Faculty Highlights

​May 2017

Professor Lisa T. Alexander presented her work-in-progress, “Bringing Home the Right to Housing,” at the Association of Law, Property and Society’s (ALPS) Eighth Annual Meeting held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Professor Alexander is a board member of ALPS and she attended the ALPS annual board meeting, also held at the University of Michigan (May 18-20, 2017).

Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor Cynthia Alkon published her article, “Hard Bargaining in Plea Bargaining: When do Prosecutors Cross the Line?” in the Nevada Law Journal Vol. 17 No. 2, 2017.

• Taught an arbitration class and served as a guest speaker at the Royal University of Law and Economics in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (May 24, 2017).

Associate Dean for Planning, Compliance and Evening Programs and Professor Stephen Alton placed in the top 10% of authors on SSRN by total new downloads within the last 12 months, largely based on his papers on Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Jekyll (May 2017).

Professor Susan Ayres accepted an offer to publish “Most People Die Unevolved” in the spring 2018 issue of Southwest American Literature (May 2017).

Associate Dean William Byrnes held the first session of the Texas A&M University Law San Antonio Business Speaker Series: “The Business of Risk Management.” As a professor and former member of a major accounting firm, Byrnes spoke on the trends in risk management that every professional should know (May 23, 2017).

• Presented at Texas Tax Professors Research Work Shop, University of Houston.


• Quoted in “How distance learning is changing legal education,” PreLaw Magazine (May 2017).


• Co-authored the following media articles with Robert Bloink in ThinkAdvisor:
  • “Don’t Settle for Less: Key Steps to Maximize HSA Growth Potential” (May 2, 2017)
  • “Income Riders Offer Post-Fiduciary Rule Save for Annuities” (May 2, 2017)
  • “On Medicaid-Compliant Annuities, How to Stay Within the Lines” (May 17, 2017)
  • “Beware the Working Retirement Tax Penalty” (May 18, 2017)
  • “When Life Insurance Isn’t a Lifetime Investment” (May 31, 2017)
• Published the following book supplements:
  • International Trust Laws & Analysis (& Company Laws) (release 151, supplement 2) (with Dr. Robert J. Munro) (Wolters Kluwer) (May 2017)
  • Foreign Tax & Trade Briefs, Second Edition, Publication 290 (release 52​1) (with Walter Diamond and Dr. Robert J Munro) (LexisNexis Matthew Bender, New York) (May 2017)
  • Foreign Trade Briefs – International Withholding Tax Treaty Guide (Release 151) (with Dr. Robert J. Munro) (LexisNexis) (May 2017)
  • Tax Havens of the World (release 159) (with Dr. Robert J Munro) (LexisNexis Matthew Bender, New York) (May 2017)

Professor Irene Calboli was a Visiting Professor at the Centre of International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI), University of Strasbourg (France), as part of the Master in Intellectual Property. She delivered three lectures: “Non-Traditional Trademarks”; “3D Printing”; and “Geographical Indications” (May 15-19, 2017).

• Invited as Distinguished Guest Speaker at the LL.M. Course in Intellectual Property Law, Faculty of Law, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain). She delivered two lectures: “Intellectual Property Exhaustion” and “3D Printing and the Luxury Industry” (May 12, 2017).


• Submitted the book chapter "Diversity, Intellectual Property and Creative Industries" to be published in the Research Handbook on IP and Creative Industries, Edward Elgar, 2017 (Abbe E. L. Brown & Charlotte Waelde, eds.).


• Organized and moderated a panel on “The Future of Trademarks in a World of Mega-Regional Agreements” featuring Probir Metha, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative,  Lauma Buka, DG Trade, European Commission, and Daren Tang, Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, at the Annual Meeting of the International Trademark Association, Barcelona, Spain (May 24, 2017).


• Participated in the meeting of the Legislation and Regulation Committee of the International Trademark Association as one of the members in charge of revising the current Trademark Model Law by the International Trademark Association.

Professor Gabriel Eckstein published “The Role of Creative Language in Addressing Political Asymmetries: The Israeli-Arab Water Agreements,” in Managing Water in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities – Proceedings of the 8th Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy, pp. 69-94 (A. Garrido and A. Rabi, eds., Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy, 2017).

• Presented “Erosion Under the Texas Water Code and Civil Law” at the 2017 Parker County Erosion Appreciation Day II, Parker County USDA Service Center, Weatherford, Texas (May 19, 2017).

Professor Paul George was named the Reporter for the new Uniform Law Commission project, Joint Drafting Committee on Registration of Foreign Judgments to Harmonize the Law of Canada and the United States (May 2017).

Professor Michael Z. Green was highlighted by the Workplace Prof Blog in an entry, “Michael Green: Sleepless in Fort Worth,” which noted his recent publication activity, posted on SSRN, including “The Audacity of Protecting Racist Speech under the National Labor Relations Act,” forthcoming 2017 U. Chicago Legal Forum, and “Can NFL Players Obtain Judicial Review of Arbitration Decisions on the Merits When a Typical Hourly Union Worker Cannot Obtain This Unusual Court Access?” forthcoming NYU J. Legislation and Public Policy, as well as his forthcoming publication in the SMU Law Review, “Reconsidering Prejudice in Alternative Dispute Resolution for Black Work Matters” (May 21, 2017).

• Invited to co-author an article on the “Development of Labor and Employment Law Programming for New and Emerging Scholars” as part of a Symposium on the Southeastern Association of Law Schools to be published in the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law Review (May 5, 2017).


• Invited to write a chapter on “Union Commitment to Diversity” as part of an invited book proposal by Cambridge Press on Labor Law Reform by Richard Bales and Charlotte Garden (May 9, 2017).

Associate Dean for Experiential Education and Professor Luz Herrera organized “The Clinical and Experiential Law Program Directors' Workshop,” a biannual conference held before the AALS 2017 Clinical Conference in Denver, Colo. (May 6-9, 2017).

Associate Dean for Global Programs Charlotte Ku was elected to the Board of Directors of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) for a three year term (May 2017).

• Presented “What is International Law and How Does it Work?” to students in the Master’s Program, Royal University of Law and Economics, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.


• Served as co-faculty leader on the Texas A&M Global Law Field Trip to Cambodia.

Professor Glynn Lunney presented “An Introduction to International Trademark Law” and “Trademark’s Judicial De-Evolution” at the International Trademark Association (INTA) Annual Meeting in Barcelona, Spain (May 20-23, 2017).

Director of Program Development and Senior Lecturer Jack Manhire presented three separate sessions of “Inclusive Leadership: Recognizing and Defeating Our Unconscious Biases” at the 139th Annual Meeting of the International Trademark Association in Barcelona, Spain (May 20-22, 2017).

Professor Thomas W. Mitchell served as the Reporter, the person charged with the principal responsibility for drafting a uniform act for the Uniform Law Commission, for the Uniform Partition of Heirs’ Property Act (UPHPA). Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the act into law on May 29, 2017. These efforts were showcased in an article in Texas A&M Today (May 31, 2017).

• Served as co-faculty leader with Vice Dean Aric Short on the Texas A&M Global Law Field Trip to Ghana for ten Texas A&M Law students. The group assisted with a U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station research project, working alongside a U.S. Forest Service employee and a lecturer from Canada who served as part of the research team (May 14-25, 2017).


• Participated in a meeting at Texas A&M – San Antonio focused upon preserving African-American history in San Antonio. Meeting participants included the Provost of Texas A&M – San Antonio along with several Texas A&M San Antonio faculty members, various representatives from Texas A&M University System College Station, leading historic preservation architects, the Director of the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, various San Antonio city officials, and certain foundation and conservation society members (May 30, 2017).

Professor Timothy Mulvaney has been invited to present “Property and Democracy” at the 2018 Cambridge Centre for Property Law Conference at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, UK (May 25-26, 2018).

Associate Professor Carol Pauli accepted an offer to publish her article, “Enemy of the People: Negotiating News at the White House,” in volume 33 of the Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution (May 2017).

Professor Meg Penrose accompanied five Texas A&M Law graduates and the director of alumni, former students and external relations, Kristi Trail, to Washington, D.C. (May 2017). Upon Professor Penrose’s Motion, these former students were sworn into the Bar of the United States Supreme Court in open Court, with seven of the Justices appearing.

• Attended the annual American Law Institute Meeting in Washington, D.C. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg provided the keynote address to the ALI membership during the formal dinner.

Associate Professor Peter Reilly presented negotiation training for the SourceAmerica National Training and Achievement Conference in New Orleans. Established in 1974, SourceAmerica is one of two nonprofits founded by the federal government to support nonprofit agencies participating in the AbilityOne Program, which provides employment opportunities for people who are blind or have other significant disabilities (May 3, 2017).

Vice Dean Aric Short served as co-faculty leader with Professor Thomas Mitchell on the Texas A&M Global Law Field Trip to Ghana for ten Texas A&M Law students. The group assisted with a U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station research project, working alongside a U.S. Forest Service employee and a lecturer from Canada who served as part of the research team (May 14-25, 2017).

Associate Professor Neil L. Sobol's article, “Fighting Fines & Fees: Borrowing from Consumer Law to Combat Criminal Justice Debt Abuses,” was published in the Colorado Law Review (May 2017).

• Interviewed by WalletHub for “Ask the Experts: 0% APR Business Credit Cards” (May 2, 2017).

Professor Elizabeth Trujillo presented a seminar on her paper “Regulatory Cooperation in International Trade & its Transformative Effects on Executive Power” at the Center for Political Science and Constitutional Law Studies (Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales) in Madrid, Spain. The Center is a prestigious interdisciplinary research institution, affiliated with the Ministry for the Presidency in Spain, specializing in constitutional law, international law, and socio-political issues, especially as they relate to Spain, Europe and Latin America (May 11, 2017).

Professor Saurabh Vishnubhakat presented a talk titled “Patent Literacy and Federative Access to Legal Services” at the 9th Conference on Innovation and Communications Law, hosted at the University of Szeged and co-sponsored by an academic consortium including the Texas A&M University School of Law (May 29–30, 2017).

• Participated as a commissioned research scholar in the Roundtable on the New Role of the Administrative State in the Innovation Economy at George Mason University, conducted jointly by the Center for the Study of the Administrative State and the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property (May 22, 2017).


• Published a post-argument analysis on the leading PatentlyO blog of the closely watched Wi-Fi One v. Broadcom case now before the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Professor Vishnubhakat is counsel of record for an amicus brief by patent and administrative law professors in the case (May 5, 2017).

Professor Peter Yu published "The RCEP and Trans-Pacific Intellectual Property Norms" in Volume 50 of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law (May 2017).

• Spoke at the China Intellectual Property Roadshow on "Lone Star Strategies for IP in China" at Belo Mansion in Dallas, organized by the Texas Regional Office of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in conjunction with the Intellectual Property Law Section of the Dallas Bar Association (May 2, 2017).


• Presented "The Rise of China as an Intellectual Property Power" as part of another China Intellectual Property Roadshow organized by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, held at Bracewell LLP in Houston in conjunction with the Houston Intellectual Property Law Association (May 5, 2017).


• Addressed questions concerning the draft international instruments developed by the World Intellectual Property Organization's Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore at a meeting organized by the Native American Rights Fund and the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder (May 4, 2017).


• Made an opening presentation on "TRIPS Flexibilities and the Access to Medicines Debate" at the Access to Medicines: Policy and Practice Symposium organized by the Rethinking Regulation Program at Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University (May 22, 2017). 


• Delivered a paper on "A Spatial Critique of Intellectual Property Law and Policy" and chaired a panel on "Intellectual Property Doctrines" at the 9th Annual Conference on Innovation and Communications Law at the University of Szeged in Hungary, which he co-founded a decade ago (May 29-30, 2017).