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

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
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