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School of Law Names National AgLaw Center Directors
Staff attorneys and assistant research professors Doug O’Brien
and Harrison Pittman were named interim directors for the National
Agricultural Law Center. The two will lead the center’s mission to conduct
legal research into the most critical issues facing agriculture and food today.
“We are proud to have Doug O’Brien and Harrison Pittman step up to
become directors of such a prestigious national center during an exciting
time for the School of Law,” said Dean Cyndi Nance, who appointed the
two as interim directors for the academic year 2006-07.
For nearly 20 years, the National Agricultural Law Center has
researched legal aspects of agritourism, biofuels, land and water
conservation and farm bills.
O’Brien and Pittman have been around agriculture for their entire lives.
O’Brien grew up on an Iowa farm, while Pittman grew up in an agricultural
community in eastern Arkansas. Both earned their masters’ degrees in
agricultural law at the University of Arkansas School of Law.
O’Brien and Pittman will replace former director Michael Roberts, who
has gone to work for the Venable Law Firm in Washington, D.C., where he
will counsel the firm on food law and policy. Roberts
will continue teaching at the School of Law as an
adjunct professor in food law.
“Working for the National Agricultural Law
Center was my favorite job, and I will miss it greatly,”
said Roberts.
He said the center is proud of its accomplishments,
which include launching a nationally acclaimed
Web site, nationalaglawcenter.org/ maintaining an
excellent staff, including O’Brien and Pittman and
assisting with the first student-run journal of its kind,
The Journal of Food Law & Policy.
O’Brien and Pittman plan to carry on the center’s mission to conduct
legal research and provide objective, authoritative and scholarly articles to
scholars, attorneys, policymakers and others in the agricultural community
throughout the United States.
School of Law Ranked ‘Most Diverse’
The University of Arkansas School of Law is included among the “most
diverse law schools in the country” as ranked by U.S. News and World
Report’s 2007 edition of America’s Best Graduate Schools. According to
the report, African American students make up 16 percent of the School
of Law’s student body – that’s the fifth highest percentage of African
Americans at any law school in the nation.
“We are most proud of the fact that our largest minority community in
the law school is African Americans,” says professor of law Carol Goforth.
“They are historically underrepresented in the legal profession.”
U.S. News and World Report started this category for diversity in law
schools in 2006, and in both consecutive years, the University of Arkansas
School of Law has been ranked among the most diverse law schools in the
country.
While the percentage of minority students in the entering class has
increased from 18.9 percent in 2001 to 25.9 percent in 2005, the average
LSAT scores and grade point averages have increased dramatically, says
Goforth.
The School of Law is indebted to the efforts of not only the law school’s
associate dean of students, Jim Miller, who earned the Henry J. Ramsey
Jr. Award for the Law Student Division of the American Bar Association,
but to students, faculty, alumni and community members who donate their
time and commitment to prospective students.
“The law school makes room for everyone,” Goforth says.
Professor Watkins Retires after 23 Years
Professor John Watkins retired in August after more than 30 years in
teaching, the last 23 as a member of the School of Law faculty. At the time
of his retirement, he held the William H. Enfield Endowed Professorship.
“John’s contributions to the law school, the bar and to legal scholarship
are tremendous,” Dean Cyndi Nance said. “We will miss him greatly but
wish him well in his new life.”
The author of three books and four dozen journal articles, Professor
Watkins specialized in Arkansas civil procedure and the state’s Freedom of
Information Act.
“I have always believed that some faculty members at state schools
should devote their efforts to state law,” he said. “Not everyone should go
that route, of course, but it was the path I chose.”
For 19 years, Professor Watkins was a reporter – i.e., principal draftsman
– for the Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Civil Practice, which
recommends changes in procedural rules to the Court. He also chaired the
Arkansas Bar Association’s task force on implementation of Constitutional
Amendment 80, which restructured the state’s court system. In 2002, the
Association recognized him with an award for “distinguished service to the
legal profession.”
Professor Watkins plans to continue writing and is now at work on
an article about a 1953 civil rights suit brought by a black baseball player
denied the opportunity to play in an all-white professional league with
teams in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. “Writing has been an
important part of my adult life,” he explained, “and it’s not something I can
immediately put aside.”
A native Texan, Professor Watkins graduated with honors from the
University of Texas School of Law, where he was note and comment editor
of the . After clerking for the late Judge Homer Thornberry of the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, he practiced law with the prominent
firm of Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C. He taught at Baylor Law
School before moving to Arkansas in 1983.
He and his wife Joan will continue to reside in Fayetteville. “At one
time we thought about living elsewhere, but there are few places to live
better than Fayetteville,” he said. “It’s home now.”
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