W. Wegner of University of North Carolina School of Law. That program gave multiple perspectives on the Carnegie Report and the speakers presented thoughtful comments on which things in the Report make sense to implement. One of the good things about the panel was the number of panelists. Each came from a different law school with different missions and perspectives, which made their comments very, very interesting. Because it was about such a hot topic—the reformation of legal education to focus more on experiential learning and less on Socratic-based classroom teaching—the session was quite full.

The next section that I was supposed to attend was on Labor Relations and Employment Law, but instead I bumped into Dennis Shields who you, if you follow the blog, may know is my hero (and the person who admitted me to law school in Iowa). We sat down and caught up and had a long conversation about some of the challenges and joys of deaning. He’s the Dean of Phoenix International Law School, so we chatted about what it’s like for him to be bringing a new law school online.

That afternoon there were more sessions on “Rethinking Legal Education” and again, they were very well attended. These were held in a huge ballroom, and were so full that they had to use overflow seating in the balcony. A little later was the Employment Discrimination Section, and there was a very interesting panel on “Employment Discrimination Remedies: The Shape of Lawsuits, The Shape of the Law” which I attended with Jim LaVaute. The panel was moderated by Michael Kelly, San Diego Law School and featured Tristan Green, Seton Hall, Brad Seligman, Director of the Impact Fund, Berkeley, Elaine Shoben, UNLV and Julie Suk, Yeshiva. It was followed by a brief business meeting during which folks whose area is employment discrimination were able to meet and chat. That evening was the AALS Gala Reception that was held in the Rainbow Room at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The Rainbow Room is a wonderful space, famous for its dinner and dancing combination. The security was very, very tight—you had to leave your coat and be checked before you got on the elevator, but it was certainly worth the hassle once you got upstairs and had the fabulous view of Manhattan. Upstairs we were met with quite a spread, along with delicious hors d’œuvres and a full bar. It was a chance to meet new folks in legal education as well as to catch up with old friends in a lovely setting.

That evening at 8 o’clock was the dinner for the minority deans at The Palm Restaurant, and what a riot! We just had such a wonderful time. The food was terrific, but the fellowship was even greater. It was a good chance to be able to catch up with Blake and Paulette Morant, Fred and Phyllis White, Gil Holmes, Leroy Pernell, Freddie and Harriette Pitcher, Peter Alexander and John White. Stacie Walters took the train up from Washington, D.C. and joined us as well. What wonderful dinner companions, but more importantly, friends!

Saturday morning was the Dean’s Breakfast hosted by the Access Group. I’m so glad I got up and went, even though it was freezing outside, because in addition to being able to mingle with a number of deans, the talk was about the new legislation in congress and some of the choices facing students who have student loans. I have contacted Access Group, and they have agreed to come in and make a presentation to students. I think it’s very important, not only because it is essential to know what the repayment options are and what the legislation does for students who are graduating, but also because the new legislation has an impact on what those loans may cost over time. I believe it’s good to have someone with expertise talk us through that. I’m excited that Access Group will visit the law school to share that information with us.

Later that morning, I attended a Section on Minority Groups program entitled, “In the Name of Love: What Does Martin Luther King Mean on the 40th Anniversary of His Assassination?” A very diverse group of 10 panelists of all ages and ethnicities shared their insights. The speakers were, Lisa Chiyemi Ikemoto, U. C. Davis, Beto Juarez, Jr., Denver ,Margaret E. Montoya, New Mexico, Charles Ogletree, Harvard,Wendy Brown Scott, North Carolina Central, Jennifer Marie Chacon, U. C. Davis, Frank Rudy Cooper, Suffolk, Emily M.S. Houh, Cincinnati, Camille Antoinette Nelson, Saint Louis, Catherine E. Smith, Denver. The reflections were fascinating. Folks talked about growing up in the legacy of Dr. King and what that meant to each of them. That was a really, really warm session and a real tribute to Dr. King. It’s just a shame that more people didn’t attend it, but those of us who did were given a real treat.

Directly afterwards, I attended the AALS Section on Minority Groups Luncheon and, again, it was fun to catch up with people of color and legal education from all over the country. One of the highlights of this luncheon to me, is recognizing those who have recently obtained tenure, been promoted, and those who have become deans or chaired professors. To boot, there are a number of awards given out to people who are doing fantastic things from the platform of legal education. It’s a wonderful annual event. Following the luncheon there was an informal gathering of black women in law teaching, and I have to tell you it was amazing to be a part of that gathering. It really was a great chance to get acquainted and to discuss how those of us who have been in legal education for a while could better serve those who are newer members of the academy. The conversation was very frank and a number of ideas were shared, but I think the most important thing was having a group of sisters in one room. A number of folks who have been around awhile, like Adrian Wing and Odeana Neal and Beverly McQueary, were there, and it was just terrific to meet many of the academy’s young women of color for the first time. It was truly a fantastic gathering.

That afternoon, Chris Kelley (who teaches in our agricultural law program), along with Neil Hamilton of Drake University Law School and J.B. Ruhl of Florida State University College of Law, sat on a panel moderated by Anthony Brian Shutz of University of Nebraska College of Law. The topic was “Energy, Food and the Environment: Agriculture’s Future.” Fortunately, I did get to hear Neil Hamilton’s talk about ethanol, even though I missed Chris’ talk to get ready to depart from the Marriott Hotel for “A Night at the Opera.” This lovely event was sponsored by the Fordham Law School and hosted by Dean William Treanor and his wife, Allison. They hosted a fabulous dinner in the law school atrium, where Lesley Rosenthal, Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, talked about what it’s like to be General Counsel for the Lincoln Center. Her talk was very interesting, especially when she mentioned the various issues she faces involving labor and employment law . After the wonderful meal, we were escorted over to the Metropolitan Opera for a performance of Macbeth. We had fantastic seats right on the main floor, and the opera was really wonderful. Many, many thanks to Dean William & Allison Treanor, who hosted such a classy event. Despite all the fun, it had been a long day, and I was certainly ready for some rest.

At 9 o’clock on Sunday morning I walked back over to the Hilton to see Sharon Foster’s panel, “New Voices in Human Rights.” Sharon’s topic was “Ignorance and Want: A Human Rights Conflict Analysis Regarding Competing Interests in Healthcare, Food and Education and an Author’s Moral Rights and Right To Material Gain.” Sharon spoke on the fact that human rights are very much joined with economic rights and economic advancement. She stated that people will not realize their human rights unless they’re able to be a part of their development, and people must have economic justice as well. After Sharon’s panel, I went back to the Marriott to check out and had about four hours before a flight, so I walked around Manhattan, took a number of pictures and stopped at a very small Vietnamese restaurant and had noodles for lunch before heading back to the hotel to grab my luggage. From there, it was off to the airport and back to Fayetteville. So that was my first week of the new year … I’ve definitely hit the ground running!

I am starting my holiday vacation a little early this year. So I will be out of the office until the new year. However, I managed to attend a few events before taking off.

Monday was our staff holiday luncheon. What a delight and what a fun event. We shared white elephants gifts and had lunch catered by AQ Chicken. It was fun. We also had our final faculty candidate of the semester. That evening was a quiet dinner at Thai Diner with Kedron Benham and Michele McCall.

The next day was the last Academic Deans Meeting of the semester, and the Provost wished us all a happy holiday. I then had my final meeting of the semester with the Provost.

Happy holidays to all of you. Thanks for a very successful semester. If you’ve been following the blog, you can see we’ve made a number of extraordinary strides with our strategic planning effort, in our faculty recruitment, our library director search and our development director search. Many thanks to all of you for working so hard to bring to life the great things happening here at the School of Law. May you all have very happy, warm and joyous holidays with your families and friends, and I’ll see you next semester.

Another busy week around the law school. Jesús Moroles arrived and we have been excited to watch the installation of the courtyard begin. The pillars outside the Norma Lea Beasley Entrance Hall were installed early in the week and peaked everyone’s interest in our artist.

Monday we had a faculty candidate in, and I went to have lunch with Kelly Scott, our alumna who works at the Washington County Prosecutor’s Office. It was good to meet with her and to catch up with her and all the developments in her career.

Tuesday was a very quiet day, other than the last day of my workplace legislation course. What a great class. Thanks for your patience this semester with all the class conflicts. Good job on your presentations, and I look forward to grading your finals.

Wednesday I had lunch with Carolyn Allen, the Dean of Mullins Library. It was fun to get off campus and to find out what was going on in her life and to share what’s happening with me. We’ve decided to make that a regular event, and I look forward to it. Thank you very much for lunch, Carolyn. Later that afternoon, we celebrated our November birthdays. Happy Birthday Cathy Chick, Chauncey Brummer, Kim Ferguson and Monika Szakasits.

The next day, Thursday, Malcolm and I left for a reception down in Dallas with our Dallas alumni sponsored at Patton Boggs and hosted by Robert Jeffery “Jeff” Cole. A number of our Dallas alumni turned up including 50+ grads Gene Schieffler and Norma Lea Beasley. A number of our younger alums were there as well. It was a very lively group. They were very excited about what was happening at the Law School. Also, three of our alums were excited about spearheading an effort to form a Dallas Chapter of the Law Society – Mark Torian, Adam Daughtery and Jason Jobe. Thank you to Jeff, Gene, Norma, Mark, Adam, Jason, Keith Williams, James Ish, Steve Caple, Hirum McBeth, Floyd Clardy, Kevin Jones, Val Albright, and Lloyd Ward and his wife for attending.

And then the next day we returned from Dallas in time for a faculty meeting and Jesús Moroles gave a presentation to the Law School community on his work in general and his vision for the courtyard. We were very pleased to have Michael Hollomon, Richard’s life partner, there as well as Chancellor White, Archie Schaffer and Woody Bassett. The latter two spearheaded the courtyard fundraising efforts. A number of our alums came, as well as Mayor Coody. It was a wonderful and warm event, and people are very excited about the beautiful work of Jesús and the vision of Richard in the courtyard. That evening I went to dinner with Jesús; his friend Margarete, who is a collector of his sculptures; Nancy and Andy Cozart and Dana and Wally Nixon. It was a wonderful evening and thanks very much to the 36 Club for squeezing us in on a busy and rainy evening.

Once again, there are a lot of events going on around here. Sadly, we learned of the passing of one of our retired Law School colleagues, Jim Jackson. Our thoughts are with Jim’s family during this time of sorrow.

Although it has been pretty quiet around here as students study for final exams, the Law School community and I have had a full schedule leading up to the holiday season.

Monday, Dec. 3, was the Washington County Bar luncheon and the new officers were elected. Those new officers, and congratulations to each of them, were Boyce Davis, president; John Burrows, vice president and Chreea Stanimirovic, secretary/treasurer. Both Boyce, ’74, and Chreea, ’05, are both School of Law alums.

That afternoon was a faculty meeting followed by dinner with my good friend Carol Gattis from the College of Engineering. I’ll be sharing my vacation with Carol starting today. The rest of the day was spent trying to catch up on correspondence and reporting. I wanted to be sure to leave for vacation with as little carryover as possible sitting on my desk.

The next day Richard Ray came over and gave the faculty and staff an update on our University benefits; it was very helpful to all of us. Thank you, Richard.

I then headed over to a meeting of the Council of Deans with the Provost. Some of the agenda items included some of the interesting academic programs occurring in the undergraduate dorms and also concerns about fire safety and the possibility of upcoming fire drills in the next academic school year.

That evening I was very honored to attend the Hispanic Women of Arkansas’ annual holiday dinner and open house up at the JTL Shop in Springdale at the invitation of Margarita Solorzano. There looked to be about 200-300 people in attendance. There were dancers and music and a number of very important members of the Hispanic community representing various businesses including Cox Cable and Tyson Foods. Again, it was an honor to be invited and to see a number of our students who attended as well.

Wednesday was the annual alumni Christmas party at Trapnall Hall in Little Rock. Malcolm and I traveled down to meet with our Law Alumni Society Board, which we held at the new Arkansas Bar Association Center. It’s a beautiful setting, and we really appreciate the service of our alums who brought their thoughtful suggestions to us on how to improve our alumni society as well as how to encourage many more of our alums to become active members. Alumni at the meeting included Karla Rogers Dean, William Adair Jr., Gregory Graham, Don Schnipper, Kathy Searcy, Jimmy Simpson, John Stroud Jr. and Dan Young. Earnest Brown Jr. and James Smith joined us by phone.

The Law Alumni Christmas party was at Trapnall Hall and was attended by a number of alums, many for the first time. We really appreciate them coming to see us and mixing and mingling with each other. A special thanks to Don Judges, Carl Circo, Ned Snow, Susan Schell and Judith Kilpatrick for representing the School of Law. Also, a big thanks to our driver, Lewis, from physical plant who drove the van and delivered us safely there and back. We really appreciate Lewis taking the time to be our driver. Also, thanks to Malcolm and Michele who had such a beautiful event set up. Although it was lightly attended by members of the Law School community, there was a very large turnout by alums, and once again, we were very pleased to see them all. Two of the special guests were UALR Law School Dean Chuck Goldner and his wife Susan. Also, I saw Shannon Underwood and her husband, Joe, who are both 2005 School of Law graduates. Their baby’s name is Anna, and I met Shannon’s parents, too. It was great catching up with their family.

On Thursday, the Law School celebrated the life of Jim Jackson, one of our retired law librarians, at 5 p.m. in the courtroom. I was sorry that I had to miss the celebration of Jim’s life, but Thursday morning I left for the LSAC Board Meeting in Philadelphia at the Four Seasons Conference Hotel. That evening several of us on the Board had dinner together: Kent Lawless, Majorie LaRue, Athornia Steele from Capital University and Kwan and Bill Wang. It was a delightful dinner and we were all able to catch up and share about the most recent events in each others lives, including the exciting news that Kwan, Hillary Clinton’s former roommate at Yale, and Bill are going to participate in or work the Iowa Caucuses in January.

Friday was the board meeting, and we looked at a number of issues including the potential globalization of LSAC products and services, as well as ways to improve our current services and products we offer to our member schools. That night was the board dinner at the Four Seasons. Phil Shelton came back to say hello to everyone. You may recall from my earlier posts that Phil Shelton is the former chair of LSAC, the new chair being Dan Bernstein. It was fun to see Phil and to be able to catch up with his new life of retirement which he is enjoying immensely.

Saturday was a continuation of Friday’s brainstorming session. We thought about things we might do differently or current challenges facing the organizations and suggestions for confronting those. Ellen Rutt initiated a really great idea to avoid the typical meeting in which we just sit around and listen to a number of committee reports which were preprinted in the meeting booklet in advance anyway. This got people really engaged and thinking out of the box, and I think most folks enjoyed it. Since we were able to get done by noon, I spent a bit of time with Marjorie LaRue and Stacie Walters walking around Philadelphia and doing a little last minute Christmas shopping. That evening we had dinner with John Law, a law professor at the University of Alberta in Canada, and again enjoyed sharing the company of my colleagues.

Sunday morning it was time to get to the airport and catch a flight where, yes indeed, the original flight was delayed, as was the connecting flight. I have learned not to be too surprised, as this has become a real pattern for me while traveling. It was back to school on Monday and a short week before vacation.

As I mentioned, I will be heading out of town for a little R & R, but I look forward to sharing about all of the exciting events happening in 2008. On behalf of the School of Law, I want to wish you a blessed and safe holiday season.

Despite having a short week because of the Thanksgiving holiday, it was jammed packed with activities. As has been the case for the last few weeks, we had several faculty candidates interviewing and visiting with members of the School of Law community. In addition, on Monday I had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Mark Cochran, director of the American Association of Engineering Societies and associate vice-president for agricultural research, and Dr. Ivory Liles, associate vice-president for agricultural extension. I very much enjoyed their overview of the Division, and appreciated them taking time from their busy schedules share that information with Associate Dean Kilpatrick and myself. We were able to think of ways in which the School of Law and the agricultural division could cooperate more to both units’ benefit, and we’re looking forward to following up with Drs. Cochran and Liles in January to flesh out those ideas. It was a very productive meeting, and again, my thanks to them for coming to visit with us.

Monday was also our staff Thanksgiving potluck, unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend, but I’m sure that a good time was had by all. By all accounts, the meal was delicious. There was pork loin along with all the traditional fixin’s and lots of dessert. There certainly weren’t many leftovers. It’s great that the Law School staff had such a great time.

Monday evening I went down to the Town Center where Mayor Dan Coody announced this was his last term in office and that he was not going to run for re-election. He also talked at great lengths about the contributions and accomplishments of the City of Fayetteville staff. After attending that event, it’s clear that we really do have hard working, capable and competent staff running the City of Fayetteville. Thanks to Mayor Coody for all his work to date—we’ll certainly miss him. Following that event, I went to the Law Review pizza party at U.S. Pizza where Suzanne Clark and Ryan Ray thanked all the members of the Law Review for their hard work in getting issues to press. Thanks also to Don Judges, Kim Coats, Carl Circo, Scott and Ami Dodson, Tim Tarvin and Angie Doss for attending. I know that both the members of the Law Review and I appreciated them being there.

In addition to interviewing a faculty candidate visit on Tuesday (as well as class), I was able to spend some quiet time that evening with Ray Niblock, class of 1993, who cooked a lovely dinner (steak, salad and broccoli) and graciously provided some downtime. That quiet dinner allowed us to catch up and was wonderful. Thank you very much, Ray. It was great to see you and visit with you.

Wednesday was a very slow day around here. We operated with just about a skeleton crew. The highlight of the day was being able to go to lunch with alumnus Melissa Lee. Melissa graduated in 1998, and it was great to catch up with her on all the new things happening in her life. She is going to be serving in Afghanistan next year and talked about what her duties there will entail. We ate at Emilia’s and I had salmon with tabouli. It was a relaxing middle of the day. Then I was off to the office again to finish up some correspondence before beginning the holiday. I hope that everyone was able to have a warm, safe and joyful Thanksgiving! Hopefully everyone had an opportunity decompress and enjoy the love and laughter of friends and family.

I was able to stay put in Fayetteville for most of a busy and full week. We had a number of faculty candidates visit with the Law School community, and we very much enjoyed meeting all of them and learning from their presentations. There are many talented folks on the market, and we are very fortunate to have them express an interest in us.

Tuesday evening, in addition to the regular day (hello workplace leg. class), was our usual monthly Inn of Court meeting. The Inn of Court group that presented the program was led by alum Eva Madison. The focus was sexual harassment in the workplace. The group included students April Kersten, Emily Sprott, Michael Nutt, Ryan Ray and Suzanne Clark. The fact that their presentation highlighted sexual harassment in the context of a law firm, and a jury awarded a multi-million dollar judgment was particularly interesting. The presentation held everyone’s interest, and the evening provided the opportunity to visit with some of our alums and members of the Washington, Benton and Sebastian County Bars who were present.

The next morning I was able to watch the preparation and the final rehearsal of our National Moot Court team, Ryan Ray and Ben Oxford. There arguments had to do with the second amendment right to bare arms and, from what I was able to observe, they were very well prepared. Over lunch at Thai Diner, I finally had the chance to meet Lisa Childs, who joined the university a little over a year ago as an intellectual property lawyer. She deals with a lot of technology and licensing issues. Both our meal and chat were delightful. We hope to involve her more in the Law School community. That afternoon consisted of a series of meetings including one with Mark Power and Dave Gearhart about our director of development search, and another with our legal research and writing faculty to hear their concerns and ideas about the program.

Thursday morning started out with a very exciting event. The University of Arkansas School of Law was asked by the United States Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine to take part in the celebration of International Education Week by participating in an audiovisual conference. The conference provided an opportunity for professors and students from the law departments of the Krok University in Kyiv, the Kyiv International University and other universities to discuss legal issues with their counterparts at our law school. There was a great turnout at Embassy’s facilities, and we were able to feature several of our own faculty members, including Uche Ewelukwa, Sharon Foster, Don Judges and Ned Snow.

Our last strategic planning meeting for the semester was held during lunch. There are four strategic planning groups comprised of members of the Law School community, who have met throughout the semester. Each group has student members, and we very much appreciate their time and input. The focus of this meeting was to come up with a “wish list” of things we would like the Law School to do, discuss programs we might take on and suggest changes we might make to the curriculum, the law school community and its environment. Our group had a very lively discussion and submitted a number of suggestions to the strategic planning group. We look forward to reading all the groups’ suggestions and getting feedback from the committee next semester. The strategic planning committee is already planning two additional sessions for next semester that will focus on issues surrounding scholarship. Thanks to all who participated in this process.

That afternoon the Law School was very pleased to host the Arkansas Alternative Dispute Resolution Commission for a panel discussion and question-and-answer session about the role of ADR in Arkansas. At the conclusion of the session, the Commission recognized Sid McCollum for his role as a founding member of the Commission and for his 10 years of extraordinary service to the state of Arkansas through promoting ADR. Afterwards there was a reception and members of the Law School community mingled with our guests.

Friday, Malcolm and I headed down to Russellville to speak with the members of the Pope County Bar Association. Several of our alums were there, including Alex Streett (’65), Jim Coutts (’90), Roy Beth Kelley (’97), Steve Gardner (’76), Bob Hardin (’72), Kristin Clark (’97) and Josh Sanford (’00). We also met some new friends who came out to learn about the School of Law. We’re very thankful to our host, Michael Robbins, a 2001 graduate of the School of Law. We forgot to take pictures of that bar meeting (shucks!), but we were delighted to have the opportunity to update everyone about the exciting events occurring at the law school.

Now, I need to give a couple of shout outs. The first is to professor Carl Circo who received a unanimous tenure vote from his faculty colleagues Friday evening. Carl is wonderful member of the Law School community and has enriched us in many ways. So congratulations Carl on your well deserved vote. Another kudos goes out to a good friend and alum, Katherine Shurlds, on her 60th birthday. Katherine is also a professor of journalism here at the university and teaches a course on media law. Her fabulous birthday event was held at the UARK Bowl on Dickson and came complete with a band. What fun to hang out with Katherine’s friends and journalism colleagues to help Katherine celebrate!

And that pretty much wraps it up. This weekend was the first quiet one in quite a long time, so I spent it relaxing and recharge. I’ll bet though that things won’t stay slow for long. Stay tuned!

Sunday evening, after dropping off Dean Jim Chen, I was back at Bonefish Grill to have dinner with women from the Arkansas Women’s Forum. During dinner, I met Sven Erik Holmes, who is an alumni of the university and executive vice-chair for legal and compliance at KPMG in New York. He was having dinner with the Chancellor. We visited a bit, and I invited him to the School of Law’s AALS reception in New York. It was fun to meet him and to chat with he and Chancellor White during dinner.

The week was a busy one. Not only did I visit with one of our law library director candidates on Monday, I also got my flu shot (you should, too!) and attended the Washington County Bar Association luncheon. Rick Ramsay (’77), our alum and president of the Arkansas Bar Foundation, was the lunch speaker. I always enjoy attending the WCBA luncheons and seeing our alums and members of the northwest Arkansas legal community.

The next day, Tuesday, another candidate for the law library director position was on campus and I attended a meeting with the academic deans and then the Council of Deans. On top of that full schedule, it was time to prepare for a trip to the meeting of the Labor and Employment Law (LEL) Section of the American Bar Association.

I flew out early on Wednesday. Those of you who follow my blog are familiar with my flight issues, and this time was no different—my flight was delayed and switched three times. I finally landed in Philadelphia and arrived at Loews Hotel. That evening I went to the Section reception, held in an exhibition hall, where various LEL committees had set up booths to recruit new members. As a member of the Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee, I manned our booth along with Eve Hernandez, a member of our committee, and Justin Schwartz, a co-chair of the committee. I’m pleased to say we recruited several new members, and we are looking forward to seeing them at meetings in the future.

Thursday was the beginning of the conference for which 1258 labor and employment lawyers had registered. It was exciting to have that number of labor and employment lawyers in the same place, and the programs were fantastic. Jim LaVaute, the chair of the Section, presided over the opening plenary session given by Christine Cooper, a faculty member from Loyola University Chicago School of Law who gave a terrific Supreme Court update. After working a little bit in the morning, I had lunch with my good friend Mike Green from Texas Wesleyan and Myra McKenzie of Wal-Mart, a fellow with the Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee. She will be joining us at our meetings and participating in our CLE programs. It was great to have her there both as a member of Wal-Mart Legal and as my mentee and sorority sister. It certainly was fun to catch up with them both.

Our committee’s panel discussion on ethics and professionalism was later that day. The program was titled “Ethical Challenges in Employment Law,” and the panelists were Dennis Duffy, a management lawyer; Gail Lopez Hernandez, a union lawyer; myself; Paul Burgoyne, the disciplinary counsel for Pennsylvania and Andrew Altschul, a management employee and mediator lawyer from Washington state. The program was packed—standing room only—with quite a lively discussion, so we think it was pretty successful. That evening, the Section held a diversity reception at the lovely Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, which was well attended.

Afterwards, Mike Green and I attended the Council Dinner that was held at the Striped Bass. I had scallops for an appetizer and a very interesting entreé. I’m not sure I would recommend it. It was seared Ahi tuna and short ribs served with green apple, so it was pretty unusual. The dessert definitely made up for it. It was triple chocolate – chocolate straw candy, chocolate cake and a hot chocolate shooter—and absolutely delicious.

The plenary session on Friday morning was a “Review of Significant Developments in Common Law and State Statutory Decisions.” It was very informative, bringing all of us up to date on the most recent statutory and case decisions in labor and employment law. I also attended the “Immigration Fundamentals” program, which was pretty packed. After that it was off to lunch with Mike Green, and we ate (again for the “foodies”) at a fabulous restaurant called The Marathon Grill. I started off with a small cup of Manhattan-style clam chowder, and my lemon grass ginger marinated swordfish salad was so unusual that I thought I’d share the ingredients with you: swordfish fillets, spring greens, piquillo peppers, tomatoes, hearts of palm, mandarin oranges, red onion, basil and sesame seeds finished with a citrus soy ginger vinaigrette. It was a really delightful lunch.

That afternoon I received an e-mail from Terri with the good news that we had completed the accreditation process and we are fully accredited for the next seven years. What delightful good news to receive from the Law School while on the road. We’re really thankful to Associate Dean Kilpatrick for spearheading our accreditation process and keeping us on task so that we were able to get this accomplished so quickly.

Friday evening I had a chance to catch up with two of our alums, Emmanuel (’90) and Chidinma (’07) Ahia. What warm and easy companions they are. We went to Maggiano’s Restaurant, an Italian eatery around the corner from my hotel. After I updated them about the Law School, we visited about Emmanuel’s current career, how he came to America and how he discovered this country’s race issues. What was most interesting was hearing how he processed it all, coming from Nigeria. It was a fascinating conversation. Emmanuel and Chidinma are interested in starting a chapter of the alumni society in Philidelphia for our law grads, and we are working to connect them with other Arkansas alums living in the Philadelphia area.

At Maggiano’s the portions were both humongous and delicious. We all shared a spinach and artichoke dip appetizer which was giant, and Emmanuel and I had clam chowder. As the main course, Chidinma had a gnocchi entreé that was very large, Emmanuel had chicken parmesan with a side of linguine and I had lobster ravioli. All of us were amazed at the portions.

Saturday saw me awake bright and early for an academics’ and deans’ breakfast. There was another being hosted for law students, and since so few people attended both breakfasts we combined them. Those of us who were faculty members met students who are interested in practicing labor and employment law. A little later that morning was a plenary session on “Federal Enforcement of Statutory Rights” which featured a prominent panel. We got to hear from Ron Cooper, the general counsel of the EEOC; Ronald Meisburg, general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board and Jonathan L. Snare, the acting solicitor of the U.S. Department of Labor. As you might imagine, it was extremely informative to actually hear from these agency administrators.

Afterwards I joined the law students track, where they were observing a litigation session entitled, “I’ll See You in Court.” All week there had been an ongoing discrimination trial. The premise of the suit was that a woman filed a sexual harassment claim against Hooligan’s Bar. According to the facts, some of the employees had drilled holes in a wall in order to look into the women’s locker room and were observing women as they dressed. The session I attended was the last of that program, but it was still fascinating because we were able to observe the jury’s deliberations. There were two sets of juries: one was was selected by the lawyers who litigated the cases in front of the Section, and the other had actually been struck by the lawyers. We were able to observe both juries and the struck jury came back with a larger verdict than the jury that had been selected by the lawyers. At the end, the moderator introduced all the students who share with us their schools and described their interests in labor and employment law. All in all it was a good session.

Saturday’s Fall Section Council lunch was held on the 33rd floor of the Loews Hotel, which boasted a beautiful view. Lunch was delicious. It was buffet-style, and afterwards we went downstairs for the Fall Section Council meeting. Let me take a moment to congratulate the planners of the program. Not only were they able to bring together 1250 labor and employment law practitioners, but they offered multiple, high-quality tracks of CLE. Congratulations to Steve Gordon, the union and employee co-chair of the program; Allen Gross, the employer co-chair and Howard Shapiro, the employer co-chair for a successful conference.

After the Council dinner, I met with one of our alums, Gary Samms (’89), and we had dinner at The Palm restaurant. I updated him on all the goings-on at the School of Law. Gary is a delightful guy. He shared his story of coming to school at the University of Arkansas and shared the fact that he feels the preparation he received here was as good as any he would have received at any law school. In addition to being a lot of fun, he’s a very successful lawyer to boot. Try Googling him—there’s tons of information. He’s done a lot of malpractice defense, along with early criminal defense work, but now he specializes in litigation. He hasn’t been back to visit in a long time, so we were able to give him an Arkansas sweatshirt because he didn’t have any Arkansas gear.

For the “foodies” out there, the dinner at The Palms was extraordinary. We started with a shrimp cocktail (with enormous shrimp) followed by an arugula endive salad with strawberries, toasted walnuts and balsamic vinaigrette. I had an entree of three large crab cakes, and Gary had a steak. All the sides are served family style. We had au gratin potatoes and something very unusual, fried asparagus. I thought that meant it was sauteed, but it was batter dipped and fried instead. For dessert, I had the largest piece of carrot cake I had ever seen. It was fun getting to know Gary and I hope he’ll come out and visit the School of Law soon. Next time I’m in Philadelphia, I hope to get all of our alums together so that they can meet each other and we can enjoy each other’s company.

Early Sunday morning was conclusion of the Fall Section Council meeting. We ended a little early, so Chris Hexter, a union side attorney from St. Louis; Mary O’Melveny, a union attorney for Communications Workers of America and I spent the couple of hours we had before our planes/train left at a craft fair being held at the convention center around the corner from the hotel.

Afterwards, we went to lunch at the Reading Terminal Market. Wow! It is an old railroad train station that has been converted into a market, and there are tons of different restaurants serving all types of different ethnic foods. Anything you could imagine was all there under one roof. Chris and Mary both went to a deli, but being the “foodie” that I am, I scouted out all the opportunities from Indian food to sushi. Eventually I settled on a good home-cooked meal at a little soul food restaurant that served greens, cornbread, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes and fried chicken. They were both pretty envious once they saw my plate. After lunch, Chris Hexter graciously offered me a ride to the airport in his hybrid rental. Another whirlwind week, full of new acquaintances and old friends.

The week of October 29 was a fantastic week, very busy, but filled with very exciting things in terms of what’s happening in the Law School community.

On Monday, I went down to Little Rock to visit with the Arkansas Bar Foundation Trust Committee and got to see several members of the bar committee who are our alums: Jack McNulty (’70), Ms. Jeffery McKinley (’81), Louis Jones (’72), Paula Casey (’77), Harry Moore (’75), Charles Roscopf (’83), Spencer Robinson (’77), David Williams (’75), Robert Depper (’81), Steven Quattlebaum (’83), and Rick Ramsay (’77). It was quite a pleasure to go down and enjoy the beautiful new digs of the Arkansas Bar Association and to spend a little bit of time with Chuck Goldner, who sadly shared with me that this is his last year as dean at UALR. He said he will happily remain on the faculty at UALR. I have been really fortunate to have such a wonderful working relationship with Chuck, and I am sad about losing the opportunity to be a co-dean in Arkansas with him. However, I am happy to know he’ll still be here, in Arkansas, and I look forward to working with the new dean.

On Tuesday we had a visit from Louis Lim (’96) who is practicing in Bentonville, Ark. He is an alum and was our guest speaker for the Lawyer in the Library program. It was just a real pleasure to have him back in the Law School, and there was a great turnout for his presentation.

Also that day, we celebrated the October birthdays in the Dean’s Conference Room with delicious cake from Rick’s Bakery. October birthdays included Susan Williams, Carol Goforth, Howard Brill, Al Witte, Phil Norvell, Scott Dodson and Malcolm McNair. Happy Birthday to all our colleagues who were born in the month of October!

The next day was exciting for me both personally and professionally because we had Dean Jim Chen from the University of Louisville School of Law visiting us as our inaugural speaker in the Day with a Dean program. The purpose of this new program is to expose the members of our law school community to other deans from across the country, and the deans to us. Dean Che, the only currently serving Asian dean, is a prolific scholar, a Renaissance man, and a person of amazing energy with a warm and wonderful sense of humor. We’re just really excited that we were able to have him visit.

Dean Chen joined the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law as dean in 2007. He is an influential scholar whose works span subjects such as administrative law, agricultural law, constitutional law, economic regulation, environmental law, industrial policy, legislation and natural resources law.

Dean Chen is also what I like to call a “techie” (not to be confused with “Trekkie”). He has emerged as an innovative master of online media. He is the founder of Jurisdynamics Network and presides over one of the most intellectually stimulating and visually striking families of law-related Web sites. Check out Dean Chen’s flagship weblog, Jurisdynamics, and other affiliated weblogs including MoneyLaw, BioLaw, Agricultural Law, Ratio Juris, Law and Technology Theory, First Movers, Law Blog Central and The Scientific Lawyer.

On Wednesday night, I picked up Dean Chen from the airport. He arrived late, and we went to dinner at Theo’s. And this aside is for the “foodies” out there – my entrée was the brisket that they serve with collard greens and mashed potatoes. Dean Chen had the scallops, and we both had a salad. It was delicious as usual.

Thursday afternoon I was able to go to a very moving ceremony for my good friend, (formerly Major) Clark Taylor. He was being promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and I was able to attend his promotion ceremony, along with members of the ROTC community here at the University of Arkansas and other members of the University administration and General Hartsell, who presided over the ceremony. He spoke very highly of Clark and all the attributes that make him a fantastic person as well as a most capable and professional member of the Armed Forces. I was just very pleased to be able to be present. Clark’s daughter actually took off his old rank and his other daughter slapped the new rank on his chest. I was able to meet Clark’s mom and his wife, Julia, and several members of the community who are important to him. It was an honor to be present and to be with them.

A quick side note – in rushing from class over to Lieutenant Colonel Taylor’s commissioning, I ran to Memorial Hall, asked how to get up to the promotion ceremony and was told that I had to take the stairwell. Upon entering the stairwell, I got locked inside because once you get in the stairwell in that building, you can’t get out. The building is under construction and every floor of the stairwell is locked. You can’t get out the back door because that’s under construction and has a construction lock on it, too. So I had to pound on the stairwell door and yell, “Hello, Hello, I need to get out! I’m trying to go to the promotion ceremony!” When that didn’t work, I even tried, “Help, dean in distress.” Eventually a very amused student came along and let me out, and I dashed over to the ceremony that was actually being held in the Graduate Education building.

As if that weren’t enough excitement in one week, we were also very pleased to have Mark Tushnet, a Hartman Hotz speaker, visit us in the Law School. Professor Tushnet is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is a prominent professor in constitutional law and a leading scholar of comparative law. He is the co-author of four casebooks, including the most widely used casebook on constitutional law, Constitutional Law (with Stone, Seidman, and Sunstein). Professor Tushnet has written numerous books, including a two-volume work on the life of Justice Thurgood Marshall and A Court Divided: The Rehnquist Court and the Future of Constitutional Law. In addition to A Court Divided, the University of Arkansas Bookstore has available two additional books by Professor Tushnet: Out of Range and Taking the Constitution Away from Court.

On Thursday, Professor Tushnet discussed “Power of the Judge Across the Globe.” He also gave a talk to the faculty on Friday at noontime about the emerging issues in legal education. He raised some very pertinent points including the increasing globalization of law practice, the need for a systematic introduction to regulations and statutes in students’ first year of law school and the reduction of academic “free agency” by which experinenced professors move from “lesser” schools to “better” schools.

Dean Chen also spoke to the entire Law School community earlier on Thursday, during the lunch hour on the topic of Law 2.0 and the increasingly important role technology plays in legal education. He also spent time with Tom Black, our webmaster and the members of the library faculty and staff. He then spoke to our faculty on Friday following Professor Tushnet. Dean Chen’s talk to the faculty was about new and different types of scholarship and their value within the academy.

On Thursday night, a number of members of the Law School community joined us for dinner at Bordino’s with both Mark Tushnet and Dean Chen. It was a fabulous night – lots of fun, great conversation (including stories from our guests about being clerks in the Supreme Court) and very interesting intellectual and political and arts and letters types of discussions about issues occurring in Arkansas and around the world. It was a fabulous meal attended by Dean Don Bobbitt and his wife Susan, Professor Steve Sheppard and his wife Christine, Profesor Don Judges and Chandana Becker, Professor Rob Leflar and his wife Sarah, Bill Schreckhise, a political science professor; Steve Smith, a communications professor and Chris Collins from Oxford University Press and myself.

Friday evening, Susan Schneider gave Dean Chen a tour of rural Arkansas and hosted him at her house, and then on Friday night, Professor Judges and Ms. Becker and Professor and Mrs. Sheppard hosted him for dinner at Emilia’s.

On Saturday members of APALSA (Asian Pacific American Law Student Association), Jonathan Kwan and Viet Tran, picked up Dean Chen at his bed and breakfast and gave him a tour so that he could observe all the changes to northwest Arkansas. The students were very pleased to be able to hang out him, and they took him to lunch at Mimi’s. His comment to me was they “tried to smother me with carbohydrates.” Afterwards, I met Dean Chen at the Law School, and we had a very lovely, low key visit and then proceeded to the football game where I found out that, yes indeed, he is quite the football fanatic. I will tell you that in the two years that I have been box hopping, our alums were most impressed with Dean Chen’s knowledge of football and his engagement in the game. He even wore Razorback gear. Thanks to all who hosted us in their boxes including, Vance and Clay Stone, Nick Patton, Rick and Clair Ramsay, Nick and Sally Patton, Merry and Jim Phillips, Baxter Sharpe, Gary Head, and Sharon and Johnny Bales. Oh yes and, “Yeah, Go Hogs!” as we won the game against South Carolina.

Sunday morning my mom and I picked up Dean Chen after church and took him to our favorite breakfast spot in Springdale, Sunset Grill, where he joined us for breakfast with the members of our breakfast bunch from church. We then whisked him off to the airport.

As I flip through the pages in my calendar, it’s amazing and terrific how many good things are happening here. Stay tuned; there’s more to come!

It’s that time of the semester when I feel like I’m in an episode of that old children’s television show, Zoom. There are so many events going on here at the School of Law! This week has been really fast-paced.

Right off the bat I left for Washington, D.C. to have our annual Washington, D.C. Alumni Reception with our alumni who live in and around the nation’s capitol. It was a very rainy and cool day so there was a bit of a lighter turnout, but the people in attendance were warm, welcoming and excited to hear about all the wonderful things occurring at the law school. Thanks to Jim Christian and Rodney Slater for hosing the event. I’m pleased that we were able to leave them with copies of Old Seeds in the New Land: History and Reminiscences of the Bar of Arkansas by our own Robert Ross Wright, Donaghey Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus from UALR, as a token of our appreciation.

After the reception, Secretary Slater was gracious enough to take Dean Kilpatrick, alumnae Stacie Walter and Tiffany Armstrong and me to the opening of the film Poverty in America. It was here we met Martin Luther King III, son of the late Martin Luther King. We were given copies of Martin Luther King’s autobiography, which his son autographed for us. After we chatted, Martin expressed interest in coming to visit with us at the law school—an opportunity we’re extremely excited about.

The next day I had lunch at the Manor Country Club in Rockville, Maryland, with Ambassador Haley, one of our Six Pioneers. I had a wonderful little cup of cream of crab soup followed by a delicious salmon wrap. Ambassador Haley invited several guests to meet me—Walter J. Leonard, Lee Williams, David Lambert, Walter Price and, of course, Haley’s wife, Doris. We all sat and visited, and when Haley asked each of us to share our life stories, I realized what distinguished company I was in. Each person is a giant in his or her own right. The stories of their lives were very powerful and moving, and I was honored to have been invited to share a meal with them. The cool, rainy weather couldn’t put a damper on a fantastic lunch and even better company.

A little later on the itinerary was dinner with one of our alums, Remmel Dudley, who was a Chief Counsel for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. We dined at an Indian restaurant across from the Woodley Park Marriott, which is the conference hotel for the Association of American Law Schools Hiring Conference.  It was truly delightful. Through his stories, I learned a lot about both the history of the School of Law and many of our older alumni. We invited him to the 50 year reunion next year and presented him with his 50 year pin as well.

Friday was spent with the members of the Law School Appointments Committee—which includes Professors Killenbeck, Matthews, Circo and myself—interviewing prospective candidates for the School of Law, and I am thrilled. We saw a number of really good, very strong candidates for faculty positions. Throughout the day, we interviewed 11 candidates for slots in criminal law and business/upper-level business classes. Again, the candidates were just extremely impressive and strong, and I know we will have wonderful new additions to our faculty very soon.

Saturday saw me on a 6:50 a.m. flight home to arrive in time for our Law Alumni Society Rally, but those plans were derailed by my layover in Chicago. The plane was experiencing mechanical difficulties which were repaired, but the maintenance crew had accidentally left with the plane log. We couldn’t leave the ground until that was returned, so I arrived a little into the first quarter of the game, completely missing the rally. My sincerest apologies to those of you who attended. It was also homecoming for the Hogs against Florida International, which brought back beloved Dean Leonard Strickman. We were able to box hop together so he could visit with a number of alums during his time in town.

A reception for Dean Strickman and a number of his closest friends from northwest Arkansas was held Sunday, which was a chance to get together with folks I don’t often get to see around campus and also to fellowship with Len. Dean Rhonda Adams was gracious enough to open her home for a cocktail party and delightful evening. From there, I picked up a potential candidate for the law library director position, and we drove to Rogers for dinner at Bonefish Grill. Dinner was excellent, by the way. I had a fabulous Bonefish house salad of crisp chopped greens, tomatoes, Kalamata olives, heart of palm and pine nuts, topped with a citrus herb vinaigrette, followed immediately by grouper with a light ginger crab sauce. Add a side of sweet island rice (sweet wild rice with hints of almonds, raisins and red peppers) and a squash and carrot medley, and you’ve got a delicious meal.

Anyway, that gives you an idea of how things are starting to really heat up here as we head towards the end of the semester, and I’m sure I’ll have a lot to tell you about next week as well. Stay tuned!

The week of October 14–20 was certainly busy—it seems like there was a ton going on. One of the highlights was going to the Chancellor’s Executive Retreat Oct. 17th at the Alumni House. Chancellor White updated us on the state of the University, and shared his ideas about his priorities for coming year.

Later that evening, KUAF supporters were able to have dinner with the President of National Public Radio, Kevin Klose. He was here to help kick off the KAUF fundraising drive for its new building, and his remarks were both interesting and witty. It was fun to be able to have dinner with so many KUAF/NPR junkies.

The very next day Malcolm McNair and I took off to visit some of our alumni at the Southeast Arkansas Legal Institute which constitutes Desha, Drew, Chicot, Lincoln and Ashley counties. The trip was wonderful and the weather was great (luckily enough, we’d missed the storm the day before). Priscilla Copelin Neeley, one of our alumna, was our hostess—she’s expecting her first baby soon. Malcolm and I were able to visit with about 20 of our alumni. I gave a CLE on spoliation of evidence for an hour of ethics credit and followed up with an update about the State of the Law School. A few of our alums who were present included Sheila Farmer (’02), Bruce Switzer (’68) and B. Kenneth Johnson (’69) and, of course, Priscilla (‘05). It was great to seem them all, and they seemed excited about all the great things happening here in Fayetteville.

For the “foodies” out there, I haven’t forgotten you. The meal at the Legal Institute was pretty fantastic. There was huge prime rib, and I believe there was a chicken option for those who weren’t too keen on red meat. There were some really good green beans cooked in the way that’s bad for you—you know, complete with bacon and onions—cheese potatoes and wild rice. It was delicious and came complete with desserts like cheesecake and molten chocolate cake, but I actually had to skip those treats to give the presentation on the update of the law school.

The next day Malcolm and I traveled to Little Rock to go to the Mitchell Williams Scholarship Luncheon. We had a delightful lunch where Jason Boyeskie, a 3L from the University of Arkansas, was recognized as the Chair of the Board of Advocates and received a scholarship from Mitchell Williams.

After returning to Fayetteville, there wasn’t a moment to rest. That night several members of the university community had dinner with the former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul-Kalam at the University House. Dr. Kalam served as President from 2002 to 2007, and is known for his expertise as a rocket propulsion scientist and for his dedication to the students who will help him achieve his vision for India’s future. In addition, he is working to lead his country toward a robust knowledge-based economy by creating the Technology Vision 2020 plan. This plan serves as the road map that India will follow in its quest to become a developed nation. As if being a President and rocket scientist (literally!) isn’t enough, he’s also written four books and received 30 honorary doctorates. He’s the very embodiment of a Renaissance man.

Dr. Kalam’s remarks were warm and very poignant, and it was a great opportunity to meet such an outstanding leader who is a populist as a politician, a rocket scientist and a person who very much cares about the plight of folks who are left behind by the economic boom. It was truly a wonderful event.

Meeting with Dr. Kalam was great, but for a foodie like me, the spread was an additional plus. The meal was prepared by a caterer from Oklahoma City, and it was all authentic Indian food. There was a variety of tasty fare: naan (Indian breads), lemon rice (lemon flavored basmati rice), palak paneer (curried spinach and homemade cheese), vegetable jalfrezi (fresh garden veggies with Indian herbs and spices), aloo dum (baby potatoes in saffron gravy), wada-sambhar (a south Indian delicacy made with lentils and vegetables), kala jamboon (sweet dumplings), rasgulla (a sweet delicacy made with cheese), pappad (Indian wafers) and raita (yogurt dressings). It was delicious.

The next day—how many days has this been again? I’ve certainly lost track. The Environmental Law Society had its Environmental Law and Policy Conference, and it was fairly well attended. I got to sit in on one session that was extremely interesting. We had a speaker from Wal-Mart, Nancye Bethurem, who talked about sustainability and some of the initiatives that the corporation is undertaking to assure that the oceans are not overfished and that farmed fish are raised in a way that is sustainable and environmentally respectful. I know that both the conference attendees and I appreciated the efforts of Josh Bailey, who put on the entire event.

Sunday finally rolled around, but there was little rest. It was off to the Renaissance Hotel in Chicago for a one-day meeting of the LSAC Work Group on Membership Issues. During the meeting, I got to see Chuck Goldner, the dean of the UALR School of Law. He was at the Mitchell Williams Scholarship Lunch as well, and we joked about the fact that usually we only see each other when we’re both out of Arkansas. Since we usually just run into each other out of town, so it was kind of fun to see him twice in one week. The other members of the Work Group are Ellen Rutt, Chair of LSAC; Joan VanTol, General Counsel for LSAC; Ken Kleinrock, Admissions Director at NYU Law School and Patty O’Hara, the Dean at Notre Dame Law School. We finished our business at about 4:30 p.m., and I flew back to Fayetteville to begin the next week.

As you can tell, this is definitely an exciting (and also very busy) time at the Law School. Thank goodness the cool weather is energizing.