From the Dean

On Sunday, May 14, the MU School of Law conferred 142 JD degrees and 7 LLM degrees upon our newest law school graduates. This year’s commencement speaker was Congressman Ike Skelton, who returned to speak to our graduates 50 years after his own graduation from the Law School. Congressman Skelton, both through his commencement address and his career of public service, challenged our graduates to set high goals and use their MU law degrees to serve their clients and the public.

That same weekend the University of Missouri conferred an honorary degree upon an individual whose name will always be linked to the MU School of Law. At a university honors convocation, George Gaines received an honorary degree on behalf of his uncle, Lloyd Gaines, who was denied admission to the University in 1936 because he was African-American. In accepting this degree on behalf of the Gaines family, George Gaines said:

This is the message and legacy that Lloyd Gaines left us with: Focus, perserverance, preparation, hard work, mind set, and the fact that one person’s effort can have a major impact on others and society. I would like to believe that his message for us today would be to continue to press on despite the hurdles and follow your dreams. Ladies and gentlemen, a major part of the dreams of Lloyd Gaines, to have a law degree from the University of Missouri, has been fulfilled today.

Our Students

Students this year were engaged in numerous Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. This Fall the Law School welcomed Amanda Walker, who attended the first week of her third year of law school at Tulane University. She returned to Dexter, Missouri, for a wedding with only clothing for the weekend. When she entered MU as a law student, our students donated everything from clothing, to computer supplies, to textbooks, and offered Amanda housing and a carrel in the Law Library. Students also conducted clothing, food and blood drives on behalf of those impacted by the hurricane.

This Spring our Women’s Law Association raised almost $10,000 through its annual auction, while over two hundred students, faculty, staff, and alumni participated in the Second Annual Tim Heinsz Memorial 5K run. This run is an annual event to honor Tim Heinsz, and our student leaders have now raised over $10,000 for a student scholarship fund in Tim’s memory.

This year’s students also have "given back" to the law school in numerous other ways. The third-year class gift committee raised over $21,000 in gifts and pledges, which sets a new record for such class gifts. This student giving is particularly notable in light of the fact that our recent graduating classes have left the Law School with, on average, approximately $60,000 in law school debt.

As I write this letter, our most recent graduates are studying for the bar examination. MU graduates in the Class of 2005 achieved the highest bar passage rate of any Missouri graduates on the Missouri bar examination, and we expect just as much from this year’s graduates.

Our Faculty

This Spring Professor Stephen Easton received the William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence. Past Law School faculty who have received this award include Professors Michelle Cecil, Bob Pushaw, Jim Westbrook, Nanette Laughrey, and Bill Henning.

One of our newer faculty, Professor Thom Lambert, received an MU Gold Chalk award, for which faculty are nominated by their students and then selected on a campus-wide basis.

Although she will not receive her award until next Fall, Professor Mary Beck will be one of only ten MU faculty to receive the MUAA Faculty Award in October. Mary will be recognized for her work in our Family Violence Clinic, which has set a standard for other family violence programs across the nation.

We will miss several faculty colleagues next year, including Professor Huyen Pham, who will move with her family to Texas and join the faculty at Texas Wesleyan University. This December Professors Len Riskin and Pat Fry will retire, with Len planning to then teach at the University of Florida.

Our newest faculty, Professors Frank Bowman and Rigel Oliveri, both hit the ground running at the Law School this year. Frank came to us from the University of Indiana-Indianapolis, and is the leading national expert in the area of federal criminal sentencing. Rigel came to us after a federal appellate clerkship and five years as Trial Attorney with the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. Two other new faculty will join us this summer. Professor Paul Litton will fill a new position connected to MU’s Life Sciences and Society Program. Professor Litton earned both a J.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and comes to us from the National Institutes of Health. Professor David Mitchell is also a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and comes to us from the University of Colorado. Among his courses at the Law School will be Torts and Criminal Justice Administration.

The Law Library

Reporting to Randy Diamond is our Department of Instructional Technology. Significant funds have been provided by the University for us to enhance and expand the technological resources in our classrooms. Pre-Law magazine recently listed the Law School on its "Technology Honor Roll," making us the only law school within Missouri to be so recognized.

We were thrilled last Fall to receive a one million dollar gift from George Ashley '48 to support the Law Library. Through this gift, the Law Library will be able to provide even better services to our students, faculty, and alunmi, and we thank George Ashley for setting the standard in this regard as he has in so many other ways throughout his legal career.

Center for Dispute Resolution

Today’s attorney must know not only how to try cases, but how to resolve disputes short of trial. We are proud that our Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution is one of the leading such programs in the nation. Although Professor Len Riskin has stepped down as the Center’s director, we are fortunate to have an experienced and nationally-recognized leader such as Bob Bailey '79 succeed Len as Center Director. Under Bob’s leadership, the Center and its programs continue to move forward. Under the leadership of Professor John Lande, our LLM program in dispute resolution brings to campus lawyers, judges, and governmenal officials from around the world to participate in the nation’s first advanced degree program in dispute resolution. Whether an attorney’s cases are resolved at trial or through mediation, arbitration, or settlement, we provide our students with the tools to represent their clients zealously and with the highest standards of professionalism.

Law School Events

Associate Dean David Fischer '68 has developed an outstanding speaker series for our students and faculty that has brought other leading experts to the Law School. In addition, MU professors who have spoken to our faculty during the past year have included Royce Barondes, Mary Beck, Frank Bowman, Thom Lambert, Peggy McGuiness, and Phil Peters.

James D. Ellis ('68) Distinguished Lawyer in Residence series brought to the Law School in March Sonya Steptoe, who, as senior national correspondent for Time magazine, covered the nominations of Harriet Miers and John Roberts to the Supreme Court. Both law school and journalism school faculty and students were intrigued by her inside analysis of these nominations.

This coming year the Law School will present two symposia of interest to alumni. Next winter the Missouri Law Review Symposium will honor Professor Dale Whitman and focus on property law and real estate transactions. On October 20th, the Journal of Dispute Resolution will hold a one-day symposium honoring Professor Len Riskin.

Alumni Events and Activities

The fifth annual Dean’s Tour will be held this coming Fall, and at this point we anticipate visits to St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, Washington, D.C., Cape Giradeau, Sikeston, Jefferson City, Chillicothe, Joplin, and Sedalia. If you or your law firm would like to sponsor one of these events, please let me know.

Please mark your calendars for Law Day Weekend on September 8-9. We have had more than 200 alumni come back for Law Day in recent years, and each year the gathering grows. The weekend includes our Distiguished Alumni Luncheon for those who graduated 40 or more years ago from law school, the Law Day Awards Ceremony, the Law Day Picnic, class reunions for those who graduated in years ending in one or six, and the Mizzou-Mississippi football game. Our largest alumni event, the luncheon at the annual meeting of The Missouri Bar will occur this year on September 29th in St. Louis. I’ll hope to see you at one or more of these events throughout the fall.

Finally, I thank all of you who have contributed so generously to our "For All We Call Mizzou" campaign. Our Law School goal was $12,000,000, and we surpassed that goal a few months before the December 31, 2005, date for the conclusion for Phase I of the campaign. Because of such successes, the campaign has been extended until December 31, 2008. Our new goal is to raise an additional $5,000,000 (for a total of $17,000,000), and I thank all of you who have helped to make this an achievable goal for the Law School. Private gifts support, quite directly, our students, faculty, and programs, and I’d ask you to join your classmates and other alumni in investing in the Law School and the next generation of MU Lawyers. Our campaign has been led by Marcy Graham '62, while the co-chair of the University campaign is Larry McMullen '59. Under the leadership of these great alumni and many others, private giving is helping revitalize both MU and the School of Law.

A Concluding Note

For well over 100 years the MU School of Law has made a difference in the lives of many men and women, such as Ted Kulongoski, who have used their legal training to serve their clients, their communities, and the nation. With your continuing support, we will continue to provide the same high quality of legal training to today’s generation of law students, so that they can follow in the paths that you and other MU graduates have blazed for them.

I wish you a good summer and I encourage you to visit at the Law School to see for yourself the many exciting things that are happening here at MU.

Very truly yours,

R. Lawrence Dessem
Dean and Professor of Law