First Monday - April 4, 2005

In this issue:

• Law Professors Engage the "Real World"
• Accreditation Team Visits College
• College Receives Grant to protect Victim's Rights

Law professors engage the “real world”

Despite its relatively small size, the College of Law undertakes a remarkable scope of state, national and international service and outreach. Here is a summary of the topical areas in which Idaho law faculty worked to improve the law, the administration of justice, and American legal education in 2004. (Further information is available from Dean Burnett at dburnett@uidaho.edu.)

Natural Resources and Environmental Law

• ESA @ 30 Project: regional and national conferences, and briefings of Congressional staffs and federal and state regulatory agencies, on issues relating to the Endangered Species Act (30th anniversary)
• ABA annual water rights conference committee (including subcommittee for water rights transfers)
• Mediation (compensated) of western water rights disputes

Business Law

• United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (Electronic Commerce)
• Idaho Legislature/Idaho State Bar Corporate Code Amendments (reporter and project co-chair)
• Idaho Nonprofit Development Center (board of directors)

Advocacy and Dispute Resolution (including general administration of justice)

• National Board of Directors, American Judicature Society
•  Center for Judicial Independence Task Force, American Judicature Society
• Idaho Supreme Court Committee on Fairness and Equity in the Courts
• Idaho Supreme Court Evidence Rules Advisory Committee (including Mediation Privilege Subcommittee)
• Idaho Supreme Court Civil Jury Instructions Committee
• U.S. District Court Local Rules Committee
• Continuing Legal Education Committee (chair), Idaho Law Foundation
• Alternative Dispute Resolution Section (governing council), Idaho State Bar
• Training conference in mediation for Washington superior court judges

International, Immigration, and Comparative Law

• Second Annual Idaho International and Comparative Law Conference (Post-Conflict Justice), conducted at Coeur d’Alene by College of Law
• German Law Journal (co-editor in chief)
• Training conferences for immigrants re immigration law and Homeland Security interviews
• AALS International Law Section (executive committee)
• AALS Comparative Law Section (executive committee)

Law and Technology (including information technology and libraries)

• Intellectual Freedom Committee (chair), Idaho Library Association
• LILI (Libraries Linking Idaho) (board of directors)

Ethics, Professional Responsibility, and Civic Leadership

• ABA/Council of Chief Justices Joint Committee on Lawyer Regulation
• Idaho State Bar “Ethics 2000” Committee
• Professionalism and Ethics Section (chair and governing council), Idaho State Bar
• J. Ray McNichols American Inn of Court (Moscow/Lewiston)

Constitutional Law (including diversity and human rights)

• Idaho/American Civil Liberties Union
• Advisory Board, Center for Economic and Social Rights (New York)
• Idaho Inclusiveness Coalition (board of directors)
• Latah County Human Rights Task Force (award recipient)
• City of Moscow Fair and Affordable Housing Commission

American Indian Law

• National Native American Bar Association (president)
• First Annual American Indian Law Conference, at College of Law
• American Indian Law Probate Project (grant-supported)
• American Indian Law Section (governing council), Idaho State Bar

Family Law

• AALS Family and Juvenile Law Section (executive committee)
• Family Law Reform Project, American Family and Conciliation Courts Ass’n
• Editorial Board, ABA Family Law Quarterly
• Editorial Committee, Family Law Council, Family Law Section, Idaho State Bar
• Idaho Supreme Court Child Protection Committee
• Idaho Supreme Court Children and Families in the Courts Committee
• Idaho Second Judicial District Family Court Services Advisory Committee

Employment Law

• AALS Employment Discrimination Section (chair and program planner)

Law and Legal Education

• American Law Institute (elected and ex officio members)
• Professionalism Committee (chair), ABA Section on Legal Education
• Standards (Accreditation) Review Committee, ABA Section on Legal Education
• Audit Committee, Law School Admission Council
• ABA site inspection team for University of Cincinnati (chair)
• ABA site inspection team for Brandeis School of Law, University of Louisville

Other Service

• Princeton University, Program on Latin American Studies (advisory committee)
• Foundation Board, Idaho Public Television
• Board of Trustees, Idaho TIAA-CREF Mutual Fund Program

Accreditation Team Visits the College

It happens just once every seven years, and this is our year. The American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools are jointly evaluating the College of Law, to determine whether it should receive continued approval by the ABA and continued membership in the AALS. The College, founded in 1909, is one of the longest accredited institutions in the West, having been a member of the AALS since 1914, and having been approved by the ABA since 1925.

Fact-finding for the accreditation review will be conducted by a site visit team that has already arrived in Moscow (with one member also visiting the College’s office in Boise). The team will remain until April 6, 2005, and then will submit a report to the accreditation committee of the ABA and the executive committee of the AALS. This year’s site visit team is a geographically diverse group of legal educators, a university administrator, and a practitioner. The team members are Professor Richard Neumann (ABA chair), Hofstra University School of Law, New York; Professor and Associate Dean Glen-Peter Ahlers, Barry University School of Law, Florida; Professor and Vice President for Academic Affairs Donald Dahlin, University of South Dakota; Professor and Director of Clinical Programs Ellen Marrus, University of Houston Law Center, Texas; Professor and former Dean Kinvin Wroth (AALS reporter), Vermont Law School; Professor and Associate Dean Mary Dee Pridgen, University of Wyoming College of Law; and Maureen Sanders, Attorney at Law, Sanders & Westbrook, Albuquerque, New Mexico. The team will meet with law faculty, staff, and students; with senior members of the University of Idaho administration; and with members of the bench and bar in North Idaho. A member of the team also recently met with the College of Law Advisory Council in Boise. (Further information about the accreditation process is available from Dean Burnett at dburnett@uidaho.edu.)

College receives grant to protect victims’ rights

The College’s Legal Aid Clinic has been awarded a grant from the National Crime Victims' Law Institute and the U.S. Department of Justice to establish a Victims' Rights Clinic. Beginning with the fall semester, 2005, third-year law students will have supervised opportunities to represent victims of felonies and other violent crimes in state court criminal proceedings in north-central Idaho. Eventually the clinic will serve victims throughout Idaho, utilizing volunteer attorneys supported by clinic students and faculty. Through such representation the clinic will seek to enforce the clients' rights under the Victims' Rights Amendment to the Idaho Constitution, and related statutes and court rules. The College will receive $57,000 in first year funding, and will be eligible to receive up to $175,000 to fund the second and third years of the project. (Further information about this grant is available from Professor Pat Costello at costello@uidaho.edu.)