Tag: Federal Courts

The Mithoff Pro Bono Program and Kirkland & Ellis team up for a special new project.

In a unanimous vote (97-0), the U.S. Senate confirmed in May loyal Longhorn Gregg Costa, ’99, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The second youngest judge currently serving on a federal court of appeals bench, Costa brings unique perspective to his new role.

Each summer, a large contingent of UT Law students take to the courts, interning with state appellate and federal judges in Texas and across the country.

Professor Susan Klein, Alice McKean Young Regents Chair in Law, has been appointed reporter for the Fifth Circuit Pattern Jury Instruction Committee, which writes the set of legal rules that jurors should follow when they are deciding a civil or criminal case in the Fifth Circuit Court.

Lynn A. Baker, Frederick M. Baron Chair in Law at the University of Texas School of Law, was one of a handful of legal scholars invited to speak at the 2011 Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference in Carlsbad, California, on August 16, 2011. Baker’s panel, “Federalism in the 21st Century: Balancing States' Rights with Federal Power,” discussed current Supreme Court federalism jurisprudence, offered predictions on the direction the Roberts court is likely to take, and debated the proper balance between federal and state power.

Usually the courts of last resort in federal cases, the Federal Courts of Appeals are widely misunderstood by the public, as is appellate practice generally. The American Bar Association is working to change that through a new project, a blog called “Media Alerts on Federal Courts of Appeals.” The ABA hopes to increase awareness and understanding of the Federal Courts of Appeals by expanding access to the work of those Courts. The University of Texas School of Law plays an important role in this project: students report on decisions issued by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.