|  Security,
Defense Experts Call for Better Info Sharing
by Natashia Gregoire
To conduct homeland security and national defense
operations effectively, U.S. governmental agencies must keep up
with advances in technology, improve information sharing and be
willing to learn from each other’s mistakes, a national panel
of security and defense experts said during a February conference
at the UM Law School.
Some of the top legal players in U. S. defense, security, aviation,
safety and space programs gathered at UM for “The Law, Homeland
Security and Geospatial Technologies: A Conference.”
While highlighting how U.S. security and defense programs have evolved
since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, conference presenters
echoed a common theme, stressing the need for better information
sharing across departments.
Prominent attorneys from the departments of Homeland Security and
Defense, Federal Aviation Administration, and Transportation Security
Administration presented on topics ranging from the use of unmanned
aerial vehicles in defense efforts to the emergence of the Department
of Homeland Security.
“When you think about 9/11, it was not just about killing
people ... it was about hitting us where we were most vulnerable,”
said Hugo Teufel, associate general counsel in the Department of
Homeland Security, during his presentation “The Law and Homeland
Security.” Teufel said that while homeland security has combined
between 22 and 35 agencies to protect the United States, criticism
that the department ignores civil rights and liberties in that quest
are unfounded.
“We have officers whose job it is to make sure that the department
does not intrude on the privacy rights of Americans or others who
come to our country,” Teufel said.
 The issue
of privacy was again raised when Department of Defense representative
Hilay Hageman, associate deputy general counsel in the Office of
the General Counsel, discussed the use of unmanned aerial vehicles
for homeland defense. These remote controlled aircrafts have been
very successful in gathering information in Iraq and Afghanistan,
Hageman said.
“UAVs are great to use in situations where human beings would
be at extreme risks,” Hageman said. “We’re able
to see much more detail than if we had a man on the ground.”
While UAVs can record vast amounts of data, “the Department
of Defense is not in the business of looking into people’s
homes. We’re looking at large areas, conducting reconnaissance
missions and the like.”
The U.S. Constitution applies even in defense, Teufel added. “The
government will not conduct law enforcement activity outside of
the boundaries of the Constitution. It is an enduring document,
and we can’t make it mean whatever we want whenever we want.”
The struggle to balance protecting individual rights while protecting
the United States has long existed, said presenter Woody Davis,
liaison to the Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security
Administration.
In his presentation “Using Space-Based Data in Homeland Security
Operations: Legal Issues,” Davis made the distinction between
military-focused national security and civilian-focused homeland
security.
“In reality, both concepts are complementary parts of the
same whole — defense of the U.S. homeland against all aggressive
acts,” he said.
According to Davis, the United States has long used space for national
security purposes, and now space plays an important role in homeland
security.
“Homeland security embraces the notion that there are no borders
in the defense of the United Sates,” Davis said.
Security officials can learn many lessons from the Federal Aviation
Authority, said Christopher Hart, assistant administrator for the
Federal Aviation Administration Office of System Safety, Department
of Transportation.
“We’ve got to look at preventing future errors by designing
safety into the system,” Hart said. “There is a lot
that we can learn from each other and benefit from each other.”
The conference participants presented legal research papers on their
various topics. They took questions from a live audience and responded
to questions posed by viewers following a live Web cast of the conference.
“The speakers together touched a wide range of well-integrated
topics,” said Joanne Gabrynowicz, conference organizer and
director of the National Center for Remote Sensing and Space Law
at UM. “These are people who are doing this work every day;
for them to all get together in one place and present such a complete
picture is a terrific opportunity for the audience and for our students.”
Back to top
 Lawyer
In The Library
Alumni Return to Law Library to Share Advice
by Kara Givens
The first year of law school can be overwhelming
as students try to acquaint themselves with different areas of the
law and the many research resources available, but the UM Law Library’s
new Lawyer in the Library program provides students an inside look
at the opportunities available both in law and in the library.
The program, which started in the spring, featured presentations
by four attorneys who discussed different career paths and the tools
they use to conduct research.
 “Since this is directed
toward first-year students, we had an array of speakers to (show
students) what areas of law are available,” said program organizer
Macey Edmonson, public service librarian and legal research instructor.
“It was a positive experience for all the students.”
Speakers included Dave Sanders (JD 96), federal prosecutor for the
U.S. Attorney’s Office; Zachary Scruggs (JD 00), plaintiff
attorney at Scruggs Law Firm in Oxford; Walt Davis (JD 94), defense
attorney for Dunbar and Associates in Oxford; and U.S. Magistrate
Judge S. Allan Alexander (JD 78).
Kris Gilliland, director of the law library, said the goal of the
program is to provide a “way to reinforce the things the students
are learning in class as well as an opportunity for them to get
a glimpse at a ‘day in the life’ in a variety of areas
of practice.”
The series began on Feb. 16 with Sanders encouraging students to
consider a career in criminal law.
“The criminal side is fascinating and extremely rewarding,
so I tried to impart that to the students,” he said. “Law
schools traditionally give much greater weight to the civil side,
and that’s understandable with the enormous amount of civil
litigation out there.”
Sanders also tried to pass on practical research techniques that
students might not learn in school.
“In school we’re given so much information in such a
short period of time that it’s difficult at times to discern
what information we will eventually use on a daily basis rather
than once per month or per year,” Sanders said. “Paying
close attention to a few of those research skills that will become
so important later can be exceptionally beneficial those first few
years of practice.”
A program such as Lawyer in the Library can help fill the void that
sometimes occurs when students are overwhelmed with theory and doctrine,
Sanders said.
“I think this is an excellent program to educate law students
on the different areas of law they may encounter and how best to
prepare,” said Scruggs, who during his talk advised students
interested in litigation to take several rules and procedure classes
and to seek summer clerkships.
“From the experiences (Sanders and Scruggs) have had in their
short legal careers, I think they acknowledge that we may not know
exactly what type of legal practice is best for us until we try
it,” said first-year law student Alyssa Farrell of Biloxi,
who attended both Scruggs’s and Sanders’s presentations.
“I found that very reassuring.”
In the third lecture of the program, Davis spoke on the practical
aspects of litigation.
“You may not have control over the facts of your case or the
state of current law, but you do have control over how much more
prepared you are than the other side,” he said.
With today’s microprocessing and fairly extensive discovery,
both preparation and attention to detail are as important as ever,
Davis said.
“I have several cases where discovery documents were simply
provided to me on a CD because of the sheer volume of records. Often
the challenge is simplifying the entire case so that a jury can
even digest it.”
Davis also imparted to the students the importance of maintaining
good interpersonal relationships, not only with other lawyers but
also with court staff, court reporters and everyone else with whom
they have contact.
“Our profession often puts us at odds with other people, but
remaining a professional can always be accomplished,” Davis
said.
Magistrate Judge S. Allan Alexander gave the students a judge’s
perspective on library resources and critical research tools, her
own career path, availability of different areas of law and the
benefits of judicial clerkships.
“I tried to address these areas with a touch of my personal
experiences in law school, as a judicial law clerk, in private practice
and since I became a magistrate judge,” Alexander said.
First-year law student Mary Ann Percy of Oxford attended presentations
by both Sanders and Alexander.
“They both did a great job speaking to us,” Percy said.
“Dave was especially helpful with research tips and Judge
Alexander was particularly helpful in providing insight into the
federal court system as well as offering advice on what courses
she thought were important for us to take while in school.
“It’s great to have the benefit of these presentations
and to balance the real-world advice against the more comprehensive
and academic approach that we need to focus on in class,”
Percy said.
This first group of sessions more than exceeded expectations, Gilliland
said.
“We’re now looking forward to offering Lawyer in the
Library as a regular event each year. We’d love to hear from
alumni who are interested in joining us as speakers or otherwise
participating.”
Back to top
 Law
Alumnus Continues Tradition of Giving
by Natashia Gregoire
With a $100,000 gift to the UM School of Law, attorney
Leonard B. Melvin Jr. of Laurel continues to give back to the University
of Mississippi and the community where he found success.
“The University of Mississippi has been my life,” Melvin
said. “It has put me where I am today as a lawyer who has
practiced for 56 years.”
Melvin, a 1948 law school graduate, has previously endowed a law
scholarship in his father’s name; funded the construction
of the law school’s Leonard B. Melvin Moot Court Room, also
named for his father; and funded a $100,000 law lectureship.
“The law school has no greater need than that for scholarships
to recruit the best and brightest students,” said Dean Samuel
Davis. “I am deeply grateful to Leonard for his friendship
and for his generosity.”
This recent endowment creates the Leonard B. Melvin Jr. Scholarship
in Law. Starting in the fall semester of 2006, the $5,000 scholarship
will be awarded to an entering law student. The selection committee
will give preference to students from Jones County, where Melvin
lives and practices. The student will keep the scholarship for three
years, after which time a new recipient will be named.
The reasons for his generosity, Melvin said, are simple.
“I’ve had a good life. I want to do this while I’m
alive and can see the benefits of it.”
Melvin comes from a large family of UM graduates. All five of his
siblings and both of his children graduated from the university.
His father, brother, son and niece all graduated from the UM Law
School.
“The University of Mississippi is a good school,” Melvin
said. “It turns out a good product.”
Melvin, who practices general law and is a past president of both
the Mississippi Bar and the Mississippi Trial Lawyers Associations,
is respected among his peers locally and nationally.
“Leonard, in my judgment has been one of the most dedicated,
hardworking professionals I’ve seen in my life,” said
Cleveland attorney Ben Griffith (JD 75), who first met Melvin at
a bar convention when he was a student. “He has been a consistent
model of hard work and dedication for younger lawyers like me. (We)
have tried cases together in state court, and you learn very quickly
that the bonding process between an older and younger lawyer can
last a lifetime.”
Griffith, a partner with the firm Griffith and Griffith, said he
continues to be in awe of Melvin’s work ethic – one
honed serving in the Armored Force during World War II. Melvin was
a member of the Fifth Tank Battalion, Company B, 16th Armored Division.
“He is an inspiration to me,” Griffith said.
Melvin and several of his classmates left the university to serve
in the war but found their way back to the law school in 1946.
“We’d all been in the service and come back after the
war,” said Melvin, who recently returned from Prague, Czech
Republic, where his tank battalion held its 60th anniversary reunion.
“His patriotism is very deep,” Griffith said. “It
is a highly motivating factor in his life.”
Melvin said his devotion to law, the military and the university
will continue as long as he lives. Right now, retirement is not
in the picture, he said.
“I practice law eight days a week,” Melvin said. “There’s
not a court around that I’m not a member of.””
Back to top
$10,000 Endowment Creates
Permanent Scholarship to Honor William M. Pace
by Kara Givens
With a $10,000 gift to the law school the daughter
and son in law of the late William M. Pace has created a permanent
scholarship to honor her father.
The William M. Pace Memorial Scholarship in Law was established
by his daughter, Melissa “Missy” Pace Collero, and her
husband, Christopher A. Collero of Irvine, Calif.
“In the past the scholarship was funded by several individuals
from year to year and now this gift has made it permanent,”
said Tim Walsh, associate director of alumni affairs.
The exact amount of the scholarship has not been determined, but
it will be given for the first time this fall. It is available to
full-time second and third year law students from Monroe or Tishomingo
counties.
If there are no students from these areas then the scholarship will
be given to a student who meets any of the following: an active
or retired member of the U.S. military or a dependent child, an
active or retired U.S. Treasury special agent or a dependent child
or an active or retired sworn law enforcement officer or a dependent
child. If more than one student is eligible to receive the scholarship,
then the recipient will be chosen by a selection committee named
by the family.
“This is such a generous and wonderful gift,” Walsh
said. “We are truly honored that the family has chosen to
remember Mr. Pace in a way that will benefit many students in the
future.”
Pace graduated for the UM Law school in 1951. He was a native of
Aberdeen and served as a special investigator for the U.S. Treasury
Department. Following his retirement, he founded the National Association
of Treasury Agents to represent retired and active-duty agents throughout
the United States. He died November 1, 1993.
Back
to top
Father honors
son with scholarship endowment
by Natashia Gregoire
A new scholarship will make attending the University
of Mississippi School of Law a little easier for some out-of-state
students.
The Lester Robert Dunham Jr. Memorial Scholarship in Law is the
result of a $450,000 gift from the estate of Lester Robert Dunham,
who named the scholarship for his son.
Dunham Jr. of Clifton, N.J. was a 1974 graduate of the law school.
He died Sept. 20, 1992 after a lengthy battle with cystic fibrosis.
“It was a miracle he lived as long as he did,” said
his cousin Vernon Packard Jr., who was one of several family members
who attended Dunham Jr.’s law school graduation. “It
meant a lot to all of us just to see him graduate.”
Packard said Dunham Jr. chose to attend the UM Law School because
“he thought it was the best law school that he could go to.”
Dunham Jr. practiced law in Clifton, N.J. where he also served in
the prosecutor’s office.
According to official documents creating the scholarship, the purpose
of the fund is “to honor in perpetuity Lester Robert Dunham
Jr. and to assist deserving men and women who are pursuing a legal
education at the University of Mississippi.”
The Dunham estate will continue to contribute to the permanent endowment.
The $3,000 scholarship will be awarded annually to a full-time non-resident
law student selected by the Law School Scholarship Committee. It
will be awarded based on need and merit.
“This endowment will have a tremendous impact on the quality
of students we are able to recruit,” said Stephen Snead, the
law school’s assistant to the dean for advancement. “It
is also a shining example of what a legacy planned gifts can leave.
The Dunham family will be remembered forever for their commitment
to legal education.”
Back to top
 Law
School Hires Advancement Officer
by Natashia Gregoire
The UM Law School has hired its first assistant to
the dean for advancement.
Stephen Snead, the former advancement associate for UM’s School
of Engineering, took up the post in January. He coordinates the
activities of the Lamar Order, the Law School Annual Fund and the
major gifts program.
“The School of Law at Ole Miss is a well respected institution
with a rich history, and the future is even more exciting,”
Snead said. “Our alumni epitomize servant leadership throughout
the university, the state, region and nation. I am proud to work
with our dean, faculty, staff, alumni and friends to make the School
of Law one of the best public law schools in the country.”
Snead will work closely with Tim Walsh, who will continue to coordinate
law school alumni relations through the Ole Miss Alumni Association.
For 14 years Walsh has coordinated both alumni relations and fundraising
for the law school.
Snead is a native of Weston, W.Va. He received his bachelor’s
in international studies from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University and his master’s degree in institutional
advancement from Vanderbilt University. He joined UM in March 2003.”
Back to top
Panelists Discuss Civil
Rights, Diversity
A trio of legal commentators discussed civil rights,
diversity and legal education in the South at a March 7 forum at
the UM School of Law.
The discussion, held in the William N. Ethridge Jr. Moot Court Room,
was the first major event hosted by the law school’s chapter
of the American Constitution Society since its formation last fall.
The forum was free and open to the public.
“Our hope for the forum was to have our speakers, who are
experts in their fields, discuss the need for equal access to legal
education, implications of the seminal U.S. Supreme Court decision
in Grutter v. Bollinger and the impact of a new U.S. Supreme Court
appointment in shaping the federal judiciary,” said Keishunna
Randall, ACS education director.
A question-and-answer period and reception followed the discussion,
which featured panelists Dennis Shields of Duke University School
of Law, Judge Tyree Irving of the Mississippi Court of Appeals and
Donna Davis, UM associate professor of law.
Shields, director of admissions at Duke law school, was one of the
authors of the University of Michigan Law School admissions policy,
which was challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court case Grutter v. Bollinger.
A defendant in the case, he addressed affirmative action in law
school admissions.
“The need for thoughtful considerations of the purpose of
diversity in higher education impacts our public universities and
law schools in many ways,” he said.
A graduate of the UM School of Law, Irving was the first black lawyer
to clerk for the Mississippi Supreme Court, serve as an assistant
U.S. attorney in Mississippi and serve as board attorney for a Mississippi
county.
As a member of the UM law faculty, Davis teaches individual income
tax, taxation of corporations and shareholders, and advanced individual
tax.
“This forum provided a lively discussion and exchange of views
on an important and topical issue about legal education,”
said Michael Waterstone, assistant law professor and ACS adviser.
“This was a great kick-off event for this organization.”
ACS is one of the nation’s leading progressive legal organizations
and is devoted to ensuring that human dignity, individual rights
and liberties, genuine equality and access to justice are in their
rightful, central place in American law. ” —Staff
report
Back to top
 Taking
Sides: The Poverty Debate
by Candace Deer
As Congress prepares to reauthorize the Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families program, UM law professor Kali Murray
and Kirk Johnson of the Heritage Foundation took opposing stances
on poverty issues in a debate titled “What Should the Future
Hold for Welfare and Anti-poverty Policy in America?”
An audience of law students, professors and other members of the
community packed the law school’s William N. Ethridge Jr.
Moot Court Room for the April debate.
“It’s absolutely fundamental that we take time off to
address poverty in America,” Murray said to open her argument.
Murray, who reiterated that she was not a poverty expert, focused
on what needs to be done to improve the economic capacity of the
poor. She described economic capacity as the ability to move up
through society.
“[Economic capacity is the] long term ability to think about
the future,” she said.
Murray said that the minimum-wage law has not changed since the
mid-1990s, but Johnson said that changing the minimum-wage law would
not benefit anyone.
 “Whenever you increase
the price of something, people consume less of it,” Johnson
said. “Minimum-wage workers over time don’t stay minimum-wage
workers.”
Johnson provided statistics from the Census Bureau proving that
material hardships among the low-income population, including food,
clothing and shelter, are not as bad as they used to be. He said
that 46 percent of low-income people own their own homes, and only
6 percent of the homes are considered overcrowded.
“The typical poor American has more living space than the
average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens and other
cities throughout Europe,” Johnson said.
According to the Census Bureau, 14 percent of people claim to be
hungry at some point during the year, but less than 2 percent say
that they often do not have enough to eat. Two percent of the U.S.
population lives in chronic poverty, defined as having no income
for over four years.
“Poverty today is often short lived,” Johnson said.
“I think [poverty] has gotten better but also more complex,”
Murray said.
Following the debate, the speakers took questions from the audience.
Annette Hollowell, an employee at UM’s Winter Institute for
Racial Reconciliation, said a debate on poverty is incomplete without
a discussion of race.
“I have a problem with talking about policy and not talking
about people,” Hollowell said.
UM student Lavidy Yarber said that many of the bureaucrats deciding
on the welfare laws should be more aware of those people actually
living in poverty.
“If you’ve never experienced it, you’re not sensitive
to it,” Yarber said.
Johnson discussed the 1996 Welfare Reform Law, which stipulates
that welfare recipients must work to improve their situations.
“[Before then] being idle was enough to get welfare benefits,”
Johnson said. “Congress is set to reauthorize the welfare
law from 1996; this year we think it’s really going to happen.”
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families was created by the 1996
Welfare Reform Law. According to Johnson, TANF helps needy families
for a period of 6 months to 2 years.
“People just need a safety net to get back on their feet,”
Johnson said.
Murray, who discussed the predatory practices of payday lenders
who prey on the poor, said people who live in poverty have a fragile
existence, and discussions such as these are warranted.
“Talking about the issues in an open and honest way is uncomfortable,
but warranted,” Murray said.
The debate was sponsored by the Federalist Society and the Black
Law Students Association.”
Candace Deer is a sophomore journalism and psychology
major from Ridgeland, Miss.
Editor Natashia Gregoire contributed to this report.
Back to top
Love &Law
Alumni fall in love with law, UM and each other
in law school
by Rachel Malone
 John
McDavid and his wife, Sylvia, of Jackson were present when the Ole
Miss Law School celebrated its 100th anniversary, in 1954. Fifty
years later, the 1956 law school graduates joined more than 300
alumni and friends for the school’s recent sesquicentennial
gala.
“We’re proud of what has happened at Ole Miss,”
John McDavid said. “We were at the 100th anniversary dinner
held on the Ole Miss campus when we were first-year law students,
and we’re here at this evening’s celebration as well.”
When John Land McDavid of Macon and Sylvia Sanford of Philadelphia
entered law school they were seeking degrees, but they left with
something they had not expected to find: strong friendships and
each other.
 Both
John and Sylvia remember their days at the law school as a time
of challenge and growth. Friendships were an essential and lasting
part of the educational process as they worked toward their degrees.
They said they’ve seen many changes in the law school since
then and one of the biggest is the increase in enrollment. They
agree that a smaller student body and the existence of the Leavell
Hall law dorm allowed for a close-knit community.
“We were all there to go to law school,” Sylvia said.
“Nearly everyone was a character, and we were all there to
be appreciated for who we were.”
“While most students came from their (undergraduate) school
work, a number of our classmates were Korean War veterans,”
John said. “Many students had a different outlook than today.
We had two classmates from Puerto Rico.”
As the only woman in her class, Sylvia no doubt had an outlook different
from that of most of her classmates.
“As a little child I knew I wanted to go to law school,”
said Sylvia, who entered Millsaps at age 16 and the law school at
20. “I was in a terrible hurry.”
Sylvia and John also agree that central to their growth as law students
were Dean Robert Farley and professor John Fox (who served as dean
for two years after Farley’s 1963 retirement).
“John Fox was one of those individuals born extremely brilliant,”
John said. “He had this overwhelming personality and felt
his duty was to prepare you for courtroom combat. Like a marine
drill sergeant, he wanted to prepare you to be an attorney. He was
commanding.”
John and Sylvia said some of their best memories are of summer school
sessions when they shared classes with visiting students from Tulane
University. They recounted the agony of the old Lamar Hall (now
Farley Hall) classrooms with no air conditioning and the joy of
trips to Sardis Lake.
The McDavids said along with the loss of the diploma privilege,
they’ve noticed major changes in the law curriculum over the
past 50 years.
 “Graduates
from the Ole Miss Law School were automatically admitted to the
Mississippi Bar,” John said. “Law school (operated)
on a much smaller scale. There are now many courses which did not
exist then such as intellectual property law. Our property law classes
were important.”
Even today his property law classes and many others continue to
be important for John and his Jackson law firm McDavid, Noblin and
West. Despite his success in law, John did not complete his undergraduate
degree, in political science, until 2001.
“I had six hours left to complete in foreign language requirements
in order to receive my undergraduate degree,” John said. “I
took those six hours … and I sat three chairs down from (football
player) Deuce McAlister at graduation.”
After their law school graduation in 1956, the McDavids moved to
New Orleans, where John worked for Texaco and the Federal Land Bank
of New Orleans. (Sylvia had decided not to practice.) In 1959, John
and Sylvia settled in Jackson to raise their three children, John
Sanford McDavid (JD 81) of Jackson; Steve McDavid of Oxford; and
Holly McDavid Virden of Salt Lake City, Utah.
Both John Sanford and Steve McDavid followed in their parents’
footsteps and are attorneys. John Sanford practices in Jackson,
while Steve, who holds an undergraduate degree in anthropology from
Ole Miss, practices in Oxford.
Although the UM School of Law has certainly grown and changed since
the days when the McDavids attended, they said they are excited
to see the law school develop into a premier institution.
“It’s a real accomplishment for Ole Miss to be celebrating
these 150 years of educating Mississippi lawyers and leaders,”
John said.
Rachel Malone is a freelance writer for UM Lawyer
Magazine. Back to top |
