UNC School of Law News

UNC School of Law congratulates 42 first-year law students who received a Eugene Gressman & Daniel H. Pollitt Oral Advocacy Award on April 16. 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. This year marked the 20th anniversary celebration of the awards.

The awards' sponsor is the firm of Johnston, Allison & Hord of Charlotte, represented at the ceremony by partner Michael L. Wilson ’96. As Chief Justice of the Holderness Moot Court Bench, Wilson worked with Professor Emeritus Ruth McKinney '88 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.

Gressman Pollitt Award Winners 2015

The RRWA professors and their award recipients are:

Kaci Bishop

Section 1 Overall: Dexter C. Hobbs
Section 1 Appellant: Matthew Tomsic
Section 1 Appellee: Nate Pencook

Section 2 Overall: Nicolas Millington
Section 2 Appellant: Claire E. Ogburn
Section 2 Appellee: Quisha Mallette

Alexa Chew

Section 3 Overall: Rebecca Messinger
Section 3 Appellant: Sharon Grace Lin
Section 3 Appellee: Max Swindle

Section 4 Overall: Ivy Alexandra Johnson
Section 4 Appellant: Max Edward Isaacson
Section 4 Appellee: Kathryn White

Luke Everett

Section 5 Overall: Rebecca Gittelson
Section 5 Appellant: Christopher J. Stevens
Section 5 Appellee: Tres Ricks

Keith McCrickard

Section 6 Overall: Amanda R. Dizon
Section 6 Appellant: Jordan Hilton
Section 6 Appellee: Richard A. Ingram

Section 7 Overall: Rebekah Morrison
Section 7 Appellant: Josh Martinkovic
Section 7 Appellee: Alexandra L. Elbeery

Wyatt Orsbon

Section 8 Overall: Ariana L. Johnson
Section 8 Appellant: Breegan O’Connor
Section 8 Appellee: Caleb Johnson

Section 9 Overall: David Pasley
Section 9 Appellant: Samuel A. Hipps
Section 9 Appellee: Kathryn J. Hesman

Oscar J. Salinas

Section 10 Overall: Sarah R. Cansler
Section 10 Appellant: Ryan B. Sheffield
Section 10 Appellee: Edward R. Hennelly

Section 11 Overall: Brenna A. Sheffield
Section 11 Appellant: Nathaniel J. Strickler
Section 11 Appellee: Rachel H. Jennings

Craig T. Smith

Section 12 Overall: Laura Biber
Section 12 Appellant: Sara Matecun
Section 12 Appellee: Ford Eubanks

Sara B. Warf

Section 13 Overall: Brittnay L. Morgan
Section 13 Appellant: Chelsea V. Parish
Section 13 Appellee: Nicholas G. Hanna

Section 14 Overall: Ellenmai Korkoya
Section 14 Appellant: Dana Neely
Section 14 Appellee: Bret M. Buckler

-April 21, 2015

UNC School of Law presented three awards to distinguished faculty on Wednesday, April 29, in a ceremony at the Paul J. Rizzo Conference Center.

The awards presented include:

The Robert G. Byrd Award for Excellence and Creativity in Teaching, awarded to Alexa Z. Chew , clinical assistant professor of law. The Byrd Award is named for Robert G. Byrd, an alumnus of the school who served as a member of the faculty from 1963 until 2004, and as dean from 1974-1979.

The James H. Chadbourn Award for Excellence in Scholarship, awarded to Melissa B. Jacoby , Graham Kenan Professor of Law. The Chadbourn Award is named for James H. Chadbourn, editor-in-chief of the North Carolina Law Review in 1930-1931, a member of the UNC Law faculty from 1931-1936, and a co-author of leading texts in civil procedure, federal court and evidence. In 1933, while at UNC, Chadbourn bravely authored a controversial work titled "Lynching and the Law." This award honors a faculty member's distinguished law journal article.

The Charles E. Daye Outstanding Service Award, awarded to Judith Welch Wegner , Burton Craige Professor of Law. This award is conferred annually on the basis of service performed within the two years prior to the year in which the award is given. A faculty member is honored for exemplary public service, measured by the time, effort and creativity devoted to service, as well as the impact on the community.

At Wednesday's ceremony John Charles "Jack" Boger '74, Wade Edwards Distinguished Professor of Law, was also recognized for his nine years of service as dean of the law school. Boger will return to the faculty of the law school July 1.

Professor Melissa Jacoby, Dean Jack Boger and Professor Alexa Chew. Photo by Donn Young.

-May 1, 2015

Andrea Solorzano with Professor Kathryn Sabbeth

Andrea Solorzano 3L received the third annual Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) Outstanding Student Award in April for her work in the Civil Legal Assistance Clinic. CLEA is the primary national organization dedicated to clinical education in law schools across the country, and the award honors one student at each law school who has excelled in a clinical course.

At UNC School of Law, the recipient is selected based on excellence in clinical work, particularly in development of the attorney-client relationship; in case planning and development; efficiency and reliability in time management; polished oral and written communications; overall significance of casework contributions and contributions to the clinical community at large.

Solorzano worked in the Civil Legal Assistance Clinic, a two-semester clinic in which third-year students represent clients in various civil matters related to employment, housing, consumer issues and other areas of civil rights and poverty law.

“Andrea’s combination of initiative, professionalism and commitment to her clients make her a truly outstanding student,” said Kathryn Sabbeth, assistant professor of law. “She is the sort of student who is extremely eager to learn and to hone her skills to become an even better advocate.”

Read more on the Clinical Programs blog .

-May 1, 2015

This article was originally published in the Spring-Summer 2015 issue of Carolina Law.

When Detroit said in 2013 that it was broke, it was the largest municipal bankruptcy ever. The Motor City owed more than 100,000 creditors about $18 billion. Things were so bad that at one point about 40 percent of the city’s streetlights were out, firefighters were relying on improvised alarm systems and police officers took as long as an hour to get to top priority calls.

Debt wasn’t owed just to big corporations. About half of it was for pensions and health care benefits for former city workers. It was a big case with big stakes. The creativity of the judge in managing the case, as well as the opportunity to better understand the range of issues facing a financially distressed city, got Melissa Jacoby, Graham Kenan Professor of Law, interested.

“There are decades of racial tensions, of flight out of the city, of labor issues, as well as financial misdoings, mayors who went to jail,” Jacoby says. “Bankruptcy can never cut through all those problems. It doesn’t have all the answers.”

She dug into the case and started writing about it on Credit Slips, an academic blog. In 2013 she took part in in a forum convened by the ranking member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee to discuss the case in Detroit. In 2014 Jacoby talked about her research on the case at law schools nationwide, including at a Fordham University symposium also featuring Richard Ravitch, who had a historic hand in the fiscal recovery of New York City and is now involved in Detroit’s recovery.

Jacoby followed the Detroit case by listening to the digital recordings of the court hearings and status conferences through the life of the bankruptcy. In addition to blogging, she was active on Twitter (@melissabjacoby), engaging in a dialogue with residents, the municipal finance community, journalists, lawyers and others. As a result of her immersion in the Detroit case, Jacoby has been quoted widely about the issue in the media, including by the Associated Press and National Public Radio. Her research has translated into a number of different working papers on various aspects of the case.

Jacoby says the 2013 forum, with an audience of hundreds of angry Detroiters, gave her a first-hand look at the promise, and pain, that municipal bankruptcy brings.

“That was hugely eye-opening for me,” she says. “Being in that environment made me even more appreciative of what the stakes were and also how the rest of the real world doesn’t assume that bankruptcy can be a helpful tool.”
Into that financial, political and legal maelstrom stepped federal bankruptcy judge Steven Rhodes. By Congressional and possibly constitutional design, bankruptcy judges’ main job is to preside over trials on a city’s eligibility for bankruptcy and whether its restructuring plan is lawful. They often stay out of the messy middle, where debtors and creditors negotiate to resolve their claims. Not so in the Detroit case, where the court took an unusually active role in the proceedings.

Rhodes actively shepherded the city, its creditors and its residents through the process. He acted as a case manager, Jacoby says, putting the case on a schedule from beginning to end. He also appointed the chief U.S. District Court Judge for the District as the lead mediator. That judge, Gerald Rosen, is not only a powerful legal figure, but politically well connected.

“It shows, again, that this is not just a legal case, it’s not just a financial case, but a political case,” Jacoby says.
The court acted as a team builder. A whole group of mediators and consultants were assembled: alternative dispute resolution specialists, an attorney (with a team of accountants) to review professional fees, a feasibility expert to assess Detroit’s plan to rebuild itself financially, and others.

And the mediator acted more like a dealmaker.

“There were stories also of fairly strong pressure to settle,” Jacoby says. Those mediation talks even involved organizations — such as the Ford Foundation — that weren’t parties to the bankruptcy case.
Finally, recognizing the stake that Detroit citizens had in the proceedings, Rhodes held court hearings where residents could air their views.

Rhodes approved Detroit’s plan to exit bankruptcy in December.

It’s unclear whether the case could lead to changes in other municipal bankruptcies. Jacoby points out that circumstances differ widely from one community to the next. But that doesn’t mean that we won’t see echoes of Detroit.

“The process is going to depend on a lot of other factors, largely political, but others as well,” Jacoby says. Jacoby says her research has shown that federal judges can influence the restructuring of a bankrupt city through informal channels.

“The law is premised on judges acting almost exclusively as umpires of trials, but this has not been an accurate portrayal of what federal judges have done for many decades.”

-April 28, 2015

This article was originally published in the Spring-Summer 2015 issue of Carolina Law .

Elizabeth J. “Liz” Bower ’01 says UNC School of Law provided her the knowledge and opportunities that helped her achieve success as a partner in the litigation department of the Washington, D.C., law firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.

“Carolina Law did a great job — from orientation through graduation — of embracing us as students and as professionals endeavoring to learn the law and instilling in us from the outset the importance of ethics and integrity,” Bower says. Bower says law school opened doors and encouraged her to stretch herself.

“The prestige of the school, both in terms of academic rigor and its reputation for developing well-rounded good-citizen lawyers, gave me the opportunity to have an audience with a number of prestigious law firms, companies and government agencies, and helped shape who I am today,” she says.

Bower is passionate about helping make Carolina Law’s life-changing experiences available to all students, particularly those for whom financial need is a concern.

“It’s important that those of us who have been successful because of our Carolina degrees assist others who are equally eager and hungry for a similar experience,” she says. “I believe at my core that everyone should have access to a good education — everyone. It shouldn’t matter what your socioeconomic background is. If you have proven yourself to have the intellectual capacity and curiosity, you should have the opportunity to attend a school like Carolina Law.”

To facilitate this, Liz and her husband Chris recently established the UNC School of Law Need-Based Scholarship endowment and committed $100,000 to it.

“We wanted to make a real commitment to the school and to the future JDs coming out of Carolina Law,” Bower says. “While the school has a good amount of true merit-based scholarships, they don’t necessarily reach everyone who has the drive and ambition and real talent to be successful. We wanted to set up a scholarship fund for those who have demonstrated academic success but who also have a demonstrated financial need.”

Liz and Chris hope that others who are equally passionate about access to education and Carolina Law’s public mission will contribute to the fund.

Bower says that she had to take out student loans for college and law school and is grateful that she now has the ability to help others in financial need.

“It’s important to give back, share your success with the school and pave the way for other individuals to have a similar experience and be able to contribute to society in a meaningful way,” she says.

The endowment is just the latest demonstration of Bower’s appreciation for and commitment to Carolina Law. She has been a long-time leadership-level annual supporter to the Dean’s Discretionary Fund and the annual law scholarship fund. In addition, she is an active member of the Advancement Committee and an exceptional advocate on behalf of the law school and the need for increased private support.

“I think that the leadership piece is just as important as the financial support,” Bower says. “There is nothing more valuable to a lawyer than time! Giving my time to a school and a cause that are important to me gives me a voice and an audience to explain what the school means to me. By doing so, I hope it encourages others to do the same.”

-April 27, 2015

Even as a young child, Rear Admiral James W. Crawford III ’83 knew he wanted a career as an attorney.

“In the era in which I grew up, the law played a tremendous role in changing the trajectory of the lives of African Americans in this country,” Crawford says. “My dad used to tell me, 'You want to be part of something bigger than yourself.' The law drew me because it has the capacity to be the great equalizer; everyone is equal before the law.”

After graduating from Belmont Abbey College in 1979, Crawford was commissioned in the U.S. Navy through the JAG Corps Student Program during his second year of law school at UNC. He later earned a Master of Laws degree (Ocean and Coastal Law) from the University of Miami (Florida) School of Law and a Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College.

“Serving in the military gives me the opportunity to strengthen my life as well as offer something of value to my nation,” he says.

After holding a wide range of leadership positions in the Navy, Crawford was promoted to the second most senior lawyer in the Navy and serves as the deputy judge advocate general of the Navy (DJAG), working as the deputy Department of Defense representative for Ocean Policy Affairs. In addition, he is the commander of the Naval Legal Service Command, where he leads the attorneys, enlisted legalmen (Navy paralegals), and civilian employees of 15 commands, providing prosecution and defense services, legal services to individuals, and legal support to Navy commands around the world.

“I have 2,240 people who serve underneath me,” Crawford says. “Day-to-day, I lead worldwide, discrete commands and legal offices. No two days are ever the same. One day, I could be in Europe dealing with criminal litigation, or addressing matters associated with Navy personnel deployed in the theater of combat, and the next I could be in the continental U.S. engaged with my environmental law counsel.”

Crawford says that his most rewarding Navy experience was on 9/11 when he was serving as a deputy legal counsel to the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

I was in the Pentagon that day, and following the attack I joined the watch team in the National Military Command Center, working to support our military and civilian leadership, providing advice up to the highest level – including the president," he says. “I feel blessed that I was in a place where my nation needed me, and I was able to make a contribution.”

He is also grateful for his years in Chapel Hill.

“Carolina Law was a tremendous learning environment that helped me frame my approach to problem solving, hone my ability to think critically about issues from 360 degrees, and challenge myself,” he says. “If you want to be an agent of change, you can't be comfortable. Carolina helped me with the capacity to think about things in a comprehensive, critical way and extend my reach.”

Crawford would love to have more Carolina alumni serve alongside him. “I would say to Carolina Law students: if you are about service … if you are about opportunity … if you are about doing things that are unusual, then the JAG Corps is a place you may want to consider,” he says. “From the time of John Paul Jones to today, the line of honor, courage, and commitment is unbroken. If that's what students are interested in (and if they also want to have fun), they should come see me.”

With twin 7-year-old boys and a job that brings new challenges daily, Crawford says that every day is a surprise.

“I'm blessed to have my wife and sons and to serve my country," he says. “I sit in this chair not only because of the legal education but also the broader education I had the privilege to obtain at Carolina Law.”

-April 27, 2015

Jenny Rivera, a judge on the New York State Court of Appeals, 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 9 in Carmichael Arena.

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

Rivera was appointed to the Court of Appeals in February 2013. She has spent her entire professional career in public service. Rivera clerked for the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor, in the Southern District of New York, and she also clerked in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals Pro Se Law Clerk's Office. She worked for the Legal Aid Society's Homeless Family Rights Project, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (renamed Latino Justice PRLDEF), and was appointed by the New York State attorney general as special deputy attorney general for civil rights. Rivera has been an administrative law judge for the New York State Division for Human Rights and served on the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Prior to her appointment, she was a tenured faculty member of the City University of New York School of Law, where she founded and served as director of the Law School's Center on Latino and Latina Rights and Equality. Rivera received her J.D. from New York University School of Law and her LL.M. from Columbia University School of Law.

Learn more about UNC School of Law's 2015 Commencement.

-March 31, 2015

Caline Hou 2L and Prof. Beth Posner at UNC Public Service Awards 2015

UNC School of Law’s Domestic Violence Action Project (DVAP) was awarded the Robert E. Bryan Public Service Award at UNC’s annual 2015 Public Service Awards April 7, 2015. The Domestic Violence Action Project is a student-run organization that provides free legal representation to victims of domestic violence and sponsors speakers and programs to educate the university community about domestic violence.

The DVAP program being recognized is the Ex Parte Project, launched in 2013, in which students work directly with victims of domestic violence, assisting them with filing for Ex Parte Domestic Violence Protective Orders. The project initially began in Orange and Chatham counties, and in its second year the project’s partnerships are with the Durham County Courthouse and the Durham Crisis Response Center. Volunteers assist victims with all requisite paperwork and accompany them to their initial ex parte hearings to request emergency orders of protection. Twenty-nine students participated in DVAP’s Ex Parte Project training during the inaugural year of the project, and an additional 22 students participated this academic year.

“Students in DVAP have worked thoughtfully and efficiently to respond to a critical unmet legal need in our area, have built connections with community partners, and have provided consistent and accessible support to victims of domestic violence,” said Assistant Dean for Public Service Programs Sylvia Novinsky in her letter nominating DVAP for the award.

Caline Hou 2L, co-coordinator for the Ex Part Project along with Lindsey Brown 2L, accepted the award for the organization at the ceremony.

"We are grateful for the support the Ex Parte Project has received from the Carolina Law and Carolina communities,” says Hou. “The opportunity to utilize the legal education we have been fortunate to receive from UNC Law to serve survivors of domestic violence has added invaluable meaning to our education. Through this project, we hope to continue fostering an enduring relationship among students, the university and our community partners to provide advocacy to survivors of domestic violence."

Beth S. Posner, clinical assistant professor of law at UNC School of Law, is faculty advisor for DVAP. She says the Ex Parte project is an important educational opportunity for students and a significant help to people in crisis.

“I have no doubt that this project could be replicated in other counties,” says Posner. “Trained law students, motivated by a desire to meet the needs of victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, are in a unique position to alleviate the burdens of our courthouse personnel and social service providers while meeting the needs of a very vulnerable group of litigants.”

The Robert E. Bryan Public Service Award recognizes individual students, faculty, staff and organizations at UNC for extraordinary public service and engagement. In addition to recognition at the awards ceremony, the honor includes a cash award and framed certificate. The award honors the memory and accomplishments of alumnus Robert E. Bryan ’26 of Newton Grove, N.C., who worked his way through the University to become a successful businessman, entrepreneur and public servant.

-April 8, 2015

Editor's note: This article was originally published in the Spring-Summer 2015 issue of Carolina Law . Shortly after publication, in May 2015, Crawford was nominated by the president for appointment to the rank of vice admiral and for assignment as judge advocate general of the U.S. Navy.

Even as a young child, Rear Admiral James W. Crawford III ’83 knew he wanted a career as an attorney.

“Serving in the military gives me the opportunity to strengthen my life as well as offer something of value to my nation,” he says.

Crawford says that his most rewarding Navy experience was on 9/11 when he was serving as a deputy legal counsel to the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

He is also grateful for his years in Chapel Hill.

Crawford would love to have more Carolina alumni serve alongside him. “I would say to Carolina Law students: if you are about service ... if you are about opportunity ... if you are about doing things that are unusual, then the JAG Corps is a place you may want to consider,” he says. “From the time of John Paul Jones to today, the line of honor, courage, and commitment is unbroken. If that's what students are interested in (and if they also want to have fun), they should come see me.”

With twin 7-year-old boys and a job that brings new challenges daily, Crawford says that every day is a surprise.

-April 27, 2015

Eight students of the Class of 2015 were selected to become members of one of the most prestigious societies at UNC School of Law. The James E. and Carolyn B. Davis Society recognizes eight third-year students possessing both academic and personal excellence and a willingness to serve for the betterment of the School of Law and its faculty and students. In making its selections, the Davis Society selection committee considers the qualities of leadership ability, integrity, dedication, and character as exemplified by extracurricular activities and academic achievement.

This year’s inductees, from left: Kathleen A. Lockwood, John C. Harris, Joseph A. Marshall, David R. Fitzgerald, Leslie Puzo, Christina T. Nasuti, Alan R. Buansi and Anna Orr.

Kathleen A. Lockwood, John C. Harris, Joseph A. Marshall, David R. Fitzgerald, Leslie Puzo, Christina T. Nasuti, Alan R. Buansi and Anna Orr

-May 11, 2015

A crisis usually is not a good time to make rational decisions about one’s future. The same theory, applied to companies, is implicit in the Bankruptcy Code.

Sometimes, though, lenders or other third parties team with an entity that buys a financially distressed business in a “hurry-up sale,” which may be necessary—or not.

“A rush to sale without process increases the risk of erroneous undervaluation. Crisis-driven leverage may be used as a tool to distort the Bankruptcy Code’s distributional scheme,” according to an article co-authored by UNC School of Law professor Melissa Jacoby.

The article, “Ice Cube Bonds: Allocating the Price of Process in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy,” recently received the Grant Gilmore Award for outstanding writing from the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers.

Distressed businesses sometimes are called melting ice cubes that necessitate quick sales. It’s important to differentiate between cases with accurate information about the company’s value and costs of delay and cases where the ice cube argument is exploited to secure a favored deal.

“We propose that a reserve—the Ice Cube Bond—be set aside at the time of sale to preserve any potential disputes about valuation and priority for resolution after the sale has closed. This approach retains expedited section 363 sales as a useful way to quiet title in complex assets and preserve value, while preserving the opportunities for negotiation and adjudication contemplated by the Bankruptcy Code,” according to the article, co-written by Edward Janger of Brooklyn Law School.

“Implicit in our argument is an important theme: to protect secured creditors’ rights but be mindful of boundaries on those rights. Otherwise, they end up diverting value that perhaps should have gone to workers, suppliers or others,” Jacoby says.

Her article is having an impact.

“Courts are questioning claims that firms are melting ice cubes and need to move the cases at lightning speed. I also hope the article will change the direction of scholarship about secured creditors’ rights, which must be respected but have limits that were not getting serious consideration,” Jacoby says.

“It’s rewarding to see the article taken seriously by commercial law experts,” she says. “Research can have real-world effects in addition to making a contribution to scholarship; these two goals are complementary.”

-May 18, 2015

The Pro Bono Board awarded the 2015 recipients of the Pro Bono Publico Awards at the annual Public Interest Celebration April 8. This year's award recipients included:

Sylvia K. Novinsky Award - Anna Orr 3L
3L Student of the Year - Sawyer Lucy 3L
2L Student of the Year - Alison Melvin 2L
1L Student of the Year - William Norrell 1L
Group Pro Bono Project of the Year - Hispanic/Latino Law Students' Association
Faculty/Professor of the Year - John Charles "Jack" Boger '74, Dean and Wade Edwards Distinguished Professor of Law
Alumni of the Year - Margaret Ann Anderson '81 and Landon S. Eustache '08

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

-April 8, 2015

Attendees gather around the newly unveiled portraits of Robert Browning '66 and Jack Lewis '61, which were hung in the superior courtroom at the Pitt County Courthouse on June 6, 2014. (Aileen Devlin/The Daily Reflector)

Two UNC School of Law alumni and former North Carolina appellate court judges were honored last summer by having their portraits hung in Superior Courtroom Number One in the Pitt County, N.C., Courthouse. The June 6 event recognized former N.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert R. Browning ’66 and former N.C. Court of Appeals Judge John Baker “Jack” Lewis Jr. ’61 for their service as lawyers in Pitt County and on the bench.

The event was considered “a double bi-partisan (portrait) hanging,” according to Lewis, because he went to UNC as an undergraduate and Browning went to Duke University as an undergraduate. The two former judges are also of different political parties.

Browning, a resident of Greenville, was appointed to the state superior court and became the highest-ranking appellate judge from Pitt County as a justice on the Supreme Court. Browning is also the first Republican to have a portrait hung in the Pitt County courthouse.

“I thought the courthouse foundation might tremble, but so far so good,” Browning said after his portrait was unveiled. Lewis, a native of Farmville, practiced law with his father John B. Lewis Sr. ’30 until Governor Jim Hunt appointed him to the bench in 1982 as a special superior court judge. Governor Jim Martin then reappointed him in 1987. “It doesn’t get more bi-partisan than that,” said Lewis. Lewis was elected to the N.C. Court of Appeals in 1988. He retired from the appellate court in 2000 and completely retired from recall judicial status in the fall of 2014.

The event also focused on the similarities between the two UNC lawyers.

“Bob and I were both born in Pitt County, and we are both only children,” said Lewis. “We both have two sons, we went to the same law school and were both in the Navy. And we served in the same Naval reserve unit for nearly 20 years.”

“We have been friends and colleagues for a long time,” said Browning. “And that is one similarity that will never change.

-April 21, 2015

Martin H. Brinkley ’92, a partner in the law firm of Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan, L.L.P. in Raleigh, North Carolina, will be the 14th dean of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. Brinkley was chosen after an extensive nationwide search, led by Mike Smith ’78, dean of the UNC School of Government, and succeeds retiring Dean John Charles “Jack” Boger ’74, who plans to return to the law school faculty after serving as dean for nine years. Brinkley will remain associated with Smith Anderson as Of Counsel while serving the University and the law school.

“The Carolina community joins me in welcoming Martin Brinkley as the dean of the UNC School of Law,” said Chancellor Carol L. Folt. “We are thankful Martin’s professional path has brought him full circle – back to the very place where he earned his own law degree. He is a preeminent attorney with extensive knowledge of corporate law and a deep commitment to public service and pursuit of excellence in legal education.”

Brinkley comes to the deanship after 22 years in private practice. A native of Raleigh, North Carolina, Brinkley is a 1987 Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude graduate of Harvard University. He received his law degree from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1992, where he was executive articles editor of the North Carolina Law Review. After law school, he served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Sam J. Ervin III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. From 1996-2000, Brinkley returned to UNC School of Law as an adjunct professor. In 2011, Brinkley was named president of the North Carolina Bar Association, the youngest lawyer in more than 50 years to lead the statewide association. He is a recipient of the Bar Association’s Citizen Lawyer Award, UNC School of Law’s Pro Bono Alumnus of the Year Award and other awards recognizing his pro bono service to individuals and charitable institutions.

His primary experience has been in the fields of corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, antitrust, insurance, public finance and nonprofit organizations law. He has been lead outside counsel to companies and institutions in the manufacturing, distribution, food and beverage, and insurance industries and chairs Smith Anderson’s regulatory and governmental affairs practice. Brinkley is recognized in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business Lawyers, Woodward/White’s The Best Lawyers in America, North Carolina Super Lawyers, Business North Carolina’s "Legal Elite" and Who’s Who Legal: The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers. He has served on the boards of or acted as pro bono counsel to more than 30 nonprofit organizations with educational, charitable, religious, and artistic missions. He is a trustee of the North Carolina Symphony, Saint Mary’s School, the Philharmonic Association and the North Carolina Chamber Music Institute. As secretary-treasurer of the North Caroliniana Society, he has led efforts to more than quadruple the society’s financial support of the North Carolina Collection in UNC’s Wilson Library. He is vice chancellor of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina and a former senior and junior warden and vestry member at Christ Church in Raleigh. His wife Carol, a 1986 graduate of the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication, is a language facilitator for hearing impaired students in the Wake County Public School System’s Frances Lacy Elementary School. The Brinkleys have two daughters, ages 22 and 20, and a son age 14.

Founded in 1845 as part of the nation’s oldest state-supported university, UNC School of Law boasts an active network of 11,000 living alumni, more than half of whom live and work in North Carolina, including governors, judges, U.S. Senators, members of congress, private practitioners, public interest lawyers and business leaders. UNC School of Law’s world class faculty and staff prepare outstanding lawyers and leaders to serve the people and institutions of North Carolina, the nation and the world. The school offers strong expertise in banking, environmental law, intellectual property, civil rights, entrepreneurial and securities law, bankruptcy and constitutional law. Student-run pro bono projects have earned national recognition. Joint-degree programs cover business, public policy, communication, planning, public health, social work and public administration.

About the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the nation’s first public university, is a global higher education leader known for innovative teaching, research and public service. A member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, Carolina regularly ranks as the best value for academic quality in U.S. public higher education. Now in its third century, the University offers 78 bachelor’s, 112 master’s, 68 doctorate and seven professional degree programs through 14 schools and the College of Arts and Sciences. Every day, faculty, staff and students shape their teaching, research and public service to meet North Carolina’s most pressing needs in every region and all 100 counties. Carolina's more than 304,000 alumni live in all 50 states and 150 countries. More than 159,000 live in North Carolina.

School of Law media contact: Katherine Kershaw, 919.962.4125, kershaw@unc.edu
Communications and Public Affairs contact: MC VanGraafeiland, 919.962.7090, mc.vangraafeiland@unc.edu

-June 5, 2015

UNC School of Law’s Center for Law, Environment, Adaptationand Resources (CLEAR), UCLA School of Law’s Emmett Institute on Climate and theEnvironment, and the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites (CICS) North Carolina have released a white paper detailing findings about insurance and climate change.

The white paper, entitled “Climate Change Risk Information Disclosure, Insurance, the Private Sector, and the Role of Government,” proposes recommendations to insurance regulators to improve climate change adaptation in the insurance industry and related sectors. The white paper reiterates prior findings concerning the maladaptive impact of federal and state government regulation on private sector climate change adaptation, and also found that there is a mismatch in insurance products and climate risk that has not been addressed by the private market.

The white paper recommends that the purposes of insurance company climate risk disclosure be better clarified and tailored to be used to influence private sector adaptation if possible. It also recommends that state insurance commissioners have better access to climate data in order to better negotiate risk pricing regulation.

The findings and recommendations are based on a two-day workshop held in March with representatives from academia, insurance companies, state insurance regulators, federal climate data providers, private sector representatives and other government agencies.

“The workshop demonstrates how much room we have to better understand how risk signals work in the insurance market and how that might be harnessed for more efficient climate change preparation across the board,” says Victor B. Flatt, director of CLEAR and Taft Professor of Environmental Law at UNC.

More information about the workshop, entitled the Executive Forum on Climate Change Risk Information Disclosure, Insurance, the Private Sector, and the Role of Government, can be found at http://www.law.unc.edu/centers/clear/workshops/property/.

Editor’s note: Victor Flatt, Taft Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law and Director of CLEAR, and Jessica Grannis, Adaptation Manager at the Georgetown Climate Center, are available for interviews regarding the workshop, its findings, and recommendations. Please contact them at Flatt: flatt@email.unc.edu, (713.922.0392) and Grannis: grannis@law.georgetown.edu

-June 5, 2015

Luke Everett

For Luke Everett ’08 and Mark L. Hayes ’08, it took just under a decade from when they first sat together in a law class to win a Supreme Court case.

The impact of that decision, however, will probably last far longer than a decade. The case, Grady v. North Carolina, has the potential to change the way states across the country — including North Carolina — use satellite technology to track convicted criminals, even after they have completed their sentences.

The lawyers say the privacy rights of virtually anyone who uses a smart phone or other GPS-equipped device are at stake.

“This is a win for everyone who’s in a noncriminal situation with GPS data,” Hayes says.

Two strikes and you’re out?

In 2013, Torrey Grady was ordered to submit to the tracking. He was convicted of a sex offense as a teen in 1997 and of taking indecent liberties with a child in 2006. By 2013, he had served his sentences.

In 2009, the state enacted a law requiring lifetime monitoring for certain classes of sex offenders, including recidivists. Under the statutes, offenders were required to wear a monitoring device 24 hours a day for the rest of their lives. They were also required to plug in the device for four to six hours each day to charge it.

Hayes, who was appointed to represent Grady by the N.C. Public Defender’s office, appealed Grady’s case to the state Court of Appeals, arguing that the lifetime monitoring was an unconstitutional search under the Fourth Amendment. The appeals court denied the appeal, saying the law was a civil statute, not criminal, and that therefore no Fourth Amendment issue existed.

A petition to the N.C. Supreme Court was denied. The last available appeal was the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Public Defender’s office wouldn’t fund an appeal to the Supreme Court, judging Hayes’ odds of prevailing as low. If Hayes were to proceed, he needed help to share the workload and sharpen the argument enough to get the attention of the nation’s top justices.

He thought of Everett, now a professor at UNC School of Law and a practicing attorney. The two had remained friends since those first days at law school and their children even attended the same school.

“After I dropped my kids off at elementary school one morning, I flagged him down and we talked about the case,” Hayes says.

Everett agreed, taking on the case pro bono.

Going to the top

“I don’t know of any cases where the cops, by following the pings of the GPS, were able to swoop in and stop a crime,” Everett says. “And if they can’t do that, then I don’t see what the benefit is."

The two lawyers researched precedents and crafted a simple but compelling argument: the forced monitoring was a search under the Fourth Amendment and therefore subject to the constitutional test of reasonableness.

Everett and Hayes filed their written arguments in November. The state responded with its own arguments. Then everyone waited to see if the nation’s highest court would even consider the case.

It did. On March 30, without even hearing oral argument, the high court issued a unanimous written order stating that the lifetime monitoring was a search and thus subject to Fourth Amendment protections.

The Supreme Court cited its own decisions, including the 2012 case United States v. Jones, where federal and local investigators attached a GPS tracking device to a suspect’s car without a warrant. In that case, the justices ruled 5-4 that attaching a tracking device constituted a search under the Fourth Amendment.

Now, the Supreme Courts leave it to North Carolina courts to decide whether the monitoring program is “reasonable."

Everett is concerned that state courts, whose judges must run for election, will be hesitant to overturn a law that might be seen as protecting crime victims. Even, he says, if there’s almost no evidence that monitoring programs prevent crime.

“I think that the procedure, at the very least, is going to have to change,” Everett says. “Courts will at least have to make sure that the search itself is reasonable, which is a step in the right direction.”

-June 11, 2015

UNC School of Law’s Michael Gerhardt, Samuel Ashe Distinguished Professor in Constitutional Law and director of the Program in Law and Government, has become the first independent scholar to advise the American Law Division, a branch of the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress, in revising and updating the official U.S. Constitution Annotated, popularly known as CONAN.

Gerhardt was selected based on his scholarship and his history working as a non-partisan expert and consultant with Congress. His role will be to work with the American Law Division to ensure that the revisions and updates to the official U.S. Constitution Annotated are comprehensive, free of bias and legally sound, as required by federal law.

“I am greatly honored by this extraordinary opportunity,” said Gerhardt. “It is especially meaningful to me, not only as someone who has devoted his life to enriching our understanding of the Constitution, but also as a UNC law professor. The last person to oversee CONAN was the late Johnny Killian, senior specialist at the Congressional Research Service and beloved 1963 graduate of UNC School of Law. Maintaining Carolina’s connection with this project and extending Johnny’s work means a great deal to me."

CONAN is the official documentation of the U.S. Constitution and its interpretation over time. It contains legal analysis of the Constitution, based primarily on U.S. Supreme Court case law. For more than a century, CONAN has been revised and published every 10 years as required by Congress. These updates are useful when researching the constitutional implications of a specific issue or topic such as recent Supreme Court decisions that demonstrate pivotal interpretations of the Constitution's provisions.

Through its most recent revisions in 2012, only the American Law Division or its predecessor organizations have updated the official Constitution, most famously in the 1950s by the late, renowned constitutional expert Edward Corwin of Princeton University, who also headed the American Law Division. Since CONAN was last updated, the American Law Division determined that the document, which has a world-wide audience including Congress, practicing lawyers and judges, students, academics and the public, would benefit from an outsider's perspective.

“When we decided to seek outside consultation on the revisions of this public document, Professor Gerhardt’s knowledge of Congress, constitutional law and history made him an excellent choice,” said Karen Lewis, assistant director for the American Law Division, Congressional Research Service. “We look forward to reviewing his evenhanded assessment.”

Gerhardt received a B.A. from Yale University, M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and a J.D. from the University of Chicago. He has advised congressional leaders and White House officials on numerous constitutional issues, including judicial nominations, recess appointments, impeachment, health care reform, the filibuster and the debt ceiling crises. In 2003 and 2005, he worked with Senate Majority leaders and the Democratic Policy Committee on the constitutionality of the filibuster and the so-called nuclear option. He is the only legal scholar to have formally participated in confirmation hearings for five of the nine justices currently sitting on the Supreme Court, which included serving as special counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2009-2010 for the confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, a position requiring the unanimous approval of the entire committee. He has also served as a principal consultant on numerous other constitutional issues coming before the Judiciary Committee, including the Affordable Care Act.

Although it is too early in the review process to outline specific revisions to CONAN, Gerhardt’s comprehensive critical analysis of the volume is underway and will continue into the fall.

-June 18, 2015

William Brantley Aycock ‘48, who began his career as a high school history teacher and became Kenan Professor of Law at UNC School of Law and chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during a period of tremendous growth and social and political upheaval, died Sat., June 20. He was 99. Read the full "In Memoriam" at alumni.unc.edu.

In an email to law school faculty and staff, Dean John Charles “Jack” Boger ’74 opened by listing just a few of Aycock’s tangible impacts on the school, including the William Brantley Aycock Lobby; Holderness Moot Court teams, a core extra-curricular activity initiated in 1951 by Aycock; and the plaque naming Aycock the inaugural Frederick B. McCall teaching award winner in 1967 – one of five McCall teaching awards he was eventually to receive during his time at UNC School of Law.

“No one, in sum, with greater or more lasting influence on this venerable institution in the past half century than our beloved teacher and chancellor, who last night, midway in his 100th year, died peacefully in bed after suffering a broken rib a week earlier,” said Boger. “His last gracious public outing was to the Law School Rotunda on June 5th to attend the announcement by Chancellor Carol Folt and Provost Jim Dean of the selection of Martin Brinkley '92 as Carolina Law’s 14th dean. Chancellor Aycock had taught Martin as a student, worked with him and Dean Judith Wegner in 1994-95 to craft the special Sesquicentennial Issue of the North Carolina Law Review, and stayed in touch with him thereafter. He remained throughout his long life deeply interested not only in faculty colleagues young and old and the staffers who loved him, but so many former students, alumni, and friends across the broader University and the State.”

William B. Aycock '48 attends the June 5 ceremony announcing Martin H. Brinkley '92 as 14th dean of UNC School of Law. Seated, from left: Judge J. Dickson Phillips '48, Brinkley, Aycock. Standing: Dean Jack Boger '74, Professor Emeritus Paul G. Haskell, Chancellor Carol Folt. Photo by Melanie Busbee.

“Many have lifted up bright tributes to this son of Selma, North Carolina, this North Carolina State College graduate and student body president who earned an MA degree in history at Chapel Hill and initially aspired to teach public school, who then served bravely in World War II, who returned to Chapel Hill at the war’s close to lead the great UNC Law Class of 1948 as its top student and law review editor-in-chief, who was invited even before his graduation to join the UNC Law School faculty, who served as aide to Dr. Frank Porter Graham on a United Nations-sponsored effort to bring peace in Kashmir between India and Pakistan, who was tapped in 1956 as Chancellor of the University, who served as the wise and courageous voice of free expression during the State’s infamous Speaker Ban controversy years, who hired Dean Smith and defended his young basketball coach during a rocky start as a bigtime ACC coach, who returned to the law faculty in 1964 and taught civil procedure, property, trust and estates, antitrust and federal jurisdiction full-time for the next 23 years, touching the lives of hundreds and hundreds of law students and others.”

Boger included two attachments that pay tribute to Aycock’s extraordinary life and accomplishments.

In a speech ( PDF ) delivered in March of 2007 by Dean Judith Wegner to members of the North Caroliniana Society, Wegner calls him an advocate and a warrior in time of need.

“Bill has surely battled on behalf of all of us,” said Wegner. “He’s pushed back ignorance, worked to assure educational access without regard to wealth, sought after fairness, campaigned for academic freedom, and held firm for the priorities of educational excellence when other interests held them at risk. He’s championed learning in its very best sense, and stood up for truth.”

A shorter tribute ( PDF ) by Martin Brinkley and Wegner opened the Sesquicentennial Issue of the 1995 North Carolina Law Review.

“Bill Aycock is a man in whose footsteps we all should aspire to follow,” the authors wrote. “He is our community's memory of the best that our law school has been and the greatness toward which we strive. . . For the law school family, Bill Aycock is nothing less than our citadel of truth – a living symbol of that same university citadel that he nurtured as faculty member and chancellor, and to which he has given his whole life. He embodies everything that has made the School of Law great: a passion for truth blended with uncompromising devotion to his fellow human beings.”

The North Carolina Law Review tribute, in turn, cites earlier celebrations of his life penned by other former UNC Law deans: J. Dickson Phillips, Jr., Bill Aycock in Law School, 64 N.C.L. Rev. 207 (1986) and Henry Brandis, William Brantley Aycock: There Are So Many of Him, 64 N.C. L. Rev. 211 (1986). Judge James Dickson Phillips, in a retirement tribute, retold a story about Bill Aycock, stemming from their times together in law school. He said:

One winter day we woke to find that we'd had one of our rare hip-deep snowfalls overnight. I looked out the window of my house on the Pittsboro Road on the south edge of town and went back to bed. In a little while my wife looked out and came back to tell me that she'd just seen Aycock walking up the middle of the road from his house three miles out, up to his hips in snow, heading for school.

Here was a man who the winter before, under the compulsion of war's circumstances, had been trying to stay alive and avoid frozen feet in the Ardennes, and who now under no compulsion but that of felt duty, was plowing through Ardennes-depth snow to go up and talk about "last clear chance," or the Rule in Wild's Case or something equally inconsequential over the long haul. ... As usual, his influence was felt. Under the compulsion of shame, I struggled out and up the hill, following the path he'd plowed.

-June 22, 2015

This article was originally published in the Spring-Summer 2015 issue of Carolina Law .

In many workplaces, employees use company email for personal communications: weekend plans, birthday greetings, even links to viral videos. Employers often allow these personal emails as long as they don’t interfere with company operations.

So what happens when employees use company email to communicate about working conditions, pay and benefits, unionization, and other topics protected under the National Labor Relations Act? That’s what the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decided in December, when it reversed a seven-year-old decision on corporate email in a case involving Purple Communications, Inc., a Rocklin, Calif., firm that provides virtual sign-language interpretation services for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals and businesses.

UNC School of Law Professor Jeffrey M. Hirsch, a former NLRB lawyer who has long studied these issues, along with his research assistant Isaac Vargas 2L, weighed in with an amicus brief that appears to have shaped the board’s reasoning.

“This issue is sort of a technological twist on a very old labor law issue,” Hirsch, associate dean for academic affairs and Geneva Yeargan Rand Distinguished Professor of Law, says. It comes down to balancing two rights: employees have a right to collectively discuss workplace issues. Employers, though, have a right to control how their business property is used.

So when two or more employees use email to discuss a matter protected under federal labor law, can they use company email systems? Since 2007, the answer has been “No.”

That year, when the NLRB had a majority Republican membership, it ruled in the Register-Guard case that employers could prevent work email from being used for communications otherwise protected under labor laws. The board then ruled that companies’ property rights gave employers discretion to ban messages on corporate email systems, even if they addressed labor issues.

“This was viewed as a pretty big deal among unions,” Hirsch says. Unions are increasingly relying on electronic communications — email, websites, social media and more — to organize employees.

Hirsch has argued for several years that the Register-Guard decision ran counter to Supreme Court precedents. In a key 1945 case, Republic Aviation Corp. v. NLRB, the Supreme Court ruled that employees can discuss workplace issues on company property, with some limitations.

Over the years, that has meant that employees could do things like discuss their working conditions and advocate for a union during non-work time in non-work locations — cafeterias or break rooms, for example. Employers can’t prevent these protected conversations, assuming that didn’t create unusual problems for company operations.

Hirsch’s amicus brief in the Purple Communications case argued that the 2007 decision was wrong because it didn’t extend to corporate email systems the same privilege that prior rulings, and especially the Supreme Court’s Republic Aviation decision, had extended to discussions at work.

In the 2014 Purple Communications decision, the NLRB, now with a Democratic majority, reversed the 2007 decision on a 3-2 vote. The new rules essentially require companies to treat corporate email the same way they do conversation among employees in the break room.

Hirsch notes that employers could still ban emails that might disrupt company operations, such as sending a large video file. And employers will likely be able to prohibit emails to and from non-employees via company addresses in most circumstances, although the decision declined to address that issue.
The decision also leaves open questions involving other non-email, electronic communications. The rules for smart phones and text messaging, for example, are still unclear.

In time, though, Hirsch expects that the NLRB will fold these forms of electronic communications into the same set of rules it has now established for email.

-April 27, 2015

UNC School of Law presented three awards to distinguished faculty on Wednesday, April 29, in a ceremony at the Paul J. Rizzo Conference Center.

The awards presented include:

Professor Melissa Jacoby, Dean Jack Boger and Professor Alexa Chew. Photo by Donn Young.

-May 1, 2015

42 Honored at 20th Annual Gressman and Pollitt Oral Advocacy Awards

School Announces Faculty Awards

Solorzano 3L Wins Clinic Outstanding Student Award

Jacoby Research Sheds Light on Detroit Bankruptcy Case

Liz Bower '01: Paving the Way for Others

Rear Admiral James Crawford III '83 Finds JAG Career Challenging, Rewarding

The Honorable Jenny Rivera to Speak at School of Law Commencement

Students Win UNC Public Service Award for Work with Domestic Violence Victims

Rear Admiral James Crawford III '83 Finds JAG Career Challenging, Rewarding

Davis Society Welcomes Eight Members from the Class of 2015

Jacoby Bankruptcy Article Wins Grant Gilmore Award

Pro Bono Program Announces 2015 Publico Awards

Two Carolina Law Alumni Honored By Pitt County, N.C.

Martin Brinkley '92 Chosen as 14th Dean of UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law

CLEAR, Climate Centers Propose Changes to Insurance Structure and Regulation

Alumni Receive Unanimous Decision from Supreme Court in GPS Tracking Case

Michael Gerhardt Becomes First Independent Scholar to Advise Library of Congress on US Constitution Annotated

Former Chancellor and Professor Emeritus William B. Aycock '48 Dies at 99

Amicus Brief By Hirsch Influences NLRB to Reverse Decision on Email

School Announces Faculty Awards