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The University of Virginia School of Law UVALawyer Spring 2004 Commitment to the Commonwealth The University of Virginia School of Law contents UVALawyer Spring 2004 Vol. 28, No. 1 Departments 3 Dean’s Message 4 Law School News 19 Faculty Briefs 39 22 Class Notes 74 In Memoriam 76 In Print 81 Opinion: The University’s View of Financial Self-Sufficiency Leonard Sandridge 27 Features 22 Log Cabin Lawyer Cullen Couch 27 Maurice Jones Returns the Favor Denise Forster 30 30 Virginia’s Constitutional Experience Touches the World Cullen Couch EDITOR Cullen Couch ASSOCIATE EDITOR Denise Forster 34 Raphael Wins One for the Commonwealth CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Penny Chang, Denise Forster, Jeanne Siler Earthen Johnson, Jeanne Siler DESIGN roseberries PHOTOGRAPHY Tom Cogill ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY Mary Wood PRINTING Schmitz Press COVER Speaker William J. Howell’s log cabin office in Falmouth, Virginia. law school news Department text starts here after head 2 Spring2004 dean’s message Commitment to the Commonwealth ■ John C. Jeffries, Jr. ’73 This issue of UVA Lawyer celebrates the Law School’s continuing commitment to the Commonwealth of Virginia. In addition to being a great national law school, we are also a proud part of a leading public university. As such, we have a special obligation to the Commonwealth and to her citizens. Institutionally, that obligation is discharged in three ways. First, Virginia residents continue to enjoy an advantage in admissions. Second, Virginia residents receive a significant discount from out-of-state tuition. The discount recognizes the years and decades of financial support from the taxpayers of Virginia before we reached Financial Self-Sufficiency. Third, Law School graduates who practice in the Commonwealth are eligible for forgiveness of their student loans. School of Law remains inextricably linked to The income limits on loan forgiveness are such the Commonwealth of Virginia. This is a that graduates who go to large firms do not relationship of which we are proud and which benefit. Those who do benefit are Virginia we hope and believe will continue forever. graduates who wish to practice in rural or underserved areas of the Commonwealth and **** who might be coerced to do otherwise were it Among the articles in this issue is a speech not for loan forgiveness. In all these ways, the given by Leonard Sandridge to a group of Law Law School as an institution honors its historic School alumni on September 11 of last year. commitment to the Commonwealth of Virginia. Leonard is the Executive Vice President and Of course, there are also many informal Chief Operating Office of the University. It is links between the Law School and the his responsibility, under the leadership of Commonwealth, including the large number of President Casteen, to develop and implement a our graduates who play leading roles in this strategic vision for the University as a whole. state. Some of them are profiled in these pages. Leonard’s remarks on Financial Self- And it is also true that Law School students Sufficiency are well worth reading. Not only and faculty are actively engaged in public does he describe how Financial Self-Sufficiency service to governments, communities, and works; he also explains how it benefits both the organizations in the Commonwealth. Law School and the rest of the University. In all these ways, the University of Virginia UVALawyer 3 law school news Prominent Civil Rights Lawyer Elaine R. Jones ’70 to Give Commencement Address ELAINE R. JONES ’70, PRESIDENT AND struck down death penalty statutes in 37 states, director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense a decision that held for 12 years. and Educational Fund (LDF) and the first “We wanted someone who had achieved African-American woman to graduate from the distinction in a law-related field and could Law School, will give the commencement serve as both an inspiration and role model to address to the Law School Class of 2004. the future lawyers in our class,” said Kevin Ritz Jones, who announced in January that she ’04, chair of the Student Bar Association’s was retiring from the LDF effective May 1, has Graduation Committee, a group of third-year worked for the LDF for all but two years of her students that invites the commencement career, when she served as a special assistant to speaker each year. “We also valued a record of the Secretary of Transportation in the Ford public service and focused on people with a Administration. Jones turned down an offer particular connection to the Law School and/or from a private Wall Street firm to work for the the University. LDF, where her first assignments involved “In the Committee’s judgment, Elaine litigating death-penalty cases in the Deep Jones fit these criteria better than anyone else. South. Just two years out of law school she was … She has obviously distinguished herself as a counsel of record in Furman v. Georgia, the first-rate lawyer and public servant,” he added. landmark case in which the Supreme Court “We think she’ll offer an inspiring and challenging message to the Class.” As LDF director-counsel, Jones JONES WAS ADMITTED AS ONE OF only seven women and followed in the footsteps of founder Thurgood Marshall, who argued two African-Americans in the class of 1970. “They took a chance on Brown v. Board of Education before the Supreme Court and later became me, so I took a chance on them,” she said. a Justice of the Court; Jack Greenberg, who argued some 40 cases before the Supreme Court and defended sit-in demonstrators, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and Julius L. Chambers, who helped ensure enforcement of the Voting Rights Act and defended it and the Civil Rights Act of 1966 before the Supreme Court. Jones has made her mark as well; she recently helped win a legal victory that overturned the drug convictions of 38 mostly black defendants in Tulia, Texas, a feat that was featured on 60 Minutes. Some of the defendants were serving terms of 90 years or more, despite the fact that the case was based on the 4 Spring2004 law school news Fall 2003 Interviewing Season Yields Success for 2Ls, 3Ls uncorroborated testimony of one white MORE THAN 90 PERCENT OF THE SECOND- undercover police officer. “It is the kind of year class obtained summer employment thing that many people assume doesn’t happen through the fall 2003 interview season, and third- in this country anymore, “Jones told the years affected by the faltering economy last year Washington Post in June. “The reality is that received more interest from employers during color still matters in this country. It still does. on-Grounds interviews than in recent years. And we certainly don’t advance the ball by “The market seemed to have picked up a pretending that it doesn’t.” bit,” said Steve Hopson ’69, Senior Assistant After her stint in the Ford Administration, Dean for Career Services. “Employers were very where she took the lead in opening Coast interested in UVA students. They extended a lot Guard service to women, Jones helped the LDF of callbacks — more than we've seen in recent establish its Washington office. She now years.” oversees a staff of 70, including 25 attorneys Second-year students averaged 19.7 housed in offices in Washington, Los Angeles, interviews apiece, interviewing with 371 and New York. Jones has led LDF’s continuing employers from 886 offices. Employers based in efforts to ensure that all Americans receive Washington, D.C. led those from all other cities equal access to education, criminal justice, seeking to hire Virginia students. Other top political participation, and fair economic locations were New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, treatment. In 1982 Jones became the first San Francisco, Houston, Boston, Chicago, African-American to be elected to the American Richmond, and Northern Virginia. The Career Bar Association’s Board of Governors. Services Office arranged for 504 scheduled A Norfolk native, Jones earned her B.A. in rooms during the season, which lasted from political science from Howard University, then September 3 to October 24, up from last year’s spent two years in the Peace Corps teaching 502. The 342 second-years who participated English in Turkey before applying to law school garnered a total of 6,745 interviews, while 3Ls in 1967. Virginia’s policy in the 1960s was to pay qualified black applicants to study at out- had 713, a high number Hopson attributes to of-state colleges and universities, but Jones was conservative hiring in recent years by firms who admitted as one of only seven women and two now need to find employees to take slots not African-Americans in the class of 1970. “They filled by summer programs. took a chance on me, so I took a chance on “Third-years definitely got more attention them,” she said in a 1994 interview. Jones this fall than in the last two years,” Hopson said. received UVA’s Distinguished Alumna Award in He added that the number of 2Ls who were 1998, an award honoring a female graduate unable to get summer jobs with firms is the who has demonstrated excellence, leadership, lowest in recent memory. Second-year students and extraordinary commitment to her field, usually receive permanent offers from the firms and who has used her talents as a positive force they work for during the summer by the for change. In 1999 she was awarded the beginning of their third year. Thomas Jefferson Medal in Law, the highest “The success of our students was honor bestowed by the University. extremely high,” Hopson said. UVALawyer 5 law school news Stepping Outside the Walls of a Classroom ■ Jeanne Siler FOR ALMOST TWO DECADES, THE LAW SHARON GILMORE GARNER DIDN’T School has offered third-year students the chance really expect her externship with the to take a semester’s break from the structured Chesapeake Bay Foundation to get her out on routine of books and exams via externships the water very often as she explored how land through the External Studies Program.