2008 News Index
Washburn University School of Law alumnus Richard Hite, Wichita, Kansas, was honored as a Washburn University Alumni Fellow on October 10, 2008. Sponsored by the Washburn University deans and the Alumni Association, the Alumni Fellows program recognizes alumni who have distinguished themselves in their career fields. See the full story. (Posted October 17, 2008)
Washburn University School of Law Library is hosting a traveling exhibit about Bob Dole, one of Washburn's most distinguished alumni. The exhibit, "You'll Never Walk Alone: The Public and Private Life of Bob Dole," will be at the law library from Monday, October 13-Monday, November 17, 2008. See the full story. (Posted October 13, 2008)
Professor Sheila Reynolds was selected as the recipient of the 2008 Robert L. Gernon Award. Established in 2005 and presented annually by the Kansas Continuing Legal Education Commission, the Robert L. Gernon Award for Outstanding Service to Continuing Legal Education in Kansas recognizes those individuals or organizations that have demonstrated a unique commitment to legal education for lawyers in Kansas and have provided outstanding service to continuing legal education. See the full story. (Posted August 26, 2008)
Lauren S. Douglass, third year law student, is the third-place winner of the 2008 Schwab Essay Contest for her essay entitled "Avoiding Conflict at Home When There is Conflict Abroad: Military Child Custody and Visitation." The Schwab Essay Context is a national essay contest sponsored by the Family Law Section of the American Bar Association. Entries are submitted by law students from schools across the United States. The three winning entries each year are published in the Family Law Quarterly. (Posted August 1, 2008)
Margann Bennett, Director of Professional Development and Continuing Legal Education, has been selected to receive the Outstanding Service Award by the Kansas Bar Association (KBA). Margann is one of six lawyers in the state to receive this recognition during the 2008 KBA annual meeting. The award is given to recognize lawyers and judges for their service that significantly advances the administration of justice to the legal profession. See the full story. (Posted June 17, 2008)
Jessica L. Kohls, a third-year law student from Topeka, Kansas, will travel to Utrecht, the Netherlands, to participate in an in-depth research program known as EUROScholars. The objectives of the EUROScholars program are to give students the challenge of conducting original research at the cutting edge of human knowledge and promote interactions with scholars through an immersion in European research opportunities in the academic environment. Kohls will be the first American law student to participate in the EUROScholars program. See the full story. (Posted June 2, 2008)
Professor Brad Borden's article "Policy and Theoretical Dimensions of Qualified Tax Partnerships " has been published at 56 University of Kansas Law Review 317 (2008). In this article Professor Borden identifies qualified tax partnerships as a definite part of the tax entity classification spectrum (along with disregarded arrangements, tax partnerships, S corporations, and C corporations). He presents a theoretical model that describes the relationship qualified tax partnerships have with other tax arrangements, and, by illustrating that relationship, dismisses misconceptions about qualified tax partnerships. Though a better classification model would provide a narrower definition of tax partnership and eliminate qualified tax partnerships, lawmakers may never construct that better model. Because qualified tax partnerships will most likely continue to play an important role in the U.S. tax system, Treasury should clarify and expand the regulatory definition of qualified tax partnership. Additionally policy suggests that only select provisions of the Internal Revenue Code should apply to qualified tax partnerships. Professor Borden provides direction for such changes and recommends that Congress replace the current elective system with compulsory qualified tax partnership classification. (Posted April 16, 2008)
Randy Gordon visited Washburn Law on Thursday, April 3, 2008 as the Business and Transactional Law Center Spring 2008 Distinguished Alumni in Residence. Mr. Gordon is a Washburn Law graduate and partner in the trial section and anti-trust group at Gardere Wynne in Dallas, Texas. In addition to several scholarly and practice-based presentations, Mr. Gordon met with a group of second- and third-year students and provided advice for entering the profession as a new attorney or summer associate. See the full story. (Posted April 14, 2008)
The Washburn University School of Law Professional Development Office co-sponsored with the Topeka Bar Association Government Lawyers Section the First Annual Government Legal Careers Forum on Tuesday, February 26, 2008. Sixty-one government representatives attended on behalf of 26 government agencies, and more than sixty students visited with these representatives. See the full story. (Posted March 12, 2008)
Professor Brad Borden's article "Partnership Tax Allocations and the Internalization of Tax Item Transactions" has been published at 59 South Carolina Law Review 297 (2008). In this article Professor Borden begins by establishing that tax law allows the assignment of tax items within a partnership but does not tax the assignment as a tax-item transaction. Based on this premise, he argues that by allowing such an allocation, the partnership tax allocation rules allow partners to do what the tax law prohibits or taxes on the open market. The article also argues that the test for determining whether an allocation has substantial economic effect is a tax-centric test– the test allows tax-item allocations and then tests whether the partner to whom the allocation is made receives the economic benefit or burden that accompanies the allocation. Professor Borden suggests that more effective allocation rules would focus on the economic arrangement the partners agree to and require tax allocations to follow the partners' apportionment of economic items. Such deal-centric rules would help eliminate internal tax-item transactions. (Posted February 26, 2008)
"Modern Justice" was unveiled near the Washburn Law Library entrance on Wednesday, February 27, 2008. The 14-inch tall sculpture depicts a blindfolded woman and man, standing back-to-back, each with an extended arm, holding a balance scale (i.e., scales of justice). Smaller, desktop versions of the piece were presented to individuals who endowed scholarships during Washburn Law's Centennial Celebration. The sculpture's artist, Yolanda vanderGaast, of Toronto, Canada, was present at the unveiling. Ms. vanderGaast is an international sculptor, whose works range from small desktop maquettes to an 8-foot statue entitled "The Last Alarm," commissioned by the Toronto Fire Department to honor Toronto's fallen firefighters. In addition to the sculpture for Washburn Law, Ms. vanderGaast has created a desktop statue of a "Power Cat" head, which was sold at a live auction for Kansas State University athletic scholarships. In February 2008 the Metropolitan Community Church of Topeka dedicated a donation wall sculpture entitled "Illumination" to honor the church's anniversary (watch video "Creation of 'Illumination'"). More information about Ms. vanderGaast's sculptures can be found at her website. See photos from the unveiling of 'Modern Justice.' (Posted February 25, 2008; updated March 11, 2008.)
Brandon Mayfield, a 1999 Washburn Law graduate and Oregon lawyer who was arrested and jailed for two weeks in 2004 after being mistakenly linked to a terrorist attack in Spain, will speak at Washburn University on Wednesday, February 27, in Room 102 at the law school and Thursday, February 28, 2008 at the International House. Both presentations are at noon and free and open to the public. Mr. Mayfield, was investigated by the FBI after his fingerprint was erroneously matched to plastic bag with detonators from the Madrid bombing. Despite the fact he had not left the United States since 1994, the FBI was "100% certain" they were on the trail of a terrorist based largely on the fact that Mayfield is Muslim. His home was burglarized and wiretapped under a FISA warrant and his office, home and family farm in Kansas were raided for evidence of his alleged terrorist connections. He was arrested, detained, and interrogated. In 2004, his name was illegally leaked to the press as a terrorist suspect. Mr. Mayfield won a $2 million settlement and an initial victory challenging the constitutionality of the Patriot Act. For more information see the following: Salon.com, New York Times, USA Today, and the U.S. District Court opinion. (Posted February 25, 2008)
Professor William Merkel's article "Parker v. the District of Columbia and the Hollowness of Originalist Claims to Principled Neutrality" has been published at 18 George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal 251 (2008) [1.5 MB PDF]. In Parker v. the District of Columbia, the D.C. Circuit became the first United States Court of Appeal to strike down legislation or invalidate government action under the Second Amendment. The case, appealed to the United States Supreme Court sub. nom. D.C. v. Heller, held that the constitutional right to arms applies even outside the context of service in the lawfully established militia. In so reasoning, Judge Silberman relied on originalist methodology to argue that the framers of the Bill of Rights desired to protect a right to own weapons for purely private purposes. This assertion is, as a matter of history, highly dubious. But Silberman's results-driven reasoning in Parker does more than betray its author's historical ignorance. Ultimately, Parker illustrates powerfully the inability of originalism to provide a value-neutral, objective alternative to other interpretive models allegedly discredited by their own susceptibility to judicial subjectivity. (Posted February 22, 2008)
Associate Dean for Student Affairs Kelly Lynn Anders' essay "Reviewing Silkwood at 25: The Reel Impact on Environmental Policy" has been published in volume 49 of South Texas Law Review (2007). The year 2008 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the release of the film Silkwood, which depicted the events surrounding the apparent plutonium contamination and mysterious death of Kerr-McGee employee Karen Silkwood. The film featured the facts leading up to the case, but many would argue that the resulting lawsuit involved a legal battle worthy of a sequel. The Kerr-McGee Corporation no longer exists, but the former company continues to impact the concepts of environmental policy, whistleblower protection, and damages awards through case law. Dean Anders provides a comparative analysis of the case and its depiction in film and follows with a summary of how both continue to impact environmental policy. (Posted February 2, 2008)
Joseph (Jeremiah) Donnelly, '08 will be speaking to the International Law Society at noon on Wednesday, January 30 in Room 120, about his experience being simultaneously enrolled as a J.D. student at Washburn Law and an LL.M. (Masters of Law) student at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Jeremiah is taking his 3L year at Maastricht, working on his LL.M. in "European Law School." This past summer Washburn Law reached an agreement with the faculty of law of Maastricht University, allowing Washburn students to be enrolled simultaneously as a Washburn J.D. student and a Maastricht LL.M. student. (For more information about Simultaneous Enrollment in the Maastricht LL.M. Program see Washburn Law-Maastricht Study Abroad Program.) This agreement was based on the ingenuity of the first Washburn-Maastricht study abroad student, Nathan Walters, '07, who obtained his Washburn J.D. and a Maastricht LL.M. degree in International and European Tax Law. Nathan is now employed as an international tax advisor for KPMG in Luxembourg. Brian Clarke, '06, also works for KPMG with its international corporate services. Other Washburn Law students who have attended Maastricht as study abroad students for one semester are Andrea Bruns '07 and Robert Tresslar '07. (Posted January 25, 2008)
Professor David Pierce served as volume editor for the 5th edition of Cases and Materials on Oil and Gas Law published by Thomson/West in 2008. Co-editors were Professors Owen L. Anderson, John S. Lowe, and Ernest E. Smith. This popular law school casebook covers topics such as modification and limitation of the law of capture, the purpose of the lease and nature of rights, implied covenants, mineral, royalty, terminable, and executive right interests, trespass and related actions, lessor rights against assignee, and development of federal, state, and Indian lands. In addition to revising individual chapters, Professor Pierce coordinated and proofed the entire work, making sure everything fit and was consistent. Angela Carlon, a second-year student at Washburn Law, assisted with updating citations and proofreading. (Posted January 11, 2008)
Professor Mary Kreiner Ramirez's article "Blowing the Whistle on Whistleblower Protection: A Tale of Reform versus Power," has been published at 76 University of Cincinnati Law Review 183 (2007) [562 KB PDF]. In this article Professor Ramirez shows that after nearly 150 years of piecemeal evolution, whistleblowing remains fraught with risk. Although Congress is considering expanding whistleblower protection, the President has vowed to veto the legislation. With every wave of scandals or with each new political movement, Congress seems to include whistleblower protection. However, the protections extended to whistleblowers are a porous net rather than a secure blanket. The extension by Congress of whistleblower protection to corporate and securities insiders in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 fails to change this reality. Professor Ramirez's article articulates a solution to the problems of whistleblower protection: an omnibus statute that could cover the gaps in the current net of protection. The article further shows how an omnibus statute can address the underlying political dynamics that are generally hostile to whistleblower protection and suggests that the structure of a law can have a profound influence on its susceptibility to special interest influence. (Posted January 10, 2008)
