21903 TWLS summer2000 - Texas Wesleyan School of Law - Texas ...

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Photo by John Veilleux Upon entering Wylie Davis’ office at Texas Wesleyan, the first thing many people notice is the absence of a computer. In its place sits an IBM electric typewriter that Davis has been using for more than 30 years. “I’ve just never had occasion for anything more sophisticated,” Davis said. “I do my research with books, and that allows me to stay fairly current. Besides, I can do technical things on my IBM that many people don’t seem to be able to do on a computer.” August 1978. Except for a visiting year at the University of Missouri and summerteaching visits at South Carolina, Alabama and Texas Tech, he remained at Arkansas until his “retirement” in 1988 at age 69. “At that time, the university had a policy of compulsory retirement at age 70, but I left a year early in order to take advantage of an extended-visit opportunity at McGeorge School of Law (the University of the Pacific) at Sacramento, Calif.” Davis said. “The University of Arkansas folks thought I should be ready to hang it up, but I strongly disagreed.” The Golden Years Davis’ five-year visit at McGeorge was a gung-ho teaching experience, including contracts, insurance, secured transactions, sales and admiralty. Finally, however, as he puts it, “I wore out my welcome.” At that point in 1993, Davis, through an old UT colleague, passed the word to Elliott, now dean at Texas Wesleyan, that he would be interested in a teaching visit at the school. Elliott made that visit a reality, and the rest, as they say, is history. Davis continued to teach his favorite courses until his sixth retirement at age 81 in July 2000. “My seven years at Texas Wesleyan were stimulating and a unique experience for me,” Davis said. “They not only enabled me to prolong my classroom addiction, but they also gave me a fascinating chance not open to most law professors around the country – to observe and participate in the early development and maturation of a new law school. “Perhaps it was somewhat akin to an astronomer’s thrill in observing the birth of a star. My observation, was one of movement in real time, not merely a snapshot of an event that occurred a couple billion years ago. Please take my word for it: The Texas Wesleyan School of Law is lightyears ahead of where it was just three or four years ago. “Many people, not least the law students, participated in this remarkable achievement. I have absolutely no doubt that the school’s progress will continue apace, and it was a rare privilege for me to have been involved in its infancy, if not quite its birth. Now I’m ready to return home, learn how to turn on a computer and try to discover what in the world my faculty associates, here and elsewhere for the past 20 years, have been doing, and why they’ve been doing it, while staring at that machine all day, every day. I expect some astounding revelations.” ■ 8 Wesle esle esley esle an an La Lawy La wy wyer wy er • Summer 2000 Texas Wesleyan University School of Law
around campus ■ Notes of interest about campus events U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kicks Off Judge Eldon B. Mahon Lecture Series Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Antonin Scalia served as the inaugural speaker of the Judge Eldon B. Mahon Lecture Series at the Bass Performance Hall on May 10. The event was sponsored by the Tarrant County Bar Foundation and Texas Wesleyan University School of Law. “The lecture series will continue for years to come as a lasting memorial to Judge Mahon’s service on the federal bench,” attorney Dee J. Kelly, chair of the lecture series, said. Scalia lectured on the U.S. Constitution, a document, though relatively young in comparison to others, he regards as one of the most revered in history. “We Americans may indeed be the ‘new kids on the block’ in many areas,” Scalia told a crowded audience at the Bass Performance Hall. “[But] in the field of government, we are the most venerable nation in the world, and our Constitution is the most venerable and successful system of government in the world.” Scalia also spoke about the process of the convention that framed the Constitution some 225 years ago. “These extraordinary individuals, quite literally a large part of the cream of society at the time, did not meet a couple of times to vote on reports prepared by their staff, which, of course, would be the way it is done today,” he said. “They met personally five or six days a week, five or six hours a day, from mid-May to mid-September – almost an entire baseball season. And after the plenary sessions, they often filled their evenings with committee work or informal discussion. Imagine getting individuals of equivalent prominence in our society today to devote that kind of time to that kind of project.” The Judge Eldon B. Mahon Lecture Series was established to honor the years of service Judge Eldon B. Mahon, district judge for the Northern District of Texas, has given to the legal profession, a period of service dating back to the 1940s. The Mahon Lecture Series Endowment has Texas Wesleyan University School of Law been established by the Tarrant County Bar Foundation and will be used to fund the lecture series for the benefit of Texas Wesleyan University School of Law in honor of Mahon. The lecture series will focus on ethics and professionalism. “Texas Wesleyan is thankful to the Tarrant County Bar Foundation and proud to be associated with and a co-sponsor of the Judge Eldon B. Mahon Lecture Series,” Dean Richard Gershon said. “Judge Mahon’s model of ethics and professionalism, as well as his exemplary service to Texas and the federal bench, is the standard to which all in the legal profession should aspire.” Scalia was nominated by President Ronald Reagan as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, taking the oath of office on Sept. 26, 1986. He also has served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Before holding judicial offices, Scalia taught law at the University of Virginia (1967-74), Georgetown University (1977), the University of Chicago (1977-82) and Stanford University (1980-81). Prior to teaching, Scalia worked in private practice and in government service. Alumni Set Benchmark for Bar Exam Thirty-six alumni (77%) passed the February Texas State Bar exam on their first attempt, setting a new benchmark for the School of Law, which earned full accreditation from the American Bar Association last August. “I am extremely proud of our graduates,” Dean Richard Gershon said. “This effort validates not only the fact that our professors are doing a great job in the classroom, but that the quality of our students, many of whom work full time and attend night school while earning their juris doctorate, is getting stronger, too.” Several recent graduates traveled to Austin on May 22 to be officially sworn in at an induction ceremony at the Bass Concert Hall at the University of Texas. Chief Justice Thomas R. Phillips of the Supreme Court of Texas administered the oath to the new inductees. The School of Law hosted a reception honoring the school’s newly sworn members of the Texas Wesle esle esley esle an an La Lawy La wy wyer wyer er • Summer 2000 9
Page 2 and 3: inside Wes eyan Lawyer features 4
Page 4 and 5: Story by John Veilleux “Wesleyan
Page 6 and 7: Story by John Veilleux “After fin
Page 10 and 11: State Bar after the ceremony at the
Page 12 and 13: in academia ■ Notes about Texas W
Page 14 and 15: Received the 1999-2000 Upper Class
Page 16 and 17: Professor Malinda Seymore has been
Page 18 and 19: It can easily be argued that an att
Page 20 and 21: Courts all over the country have in
Page 22 and 23: Story by John Veilleux “I told my
Page 24 and 25: alumni news & notes ■ A digest of
Page 26 and 27: Scott Cornuaud has joined the Hunt
Page 28 and 29: Story by John Veilleux “The schoo
Page 30 and 31: State representative Phillip S. Kin
Page 32 and 33: hooding 2000 ■ Pictures from the
Page 34 and 35: Annual Fund West Society $10,000 or
Page 36: Thank You, President Schrum Texas W

21903 TWLS summer2000 - Texas Wesleyan School of Law - Texas ...

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