Spring 2002 - The University of Texas at Austin

Betty Blackwell of Austin was sworn
in as the first woman president of the
Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.
Blackwell is the current chair of
the Criminal Justice Section of the State
Bar of Texas and a member of the Texas
Punishment Standards Commission,
which rewrote the Penal Code in 1994.
She is also a member of the Committee
for Representation of the Poor in Criminal
Matters of the State Bar and co-author of
West’s Texas Practice Service-Criminal
Forms and Trial Manual. She is a former
UT Law adjunct professor and is a frequent
lecturer on criminal law topics.
HarperBusiness has published a book
by James Chiles, Inviting Disaster:
Lessons from the Edge of Technology.
The book explores the world of technocatastrophes
and near-miss incidents by
regarding them as “system fractures” that
arise out of a chain of human error and
mechanical malfunction. He welcomes email
at james_chiles@compuserve.com
Melinda G. Jayson is working with
Hall Financial Group in Frisco, Texas, as
general counsel.
DeMetris Sampson received one of
seven awards at the Eighth Annual
Women of Excellence Awards ceremony
by Women’s Enterprise. Sampson is
the first African-American woman to
become managing partner in a majority
law firm in Dallas.
1981
Municipal Court Judge Evelyn P.
McKee was named the Texas Municipal
Courts Association’s Outstanding Judge
for 2000-2001.
Thomas Mengler recently became the
new dean of the St. Thomas’ School of
Law. He had previously served as dean of
the University of Illinois College of Law.
The American Public Transportation
Association has
named Dallas Area Rapid
Transit (DART) Board Chairman
Jesse Oliver the Outstanding
Transit Board Member. An eight-year
member of the DART Board of Directors
—and chairman since 1999—he has been
a driving force behind the successful
debut of a multi-modal system of buses,
light rail, commuter rail, paratransit and
high-occupancy vehicle lanes serving
the dynamic North Texas region. Oliver
was also recognized for his leadership
during an August 2000 campaign for
$2.9 billion in bonds to accelerate DART
development. Oliver was elected to the
Texas Legislature in 1982 and was
appointed by Texas Gov. Mark White in
1987 as state district judge. He is currently
manager of Human Resource
Policy Administration and Employee
Relations at the University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.
1983
Michael J. Hutson is partner with the
law firm of Ainsa Hutson, LLP, in El Paso.
1984
Sylvia K. Burks has become partner in
the law firm of Coudert Brothers in Palo
Alto, Calif.
Timothy P. Chinaris has become law
library director and associate professor
R
of law at Appalachian School of Law in
Grundy, Va.
1985
J. Arnold Aguilar has been board certified
as a trial advocate by the National
Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA).
Christopher Berlew has become partner
of Altheimer & Gray and relocated
to Prague, Czech Republic, from the
Bucharest, Romania office. In Prague, he
will be the senior Western lawyer in the
27-attorney office.
In addition to maintaining his private law
practice, David Naworski has been
a registered investment advisor since
Jan. 1, 2001. He now has two daughters:
Alexandria, 4 and Lauren, 1.
Fielder F. Nelms, formerly with
Meadows, Owens, Collier, Reed, Cousins
& Blau in Dallas, has joined the Dallas
office of Hallett & Perrin, P.C.
The Honorable Bonnie Sudderth
was elected president of the American
ace to the top!
Each UT Law Annual Fund donation
you make helps your class light the
UT Tower in victory orange.
Top class fundraisers as of January 25, 2002:
Participation Monetary
Class of ’53: 27% Class of ’83: $125,761
Class of ’55: 19% Class of ’73: $74,064
Class of ’57: 18% Class of ’75: $46,839
Go online to see how your class compares to
others at http://dpweb1.dp.utexas.edu/loalum/
clas.WBX or make a donation at https: www.
utexas.edu/law/depts/alumni/giving/ccform.html.
Alumni philanthropy funds 33% of the cost of each
in-state student’s education. Please give generously.
Spring 2002 UTLAW 53
C L A S S N O T E S