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Faculty Activity

A COLLECTION OF RECENT PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS BY WVU LAW FACULTY.





Joshua Fershee Joshua Fershee, associate professor of law, recently delivered the keynote address at the sixth annual Energy Symposium at Texas A&M University School of Law. The title of his speech was “An Environmental Dream or Regulatory Nightmare? In Pursuit of a New Public Trust Through Hydraulic Fracturing Law and Regulation” 

He also gave the keynote address at the recent meeting of the West Virginia Division of the Society of American Foresters on “Roosevelt’s Legacy: Law and Policy Implications for Natural Gas Production.” 
 

James Friedberg  James Friedberg, Posten Professor of Law, recently gave a lecture at the Truman Institute of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He discussed “Ambiguous Sovereignty: the Social and Legal Void North of the Barrier in Annexed East Jerusalem.”



Valena Beety
Valena Beety, Associate Professor of Law and Director of the West Virginia Innocent Project, has been appointed the the Board of Directors of the Innocence Network. 

Additionally, she recently presented at the American Association of Law Schools Clinical Conference in Chicago on “Shaken Baby Syndrome: A Model for Cross-Fertilization.” Beety also presented a paper at the Robina Institute’s Annual Conference in April on “The Future of Criminal Law?” and co-presented on “Starting an Innocence Effort” at the 2014 Innocence Network Conference


Sean Tu Associate Professor of Law Sean Tu was recently selected for the Thomas Edison Innovation Fellowship sponsored by the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property. His presentation focused on the relationship between patent examiners and subsequent patent litigation.



Jena Martin
Jena Martin, Associate Professor of Law, recently traveled to Geneva to present at the Second United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights. The forum was hosted by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Her presentation focused on West Virginian’s understanding of business and human rights issues. Professor Martin organized and facilitated Business of Human Rights: Moving Forward, Looking Back, an international conference atWVU in fall 2013. Supported by the U.N. Working Group on Business and Human Rights, the conference was the first of its kind hosted by a university. 

Valena BeetyValena Beety, Associate Professor of Law and Director of the West Virginia Innocent Project, was one of just six WVU faculty selected for a Big XII Fellowship in 2013. She conducted research at the University of Texas Law School on the growing role of judicial clemency in state criminal justice systems, looking comparatively at Texas and West Virginia. Beety presented her finding at a UT Law Faculty Colloquium.

Professor Beety co-authored “Protecting West Virginia’s Innocent” in the October-December issue of The West Virginia Lawyer. She also published three law review articles in 2013:

  • “The Case of Trayvon Martin and the Need for Eyewitness Identification Reform,” 90 DENVER U. L.REV. 331 (2013)
  • “Risk and Execution: The Local Impact of Capital Cases on Mississippi Counties,” 82 MISS. L. J. 1337 (2013) 
  • “Criminal Justice and Corpulence: The Unsung Role of Fatism in the Courtroom,” 11 SEATTLE J. OFSOCIAL JUSTICE 523 (2013)














Tom Patrick
Teaching Associate Professor Tom Patrick recently presented “Writing By Design—Keeping on TRACk,” a component of the Legal Writing Institute Workshop Preparing Practice-Ready Students at the Charleston (SC) School of Law.





James Friedberg, Posten Professor of Law, will be a Research Fellow at the Truman Institute for Peace Studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem in March and April 2014. Working with international scholars, he will be investigating obstacles to peace between Israel and the Palestinians from legal, political, cultural, and religious perspectives. 


Vince Cardi
Professor Vince Cardi, Bowles Rice Professor of Law, will be a Visiting Professor at Wake Forest University School of Law for the spring 2014 semester. 








 Barton Z. Cowan
Visiting Professor Barton Z. Cowan recently gave a presentation at the American Nuclear Society 2013 National Winter Meeting in Washington, DC. He addressed “Nuclear Licensing—A History” at a conference panel on licenses, certifications, and approvals for nuclear power facilities (Part 52 of the Atomic Energy Act).





Michael Blumenthal
Visiting Professor Michael Blumenthal will release his 14th book in March 2014. “Just Three Minutes Please: Thinking Out Loud on Public Radio” (WVU Press, 2014), is a collection of Blumenthal’s essays commissioned by West Virginia Public Radio that provide unconventional insights into contemporary political, education, and social systems.



  
Gregory Bowman Professor Gregory Bowman, Associate Dean of the Faculty, discussed “Going Global: A West Virginian’s Journey from Local to Global (and Back)” at the annual Create WV conference in Richwood in October. 

Create WV brings together some of the nation’s and state’s most provocative and “action-oriented thinkers and doers” to focus on the future.


Patrick McGinley Professors Robert Bastress and Patrick McGinley (left) presented at the News Law Seminar, hosted by the WVU Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism and the West Virginia Press Association in October. 

The seminar addressed avoiding and handling subpoenas; legal issues for online and social media; privacy considerations for the media; the Freedom of Information Act and other laws to access government; and defamation law, avoiding lawsuits and handling complaints. 


Jesse Richardson Jesse Richardson, Lead Land Use Attorney with the Land Use and Sustainable Development Clinic, is President-Elect of the American Agriculture Law Association (AALA). He is chair of the organizing committee for the association’s 2014 National Conference in Albuquerque, NM.

AALA is a national professional organization focusing on the legal needs of the agricultural community. It is independent and non-partisan, and draws members from all segments of the agricultural law bar – rural and urban private practice, federal and state government, academics, agribusiness, nonprofits, and others.


Holly Schwartz TempleHollee Schwartz Temple, Teaching Associate Professor of Law, recently published “West Virginia Legal Research” (Carolina Academic Press, 2013). It introduces readers to all of the key primary and secondary authorities that careful legal researchers must review.



Anne Marie Lofaso Anne Marie Lofaso, Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development, is the co-author of the casebook “Modern Labor Law in the Public and Private Sectors: Cases and Materials” (Lexis, 2013). It incorporates two recent trends in labor law: the shift of union density from the private-sector to the public-sector and the growth of organizing outside the National Labor Relations Act process. 


James Elkins Arthur S. Dayton Professor of Law James Elkins is editor of a new anthology of poems about the practice of law, “Lawyer Poets and That World We Call Law” (Pleasure Boat Studio, 2013).
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