University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Richmond Law Magazine School of Law Summer 2006 Richmond Law Magazine: Summer 2006 Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/law-magazine Part of the Other Law Commons Recommended Citation http://scholarship.richmond.edu/law-magazine/4 This Magazine is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Richmond Law Magazine by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Dean’s letter Talking frank about rank I suspect that most of you share the those working at law schools ranked among the top frustration of many of us inside the 25-50 in the nation. Our faculty’s publication record in Law School over the seeming difficul- recent years is exemplary, including articles in the ty of improving our national rankings nation’s most prestigious law reviews, such as Penn, in U.S. News and World Report. Chicago, Duke, Harvard, Northwestern, Southern Cal, We are committed to constantly and Columbia, to name a few. Our student body improving the intrinsic quality of the already ranks in the top tier in the nation by many school, not for the sake of rankings, objective measures. but for the underlying ambition to Yet we are impatient with the lag in the time it pursue excellence relentlessly in all takes for these improvements to be recognized in the we do. national marketplace. Yet the rankings of our Law One way to close that gap is to send our faculty to School do matter, much as the stock national forums, and to bring academics and jurists of price of a company matters. We take national stature to campus to see first-hand the qual- the rankings seriously and have fierce ity of our operation. We also are working to improve ambitions to advance both the our Web site and other publicity efforts. underlying quality and the external rankings of the Candidly, an enormously important element in Law School. this will be fundraising and public relations, and we I know of nothing in our basic “fundamentals” spend ever-increasing energy on those efforts. Much that would prevent us from being ranked among the of what it takes to continue to improve our quality, top 25 law schools in the country. We have taken such as paying the salaries to attract national players many concrete steps toward improving the Law in legal education to the faculty, adding to our stu- School. These steps are part of our strategic plan, dent financial aid, finishing our building addition, and which is well on the way to implementation. We are: spending the sums necessary to herald our accom- 1) adding 12 new faculty positions; 2) doubling our plishments, requires additional resources. financial aid award structure; 3) opening new aca- Keep the faith! Keep your conviction in the essen- demic centers specializing in discrete areas such as tial American optimism that quality will win out, and intellectual property law, environmental law, interna- excellence will be rewarded. We are a school with a tional law, family law, and health law; 4) devoting sub- proud and wonderful history and a bright future. Our stantial resources to marketing efforts; 5) continuing rankings will catch up with our intrinsic quality, and to improve the entering credentials of students; continue to advance as our quality improves. 6) expanding our commitment to pro bono service, and 7) completing a building addition that will house these expanded programs. In recent years we have hired nine new faculty members at the entry, middle, and senior levels. These Rodney A. Smolla are people with stature and records equivalent to Dean, School of Law FOR THE RECORD FOR THE RECORD A look at the people, events and issues making news at the Law School Graduate to AWARD establish non-profit in Washington Justice Lemons After graduation, most law presented Green students move on to clerkships, Award established firms or corporate Law graduates will have ‘significant’ impact suites. Kristi Cahoon, L’06, will move into borrowed office space Attending the Law School has “honed and refined your through the roof,” he said. He encouraged the gradu- in Washington, D.C., where she will intellect and your character,” Frederick G. Rockwell III ates to be “mentors and role models” and to work hard launch single-handedly a non- told graduates in the class of 2006. to break down stereotypes. profit organization to work with Rockwell, L’79, a judge in Chesterfield, Va., and an Faculty speaker John G. Douglass told the gradu- cancer patients. adjunct faculty member, said in his commencement ates that just as the Wizard of Oz gave the gift of Cahoon, who was honored at address that he remembers the passion, zeal and insight to Dorothy and her friends, “education is about commencement for her extraordi- Dean Smolla with Kristi Cahoon. enthusiasm of being a law student, and he promised finding and using what’s been in you all along.” nary contributions, says her inspira- the graduates that “it’s going to work out for you” as it Kristi Cahoon of Scarborough, Maine, received the tion as well as significant support for her Intellectual Property Donald W. Lemons has for countless other graduates. Nina R. Kestin service award as special recognition for work came from professors and programs Institute expands Justice Donald W. Lemons of the He said he expects the graduates to have an “extraordinary contributions” during her years at the at the Law School. opportunities Supreme Court of Virginia was pre- impact on their communities that will be “significant, law school. (See related story, next page.) Kennon “Until I took professor [Ann] Hodges’ sented the William Green Award for due in large measure to the three years you spent at Poteat III of Danville, Va., received the Cudlipp and J. course on nonprofits and the law, I really Beginning in the 2006-2007 academic Professional Excellence at a luncheon this institution.” Westwood Smithers medals for having the highest hadn’t found anything in law school that year, the Law School will offer a certifi- in March. Dean Rodney A. Smolla presented the cumulative grade point average at the end of the sec- excited me,” Cahoon says. That course led cate in intellectual property through its Lemons, who serves as John school’s Distinguished Alumni Medal to ond and third years. Steven Buckingham of Gray, Tenn., to further study at the Philanthropy Intellectual Property Institute. Marshall Professor of Judicial Studies at the Law School, was recognized for Rockwell. received the Charles T. Norman award given by the fac- Institute, and work with LINC (Legal Certificate students will learn the fun- what Dean Rodney A. Smolla called “a Donta’e Bugg of Newport News, ulty to the best all-around graduating student. Information Network for Cancer) and the damentals of intellectual property law life in pursuit of excellence” in schol- Va., was the student speaker. He There were 153 students in this year’s class. Mid Atlantic Juvenile Defender Center. “I and can then choose advanced courses arship, ethics, professionalism and told his classmates that each had realized this was something I was really that provide in-depth training in service. someone at home who supported interested in, and I had a lot of knowl- specific IP subjects, including patent and Like previous winners of the Law them through the rough periods. edge I thought I could bring to it.” copyright law, computer law, entertain- School’s most prestigious award, “Their level of excitement today is This summer, she will move to ment law and trademark law. Lemons has engaged in “a ceaseless Washington—a city with a high rate of The Law School also is developing struggle to realize [his] own poten- tial,” Smolla said. cancer and a large low-income popula- ways to provide students with practical Commencement speakers The award was presented during (from left), Judge Frederick G. tion—where she will establish CAN, the experience by working with attorneys, the 23rd annual Scholarship Luncheon Rockwell III, L’79, Professor Cancer Assistance Network. She will judges, local businesses, and public insti- at the Jepson Alumni Center, where John G. Douglass, Donta’e exchange expertise for office space at tutions on intellectual property issues the school also recognized scholarship Bugg. KARAMAH: Muslim Women for Human such as technology transfer and patent donors and recipients. Rights, a non-profit founded by professor prosecution. The institute is exploring In his remarks, Lemons said Azizah Y. al-Hibri. Her first task will be the potential for a “virtual clinic” that lawyers and judges in America hold writing grant applications and seeking would provide services to clients hun- society together, sometimes well and other times not so well. By educating funding and volunteer lawyers to work dreds of miles away without having to the best and brightest in civility and with cancer victims who need legal help. leave school. professionalism, the Law School plays In addition to Hodges and al-Hibri, The institute’s mission is to create an a valuable role. Cahoon says her Richmond classmates active scholarly program of conferences The award is named in honor of “have been most supportive, signing up and publications focusing on contempo- Judge William Green, one of the origi- for my mailing lists and offering their rary intellectual property issues arising nal members of the faculty of the Law expertise. in the context of intellectual property School, who gave an eloquent address on professionalism at the Law School’s “It’s nerve wracking, but with this protection in the digital age.