First Monday - February 2, 2009

In this issue:

• Don’t Miss Your Chance to be in the Centennial Law Alumni Directory
• College Adds International Law Expert to Faculty
• College Demonstrates Technology in 21st Century Courtroom
• Northwest Institute for Dispute Resolution Announces 2009 Courses

Don’t Miss Your Chance to be in the Centennial Law Alumni Directory!

February 9, 2009 – one week from today – is the deadline for submitting information to be included in the Centennial Edition of our Law Alumni Directory.  The College of Law has hired a national publisher of alumni directories, Harris Connect, to obtain updated contact information for our more than 3,500 living alumni.  This comprehensive directory, a compendium of professional information such as practice areas, in addition to contact information, will be the first University of Idaho law alumni directory in almost 15 years. It will also include highlights of the first 100 years of history at the College of Law.

Through e-mails and telephone calls, Harris Connect has endeavored to reach law alumni of record, based on their latest contact information in the University of Idaho database (unless the information has been marked confidential at the individual’s request).  If you have received an e-mail or telephone call, and have not yet responded, please do so by February 9 – the extended deadline for directory information.  If you have not been contacted, you can still update your information of record by calling toll-free 866-216-4044.  Questions regarding the Alumni Directory process may be directed to Stephen M. Perez, Development Coordinator, at sperez@uidaho.edu.  We encourage all alumni to participate in this project, making the directory a definitive reference for all alumni to enjoy.

College Adds International Law Expert to Faculty

The College of Law is proud to announce that Anastasia Telesetsky has accepted a full-time, tenure-track faculty position, effective in the 2009-2010 academic year.  She will teach Public International Law, Conflicts of Law, International Environmental Law, and related courses.  Ms. Telesetsky received her J.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall) and is now completing an LL.M. degree in international environmental law at the University of British Columbia.  She previously received her baccalaureate degree summa cum laude from Vanderbilt and a masters degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara.  She has engaged in the private practice of environmental law; has served as a consultant to the Ethiopian-Eritrean Claims Commission; has been a Bosch Foundation Fellow in Berlin and Cologne, Germany; and has been a Fulbright Fellow at the Environmental Legal Assistance Center in the Philippines. Her scholarly works have addressed international legal dimensions of environmental, natural resources, and global warming issues.  Further information about our new faculty colleague and other members of the law faculty may be obtained from Professor Elizabeth Brandt, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs (ebrandt@uidaho.edu).

College Demonstrates Technology in 21st Century Courtroom

New courtroom technology is shaping legal proceedings and legal education. At the University of Idaho, law students are now able to obtain hands-on technology training in a recently remodeled, state-of-the-art electronic courtroom at the Menard Law Building.  The College of Law conducted a public demonstration on January 30, featuring presentations by Professors Trapper Stewart and John Hasko, as well as third-year law students Samuel Creason and Chelsea Kidney.

Among other features, the new courtroom includes:

• State-of-the-art AMX touch screen controls for Venue configuration, accommodating court trials, appellate court trials, mock trials, speaker presentations and video teleconferencing (VTC).

• “Pointmaker” annotation software to annotate video and still images while being displayed on any screen. That information can be recorded, archived and retrieved. The software allows judges, prosecution, defense, witnesses and courtroom technicians to annotate on media, creating a collaborative environment during evidence presentation.

• ELMO high resolution system to display printed material and physical evidence in its original format, projecting for all participants to view.
• Voice-activated camera system that automatically selects the location of each speaker by microphone and displays the individual’s image on courtroom monitors while he or she is speaking.
• Digital Audio Recording System (DARS) allowing for sophisticated recording and retrieval of video and audio. This feature allows faculty and students to review what is saved in real-time during court proceedings.
• A 50-inch diagonal PX350 Smart Board display for evidence presentation.

The courtroom technology embodies recommendations made by “Courtroom 21,” a national consulting firm that has designed academic and federal courtrooms throughout the United States.

Northwest Institute for Dispute Resolution Announces 2009 Courses

Now entering its 13th year at the College of Law, the Northwest Institute for Dispute Resolution has announced an ambitiously expanded array of upcoming courses for lawyers, law students, and dispute resolution professionals.

On May 18-22, 2009, in Moscow, the Institute will offer its traditional 40-hour mediation courses focusing on civil and family mediation, along with a 20-hour arbitration course:

• Civil mediation instruction will be provided by Kimberlee Kovach, Esq., a past Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution and member of the faculty at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, Texas, where she directs a Mediation Clinic.  Professor Kovach is the author of a leading textbook, Mediation Principles and Practice, as well as several articles on ADR topics.  Her most recent publications include Mediation in a Nutshell and two chapters in the ABA’s book on Ethics Mediation.
• The Institute has created a special partnership with the Family Law Section of the Idaho State Bar for this year’s basic family mediation course.  Instruction will be provided by Bob Collins, who has practiced family mediation since 1982 and is a founder of The New York Mediation Group. The recipient of the Distinguished Faculty Award from the Ackerman Institute for the Family in 2000, Collins is a popular mediation trainer of both practicing attorneys and therapists in New York City.  He has also trained other professionals in Great Britain and South America, as well as in Idaho.
• The course in effective arbitration will be taught by Boise attorney Merlyn Clark, who has served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Idaho College of Law as well as the Straus Institute For Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law.  He is well known also as an instructor of evidence and civil procedure for the Idaho Judiciary at the annual New Judges Orientation program, the Magistrate Judges Institute, and the District Judges Institute.

On May 27-29, 2009, in Boise, the Institute will co-host (with the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho) a 20-hour advanced civil mediation course titled “Breaking Through Impasse: Enhancing Your Settlement Rate and Market Share in Employment, Personal Injury, and Professional Liability Disputes,” in Boise, ID.   Eric Galton of Austin, Texas, and Tracy Allen of Detroit, Michigan, will co-teach the course.  Between them they have mediated nearly 10,000 cases and trained over 6,000 mediators.  Both have served on the Board of Directors of the International Academy of Attorney Mediators, and Allen is a past president of the organization.  Each is also an adjunct instructor at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University School of Law.

On October 7, 2009, at Coeur d’Alene, the Institute will present “Recent Research Re: Parenting Schedules and Therapeutic Interventions for Divorced Families,” with speaker Mark Mays, Ph.D. and J.D., of Spokane.  During the next two days, October 8-9, also at Coeur d’Alene, the Institute will partner with the Conflict Resolution Center of the Inland Northwest to present a 20-hour Advanced Family Mediation course.  Instruction will be provided by Chip Rose, a practicing attorney and Certified Specialist in Family Law.  Rose practices mediation and collaborative family law in the Northern California coastal community of Santa Cruz.  He is the author of Collaborative Family Law Practice and has authored “The Creative Solution” column in the quarterly Family Section publication of the Association of Conflict Resolution.

Further information about the Northwest Institute for Dispute Resolution, and its courses, may be obtained from the Institute’s founding director, Professor Maureen Laflin (mlaflin@uidaho.edu).