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News and Events 2003 - 2004

May 2004

On May 3, Professor Alice Baker moderated a roundtable discussion on age discrimination that was sponsored by the Fulton County Daily Report. An edited version of the transcript appeared in the 5/17 issue.

Associate Dean Steve Johnson's book, Economics, Equity, and the Environment was recently published by the Environmental Law Institute. In addition, his article, Terrorism, Security and Environmental Protection, will be published in the fall in the William and Mary Environmental Law Review. Professor Johnson has also been appointed as a co-editor of The Wetlands Deskbook, a publication of the ABA's Section of Environment, Energy and Resources.

Professor Adam Milani's book, Federal Disabiltity Law in a Nutshell, was published in April 2004. The book, co-authored with Bonnie Poitras Tucker (an emeritus professor at Arizona State), presents an overview of the major federal disability discrimination laws with an emphasis on the statutes, regulations, and significant points of substantive and procedural law. The United States Supreme Court recently cited a law review article Professor Adam Milani co-authored with Professor Ruth Colker (Ohio State) for its "comprehensive discussion of the shortcomings of state disability discrimination statutes" in Tennessee v. Lane, No. 02-1667.

Interim Dean Mike Sabbath served on the faculty at the Thirtieth Annual Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute in Atlanta this past April 2004. He prepared papers and spoke on "State Sovereign Immunity and Bankruptcy" and "Consumer Liens in Bankruptcy." After stepping down as Interim Dean in July 2004, he will be a visiting professor at Wake Forest University School of Law during the fall semester of 2004.

Professor Linda Jellum has recently been named secretary of the AALS Law & Humanities Section, effective January 2004. Additionally, Professor Jellum spoke at the Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference about Teaching Legal Writing to Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Learners in March 2004.

Professor Patrick Longan recently spoke at various forums about ethics-related issues, including the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia Advisory Committee Georgia Institute for Continuing Judicial Education, the Georgia Institute for Continuing Judicial Education, Georgia State University Law School Conference on Teaching Professionalism, ABA Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, Professionalism Committee. To read more about Professor Longan's writing and activities regarding legal ethics and professionalism, click here.

Marc Treadwell, a 1981 graduate of Mercer Law School and an adjunct professor at the law school, was recently inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers. Fellowship in the College is by invitation, extended only after careful investigation, to those experienced trial lawyers who have demonstrated exceptional skill as advocates and whose professional careers have been marked by the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism and civility.

Professor Jack Sammons has been appointed to the Georgia Judicial Campaign Conduct Committee, which monitors the compliance of candidates for judicial offices with ethical guidelines promulgated by the Committee. Professor Sammons was also recently appointed to the Board of Directors of Loaves and Fishes. His paper, Parables, Wittgenstein, and Teaching, will be published this summer as part of a collection of talks on education. He is currently working on a review of The Song Sparrow and the Child: Claims of Science and Humanity by Joseph Vining. Additionally, Professor Sammons will present a paper entitled Religious Speech in Deliberative Democracies: A Rhetorical Approach at a conference on The Publicity of Reasons, Normative Authority, and Religious Liberty at Oxford University on May 29, 2004.

Professor Linda Edwards will present a program at the Biennial Conference of the Legal Writing Institute in July, 2004, titled Scholarship by Legal Writing Professors: Voice from an Emerging Discipline. She will also present a program in August, 2004 titled Skills Training Today for the ABA Communications Skills Committee at the ABA Annual Meeting. Additionally, Professor Edwards will participate in the Persuasion Institute Training Program at Cornell University School of Law in September, 2004.

In March, 2004, Professor Hricik was appointed to the Model Jury Instructions Subcommittee of the American Bar Association Section on Intellectual Property Law. Professor Hricik also recently co-authored an article with Sasha Geczi and Zach Thomas, titled Save a Little Room for Me: The Necessity of Naming as Inventors Practitioners Who Conceive of Claimed Subject Matter, 55 Mercer L. Rev. 635 (2004). His article, Reading Too Much Into Nothing: The Metaphor of Place and the Internet, was published at 55 Mercer L. Rev. 855 (2004). Additionally, Professor Hricik's article, Where the Bodies Are: Current Exemplars of Inequitable Conduct and How to Avoid Them, was published at 12 Tex. Intell. Prop. L.J. 287 (2004). Professor Hricik's article, The Transmission and Receipt of Invisible Confidential Information, was published at 15 The Professional Lawyer 18 (Spring 2004) (co-authored with Robert Jueneman).

Professor Linda Edwards will speak at the ABA Annual Meeting on the topic, "Innovative Skills Programs in Today's Law Schools." She was also recently appointed to chair the Tenure Committee of the Association of Legal Writing Directors.

Professor David Hricik's second book, Property: Cases, Documents, and Lawyering Strategies (along with Crump & Caudill) was published in January 2004 by LexisNexis. Additionally, Professor Hricik's article, "The Transmission and Receipt of Invisible Confidential Information" (along with Jueneman) was published at 8 ABA Consumer & Personal Rights Litig. Newsletter 13 (2003).

Professor David Brennen's article, "Race Conscious Affirmative Action by 501(c)(3) Tax Exempt Corporations After Grutter and Gratz," was recently published in 77 St. John's L. Rev. 711 (2003). Professor Brennen has also recently given several presentations regarding charitable tax exemptions at St. Louis University School of Law, Syracuse University School of Law, and has an upcoming engagement at the Rutgers Newark School of Law's conference on Critical Tax Theory. Additionally, Professor Brennen will make two presentations this summer about the intersection of race and tax law.

Professor Daisy Hurst Floyd Named New Law School Dean

Professor Daisy Hurst Floyd has been named dean of the Walter F. George School of Law. She will join the Law School on July 1. Michael D. Sabbath, the Walter Homer Drake Professor of Bankruptcy Law, who has served as interim dean of the Law School since the fall of 2002, will resume his faculty responsibilities. To read more about Professor Floyd, click here.

Associate Professor Adam Milani's professional and community service have been recognized by two institutions. In December, he was elected to the American Law Institute (ALI). The ALI has 3,700 elected and life members and consists of judges, lawyers, and law teachers from all areas of the United States as well as some foreign countries. Members are chosen on the basis of their professional achievement and demonstrated interest in the improvement of the law.

In addition, Professor Milani's undergraduate alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, has named him the 2004 recipient of the Rev. John J. Cavanaugh, C.S.C. Award. The award recognizes an alumnus who has performed outstanding service in the field of government, patriotism, public service and local, state and national politics. Professor Milani was chosen for his work in the area of disability law and as an advocate for persons with disabilities. He will receive the award in April.

Professor Hricik Makes Presentations and Publishes Article on Ethical Issues for Patent Attorneys

Professor David Hricik gave a 90-minute presentation on ethical issues facing patent practitioners at the Washington State Patent Lawyers Association meeting on November 19, 2003 in Seattle, Washington. He also spoke on A Malpractice Checklist for Advanced Patent Practitioners at the University of Texas School of Law Annual Institute for Advanced Patent Law in Austin, Texas on October 31st. Additionally, Professor Hricik's article, Trouble Waiting to Happen: Malpractice and Ethical Issues in Patent Prosecution, was published in the American Intellectual Property Law Association's Quarterly Journal at 31 Am. Intell. Prop. L.Q.J. 385 (Fall 2003).

The Perdue Legal Team met at the Governor's Mansion with Governor Perdue for breakfast on October 8 to discuss the litigation between Governor Perdue and Attorney General Baker about who directs litigation in the name of the state of Georgia. The team includes Mercer alums Frank C. Jones and Kelly R. Burke, and Mercer Law Professor David Oedel, as well as 42 Mercer Law students who served the Governor's legal team as research clerks. To see a photo of the Perdue Legal Team, click here.

Professor Hricik Writes About Website Disclaimers

Professor David Hricik's article, "The Use of Website Disclaimers Regarding the Obligation of Confidentiality for U.S. Law Firms" was published in 4 World Internet Law Report 29 (Sept. 2003).

September 2003

Professor Hricik Speaks About Ethics in Patent Litigation

Professor David Hricik gave a 90-minute presentation on "Ethical Issues in Patent Prosecution and Litigation" at the annual meeting of the Dallas-Fort Worth Intellectual Property Law Association in Dallas, Texas on September 20, 2003.

Interim Associate Dean Longan's Professional Responsibility Book is Published

Professor Patrick Longan's book, "Professional Responsibility: Questions and Answers," was recently published by Matthew Bender Press.

Professor Hricik Speaks About High-Tech Communications

Professor David Hricik gave a presentation entitled "Confidentiality and Privilege in High-Tech Communications" at the Sixth Annual Middle District of Georgia Bankruptcy Institute in Macon on September 5, 2003.

Professor David Hricik was recently quoted in the New Jersey Law Journal, available at http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1052440727064, in an article about arbitration clauses in lawyer-client disputes. Henry Gottlieb, "With Client Consent, Retainer Pacts Can Compel Arbitration of Fee Fights/Court Sidesteps Issue of Whether Such Clauses Can Repel Malpractice Suits, New Jersey Law Journal (May 14, 2003).

Associate Dean Johnson's Summer Fulbright Activities

Associate Dean Steve Johnson recently returned from a summer Fulbright program teaching students at Waseda University and the University of Tokyo in Tokyo, Japan. While there, he taught an Introduction to American Law course at Waseda University, and an American Environmental Law course at Waseda and Tokyo. Dean Johnson also presented lectures on environmental justice at the Center for Pacific and American Studies at the University of Tokyo, and at the Institute for Comparative Law at Waseda University. Additionally, he presented a talk on "Affirmative Action After Gratz and Grutter" at the Institute for Comparative Law at Waseda University, and presented a lecture on "Preparing for Graduate School in the United States" to the Japanese Fulbright students who will be coming to the U.S. this fall.

Professor Adam Milani's book, The Law of Disability Discrimination, was published just in time for the 2003-04 school year. The book, co-authored with Professor Ruth Colker (Ohio State), provides comprehensive teaching materials for a course on disability law.

Professor Ted Blumoff has two articles that will be published soon. "Some Thoughts on the Aesthetics of Retribution" will be published next spring by the Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence. Another article, "A Jurisprudence for Punishing Attempts Asymmetrically" will be published this fall by the Buffalo Criminal Law Review. Professor Blumoff will also be giving a talk on September 4th on the Supreme Court's First Amendement cases from the 2002-2003 term.

Professor Linda Edwards has been invited to be a founding member of the Persuasion Institute, sponsored by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and dedicated to training death penalty litigators in narrative theory. She made two presentations at the initial training session of the Institute, held in May at the New York University School of Law. Additionally, she made a presentation on Jurisprudence and Legal Reasoning at the Notre Dame Colloquium on Legal Discourse, in June. In July, she made two presentations at the 2003 Conference of the Association of Legal Writing Directors, held at the University of Windsor, in Windsor, Canada.

Two Mercer professors made presentations at the annual conference of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools. Professor Chris Wells spoke on innovations in Mercer's first year curriculum. Interim Associate Dean Patrick Longan spoke about law school dean searches.

Congratulations to Professor David Hricik, who was recently appointed by the President of the American Intellectual Property Law Association to a three-year term on the organization's Professionalism and Ethics Committee.

Professor Hricik made a presentation entitled, "The Ethical Risks of Prosecuting Patents for Different Clients in Related Technologies" at the George Mason University School of Law's Second Annual Symposium on Hot Topics in Patent Law on July 15, 2003 in Arlington, Virginia. He also recently spoke on August 14th at the United States Patent and Trademark Office at a meeting of the American Intellectual Property Law Association on "Satisfying the Duty of Candor."

Additionally, three of Professor Hricik's articles were recently published. They were: "The Truth be Told? The Ethics of Using Undercover Testers and Investigators in Civil Litigation," which appeared in the ABA Section of Litigation's Consumer and Personal Rights Litigation Newsletter (Summer, 2003), "Aerial Boundaries: The Duty of Candor as a Limitation on the Duty of Patent Practitioners to Advocate for Maxium Claim Coverage, 44 So. Texas L. Rev. 205 (Winter, 2002), and "Wrong About Everything: The Application by the District Courts of Rule 9(b) to Inequitable Conduct, 86 Marquette L. Rev. 895 (Summer, 2003).

This summer, Professor David Brennen served at the John S. Stone Chairholder of Law at the University of Alabama School of Law. He also attended an Advisors Meeting for the American Law Institute's "Principles of the Law of Nonprofit Organizations" project, and was appointed by the American Bar Association to the Law School Inspection Team.

Professor Brennen also recently published a casebook entitled The Tax Law of Charities and Other Exempt Organizations: Cases, Materials, Questions and Activities (Jones, Willis, Brennen and Moran) (West 2003), and a new article entitled "2002 Eleventh Circuit Survey: Federal Taxation," 54:4 Mercer L. Rev. 1563 (2003).

Professor Hal Lewis completed the manuscript for a new edition of Litigating Employment Discrimination and Civil Rights Cases, a 2-volume practitioner's handbook. Professor Lewis also will be presenting a CLE in Atlanta in September on the Supreme Court's past term for police and civil rights lawyers.