Faculty Highlights

March 2016

Professor Cynthia Alkon accepted an offer of publication from the Nevada Law Journal for her article, “Hard Bargaining in Plea Bargaining: When Do Prosecutors Cross the Line?”

• One of two speakers in a webinar for prosecutors in Bahrain on Prosecution Strategies and Implementation of Alternatives. The webinar was part of continuing conversations about a national strategy for criminal justice reform in Bahrain and was organized by the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative at the request of the Attorney General of Bahrain (March 30, 2016).

Professor Susan Ayres presented her research, “Claudia Rankine and the Poetry of Protest,” at the Women’s Research on Women Symposium Gallery Tour at Texas A&M University in College Station (March 30, 2016).

• Her article “The Journey” was accepted for publication in the peer-edited Barely South Review.

Associate Professor Sahar Aziz accepted an offer to publish “Rethinking Counterterrorism in the Age of ISIS” as the lead article in the Nebraska Law Review Fall 2016 volume.

• ​Invited to present her research on countering violent extremism at a Congressional Briefing hosted by members of Congress Judy Chu, Bill Pascrell, Jr., Andre Carson, and Keith Ellison at the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. (March 22, 2016). Other panelists included academics from Duke University and the University of Maryland.


• Published her Concluding Remarks in the Security and Technology: Rethinking National Security Symposium edition of the Texas A&M Law Review.


• Presented at the following conferences:
  • Presenter (invited), “The Paradox of Preventive Counterterrorism,” US Counterterrorism Policy MLSA symposium at Harvard Law School (March 28-29, 2016).
  • Presenter, “Rethinking Counterterrorism in the Age of ISIS,” at the Young Comparativists Conference at Tulane University Law School, New Orleans (March 18-19, 2016).
  • Panelist (invited), “Texas and the Syrian Refugee Crisis” at Southern Methodist University, Dallas (March 23, 2016).
  • Presenter (invited), “(De)Essentializing Terrorism: A Typology of Terrorists” at The Transnational Executive Symposium at Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Bloomingdale, Ind. (March 3-4, 2016).
• Published the op-ed “Countering Violent Extremism Coming to a Church Near You” in the Huffington Post (March 23, 2016).


• Interviewed on KERA Public Radio NewsHour about “North Texas Muslims Reactions to Ted Cruz’s Calls to Patrol Muslim Neighborhoods” (March 25, 2016).


• Interviewed on Fox News Television about the hijacking of an EgyptAir flight (March 30, 2016).

Executive Professor William Byrnes ​and Texas A&M University were recognized as "pioneers of change in tax education" by creating a risk-management based multidisciplinary approach to the tax curriculum in Ernst & Young, “Does the tax curriculum still make the grade?” (March 9, 2016). 

• ​Quoted by the following news outlets:
  • American Banker, “Fincen Withdraws Foreign Bank Orders, But Damage Already Done” (March 1, 2016).
  • Tax Connections, “New Generation of Tax Graduates Find Tax Jobs- An Innovative Evolution By TaxConnections” (March 2, 2016).
  • USA Today, “If you inherit an IRA, make a plan before doing a thing” (March 15, 2016).
• Co-Authored the following articles with Robert Bloink:
  • “12 little-known annuity tax facts,” LifeHealthPRO (March 29, 2016).
  • “How to address clients’ 2 Biggest Retirement Issues,” Think Advisor (March 28, 2016).
  • “15 little-known life insurance tax facts,” LifeHealthPRO (March 25, 2016).
  • “Retaining Key Executives With Insurance Strategies,” Think Advisor (March 21, 2016).
  • “When Trusts and Annuities Collide, Big Tax Damage Can Follow,” Think Advisor (March 14, 2016).
  • “What's next for variable annuities after DOL fiduciary rule?” LifeHealthPRO (March 7, 2016).
  • “Avoiding the Tax Traps of 1035 Exchanges,” Think Advisor (March 10, 2016).
• Authored the book LexisNexis® Guide to FATCA Compliance (March 5, 2016).

Professor Irene Calboli organized and chaired the roundtable “The Max Planck Declaration on the Three-Step Test: Past, Present, and Future” at the School of Law, Singapore Management University (March 2, 2016).

• Presented her article, “A CETA-Style Way Forward to Resolve the Controversy on the Geographical Indications on the TTIP?” at the 24th Annual Intellectual Property Law & Policy Conference hosted by Fordham University School of Law (March 31-Apr. 1, 2016).


• Delivered a lecture on "Intellectual Property and International Trade" at the Singapore–United States Third Country Program: Customs, Intellectual Property Rights and Counterfeiting Seminar organized by the Intellectual Property Academy of Singapore and the USPTO in Singapore (March 14, 2016).

Professor Megan Carpenter, Co-Director, Center for Law and Intellectual Property (CLIP), was named a recipient of the Texas A&M University Distinguished Achievement Award for her work in graduate mentoring, one of 24 faculty awardees University-wide for 2016 and the only Law School recipient. The award, presented by Texas A&M and The Association of Former Students, is one of the University’s highest professional honors. Read more.

Professor Gabriel Eckstein has been invited to present on “Managing Pharmaceutical Waste in our Nation’s Waters” at the Contaminants of Emerging Concern and Water on Earth Conference organized by the Texas Environmental Law Journal and the University of Texas School of Law on April 15, 2016.

• Organized and hosted the Texas A&M 3rd Annual Water Lecture Speaker Series featuring Dr. Michael Campana on successive days at the School of Law and in College Station, which was sponsored by the School of Law, Texas A&M University Water Management & Hydrological Sciences Program, Texas A&M University Bush School of Government and the Texas Water Resources Institute (March 28-29, 2016).
  • Hosted visit by the Tarrant Regional Water District featuring their Watershed Education Trailer as part of the Water Lecture Speaker Series (March 28, 2016).
• Served as judge for the Water Daze Poster Competition organized by Texas A&M University Water Management & Hydrological Sciences Program (March 30, 2016).


• Co-organized a class field trip to Guanajuato, Mexico, on “Contemporary Issues in Water Resources: U.S./Mexico Water-Food- Security” that included students from the School of Law, Texas A&M University Water Management & Hydrological Sciences Program, and Texas A&M University Bush School of Government (March 13-19, 2016).


• Presented on “Erosion Under the Texas Water Code and Civil Law” at the Parker County Erosion Appreciation Day at the Weatherford USDA Service Center (March 4, 2016).

Professor Susan Fortney was the featured speaker at the Supreme Court of Colorado. She presented to the Court Committee on Regulatory Objectives and Proactive Management-Based Regulation. She discussed her research findings related to management-based regulation of lawyers and provided recommendations on designing a voluntary program to encourage lawyers to implement and maintain management systems (March 16, 2016).

• Spoke at the conference Louis D. Brandeis: An Interdisciplinary Retrospective on “Collaborative Divorce: What Would Louis Brandeis Say about the Promise and Problems” (March 30, 2016).

Professor Paul George spoke at the Texas A&M University Memorial Student Union in College Station on the Supreme Court appointment process. The program, “Tipping the Scales: The Political Craft of Filling the High Court Position,” was co-sponsored by the Wiley Lecture Series and Aggie Agora. (March 3, 2016).

• Invited to speak at the Fourth Annual Conference on Governance of Emerging Technologies: Law, Policy and Ethics at Arizona State’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law on "The State as Data Collector and Privacy Protector" in May.


• Served as co-host, along with Joe Cleveland from the Federal Bar Association, to Professor Rick Marcus (Associate Reporter for the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure) for his Fort Worth appearance to discuss the changes in the federal discovery rules. George also hosted a dinner with Marcus at which several faculty and lawyers were guests (March 27, 2016).


• Had 316 new downloads of his academic journals (according to Berkeley Electronic Press) from 19 countries, with downloaders ranging from the City of Frisco to Covington & Burling LLP, with the most being from Haynes & Boone, LLP.

Professor Michael Z. Green authored a paper, “Stifling Employee Activity with the EEOC through Retaliation From Broad Severance Agreement Enforcement,” which was recently published as chapter nine in the book, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act After 50 Years: Proceedings of the New York University 67th Annual Conference on Labor (Ed. Anne Marie Lofaso, LexisNexis 2015).

The third edition of Professor William Henning's book Understanding Sales and Leases of Goods was published in March by Carolina Academic Press. The book is co-authored by William Lawrence and Henry Gabriel.

• Testified before a committee of the Missouri House of Representatives in favor of a bill containing revised UCC Articles 1 and 7. Missouri, the only U.S. state that has not enacted these articles, appears poised to do so this legislative session.

Professor H. Brian Holland presented “We are all cyborgs now: A cognitive theory of the third-party doctrine” at the Internet Law Works-In-Progress Conference at New York Law School (March 4, 2016).

• Presented the same topic at University of Oklahoma School of Law (March 23, 2016).


• Participated in a panel discussion, “Filling the Empty Chair: Filling a Judicial Vacancy” at Texas A&M School of Law (March 28, 2016).

Professor Charlotte Ku, Associate Dean of International Programs, attended the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association in Atlanta (March 16-19, 2016):

• Participant in roundtables “Visualizing International Law as a Vehicle for Exploring Peace,” and “R2P Stock-Taking, the Second Decade” (March 16, 2016).
• Chaired the panel “Liberalism at the Bridging the Conceptual and Theoretical Divides on Peace and Peacebuilding Workshop” at Georgia State University (March 17, 2016).
• Participant in “IO Distinguished Scholar Roundtable Honoring Thomas G. Weiss” (March 17, 2016).
• Discussant on the panel “What Difference Does International Law Make?” (March 19, 2016).

• Organized, with Shirley Scott from the University of New South Wales, an authors’ workshop at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, on the United Nations Security Council and Climate Change book project that she is co-editing with Scott. The workshop was co-sponsored by the Center for Climate and Security and the Elliott School (March 29, 2016).

Director of Program Development Jack Manhire presented “Creating Programs to Improve Performance of Diverse Students” at the University of Arkansas Little Rock School of Law (March 4, 2016).

• Presented “The Impact of Bias” at the 2016 Climate Matters Conference at Texas A&M University in College Station (March 10, 2016).


• Invited as a paper discussant at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill’s annual Tax Symposium (March 18, 2016).


• Published a paper in the Journal on Policy and Complex Systems titled “Deriving the Expected Value of the Tax Underreporting Rate” (March 21, 2016).

Associate Professor Milan Markovic presented on commercialization and access to justice at the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics symposium, Remaining Ethical Lawyers in a Changing Profession (March 18, 2016).

• His editorial, “Misconceiving Access to Justice,” was published by New York University's Dwight D. Opperman Institute of Judicial Administration in its spring 2016 report.

Professor Timothy Mulvaney has been invited to participate in the Property-Works-in-Progress Conference at Boston University Law School ​in September, 2016.

Associate Instructional Professor John F. Murphy presented “Collaborative Writing with Google Docs” at the 12th Annual Teaching with Technology Conference at Texas A&M University in College Station (March 3, 2016).

Associate Professor Carol Pauli accepted an offer of publication from the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution for her article, “A Whole Other Story: Applying Narrative Mediation to the Immigration Beat.”

• Presented her research, “Shocks the Conscience: A Constitutional Test from the Margin?” at the Women’s Research on Women Symposium Gallery Tour at Texas A&M University in College Station (March 30, 2016).

Professor Srividhya Ragavan published an op-ed, “Standing Up to Patent Bullying,” in The Hindu (March 21, 2016).

• Supported the establishment of an intellectual property externship opportunity for students with the U.S. Navy by working with Texas A&M University School of Law’s Externship Director, Cecily Becker.

Associate Professor Peter Reilly's article, “Justice Deferred is Justice Denied: We Must End Our Failed Experiment in Deferring Corporate Criminal Prosecutions,” published recently in BYU Law Review (2015), was cited in a report issued by Corruption Watch UK, “Out of Court, Out of Mind: Do Deferred Prosecution Agreements and Corporate Settlements Fail to Deter Overseas Corruption” (March 2016).

• The same article was also cited by the Attorney-General’s Department of the Australian Government, which issued a Public Consultation Paper, “Improving Enforcement Options for Serious Corporate Crime: Consideration of a Deferred Prosecution Agreements Scheme in Australia,” seeking public comment on whether a DPA program should be introduced in Australia, and if so, how such a program should be structured (March 2016).


• Taught a course in Negotiations within Georgetown University’s Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership in Washington, D.C. (March 5, 2016). The program, which Reilly teaches twice each year as part of the adjunct faculty, is geared toward directors, managers, board members and other leaders of nonprofit and philanthropic organizations worldwide.

Associate Professor Neil Sobol’s article, “Charging the Poor: Criminal Justice Debt & Modern-Day Debtors’ Prisons,” was listed in the Department of Justices’ Resource Guide and Application Grant Program sent to state chief justices and court administrators (March 14, 2016).

• Accepted an offer to publish “Fighting Fines & Fees: Borrowing from Consumer Law to Combat Criminal Justice Debt Abuses” as the lead article in Volume 88, Issue 4 of the Colorado Law Review.

Professor Saurabh Vishnubhakat’s new article “Strategic Decision Making in Dual PTAB and District Court Proceedings,” published in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal (co-authored with professors Arti Rai and Jay Kesan) was cited by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (March 23, 2016). Learn more.

• Presented his new work-in-progress, “The Antitrusting of Patentability,” at the University of Missouri School of Law Faculty Colloquium (March 2, 2016).


• Featured speaker at the University of Texas School of Law’s intellectual property symposium on administrative validity review proceedings in the Patent Office (March 4, 2016).

Professor Peter Yu, Co-Director, Center for Law and Intellectual Property (CLIP), published "Intellectual Property Enforcement and Global Climate Change" in Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Climate Change (Joshua Sarnoff ed., Edward Elgar Publishing 2016).

• Named the co-chair of the 2016 International Law Weekend, the annual meeting of the American Branch of the International Law Association.


• Delivered the Second Annual Information Law Seminar at Sussex Law School, England, titled "Towards the Seamless Global Distribution of Cloud Content" (March 16, 2016).


• Spoke as a panelist at the roundtable on "Asia and the Political Landscape" at the 24th Annual Intellectual Property Law and Policy‏ Conference at Fordham University School of Law (March 31-April 1, 2016).


• Shared his experience on digital copyright reform in Hong Kong at the American University International Law Review Symposium "International and Comparative User Rights in the Digital Economy" at American University Washington College of Law (March 18, 2016).


• Served as a discussant at the 6th Internet Law Works-in-Progress Symposium at New York Law School (March 5, 2016).


• Sat on the 2016 Arts & Humanities Faculty Fellowship Proposal Review Board at Texas A&M University.


• Served as a faculty reviewer for volume 8 of Explorations: The Texas A&M Undergraduate Journal.