Diane Standaert ’06 was the student director of UNC School of Law’s Pro Bono Program in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

In the aftermath, UNC students like Standaert worked with residents on title issues to help them claim government disaster relief funds. That experience, of working with mostly poor residents in the aftermath a hurricane, exposed Standaert to the challenges those communities face when a disaster hits.

Eight years later, it’s turned into a book to help attorneys, disaster relief workers and others strengthen communities struck by disasters.

“Building Community Resilience Post-Disaster: A Guide for Affordable Housing and Community Economic Development Practitioners” was published by the American Bar Association in 2013.

Standaert, senior legislative counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending, along with Dorcas Gilmore, an NAACP staff attorney, have edited the 352-page book with chapters from a range of experts. The book provides legal tools, resources and best practices from attorneys and others on affordable housing and community development issues that arise when recovering from disasters.

In the last several years the frequency and intensity of disasters, from Sept. 11 to Hurricane Sandy, have increased. As a result, more disaster relief funds than ever are flowing into community development and affordable housing programs.

“That creates both opportunities and challenges in rebuilding these communities,” Standaert says. “We’ve seen the field of affordable housing (and) economic development really at the forefront of what that rebuilding looks like.”

For poor communities, especially, it’s important that relief officials, government leaders and others “have those discussions and make those decisions in a way that’s equitable and fair and creates stronger communities,” Standaert says.

The book, sponsored by the American Bar Association’s Forum Committee on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law, aims to offer lawyers and other professionals best practices and guidance, “so we’re not reinventing the wheel every time,” she says.

“The book is an invaluable resource, especially when used in advance of a disaster,” says Mark Shelburne ’98, counsel and policy coordinator with the N.C. Housing Finance Agency and a member of the governing committee of the ABA’s Forum Committee on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law. “Diane (Standaert) and her co-editor did an excellent job of pulling together top experts who have extensive value to add.”

Topics the book addresses include:

• How do relief agencies and government agencies structure financing programs?
• What’s the role of local governments vs. state and federal agencies?
• How do decision makers ensure transparency in the way resources are used?
• How do Native American tribes get access to these resources?

The authors were completing first drafts of their chapters when Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast in late 2012, providing a real-time backdrop to their work. As a result, the book includes policy changes that took place as a result of that disaster.

Though many individuals contributed to the book, Standaert’s role as co-editor began at UNC.

“All of this,” she says, “I think goes back to the experiences that UNC provided and encouraged.”

-February 6, 2014

Edward Marshall ’02, chief counsel and compliance officer at Developing World Markets, met with students as part of a new CDO program.

It’s one thing to get a job out of law school, but another thing to build a legal career.

UNC School of Law’s Career Development Office (CDO) has launched a program that pairs students with practicing attorneys to give them a head start on that career building.

“A lot of (our) career programs are necessarily geared to large audiences,” says Shawn McKenna, director of employer outreach. “This is an attempt to provide students with an opportunity to really have a meaningful one-on-one interaction with an attorney in a practice area that might interest them.”

A small group of students — typically 20 or fewer — gets a chance to have lunch with the attorney. Then, six students each have opportunities to spend 30 minutes one-on-one with the attorney after that, where they can learn how that particular attorney’s career developed.

“We basically sell it to the students as an opportunity to listen to this person’s story and an opportunity to pick their brain,” McKenna says.

The school held three such sessions in the fall of 2013, and more are planned for the spring. The CDO is also going to experiment with doing a session via Skype.

Students who have participated say it gave them new insights into how they might build a career in a specialty area that interests them. Valerie M. Hughes 2L met with Richard Minor ’88.

“He has a background in international tax, and that’s something that I’m interested in,” she says.

His experiences and career path helped her understand the differences between working at a firm and working in-house, and also helped her think about her career from a different perspective.

“It’s good to sort of take some time to think longer term about general career path opportunities,” she says.

McKenna says another of the benefits for students is a chance to start to build a network of legal contacts outside the Law School. In Hughes’ case, her contact with Minor has even led to an idea for a potential summer project on a particular area of tax law.

Participating attorneys say the program is a chance for them to reconnect to the School and connect to law students still figuring out what kind of career they want.

“One of the things that attracted me about this idea was to offer students a different perspective, from someone who pursued a legal career in international law,” says Edward Marshall ’02, chief counsel and compliance officer at Developing World Markets.

Marshall said all of the students he met with followed up with him afterward, and in one case he was able to help connect a student with a law firm for a summer associate’s position.

“I was also impressed by their focus and the fact that they had carefully considered what their career interests might be,” Marshall says. “They knew the questions to ask and I think that will also help them get to where they want to be.”

-February 6, 2014

When the bus system in Hong Kong broadcast the results of his social science research study on its in-vehicle TVs, Holning Lau knew he had struck a chord. Lau, a comparative law professor at UNC School of Law, teamed up with the deputy director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law at the University of Hong Kong to measure public opinion on same-sex marriage and couples’ rights. The results of the survey he helped design revealed strong support across Hong Kong for same-sex couples to have rights that married couples enjoy: visiting their partner in the hospital when only family members are allowed, inheriting property without a will; and being allowed to sue if their partner suffers a wrongful death.

The news received broad coverage in both English- and Chinese-language press.

“This work is not confined to an ivory tower,” Lau said. “The findings of our report improve the public discourse in Hong Kong on gay and lesbian rights.”

Lau’s study showed that fully three-quarters of the public believes that same-sex couples should have at least some of the rights married couples have; a quarter of the public fully supports same-sex couples being allowed to marry, with another 12 percent leaning toward that sentiment.

“One reason we conducted this study was that all of the research in Hong Kong prior to our study focused on marriage rights, telling only part of the story,” Lau said. “As legal scholars, we knew a broader set of questions that could be asked. We decided to study public opinion on a broader set of rights.”

Other than a domestic violence law that extends to same-sex couples, Hong Kong has no legal recognition of gay unions. Courts are not supposed to take public opinion into consideration in their constitutional rulings. After all, the role of the courts is to uphold rights that majority opinion has attempted to quash. However, lawmakers often are swayed by what their constituents think. Recently, the chair of Hong Kong’s Equal Opportunity Commission suggested that if Hong Kong was not yet ready for same-sex marriages, the government should consider compromise solutions such as civil unions.

“Hong Kong is similar to other parts of the world in that most same-sex couples would much prefer marriage over a compromise solution,” Lau said. “Marriage matters. But even without the label of marriage, compromise solutions would go a long way to protect couples’ rights.”

Lau travels to Hong Kong regularly. In the spring of 2012, during a pre-tenure leave from UNC, he was a visiting fellow in the Centre for Comparative and Public Law. There he connected with co-author Kelly Loper and completed the background work for the study. They later designed the study with survey methodologist Charles Lau from RTI International, a nonprofit research institute based in North Carolina. The University of Hong Kong’s Social Sciences Research Center conducted the telephone survey; 98 percent of the surveys were done in Cantonese and the others in English. A grant from the University of Hong Kong covered most of the cost of the study; Lau used his professional development allocation from UNC School of Law to fund the balance.

The Hong Kong government contends that same-sex marriage is highly controversial and points to the lack of majority support for legalizing such unions. Lau and his co-authors note that public opinion should not be the deciding factor; nevertheless, if the government intends to base legislation on public opinion, Lau’s survey shows public support for protecting same-sex couples’ rights through a compromise solution short of marriage.

The survey is part of a larger research project Lau is conducting on public opinion in Hong Kong about other sexual orientation matters. His telephone survey probed a number of issues and found that the number of gays and lesbians living openly has increased dramatically since 2005, the last time such a survey was done. He also discovered that contact with gays and lesbians is a strong predictor of people’s willingness to accept gay rights. In fact, the reason women and young people in Hong Kong are more supportive of gay rights seems to be linked to they are more likely to have contact with openly gay people.

“The implication for gay rights advocates is that the human element makes a difference.”

-February 7, 2014

UNC School of Law announces its annual distinguished alumni award winners for 2014. The school will honor three exceptional alumni at the annual Law Alumni Weekend Leadership and Awards Dinner, Thursday, April 10, 2014. The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Irvin W. "Hank" Hankins ’75, partner and general counsel at Parker Poe in Charlotte, N.C. The Distinguished Alumni Award will be presented to Barbara Weyher ’77, founding partner at Yates, McLamb and Weyher in Raleigh, N.C. The school will also present its Outstanding Recent Graduate Award to Lindsey Roberson ’07, assistant district attorney in New Hanover County, N.C.

"We have many distinguished alumni, and it is a delight to recognize a selection of them during Law Alumni Weekend," says John Charles "Jack" Boger ’74, dean and Wade Edwards Distinguished Professor of Law. “These three remarkable individuals represent the work and dedication of our more than ten thousand living alumni nationwide.”

Irvin W. “Hank” Hankins III ’75

Hank Hankins has been with Parker Poe in Charlotte since finishing law school in 1975.  He served as Parker Poe’s managing partner from 1986 to 2002. Since 2002, he has been the firm’s general counsel. Hankins has experience in both state and federal courts, representing a wide variety of clients, including public utilities, insurance companies, equipment manufacturing companies, chemical and textile companies, accounting firms and attorneys.  Hankins has advised professional organizations regarding management issues, partnership structures, partnership disputes, and legal ethics. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America®, 2003-2014.

Hankins has held numerous leadership positions in the Bar and the community, including North Carolina State Bar president, 2007-2008; chairman, Ethics Committee, 2003-2004; chairman, Authorized Practice Committee, 1999-2001; and council member, 1997-2005. He served as president of the UNC Law Alumni Association, 2004-2005, and as general counsel to the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, 2002-2003. He served as an ABA House of Delegates member, 2008-2013; chairman of the North Carolina IOLTA Board of Trustees, 2011-2012; Queens University of Charlotte Trustee, 2004-2012; and is now a Queens Trustee Emeriti. Hankins is an ABA Foundation Fellow and a member of the Disciplinary Hearing Commission of the North Carolina State Bar.  He is an Elder at Selwyn Avenue Presbyterian Church in Charlotte; moderator of the Administrative Group of the Church Session; and is a member of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Visitors.

“Hank Hankins is a very worthy nominee for UNC School of Law's [Lifetime Achievement] Award,” reads the nominating letter for Hankins. “He has been an outstanding representative of Carolina Law throughout his decorated career. He has held numerous leadership positions in the Bar and the community.”

Barbara B. “Bonnie” Weyher ’77

After beginning her career in a New York City law firm, Bonnie Weyher returned to North Carolina in 1979 to join the firm of Young, Moore, Henderson & Alvis in Raleigh, N.C. In 1983, she became one of the founding partners of Yates, McLamb & Weyher. Weyher’s practice is primarily in the area of insurance coverage and professional liability. She has been a certified mediator since 1995 and has mediated or arbitrated hundreds of cases including commercial and consumer claims, business disputes, products liability claims, medical malpractice claims, and general liability/auto liability claims.

She is a member of the North Carolina Academy of Superior Court Mediators. Weyher is listed in Best Lawyers in America® (2009-2013). She is also listed as one of the top 50 women lawyers in North Carolina Super Lawyers (2009-2013). She is a Fellow in the American Bar Foundation.

Weyher is a past president of the North Carolina State Bar (2009-2010). She currently serves on North Carolina State Bar’s Disciplinary Hearing Commission. She served as a councilor on the North Carolina State Bar (1998-2006) and is a member of the ABA House of Delegates. She chaired the Grievance Committee, Ethics Committee and the Authorized Practice of Law Committee and also served on the Executive Committee, Issues Committee and Publications Committee. Weyher served as chair of the Litigation Section of the North Carolina Bar Association (2005-2006). She is a past president of the Wake County Bar Association (1997).

Lindsey Roberson ’07

Upon graduation from UNC School of Law, Lindsey Roberson clerked for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina for three years and then worked at New York law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Since 2012 Roberson has served as assistant district attorney in the Office of the District Attorney of New Hanover County, in Wilmington, N.C.

Roberson has become “a passionate advocate for victims of sex trafficking,” according to the nominating letter for her award. Roberson helped draft and promote two pieces of legislation in North Carolina, including a law giving safe harbor to teenagers forced into prostitution and mandating tough penalties for traffickers.

In addition to her work in the New Hanover County court, Roberson teaches paralegals at Cape Fear Community College and trains volunteers who work with young female victims of human trafficking. In January she was named by the Wilmington Star-News one of “12 to Watch” in 2014.

-February 12, 2014

The 2014 Festival of Legal Learning, scheduled for Friday, February 14, and Saturday, February 15, has been canceled due to icy weather and hazardous driving conditions. UNC School of Law will communicate more details directly to those scheduled to participate as soon as possible, and will attempt to identify other possible means by which they can meet end-of-year CLE requirements.

-February 13, 2014

A third-year UNC School of Law student and two recent alumni have received competitive, salaried post-graduate fellowships that will help them achieve their long-held career aspirations.

Agata Pelka ’13 and Ian Mance ’13 already are making an impact in their posts, focusing respectively on access to abortion care and racial profiling. Natalia Botella 3L will begin her job later this year, advocating for low-income cardiac patients.

Agata Pelka ’13

Agata Pelka pursued opportunities at UNC to learn about women’s health advocacy through research, independent study and an externship.

She was selected as a Reproductive Justice Fellow with the National Abortion Federation in Washington. “I felt incredibly lucky to be able to land my dream job right out of law school,” Pelka says.

One of only six recipients of the yearlong fellowship, offered by Law Students for Reproductive Justice, Pelka has been in the position since last August. She works on research, prepares fact sheets, attends coalition meetings and hearings on Capitol Hill, and participates in strategy meetings. Pelka focuses on Medicaid coverage, low-income women’s access to services and parental involvement requirements.

Pelka entered UNC with plans to apply for the fellowship and says she gained excellent experience to prepare for it. She took health law classes with professor Joan Krause, Dan K. Moore Distinguished Professor of Law, and her independent study, advised by Reef C. Ivey II Professor of Law Maxine Eichner, was with NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina. Her externship was with the National Health Law Program in Carrboro, N.C., focused on low-income people’s access to health care.

She plans to continue working in women’s health or economic/employment security policy.

“This is a unique opportunity to dive into policy at this level so early in my career,” Pelka says. “I am interacting with organizations and individuals who are shaping the national policy agenda, which is exhilarating.”

Ian Mance ’13

As an attorney who investigates racial profiling and other police misconduct issues, Ian Mance is fulfilling both his legal aspiration and a previous career ambition to be a detective.

The Soros Justice Fellow has spent time in targeted neighborhoods in Durham as a police officer might, talking with people affected by racial profiling, for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.

Mance is the first UNC School of Law student to receive the 18-month fellowship, funded by George Soros’ Open Society Foundations.

“I consider myself extremely lucky to be in a position where I’m able to do the type of work I aspired to do when I went to law school. How many lawyers can set their own agenda and pursue their primary area of interest without worrying about billable hours or making ends meet?” Mance says.

His background working for the American Civil Liberties Union before law school provided invaluable experience. So did his time at UNC, where he interned at the Center for Civil Rights, worked for the Civil Legal Assistance Clinic, and did an independent study about racial justice issues with UNC School of Law professor emeritus Rich Rosen.  

Mance’s job includes educating Durham’s city and police leaders about racial profiling and related disparities in the criminal justice system. His work with the community group Fostering Alternatives to Drug Enforcement led to ongoing hearings on racial profiling before Durham’s Human Relations Commission.

At the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Mance works regularly with his good friend and UNC School of Law classmate Jeremy Collins ’13. “I couldn’t ask for a better host organization. I’m surrounded by some of the brightest minds in civil rights advocacy anywhere in the South,” he says.

Natalia Botella 3L

Natalia Botella’s path at UNC School of Law has focused on moving to where health care and the law intersect. As an Equal Justice Works Fellow, she will reach her destination.

During the two-year fellowship, Botella will provide legal services to low-income cardiac patients in Charlotte through Legal Services of Southern Piedmont, in partnership with Carolinas HealthCare System. The fellowship is co-sponsored by Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart P.C. and Boston Scientific. 

Botella’s project is a Medical-Legal Partnership, in which lawyers and medical clinicians collaborate on patient referrals and advocacy. She will focus on public benefits, housing, domestic violence, wills, guardianships and advanced directives. She’ll provide legal education and direct representation for patients in issues related to their cardiac health.

“One of the aspects I am most looking forward to is the variety in day-to-day activities. While advocating for my clients is at the core of the project, to do so I will work with hospital staff, creating educational materials and recruiting pro bono partners. My work will take me out in the community, everywhere from the hospital to the courthouse,” says Botella, a Chancellor’s Scholar at UNC.

Botella says her UNC experience has prepared her well with health law courses, internships, an externship with BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina and pro bono projects, including the Cancer Pro Bono Legal Project.

“Not only did I get to design my dream job tailored to my strengths, but I also believe in the work I will be doing and am confident that this project can make a difference for North Carolina cardiac patients during a very difficult time in their lives,” Botella says.

-February 14, 2014

Donald Verrilli, the current Solicitor General of the United States, will deliver the Commencement address for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. The law school Commencement service will take place at 10 a.m. May 10 in Carmichael Arena.

UNC School of Law Dean John Charles Boger will preside during the ceremony. Verrilli was chosen by a committee of law students from the graduating class.

Verrilli is a 1979 graduate of Yale College and a 1983 graduate of Columbia Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Columbia Law Review. He clerked for Judge J. Skelly Wright on the Washington, D.C., Court of Appeals and for Justice William Brennan on the Supreme Court of the United States. He then spent years as a litigation partner with the firm of Jenner & Block, where he specialized in telecommunications, media law and First Amendment law.

Prior to his government service, Verrilli represented the Recording Industry Association of America before the Supreme Court in MGM v. Grokster (2005) and represented Viacom in Viacom v. Google (2007). He also argued two pro bono death penalty cases, Wiggins v. Smith (2003) and Montejo v. Louisiana (2009) before being appointed as Solicitor General by President Obama in 2009. Since then, he has briefed and argued, on behalf of the United States, some of the most significant Supreme Court cases of recent years including a largely successful defense of the Affordable Care Act in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012), the higher education affirmative action case of Fisher v. University of Texas (2012), and the Voting Rights Act case of Shelby County v. Holder (2013). In all, Verrilli has appeared as counsel in more than 100 Supreme Court cases and has argued at least 17, by recent count.

Learn more about UNC School of Law's 2014 Commencement.

-February 27, 2014

Each year the Carolina Public Interest Law Organization (C-PILO) awards summer grants to students who take unpaid or low-paying public interest or public sector jobs. Since 2008, both C-PILO fundraising and generous private endowments devoted to summer internships have been supplemented by funding from the School of Law administration.

In an email to law school students in mid-February, Dean John Charles “Jack” Boger ’74 announced a significant one-time increase in public interest grant funds for summer 2014 internships. “In recognition of the importance of such work experience and of the continuing tight market for paid summer internships in 2014, we are happy to announce that the law school is able to nearly double the funding available for our Summer Grant Program this year,” Boger said in his announcement.

In 2013 the grant program awarded more than $292,000 to 85 first- and second-year students. In 2014, the award amount will be increased to $500,000, which could benefit more than 160 students. As part of this year’s expanded grant program, the maximum award to each student will be increased from $3,000 to $3,500 and will include, for the first time, grants to support certain judicial internships.

“UNC School of Law has historically offered one of the most comprehensive support programs for summer public interest work,” Boger said of the grants, which, in addition to supporting public sector and public interest positions, also pay students who serve as faculty research assistants or as interns for one of the school’s centers. “This year’s expansion of the program underlines our commitment to ensure that Carolina Law students leave our hallways confident and well-prepared to enter an increasingly competitive job market.”

Learn more about the summer grant program.

-February 27, 2014

In its 2015 edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools,” released on March 11, 2014, U.S. News & World Report ranked UNC School of Law No. 31 among the 200 U.S. law schools. The list places UNC in the same spot the school held last year in the 2014 rankings.

According to the ranking, Carolina Law’s reputation among legal professionals has strengthened. Last year the law school ranked No. 19 in reputation among lawyers and judges and No. 20 among peers/scholars. This year’s respective numbers are No. 18 and No. 19, an improvement of one place in each category.

U.S News integrated a new component into this year’s peer assessment by adding a survey of employers about the readiness of graduates from different law schools for the work of their firms. Apparently, the practice-readiness of Carolina Law graduates helped lift the overall rating of the school among judges and legal employers.

In a new category, UNC School of Law was also listed among “the most diverse law schools.” In the specialty areas ranking, UNC was listed as No. 23 in environmental law.

“We understand how the rankings can be helpful to prospective students during their decision-making process,” says Carolina Law Dean John Charles “Jack” Boger ’74. “Yet we consider this U.S. News ranking only one measure of our success as a law school, and, indeed, U.S. News itself listed UNC School of Law as one of its “10 Law Degrees With the Biggest Return on Investment” in 2013. We’re hard at work building the nation’s finest public law school, today and every single day.”

-March 11, 2014

The UNC School of Law chapter of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) was named "Student Chapter of the Week" for the week of March 10, 2014. The ACS national organization selects chapters to be featured that it considers to have held exceptional programming, have aligned themselves with the priorities of the national office or have established themselves as a premier student group on campus. The UNC chapter is featured on the ACS website, in the ACS weekly bulletin and in the ACS Student Chapters weekly announcement.

Under the guidance of faculty advisors Prof. William Marshall (also an ACS Board Member), Prof. Gene Nichol and Prof. Michael Gerhardt, the UNC chapter of ACS continues to be a major force for dialogue and engagement on legal and public policy issues important to UNC students.

During the fall semester, the chapter hosted a discussion on the judicial vacancy crisis with Prof. Michael Gerhardt, who has advised both the executive and legislative branches in previous judicial nominations, including the confirmation hearings for Justices Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan. The chapter also hosted Representative Rick Glazier from the North Carolina General Assembly, who provided a defense of public education in North Carolina.

In October, the chapter partnered with UNC School of Law’s First Amendment Law Review to sponsor the journal’s annual symposium, a reflection on the 50th anniversary of the landmark decision in New York Times v. Sullivan. The chapter also partnered with the UNC Chapter of the ACLU and the UNC Poverty Center to host a discussion on McCutcheon v. FEC, the campaign finance case pending before the Supreme Court. The chapter also welcomed Prof. Rob Smith, founder of the Carolina Criminal Justice Reform Project, for a discussion on the state of indigent defense 50 years after Gideon.

The UNC chapter also has a busy spring semester planned. Last week, the chapter hosted Prof. Joe Kennedy and Daryl Atkinson, staff attorney at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, for a discussion on race and mass incarceration. This month, the chapter will host Judge Sam Ervin from the North Carolina Court of Appeals, and target of the second largest judicial campaign expenditure in the entire 2012 election cycle, for a discussion on money in judicial elections. Finally, in April, the chapter will partner with the Carolina Health Law Organization to host Prof. David Podoff, former Chief Economist for the United States Senate Committee on Finance, to discuss implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

-March 17, 2014

The UNC Broun National Trial Team (BNTT) hosted its annual Kilpatrick Townsend 1L Mock Trial Competition Jan. 16-19 at UNC School of Law. This year, 48 teams signed up to compete, more than any previous year. The UNC team, consisting of 1Ls Michael Cohen, Taylor Goodnight, Eric Hinderliter and Joseph Shuford, advanced to the final round to face a team from Duke in a unique spin on a classic rivalry.

The hallmark of the competition, sponsored by Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, is that only 1Ls are permitted to compete and the teams are prohibited from having individual coaches. Trial Team faculty advisor Richard Myers, associate dean for student affairs and Henry Brandis Professor of Law, offered the UNC teams two group training sessions on various trial elements. Otherwise, the trial preparation is conducted independently.

Attorneys Justin Howard ’03, Richard Botwright ’04 and Chad Hansen ’04 presided over the final round. The team from Duke edged out UNC to become the 2014 Kilpatrick champions.

This is the first time in several years that a team from UNC advanced to the final round. “The 2014 Kilpatrick Townsend 1L Mock Trial Competition was one of the most successful in recent memory,” says Scott Holder ’14, BNTT vice president. “This is because of the hard work and tremendous skills displayed by all of the 1L participants.”

Broun National Trial Team Hosts Texas Young Lawyers Association Regionals

The UNC Broun National Trial Team co-hosted, with North Carolina Central University School of Law, the Texas Young Lawyers Association (TYLA) Regional Mock Trial Competition Feb. 7-9 at the Durham County Justice Center. UNC sent two teams of 2L students to compete: the team of Samera Beshir, Hailey Bunce and Veronika Sykorova, and the team of Dave Fitzgerald, Michelle Markham and Jonathan Williams.

Fitzgerald, Markham and Williams advanced to the final round of competition, in which four teams vied for two slots at the finals. Based on scoring, with very close ballots, they tied for third in the region among 26 teams, just missing out on advancing.

-March 25, 2014

The UNC School of Law 2L Client Counseling Moot Court Team, consisting of Katie Varner and Teresa Heath, won the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Regional Client Counseling Competition held Feb. 8 at UNC School of Law. As regional champions, Varner and Heath will advance to the ABA’s National Client Counseling Competition.

UNC was the only law school to advance two teams to the semifinals. The 2L team of Britney Peguese and Hannah Choe advanced to the semifinals of the competition. The success of the Client Counseling Moot Court teams marks the fourth time in four tournaments this year that UNC Law School's Holderness Moot Court teams have advanced into elimination rounds.

“Congratulations to all of these competitors, and to 2Ls Kris Caudle and Laura Kastner who helped prepare both teams,” Donald Hornstein, Aubrey L. Brooks Professor of Law and Holderness Moot Court faculty advisor, said. “And of course a big thank you to their faculty coach, O.J. Salinas, to Demitra Sourlis 3L, the Holderness Associate Chief Justice in charge of organizing our School's ABA Regional Finals, and to our many faculty who volunteered at the event. We heard nothing but compliments from competitors and attorney-judges about how well-run the tournament was.”

-March 25, 2014

Theodore M. “Ted” Shaw will join UNC School of Law July 1, 2014, as the first Julius L. Chambers Distinguished Professor of Law and as director of the UNC Center for Civil Rights. The position had been open since founding director Julius L. Chambers, who died last year, stepped down in 2010.

The Julius L. Chambers Distinguished Professorship is supported by an endowment grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.

Previously Shaw served as director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF), the legal arm of the civil rights movement founded by Thurgood Marshall, who later became an associate justice of the Supreme Court. Chambers was LDF’s third director; Shaw was the fifth, serving from 2004 to 2008. Shaw joined the LDF in 1982 to litigate school desegregation, voting and other civil rights cases.

Shaw, a graduate of Wesleyan University and Columbia Law School, began his career as a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. He joined the LDF in 1982, litigating at the trial and appellate levels, including the Supreme Court, and established LDF’s Western Regional Office in Los Angeles. Shaw was counsel for African American students in the University of Michigan undergraduate affirmative action admissions case heard by the Supreme Court in 2003. He also played a key role in initiating the review of Michigan Law School’s admissions policies and served on committees that adopted the plan that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

UNC School of Law Dean Jack Boger ’74 says the challenge in selecting a successor to Chambers was to find someone who would serve as a full law faculty member while also bringing rich experience as director of a litigation and advocacy center.

“Most talented civil rights experts are classroom teachers and scholars or front-line advocates and litigators, but not both,” Boger says. “Ted Shaw excels in both areas.”

Shaw says he was drawn to UNC and to the State of North Carolina. “What happens in North Carolina is important. North Carolina is a bellwether state when it comes to civil rights. There’s work to do here.”

Over the years, Shaw has testified regularly before Congress and state legislatures. His work has taken him to South Africa to train lawyers after the post-apartheid constitution came into being, and he has worked closely with the Roma community to achieve civil rights in Eastern Europe.

“I hope to continue to have an international presence and bring some of the people I’ve met in other parts of the world to visit with students and faculty at UNC,” Shaw says.

Civil rights issues often arise in the junction of poverty and race, and Shaw is looking forward to possible collaborations between UNC’s Center for Civil Rights and other social justice advocates at UNC and across the state.

“Ted knows everyone across the country in the civil rights field,” Boger says. “We’re thrilled to have the chance to work with someone so deeply experienced who is so humane and compassionate.”

Charles Daye, the deputy director for the Center for Civil Rights, is pleased to welcome Shaw to the center. “He knows the law, and the best strategies for advancing the law,” Daye says. “He steps into big shoes to fill, following Julius Chambers, but there’s not a better person to take on the challenge.”

-March 31, 2014

UNC School of Law congratulates 45 first-year law students who received a Eugene Gressman & Daniel H. Pollitt Oral Advocacy Award on April 9. The annual awards, given by faculty of the Writing and Learning Resources Center, recognize outstanding oral advocacy in the first-year Research, Reasoning, Writing, and Advocacy (RRWA) Program.

The awards’ sponsor is the firm of Johnston, Allison & Hord of Charlotte, represented by Kim Kirk '12, a former WLRC Honors Writing Scholar. The firm’s partners include Michael L. Wilson ’96, who as Chief Justice of the Holderness Moot Court Bench worked with Professor Emeritus Ruth McKinney to establish the awards in 1995. The awards honor Eugene Gressman, William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor of Law Emeritus, and Daniel H. Pollitt, Graham Kenan Professor of Law Emeritus, who both passed away in 2010.

The RRWA professors and their award recipients are:

Kaci Bishop

• Section 9 Overall: Eric Ray Nelson
• Section 9 Appellant: Patrick Redmon
• Section 9 Appellee: Racheal V. Hammond

• Section 14 Overall: Laura M. Wright
• Section 14 Appellant: Lauren Fusz Tonon
• Section 14 Appellee: Clinton D. Hannah

Alexa Chew

• Section 4 Overall: Caitlin A. Counts
• Section 4 Appellant: Andrew T. Barnhill
• Section 4 Appellee: Amanda Hawkins

• Section 6 Overall: Nicole M. McCluney
• Section 6 Appellant: B. J. Patrick Cross
• Section 6 Appellee: Sarah Yousaf Walker

Luke Everett

• Section 7 Overall: Corey Frost
• Section 7 Appellant: Henry Stapp
• Section 7 Appellee: Crystal Suyon Chung

• Section 13 Overall: D. Jared Nobles
• Section 13 Appellant: Mary Marshall Meredith
• Section 13 Appellee: Alexandria Weller

Aaron R. Harmon

• Section 2 Overall: Preston Dole
• Section 2 Appellant: Troy Michael Heisman
• Section 2 Appellee: Carly Couch

• Section 5 Overall: Matthew J. Farr
• Section 5 Appellant: Andrew Johnstone
• Section 5 Appellee: Claire O’Brien

Mandy Hitchcock

• Section 3 Overall: William Piontek
• Section 3 Appellant: Lindsey M. Brown
• Section 3 Appellee: Kristi A. Nickodem

• Section 8 Overall: Caroline O. Outten
• Section 8 Appellant: Brian Gwyn
• Section 8 Appellee: Kevin Cleys

Katie Rose Guest Pryal

• Section 1 Overall: Allen E. Rowe
• Section 1 Appellant: Amiee A. Nwabuike
• Section 1 Appellee: Delsie-Anne Bailey

• Section 12 Overall: Breanne Hataway
• Section 12 Appellant: Bianca A. Kegler
• Section 12 Appellee: Matthew E. Gerber

Oscar J. Salinas

• Section 10 Overall: Anthony B. Ponikvar
• Section 10 Appellant: Michael B. Cohen
• Section 10 Appellee: Travis Hinman

• Section 15 Overall: Phillip R. Waters
• Section 15 Appellant: Amy O’Neal
• Section 15 Appellee: Samantha E. Yarborough

Craig T. Smith

• Section 11 Overall: Prium Singh
• Section 11 Appellant: Rebecca Plett
• Section 11 Appellee: Tyson Charles Leonhardt 

-April 16, 2014

• Sylvia K. Novinsky Award - Charlotte Stewart
• 3L Student of the Year - Laura Ackerman
• 2L Student of the Year - Evan Benz
• 1L Student of the Year - Corey Frost
• Group Pro Bono Project of the Year - Domestic Violence Action Project (DVAP)
• Faculty/Professor of the Year (not pictured) - Beth Posner, Clinical Assistant Professor of Law
• Alumnus of the Year (not pictured) - Tom Berkau '74

Learn more about the award winners. Award nominations may be submitted by alumni, legal organizations, or any member of the UNC Law community.

-April 17, 2014

Students and alumni at Strata Solar, Feb. 20, 2014.

In February a group of Carolina Law students spent an hour with Latham Grimes ’99, general counsel of Strata Solar, a Chapel Hill-based company that ranks among the top five solar providers in America. With a background in real estate and construction law, Grimes heads the company's team of four in-house attorneys. Grimes discussed legal aspects of the solar business, including project finance, utilities regulation and zoning, along with real estate, construction and energy law. He answered questions and provided insight as to what is involved in a fast growing and fast paced business. Afterward, the students joined Grimes and his team members, Clint Lloyd ’08, Stephanie Murr ’12 and Liz Ferrell (BA '01), for a more casual gathering at a local restaurant.

This visit was part of a new program, developed and managed by Chris Bagley 1L and the SBA alumni affairs committee, which is designed to connect small groups of students with practicing alumni in their fields of interest. The students visit the alumni in their place of business, have the opportunity to learn more about their practice, ask questions, and complete the visit with a casual gathering over food or drinks following the session.

Additional programs Bagley organized in the 2013-24 academic year include:

• Private Practice in a Changing Economy, with Gene Jones ’97, partner, Morningstar Law Group
• Trucking Injury Defense, with Kevin Chignell ’95, managing partner, trucking litigator, and personal injury defense attorney, Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein L.L.P.
• Practicing in Energy and Regulatory Fields, with Michael Youth ’00, general counsel, N.C. Sustainable Energy Association. (Youth, who practices mainly before the N.C. Utilities Commission on the association's behalf, also arranged for N.C. Utilities Commission chairman Ed Finley ’74 to join him and the students for the afternoon.)

It would appear Bagley’s efforts paid off for all students and alumni involved. Among other benefits, Bagley says that one of the students involved in the field trip lined up an internship at Strata Solar for this summer. “I like to think that our meeting helped facilitate that,” Bagley said.

For more information or to share ideas for future sessions, contact crbagley@live.unc.edu.

-April 22, 2014

Mary Scott Kennedy (3L Class Representative), J.M. Durnovich (SBA President), Donald Huggins (3L Class Representative)
and Andrew Gibbs (3L Class President)

In recognition of the significant ways in which students have personally benefited from Carolina Law alumni philanthropy, the Class of 2014 elected to support the Law Annual Fund as this year’s 3L Class Gift. Gifts to the Law Annual Fund help sustain the features that set Carolina Law apart. Past gifts to Carolina Law have provided the School with the resources necessary to provide scholarship assistance to maintain a competitive and accessible Carolina Law education; travel funds that allow award-winning trial teams to compete nationally; and stipends in the form of summer public interest grants, which permit students to gain invaluable career training while in service of the public good.

The 3L Class Gift Campaign kicked off Feb. 21 at Fitzgerald’s Irish Pub on Franklin St. Classmates and guests enjoyed an evening of food, drink, fellowship and philanthropy. Class gift officers, Andrew Gibbs (3L Class President), Donald Huggins (3L Class Representative), Mary Scott Kennedy (3L Class Representative) and J.M. Durnovich (SBA President), educated classmates on the importance of supporting the Law Annual Fund and encouraged their peers to join in on the campaign effort. Over the course of the evening, members of the Class of 2014 pledged over $3,100 in support of the Law Annual Fund.

The Class of 2014 has chosen to uphold a proud tradition of alumni giving that will help ensure that future students receive the same, if not even greater, benefits that they have enjoyed. Thanks to the leadership and diligence of the 3L Class Gift officers, over 50 3Ls have now participated in the campaign, bringing campaign totals to $5,884 in gifts and pledges to date. Campaign efforts will continue with a final push in coming weeks. The Class will announce their final campaign totals at graduation.

Join the Class of 2014 in supporting the Law Annual Fund by making a gift of support today: http://www.law.unc.edu/alumni/givenow/.

-April 22, 2014

Deepa Damre '00 in San Francisco. Photo by Alison Yin.

Read the full article in the Spring-Summer 2014 issue of Carolina Law.

When Deepa Damre started law school at Carolina in the late 1990s, she knew she wanted to go into corporate law (she had already earned a bachelor’s degree in business at UNC). But she didn’t really know what that meant.

“I’ve known I wanted to be a lawyer since ninth grade,” she says. “Big business, I just thought was kind of cool and exciting.”

Exactly how exciting she couldn’t have guessed, in ninth grade or in law school. Damre is now managing director, legal and compliance, for BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest asset manager, with more than $4.3 trillion in assets under management. She spends most of her time supporting the company’s iShares exchange traded fund (ETF) business, which manages some $900 billion in assets globally. But her role touches several areas of business law, from securities regulations to intellectual property.

That means that her days can include 5 a.m. calls with colleagues overseas, discussions with federal securities regulators and meetings with BlackRock colleagues in the product, marketing or capital markets teams, among other things.

“I see myself very much as a business counselor,” she says.

Damre graduated Carolina at the peak of the dot-com boom, which helped her land a job at a San Francisco law firm whose clients included Internet start-ups, as well as larger more established businesses. She knew that she wanted to eventually become an in-house counsel, but went to the firm to get training and experience.

“[We] had a great group of associates and partners,” she says. But seeing firsthand how draining that big-firm lifestyle could be, she listened when she started hearing about corporate jobs. That led to a job with Barclays Global Investors (BGI) in 2004, after four years of working as an associate at the law firm.

“I chose BGI because I Ioved everybody I met,” she says. “The people were exciting, dynamic.”

And so was the company. In 2009, BGI was acquired by BlackRock.

Though companies like BlackRock are primarily regulated by the countries they operate in, changes in financial regulations around the world the last few years have made the business much more complex. Financial services firms now must comply with multiple regulatory schemes — and multiple regulators — across borders and across different products.

BlackRock wasn’t the first place Damre, a Wilmington, N.C., native, had been exposed to international business and law.

“I spent a semester of law school in the Netherlands, which was highly unusual,” she says. “I took international law courses and a lot of that was business focused and (European Union) focused.”

The study abroad experience was “an eye opener” for her perspective on the law, she says, and an opportunity to build friendships that persist to this day.

Another thing that persists is Damre’s involvement in other interests and activities, including community service. Though the corporate environment does not put as much emphasis on pro bono work as her time at a law firm, she still finds herself in the community applying her skills and experience to non-business matters.

“I’ve been involved in a variety of panels on career development, ranging from inner-city youth to adults seeking a career change,” she says. “I’m also helping a group of women in the financial services start a nonprofit aimed at ETFs.” That group aims to provide a forum for women working in the ETF industry or those women interested in entering the industry.

Also, last year, she led the team in BlackRock’s legal and compliance division that was part of a company-wide effort to raise more than $1 million for the 49ers Foundation, which funds a variety of community service organizations.

Though she works with many attorneys who have Ivy League diplomas, she never regrets choosing Carolina.

“Carolina provided me an outstanding education and experience, and I would hope that people, if they go to Carolina, know they have opportunities anywhere.”

-May 1, 2014

Research by Carolina Law faculty members has thrust them into the national spotlight recently. Read the full article in the Spring-Summer 2014 issue of Carolina Law.

Should a St. Louis Cardinals fan in North Carolina have to help pay for the new Yankee Stadium? Patricia Bryan, Martha Brandis Professor of Law and a lifelong Cardinals fan, wondered that when she noticed the massive federal subsidy from tax-exempt bonds financing the stadium. Professional baseball and football teams have often taken advantage of this controversial subsidy, but the Yankee deal was structured in a way that could result in an increasing drain on the Treasury. Her article, “Building the New Yankee Stadium: Tax-Exempt Bonds and Other Subsidies for the Richest Team in Baseball,” was published in “The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture: 2011-12.”

When Yankee Stadium opened in 2009, public subsidies were estimated at $1.2 billion out of total cost of $2.3 billion. The Yankees justified the subsidies by promising that the stadium would promote economic development. According to research cited by Bryan, though, economists agree that contributions to sports facilities produce meager community-wide benefits, while wealthy team owners reap huge financial gains.

Much of the financial support for Yankee Stadium came from the city and state, but the federal tax exemption lowered costs by nearly $400 million. And, in a sleight-of-hand accounting move, the deal avoided the public scrutiny required for exemption.

The federal exemption is justified as encouraging projects that benefit the general public. For instance, a community might not want to pay for a bridge or airport open to more than just the locals. As an incentive, the federal government gives up tax revenue from interest paid on municipal financing bonds, and city and states save by paying lower tax-exempt interest rates.

When the project is used by a private business such as a sports team, the tax exemption is allowed only if the community agrees to repay the bonds with general tax revenues. The rule was intended to ensure that local citizens supported the project as the best use of collective funds. Some municipalities have raised money with new taxes falling mostly on the poor (such as lotteries) or on tourists (such as taxes on hotels and rental cars). Local taxpayers may not feel the burden of these taxes, but they give up potential sources of revenue that could pay for schools or police protection. In the New York deal, though, local taxpayers didn’t have the chance to consider alternative ways to spend the money.

As other sports teams have done, the Yankees threatened to move to a different city unless they received public subsidies, including the federal exemption. Given severe budget shortfalls, though, local politicians feared that using general tax revenues would trigger opposition. They proposed a new idea: The Yankees would be excused from paying property taxes and would, instead, contribute payments-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOTs, to a separate trust account used only to repay the financing bonds. Since the money wasn’t reflected in the city’s budget, the public didn’t see it as available to avoid layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters.

The deal enabled officials to say publicly that the Yankees were paying for the stadium and yet argue to the IRS that general tax revenues would be used so that the bonds qualified as tax exempt.

Municipalities would oppose any tightening of federal oversight, and they wouldn’t want the feds telling them how to invest borrowed funds. But it’s expensive to allow local governments to offer the benefit of the federal exemption to privately owned sports teams.

“The cost of subsidizing stadiums may be relatively low for each taxpayer,” Bryan says, “but we should ask whether federal taxpayers benefit from the enormous federal subsidy. Unless the law is changed, we’ll keep depleting our scarce national resources by helping build expensive stadiums, and we’ll continue to enrich wealthy team owners.”

-May 8, 2014

Matthew Martens '96 in Washington, D.C. Photo by Garrett Hubbard.

Read the full article in the Spring-Summer 2014 issue of Carolina Law.

Last summer, Matthew Martens ’96 was prosecuting the trial of a lifetime for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Banks of TV cameras awaited him every morning as he entered the courthouse. Every courtroom maneuver was picked over in the media. And some of the most powerful people in the nation — from Wall Street to the White House — were watching the case.

“It was certainly a big case and there was a lot of pressure on our agency to win, but I never felt particularly stressed about it because I knew we were prepared,” Martens says.

It probably also helped that the Carolina Law graduate had more than a score of jury trials under his belt and had spent a decade as a federal prosecutor. Plus, Martens really likes litigation.

“I love doing trials,” he says. “Would I want to do it again? Yeah!”

But unlike the 2013 prosecution of former Goldman Sachs executive Fabrice “Fabulous Fab” Tourre, the next time Martens is in the courtroom he’ll be at the defense table.

After the Tourre trial ended — with a win for the government — Martens joined Washington, D.C., law firm WilmerHale as a partner defending clients faced with investigations or prosecutions by financial regulators or the U.S. Justice Department.

After law school and clerking for two federal judges, including a year as a clerk to Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, he started his career as an associate in a New Jersey firm doing litigation. But a partner there — Michael Chertoff — was appointed to a top Justice Department post under President Bush and Martens followed him into government service.

It was an opportunity, he says, that might not have been available to him without his Carolina legal education. Not only did he get a high quality legal education, but he got it without having to take on big loans. That kind of debt, Martens says, can affect the career decisions young lawyers make.

“When the opportunity came to clerk, I didn’t have to think ‘Can I afford this?’” he says. “It allowed me to do things early in my career that I think were instrumental in developing as a lawyer.”

Shortly after Martens got to the Justice Department, the terror attacks of September 11 occurred, and then the Enron scandal shook Wall Street. Martens, at the Justice Department and later the SEC, was tapped to take a leading role in tackling some of the biggest financial cases prosecutors have faced in decades.

But after more than a decade in a prosecutorial role, it was time for a change.

“In terms of what I enjoy the most, it’s defending people against government overreach,” he says. That may sound odd coming from a former federal prosecutor, but he adds, “I hope that mindset caused me to use good judgment as a prosecutor during the time I did that.”

Though he has spent more than a decade as a prosecutor, the challenge on the defense side is not that different. He’ll still need to explain complicated business issues in a simple, compelling way to jurors who may have little financial knowledge, with or without TV cameras watching his every move.

“I like the adversarial system,” he says. “I like the strategy and the combat of litigation.”

-May 13, 2014