Celebrating 10 Years in Fort Worth - Texas Wesleyan School of Law ...

Texas
Wesleyan
fall/winter 2007
Texas Wesleyan University
SCHOOL OF LAW
CELEBRATING
10
YEARS in
Fort Worth
A magazine for
alumni and friends

inside
features
2 Fulbright Lecturer Shares Her Experiences
Teaching Behind the Great Wall
12 Taking Art Law to the Land of Enchantment
22 Texas Wesleyan University School of Law
Celebrating 10 Years in Fort Worth
34 Passion in Action:
How One Professor’s Love of Law is Helping Reshape a Nation
40 Law School Announces the Bernie Schuchmann
Conference Center
sections
6 Around Campus
Notes of interest about campus events
18 In Academia
Notes about Texas Wesleyan law faculty and administrators
30 Alumni Report
News from the Office of Advancement
& Alumni Relations
36 Alumni News & Notes
A digest of news, notes, events, and features
44 Career Services
Answers to your career-related questions
Texas
Wesleyan
fall/winter 2007 z volume 7 z issue 1
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law
1515 Commerce Street • Fort Worth, Texas 76102
817.212.4000
www.law.txwes.edu
INTERIM DEAN
Cynthia L. Fountaine
ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
Vickie Rainwater
ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR buDgET & PLANNINg
James Hambleton
ASSOCIATE DEAN & DIRECTOR OF THE LAW LIbRARY
Susan Phillips
ASSISTANT DEAN FOR CAREER SERVICES
Arturo Errisuriz
ASSISTANT DEAN FOR STuDENT AFFAIRS
Patti Gearhart Turner
ASSISTANT DEAN OF ADMISSIONS & SCHOLARSHIPS
Sherolyn Hurst
ASSISTANT DEAN FOR MARkETINg & COMMuNICATIONS
John M. Veilleux
PRESIDENT
Dr. Harold G. Jeffcoat
PROVOST & SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT
Dr. Allen Henderson
EDITORIAL STAFF
EDITOR
John M. Veilleux
MANAgINg EDITOR
Abby E. Dozier
COPY EDITOR
Janna Franzwa Canard
Please direct correspondence to:
John M. Veilleux, editor
Wesleyan Lawyer
1515 Commerce Street
Fort Worth, Texas 76102
jveilleux@law.txwes.edu
Wesleyan Lawyer is published twice a year for the benefit of Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law graduates, faculty, and friends. The views and
opinions expressed in Wesleyan Lawyer are those of the authors and not
necessarily those of Texas Wesleyan University School of Law.
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law is fully accredited by the American
Bar Association, 321 N. Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois 60610, 800.285.2221.
Texas Wesleyan University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of
the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award baccalaureate
and master’s level degrees and the juris doctor degree.
Texas Wesleyan University does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race,
color, creed, handicap, or national or ethnic origin in any of the operations
or activities of the university.

message
Dear Alumni and Friends:
We are celebrating ten years in downtown Fort Worth. We
have accomplished a lot in the past ten years, and we have a
lot to be proud of.
Our cover feature looks back at some of the notable
accomplishments of the last decade, from visits from the
Supreme Court of Texas to national recognition for student
achievement. I invite you to turn to our cover story and relive
the highlights and accomplishments we are so proud to
share with you.
The word is out about what an excellent law school
we have built in Fort Worth. This fall, we enrolled
one of our largest classes ever and welcomed
291 eager and enthusiastic first year students.
We received about 2,000 applications for these
coveted law school seats, and we are delighted
with the quality and promise of this year’s
entering class.
With such terrific students, it is no surprise
that our bar pass rate continues to place us
among the top law schools in Texas. With a
pass rate of 91.14 percent on the July 2007
State Bar of Texas Exam, Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law had its highest bar
pass rate ever. This pass rate was higher than
five other Texas law schools and placed us
fourth in the state, with the next highest school
only a fraction of a percentage point ahead
of us. These results illustrate the strength of
our academic programs and the quality and
dedication of our students and faculty.
During the past few years, we have seen our law
school’s advocacy programs grow and excel.
This past year, the law school saw unprecedented
success in our interschool advocacy programs,
and we cannot wait to see what this year’s teams
accomplish at competitions across the state
and country.
In addition, we have maintained our
commitment to public service. Since January
1998, our Law Clinic has made a difference in
the lives of people living in and around Fort
Worth by providing free legal services to
indigent people. Last spring, our Law Clinic
from the dean
won Legal Aid of North West Texas’s prestigious 2006 Fort
Worth Outstanding Large Law Firm of the Year Award. The
hard-working attorneys and students who work in the Law
Clinic deserve our gratitude and support for the important
work they are doing.
Our outstanding faculty continues to receive national and
international recognition. This issue contains stories about
two of our faculty members who have taken their passion
for teaching beyond the walls of the classroom. Last
spring, Professor Malinda Seymore traveled to Xiamen,
China, where she served as a Fulbright lecturer
at Xiamen University. Professor Seymore kept a
detailed blog chronicling her experiences in China.
A series of excerpts from her blog can be found on
page 2. I think you will enjoy reading about her
fascinating adventures in China.
1
Another one of our faculty members who has
been forging connections across the globe is
Professor Joe Spurlock. As the director of the
Asian Judicial Institute of Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law, Professor Spurlock
has been guiding members of the Mongolian
legal community through their transition to
a democratic system of government since
1996. His enthusiasm for this project is inspiring,
and you can read about his experience with
the AJI on page 34.
As you can see, we have accomplished a great
deal in our ten years in downtown Fort Worth.
Without your support and dedication, we could
not be where we are today. We appreciate the
continued support of all of our alumni and friends,
and know that together we can accomplish many
more great things in the coming years.
Sincerely,
Cynthia L. Fountaine
Interim Dean & Professor of Law

Fulbright Lecturer Shares Her Experiences Teaching
Behind the great WaLL
Last February, Professor Malinda Seymore, along with her two daughters, Zoe and Maya, left for
Xiamen University in Xiamen, China, where Seymore began serving as a Fulbright lecturer as part
of the Fulbright Scholar Program. During her stay, Seymore taught three courses to graduate level
students – American Constitutional Law, Women in American Law, and American Criminal Procedure.
Seymore and her daughters arrived in China on February 26 and returned to the U.S. on August 1.
As Seymore enters “two brave new
worlds – China and blogging” – we
follow her adventures via this brief
series of capsulized excerpts, in which
bracketed summaries are followed
by italicized personal reflections in
her own words. To get the whole
story, visit Seymore’s original, dated
entry blog, complete with photos at
http://xiamenadventure.blogspot.
com/2007/02/its-almost-time.html.
This touching, often humorous and
engaging account will transport you to
her unforgettable “Xiamen Adventure.”
Although this story deals only with
Seymore’s teaching experiences, in the
full text of her blog you’ll also find a
fascinating journey through cultural,
political, and personal frontiers that
will make you an eyewitness to the
struggles, triumphs, inspirations, and
revelations of her five unforgettable
months in China.
Orientation to “the Orient”
[After officials from the U.S. Consulate
in Guangzhou presented their overview
of the social, political, and economic
realities in China – with an emphasis
on South China, home to Xiamen –
Seymore was on her own for lunch.
The afternoon orientation session,
presented by a speaker from the
Ministry of Education, covered issues
in Chinese higher education. He tells
them that one of China’s priorities is
the “internationalization” of higher
education, and obviously, the Fulbright
program is part of that. But another thing
China is interested in is attracting more
foreign students, apparently liberalizing
visa requirements for students.] “...
Something to think about if you’ve always
wanted to learn Chinese!”
Constitutional Law
[Seymore began with the basics of
what a constitution does and how it
regulates 1) the relationships between
the three branches of government,
2) the states and the federal government,
and 3) the people and the government.]
“... Although the students seemed
familiar with the first and third items,
the concept of federalism – how the
Constitution structurally protects
individual liberties – seemed new to
them. ... One student asked a very good
question about “checks and balances”
in relation to the Iraq war – did Congress
agree with the executive’s decision to go
to war? So that was fun.”
[Although the tradition in Chinese
law schools is for the professor to
just lecture, and students are also
concerned that what they say in class
could be reported by other students to
the powers that be, Seymore ponders
how she can get her classes to talk.]
2
“... It’s important for me to get them to
talk, since it is frankly boring just to
lecture! It’s also about the only way I
can figure out if they are understanding
the material. [Her solution? Moot court
arguments in class.] “... That way, they
would have to talk, and they would be
making the arguments that the lawyer
representing their side of the case would
make, not their own arguments, which
was a form of plausible deniability.”
[In their study of congressional power
– Article I of the U.S. Constitution –
Seymore assigned her class the famous
1819 case of M’Culloch v. Maryland.
The question: Does Congress have the
power to incorporate a bank? (“This case
is really about how broad or narrow the
power of Congress to legislate should be,
not really about banks at all.”) Seymore
told half the class to represent M’Culloch
and half to represent Maryland.] “...
I was THRILLED by the quantity and
quality of the presentations. I actually
got everyone representing M’Culloch
to speak! We ran out of time before the
other side could argue, but they’ll have
a shot this week. …”
Women & Law
[In Seymore’s first Women in American
Law class, it was hard to tell how
many students were actually enrolled –
several students who had not registered

Photos by Malinda Seymore
story
feature
asked if they could sit in and listen
– she even discovered three faculty
members sitting in!] “There were about
14 in the room, but only nine on the class
list I passed around. VERY interesting.”
[After fielding personal questions from
the women in the class (why did she
adopt? why was she single? and – her
favorite – what was she looking for
in a husband?), Seymore turns the
questions back on them, using the
issue of marriage as a way to talk about
autonomy – and how the ability to
choose a career instead of marriage or a
career together with marriage was one of
the issues that drove the second wave of
feminism in the U.S.]
[Discussions revolved around the legal
status of women in Anglo-American
tradition prior to reforms in the 1800s;
how women essentially ceased to have
a legal existence after marriage, could
not own property, sue or be sued, enter
into contracts, etc.] “... This was all quite
foreign to them – in some ways having a
“rule of law” come late to your country
allows you to skip that stage in the LEGAL
treatment of women, no matter how badly
you treat women in FACT.”
[In a brief overview of the contrasting
culture of marriage in China, whether
marriage in China was better for men
or for women, and whether men or
women in China had an easier life, the
class agreed that men in China had
an easier life and benefited more from
marriage than women did.] “ ... So, all
in all I think this will be a great class.
It will be especially fun for me to learn
about differences between Chinese and
American culture, and to discover the
similarities, too.”
teachable moment
in the midst of tragedy
[When Seymore overhears her
Constitutional Law students are
speaking – in Chinese – with the
distinct English words “Virginia” and
“shootings” sprinkled in, she seized
the opportunity to link this tragic
event to constitutional law – and what
the U.S. Constitution has to say about
guns, as well as the related societal and
the legal issues.] “... I don’t mean this
to sound so coldly clinical – it was, of
course, a horrific tragedy – but my job as
a teacher is to see what lessons, if any,
we can draw that are relevant to the
subject matter of my class. Thus, a little
Home Away from Home
Living in China for five months was an adjustment for Seymore and her daughters. Their balcony came complete with a washing
machine, and like every other balcony in China, it was common to see clothes hanging out to dry. The Seymore family living room
housed the refrigerator near the desk in the alcove. Also pictured is the room Seymore’s daughters, Zoe and Maya, called home. This
photo was taken from their door. “The cleaners had just changed the sheets, so their comforters are folded at the foot of their beds,
and their blankets are folded at the head of the bed,” Seymore said. “I guess that’s how the cleaners let us know the sheets had been
changed because usually the beds were made.” The final picture is of Seymore’s kitchen, somewhat smaller than she is accustomed
to, and if she needed something from the refrigerator, she could, of course, retrieve it from the living room.
3
intellectual detachment is needed even
in the face of horror.”
What Defines a “Gun Culture?”
[Seymore asked her students if they
worried that such a thing could happen
at Xiada Law School; they assure her
it could never happen there – China
does not allow individuals to possess
guns. She asks about the guns carried
by armored car guards – what if one of
them went crazy? “The guard would
act out his craziness another way,” they
said. “He would not think of shooting
lots of people with the gun.” China, they
insist, just doesn’t have a “gun culture”
like the United States.] “… Really, I said
... then why do my children come home
from school each day playing bang-bang
games with their fingers as guns? They
did not do this in America.”
[The students told Seymore that
children playing gun games proves that
there is no “gun culture” in China – they
don’t have to be taught that guns are
dangerous because they will most likely
never even see a gun, much less own
one.] “… I will have to say in support of
their “no gun culture” argument, that in
all of my Chinese TV viewing I haven’t
seen a single gun in any show.”
Changes in attitude
[Leaving behind the slightly dry “powers
of government” material, Seymore’s
Constitutional Law class is enmeshed
in learning about constitutional
guarantees of fundamental rights and
individual liberties.]
Loving v. Virginia
[In their study of Loving v. Virginia
(where the Supreme Court held that it
was unconstitutional to ban interracial
marriage because of a fundamental
right to marry), Seymore asked her
students whether interracial marriage
was considered a problem in China.
They assured her that it was not. She
then asked how their parents would
react if they were to marry a Caucasian
person. Although the men said this
would be no problem, the women
said their parents would see it as a big
problem – that the children would not
be Chinese and would not be raised to
understand Chinese values. This led to
a great exploration of what it meant to
be Chinese. Is ethnicity enough, or must
you have language and culture as well?

story
feature
Photos courtesy of Malinda Seymore
Next came a discussion of the words
“bamboo” (Chinese on the outside,
but hollow of culture on the inside),
“banana” (yellow on the outside, but
white on the inside, describing “overseas
Chinese”), and “egg” (white on the
outside, but Chinese on the inside).]
“… I asked if “egg” and “banana” were
really equivalent – is “egg” a compliment
or an insult? Is “banana” a compliment
or an insult? They said that “egg” is a
positive description while “banana” has
definite negative connotations.” [This
conversation provided a perfect segue
to the relevant legal discussion of what
it took to be “colored” under the antimiscegenation
laws.]
Lawrence v. Texas
[With China’s long history of intolerance
of gay men and lesbians, Seymore was
curious to hear her students’ reaction
to the Lawrence v. Texas case (in which
the Supreme Court held that it was
unconstitutional to criminalize gay
sex). One student said that people in
China consider homosexuality to be
wrong because of tradition and “family
values.” He added that since no animals
have sex with members of the same
sex, it proves it is not natural. Another
argued that there are animals that will
Photo by Malinda Seymore
have homosexual sex, including sheep,
monkeys, and insects. Another student
said that gay people should not be
allowed to parent children because that
would make their children gay. A protest
came from two other students who said
no one could be persuaded to be gay if
he or she was not born that way, and
that being gay was a matter of biology.
Another student disagreed, saying that
it was family life that made someone gay
– if a boy is raised with many sisters, he
will like girlish things and become gay.
To this Seymore replied, going back to
the one-child rule, “Well, then, I guess
there will be no more gay people in
China since no one has brothers or sisters
anymore!”] “… One student piped up
pretty early on in the discussion to say –
and I’ll try to get this as close to verbatim
as I can – ‘I know some homosexuals and
they are very nice boys. They work hard
and have high standards. I don’t see this
as a problem. They should be able to do
what they want.’ I admit I never expected
to hear this attitude expressed in China –
and I certainly didn’t expect the students
to be quite so current on the topic!”
“… It’s been illuminating to watch
the students react to issues I know are
controversial in China – premarital
sex, gay and lesbian relationships,
race relations, for instance. And it’s
been particularly interesting to see
some students espousing pretty liberal
viewpoints on these issues. It seems that
this new generation in China, like new
generations everywhere, is rethinking
some old ideas.”
Visiting the Courthouse in Xiamen
Seymore and her American Constitutional Law students had the opportunity to tour the courts in Xiamen, listen in on a case, and talk
to some of the judges of the district. Pictured is one of the trial rooms in the courthouse the class visited. “The way the courtroom
was set up was with counsels’ tables facing each other rather than facing the judge,” Seymore said. “So it often seemed that the
attorneys were talking to each other rather than to the judge – which would merit an immediate reprimand in an American court.”
Also pictured are Seymore and her students with a group of judges from the district courts and intermediate court of Xiamen. The
judges, Seymore said, were kind enough to spend an hour answering questions from the students.
4
a Work in Progress
[In her Women in American Law class,
Seymore is intrigued as she witnesses
firsthand how young Chinese women
are grappling with their parents’ ideas.
Parents still arrange dates for their
daughters and must approve marriage;
it is impossible for a woman to choose
to be single or to have her own home;
women are still expected to live with
their parents until they marry, unless
she works far away – and even then
she is expected to spend weekends
and holidays at the family home.]
“… Now this was the kind of traditional
Chinese attitude that I was expecting to
encounter. But what seems new to me is
that the women students are definitely
chafing under these restrictions. What
will be interesting to see in the coming
years is whether young Chinese women
will manage to break free.”
[One of the biggest barriers for women,
it seems, is financial; women are
often financially unable to support
themselves, even with advanced degrees
like these students are getting.] “… They
tell me it is very difficult for young women
to get jobs; employers assume you will
be marrying soon and having a baby,
and they don’t want to have to pay your
maternity leave. So, this new generation
– China’s future – is struggling with old
attitudes, old strictures, trying to make
space for new attitudes. I really hope I
can keep in touch with my students – it
will be fascinating to see where they are,
how their attitudes have changed China
in, say, 10 … 25 … 50 years.”
the Courts of Xiamen
[During a visit with her Constitutional
Law students to the courts in Xiamen,
courtesy of Touro Law School (which
has a summer program in Xiamen),
Seymore tours the brand new
courthouse, sits in on a case, and asks
questions of the judges afterwards.
Although the proceeding was all
in Chinese, her students explained
afterwards that the case was a contract
dispute over alleged failure to pay for
goods ordered.] “… There was one
familiar element – everyone stood when
the judge walked in. And the judge was
wearing a black robe – but there was
Photo by Francoise M. Seymore

Opposite page:
Teaching at Xiada Law School
Xiada Law School consisted of three buildings: one housing classrooms, one housing faculty offices, and one housing the library
and administrative offices. Seymore described the classrooms as very old-fashioned, with actual blackboards and seating
like that of an elementary school in the 1950s, with long rows of bolted-down chairs in front of rows of desks with small
cubbies below the writing surface. Despite the old appearance, the classrooms were outfitted with full multimedia capabilities
– computer, projector, DVD player, etc.
a red placket with gold buttons down
the front. I’m really glad I got to see a
case in Chinese court – not a typical
tourist activity, but a lawyer’s dream
destination! And having the opportunity
to interact with Chinese judges was
hugely interesting.”
[The presence of American law students
and professors drew media attention
and afterwards a reporter interviewed
Seymore and several other professors
and students.] “… So who knows, I may
end up on the Xiamen news, but since I
have no idea what channel is the local
one, I doubt I’ll be able to see myself!”
the Chinese Bar
and the Practice of Law
[When Seymore noticed that her
students were napping during
breaks, she discovered that they
were all studying for the national
bar examination. This prompted an
impromptu discussion and exploration
of the similarities and differences
between the bar exam in America and
China.] “… I asked the students if the
bar exam was so hard because China
wanted to keep the number of lawyers
low, but they weren’t sure (or wouldn’t
say). I asked if people in China thought
there were too many lawyers, and they
said no. There were too many lawyers in
the cities, they thought, but in the rural
areas there were serious shortages of
lawyers.”
[Seymore also discovers that hardly
any of her law students actually want to
work for law firms, but instead want to
work for the government. Is this because
of China’s 10 percent pass rate on the
bar exam? She asked a student what
she wanted to do when she graduated,
and the reply was “I just want a good
job … making 5,000 RMB (about $650
U.S.) per month.” Thinking this to be a
curious response, since this student had
disliked the government job she had
held between college and law school,
Seymore quizzed her further. However,
the student continued to insist: “But
if it’s a good job, earning 5,000 RMB
per month, it doesn’t matter.” Seymore
realized that the huge demand for
Chinese legal consultants is being filled
Photo courtesy of Malinda Seymore
by law faculty, not law students.] “…
Some of my colleagues here are making
a mint doing consulting work – I know
one of them drives a brand-spankingnew
red Jaguar.”
Confession Law
[The real topic for today’s class was
confession law, covering Miranda
v. Arizona and the requirement that
confessions be voluntary. Several
important differences between the
Fancy Meeting You Here
From left to right: Professor Malinda Seymore, United States
Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China Clark T. Randt
Jr., and First Secretary & Special Assistant to the Ambassador
Michael Crain ’00. While teaching at Xiada, Seymore received a
call from the Office of International Exchange and Cooperation
at Xiada, saying that Ambassador Randt was going to be
visiting and would like to meet with her. To her surprise, one
of her former students was traveling with the ambassador. “I
knew Michael was working for the ambassador in Beijing and
had been in China for about a year, but I had no idea he would
be at the meeting at Xiada,” she said. “It was great to hook up
with a Texas Wesleyan law alum, and I was not at all surprised
to discover Michael in a political post, given his presidency of
the Student Bar Association in his student days.”
Chinese system and the American
system: a criminal defendant in China
is required to testify – a stark contrast to
America’s 5th Amendment protection;
in China a defendant has no right
to remain silent in the face of police
questioning; a suspect is “obligated
to answer questions.” When Seymore
asked what would happen if someone
simply refused, her students assured
her that people simply don’t refuse
– the police would force the person
to talk. She pushed the point further.
(“Force how?”) They finally said …
it was very common for the police to
use violence to extract a confession.
Seymore explained that the rule in the
U.S. is that involuntary confessions
cannot be admitted in court.] “… The
students tell me that is the same rule
in China; but, they say, judges are
5
unlikely to believe criminal defendants
who say the police used force. That’s a
big problem in the U.S. as well, I told
them … between the police version of
the interrogation and the defendant’s
version of the interrogation, the judge is
more likely to buy the police version … I
continue to learn more than I teach.”
15,000 Hits!
[Seymore’s “Xiamen Adventure” is
clearly a tale followed by a large, diverse
– and international – audience; she
finds this both amazing and gratifying.
According to Sitemeter, the mechanism
that tracks blog visitors, Seymore’s blog
had more than 15,000 hits from readers
in Egypt; Israel; Cremlingen, Germany;
Bunnik, Utrecht, Netherlands; Halifax,
Nova Scotia; and other foreign
locales, as well as from Norcross, Ga;
Massapequa, NY; Overland Park, Kan;
Falls Church, Va; Eden Prairie, Minn;
and, of course, from her hometown of
Fort Worth, Texas.] “… The comments
and e-mails have really been a lifeline
for me. Our time in China has been
quite an adventure, and I couldn’t
let this 15,000-hit milestone pass
without saying, ‘Thanks for coming
along for the ride!’” z
Swapping Macaroni for Fried Noodles
Maya, age 3, and Zoe, age 6, accompanied Seymore to China.
“They loved everything about China, happily swapping
macaroni and cheese for fried noodles, and Clifford the Big
Red Dog for the Adventures of the Monkey King,” Seymore
said. “They easily made friends at Xiada Kindergarten despite
the language barrier. Child’s play is, indeed, universal.”
Photo by Malinda Seymore
feature story — fulbright lecturer shares her experiences teaching behind the great wall • photos by malinda seymore & francoise m. seymore

arOund
Law school announces grant
renewal from United Way
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law
recently received a $100,000 grant renewal
from the United Way Families Impact
Council that will provide continued funding
for the children’s rights program of the
school’s in-house Law Clinic. United Way
Impact grants are intended to test strategies
designed to change the community systems
for specific populations.
“We are grateful to the United Way for
its continued support of our Law Clinic,”
Interim Dean Cynthia L. Fountaine said.
“The partnership between Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law and the Lena
Pope Home is one that benefits our entire
community, and the United Way’s generous
funding enables families to receive legal and
social services that they would otherwise be
unable to afford.”
The children’s rights section of the Law
Clinic is the result of a partnership between
the United Way, Texas Wesleyan University
School of Law, and the Lena Pope Home,
an organization dedicated to creating a
future of hope for all children and their
families and adults by offering preventive
and rehabilitative services that strengthen
and preserve individual and family life.
“Child abuse and neglect is one of five
community issues on which Tarrant
County United Way is especially focused
in its efforts to create long-term community
change,” United Way’s vice president of
marketing and communications, Nancy
O’Malley, said. “Since its inception in
March 2005, the legal clinic has added
stability to the lives of almost 1,000 at-risk
children, yielding annual child support and
SSI payments totaling more than $174,000
and lump sum financial entitlements
totaling nearly $126,000.”
This is the third year United Way has
awarded funding to the program.
campus
notes of interest about campus events
Law school hosts Junior Legal
Scholars Conference
In August, Texas Wesleyan University
School of Law hosted the inaugural Junior
Legal Scholars Conference, an event that
drew legal educators from the state of
Texas and beyond.
With a desire to create a platform for
nontenured, tenure-track law faculty to
present their papers and works in progress
in an informal atmosphere and receive
feedback from other untenured legal
scholars, members of Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law, Southern
Methodist University Dedman School
of Law, Texas Tech University School of
Law, Texas Southern University Thurgood
Marshall School of Law, South Texas
College of Law, and the University of
Houston Law Center created the conference.
The inaugural event was sponsored by and
held at Texas Wesleyan University School
of Law.
“The atmosphere was the perfect
combination of both casual and
academically challenging,” Meredith
Conway, associate professor of law at
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law,
said. “While we challenged one another in
our work, it was nonthreatening and very
useful to our development as scholars.”
About 30 people attended the two-day
conference, and presenters represented
schools that included Harvard University,
Washington University, University of
Pittsburgh, and Brigham Young University,
as well as many Texas law schools. Topics
covered included immigration law, health
law, business law and tax, criminal law, and
constitutional law and the courts.
Texas Wesleyan law faculty presenters
included Conway, Maxine Harrington,
James McGrath, Neal Newman, and
Margarita Coale.
6
Photo by Lauren O. Burkett
Texas Wesleyan
law student wins national
brief-writing award
David Pratt ’07 was named the winner of the
2007 Scribes Brief-Writing Award for his
appellate brief, which previously received
Best Brief honors at the ninth annual
Pepperdine Entertainment Law National
Moot Court Competition in October 2006.
“I was extremely surprised and excited to
learn that I had been selected to receive
this prestigious award,” Pratt said. “I
have had the opportunity to read many
of the incredibly well-written briefs that
were considered. To be singled out from
such a large pool of national talent is
truly an honor.”
Forty-eight briefs were submitted this year.
The winning brief was selected based on a
number of criteria such as style, readability,
argument structure, citation format, and
question framing.
“We solicit briefs that are winners at
either the regional or national level at the
various moot court competitions across the
country,” Scribes Executive Director Joe
David Pratt ‘07 won the 2007 Scribes Brief-Writing Award for his
appellate brief. His brief was selected out of 48 submissions.

around
campus
Kimble said. “So the briefs are already winners. They are the best
of the best, and this is the only award of its kind.”
Interim Dean Cynthia L. Fountaine said Pratt is a wonderful
representative of Texas Wesleyan law school.
“This award is a well-deserved honor for David, and we are
very proud of him.” Fountaine said. “As a participant in our
moot court program, David displayed his masterful brief-writing
skills, and this award represents recognition of his enormous
talent and potential.”
Texas Wesleyan Moot Court
team wins state competition
The Texas Wesleyan University School of Law Moot Court team
of 3L Melissa Swan, 3L Matthew Wright, and Johannes Walker
‘07 won the law school’s first state moot court championship at the
2007 Texas Moot Court Competition in San Antonio, Texas.
Admissions Office
welcomes new assistant dean
Texas Wesleyan University School of
Law is pleased to announce the arrival
of Sherolyn Hurst, assistant dean of
admissions and scholarships.
Hurst joins the law school staff from
Golden Gate University School of Law in
San Francisco, where she worked as the
director of admissions.
After receiving her J.D. from Southern
Methodist University in 1999, Hurst took a position at the school
as an admissions recruiter and job developer for career services.
Following her time at SMU, she joined the firm of Baron and
Budd, P.C., in Dallas, where she worked on client intake and
researched litigation.
“I knew I wanted to do admissions work, but I had to try litigation
out,” Hurst said.
Following her time at Baron and Budd, P.C., Hurst accepted a
position as the assistant director of admissions at the University
of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, Minn. She served
in that capacity for almost four and a half years before heading
to Golden Gate University School of Law in San Francisco.
After close to two years on the West Coast, Hurst learned about the
admissions position at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law.
She said the choice to come to Texas Wesleyan was an easy one.
“I am extremely proud of Melissa, Matthew, and Johannes for their
performance in San Antonio,” Interim Dean Cynthia L. Fountaine
said. “Our moot court team set an incredibly high bar last year,
and this result shows that our moot court team has depth and is
capable of consistently outstanding performances. Our advocacy
program is filled with some of the brightest and most talented
student advocates in the country, and this team has demonstrated
that with this state title.”
Hosted by the Texas Young Lawyers Association, the competition
was part of the State Bar of Texas annual meeting. The team was
coached by Jennifer Ellis ‘07 of Payma Kuhnel & Smith, P.C., and
Rob Sherwin, associate visiting professor of law and director of
advocacy programs.
The team beat Texas Tech University School of Law in the semifinal
round, and six-time state champions South Texas College of Law
for the overall championship.
“I was familiar with Texas Wesleyan as a law student, and
I was familiar with Dallas and Fort Worth,” Hurst said. “I
always knew I wanted to be in the area. Being here has been
an easy transition.”
Having worked at law schools that run the spectrum of age –
from “literally new, fledgling” schools to decades-old institutions
– Hurst said she is excited about working at a school that is past
its formative years and is working to showcase itself to the state
and the country.
“The foundation has been laid, so now we do the hard work to
let people know we’re here,” Hurst said. “I’m excited because
this is a new set of challenges, and I’ve always looked at new
positions in terms of the challenges they bring.”
As for surprises that have accompanied her new job, Hurst said
not only have people been willing to help out and support her
and the office of admissions, but she has also seen a great level
of camaraderie between the administrative departments.
“People have been very supportive of changes and transitions
in the office, and everyone is very willing to talk about why
they did things the way they did,” Hurst said. “The level of
interaction between the departments has been a nice surprise.
I really do enjoy my new coworkers.” z
7

around
campus
Law school
welcomes new faculty
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law
is pleased to welcome two new faculty
members and two visiting faculty members.
Megan Carpenter and Keith Hirokawa have
joined the faculty as associate professors
of law, Rob Sherwin is a visiting associate
professor of law and director of advocacy
programs, and Tanya Pierce has joined as
a visiting legal writing professor. Each
of these new faculty members brings a
diverse background of experience to the
law school.
“Texas Wesleyan University School of
Law continues to attract talented legal
scholars, and we are pleased to welcome
these individuals to our faculty,” Interim
Dean Cynthia L. Fountaine said. “We
look forward to their contributions as
classroom teachers and scholars. They
are a great addition to a faculty that is
committed to enhancing debate and
legal scholarship, while at the same time
providing an unparalleled classroom
experience for students.”
Carpenter earned her LL.M. in 2003 from
the National University of Ireland and her
J.D. in 1999 from West Virginia University
College of Law. She has prior teaching
experience as an adjunct professor at West
Virginia University College of Law, and as
a doctoral fellow at St. Thomas University
in New Brunswick, Canada. Carpenter has
also worked as an intellectual property
attorney in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Hirokawa earned his LL.M. in
environmental and natural resources law
from Lewis & Clark Law School, his M.A.
from the University of Connecticut, and his
J.D. from University of Connecticut School
of Law. He has previous experience as an
adjunct assistant professor at the University
of Oregon School of Law and as a partner
at the firm of Erikson & Hirokawa, PLLC.
Pierce earned her J.D. from the University
of Texas School of Law in 1996. She has
Photo by Abby E. Dozier
experience as an associate at the firm of
Fulbright & Jaworski, LLP, in Austin, and
as an associate at the firm of Howrey LLP, in
Washington, D.C. Pierce has prior teaching
experience at Texas Wesleyan University
School of Law as an adjunct professor of
academic support.
Sherwin earned his J.D. from Texas Tech
University School of Law in 2001. He
has prior teaching experience at Texas
Wesleyan School of Law as an adjunct
professor and as a coach for the moot court
program. Sherwin has also worked as a
litigation associate at the firm of Brackett &
Ellis, P.C., in Fort Worth and as an adjunct
professor at Texas Christian University.
Law students poke fun of
themselves to help others
The third annual Fool’s Night took place
at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
on March 29. The event, which drew
almost 200 people and raised more than
$1,800, was hosted by the Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law Fellowship, a
student-run organization that raises money
for stipends awarded to students who wish
to work in public service fellowships during
the summer.
With skits that poked fun of everything
from first-day-of-class anxieties to bad
student evaluations, students and teachers
alike had a good laugh at the lives they lead
behind the doors of the law school.
Professors Neal Newman, James McGrath, and Lynne Rambo
reveal their true emotions in “Student Evaluation Therapy”
at the third annual Fool’s Night.
8
Photo courtesy of Frank Snyder
While Fool’s Night is by no means the
largest moneymaker for the stipend –
attendees were asked for any monetary
donation at the door, with ticket-takers
receiving bills from $1 to $20 – Assistant
Dean for Student Affairs Patti Gearheart
Turner said she hopes to see the event grow
in years to come. Moving the event offcampus
was just one step in this process,
and she said she would like to see more
involvement with the Tarrant County Bar
in the future.
The Texas Wesleyan University Law
Fellowship strengthens the legal scholarship
of students while providing support to
public interest organizations that cannot
afford the internship support they need.
The sheriff and mayor of Gloucester, England, with Professor
Frank Snyder. Snyder had the honor of unveiling two plaques
commemorating the ruling of the case of Hadley v. Baxendale.
Professors study law and
justice in England
Taking a break from the heat of a Texas
summer, five Texas Wesleyan University
School of Law professors traveled across
the pond to participate in the fourth annual
Gloucester conference in Gloucester,
England, in July.
Professors Aric Short, Margarita Coale,
Huyen Pham, James McGrath, and Frank
Snyder traveled to Gloucester, England, to
participate in the conference, which the law
school co-sponsored with the University of
Gloucestershire and the Central Gloucester
Initiative. Professors Coale and Short
helped organize this year’s program, and
Professors McGrath, Short, and Pham each

around
campus
gave presentations during the three-day
conference. This year’s conference, “Law
and Justice in the Age of Globalization,”
was part of a yearlong bicentennial
celebration of Britain’s Abolition of the
Slave Trade Act in 1807.
“That event is worthy of study and
discussion not just for historical purposes,
but also as a segue to study modern forms of
involuntary servitude and slavery, such as
sex trafficking,” Short said. “We were lucky
to have a full program of interesting, diverse
presentations related to our conference
theme. Because our participants included
law professors and advocates from all over
the world, an international perspective was
brought to many of the presentations. That
made the conference especially engaging.”
Presentations and panel discussions
addressed the current struggles that were
present during the abolition of the Slave
Trade Act. Topics included subjects such
as education, migration and human rights,
poverty and health care, globalization and
the law, and gender issues. Selected papers
from the conference will be published as
a special symposium issue of the Texas
Wesleyan Law Review.
“Notwithstanding our cultural and legal
differences, most of us speak the same
language of law,” Coale said. “We’re all
trying to help bring justice and democracy
to our different countries.”
On the final day of the conference, Professor
Snyder had the honor of unveiling two
plaques commemorating the ruling of the
case of Hadley v. Baxendale, which records
the landmark Appeal Court ruling of 1854,
when the Court of Exchequer judge laid
down the principles of “forseeability,” or
how damages should be calculated.
Eldon B. Mahon lecture
focuses on judiciary
Challenges faced by the members of the
judiciary were the topic of the day at the
Photo by Abby E. Dozier
David J. Beck speaks to attendees at the Judge Eldon B. Mahon
Lecture Series on Oct. 18, 2007. Beck presented “Judicial
Independence: Woe to the Generation that Judges its Judges,”
which focused on the difficulties members of the
judiciary face today.
Judge Eldon B. Mahon Lecture Series on
Thursday, Oct. 18.
David J. Beck of Beck, Redden & Secrest,
LLP, presented “Judicial Independence:
Woe to the Generation that Judges its
Judges” at Bass Performance Hall. The
featured speaker for the 2007 event, Beck
spoke to an audience of about 100 people,
including many members of the Fort
Worth and Dallas legal communities and
representatives of the judiciary.
Speaking of many ongoing changes in the
country that he said could impact the future
of the judicial system, Beck talked about
the important role of the judiciary and the
challenges its members face today. From
issues of independence in decision-making
to security issues and financial concerns,
Beck cited current trends, legislative acts,
and issues within the legal community.
“Sixty percent of judges come from the
public sector, and 40 percent from the
private sector,” Beck said of current judicial
representation. “These numbers suggest
that there are fewer individuals willing to
make the sacrifice. These categories are
not devoid of talent, but they suggest a
lack of diversity.”
Armed with statistics of average judicial
salaries, including the information that the
state of Texas is close to the bottom of the
judicial pay scale in comparison to other
9
states of its size, Beck said that financial
issues are affecting who decides to become
a judge. He said he believes such numbers
could eventually be damaging to the
judiciary and the legal system.
“To preserve the integrity of our independent
judiciary, we must ensure they have the
tools to do their job,” Beck said.
Beck also talked about the Court Security
Act of 2005, a bill that was introduced
in light of increasing violence against
members of the judiciary. The bill would
enhance measures that protect judicial
personnel, witnesses, and family members
of judicial personnel, as well as increase
funding for judicial security at the federal
and state levels. Beck said the bill is a step
in the right direction, given the threats that
can be and are imposed against judges.
Sponsored in part by the Tarrant County
Bar Foundation, the Tarrant County
Bar Association, and Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law, the lecture
series honors the late Eldon B. Mahon, a
Texas native who served more than 20
years as a district judge for the United
States District Court for the Northern
District of Texas.
IPOT exonerees
speak to students
Students from around the state preparing
to volunteer their time with the Innocence
Project of Texas received more than just
practical training about DNA and case
management at a September training –
they received firsthand testimonials from
the people who were helped by other
student volunteers.
More than 60 people attended a training
and conference by the Innocence Project
of Texas (IPOT) in the Amon G. Carter
Lecture Hall of the law school on Sept. 8. The
daylong conference provided students
who were beginning their pro bono
service with the Wesleyan Innocence

Photo by Abby E. Dozier
around
campus
Innocence Project exonerees James Giles, Anthony Robinson, James Waller, and Keith Turner. Robinson said he wanted to
share his story to help correct the injustices he and the other exonerees have experienced.
Project (WIP) their first look at the work
they will be doing. Sessions included
training on DNA evidence and eyewitness
identification issues.
Students heard directly from nine individuals
who have been exonerated due to the work
of the IPOT and WIP. Led by 3L and IPOT
exoneree liaison Clay Graham, the panel of
exonerees answered questions about their
lives, their wrongful convictions, and their
ideas about compensation for the time they
lost while in jail.
“How do you give people back their
memories?” Anthony Robinson asked,
when questioned about compensation for
the time he spent wrongfully incarcerated.
“There are so many different hurts, so
many different pains. Hopefully by sharing
our stories with you today, we can correct
these injustices.”
Dallas County District Attorney Craig
Watkins ’94, also made an appearance at
the training. He spoke about his unlikely
status as a leader in this project and
discussed the fact that while Dallas County
has one of the highest conviction rates in
the country, it also has one of the highest
numbers of exonerations.
“I can tell you I’m going to be tough on
crime, but what good will it do?” Watkins
said. “We have gotten lost in what it means
to be a criminal justice system in Texas.”
Watkins also told students he appreciates
their desire to become involved and that they
do have the ability to make a difference.
“The fact that you are here, that you care
that there’s a problem with the criminal
justice system, says a lot,” Watkins said.
Students in attendance represented schools
from around the state of Texas.
A Constitution Day
history lesson
Speaking to a group of about 60 students
and faculty members, author and law
professor James F. Simon presented
“Lincoln’s Constitution,” a lecture
addressing constitutional development
during the Civil War era, at Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law in recognition of
Constitution Day, Sept. 17.
Walking his audience through many
historical landmarks before and during
the Civil War, Simon discussed a variety
of events that marked Lincoln’s years in
the political arena. Of particular interest
was the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford, in
10
which Dred Scott, a slave who lived in the
free state of Illinois and the free territory
of Wisconsin before moving to Missouri,
appealed to the Supreme Court in the hope
of being granted freedom. Led by Justice
Roger B. Taney, the court declared that all
African-Americans were not and could not
become citizens of the United States.
“The Taney decision pulled the nation apart,”
Simon said. “Lincoln’s view was that slavery
was immoral and would be abolished. He
was a careful student of constitutional law
and constitutional history.”
Simon said that while Lincoln was a
“frustrated politician” when these issues
were developing in the years prior to
his presidency, the debates of that time
helped create the platform that led
to Lincoln’s election.
“If we didn’t have the Dred Scott decision,
we wouldn’t have Lincoln as president of
the United States,” Simon said.
A Fort Worth native, Simon is the Martin
Professor of Constitutional Law and dean
emeritus at New York Law School. He is
the author of seven books on American
history, law, and politics, including What
Kind of Nation: Thomas Jefferson, John
Marshall, and the Epic Struggle to Create
a United States (2002); and Lincoln and
Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession,
and the President’s War Powers (2007).
James F. Simon presented “Lincoln’s Constitution” to students
in recognition of Constitution Day. Simon is the author of
seven books on American history, including What Kind of
Nation: Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and the Epic
Struggle to Create a United States (2002); and Lincoln and
Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession, and the President’s
War Powers (2007).
Photo by Abby E. Dozier

Photo by Abby E. Dozier
around
campus
Students participate in
Diversity Mentorship Program
On Sept. 13, a group of students participating
in Texas Wesleyan University School of
Law’s Diversity Mentorship Program
attended a networking event at the law
school with attorneys from the American
Airlines legal department.
Pairing students with members of the
local legal community, the program is
open to second- and third-year students.
Coordinated by the office of career
services, the goal of the program is to
provide role models and career advice to
students who consider themselves part of a
minority group.
American Airlines attorney Dick
Malahowski spoke to students about the
importance of utilizing the people and
classes available to them, both during
school and beyond.
“The information you are learning gives
you the foundation,” Malahowski said.
“Pay attention in class, you’ll use it.
And keep learning throughout your time
as an attorney.”
Students and attorneys will meet throughout
the year, with events ranging from in-
house American Airlines presentations to
hearings and negotiations and will include
practical career-focused information to
help students as they prepare to enter the
legal profession.
Two students receive de los
Santos scholarship
Ricardo de los Santos ’94 awarded
scholarships to two Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law students
at the start of the fall semester. The
ceremony was hosted by the Hispanic
Law Students Association.
1L Victoria Branson and 1L Jessica
Cotriss were each awarded the Ricardo de
los Santos scholarship, an annual award
presented to deserving Hispanic students at
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law.
After putting himself through law school
as an older, nontraditional student, de los
Santos eventually opened his own private
practice in Cleburne.
“There is such a great need for Hispanic
attorneys, and I’m honored to be here,”
Judge Terry R. Means of the United States
District Court for the Northern District of
Texas said. “Mr. de los Santos is a wonderful
attorney, and in recognition of his success
and the successes that would follow him, he
Students participating in the Diversity Mentorship Program attended a networking event before meeting mentors from the
American Airlines legal department. The program was established by the office of career services to provide role models
and career advice for 2L and 3L students.
11
1L Jessica Cotriss and 1L Victoria Branson. The Ricardo de los
Santos scholarship is awarded annually to deserving Hispanic
law students at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law.
started the Pedro de los Santos scholarship,
and eventually the Ricardo de los Santos
scholarship.”
This is the seventh year the scholarship has
been awarded.
Justice Carolyn Wright
addresses class of 2007
Justice Carolyn Wright of the Fifth
District Court of Appeals of Texas was the
commencement speaker at Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law’s spring hooding
ceremony on May 11.
Complimenting the law school’s
commitment to community service, Justice
Wright told the graduates of the expectation
that comes with a Texas Wesleyan
law degree.
“There is a downside to graduating from
Texas Wesleyan law school,” Justice
Wright said. “When you want to be
just ordinary, the outside world will
expect extraordinary.”
The ceremony took place at the Will Rogers
Memorial Auditorium in Fort Worth.
One hundred and seventy-two students
were presented with an academic hood in
recognition of completing the requirements
of a juris doctor degree. z
Photo by Abby E. Dozier
around campus • notes of interest about campus events

Photo by Abby E. Dozier
feature
story
Taking Art Law to the
LAND of
Enchantment
The view from Acoma Pueblo’s 357-foot-high mesa. A clear, far-reaching view was an attractive feature for Acoman settlers.
The next time you’re chatting with a group of friends or colleagues, casually
drop the term “art law” into the conversation and see how many blank stares
you get. While you would be hard pressed to find someone who hadn’t heard
of copyright law, art law does not immediately ring a bell with most people outside
of the legal circle. However, it is an area that involves numerous aspects of legal
practice, and Texas Wesleyan university School of Law has been incorporating the
study of art law into its curriculum over the past three summers.
12
By Abby E. Dozier

Photo by Abby E. Dozier
story
feature
“As far as I know, no other law schools
include visits to galleries and museums
in their classes,” Associate Dean for
Academic Affairs Vickie Rainwater
said. “From the beginning, we have
included that as part of the education
with the idea that the people who are
active and engaged in the art world
can bring important information about
how they deal with so many questions
to the students. It gives the students the
chance to do something a little bit out
of the ordinary.”
With the expertise and enthusiasm of
adjunct art law professor Susan Bruning,
who taught the class for the first time
in May 2006, Rainwater felt ready
to take art law at Texas Wesleyan to
the next level.
“Susan told me that the three major art
centers in the United States are New York,
Los Angeles, and Santa Fe,” Rainwater
said. “Santa Fe is obviously the closest
and most accessible, and fortunately for
us, Susan has lots of knowledge about the
area, knows a lot of people involved in
the art world, and has done a lot of work
there counseling tribes on federal law.”
The combination of Bruning’s knowledge
of Santa Fe and the city’s proximity to
the law school was enough to encourage
Rainwater to begin making arrangements
for the next class. After confirming
teaching and housing facilities, Santa Fe
was slated as the site for the school’s third
art law seminar.
Studying Art in the
City Different
Immediately following the conclusion of
the law school’s 2007 summer session in
July, 23 students, along with five faculty
members, arrived in Santa Fe for a week
of study. Rich in historic and modern art,
New Mexico’s capital city boasts a variety
of galleries, while neighboring Native
American Indian reservations provide
opportunities to study different cultural
aspects of the field, from ecclesiastical to
tribal to ceremonial.
“It seemed like the perfect place to
immerse the students in the world of
art,” Bruning said. “To be able to think
about applied perspectives on some of
these legal concepts by going to some of
the galleries and talking to gallery owners
and artists about some of these issues
that we conceptualized.”
For five days, the group lived and
studied at St. John’s College, a liberal
arts institution nestled among the high
desert landscape of Santa Fe. With
its adobe and mission-style buildings,
mountain views, and surrounding palette
of dusty reds, chocolate browns, and sage
Adjunct professor Denise Collins studies a painting in the Nedra Matteucci Galleries.
The class was given a personal tour of the gallery by owner Forest Fenn.
13
Students and other visitors to Acoma Pueblo walk through the
ancient village. Acoma has only about 50 residents who live
in the village year-round.
greens, the campus provided an artistic
backdrop to complement the group’s
studies. Combining theory and practical
application, students began each day
with a four-hour lecture and discussion
led by Bruning. Guest speakers included
Charles Veilleux III of the Contemporary
Crossroads Gallery, and gallery owner
and author Forest Fenn, who later took
the group on a personal tour of the Nedra
Matteucci Galleries.
“Everything we did out of class was so
relevant and entertaining that it was
okay to have four hours of class each
morning,” 3L Evan Flournoy said. “[The
content] was all within my field, but
I learned so much.”
In addition to group outings, students
had to individually visit a local gallery
or museum and discuss with someone
who worked there either how the gallery
determined the attribution – identification
of the artist – or provenance – the history of
ownership – of a particular piece or pieces
in general. The experiences were then
shared in class.
“My impression based on their presentations
was that they all enjoyed it,” Rainwater
said. “They all seemed to get a better
view of how murky it all is, how differently
some institutions handle [attribution and
provenance]. And by listening to each other,
they got a really wide view of all the varying
ways that [attribution and provenance] can
be handled.”
Photo by Abby E. Dozier

feature story — taking art law to the land of enchantment • by abby e. dozier • photos by abby e. dozier
Photo by Abby E. Dozier
story
feature
Sensory Learning
The hands-on experience went beyond
observation of paintings and sculptures.
Halfway through the week, the group
traveled two and a half hours southwest of
Santa Fe to Acoma Pueblo (pronounced
“aka-ma”), also referred to as Sky City,
for a day of interactive study. Situated
on the top of a 357-foot sandstone
mesa overlooking 70 acres of desert and
mountain landscape, the historic Native
American village is home to about 50
year-round residents, with the majority
of the village’s 3,000 residents arriving
during high feast days. Surrounded
by centuries of culture, heritage, and
tradition, Acomans claim their village as
the oldest continuously inhabited city in
the country.
“I wanted to give the students exposure
to a culture that has a depth of art and
antiquities involved with it,” Bruning
said. “Being able to get into a modernday
Native American society was a great
way to ground them in the fact that an
object that is considered an antiquity on
the art market actually can have cultural
relationships to present day people and
have cultural meaning beyond the ascetic
of the art market itself. I thought that by
getting out, not just to the shops and the
objects, but to the cultural communities
where these objects originate, it would
be a good experience.”
Bruning’s desire to introduce her students
to the cultural community of Acoma led
to one of the most interactive lessons of
A road to Acoma Pueblo, viewed from the mesa-top village.
Members of the 2007 art law class take a break from their morning lecture.
Twenty-three students and five faculty members traveled to Santa Fe in July to study art in and beyond the classroom.
the trip. Led by a native Acoman guide,
the group braved the 100-degree heat to
walk through the ancient city. Handmade
pottery, a craft the Acomans are famous
for, was displayed on tables next to the
artists who stood nearby, ready to answer
questions about their work. Frybread
and small, apple-filled empanadas were
available for just a few dollars. Beyond
seeing art pieces in their originating
environment, the trip to Acoma was a
chance for students to fully experience the
culture where these artifacts originated
and interact with the people who
created them.
“The trip to Acoma was one of my favorite
parts of this class,” 2L Terry Bentley-Hill
said. “What better way to earn 2L credit?
I’ve loved this because I’ve had to use all
my senses.”
In addition to the physical immersion in
Acoman culture, the historical information
shared during the tour contained
numerous stories about the Acomans
art and cultural background. In the San
Esteban del Ray Mission, a church the
Acomans were forced to build by Spanish
missionaries in the 1600s, the history and
legends surrounding the Spanish and
ecclesiastical art adorning the walls and
alter were shared in the timeless method
of storytelling. The building itself is the
14
largest collection of early 17th century
building materials in New Mexico, and
the ancient and modern incidents of
theft and loss recounted throughout
the day illustrated the importance of
Bruning’s teachings.
“Sometimes, the best intentioned
people are the most hurtful,” Teresa
Pasqual, director of the Sky City historic
preservation office said in reference
to a lawsuit involving the intended
preservation of an Acoman artifact.
“Acoma only recently started to use the
law [to deal with legal art issues]. Part
of our job is educating people about
preserving our heritage.”
Professional and
Personal Experience
The majority of the students agreed that
not only is the knowledge they gained of
A traditional adobe house in Acoma Pueblo. Adobe walls
can be as much as 6 feet thick, providing cool
insulation against the desert sun.
Photo by Abby E. Dozier
Photo by Abby E. Dozier

story
feature
growing importance in today’s society,
the experience was one that enhanced
and clarified various aspects of their
legal education.
“This is so applicable,” 3L Michael Flynn
said. “This class pulled together a lot of
the law we learned the first two years. We
actually dealt with how these [theories]
apply in a genuine, legitimate field. This
is the first class that actually breaks down
the bundle of rights. I will absolutely use
this knowledge later on.”
“I took this class because it was art,
because it was Santa Fe, because it was
law,” 3L Jeanne Duke said. “We have had
the ability to talk to practitioners on the
other side of the fence. You don’t always
get that experience.”
According to Bruning, helping students
expand their legal knowledge later in life
is exactly what she wants to see them
take away from the class. She said she
wants them to learn to look at the unique
aspects of legal situations they may be
faced with in the future, no matter what
their particular field is.
“Many times when you get out in the
world and start practicing, your particular
client walks in the door with a particular
set of facts that has its own unique situation
that can require creative thinking,”
Bruning said. “The more creatively you
think about the issues, the more solutions
you may come up with for your client.
I think that plays out in a host of areas,
but when you get something like art law,
where each object is unique, you’re
forced to think creatively or uniquely
about your situation, and I think that
kind of experience is good legal training
– to never assume that because a similar
situation played out a certain way that
those are the limits of the way you should
think about your case. [Art law] will help
my students think creatively in whatever
venue they land.” z
Law School Professor Remembered
Denny O. Ingram, an experienced legal practitioner and former professor at
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, died on Sunday, Oct. 14, 2007.
Professor Ingram joined the faculty at Dallas-Fort Worth School of Law (later
to become Texas Wesleyan University School of Law) in 1990, a position he
held until 2003. He was named professor emeritus in 2005.
From newspaper reporter and publisher, to Texas legislator, to Army
counter-intelligence officer, Professor Ingram absorbed and retained
experiences not available to most of us. His real career, however, started
when he entered law school in 1954.
A native of Kirbyville, Texas, Professor Ingram received his B.A. and law
degree, with honors, from the University of Texas. During his legal education,
he was an officer of the Texas Law Review, a quizmaster, a chancellor, and
recipient of the prize for the most outstanding work on the law review. Upon
graduation he was elected to the Order of the Coif.
A teacher for more than 20 years, Professor Ingram held full-time law faculty
positions at institutions including the University of Texas; the University
of Utah; the University of New Mexico; the University of California, Davis
(visiting); the University of San Diego (visiting); as well as Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law. He also had 21 years of experience as a full-time
law practitioner in Texas.
Professor Ingram was the author of numerous law review articles, book
chapters, continuing education materials, and course materials. He was a life
member of the American Law Institute, a fellow in the American College of
Trust and Estate Counsel, a fellow in the American College of Tax Counsel, a
life fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, and a member of the Texas Academy
of Probate and Estate Planning Lawyers. He was a member of the State Bar of
Texas, New Mexico State Bar, Utah State Bar, American Bar Association, and
numerous sections of American, state, and local bar associations.
Professor Ingram was a trustee of the Southwestern Legal Foundation, director
of research of the Utah Constitutional Revision Commission, and a researcher
and writer for the New Mexico Constitutional Revision Commission. He
served as a member of the House of Representatives of the Texas Legislature
from 1951-1952 and served in the United States Army from 1951-1954. He
is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Law. He was
listed in all three editions of the Best Lawyers in America that were published
while he was a full-time practitioner.
During Professor Ingram’s 14 years of service to Texas Wesleyan University,
he made significant contributions that impacted students and faculty alike.
Colleagues marveled not only at his hours of preparation for classes, but also
at the hours he spent working individually with students and mentoring
novice law professors. During his last year of full-time teaching, he was
awarded the Earl Brown Distinguished Faculty Award, and in 2005 he was
awarded emeritus status. z
15

Wingspread Conference
Develops Diversity
By Abby E. Dozier
Diversity
I mproving
diversity participation in the legal system is an integral part
of the mission of Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, and in
early October, the school took another step toward fulfilling that mission
by hosting and participating in the Wingspread VIII Conference.
A consortium of educators,
administrators, judges, bar association
leaders, lawyers, academics, and
students representing elementary
through higher education institutions,
Wingspread has been in existence since
2004. Representatives who participate
in the group are committed to working
across the educational continuum to
improve participation, persistence,
and success of diverse students in high
school and college, with the overall
goal of enhancing student aspirations
and their capacity to move into
positions in the legal profession and
national leadership.
“Having been involved in previous
Wingspread conferences, I was
delighted at the opportunity to host
Wingspread VIII at Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law,” Interim Dean
Cynthia L. Fountaine said. “I wanted to
highlight all the good work being done
by the Texas Bar Association and by
state and local bar associations in Texas
and throughout the country to increase
diversity in the legal profession and in
law schools.”
The eighth meeting of the group focused
on team building and action plans for
collaborative improvement in outreach
along the pipeline. The program also
worked to bring the law pipeline group
together with its colleagues in medicine
and dentistry.
Speakers included President-elect of
the American Bar Association (ABA) H.
Thomas Wells Jr.; Past President of the
State Bar of Texas Eduardo R. Rodriguez;
16
ABA President-elect H. Thomas Wells welcomed Wingspread
attendees on the opening evening of the conference.
Photo by Abby E. Dozier

Photo by Abby E. Dozier
Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson of the Supreme Court of Texas speaks to attendees at the Wingspread VIII Conference.
Chief Justice Jefferson shared personal stories and insights about his experiences in the legal profession.
Associate Executive Director and
Assistant to the President for Minority
Affairs of the Law School Admission
Council Kent Lollis; District Judge Royal
Furgeson of the United States District
Court for the Western District of Texas;
and Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson
of the Supreme Court of Texas.
Sarah Redfield, a visiting professor at
the University of the Pacific McGeorge
School of Law, has been involved with
Wingspread since its inception.
“Each Wingspread is better than the last,
and the Texas Wesleyan event was no
exception,” Redfield said. “This session
brought more real, on-the-ground
knowledge than others, especially for
law-themed high schools.”
Conference attendees were welcomed
on Thursday evening by ABA Presidentelect
H. Thomas Wells. Friday’s fullday
program involved multiple group
sessions that focused on specific topics
of interest, including “Law-Themed
Curricula,” “View from the Bench,”
and “Perspectives from our Sister
Professions.” After a warm welcome
and introduction from Gib Walton,
President of the State Bar of Texas, the
group heard remarks from Chief Justice
Jefferson about his experience in the
legal profession.
“Chief Justice Jefferson enlightened the
Wingspread conference participants
with inspirational personal stories and
experiences,” Fountaine said. “We were
honored to have him visit the law school
and participate in our program. His
encouraging words and his presence set
the stage for a successful conference.”
Judge Furgeson welcomed participants
on the final day of the conference,
speaking to the group about the
importance of bringing diversity into
the legal profession and emphasizing
civics education in schools.
“I am delighted to be here and to be
with people who want to do this work,”
Judge Furgeson said. “The work you
17
are doing is important, even critical.
I think all of our children need to
know civics.”
Wingspread has seen tremendous
growth in a short period of time. From
the initial seven law school-centered
teams that met at the first conference,
the consortium has grown to include
representation from 50 law schools,
with more than 300 individuals
representing 132 organizations across
the educational and legal spectrum in
the United States, Puerto Rico, and the
Canadian provinces of New Brunswick
and Nova Scotia.
The Wingspread VIII Conference
received generous funding from the
Texas Bar Foundation; the Law School
Admission Council; the California
Public Employees Retirement System;
Rodriquez, Colvin, Chaney & Saenz,
LLP; Harris, Finley & Bogle of Fort
Worth; Knox Nunnally of Vinson &
Elkins; and Elizabeth Campbell with
Andrews Kurth, LLP. z
Judge Royal Furgeson of the United States District Court
for the Western District of Texas said the work being done
by Wingspread participants is critical to the education
of today’s children.
Photo by Abby E. Dozier
wingspread conference develops diversity • by abby e. dozier • photos by abby e. dozier

in
academia
notes about Texas Wesleyan law faculty and administrators
Susan Ayres
Professor of Law
Publications:
“My Brilliant Career” (poem), 31 Legal
Studies Forum 707 (2007).
“Who Is to Shame? Narratives of Neonaticide,” William
and Mary Journal of Women and the Law (accepted
for publication).
Activities:
Co-presented “Infanticide” with Dr. Prema Manjunath
during Grand Rounds at John Peter Smith Hospital for the
psychiatry department, September 2007.
Presented “Stories of Neonaticide,” Rights, Ethics, Law &
Literature Conference, Swansea University, July 2007.
Presented “Rural and National Narratives of Neonaticide,”
Law, Culture, and Humanities Conference, Georgetown
Law School, March 2007.
Presented “What I Did on My Sabbatical,” Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law Faculty Development
Roundtable, March 2007.
Scholarship panel member, Texas Wesleyan University School
of Law Faculty Development Roundtable, February 2007.
Wayne Barnes
Associate Professor of Law
Publications:
Introduction to “Theory and Anti-Theory
in the Work of Allan Farnsworth,” 13 Texas
Wesleyan Law Review 1 (2006).
Activities:
Presented “Some Exceptions to the Objective Theory of
Contracts” at the third annual International Contracts
Conference, Feb. 23-24, 2007, at South Texas College of
Law in Houston.
Co-presented on recent bankruptcy case (United States
Supreme Court decision in Marrama v. Citizens Bank of
Massachusetts and other recent 5th Circuit bankruptcy
decisions) law updates to the John C. Ford American Inn
of Court at the Renaissance Hotel in Dallas with Dallas
bankruptcy lawyer Gerrit Pronske, March 13, 2007.
Presented “The Objective Theory of Contracts” at the
Texas Junior Legal Scholars Conference, Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law, Aug. 10-11, 2007.
18
Inducted into membership in the Honorable John C.
Ford American Inn of Court, the local inn for bankruptcy
attorneys, judges, and academics.
Mark Burge
Legal Writing Professor
Activities:
Presented “Statutory Interpretation in an
Age of Outsourcing: Are Our Students Ready
to Play Judge Yet?” at the Second Biennial Lone Star Legal
Writing Conference, Texas Wesleyan University School of
Law, May 31 - June 1, 2007.
Co-presented “Intellectual Property 101: When, Where,
and How” with Wade Savoy, assistant general for
intellectual property, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., at the INNOVA
Venture Capital Expo 2007, April 19, 2007.
Organized and presented “From Coal to Content:
Intellectual Property and Technology in the New
Economy,” West Virginia University, Sept. 18-19, 2006.
Meredith Conway
Associate Professor of Law
Activities:
Presented “The Connection Between Wealth
and Income Disparity and the Taxation of
Executive Compensation,” Texas Junior Legal Scholars
Conference, Texas Wesleyan University School of Law,
Aug. 10-11, 2007.
Presented “Teaching Socio-Economics in Law School,”
annual meeting of the Southeastern Association of Law
Schools, Amelia Island, Fla., July 31, 2007.
Presented “The Tax Code and Executive Compensation:
Who Really Profits?” Texas Wesleyan University School
of Law Faculty Development Roundtable, Spring 2007.
Frank Elliott
Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law
Publications:
“The Treasure Trove: An Essay on Ethics and
Confidentiality,” 15 Alternative Resolutions No. 4,
State Bar of Texas, ADR Section (Fall 2006).

academia
in
Paul George
Professor of Law
Publications:
“Rent Concessions and Illegal Contract
Penalties in Texas,” 48 South Texas Law
Review 645 (2007).
“Reimposable Discounts and Medieval Contract Penalties,”
20 Loyola Consumer Law Review (forthcoming 2007).
Co-authored and published “Conflicts of Law” with Anna
Teller, Annual Survey of Texas Law, 60 SMU Law Review
(forthcoming 2007).
Jason Gillmer
Associate Professor of Law
Publications:
“Poor Whites, Benevolent Masters, and the
Ideologies of Slavery: The Local Trial of a
Slave Accused of Rape,” 85 North Carolina Law
Review 489 (2007).
Activities:
Presented “Base Wretches and Black Wenches: A Story of
Sex and Race, Violence and Compassion, During Slavery
Times” at the annual meeting of the Law and Society
Association, Berlin, Germany, July 2007.
Presented “Black, White, and Brown: Texas Interracial
Cases in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries” at the annual
meeting of the Association for the Study of Law, Culture,
and the Humanities, Washington, D.C., March 2007.
Interview, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “Husband Pulled
Trigger, But Wife is Indicted,” Section B, page 1,
March 30, 2007.
Michael Green
Professor of Law
Publications:
“Ruminations About the EEOC’s Policy
Regarding Arbitration,” 11 Employment Rights &
Employment Polytechnic Journal 154-204, 2007
(from “Dispute Resolution in Action: Examining the Reality
of Employment Discrimination Cases: Proceedings of the
2007 Annual Meeting,” Association of American Law
Schools Sections on Employment Discrimination and
Alternative Dispute Resolution).
“Measures to Encourage and Reward Post-Dispute
Agreements to Arbitrate Employment Discrimination
Claims,” 8 Nevada Law Journal (Fall 2007).
Activities:
Presented “Avoiding Jury Trials Through Arbitration: An
Unintended Consequence of the Civil Rights Act of 1991?”
at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Association of
Law Schools, Employment Discrimination Fifteen Years
After the Civil Rights Act of 1991, Amelia Island, Fla.,
July 31, 2007.
Selected as a faculty fellow for the Cross-Cultural
Negotiation and Employment Dispute Resolution
System Design Conference, Straus Institute for Dispute
Resolution, Pepperdine Law School, Malibu, Calif.,
June 5-23, 2007.
Presented “Leveraging Opportunities for Minority Arbitrators
through Mandatory Arbitration Agreements,” Third
National Conference, Minority Professionals in Alternative
Dispute Resolution, Capital University, Columbus, Ohio,
May 17, 2007.
Langston Hughes lecturer, “Black Workers and Collective
Approaches to Dispute Resolution in 2007,” University of
Kansas, Lawrence, Kan., April 19, 2007.
Presented and commentated “Regarding Empirical Research
on Due Process in Employment Arbitration,” National
Academy of Arbitrators 2007 Spring Education Conference,
Beyond the Protocol: The Future of Due Process in Workplace
Dispute Resolution, Chicago, Ill., April 14, 2007.
Presented “Negotiating a Call to Action for Selection
of Diverse Arbitrators in Employment Discrimination
Matters,” Southwest/Southeast People of Color Regional
Scholarship Conference, Employment Panel, Orlando, Fla.,
March 17, 2007.
Presented “Arbitrators’ Duties When Counsel Are or Are Not
Present During Proceedings: Should the Rules of Evidence
Matter?” ABA Section of Labor and Employment Ethics and
Professionalism Committee Midwinter Meeting, Manzanillo,
Mexico, Feb. 18, 2007.
Presented “Measures to Encourage and Reward Post-Dispute
Agreements to Arbitrate,” Saltman Center for Conflict
Resolution, University of Nevada-Las Vegas School of Law
Symposium: Rethinking the Federal Arbitration Act, Las
Vegas, Nev., Jan. 26, 2007.
Presented “The EEOC’s Role in Setting Policy About ADR”
and “Why It Has Dropped the Ball Regarding Arbitration,”
AALS panel jointly sponsored by the Dispute Resolution
and Employment Discrimination Sections, Dispute
Resolution in Action: Examining the Reality of Employment
Discrimination Cases, Washington, D.C., Jan. 5, 2007.
19

academia
in
Maxine Harrington
Associate Professor of Law
Activities:
Presented “The Thin Flat Line: Are Donors
Whose Organs are Removed After Cardiac Death
Legally Dead?” Texas Junior Legal Scholars
Conference, Texas Wesleyan University School of Law,
Aug. 10-11, 2007.
Presented “Obtaining Medical Records under HIPAA
in Judicial or Administrative Proceedings” at a CLE
activity sponsored by the Northeast Tarrant County Bar
Association, May 15, 2007.
Forum speaker on stem cell research, sponsored by
the Texas Wesleyan University School of Law Young
Democrats and the Texas Wesleyan University School of
Law Health Law Society, March 2007.
Terri Helge
Associate Professor of Law
Activities:
Presented “Legislative Update from
Washington on Charitable Reforms:
The Pension Protection Act of 2006” at the
TSCPA 2007 Nonprofit Organizations Conference, Dallas,
Texas, May 21, 2007.
James McGrath
Associate Professor of Law
Publications:
“Overcharging the Uninsured in Hospitals:
Shifting a Greater Share of Uncompensated
Medical Care Costs to the Federal
Government,” 25 Quinnipiac Law Review (forthcoming
Fall 2007).
Activities:
Presented “Paying for the Most Expensive, Least Efficient
Health Care: Bush’s Answer to the Health Care Crisis,”
Texas Junior Legal Scholars Conference, Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law, Aug. 10-11, 2007.
Presented “Overcharging the Uninsured for Health Care
in the United States: An Anachronism in the Age of
Globalization,” Gloucester Law Conference on “Law and
Justice in an Age of Globalization,” Gloucester, England,
July 20, 2007.
Presented “Pursuing Justice for Private Wrongs in the
Common Law System: Tort Remedies in the U.S. and
Local Legal Systems,” Asian Judicial Institute Training
Program for Mongolian Law Trainers, Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law, June 28, 2007.
20
Presented “The ‘CSI’ Effect on the Psychology of Jurors: The
Challenges that Pop Culture is Bringing to the Courtroom,”
Tarrant County Medical Examiners Current Trends in
Forensic Science, Fort Worth, Texas, Dec. 15, 2006.
Neal Newman
Associate Professor of Law
Publications:
“Enron and the Special Purpose Entity – Use
or Abuse – The Real Problem – The Real
Focus,” 13 Southern Methodist University’s
Law and Business Review of the Americas 97
(Winter 2007).
Activities:
Presented “The Holy Grail of Financial Reporting and Why
We May Never Get There,” Texas Junior Legal Scholars
Conference, Texas Wesleyan University School of Law,
Aug. 10-11, 2007.
Panel member and presenter on “Teaching Socio-Economics
in Law Schools,” annual meeting of the Southeastern
Association of Law Schools, Amelia Island, Fla., Aug. 1, 2007.
Presented “The Holy Grail of Financial Reporting and
Why We May Never Get There,” Southeast/Southwest
People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference,
March 15, 2007.
Huyen Pham
Associate Professor of Law
Publications:
“The Private Enforcement of Immigration
Laws,” 96 Georgetown Law Journal
(forthcoming 2008).
“The Private Enforcement of Immigration Laws” (summary
for Legal Perspectives column), Wesleyan Lawyer magazine
(Spring/Summer 2007).
Activities:
Presented “The Private Enforcement of Immigration Laws”
at the 13th annual Conference on Asian Pacific American
Faculty, William Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, Minn.,
April 27-28, 2007.
Participant, Southern Methodist University Junior Faculty
Workshop, SMU Dedman School of Law, Dallas, Texas,
Jan. 26, 2007.
Lynne Rambo
Professor of Law
Activities:
Presented “Update on the Supreme Court’s
2006 Term: The Swing Votes Are Gone,”
Tarrant County Bar Association Brown Bag
Program, Sept. 21, 2007.

academia
in
Malinda Seymore
Professor of Law
Publications:
“China’s Future Lawyers: Some Differences
in Education and Outlook,” Asper Review
of International Business and Trade Law, University of Manitoba,
Winnipeg, Canada (co-authored with Patricia Ross McCubbin,
Andrea Curcio, and Llewellyn Joseph Gibbons).
Aric Short
Associate Professor of Law
Activities:
Presented “Exploiting the Most Vulnerable:
Housing Harassment at the Junction of Race,
Gender, and Poverty,” American University, Washington
College of Law Interschool Junior Faculty Workshop on
Poverty Law, Washington, D.C., 2007.
Presented “Housing Harassment Through the Lens of the
13th Amendment,” annual conference of the Association
for the Study of Law, Culture, and Humanities,
Washington, D.C., 2007.
Presented “Sexual Harassment in Housing as Involuntary
Servitude,” Gloucester Law Conference on “Law and
Justice in an Age of Globalization,” Gloucester, England,
July 2007.
Presented “A 13th Amendment Critique of Residential
Sexual Harassment,” New Scholars Workshop, annual
meeting of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools,
Amelia Island, Fla., 2007.
Neil Sobol
Legal Writing Professor
Activities:
Presented “Persuasive Writing” to the Fort
Worth Paralegal Association, Petroleum Club
of Fort Worth, May 24, 2007.
Anna Teller
Associate Director of the Law Library
Publications:
Co-authored and published “Conflicts of Law”
with Paul George, Annual Survey of Texas Law,
60 SMU Law Review (forthcoming 2007).
21
Save the Date!
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law
Alumni Association Reunion Weekend
April 18-19, 2008
Scheduled Events Include:
Friday
• Golf Tournament
at Cowboys Golf Club in Grapevine
(open to all)
• Networking Reception
Saturday
• CLE
• Awards Dinner/Annual Meeting
at Hilton DFW in Grapevine
Check http://alumni.law.txwes.edu
for more information as it becomes available.
E-mail alumni@law.txwes.edu
to make your reservations now!
in academia • notes about texas wesleyan law faculty and administrators

CELEBRATING
10 YEARS in Fort Worth
By Abby E. Dozier
According to wedding folklore, the traditional ten-year anniversary gift is tin.
While not the most exotic of materials, the flexible, durable qualities of the metal
represent the idea that a successful marriage can bend without breaking.
If the tenth anniversary of Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law’s arrival in
downtown Fort Worth can in any way
be compared to that ten-year wedding
anniversary material, it has definitely
shown its strength and flexibility. From
securing full accreditation from the
American Bar Association to establishing
itself as a viable component of the
educational and legal communities, the
law school has grown and developed
enormously over the past ten years.
Since 1997, the law school has seen
growth in more ways than one. The annual
application pool has almost doubled,
and the building has been expanded to
accommodate a growing number of books,
offices, and programs. But more than
numbers and statistics, Texas Wesleyan
law school has established itself as an
integral part of downtown Fort Worth and
the legal community as a whole.
If You Build It, They Will Come
When Frank Walwer took his post as the
second dean of Texas Wesleyan University
School of Law, he was immediately
charged with what he considered to be
two challenges: handling the site report
from the American Bar Association review
committee’s recent visit; and the task of
identifying a viable location for the law
school, something more permanent than
the leased computer facility in Irving.
The site report could be handled on an
ongoing basis, but finding a new building
was another story. One of the criteria for a
law school to receive ABA accreditation is
ownership of the building of occupancy.
“It was not an easy choice,” Walwer said
of the challenge of finding a new home for
the law school. “There were differences
of opinion on this. Some wanted a dual
law school in Dallas, while others said a
Mid-Cities school would help draw from
Fort Worth and Dallas.”
22
Not wanting to draw out the Dallas
versus Fort Worth debate, Walwer moved
quickly to finalize a decision. He said
that once Fort Worth was selected as
the school’s new home base, luck was
on their side. A downtown location was
highly desirable so that the school could
be located close to the Fort Worth legal
and judicial communities, and when the
old Southwestern Bell building went up
for sale, it was like another piece of the
puzzle fell into place.
“The architectural influences of any law
school are not confined to bricks and
mortar, but rest on the standards of the
ABA,” Walwer said. “As a former president
of the Law School Admission Council, I
benefited from the wisdom of colleagues
on what it takes to build a good law school.
The essential elements, simply stated, but
difficult to achieve, are a good faculty,
student body, library, and administrative
staff. Building the law school was a joint
and enormous effort with then-president
Photo by Paul B. Scudder

feature story
of the university, Jake Schrum, the student
body, administration, and faculty.”
Citing the “glories of the Interstate,”
Sundance Square, and the surrounding
legal community, Walwer said that he felt
Fort Worth was a natural choice, and in July
1997, Texas Wesleyan University School of
Law took up residence at 1515 Commerce
Street in downtown Fort Worth.
“The move itself had a much bigger
effect than I ever would have imagined,”
Law Clinic Director and Professor of
Law Charlotte Hughart said. “We were
in a leased space [in Irving], and it was
bigger than what we needed. Everything
was temporary. I was looking forward to
moving, and we got over here and actually
had a smaller space, but we had designed
it. It just improved everybody’s attitude;
it moved us upward.”
During and after the transition, the law
school received a warm reception from the
surrounding community, including the
nearby Tarrant County Bar Association.
“Since day one, we have been actively
involved,” TCBA Executive Director
Patricia Graham said. “Whether it was
with community seminars, National
Adoption Day, the annual coat drive,
Habitat for Humanity – all these aspects
have been positive on all levels.”
Law school faculty felt the same from
their vantage point within the school.
“I feel like the city embraced us,” Hughart
said. “The city was hungry for its own law
school. Maybe not in a way they could
have expressed, but I think they have
paid attention.”
Former Dean Richard Gershon opened the doors of the
law school to local attorneys after a tornado ripped through
downtown Fort Worth in 2000. At a press conference following
the disaster, Gershon offered affected members of the legal
community assistance in everything from fax machines to
meeting rooms.
Photo by John M. Veilleux
1997
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law announces itself to the neighborhood. A downtown location was
desirable in order to attract students from Dallas and Fort Worth.
Signed, Sealed, and Delivered
The law school blossomed in its new
surroundings. The Law Clinic opened
its doors in early 1998, providing legal
services to low-income families and
giving students the chance to work
on real cases under the guidance of
faculty supervisors.
Later that year, the school’s alumni
association was formed. In 1999, the law
school received its first high-profile visit
in Fort Worth when the Supreme Court of
Texas heard oral arguments at the school.
Then in August 1999, the school received
word that the hard work and changes
taking place were paying off. The ABA
granted the law school full approval,
and Texas Wesleyan University School
of Law was officially an ABA-approved
law school.
“It was an honor to be here and celebrate
[the ABA approval] with the school,”
former Dean Richard Gershon said. “I was
amazed at the group [of students] who
chose to go here before ABA approval.
They were the entrepreneurs. They paved
the way.”
“Receiving full ABA approval was a
wonderful moment in the development
of this law school,” Interim Dean Cynthia
23
L. Fountaine said. “We had worked so
hard to achieve it. Not only did the
faculty and staff work hard to achieve
accreditation, but the students were also
an integral component in the process.
The impact of accreditation confirms that
we are operating our programs consistent
with ABA requirements, but more
importantly, it means that our graduates
have the privileges and benefits in the
legal profession that go along with having
attended an ABA-accredited school.”
Enhancing Legal Education
Having joined the law school as vice dean
in 1998, Gershon took the helm as Texas
Wesleyan University School of Law’s third
dean in 1999. Flush with the glow of full
ABA approval, the law school charged
into the 21st century ready to continue
its growth as a leader in legal education
that was now on the same playing field
as the rest of the country’s ABA-approved
law schools.
Keeping with its mission to emphasize
service to the community, the law school
adopted a mandatory pro bono requirement
in 2002, requiring all students to complete
30 hours of pro bono work prior to
graduation. Administered by Assistant
Dean of Student Affairs Patti Gearheart
Turner, Texas Wesleyan University School

Photo by Dane Porter
Photo by Lauren O. Burkett
feature story
2005
John Maddux, chair of the Texas Wesleyan University board of trustees, and Anne Skipper,
vice chair of then-board of trustees, cut the ribbon to officially open the renovated law school.
of Law is one of only a handful of schools
nationwide with such a requirement.
“Coming face-to-face with clients who
desperately need legal assistance but
cannot afford it makes a huge impact
on law students,” Turner said. “The
gratification that they experience of giving
back to the community inspires many to
contribute far more than the mandatory
30-hour pro bono requirement. I think this
shows their dedication – not just to those
they are helping, but to the profession as
a whole.”
Since its inception, 793 students have
completed more than 40,000 hours of
pro bono service, and the development of
programs such as the Wesleyan Innocence
Dr. Sarah Weddington, the attorney best known for
successfully arguing Roe v. Wade, addressed Texas Wesleyan
law students in March 2003. Weddington was the youngest
woman ever to argue before the United States Supreme Court.
Do the Math
Take a look at how some of the
numbers at Texas Wesleyan have
changed over the last ten years:
• In the 1997-98 school year, 985
law school applications were
received; in the 2007-08 school
year, 1,941 law school applications
were received
• In 1997, the median LSAT score
of Texas Wesleyan law students
was 149; in 2007, the median LSAT
score of Texas Wesleyan law
students was 154
• In 1997, the law school had 806
alumni; as of 2007, the law school
has more than 2,500 alumni
Project and the Wesleyan Law Fellowship
further demonstrate the passion with
which the student body has embraced its
community service.
“It is amazing how much [pro bono
work] enhances the students’ education,”
Gershon said. “They are giving so much
to the community, but they get something
in return.”
24
Timeline:
July 1997 – Law school relocates to
downtown Fort Worth from Irving
January 1998 – Law Clinic opens
July 1998 – Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law Alumni
Association forms
March 1999 – Supreme Court of
Texas visits law school
August 1999 – Law school
receives full ABA approval
Fall 2002 – Law school adopts
mandatory pro bono requirement
for graduation
August 2003 – Former U.S.
Attorney General Janet Reno addresses
law school community
September 2003 – Law school
faculty recognized as No. 1 in classroom
instruction and faculty accessibility in a
Texas Lawyer magazine survey of the
state’s nine law schools
March 2004 – Law school kicks
off renovation project
Spring 2005 – Law Clinic
announces expansion to include
children’s rights clinic
October 2005 – Law school
renovations completed (additional
40,000 square feet of class space,
library renovation)
October 2005 – U.S. Supreme
Court Justice Anthony Kennedy visits
law school
October 2006 – Second Court of
Appeals hears oral arguments at the
law school
March 2007 – Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals holds oral arguments
at the law school
Photo by Lauren O. Burkett

feature story
Attracting the Best
Just as important as the increased activity
in student programs was the addition of
numerous faculty members. The size of
the faculty at Texas Wesleyan University
School of Law has increased steadily
throughout the school’s existence, as
well as from its relocation to Fort Worth.
From 25 faculty members in 1997 to 34 in
2007, the law school has never failed to
attract teachers of an outstanding caliber.
Law schools represented by the faculty’s
degrees include American University,
Columbia, George Washington, Harvard,
Texas, and the University of Southern
California, with graduate law degrees from
such schools as Chicago, Georgetown,
Notable Visits
March 1999 – Supreme Court
of Texas
August 2003 – Former U.S.
Attorney General Janet Reno
April 2005 – Second District Court
of Appeals of Texas
October 2005 – U.S. Supreme
Court Justice Anthony Kennedy
October 2006 – Second District
Court of Appeals of Texas
March 2007 – Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals
October 2007 – Second District
Court of Appeals of Texas
Justice Anthony Kennedy speaks about the importance of law
in our society at the dedication ceremony at Bass Hall.
(From left to right): Justices Holcomb, Keasler, Womack, Meyers, Keller, Price, Johnson, Hervey, and Cochran of the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law on March 1, 2007. Occasionally, the state’s highest criminal court travels to
law schools around the state to give students a chance to see how appeals are handled in the state’s criminal justice system.
Photo by Dane Porter
Harvard, New York University, and
the University of Virginia. Nonlaw
doctoral and master’s degrees include
Stanford, Michigan, Chicago, Columbia,
and Harvard.
“More and more candidates express
serious interest in coming to Texas
Wesleyan University School of Law,”
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Vickie Rainwater said. “They know we
have a genuine interest in accessibility.
Over the years we have continued to place
a high value on the closeness of students
and teachers, on a relationship that’s free
and comfortable. Additionally, our faculty
members have published an increasing
number of articles and participated in more
conferences over the years. The numbers
continue to increase every semester, which
raises our visibility.”
That accessibility Rainwater mentions
received widespread attention in 2003
when a Texas Lawyer magazine survey
ranked Texas Wesleyan University School
of Law’s faculty No. 1 in classroom
instruction and faculty accessibility
in a survey of students at the state’s
nine law schools.
“An exceptional level of interaction occurs
between faculty and students at Texas
Wesleyan University School of Law,”
Fountaine said. “Being able to speak oneon-one
with professors is an important
element of a law student’s education.
Learning takes place in many ways – both
inside and outside of class. As a faculty,
we think it is very important to maintain
an open and friendly environment
for our students, rather than a closed,
intimidating environment.”
Growth Spurt
Programs and faculty recognition were
not the only parts of the law school that
experienced growth in the new millennia.
When Fred Slabach took the role of Texas
Wesleyan University School of Law’s fourth
dean in 2003, he soon found himself in the
midst of a capital campaign to raise funds
for an expansion that would provide the
school some room for physical growth.
25
“The community as a whole was
extremely supportive,” Slabach said of
the fundraising efforts. “The city of Fort
Worth was very generous. There is no
doubt in my mind that the community
has adopted the law school.”
The $6.5 million renovation project
was kicked off in March 2004, with two
phases incorporating over 40,000 square
feet of additions and updates. Phase one
involved the transformation of the second
floor – a space which had previously been
occupied by the Internal Revenue Service
– into a 40,000 square-foot space that
included the 248-seat Amon G. Carter
Lecture Hall, the Bernie Schuchmann
Conference Center, four 100-seat
Former United States Attorney General Janet Reno visited
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law in August 2003.
classrooms, one 70-seat classroom, four
seminar classrooms, and office space for
administration. Phase two saw the Dee
J. Kelly Law Library grow from 14,222
square feet to 30,021 square feet, plus
space for librarian offices.
Upon completion of the renovation
and expansion in October 2005, United
States Supreme Court Justice Anthony
Kennedy visited the law school and was
welcomed as the keynote speaker for the
dedication ceremony.
“We were honored to have Justice
Kennedy dedicate our new building into a
new era of legal education,” Slabach said.
“It symbolized the way in which Texas
Wesleyan was moving to the forefront of
legal education.”
Photo by John M. Veilleux

Photo by John M. Veilleux
feature story
More than 1,200 guests, including Texas
Wesleyan law school alumni, faculty,
students, donors, and friends celebrated
the dedication of the law school. Justice
Kennedy called the renovation “a tribute,
not only to the benefactors, but to their
vision for the community.”
Beyond the Classroom
While settling into its expanded space,
the law school’s next wave of activity was
just around the corner. Comprised of 2L
and 3L students, the moot court teams of
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law
proved they are a force to be reckoned
with as they traveled the country
competing and placing in state, national,
and international competitions.
“Our moot court participants have
proven themselves to be outstanding
competitors at state and national levels,”
Fountaine said. “The many successes
of Texas Wesleyan’s advocacy program
are a testament to the skill, talent, and
dedication of our students. The moot
court team members are wonderful
ambassadors for this law school, and we
are extremely proud of their success.”
In addition to a number of team awards,
Texas Wesleyan students have received
Judge Randy Catterton of the 231st District Court holds a
newly adopted child on National Adoption Day 2000. Texas
Wesleyan law students take part in National Adoption Day by
representing families looking to adopt a child.
Photo by John M. Veilleux
Photo by John M. Veilleux
In April 2003, the law school honored its present and former deans with official portraits that now hang in the law school.
Pictured are Frank W. Elliott, the first dean of Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, Frank K. Walwer, the second dean of
the law school, and I. Richard Gershon, the law school’s third dean.
Texas Supreme Court Justice Deborah Hankinson spoke to
students following adoption of the pro bono requirement in
August 2002. Hankinson said that professionalism, in relation
to ensuring access to justice, must be instilled and promoted
in the legal profession beginning in law school, a challenge
she sees Texas Wesleyan undertaking.
individual recognition, including honors
for brief-writing and oral advocate skills.
In October 2006, David Pratt ‘07 was
honored with the Best Petitioner’s Brief
award at the ninth annual Pepperdine
Entertainment Law National Moot Court
Competition, a recognition that was
followed in June 2007 when Pratt won
the 2007 Scribes Brief-Writing Award.
Successes such as these are, according to
Rainwater, a testament to the quality of the
students as well as to the improvements
that have been made to the law school’s
26
Deans
Texas Wesleyan University School
of Law has had the privilege of great
leadership from these deans over the
last ten years:
Frank K. Walwer,
1994-1999
I. Richard Gershon,
1999-2003
Frederick G. Slabach,
2003-2006
Cynthia L. Fountaine,
2006-present (Interim)
programs. One such program that has
developed over the last ten years is the
legal writing and research program. From an
adjunct-taught program to a program taught
by a five-member team of full-time faculty,
legal writing and research instruction has
become an integral component of education
at the law school.

feature story
Books to the
Ceiling, Books to
the Sky
From 14,222 square feet to 30,021
square feet plus office space, the
Dee J. Kelly Law Library underwent
a major transformation during the
2004-05 renovation:
22,078 feet of linear shelving
13,533 additional hardcover volumes
18,131 volume equivalents
6,137 hardcopy titles The Dee J. Kelly Law Library gained an additional 22,078 feet
of linear shelving during the renovation and expansion.
The Law Clinic is another component of
Texas Wesleyan that was not only created
following the law school’s relocation,
but has seen exceptional growth in a
short period of time. After opening its
doors in 1998, the clinic quickly expanded
its outreach to provide representation to
clients with a variety of legal problems.
Beginning in June 2003, the clinic received
a grant from SafeHaven of Tarrant County
(formerly Women’s Haven) through the
United States Department of Justice’s Office
of Justice Programs to benefit victims of
domestic violence. Generous funding from
the United Way Families Impact Council
allowed for the creation of the children’s
rights clinic. Originally awarded in the
spring of 2005, the initial grant allowed the
Law Clinic to expand its services to include
a section of practice devoted to children’s
rights, providing services for children who
are at risk for neglect and abuse in the
Tarrant County community, and to form
a collaborative partnership with the Lena
Pope Home, enabling families to receive
the legal and social services they need. The
grant was renewed for the third time in the
summer of 2007.
The Texas Wesleyan Law Clinic received the 2006 Outstanding Large Law Firm of the Year award at the Legal Aid of Northwest Texas
23rd annual Pro Bono Awards Luncheon. The clinic was honored for volunteering 636 hours in the 2005-06 fiscal year.
27
Photo by Lauren O. Burkett Photo by Dane Porter
AWARDS
AND HONORS
2000-2001 – SBA law student division
chapter receives SBA Bronze Key Awards
2003-2006 – SBA law student division
chapter receives SBA Bronze Key Awards
February 2004 – Texas Wesleyan team
wins ABA regional Client Counseling
Competition
March 2004 – Texas Wesleyan team wins
regional ABA Representation in Mediation
Competition
March 2005 – Texas Wesleyan team wins
regional ABA Representation in Mediation
Competition
March 2005 – Texas Wesleyan team wins
regional ABA National Appellate Advocacy
Competition
February 2006 – Moot court teams
advance to semifinalist and finalist levels at
National Appellate Advocacy Competition
May 2006 – Texas Wesleyan Law Review
receives the 2006 Outstanding Law Review
Article of the Year award from the
Texas Bar Foundation
June 2006 – Moot court team finishes as
semifinalists in the Texas State Moot Court
Competition, including second place
Best Advocate honors
OctOber 2006 – Moot court team finishes
as national champions at the ninth annual
Pepperdine Entertainment Law National
Moot Court Competition, including Best
Petitioner’s Brief and Best Oral Advocate
honors in the final round
OctOber 2006 – Moot court team finishes
as national champions at the 25th annual
John Marshall International Intellectual
Property Moot Court Competition in
Information Technology and Privacy Law,
with Best Petitioner’s Brief honors
DeceMber 2006 – Law Clinic receives the
2006 Outstanding Large Law Firm of the
Year award for volunteering 636 hours in
the 2005-06 fiscal year
February 2007 – Moot court team
finishes in second place at the 2006-07
National Moot Court Competition,
including Best Oral Advocate honors
March 2007 – Negotiations team finishes
in first and second place at the International
Negotiations Competition
March 2007 – Mock trial teams
advance to regional finals in the American
Association for Justice Mock Trial
Competition
June 2007 – Moot court team wins the
Texas State Moot Court Competition

Photo by Glen E. Ellman
feature story
In Their Own Words – What the
leaders of Texas Wesleyan University School
of Law remember when looking back:
“Individual clients. I had a client who said to me, ‘I had given up on myself, but the clinic didn’t give up on me.’”
– Law Clinic Director and Professor of Law Charlotte Hughart
“I’ll never forget the hooding ceremonies. It’s a great feeling to send these students out into the world.”
– Former Dean Richard Gershon
“In August 2003, when Janet Reno came to speak, the law school community was really buzzing. She was one of the
few nationally known speakers we had had. The local press was in the law school, there was TV coverage, and it was
very exciting. She was a wonderfully inspiring speaker; the students loved hearing her. She was warm, genuine, and
immensely likeable. She told wonderful stories, and she was so unpretentious and even funny. It was a very exciting
and fun day for us.”
– Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Vickie Rainwater
Professor Joe Spurlock stands before the Mongolian flag
holding a rug of Chingiss Khan, the father of Mongolia. The
Asian Judicial Institute of Texas Wesleyan University School
of Law has welcomed members of the Mongolian legal
community to its campus since 2000, as part of the judicial
retraining that Spurlock has led at the school.
“The impact of full accreditation for Texas Wesleyan law school was striking.
Scores of alumni will serve mightily as lawyers, judges, and public servants
in the business community working toward the growth of the community for
years to come.”
– Former Dean Frank Walwer
“The students’ commitment to public service. Our students really do value
giving back to the community.”
– Former Dean Fred Slabach
“Ten years has seen a remarkable change in this corner of downtown
Fort Worth. Then, the area was a landscape of trash-strewn empty lots,
overgrown with weeds. Since its opening in 1997, the law school has been
surrounded by development, from the expansion of the Fort Worth Convention
Center, the re-engineering of the Water Gardens, the renovation of the hotel
next door, and the opening of the UTA Education Center. As I look around at
this progress, I’m proud that we were here first.”
– Associate Dean for Budget & Planning Jim Hambleton
28

Photo by John M. Veilleux
feature story
Law School Expansion
40,000 additional square feet
Amon G. Carter Lecture Hall (248 seats)
Four 100-seat classrooms;
one 70-seat classroom
Four seminar classrooms
Office space for faculty and administration
An on-site bookstore
Student organization rooms, such as law
review, moot court, and SBA, and a student
lounge and computer lab
Increased work spaces in career services
and the Law Clinic
“The Law Clinic has provided countless
hours of invaluable service to indigent
clients who would otherwise not have
access to legal services,” Fountaine said.
“The generous grant funding the clinic
has received recognizes the important
work being done by the Law Clinic faculty,
staff, and students who work tirelessly
on behalf of their clients for the benefit
of our community.”
One Step Along the Way
At ten years in downtown Fort Worth and
18 years since its inception, Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law has taken many
steps to become what it is today. While the
relocation enabled it to reach new levels of
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law Brief Run, 2001.
success and recognition, the move is not
the sole reason for the school’s success.
Rather, it was a necessary step in the law
school’s growth, and that step happened
to lead down a path that has yielded
tremendous accomplishments.
While professor Frank Elliott – a founding
faculty member and the first dean of Texas
Wesleyan University School of Law – most
likely has dozens of memories to choose
from, his reflection on the law school’s
success is more humble, yet perhaps more
appropriate than any award or speech.
“We started it, and it worked – beyond
our expectations.” z
29
The trial courtroom in the Steven J. Laird Justice Center.
The entrance to the Dee J. Kelly Law Library. The library
went from 14,222 square feet to 30,021 square feet after
the renovation and expansion.
Amon G. Carter Auditorium
Photo by Dane Porter
Photos by Dane Porter
feature story — texas wesleyan university school of law celebrating 10 years in fort worth • by abby e. dozier

aLumni
Networking socials
The alumni association held two networking socials this
spring in Dallas and Fort Worth, hosting a total of more than
100 alumni. In February, more than 30 alumni gathered at
Ovation restaurant in Fort Worth for networking and hors
d’oeuvres. And in March, more than 60 alumni gathered
at the Belo Mansion in Dallas with Interim Dean Cynthia
L. Fountaine. Both events were well attended by alumni,
current law students, and faculty members.
This spring, Interim Dean Cynthia L. Fountaine joined
nearly 50 alumni in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio
for networking and a law school update. The alumni
association will continue hosting events across Texas
throughout the year, so visit the Upcoming Events page on
our web site www.alumni.law.txwes.edu to see when we
will be in your area.
In May, the alumni association hosted a new graduate
networking event at 8.0 in downtown Fort Worth. More
than 40 alumni from all graduation years were present.
Alumni annual weekend
The Texas Wesleyan University School of Law Alumni
Association held its annual meeting on Saturday, April
28, at Joe T. Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant in the historic
Fort Worth stockyards.
About 70 people attended the dinner, which provided
alumni, friends, and members of the law school community
a chance to honor their peers and support the law school.
Members of the new alumni board were announced, and
several individuals were honored for their achievements
and contributions to Texas Wesleyan School of Law.
Interim Dean Cynthia L. Fountaine was the keynote speaker.
Craig M. Watkins ’94 was the recipient of this year’s
Distinguished Alumni Award, an annual award given to
an alumnus or alumna of the law school who demonstrates
excellence in achievement and community service.
Currently serving as the Dallas County district attorney,
Watkins was a member of the first class of Texas Wesleyan
law graduates.
Former adjunct Professor Michael L. Ware was the recipient
of this year’s Distinguished Adjunct Faculty Award,
an award presented to an adjunct faculty member in
recognition of notable scholarship, continuing support of
report
news from the office of advancement & alumni relations
30
Letter from the President of the
Law Review Alumni Association
On Oct. 13, the Texas Wesleyan Law Review
Alumni Association joined the current law review
members for a night out at the races at Lone Star
Park in Grand Prairie. Thanks to everyone who
attended and showed their support. It was a funfilled
evening and a great opportunity to meet and
mingle with the new members.
As many of you may know, the purpose of the
alumni association is to support the current law
review members, primarily by providing stipends to the editors.
We are almost halfway there, but your support is critical to reaching
our ultimate financial goal and making these stipends a reality. We
must meet a minimum to make any distributions and, to that end,
monetary donations to the Law Review Endowment Fund in any
amount are appreciated.
Also, be sure to check your mailbox for notice of the Judy and
Stephen Alton Challenge Gift. In addition to their continued support
of the Law Review Endowment Fund, the Altons have graciously
agreed to match dollar-for-dollar all donations to the endowment
fund that are made between Dec. 1, 2007, and May 31, 2008 (up to
$10,000). “Double your money” with a year-end donation!
As the year draws to a close, I want to thank all of the current and
past alumni association board members who have dedicated their
time to this organization, many of whom have personally given
generously to the endowment fund and continue to actively lend
their support.
The law review is making new strides each day and continues
to publish timely and important legal works. Please join me in
applauding their efforts, as Texas Wesleyan is the new home of
the National Conference of Law Reviews. The alumni association
wishes the current members the best of luck as they meet the
challenges of this new semester.
Candace Collins ’02, president
Law Review Alumni Association
Ralph Swearingin ‘94, Judy Alton ‘94, Craig Watkins ‘94, Nancy Berger ‘94, Jerry Walker ‘94.
Photo by Abby E. Dozier

Photo by Abby E. Dozier
alumni
report
Professor Paul George receives the Shirley Zabel
Memorial Faculty Award from Jason Mills ‘00.
students, and extracurricular service.
Previously a private practice attorney,
Ware is currently a special assistant
in charge of DNA review of old cases
for Dallas County District Attorney
Craig Watkins ‘94.
Professor Paul George was the recipient
of this year’s Shirley Zabel Memorial
Faculty Award. Named for former
Texas Wesleyan law professor Shirley
Letter to Alumni Association
I am honored to serve as your alumni
association president.
To our immediate past president, Jason Mills:
On behalf of the entire association, we extend
to you our sincere appreciation and thanks.
Your exemplary service, contributions, and
leadership are greatly appreciated by us all.
The primary focus of my two-year term as president will
be continued growth. Working together with the board,
our primary endeavor will be the development of a longrange
plan that will map out an ambitious path of growth
to keep our association perpetually going and growing. I
will call the plan “20-20 Vision,” as it provides benchmarks
for growth that will carry us from the year 2009 through
the year 2020. Much more about “20-20 Vision” will be
provided as the plan develops.
If you missed the 2007 annual event, you missed a great
one. Fajitas and fun were had by all at Joe T. Garcia’s
Mexican Restaurant and Billy Bob’s Texas. However, I
Zabel, the award is given to a faculty
member in recognition of national
scholarship, activities that enhance
the reputation of the law school and its
students, and extracurricular service.
George is a founding faculty member
of the law school and served as
associate dean during the law school’s
accreditation process.
John Allen Chalk received this year’s
Steve Chaney Friend of the Law
School Award, an annual award
acknowledging extraordinary service
to the law school by a person or persons
who are not affiliated with the school
by attendance or occupation. Chalk
has been an attorney at Whitaker,
Chalk, Swindle & Sawyer, LLP, since
1986, and he has been responsible for
hiring a number of Texas Wesleyan
law alumni.
assure you that our upcoming April 2008
annual event is the one that you do not want
to miss! In fact, you had better mark April
18-19, 2008, on your calendars now just to be
sure you’re not out of town!
Great things are on the horizon for our
association. So this year, make the decision
to stay involved or become involved and be
a part of your association. When you do, I
assure you that you will be glad you did.
My best regards,
Ralph Swearingin Jr. ’94, president
Alumni Association
31
Alumni golf tournament
Prior to the annual meeting and dinner
at Joe T. Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant,
the alumni association hosted a golf
tournament at the Riverside Golf Club
in Grand Prairie on Friday, April 27.
Teams of alumni, faculty, and students
participated, with the alumni team
of Blake Hedgecock ‘00, Matthew
Germany ’99, and Richard Johnson
’05, winning the tournament. Contests
included Closest to the Pin, Longest
Drive, and Hole-in-One.
Proceeds from the tournament benefited
the Wesleyan Law Fellowship, which
provides fellowships to students who
serve in public interest legal jobs over
the summer.

2007-2008 Alumni Association
Board of Directors
Angela Adkins-Downes ‘98
Caroline Akers ‘04
Theresa Berend ‘04
Nancy Berger ‘94
Nancy Jackson Carroll ‘97
Tawanna Cesare ‘03
Ricardo de los Santos ‘94
Jennifer Di Fonso ‘03
Casey Dyer ‘06
DeShun Eubanks ‘04
Blake Hedgecock ‘00
Jason Mills ’00 (past president)
Steve Mosher ‘95
Mario X. Perez ‘02
John Polk ‘98
Lori Spearman ‘97
Ralph Swearingin ’94, president
Julie Walker ‘06
We would like to extend an extra
thank you to the following 2006-2007
committee chairs. These people
worked very hard to make the
2006-2007 year a great success!
Blake Hedgecock ‘00
Alumni Golf Tournament
Committee Chair
Steve Mosher ‘95
Bylaws Committee Chair
Khayan Williams ‘96
Nominating Committee Chair
Ralph Swearingin ‘94
Alumni Annual Meeting
Committee Chair
DeShun Eubanks ‘04
Social Committee Chair
Photo by Charles Scudder
U.S. Supreme Court
swearing-in ceremony,
Washington, D.C.
On March 5, 2007, 21 alumni were
admitted to practice before the
United States Supreme Court. The
swearing-in ceremony took place in
the United States Supreme Court and
was followed by a reception in the
Supreme Court Lawyers’ Lounge for
the admittees and their guests. Justice
Anthony Kennedy, Justice Samuel
Alito, and Supreme Court Clerk
William Suter stopped by to greet and
congratulate the new admittees (see
photo on page 33).
Justice Samuel Alito and Interim Dean Cynthia L. Fountaine at the
U.S. Supreme Court swearing-in ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Swearing-in ceremony,
Austin, Texas
Interim Dean Cynthia L. Fountaine
and Assistant Dean for Career Services
Arturo Errisuriz congratulated the
newly sworn-in Wesleyan lawyers
at the swearing-in ceremony last
February in Austin. A record 50
alumni, along with their friends and
families, gathered at a reception at the
Doubletree Hotel after the ceremony.
32
State Bar of Texas
annual meeting
In conjunction with the State Bar of
Texas annual meeting in June, Interim
Dean Cynthia L. Fountaine hosted a
reception at the Marriott River Center
in San Antonio. Alumni attending
the state bar annual meeting, as well
as San Antonio-area alumni, enjoyed
visiting with Fountaine and hearing
about the current achievements of the
law school.
Bar exam lunch
In keeping with recent tradition, the
alumni association provided lunch
to more than 130 Texas Wesleyan
bar takers in Arlington during the
July bar exam. This tradition will
continue at the bar exam in Dallas in
February 2008. z
New Alumni Association
Board Members
Angela Adkins-Downes ‘98
Lori Spearman ‘97
Nancy Jackson Carroll ‘97
Julie Walker ‘06
Mario X. Perez ‘02
Ricardo de los Santos ‘94

alumni
report
Letter from Director of
Alumni Relations
Dear Fellow Alumni & Friends,
It is my pleasure to serve as the new director of alumni relations
and external affairs. It is truly an honor to be part of such a
distinguished alumni association in the vibrant legal community
that Texas Wesleyan University School of Law offers. As we
approach the end of the year, I’d like to take a moment to let you
know what we have planned for the future. There are many exciting
things happening at the law school, specifically in regard to the
alumni association! We are currently updating the alumni web site,
preparing for our Wesleyan Law School Annual Fund, and gearing
up for many exciting spring activities such as the annual Alumni
Reunion Weekend that is scheduled for April 18-19, 2008.
This year we have an alumni board that is enthusiastic about taking
our alumni association and, more importantly, our law school to
the next level. I, personally, am dedicated to keeping our alumni
connected to the law school by increasing our outreach initiatives,
keeping graduates up-to-date with current events at the law school,
and initiating programs and activities on local, state, and national
levels to increase awareness about our legal institution.
Alumni support has been crucial to transforming
institutions across the country. So thank you to
those of you who make contributions, who give
generously of your time to advise and mentor
students, and who make time to attend law school
and alumni events. Your dedication shows the
strength and importance of our alumni network
to the community, to current students, and
to fellow alumni. I hope to continue to build
relationships, strengthen connections, and
encourage participation so that we can
build a better future for Texas Wesleyan
University School of Law. Your participation
matters, and you can have an impact on
the law school that is greater than you ever
imagined. Whether it is giving your time to
mentor a current student or making a gift to
the annual fund, you can make a difference in
the future of our law school!
Again, I am privileged to be a part of this law
school’s continued success and look forward
to working to make your alumni experience
the best yet! Please feel free to contact me with
any questions, concerns, or comments. I’d be
delighted to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Casey R. Dyer ‘06
Director of Alumni Relations & External Affairs
33
Congratulations
to the Texas Wesleyan University School of
Law alumni who were sworn-in before the
U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.,
on March 5, 2007.
Renee Albury ‘98
Russell Clinage ‘94
Gregory Cody ‘97
Daniel Cramer ‘01
Delia Cruz-Bruno ‘99
Terry Duncan ‘95
William Erickson ‘98
Olegario Estrada ‘02
Regine Gordon ‘99
Diane Heindel ‘01
Fred Hepner ‘97
Stephen Love ‘01
Nikki Morton ‘01
Harold McAden ‘98
Alicia O’Mary ‘02
Martha Reagan ‘95
Patricia Ryan ‘97
Lori Spearman ‘97
Allen Williamson ‘99
Doug Wood ‘96
Kelly Rule Yount ‘02
Photo by Charles Scudder
alumni report • news from the office of advancement & alumni relations

Photo by Paul B. Scudder
To question Professor Joe Spurlock
about Mongolia is to open the door
to history, passion, and unmitigated
enthusiasm from a man who says he has
found familiarity in a country halfway
around the world. Having recently
returned from his seventh journey to
Mongolia, Professor Spurlock is wellversed
in the nation’s past and present
happenings. But his interest in this
faraway land is more than a personal one.
A 1995 meeting with Mongolia’s former
president laid the foundation for a project
that will – for all intents and purposes –
change the shape of a nation.
The Asian Judicial Institute is part
of Texas Wesleyan University School
of Law’s international community
outreach program. Also referred to as
the AJI, the program was formed under
Spurlock’s direction after he met former
President Orchibat of Mongolia in
Houston in 1995.
Just three years prior to this encounter, in
1992, Mongolia’s people had elected to
establish a democratic form of government,
and the country’s leaders were looking for
guidance that would help their Supreme
PASSIONin
ACTION
How One Professor’s Love of Law is
Helping Reshape a Nation
Professor Joe Spurlock in his office at the law school. The national flag of Mongolia behind him is one
of many treasures he has collected during his time as director of the Asian Judicial Institute.
Court develop programs to further the
reforms of the judiciary.
The initial meeting between Spurlock
and President Orchibat led to further
introductions, and Spurlock soon found
himself in the company of Ambassador
Choinhor, the Mongolian ambassador to
the United States, Chief Justice Ganzorig
of the Mongolian Supreme Court, and
other diplomats in the Mongolian
Embassy in Washington, D.C. With
Spurlock as the acting director, the AJI
was officially formed in 1996.
“Through a series of fortunate events,
they found this law school and us,”
Spurlock said. “As an individual, I have
no power. It takes an institution to back
up a professor.”
Journeys across the World
Spurlock made his first trip to Mongolia
in 2000. Since that time, a well-worn
path has been tread between Mongolia
and Texas by Spurlock and members of
the Mongolian legal community. The law
school hosted its first group of Mongolian
Supreme Court judges in 2000 and
has since welcomed seven groups of
judges and lawyers to its downtown
34
by Abby E. Dozier
campus. During their time here, these
individuals attend classroom lectures
given by Spurlock and other members of
the law faculty, and visit local law firms,
government offices, and courthouses.
They are “seeing American law in action”
as Spurlock says.
“Just being in the courts and the law
offices was worth being in the program,”
Mr. Batjav, of the Mongolian office
of the president, said at the end of
the July 2007 training. “It was great
meeting the practitioners.”
With so many components of the legal
system to choose from, narrowing in
on one area to advise could have been
a challenge. However, Spurlock said
Professor Joe Spurlock receives the Mongolian Medal of Friendship from
the Hon. Ch. Ganbat, chief justice of the Mongolian Supreme Court.
Photo by Lauren O. Burkett

feature story
a phone call in 1996 from Mongolian
Chief Justice Ganzorig led to a visit that
found the men debating and redrafting a
proposed code of criminal procedure for
the Mongolian Legislature.
“There were so many ways we could have
helped, as a university,” Spurlock said.
“We picked a very narrow slice, which
was to help them establish judicial
independence in the country. And that
doesn’t mean judges being free to do
whatever they wanted. It means the
judges must be free to follow the law.
“To be educated enough, to have the
courage, the strength, and the conviction
to apply the right decision. It takes courage
in the face of the system, and they were
used to getting their information over the
telephone, from the higher court telling
the lower court what to do.”
Once the AJI established a course of
study, the travel began. To date, 43
judges from the trial courts, appellate
courts, and the Supreme Court of
Mongolia have received training in the
principles of judicial accountability,
responsibility, honesty, and procedures
of court in the U.S. and Texas. The most
recent visit, which took place this July,
marked a new point in the program’s
role in how it will affect the future
of Mongolia.
In place of the usual contingent of judicial
officers, this year’s group was comprised
of legal trainers from the National Legal
Center of Mongolia. In contrast to their
judicial counterparts, this group not only
Chief Justice Ganzorig of the Mongolian Supreme Court has
been involved with the AJI since 1996, when he approached
Professor Spurlock for advice on drafting criminal procedure
code. The artwork behind him is one of several pieces that
Spurlock has collected over the years.
Photo by Abby E. Dozier
received training they will apply in their
own legal practices, but they returned
to Mongolia prepared to train future
generations of legal practitioners, thus
ensuring that the democratic system is
imparted in the future.
“The school and the National Legal Center
of Mongolia agreed on this pilot program
to explore possible future long-term
training possibilities,” Spurlock said.
“Our training emphasis has shifted from
courtroom protocols and the criteria of
judging to teaching requested substantive
and procedural subjects to the lawyers
and their teachers.”
Participants in the course were grateful
for the chance to attend the training, and
expressed their gratitude to Spurlock at
every opportunity.
“You have made a great impression in
Mongolia,” Batjav said to Spurlock. “This
training was very helpful because you
have so much experience working with
Mongolia. I believe everyone here had
something in mind they are planning to
do back in Mongolia. I will select topics
from this program to teach to others. The
country will benefit from this, and I am
very happy you wanted me to be a part
of it.”
unexpected Connections
This change in the program’s course of
instruction is just one sign of the positive
impact Spurlock’s work has made on
this nation. In addition to the vocal
praise and continual requests for more
training programs, both here and abroad,
Spurlock has been formally recognized
by Mongolia’s top governmental
leaders. He received the Mongolian
Medal of Friendship from past President
Bagabandi in 2005 for creating the AJI
and assisting in the country’s judicial
reform efforts, and in 2006, President
Enkhbayar awarded Spurlock the medal
of the 800th Anniversary of the Founding
of the Mongolian Great State, for his work
contributing to favorable international
recognition for Mongolia and her people.
“Professor Spurlock has been the driving
force behind this project, and his energy
and enthusiasm for the AJI has been
35
Professor Joe Spurlock, front row, second from left, with the
members of the 2007 Asian Judicial training program.
the catalyst for the program’s success,”
Interim Dean Cynthia L. Fountaine said. “I
am honored that Texas Wesleyan University
School of Law has had the opportunity to
develop this relationship with Mongolian
leaders, and I am proud of the impact our
law school has had in spreading democracy
throughout the world.”
After 45 years as a licensed attorney, with
30 of those as an undergraduate and
law school professor, one might wonder
what keeps Spurlock going with a project
such as this. A love for his country and
an honest, respectful belief in the laws
that govern it are evident in Spurlock’s
words and actions. And even more than
wanting to share this knowledge with
his Mongolian colleagues, Spurlock has
forged a connection with these people that
promises to motivate him to keep helping
them as long as they ask.
“I think the best thing I’ve gained from
this is the realization that there is this
island of people way over in Asia, a
place people literally talk about as ‘the
end of the earth,’” Spurlock said. “And
when you get there, you find Texans. Yes,
there are different languages, different
appearances, different cultures, different
ways of living. But you find essentially
open, fair, and honest people who love
life itself. They have a spirit you just
wouldn’t believe. I’ve gone to the end of
the earth, and I’ve met myself.” z
Members of the AJI training program in July 2007. The group
spent many hours in classrooms at the law school, listening to
lectures and asking questions about the American legal system.
Photo by Abby E. Dozier
Photo by Abby E. Dozier
feature story — passion in action: how one professor’s love of law is helping reshape a nation • by abby e. dozier • photos by paul b. scudder, lauren o. burkett & abby e. dozier

aLumni
1994
Nancy Berger was elected treasurer of
the 2007-08 alumni association board
of directors.
Ricardo de los Santos was elected to
the 2007-09 alumni association board
of directors.
Paul T. Hebda has accepted a senior
attorney position with the Office of
Disability Adjudication and Review
(Social Security Administration) in
Baltimore, Md. He was previously with
the Birmingham, Ala., office.
Ralph Swearingin was elected president
of the 2007-09 alumni association board
of directors.
1995
Steve Mosher was elected vice president
of the 2007-08 alumni association board
of directors.
Ernest Street retired from the Laboratory
Corporation of America (LabCorp) in
August 2007. He and his wife, JoAnn, will
be dividing their time between homes in
Austin, Texas, and Grand Junction, Colo.
Ernest will continue doing consulting
work for the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services as a laboratory
inspector in the National Laboratory
Certification Program.
1996
Tammie Moore was appointed as a special
assistant United States attorney (SAUSA/
USPIS), Southern District of Texas and
assigned to the criminal section – major
offender prosecutions. To date, her case
load has included several cases involving
felons in possession of firearms, and will
soon include cases involving possession
in furtherance of a drug-related crime,
several illegal immigration/re-entry
news & notes
a digest of news, notes, events, and features
cases, a false claim of citizenship/
misuse of passport matter, a FEMA fraud
matter, and various United States Postal
Service matters, including counterfeit
postage meters, mail theft, and mail
fraud. She can be reached by e-mail at
tammie.moore@usdoj.gov.
1997
Nancy Jackson Carroll was elected to
the 2007-09 alumni association board
of directors.
Lori Spearman was elected to the 2007-09
alumni association board of directors.
alumni
Michael Crain ’00
1998
Angela Adkins-Downes was re-elected
to the 2007-09 alumni association board
of directors.
1999
Delia Cruz-Bruno has opened Cruz-
Bruno, PLLC in Southlake, Texas. Her
practice focuses on employment, business,
and real estate law, and includes both
transactional work and litigation. She
can be contacted at 1201 N. Carroll
Ave., Southlake, Texas 76092; phone:
817.328.1590; fax: 817.328.1599; e-mail:
dcruzbruno@cruzbrunolaw.com.
profile
From Local Politics to International Government Relations
When Michael Crain ’00 walked into the campaign office of then-governor
George W. Bush in 1999, he had no idea how much his decision to help
out for the summer would affect the next decade of his life.
“If you would have told me then that I would end up in China because of that, I would have told you
that you were crazy,” Crain said during a recent call from Beijing.
But China is exactly where he is, and he will be there until January 2009, when the next U.S. president
takes office. Crain is currently the senior advisor to the United States ambassador to China, a position
that he describes as a “political ambassador of sorts.”
“I didn’t even know this position existed until I met the ambassador,” Crain said. “There are only 12
of us in the world.”
Crain’s journey to Beijing began after that summer he worked for the 2000 Bush-Chaney campaign
in Fort Worth. Since his law school graduation in 2000, Crain has worked for Congressman Jerry
Lewis, the Republican National Convention, and served as senior counsel at Meyers & Associates,
a Washington, D.C.-based firm that lobbied on behalf of Texas A&M. Additionally, he was senior
legislative counsel for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, served as the director
of the Victory of 2004 program for the Republican National Committee, was the senior managing
director of the 2005 Presidential Inaugural Committee, and served as the director of external affairs
for the U.S. Department of Commerce. In 2006 he accepted his current position in Beijing, a position
that will last until the inauguration of the next U.S. president in 2009.
“I’ve been able to do things I never thought I would do and go places I never thought I would go,”
Crain said. “And I’ve learned that our relations with other countries are so important, especially with
China. Our economies are joined at the hip.”
Crain said that while China can be a daunting place, he is excited to be there and to learn about
the country’s history and culture, something he had only a general knowledge of before his arrival.
And with the 2008 summer Olympics just around the corner, Crain is seeing history in the making
as well.
“The face of Beijing is changing every day. I’m excited to be here at this time.”
36

alumni
news & notes
Sherry L. Shipman announces the
opening of Shipman Steppick, P.C., in
Denton. The firm will focus on matters of
civil litigation, business litigation, errors
and omissions defense, employment law,
products liability, and oil and gas litigation.
The firm consists of two partners, Sherry
Shipman and Dan Steppick, and together
they offer a combined 20 years of legal
experience to their clients with emphasis
on trial work. Visit the firm’s web site at
www.shipmansteppick.com.
2000
Patricia B. Cole was named as chair of
Clark Educational Services, Inc., a Texas
501(c) nonprofit organization formed
to assist international music students
who are studying under scholarships
at American universities who need
additional financial assistance, including
funding for books, supplies, food, rent, etc.
Patricia and Trent welcomed 3-year-old
Abrianna Elizabeth Cole to their family
this spring. Patricia was also elected to
the Tax and Estate Planning Section of
the Tarrant County Bar Association as the
chair-elect for the 2007 board.
Blake Hedgecock and his wife, Shelley,
welcomed Henderson Houston Hedgecock
on Sept. 5, 2007, at 1:30 p.m. Henderson
weighed in at 8 pounds, 9 ounces and
measured 21 inches long.
Chris Watts is now a solo practitioner
focusing on real estate. Chris was elected
to the City Council for Denton, Texas,
District 4, on May 12, 2007, and was
sworn in on June 1, 2007.
2001
Lorraine Irby was appointed the Relief
Municipal Court judge for the city
of Keller, Texas, this spring. She will
continue her solo practice in Keller, and
can be reached at 817.337.9729 or by
e-mail at lorraine@kellerlawyer.com.
Stacey D. Walvoord was named a partner
in the law firm of Vaughan, Ramsey,
Barbera & Walvoord, LLP, on Nov. 1.
The law firm’s primary areas of
practice are insurance defense and
litigation in employment and medical
malpractice lawsuits.
2002
Charles “Chuck” R. Gulbronson
completed his LL.M. in taxation at
Southern Methodist University in
December 2006.
Sandra Leigh Chambers King has been
accepted to the general LL.M. program
at Southern Methodist University for
the fall 2007 entering class. She will be
focusing her studies, research, and writing
on civil litigation with an emphasis
on intellectual property. She can be
reached at 817.235.7223 or by e-mail at
sandraleighking@aol.com.
Michael Munoz and Jennifer Mahnke
’03 were married on Sept. 1, 2007, in
Arlington, Texas. Michael recently
opened his own firm in Arlington,
practicing in the areas of criminal,
family, and personal injury law. Jennifer
is still with Hasten & Hansen practicing
insurance subrogation.
Mario X. Perez was elected to the 2007-09
alumni association board of directors.
37
alumni
Cherami Jenkins ‘03
profile
Alumna Recognized as Assistant Attorney General of the Year
For the individuals who venture into sectors of law that benefit people
who may not otherwise get the help they need, the satisfaction of helping
others is compensation in itself. So when Cherami Jenkins ’03 was
recognized as Assistant Attorney General of the Year, she said she was
shocked and honored, as she received the award for simply doing what she loves.
“I am honored that my peers chose and accepted me as the recipient of this award,” Jenkins said. “I
was surprised because I’m so new.”
As assistant attorney general in the office of the attorney general in northeast Fort Worth, Jenkins is
responsible for establishing, enforcing, and modifying court orders for child and medical support
on behalf of Texas children and their families. She was introduced to child support work during an
internship she took during her time as a law student.
“In these cases, the law is clear,” Jenkins said. “I love being in the courtroom, and the litigation
experience is great.”
Jenkins’ hard work and dedication were recognized by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott at
the Statewide Assistant Attorney General Conference in San Antonio in August. She was one
of eight assistant attorney generals honored, with one individual from each of the state’s regions
receiving recognition.
“Thanks to Cherami Jenkins’ hard work and dedication, thousands of young Texans have the child
support they need to grow healthy and strong,” Attorney General Abbott said in a prepared statement.
“Together with her colleagues, Cherami has improved the lives of Texans and their families. We are
grateful to Cherami for her commitment to Texas children and her service to the state of Texas.”
2003
Kimberly A. Butler has moved office
locations. She can now be reached at 1117
W. Magnolia Ave., Fort Worth, Texas 76104;
phone: 817.924.8606; fax: 817.924.8603;
e-mail: kabutleratty@yahoo.com.
Tawanna Cesare has joined the law firm
of Moses, Palmer & Howell, LLP. She
can be reached at 309 W. 7th St., Suite
815, Fort Worth, Texas 76102; phone:
817. 255.9108; fax: 817.255.9199; e-mail:
tcesare@mph-law.com. Her practice is
concentrated in the areas of commercial
litigation and family law.
Cherami Jenkins was honored as Assistant
Attorney General of the Year on Aug. 18,
2007, at the Statewide Assistant Attorney
General Conference in San Antonio for
her work on behalf of Texas children and
their families. Texas Attorney General
Greg Abbott recognized one assistant
attorney general from each of the state’s
eight child support regions and the main
office in Austin.
Lori Kaspar-Coker argued St. George
v. State before the Court of Criminal
Appeals on May 23, 2007. She also wrote
the state’s brief for Hood County.
Scott McKee and Ashley Adams McKee
welcomed another son, Ranger Sutton
McKee, born April 5, 2007. Scott

alumni news & notes • a digest of news, notes, events, and features
alumni
news & notes
and Ashley are in private practice in
Henderson County focusing primarily
on criminal, family, and real estate law.
Ashley is the current president of the
Henderson County Bar Association,
and Scott is the current president of the
Henderson County Young Republicans.
2004
Christi Hufford, formerly with CMS
Cameron McKenna LLP in London,
UK, returned to the U.S. to join Siskind
Susser Bland P.C. in Memphis, Tenn.
She continues to practice corporate
immigration law, and can be contacted at
chufford@visalaw.com.
Jessica Sharma Graham has joined
the firm of Sandbote, Waggoner &
Zopolsky, P.C., as an associate. She can
be reached at Mockingbird Station,
5307 E. Mockingbird Lane, Suite 802,
Dallas, Texas, 75206-5121; phone:
214.823.2125; fax: 214.823.7536; e-mail:
jessica@sandbotewaggoner.com.
Eric Wilfong and his wife welcomed their
first child, Mateo Christopher Wilfong, on
Sept. 17, 2007. He weighed 9 pounds, 5
ounces and measured 21 inches.
2006
Scott Petty and Michael Schneider
recently founded the law firm of Schneider
& Petty. The success of their first year is
thanks in large part to referrals from former
classmates and an aggressive marketing
strategy. Goals for the second year have
Schneider & Petty adding an associate to
its family law practice and the addition
of bankruptcy to its list of practice areas.
The firm currently practices criminal
defense, family, and personal injury law.
Their updated web site can be viewed at
www.clientdrivenlaw.com.
Rebecca Sooter has joined Johnston Legal
Group P.C. as an associate attorney. Her
primary areas of practice are estate and
disability planning, family law, guardian
of minors and incapacitated persons,
probate and administration of decedents’
estates, trust and fiduciary litigation.
She can be reached at 817.820.0825,
by e-mail at rsooter@txinslaw.com,
or at www.txinslaw.com.
Alan Steele has moved office locations.
G. Alan Steele, Attorney at Law, is now
located at 1514 Crossland Rd. #102,
Granbury, Texas 76048.
Katrina Sumter was married to Natherral
Washington on May 26, 2007. The couple
has also opened their new office, the
Washington Firm, P.C., at 309 W. 7th
St., Suite 915, Fort Worth, Texas 76102;
phone: 817.339.1406; fax: 817.339.1407.
Julie Walker was elected to the 2007-09
alumni association board of directors.
alumni
Ami Sanchez ‘06
profile
Running at Full Speed and Loving It
Following completion of the bar exam, many law school graduates
probably write “take a long nap” at the top of their list of things to do. But
after Ami Sanchez ’06 completed that last answer on the test, she dashed
to the airport and hopped a plane for Washington, D.C., where she began
a new job that was the start of a busy and exciting career.
Sanchez is currently the assistant director for lawyer chapters at the American Constitution Society
for Law and Policy (ACS) in Washington, D.C. The organization is a network of lawyers, law students,
scholars, judges, policymakers, and other individuals who work to ensure that the fundamental
principles of human dignity, individual rights, genuine equality, and access to justice are given a
central place in American law.
“It has been a whirlwind, and it’s so exciting,” Sanchez said. “I get to interact with some of the most
intelligent legal minds in the country. I love organizing lawyers for a cause, and ACS has chapters all
over the country.”
Prior to her position at ACS, Sanchez worked for EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest grassroots political
network, which is dedicated to building a progressive America by electing pro-choice democratic
women to federal, state, and local offices. Sanchez worked for the group through a program called
Campaign Corps, which trains young democratic operatives on all aspects of running a political
campaign, then places participants on high profile races across the country. During the 2006 campaign
cycle, Sanchez worked for the New York State Democratic Senate Caucus working to elect pro-choice
democratic women to state office. Following the general election, Sanchez returned to Texas to work
on Ciro Rodriguez’s TX-23rd Congressional special.
“It was a phenomenal experience,” Sanchez said. “The knowledge and skills I gained working to
organize lawyers on behalf of the campaign were invaluable.”
While the nation’s capital is many miles from her hometown of San Antonio, Sanchez said she has
been reminded how small the world can be when she occasionally runs into former law school Dean
Fred Slabach and other Wesleyan connections in the area. However, there is one home comfort she
said she cannot find in Washington.
“Breakfast tacos. They are a concept yet to be grasped here in the East. If all else fails, I could open a
breakfast taco stand out on the corner and make a killing, because they have yet to be realized here.”
38
Roberta Walker has become an associate
with the Law Offices of Roderick C.
White at 316 Hemphill St., Fort Worth,
Texas 76104; phone: 817.335.1585;
fax: 817.335.1592.
2007
James O’Sullivan and his wife, Michelle,
welcomed their first child, Avner Jay, on
May 17, 2007. James has joined the firm of
Sandbote, Waggoner and Zopolsky, P.C.,
Mockingbird Station, 5307 E. Mockingbird
Lane, Suite 802, Dallas, Texas 75206-5121;
phone: 214.823.2125.

Honor Roll of Donors
Our annual Honor Roll of Donors celebrates and
acknowledges the wonderful community within
which Texas Wesleyan University School of Law
operates. It is your generosity that enables us to
live up to our commitment to excellence year
after year. The law school sincerely thanks the
following alumni, friends, faculty, staff, law firms,
corporations, and foundations who have made
generous gifts to the school during our 2007 fiscal
year (June 1, 2006, through May 31, 2007).
Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer &
Feld, L.L.P.
Patsy Alenik ‘94
Stephen and Judy ’94 Alton
American Corporate
Counsel Association
Wayne Barnes
Monica A. Benson ‘05
Hon. Nancy Berger ‘94
William Blackburn
Brackett and Ellis, P.C.
Delia Cruz-Bruno ‘99
Tiffany Burns ‘00
Leland ‘96 and Barbara Caldwell
David and Ann Chappell
Citigroup Matching Gift Program
Celestina L. Contreras
Meredith Conway
Angela M. Crowly
Gary Cumbie
The Law Offices of Brandon S.
Earp, P.C.
Frank and Kay Elliott
Dr. Gary ‘94 and Nancy Fish
Cynthia L. Fountaine
Joy Gallagher
Paul and Julie George
Gerald N. Glickman ‘94
Dr. Jack and Nancy Gordon
Jim and Ann ’97 Hambleton
Harris, Finley, & Bogle, P.C.
Blake Medford Hedgecock ‘00
Carolyn Hiebert
Hill Gilstrap, P.C.
Charlotte Hughart
Harold G. and Marie Jeffcoat
Mrs. Rodney Ivy
Eric Jorgenson ‘97
Dr. Robert Kaman ‘94
David Keltner
Eunice Kim ‘05
Larissa Moray Irving, Ltd.
Larissa USA, Inc.
The Law Offices of Steven C.
Laird, P.C.
Stephen Lee ‘94
Lisa Lovett ‘04
McDonald Sanders, P.C.
Lillian McGaha
Jason Mills ‘00
Catherine Terrell McCartney
Foundation
Stephen S. Mosher ‘95
Jesse Nevarez ‘01
Neal and Valerie Newman
Rene Newsom
Tracy Nicholas
Charles M. Noteboom, Noteboom:
The Law Firm
Rita G. O’Donald
Michael Payma ‘94
Law Office of Christopher J.
Parvin, P.C.
Michelle Payne ‘96
Thomas Pifer ‘05
Adam Plumbley ‘06
Ellyn Ponton ‘95
Charles and Beverly Volkman-
Powell
Vickie Rainwater
Lynne Rambo
Ross & Matthews, P.C.
Brian Ross ‘05
Kelly Rule ‘02
Dan Settle
Frederick G. Slabach
and Melany Neilson
Lisa R. Smith
Samuel Smith ‘03
Neil Sobol
Karin Strohbeck
Hon. Ralph Swearingin Jr. ‘94
Tarrant County Bar Foundation
Anna and Donald Teller
Texas Bar Foundation
Thompson & Knight Foundation
Patty Tillman ‘98
Matthew Toback ‘97
Barbara Tsirigotis
Patti Gearhart Turner ‘94
United Way of Tarrant County
Georgia Vandervoort ‘96
Viljac Corporation
Mary Walker
Whitaker, Chalk, Swindle &
Sawyer, L.L.P.
Jennifer E. Wilson
39
Travel Calendar
2008
May 16 Two nights in Rome followed by a Roman Empire
cruise (Rome, Dubrovnik, Corfu, Katakolon,
Santorini, Kusdadasi, Valletta, Messina, Rome)
September Napa Valley and San Francisco tour
New Year’s Eve Hawaiian Islands cruise
2009
June European tour with the Wesleyan Singers
Fall New England fall foliage tour
New Year’s Eve Caribbean cruise
2010
June Baltic cruise
Fall Disney World
New Year’s Eve Mexican cruise
For more information, call the Texas Wesleyan University alumni office
at 817.531.6548.

Bernie Schuchmann receives the 2007 Equal Justice Award from Interim Dean Fountaine.
“We are extremely grateful for Bernie’s
generous gift,” Interim Dean Cynthia L.
Fountaine said. “As a student, Bernie was
actively involved and deeply committed
to the success of the law school, helping
and giving to the community through his
pro bono service, as an academic support
and legal writing teaching assistant,
and as a member of the negotiation
team. Bernie made a positive impact
while he was a student here, and now
as a new alumnus, he is continuing to
demonstrate his commitment to the law
school in an extraordinary way.”
Bernie, a graduate of the Harvard
Business School and the Kennedy
School of Government, and a real estate
executive when he entered law school
Photo by Sargent N. Hill
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law proudly announces
the Bernie Schuchmann Conference Center. The naming honors
Bernie Schuchmann ’07, who has made a gift to the law school.
in 2003, said the time he spent at Texas
Wesleyan University School of Law
changed his life.
“What Texas Wesleyan taught me was
that it isn’t all about money,” Bernie said.
“When I decided I wanted to make a gift,
I couldn’t think of a better recipient
than the entity that changed my way of
thought. I was 49 when I entered law
school. It’s hard to teach an old dog new
tricks, but Texas Wesleyan managed to
do that with me.”
The Catalyst
for a New Perspective
While working 30 hours per week at his
real estate office, Bernie found time to
attend evening law school classes, provide
40
Law School Announces the
Bernie
Schuchmann
Conference
Center
By John M. Veilleux
727 pro bono hours of public defender
service, spend two semesters as a legal
writing TA, six semesters as an academic
support TA, and still graduate near the
top of his class. Bernie credits those eight
semesters as a legal writing and academic
support teaching assistant as the genesis
for his change of perspective.
“Having been a part-time evening student,
I sympathized with others who also
worked full-time and went to school at
night,” Bernie said. “These people face
a daunting task compared to the fulltime
students with whom they compete.
I’d compare it to a professional boxer
fighting with one hand tied behind his
back. Helping these night students was
my principal goal as a TA.”

feature story
Everett Chambers, director of the
academic support program, said Bernie’s
impact on the program was enormous,
and his commitment to seeing the
students succeed was unwavering.
“He always displays a can-do attitude,
and he infected his students with that
same attitude,” Chambers said. “Bernie
believes in the individual success of
each student entrusted to him and works
selflessly, tirelessly, and creatively to
help each student tap into his potential.
He is the gold standard, setting a record
for attendance and achievement with
his sections.”
Professor Mark Burge, for whom Bernie
served as a teaching assistant for two
semesters, said that what repeatedly
impressed him was Bernie’s commitment
to the students who came after him. Burge
said through both his work as a legal
writing teaching assistant and academic
support TA, Bernie consistently went
above and beyond what was required of
the position.
“Bernie hasn’t just put in the usual work
of being a teaching assistant. He also
strives to be a role model for students
in a variety of areas, ranging from study
skills to ethics and integrity. As much
as any student I have seen here, Bernie
pushes and encourages the students
around him in much the way a professor
would. I think it truly matters to him
that other students have an enriching
law school experience and get as much
out of Texas Wesleyan as he did.”
Inside the Bernie Schuchmann
Conference Center, the law school plans
to display a few photos of Bernie’s time
at the law school. Of those pictures,
the ones most important to him are his
academic support sections.
“My hope is that the naming of this room
will place an even greater emphasis on
the academic support program. The
program is one that I believe in strongly,”
Bernie said.
After Bernie’s first year of law school,
Chambers approached him and asked
if he would consider becoming an
academic support assistant. Having been
inspired by his own TA, Chris Long ’04,
Bernie agreed to Chamber’s request and
was then given the opportunity to review
Chambers’ curriculum.
“After looking it over, I said, ‘Boy, if I
had only known Everett’s information
during my first year, I could have saved
myself 300 man hours, and I could have
perhaps received a half grade higher
across the board,’” Bernie said.
The real strength of the academic
support program, Bernie said, lies in the
fact that it serves as a sort of compass,
helping students navigate the rough and
rapid waters of law school.
2L Sharon Lowry, a student in Bernie’s
academic support section, said Bernie
was especially eager to see his students
do well, saying it was evident he wanted
his section to be the best-performing
TA section.
“He gave very solid advice, backed by
charts and graphs, about where we
should be concentrating our study time
for maximum effect,” she said. “He also
had specific examples of how to prepare
an outline that helped us focus on the
real meat of our courses.”
Lowry said the success Bernie’s
academic support sections experienced
both in terms of academic performance
and attendance was not by chance. She
attributed it to the fact that his advice
41
was practical and specific, so students
knew they would learn something
valuable by attending his sessions.
“He is unselfish with his advice on the
best strategy for passing a course, or
planning a semester, and how to succeed
with particular instructors. In talking
with students who had other TAs, I
realized that we had something special
in Bernie that other students envied,”
Lowry said.
Giving Back Through Pro Bono
In addition to his countless hours
serving as a teaching assistant for eight
semesters, Bernie performed 727 hours
of pro bono service for the Fort Worth
federal public defender’s office while in
law school, 697 more than the 30-hour
requirement. For his efforts, Bernie
received the Equal Justice Award this
past spring.
After completing his 30 hours of service,
Bernie was encouraged by Assistant
Dean Patti Gearhart Turner, director of
the equal justice program, to give more
hours of service, something she challenges
all students to do. After thinking about
Turner’s advice, Bernie decided it was
something he needed to do.
“As much as students at Texas Wesleyan
needed help with the academic support
program, no one needs help more than
the defendants who present themselves
to the federal public defender,” Bernie
said. “I learned from that office that I
Bernie’s fall 2006 academic support group at the law school. Bernie was invited to be an
academic support teaching assistant after his first year of law school.
Photo by Bernie Schuchmann

feature story — law school announces the bernie schuchmann conference center • by john m. veilleux • photos by chastity beene, abby e. dozier, sargent n. hill, paul b. scudder, bernie schuchmann
feature story
Bernie’s fall 2007 academic support group at the law school. The real strength of the academic support program,
Bernie said, lies in the fact that it helps students navigate the rough and rapid waters of law school.
should never complain about anything
that is happening to me in my life again.
Those defendants are the ones with
real troubles and need as much help as
you can possibly give a person. I have
been a defendant in litigation, so I know
how it feels to be falsely or erroneously
accused. These are the people I most
want to help.”
Peter Fleury, Bernie’s supervising
attorney at the federal public defender’s
office, said Bernie’s life experience really
provided him with an advantage during
his internship.
“He was able to roll up his sleeves and
work hard,” Fleury said. “Bernie is very
intelligent and his business experience
really helped in our cases dealing with
white-collar crime. He was really the
best intern we’ve had, and we are all
very appreciative of his contributions.”
Bernie said he believed the federal public
defender’s office was understaffed. The
lawyers and defendants, he said, both
needed his help. And giving back
through the law is what Bernie said now
drives him to make a difference.
Proudly Committed
to a School with ‘Soul’
Bernie said he felt compelled to make
this gift because he was proud of his
association with a school he described
as having ‘soul.’
“This school changes people’s perspective
on life through teaching both academics
and attitude, and I think they are what
give this place soul,” Bernie said. “It has
all the rigor of law school, but it also has
a personality, and I don’t want that strong
personality to dissipate. I hope that any
contribution I make will help go toward
keeping this school’s soul intact.”
Citing a personal example of the school’s
soul, Bernie recalled a conversation
with Professor Kay Elkins-Elliott, who
approached him and discussed her
hopes for the then-upcoming Southwest
Regional Mediation Competition at
South Texas Law School last spring.
“I had not taken her mediation
course,” Bernie said. “But based on
our conversation, I put together a
group of students who would compete
with less than a month to go before
the competition.”
Texas Wesleyan fielded two entries with
the group of students Bernie patched
together, with Stacy Jewett ’07 and 3L
Clay Graham making up one team, and
Carlie Fraser ’07 and Bernie the other.
The teams were immersed almost daily
with rehearsals led by Elkins-Elliott
and others she brought in to help the
group prepare for the competition.
Fraser and Jewett were the only team
members who had taken Elkins-Elliott’s
mediation class.
42
Photo by Abby E. Dozier
“Kay brought in numerous individuals
to help get us up to speed,” Bernie said.
“She brought in alumni and she set up
video cameras to review our practices —
all to take us from two teams with little
to no experience to teams that could
compete against South Texas Law School,
the long standing regional champion of
negotiation in this region.”
Photo by Chastity Beene Photo by Paul B. Scudder
And the result was spectacular, with the
two teams sweeping the competition,
setting up a Wesleyan v. Wesleyan
showdown in the final round. Jewett
and Graham went on to finish first, and
Fraser and Bernie finished second.
“Many people, when they get older,
turn to religion, community service,
or charitable organizations as a way of
making a difference,” Bernie said. “I have
turned to the law. I get more satisfaction
out of being involved in the law and
helping other people in relation to the
law than I ever did in other endeavors. I
personally think it is a higher calling and
Texas Wesleyan woke that up in me.” z
Bernie explains I.R.A.C., the curve,
and color-coded book briefing.
Stacy Jewett ‘07, 3L Clay Graham, Bernie Schuchmann ‘07,
and Carlie Fraser ‘07. The group swept the Southwest
Regional Mediation Competition in the spring of 2007.

The Texas Wesleyan University School of Law Alumni Association congratulates the
following alumni who passed the July 2007 State Bar of Texas Law Exam. First-time examtakers
helped Texas Wesleyan University School of Law make history as they collectively
achieved a bar passage rate of 91.14 percent, the highest in the history of the law school.
Derek Akin
Karen Arthaud
Lisa Ash
Stephanie Baenisch
Allenna Bangs
Amanda Barchfield
Keyashia Barkins
Amanda Barlow
Robert Bartlett
Coy Bell
Mauro Beltramini
Kristina Berry
Adam Blythe
Daniel Bonner
Kristen Boorman
Justin Bragiel
Matthew Brooks
Ashley Brown
Ashley Bruman
Leslie Burgoyne
Jacqueline Cannon
Laura Clark
Andrea Cottrell
Cody Curry
Thomas Daley
Shiney Daniel
Emily Davis
Robert Davis
Kyle Deese
Matthew Dixon
Kimberly Donovan
Nicholas Dupre
Kathryn Eady
Rebecca Eaton
Derrick Elliott
Jonathan Finke
Marguerite Finley
Erica Forsch
Lissa Fraser
Katherine Frazier
Jennifer Gaither
Michelle Galaviz
Alexis Goldate
Dustin Gossage
Travis Gray
Benjamin Haggard
Adam Hahn
Grethe Hahn
Aundria Hairell
Ronald Hall
Sarah Hammerstedt
Clark Hampe
Brenda Hard-Wilson
Charles Hardy
Nathan Hatton
Kenneth Hawley
Alma Hernandez
Anna Hernandez
Corey Herrick
Ronald Herrmann
Wendi Hodges
Rachel Ingley
Allicyn Ivy
Maya Jadhav
Stacy Jewett
Christina Jimenez
Elvin John
David Johnson
Karen Johnson
Trina Johnson
Danita Johnston
Zainab Kayani
Kathleen Keene
Shannon Krueger
Emily LaChance
Steven Laureanti
David Le
Daniel Little
Nancy Lorenzen
Michael Lowe
Jason Mahon
Trenton Marshall
Callie Matthews
Alex Mayfield
43
Gavin McBryde
Gary McDonald
Venisa McLaughlin
John Medlock
Ashley Merren
John Milks
Matthew Mills
Constance Mims
Robert Mitchell
Blakely Mohr
Gregory Monroe
Donald Moore
Regina Moore
Adam Muffett
Evangeline Myrick
Donald Nemec
Megan Nicholas
Nathan Nichols
Warren Norred
James O’Sullivan
Elizabeth Odle
Juan Penaflor
Bridgette Phillips
Robin Pittman
Katey Powell
David Pratt
Robert Prince
Andrea Queenan
Ayesha Rafi
Brandon Rasley
Saleem Razvi
Michael Reed
Stephen Reed
Dianna Reid
Matthew Rhoads
Robert Ridgeway
Jerrod Rinehart
Natalie Roetzel
Karl Rybicki
Maite Sample
Tracey Schlake
Wesley Schmidt
Cary Schroeder
Rik Sehgal
Nolan Shaver
Andrew Sieja
Kelly Skenesky
Stephanie Smith
Shawna Snellgrove
Justin Sparks
James Speaker
Mary-Margaret Spikes
Ramsey Strube
Jeri Stuehrenberg
Andrea Swift
Gregory Tate
Jamie Taylor
Morgan Taylor
Noah Tevis
Jonathan Thatcher
Christina Thomas
Amanda Thorton
Rebecca Trimble
Tony Trimble
Holly Turner
Justin Vaughan
Shane Vaughn
Johannes Walker
Kerrie Walker
Tyler Wallach
Carol Warren
Jordan Watson
Patrick Whitaker
Tammy Wilbon
Anne Wilkerson
Michael Wynne
Eric Yepez
Dianna Zuniga

Career
1. HR 2669: The College Cost Reduction Act of 2007
2. The Texas Student Loan Repayment Assistance Program
For law school graduates, making the decision to work for a nonprofit
organization that provides legal assistance to indigent members of our
community can be a difficult one. Student loan debt coupled with the
low pay offered at most nonprofits can make it impossible for lawyers to
accept or stay in those jobs long term.
The focus of this article is twofold. First, it will give you a glimpse of
the new federal laws that include loan forgiveness for public service
employees. Secondly, it will provide you with general information
including eligibility requirements and application procedures for the
Texas Student Loan Repayment Assistance Program as provided in the
2007-2008 Program Guidelines.
On Thursday, Sept. 27, President George W. Bush signed HR 2669,
the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007. The new law has
far-reaching effects including loan forgiveness for public service
employees. Section 401 specifically deals with Federal Loan
Forgiveness for Public Service Employees. The law takes affect
in July 2009, but does allow for tolling of payments made after
Oct.1, 2007. There will likely be amendments clarifying some
of the language of the law; however, I have provided the link
to the text as signed http://kennedy.senate.gov/imo/
media/doc/HR2669_conf_report.pdf.
In 2003, the Texas Access to Justice Commission
created the Texas Student Loan Repayment
Assistance Program (SLRAP) to “encourage and
enable recent law school graduates to work for
Texas legal aid organizations and to assist legal
aid programs in retaining experienced lawyers.” 1
The SLRAP is administered by the Texas Bar
Foundation with funding from the State Bar of
Texas and individual donors.
Eligibility:
Attorneys are eligible for loan repayment assistance
through this program if “they work full-time for any
Texas program that is: a.) a recipient of Texas Equal
Access to Justice Foundation (TEAJF) funds; b.) a
recipient of Legal Services Corporation funds; or c.)
a Texas nonprofit that provides civil legal services if
at least 50 percent of the services provided are free to
Texans whose income is 175 percent of federal poverty
guidelines or less.” 2
To be eligible for consideration for the program, the
applicant must meet the following requirements:
1. Submit the application form and supporting
materials as requested by Texas Lawyers Care.
2. Those individuals who are eligible for loan
repayment funds from other sources (i.e.
governmental programs, NAPIL fellowships, law
school programs, etc.) must apply to those programs
for assistance as payors of first resort. Repayment
provided by other sources will offset the amount of
services
answers to your career-related questions
Student Loan Repayment Assistance Programs
44
loan repayment provided by this program. TEAJF grantee employers are
not considered payors of first resort.
3. Applicant must document full-time employment with an eligible
organization. Full-time is defined as 35 hours or more per week.
4. Applicant must be a graduate of an ABA-accredited law school within
the last 10 years. Applicant must have graduated by the time of his or
her first SLRAP loan payment.
5. Applicant must be:
a. licensed to practice law in Texas and be a member in good standing
of the State Bar of Texas prior to receiving his or her first SLRAP loan
payment and at all times during the SLRAP payment period, or
b. licensed to practice law in a state or territory of the United States, be
in good standing in the jurisdiction where licensed, and be employed as
an immigration attorney by a TEAJF-funded immigration legal services
program in Texas prior to receiving his or her first SLRAP loan payment
and at all times during the SLRAP payment period.
i. If a recipient qualifies for the SLRAP under 5(b), and during
the loan period becomes licensed to practice law in Texas, and
subsequently changes employment to a qualifying nonimmigration
program, the recipient will be presumed to have qualified for the
SLRAP under 5(a).
6. Applicant’s household income will be considered in
relation to the total amount of the applicant’s student loan
debt incurred.
Application Procedures:
Applicants must submit a Texas SLRAP application. A
completed application, including current Employment
Certification Form(s), Lender Certification Form(s), Law
School Certification Form, résumé, completed 2007 tax
return, signed copy of the guidelines, and other signed
attachments that may be required by the Texas Bar
Foundation, must be received by Texas Lawyers Care by
March 2008. Applications should be mailed to Texas Lawyers
Care, State Bar of Texas, P.O. Box 12487, Austin, Texas 78711.
Questions about the application or the program should be
directed to Texas Lawyers Care at the above address, by e-mail to
ltansey@texasbar.com, or by phone at 800.204.2222, ext. 2155,
or 512.463.1463, ext. 2155 (in Austin). For complete information
about the SLRAP, including qualifications and copies of the
application, visit the State Bar of Texas web site at http://www.
texasbar.com. Select the “Pro Bono & Community Service” tab,
then choose “Access to Justice/Pro Bono.”
Arturo Errisuriz
Assistant Dean for Career Services
1 Texas Student Loan Repayment Assistance Program, 2007-2008 Program Guidelines
at http://www.texasbar.com/Template.cfm?Section=Access_to_Justice_Pro_Bono&CO
NTENTID=16863&TEMPLATE=ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm.
2 Id.

You know what it takes to graduate from Texas
Wesleyan University School of Law. And you know
what kind of students it takes: excellent students
with a commitment to serve the local community
and to promote the highest ethical standards in
the practice of law.
When you meet those interested in law school,
refer them to Texas Wesleyan. And if you give them
this certificate to return with their application, we’ll
waive their $55 application fee.
Please mention Texas Wesleyan University School
of Law to those interested, and take this opportunity
to encourage talented candidates to apply.
APPLICATION FEE CERTIFICATE
We are pleased to waive the traditional $55
application fee for the individual listed below. This
certificate should be returned with the individual’s
application to:
PLEASE PRINT:
Name of Applicant
Admissions Office
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law
1515 Commerce Street
Fort Worth, Texas 76102
Name of Person Referring

Texas
Wesleyan
Texas Wesleyan University School of Law
1515 Commerce Street
Fort Worth, Texas 76102
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