First Monday - March 2, 2009

In this issue:

• Chief Justice of the United States to Present Bellwood Lecture
• Native American Law Moot Court Team Makes Impressive Debut
• Idaho Law Review Symposium Will Focus on Internet Law

Chief Justice of the United States to Present Bellwood Lecture

The Sherman J. Bellwood Memorial Lecture will take on a special significance during the centennial year of the College of Law.  The Honorable John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice of the United States, will present the Bellwood Lecture in Moscow on Friday, March 13, at 4:00 p.m. in the University of Idaho Student Union Building Ballroom.  The event is free and open to the public. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Overflow seating will be available in the Borah Theater, also in the Student Union Building.  Live-feed broadcasts of the lecture will be shown at the University of Idaho/Boise Center, University of Idaho/Coeur d’Alene Center, University of Idaho/Idaho Falls Center, Idaho State University, and the College of Southern Idaho.

Chief Justice Roberts received his juris doctorate degree from Harvard Law School in 1979. He served as a law clerk for Judge Henry J. Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1979-80 and as a law clerk for then-Associate Justice William H. Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court during the 1980 Term.  He served as special assistant to the Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice from 1981-82; associate counsel to President Ronald Reagan in the White House Counsel’s Office from 1982-86; and principal deputy solicitor general in the U.S. Department of Justice from 1989-93. From 1986-89 and 1993–2003, he practiced law in Washington, D.C. He was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2003. President George W. Bush nominated him as Chief Justice of the United States, and he took his seat on September 29, 2005.

This historic Bellwood Lecture coincides with a celebration of 100 years of public legal education provided by the University of Idaho.  The College of Law also has a personal connection to Chief Justice Roberts:  he and Professor/Associate Dean Richard H. Seamon were colleagues in the Office of the U.S. Solicitor General from 1990 to 1993. During that time they both represented the United States in cases before the Supreme Court.

Now entering its 13th year, the Bellwood Lecture Series has brought prominent leaders to Idaho to discuss current issues of justice and law. Other Bellwood lecturers have included: U.S. Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg; former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno; former U.S. Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr; U.S. Senators Gary Hart and Alan Simpson; Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Alan C. Page; and the late Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Halberstam of the New York Times.

The lecture is named after the late Sherman J. Bellwood, an Idaho native and Idaho District Court judge of 20 years. After receiving an undergraduate degree from the University of Idaho in 1939, Judge Bellwood went on to law school, served in the military, practiced law and became president of the Idaho State Bar before entering the judiciary. By testamentary bequest Judge Bellwood funded this endowed lectureship and directed that it be administered by a committee consisting of the Chief Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court, the President of the Idaho State Bar, and the Dean of the College of Law.  It is the largest endowed lectureship at the University of Idaho.

Further information about the Bellwood Lecture, including the specific locations of live-feed broadcasts around the state, can be found on the College of Law website (www.uidaho.edu/law) or may be obtained from Dean Burnett (dburnett@uidaho.edu).

Native American Law Moot Court Team Makes Impressive Debut

This year, for the first time, the College of Law fielded a team in the National Native American Law Student Association Moot Court Competition.  Idaho’s team, composed of 3L student Kirstin Eidenbach and 2L student Ben Onosko, was one of 44 teams competing from law schools across the United States.  After a full day of preliminary rounds, the Idaho team advanced to the “sweet sixteen” and, on the second day, further advanced to the “final four,” where they bowed out – but not before Ms. Eidenbach received the Second Place Best Oralist Award in the competition.  The team’s faculty adviser was College of Law Professor Angelique EagleWoman.

Further information about the moot court competition and the Native American Law Student Association, or about the Native law program and curricular emphasis at the College of Law, may be obtained from Professor EagleWoman (eaglewoman@uidaho.edu).

Idaho Law Review Symposium Will Focus on Internet Law

The 2009 Idaho Law Review Symposium, “Internet Law: Challenges and Opportunities,” will address issues generated by the growth of the Internet and its omnipresence in our personal, political, and commercial worlds.  The Symposium, to be held on April 10, 2009, at the Boise Centre on the Grove, will continue the tradition of bringing together a select group of scholars and professionals for an informed interdisciplinary discussion centered on a topic of growing national importance. By exposing members of the academic, business, technological, and legal communities to diverse viewpoints and multifaceted experiences, the Law Review’s goal is to provide a forum for open discourse that will provide participants with valuable information applicable in their professional settings.

This year’s Symposium will be composed of four panel discussions, each centered on a topic of current relevance to Internet law: 1) Intellectual Property; 2) Online Contracting; 3) Internet Privacy and Security; and 4) E‐discovery and Record Retention. The panelists will be distinguished members of the local and national business, legal, and academic communities. The audience is expected to include local attorneys, entrepreneurs, business persons, professors, and students interested in learning about this important topic.

Further information about the Symposium, including the registration process, may be found at www.lawreview.uidaho.edu/advisory.html.