First Monday - February 4, 2013

In this issue:

• Clinic Students Make a Difference for Idaho Businesses, Communities, and Individuals
• Idaho Faculty Answer the Call to Regional and National Service

Clinic Students Make a Difference for Idaho Businesses, Communities, and Individuals

Utilizing data gathered by the American Bar Association, National Jurist magazine in 2011 ranked the University of Idaho College of Law 13th out of approximately 200 law schools for availability of clinical opportunities to students. Here are a few illustrations of how Idaho students are taking advantage of those opportunities:

Small Business Legal Clinic

During his first semester in the College of Law’s Small Business Legal Clinic, 3L student Kresten Snow (photo) has assisted a number of new and start-up businesses. His work has involved the preparation of the organizational documents for a Boise limited liability company and the development of a licensing agreement for a Nampa book author and publisher.

“I enjoy helping entrepreneurs begin their businesses on the right foot,” Kresten says. “Giving them legal counsel lets them mitigate risk and focus on making their businesses successful.”

Kresten and other students in the Small Business Clinic are directly benefiting Idaho’s economic development by helping new businesses draft contracts and operating agreements and by assisting Idaho entrepreneurs in the beginning stages of starting their businesses. The students’ work, supervised by Lee Dillion, Associate Dean for Boise Programs, enables Idaho businesses to gain the legal protections they need to be successful in their formative stages.

Economic Development Clinic

Before attending the College of Law, 3L student Joan Callahan (photo) worked at the Idaho Department of Education, assisting local school districts and other small government entities. Her experience working with Idaho communities instilled in her a strong sense of civic duty and public service. These values have carried over into her work in the College’s Economic Development Clinic.

Under the supervision of Professor Stephen Miller, Joan and her fellow clinic students recently completed Area of City Impact Agreements in Idaho, a guidance document for cities and counties drafting these required growth management tools. The comprehensive report collects, for the first time, 125 of these agreements — thereby providing a valuable resource for policymakers. One county administrator recently wrote to the clinic, attaching a note of thanks to the students for their work and saying “I have to tell you, I have never gotten this kind of response from anything I have [shared with land use colleagues]… [It] looks like a home run!”

View the Area of City Impact Agreements Reports. Clinic students also blog about economic development in Idaho at Idaho Next.

Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic

For 3L student Aaron Hooper (photo), working in the College’s Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic has given him experience helping clients face what can seem like an overwhelming adversary: the IRS. Because he speaks fluent Spanish, Aaron has been able to work effectively with his Spanish-speaking clients. Aaron has given presentations on tax law in Spanish for the Catholic Charities of Idaho and has assisted Spanish speaking Idahoans with tax filings and Social Security card issues.

Under the supervision of clinic instructor Barbara Lock, Aaron and other students provide free legal representation in federal tax matters to taxpayers with financial need. The clinic experience enables students to appear in U.S. Tax Court, where they get advocacy and courtroom experience that will serve them well regardless of the nature of the practice they eventually enter. Moreover, the students learn a great deal about interacting with clients. Although the dollar amounts at issue in clinic cases may be relatively modest, those cases are high-impact events in the clients’ lives.

Students not only provide direct service to clients on a wide variety of tax issues, but they also conduct public information and outreach presentations to inform Northwest communities about relevant tax laws. Further information on how Idaho law students are helping low income taxpayers can be found on Facebook: Low Income Taxpayer Clinic - University of Idaho College of Law.

Idaho Faculty Answer the Call to Regional and National Service

The professional life of a law professor visibly entails teaching and advising students. Less visible, however, are time-consuming commitments to scholarship, outreach, and service. At the University of Idaho, service means not only committee work and projects within the College of Law, but also service to the University, the state, the region, and the nation. Here are just some examples of regional and national service now being performed, or recently completed, by Idaho’s law faculty and staff:

• American Bar Association (ABA)
  • Dispute Resolution Advisory Panel — Maureen Laflin
  • Book Development and Publishing — Wendy Couture
  • Family Law Quarterly (editorial board) — Liz Brandt
  • Section on Administrative and Regulatory Practice, Newsletter — Dale Goble (state reporter)
  • Section of Business Law
    • UCC Committee — Ben Beard
    • Cyberspace Committee — Ben Beard
    • Electronic Commerce Subcommittee — Ben Beard
    • Task Force on Radio Frequency Identification — Ben Beard (co-chair)
  • Section on Dispute Resolution: Mediator’s Ethical Guidance Committee — Maureen Laflin
  • Section on Environment, Energy and Resources (SEER)
    • Water Committee — Barbara Cosens
    • Annual Water Conference Planning Committee — Barbara Cosens
  • Section of Litigation
    • Expert Witnesses Annual Review — Wendy Couture
    • “Ethics Tools” Program at Section Annual Conference — Wendy Couture
• American Civil Liberties Union, National Board of Directors — Carole Wells
• American Immigration Lawyers Association — Monica Schurtman
• American Judicature Society (AJS)
  • National Advisory Board — Don Burnett
• American Law Institute — Richard Seamon (elected)
• American Society for Environmental History (ASEH), Outreach Committee — Dale Goble
• Association of American Law Libraries
  • Cataloging & Classification Committee — Ruth Funabiki
  • TS/OBSIS Joint Research Grant Committee — Ruth Funabiki
  • Price Index for Legal Publications Committee — Jean Mattimoe
• Association of American Law Schools (AALS)
  • Internet & Computer Law Section Executive Committee — Annemarie Bridy
  • Juvenile and Family Law Section Executive Committee — Liz Brandt
  • Juvenile and Family Law Section Listserv Manger — Liz Brandt
  • Labor and Employment Law Section Executive Board — Monique Lillard
  • Section on International Exchange: Chairperson — Jeff Dodge
  • Indian Nations and Indigenous Peoples Section, Chair — Angelique EagleWoman
• Ex Libris Users of North America, Voyager Law Special Interest Group — Ruth Funabiki (co-chair)
• Federal Bar Association — Katie Ball, Don Burnett
  • Annual Indian Law Conference Co-chair — Angelique EagleWoman
• Law School Admissions Council (LSAC)
  • Board of Trustees, ex-officio — Jack Miller
  • Audit Committee, Chair — Jack Miller
  • Finance and Legal Affairs Committee — Jack Miller
  • Nominating Committee: Chair — Jack Miller
• Legal Writing Institute
  • Upper Division Writing Committee — Laurie O’Neal
• National Association of Legal Professionals (LSAC)
  • Solo $ Small Career Services Offices Section, Federal Recruitment Project Shared Resource Pool — Anne-Marie Fulfer, Vice-Chair
• National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, Committee on Implementation of the UN E-Commerce Convention, Reporter to Committee — Ben Beard
• Northwest Indian Bar Association Governing Board — Angelique EagleWoman
• National Lawyers’ Guild Immigration Project — Monica Schurtman
• Research Consortium on Columbia River Governance, UI Representative  — Barbara Cosens
• Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation — Dale Goble (trustee)
• Western Legal History (Ninth Circuit Historical Society publication), Editorial Board — Dale Goble
• Western Pacific Association of Law Libraries, Bylaws & Constitution Committee — Mike Greenlee (chair)
• Western Tri-State Consortium Innovation Working Group on Coupling the Effects of Climate Change on Ecosystems and Societies: Potential Impacts on Native American and Hispanic Communities, Co-UI Representative  — Barbara Cosens

Further information about faculty service and other faculty activities can be obtained from Professor Michael Satz, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs.