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faculty news
Judith Kilpatrick was named
associate dean for diversity,
planning, and special projects
in July 2006. She has published
“Wiley Austin Branton: A Role
Model for All Times,” 48 Howard
Law Journal 827 (2005) and “Wiley
A. Branton and Cooper v. Aaron:
America Fulfills Its Promise,”
Arkansas Historical Quarterly 65, no. 1 (spring 2006): 7-
21. She completed the biographical entries on “Wiley
Austin Branton” and “Christopher C. Mercer” (two
of the school’s early African American graduates) for
The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture and
will co-author the general entry on “Law” for the online
publication. Kilpatrick has a forthcoming entry
on “Wiley Austin Branton” for the African American
National Biography, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard
University, Cambridge, in collaboration with Oxford
University Press. Her biography of Wiley Branton will
be published by the University of Arkansas Press in
2007. She was a panelist on “Wiley A. Branton and
Cooper v. Aaron: America Fulfills Its Promise” for
the Mid-America History Conference in Lawrence,
Kan., in September 2005 and will be a panelist on
“Desegregation in Little Rock, the Legal Battle”
for the national Oral History Association in Little
Rock, Ark., in October 2006. She spoke on “The
Ethics of Mediation/Applicable Law & Professional
Rules/Making the Best Use of Requirements” at the
2005 Alternative Dispute Resolution “So You Think
Your Practice Doesn’t Use Mediation,” Arkansas Bar
Association Dispute Resolution Section in Little Rock,
Ark., in April.
Robert Laurence was
interviewed on the air by
the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation in June 2005 about
American Indian and Australian
Aboriginal law, and he served
on a panel sponsored by the
National Resources Journal
and the American Indiana Law
Center talking about the federal government’s trust
responsibility toward Indian tribes. He offered a
private-law, instructional alternative in April 2005.
Laurence also spoke to the Arkansas Farm Bureau on
“Current Issues in Equine Law” in November 2005.
Rob Leflar taught comparative
law at the University of Tokyo
during the 2005-06 academic year
while on leave. Leflar returned
this year to teach Torts, Health
Law, and Products Liability.
His research project comparing
Japanese and American approaches
to the problems of medical error,
supported by grants from the Japan Foundation and
the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, has
resulted so far in these publications: “Medical Error as
Reportable Event; as Tort; as Crime: A Transpacific
Comparison,” 12 Widener L. Rev. 189-225 (2005);
“Amerika ni okeru Iryo Rinri Kitei no Kinoteki
Bunseki [A Functional Analysis of Medical Ethics
Codes]” (Chiaki Sato trans.), in Seimei Rinri to Ho
[Bioethics and the Law] 99-116 (Norio Higuchi & Yuko
Tsuchiya eds., Tokyo: Kobundo 2005) (in Japanese);
and a book review of Luke Nottage, Product Safety and
Liability Law in Japan: From Minamata to Mad Cows,
in 25 Japanese Studies 307 (2005).
Professor Leflar also gave lectures and presented
papers at a wide variety of conferences, workshops,
and other university settings in Japan and the United
States. Since the beginning of 2006, these included
“Disclosure of and Apology for Medical Error: Changes
in Law and Practice in the U.S. and Japan,” Japan
Ass’n of Law & Society, Waseda Univ., Tokyo, July
15, 2006; “Law and Patient Safety in the U.S. and
Japan,” Workshop on Medical Safety and the Law,
Univ. of Tokyo, July 8, 2006 (keynote speaker);
“Nihon to Amerika ni okeru iryō anzen mondai (iryō
kago) ni tsuite” [Issues in Patient Safety and Medical
Malpractice in Japan and the U.S.], Dokkyō Univ.
School of Law, Sōka, Saitama, June 14, 2006 (in
Japanese); “Nichibei hikaku no shiten kara mita iryō
jiko o meguru hō to seiji” [The Law and Politics of
Medical Error from a Comparative Perspective], Kyoto
Univ. Hospital, June 2, 2006 (in Japanese); “Medical
Error as Crime in Japan,” Freeman Symposium on
Health, Law, and Justice in Asia, Dickinson College,
Carlisle, Pa., April 28, 2006 (opening speaker); “Rikōru
seido no kyōka to anzen jōhō no kyōyūka: Beikoku no
jijō” [Strengthening the Product Recall System and
Sharing Information: U.S. Developments], PL Ombuds
Kaigi, Tokyo, Apr. 4, 2006 (in Japanese); “Crimes,
Torts, Accident Reports: Factual Investigations in
the Medical Context,” Int’l Workshop on Safety Law
Systems, Univ. of Tokyo, Feb. 14, 2006; “The Law,
Politics, and Media Treatment of Medical Error from a
Comparative Perspective,” 1 st Int”l Forum on Patient
Safety, Univ. of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine,
Jan. 23, 2006; “Amerika kara no goaisatsu” [Salutation
from America], Japan Federation of Bar Ass’ns
Symposium on Four Proposed Consumer Rights Laws,
Tokyo, Jan. 21, 2006 (in Japanese); and “Patient Safety
and Medical Ethics: The Dilemmas of Medical Error
Disclosure,” Yokohama City Univ. Faculty of Medicine,
Jan. 16, 2006.
Mary Beth Matthews presented “Considerations
in Choosing Small Business
Entities” to the Benton County
Bar Association on March 2, 2006,
“Payment Devices” at Northwest
Arkansas Debtor-Creditor Bar
meeting on Nov. 2, 2005, and “The
Latest News in Funds Transfers:
Or When is a Check More Like a
Debit Card?” at the Arkansas Bar
Association mid-year meeting in Memphis, Tenn. on
Jan. 21, 2005. She also co-wrote with Steve H. Nickles
Payments Law in a Nutshell, 2005, Thomson West
Company.
Robert B. Moberly was appointed by Gov. Mike
Huckabee as a Commissioner
on the Arkansas Alternative
Dispute Resolution Commission
to serve from 2006-11. He also
was elected as a fellow into the
College of Labor and Employment
Lawyers; was appointed to the
National Academy of Arbitrators
Committee on Professional
Responsibility and Grievances; and was named Chair
of the National Academy of Arbitrators Program
Committee for the 2008 annual meeting in Ottawa,
Canada. Professor Moberly chaired and spoke on a
labor relations panel in New York City at Hofstra
University’s 11th Presidential Conference, titled,
“William Jefferson Clinton: The ‘New Democrat’
from Hope.” Moberly’s article, “Labor-Management
Relations During the Clinton Administration,” has
been accepted for publication by the Hofstra University
School of Law Labor and Employment Law Journal.
faculty news
Michael W. Mullane presented
“The Rule of Law” June 5, 2006, on
National Public Radio’s program
This I Believe. He made a CLE
presentation to the Benton County
Bar Association Aug. 3, 2006, in
Bentonville, Ark.
Cyndi Nance was named dean
in July 2006. Her presentations
in 2005 included: “Why Labor
and Employment Ethics?” at the
Labor and Employment Ethics
Symposium at Chase College
of Law in Covington, Ky. in
November; “The Legal Case for
Diversity,” Diversity: It’s Good
Business – Building a More Inclusive Workplace
and Community, the Northwest Arkansas Human
Resources Association in Springdale in August; “Issues
Raised by Ex Parte Communications with Labor and
Employment Arbitrators,” I Shouldn’t Be Talking to
You About This, But….: Ex Parte Communications in
Labor and Employment Law, American Bar Association
Annual Meeting in Chicago, June; “The Greensboro
Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” Law and the
Public-Private Dichotomy: Government Involvement
in Private Life Law and Society Meeting in Las Vegas,
May; “Legal Clinics and Specialty Bars: Partnerships
with the Legal Community,” The Prophetic Work:
Religion and Labor Uniting for Worker Justice
Interfaith Worker Justice National Conference in
Chicago, April; “Eighth Circuit Update,” Arkansas Bar
Association, 28th Annual Labor and Employment Law
Conference in Fayetteville; and “Are We Living Dr.
King’s Legacy?” Third Annual Martin Luther King Day
at Northwest Arkansas Community College in January.
Nance was also the moderator for “1991 Amendments,
Supreme Court Cases, Race and Beyond,” The Civil
Rights Act Symposium, Arkansas Bar Association,
Labor and Employment Law Section in Little Rock in
September. Her publications include: “Why Labor and
Employment Ethics?” Northern Kentucky Law Review
(2006); “Widgets to Digits, Reimagining Protective
Workplace Policy,” book review in Employee Rights and
Employment Policy Journal, 2006; “Issues Raised by Ex
Parte Communications with Labor and Employment
Arbitrators,” American Bar Association, Labor and
Employment Law Section, Proceedings; “A Colorable
Claim Under Title VII,” 26 Berkeley Lab & Emp.