Faculty Highlights

November 2015

Associate Professor Sahar Aziz served as a panelist on “(De)Liberalizing Judicial Independence in Post-January 25th Egypt, Egypt and the Contradictions of Liberalism: Illiberalism Within the Egyptian Intelligentsia” at the Middle East Studies Association Annual Conference in Denver, Colo., (Nov. 23-24, 2015).

• Invited presenter of “Coercive Assimilationism: The Perils of Muslim Women’s Identity Performance in the Workplace” at Columbia Law School Center for Gender and Sexuality Law (Nov. 10, 2015).


• Invited panelist ​for “Status of Civil Rights Facing Arab and Muslim Americans” at the Arab American National Summit in Detroit, Mich. (Nov. 7, 2015).


• ​Published the following op-eds:
  
  • “Identifying the Wrong Culprit for Terrorism,” Dallas Morning News (Nov. 24, 2015).
  • “Egypt's Sisi Signals Shift Toward Muslim Brotherhood,” The Conversation (Nov. 13, 2015).

Associate Professor Mark Edwin Burge was named a contributing editor for ContractsProf Blog, a member of the Law Professor Blog Network.

Executive Professor and Associate Dean of Special Projects William Byrnes was invited to contribute to a Tax Justice Network feature, “Tax Justice Focus – The Whistleblower Edition” (Nov. 24, 2015).

• Participated in the 2nd International Economic Forum, “In Search of the Missing Growth,” held at the Russian Federation's Financial University in Moscow (Nov. 24 – 26, 2015). He delivered a paper on applying valuation methodologies for cross-border activities, such as for intangibles within 'bundled services' arrangements and within 'platform contribution transactions'.


• Served on a Continuing Legal Education panel, “W8s, W9s, and Equivalent Tax Self Certification Compliance for Customer Identification and Withholding Determination,” (Nov. 12, 2015).


• He was the primary author of Taxation of Intellectual Property & Technology, the 2015 updated edition published in November.


• His op-ed "FinCEN As Its Own Prosecutor, Judge And Executioner" was published by Law360 (Nov. 18, 2015).

Professor Irene Calboli authored the chapter, “Terroir and Public Health: Can Geographical Indications of Origin Promote ‘Healthy’ Products?” which will be published in The New Intellectual Property of Health-Related Goods in 2016.

• Invited to join the editorial advisory board of the Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property (published by Edward Elgar).


• Delivered a public lecture "The Promise and Perils of Non-Traditional Trademarks" to the Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR (Nov. 27, 2015).


• Presented her working paper "When Works Become Brands, and Problems With It" at the 2015 IP & Media Law Conference at Melbourne Law School in Melbourne, Australia (Nov. 23-24, 2015).


• Delivered a key note introduction on "Intellectual Property and International Trade" to the Japan - Singapore Partnership Programme for the 21st Century: Promotion of Effective Intellectual Property Protection Seminar at the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore in Singapore (Nov. 16, 2015).


• Presented her paper "Trademark Exhaustion in Free Trade Areas: Comparing the EEA, NAFTA, and ASEAN" at the 4th Works-In-Progress in Trademark Law Conference at American University College of Law in Washington, D.C. (Nov. 14, 2015).

Professor Gabriel Eckstein served on the organizing committee and as a session leader on Water Law/Policy for the Resource Nexus: Water Forum organized by Texas A&M University San Antonio (Nov. 17-18, 2015).

• Appointed by the International Water Resources Association to serve as chair of the International Scientific Committee for the XVI World Water Congress in Cancun, Mexico, on May 29 – June 2, 2017.


• Invited to serve as the Vermont Law School 2016 Distinguished International Environmental Law Scholar for two weeks in June 2016 to lecture on international and global water issues.


• Invited was invited to speak on “Erosion Under the Texas Water Code and Civil Law” at the Parker County Erosion Appreciation Day, which will be held at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Service Center in Weatherford, Texas, on March 4, 2016.

Professor Susan Fortney served on a panel, “Navigating Ethical Maelstroms: When the Law Firm Ship is Going Down,” at the American Bar Association Section of Business Law 2015 LLC Institute in Arlington, Va., (Nov. 13, 2015).

• Served on a panel, “Non-Lawyer Dollars in U.S. Law Firms,” in Dallas. Professor Milan Markovic organized and moderated the program (Nov. 5, 2015).


• She and Associate Professor Saurabh Vishnubhakat were featured speakers at the 53rd Annual Conference on Intellectual Property Law, hosted by the Center for American and International Law. Fortney and Vishnubhakat delivered an interactive presentation, “Recent Ethics/Malpractice Developments for Attorneys Handling Patent Litigation” (Nov. 17, 2015).

Professor Michael Z. Green was invited to speak on “Racial Bias in Workplace Dispute Resolution” as part of a program on implicit bias at the University of Oregon School of Law in Eugene, Ore., which will be held on April 15, 2016.

• Agreed to publish his recent draft paper, “Negotiating While Black,” as a chapter in the forthcoming Negotiator’s Desk Reference (Nov. 21, 2015).


• His paper, “Negotiating While Black,” was highlighted in Professor Lawrence Solum’s Legal Theory Blog (Nov. 24, 2015).

Professor William Henning served as substitute chair for the Uniform Law Commission’s Drafting Committee, of which he is a member, on Uniform Social Media Privacy Act in Chicago (Nov. 20-21, 2015).

Associate Professor Milan Markovic presented his access to justice research as part of the Social Justice Hackathon at Seattle University School of Law (Nov. 7, 2015).

• He moderated a panel sponsored by Texas A&M School of Law, “Non-Lawyer Dollars in U.S. law Firms,” Dallas (Nov. 5, 2015). Professor Susan Fortney and representatives from Legalzoom and Avvo also spoke on this panel.


• Presented his paper "Lawyers and the Secret Welfare State" at the University of Pacific McGeorge School of Law (Nov. 12, 2015).


• His op-ed article, "Evidence Shows Most Lawyers Continue to Have Profitable, Fulfilling Careers," was published in Texas Lawyer (Nov. 9, 2015).

Dean and Anthony G. Buzbee Dean Endowed Chair Andrew P. Morriss’ article, “An Economic Lens for Taxation” was published in CCH® Global Tax Weekly (Nov. 26, 2015).

Professor Timothy Mulvaney published his article, “About Bargaining for Development,” in the Florida Law Review Forum. (Nov. 2015)

Professor Huyen Pham, associate dean of Faculty Research and Development, gave several media interviews about the possible impact of a Texas policy that denies state funding to local law enforcement agencies that selectively honor federal immigration detainers:

• The Drive Home with Davis and Kennedy, KURV 710 News Talk, Fox News Radio (Nov. 6, 2015).
• Sanctuary Cities Could Lead Some Texas Counties to Lose Funding, Texas Standard Radio (Nov. 5, 2015).

Professor Neil Sobol, director of Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing, presented “Combating Pre-Litigation Abuses by Zombie-Debt Collectors” as an invited panelist at an interdisciplinary symposium, Protecting the Consumer: Data, Debt & Storm Chasers, at Indiana Tech Law School (Nov. 18, 2015).

• Invited to be a participant in a discussion panel, “The Politics of Criminal Justice,” at the 2016 Southeastern Association of Law Schools Annual Conference to be held in Amelia Island, Fla., on Aug. 3-9, 2016.

Associate Professor Saurabh Vishnubhakat and Professor Susan Saab Fortney were featured speakers at the 53rd Annual Conference on Intellectual Property Law, hosted by the Center for American and International Law. Vishnubhakat and Fortney delivered an interactive presentation, “Recent Ethics/Malpractice Developments for Attorneys Handling Patent Litigation” (Nov. 17, 2015).

• Vishnubhakat, Associate Dean Maxine Harrington, Professor Megan Carpenter, and Professor Peter K. Yu were invited guests at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Dallas Regional Office of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) (Nov. 9, 2015).
  • He served as an advisor at the USPTO until 2015, and was a member of the task force that advised then-USPTO Director David Kappos on site selection for the agency’s various regional offices.

Professor Peter Yu delivered a keynote address, "Chinese Copyright Law at 25," at the 2015 Meeting of the Asian Pacific Copyright Association at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand (Nov. 27-28, 2015).

• Spoke at the roundtable on intellectual property law reform organized by the Productivity Commission of the Australian Government and the Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia (Nov. 25, 2015).


• Discussed the future of intellectual property research on a panel at the 2015 Conference of the Centre for Media and Communications Law and the Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia at the University of Melbourne in Australia (Nov. 23-24, 2015).


• Served as a commentator at the 4th Trademark Works-in-Progress Colloquium at American University Washington College of Law (Nov. 13, 2015).


• Moderated the panel, "TRIPS Agreement at 20," at the 2015 International Law Weekend at Fordham University School of Law (Nov. 5-7, 2015).


• Spoke on the "Technology Transfer, Licensing and Trade Secret Protection in China" panel at Hogan Lovells' Law in the Global Marketplace Symposium at Santa Clara University School of Law (Nov. 4, 2015).


• Published "Intellectual Property, Asian Philosophy and the Yin-Yang School" in Vol. 7 of The WIPO Journal.


• Appointed to the board of the Asia Pacific Innovation Network.