Faculty News

Faculty Scholarship and Activities reported in April 2010

Tim Floyd, professor, was quoted in a recent article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution titled “Lawyers a luxury in rural Georgia.” The story focused on the shortage of attorneys in rural areas in Georgia, the increase in self-representation, and the work of Georgia Legal Services Program to help alleviate the need caused by these obstacles. Read article.

David Hricik, professor, spoke in April at Franklin Pierce Law Center's Premier Annual Intellectual Property Law Symposium in Concord, N. H. on the topic “How Ethical Rules Frustrate Compliance with Rule 11, Iqbal, and Exergen.” Also in April, Professor Hricik gave a presentation in Los Angeles at a seminar sponsored by the UCLA School of Law on ethical issues in patent practice; he served on a panel in Washington, D.C., along with Mercedes Meyer at the ABA IP Section's Annual Meeting concerning subject- matter conflicts in patent practice. Professor Hricik completed his service in the Organizing Committee for the Atlanta IP Inn of Court, only the 10th of its kind in the country, and was selected as a Master to the Inn. He has been working with professors from Emory, John Marshall, and other law schools to help bring the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals to hold hearings in Atlanta in November 2010. Professor Hricik’s paper, "Communications and the Internet: Facebook, E-Mail, and Beyond," was recently listed on SSRN's Top Ten download list for LSN Subject Matter eJournals and Legal Scholarship Network.

Steve Johnson, professor and associate dean of academic affairs, recently had two of his articles, “Economics v. Equity: Do Market-Based Environmental Protection Reforms Exacerbate Environmental Injustice?”, and “Economics v. Equity II: The European Experience,” translated into Chinese and re-published in Environmental Economy, a Chinese law journal. Additionally, his article “Ossifications Demise? An Empirical Analysis of EPA Rulemaking from 2001-2005,” was recently re-published in India as the first chapter of Environmental Protection: Regulatory Issues (L. Lakshmi ed., Icfai Univ. Press 2009). Professor Johnson’s latest article, “From Climate Change and Hurricanes to Ecological Nuisances: Common Law Remedies for Public Law Failures?” is forthcoming in the Georgia State University Law Review.

David Oedel, professor, was the lead author the opinion article in an April edition of the National Law Journal. The article examines the denationalization of the United States’ housing finance rules and was co-author by Ed Pinto, who was recently interviewed on this subject on the PBS Lehrer News Hour and has testified before Congress on the subject. Read article.

Jack Sammons, professor, will soon have published his article “The Law's Melody,” an exploration of transcendence in law through an analogy to music, in the Villanova Law Review as part of the Villanova Scarpa Lectures series. The paper was also recently presented at John Marshall Law School and was previously presented at Villanova as a tribute to Professor Joseph Vining of the University of Michigan. The article will also become a chapter in a book collection of articles about Professor Vining edited by James Boyd White and H. Jefferson Powell. Also, two other articles by Professor Sammons are forthcoming: “Justice as Play,” a reflection on the work of Johan Huizinga as applied to law, is forthcoming in the Mercer Law Review, at the request of the Review; and “Legal Writing Scholarship, Making Strange, and the Aesthetics of Legal Rhetoric,” suggesting a central perspective for legal writing scholarship, is forthcoming in the Legal Writing Symposium edition of the Mercer Law Review in 2010. Professor Sammons has also written an introduction to a collection of articles, tributes, memorials, interviews, and other writing about Mercer Law alumnus and former U.S. Attorney General Griffin B. Bell, ’48, which will be published this year by the Journal of Southern Legal History. The introduction is done as a character study of Judge Bell.

Scott C. Titshaw, assistant professor, will soon have published his article “The Meaning of Marriage: Immigration Rules and their Implications for Same-Sex Spouses in a World Without DOMA,” in the William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law. Professor Titshaw recently co-wrote a short, practice-oriented article titled “LGBT Issues Update: Same-Sex Marriage, Transgender Marriage-Based AOS, and Removal of the HIV Bar,” which is forthcoming this summer in the 2010-11 American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Immigration & Nationality Law Handbook. In April, Professor Titshaw gave a two-hour guest lecture before the “Sexual Orientation and the Law” class at the University of Georgia School of Law, where he lectured on “The Meaning of Marriage,” and one on U.S. asylum law and its response to persecuted lesbians and gay men from around the world. In March, Professor Titshaw spoke at the Florida Coastal Symposium in March, where he presented findings on his recent research. At the symposium, he joined Mark Strasser of Capitol University Law School and two practicing attorneys on a panel focusing on “Marriage, Adoption and Family Law.” Also in March, Professor Titshaw presented a lecture on “The Meaning of Marriage” paper to the faculty at Charleston School of Law.

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Faculty Scholarship and Activities reported in March 2010

Linda Berger, professor,was a recent panelist at two separate events, the Virtual Legal Writing Conference Webinar held in February by Stetson’s College of Law in Florida and the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Law, Culture & Humanities held in March in Providence, R.I. The Stetson Webinar was titled “What is Legal Writing Scholarship” and the Rhode Island conference was titled “Legal Rhetoric: Pedagogy, Practice and Critique.” Professor Berger’s article “The Past, Presence, and Future of Legal Writing Scholarship: Rhetoric, Voice, and Community,” 16 J. Legal Writing is forthcoming.

David Hricik, professor, gave a presentation on March 22 to faculty at Georgia State University School of Law on “Statutory Interpretation and the Rules of Ethics.” He joined eight other law professors in filing an amicus brief in support of rehearing en banc in a case pending before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Therasense, Inc. v. Becton, Dickinson and Co., 593 F.3d 1289 (Fed. Cir. 2010). On March 11, Professor Hricik gave a presentation in Seattle Wash., at the 16th Annual Washington State Intellectual Property Law Association Annual Meeting titled “How Ethics Prevents Compliance With Rule 11, Iqbal, and Exergen.” Oxford University Press published Professor Hricik’s book, Patent Ethics – Litigation. The prestigious press has now published two of Professor Hricik’s books. Professor Hricik remains, as he has for over a year, in the top 10 percent of authors on SSRN.com.

Linda Jellum, associate professor, spoke at theEleventh Annual Judicial Conference of the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, on March 4, 2010. Her topic: “The Veterans Court Approach to Statutory Interpretation and Chevron.”

Dave Oedel, professor, was extensively quoted in a front-page article on March 26 in the (Atlanta) Daily Report regarding Gov. Sonny Perdue’s efforts to hire his own lawyer to challenge the constitutionality of the recent Health Care Reform law after the state’s attorney general, Thurbert E. Baker, refused to do so.

Sue Painter-Thorne, associate professor, recent co-presented at a conference. The presentation, co-presented with Mercer Law School Associate Professor Karen Sneddon, was titled “Game On!: Active Learning with Classic Childhood Games” and held March 19 at the 10th Annual Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference at the University of Arizona Rogers College of Law, Tucson, Ariz.

David Ritchie, associate professor, recently had an article reprinted in a book in India. The article, “Modern Constitutionalism and Weimar Liberalism,” was published in Constitutionalism, edited by G.V. Mahesh Nath, and published by Amicus Book: The Icfai University Press.

Michael Sabbath, professor, served on the faculty of the Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute’s 36th Annual Seminar on Bankruptcy Law and Rules held March 18-20 in Atlanta. Professor Sabbath presented papers on “Claim Issues” and “Deposit Accounts under Uniform Commercial Code Article 9.”Professor Sabbath holds the Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute/Walter Homer Drake, Jr. Endowed Chair in Bankruptcy Law at Mercer Law School.

Karen Sneddon, associate professor, recent co-presented at a conference. The presentation, co-presented with Mercer Law School Associate Professor Sue Painter-Thorne, was titled “Game On!: Active Learning with Classic Childhood Games” and held March 19 at the 10th Annual Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference at the University of Arizona Rogers College of Law, Tucson, Ariz. Professor Sneddon was also a participant in the Association of Legal Writing Directors’ Scholars’ Forum held March 21 at the conference. The work was titled “Evolution of Language in Wills.”
 

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Faculty Scholarship and Activities reported in February 2010

Anthony R. Baldwin, professor,is scheduled to be a panelist in March at the Southeast/Southwest People of Color Legal Scholarship conference at the University of South Carolina School of Law discussing the topic “Equality and Justice in the Obama Era.”

Theodore Blumoff, professor, is scheduled to give a talk in April at the 11th Annual Scholarship Conference of the Society for the Evolutionary Analysis of Law at William and Mary Law School. Professor Blumoff’s talk is titled “The Neuropsychology of Justifications and Excuses: Some Problematic Cases of Self-defense, Duress and Provocation.”

Sarah Gerwig-Moore, associate professor, was voted “Best Community Leader” by the 11th Hour Readers’ Choice Awards.

David Hricik, professor, was extensively quoted in the Feb. 3 edition of the ABA/BNA Lawyer’s Manual on Professional Conduct Current Reports in an article titled ”Judges Can’t be Online ‘Friends’ with Attorneys Who Appear Before Them.” In January, Hricik gave a presentation, titled “Top 10 Ethical Issues in Patent Prosecution,” at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Va., at the Fifth Annual Advanced Patent Law Institute sponsored by George Mason University School of Law, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and the University of Texas School of Law. Hricik was recently elected to the Executive Committee of the Professional Responsibility Section of the American Association of Law Schools.

Dave Oedel, professor, was a panelist in February at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington D.C., discussing aspects of his research team’s 2009 study on independent redistricting. Other panelists included Thomas Hofeller of the Republican National Committee, Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution, and Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post. An archive of the webcast, and the link to Oedel’s paper, can be found here.

Karen Sneddon, associate professor, spoke in January at Stetson University College of Law as part of the Faculty Exchange Program. Sneddon’s presentation was titled “In the Name of God, Amen: Evolution of Language in Last Wills and Testaments.”

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Faculty Scholarship and Activities reported in January 2010

Dr. Ted Blumoff, professor, has written a peer-reviewed article, titled “The Neuropsychology of Justifications and Excuses: Some Cases from Self-Defense, Duress, and Provocation,” which will be published in 50 Jurimetrics (2010). Blumoff also wrote “How (some) Criminals Are Made,” which will be published in 13 Current Legal Issues: Law and Neuroscience.

Sarah Gerwig-Moore, associate professor, has been reappointed by the Bibb County Commission to another five-year term on the Macon-Bibb County Planning and Zoning Commission and re-elected by her peers on the commission to continue serving as vice chair.

David Hricik, professor, recently wrote lengthy comments to the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct Committee’s proposed amendments to the Texas Disciplinary Rules. In December, Hricik taught a professional development course in Charlotte, N.C., for approximately 500 of K&L Gates’ lawyers, titled “What You Say Online May be Used Against You: Ethical Issues Raised by the Use of Technology and the Internet.” Hricik also moderated a webinar panel discussion with Tim Meigs, senior intellectual property counsel at Becton Dickinson & Co., and Joseph Condo, partner at Woodcock Washburn, on the duty of candor during patent prosecution and gave a presentation to the Federal Practice Section of the Iowa Bar Association in Des Moines, titled “How Ethical Rules Prevent Compliance with Rule 11, Iqbal, and Other Pleading Requirements.” Hricik served on a panel concerning inequitable conduct at the 20th Annual Intellectual Property Owner’s Association annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Hricik also gave a presentation on metadata at the Atlanta Bar Association’s offices in Atlanta as part of its “Law Office Technology: Power Up Your Practice” seminar and spoke at a nationally broadcasted web seminar on behalf of the American Intellectual Property Law Association concerning ethical issues in Internet communication. Hricik served as a member of the Planning Committee for the 2010 Mid-Winter Institute of the American Intellectual Property Law Association.

Linda Jellum, associate professor, served as a moderator for a roundtable discussion on Comparative Scholarship at the Association of American Law Schools’ Annual Conference in New Orleans, La., in January. Jellum was also elected chair of the Association of American Law Schools’ New Law Professors’ Section and elected to the executive board of the Association of American Law Schools’ Legislation Section.

Dr. David Ritchie, associate professor, was selected as the chair-elect of the Association of American Law Schools’ Section on Law and Interpretation at the section’s annual meeting in New Orleans.

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