Category: Student Life

The 2012 Sunflower Ceremony will take place on Saturday, May 19, 2012 at 3:30 p.m. at the Frank Erwin Jr. Special Events Center on the University of Texas at Austin campus. Degree candidates, their families, and friends are invited to celebrate the accomplishments of the graduating class of 2012.

Seven graduating students at the University of Texas School of Law have been honored by the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law for their extraordinary commitment during Law School to using the law to serve others.

The UT Law Career Services Office (CSO) has announced the recipients of the 2012 UT Law CSO Study Break Public Service Stipends. They are: Joanne Heisey and Aaron Tucker, Class of 2013; and Ashley Steele, Class of 2014.

On Tuesday, May 8, 2012, beginning at 7:30 p.m., the University of Texas Tower was illuminated in burnt orange with lit windows spelling out a "No. 1" in recognition of the School of Law’s national championship at the twentieth annual Conrad B. Duberstein Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition, held at St. John's University in Queens, New York, March 9-12, 2012.

Five students at the University of Texas School of Law have been selected to receive Baron & Budd Public Interest Summer Fellowships for the coming summer. The program will provide each fellow with a $4,250 stipend to work fulltime for at least ten weeks providing legal services to underrepresented individuals or communities.

Six students at the University of Texas School of Law have been selected as the 2012 Whitehurst Public Interest Summer Fellows. The fellowships are made possible by a gift from Bill, ’70, and Stephanie Whitehurst, and are administered by the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law at the Law School. The fellowships are awarded annually to outstanding students between their second and third years of law school to support their summer public-interest work.

In February, students from the Sheffield Society met with Judge Edward C. Prado, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Prado, a 1972 graduate of the Law School, serves as the community fellow for the Sheffield Society, which is one of eight societies in the Law School’s Society Program. Prado was joined for the talk by his current law clerks, Derek Linkous, Michelle Parthum, Amit Vora, and Alex Zolan, as well as third-year student Kate Nanny, ’12, who will clerk for Prado after graduating from the Law School.

Eleven University of Texas School of Law students have been selected by the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice as Rapoport Center Fellows for summer and fall 2012. They will work with nongovernmental and intergovernmental organizations in destinations as diverse as Mumbai, India; Washington, D.C.; and Guatemala City, Guatemala. Their projects include investigating cases of disappeared persons, implementing corporate accountability campaigns, assisting in genocide prosecutions, researching litigation on prisoners’ rights, and building the legal capacity of impoverished populations.

On April 23, 2012, the Law School hosted the final round of the 2012 Thad T. Hutcheson 1L Moot Court Competition in the Eidman Courtroom. Finalists Michael Kelso and Courtney Johnson argued before a venerable panel of jurists.

The Student Bar Association announced the recipients of the 2011–2012 Teacher and Administrator of the Year Awards at a ceremony at the Law School on April 23, 2012. These awards, determined entirely from student votes, honor distinguished faculty and staff members for their significant contributions to the Law School community.

Four members of the Class of 2012 have received post-graduate fellowships from Equal Justice Works, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., whose declared mission is to support “the next generation of lawyers who commit themselves to public interest law and endeavor to provide effective representation to underserved communities and causes.” Christine Nishimura, Jordan Pollock, Amelia Ruiz Fischer, and Keegan Warren-Clem received the prestigious two-year fellowships, which provide competitive salaries and loan repayment assistance after graduation.

The Law School’s Center for Global Energy, International Arbitration, and Environmental Law will send a team of students to compete in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot competition in Vienna, Austria, from March 30 to April 5, 2012.