- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

First Health Care Policy and Law Symposium to be held Sept. 30

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 13:09:34 +0000

The first of a three-year symposium series on health care policy and law in Arkansas will be held from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30, at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. The symposium series, made possible by a donation from Blue Cross Blue Shield, is designed to foster thoughtful, intellectual debate about health care issues in Arkansas. The goal is to promote informed policy making and to establish a platform for generating research projects. This year’s Health Care Policy and the Law Symposium will focus on access to health care in Arkansas. Lectures and panel discussions will cover rural health care, the scope of practicing medicine, and how technology, communication, and culture affect access to health care. Some of the presentations will be published in the Arkansas Journal of Social Change and Public Service. Special speakers include Dr. Gregory Bledsoe, surgeon general for the state of Arkansas, former Congressman Dr. Vic Snyder, John Selig, former director of Arkansas Department of Human Services, and Rich Huddleston, executive director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. In addition, Scott Pace, executive vice president and CEO of the Arkansas Pharmacists Association, Rick George, senior director of benefits at J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc., and Kathleen Holk, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Law, will also speak at the symposium. Registration is $20 in advance online or $30 on the day of the symposium. Lunch and snacks will be provided. For more information, call 501.324.9973 or email law@ualr.edu.

��Vlog��ýLR professor named recipient of prestigious legal writing award

Gloria King — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 19:41:45 +0000

A law professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has been selected to receive one of the highest honors in her field. Coleen Miller Barger, the Ben J. Altheimer Distinguished Professor of Law at the ��Vlog��ýLR William H. Bowen School of Law, is set to receive the Thomas F. Blackwell Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Legal Writing. Presented annually by the Association of Legal Writing Directors and the Legal Writing Institute, the prestigious award is given to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to improve the field of Legal Writing. Among the criteria to receive the award are an ability to nurture and motivate students to excellence; willingness to help other legal writing educators improve their teaching skills or legal writing programs; and an ability to create and integrate new ideas for teaching and motivating legal writing educators and students. Letters of nomination praised Professor Barger’s dedication, mentoring, and motivation and support, not just to students, but to legal writing colleagues and professional organizations. “This praise is well-deserved, but it is not news to us at Bowen,” said Dean Michael Hunter Schwartz. “Professor Barger’s well-known dedication to excellence is evidenced by her teaching, her mentoring of her students, her scholarship, and her service to both her colleagues at Bowen and elsewhere. She is an asset to the law school and to the Arkansas legal community, as well as to the legal education community as a whole.” Professor Barger is the author of the fifth edition of the ALWD Guide to Citation (Wolters Kluwer 2014), co-author of the ALWD Companion: A Citation Practice Book (Aspen Publishers 2010), and author of Arkansas Legal Research (Carolina Academic Press 2007). She is a contributing author to the Arkansas Bar Association’s Handling Appeals in Arkansas handbook. She serves on the Legal Writing eJournal Advisory Board for the SSRN Legal Scholarship network, and she was formerly editor of the Legal Writing Prof Blog, part of the Law Professor Blogs Network, and the JURIST Legal Research and Writing Guide. Barger represented the national legal writing community as a member of the Board of Directors for both the Association of Legal Writing Directors and the Legal Writing Institute. She has made numerous presentations at these organizations’ national and regional conferences, in addition to appearing as panelist or speaker in continuing legal education programs for organizations such as the Arkansas Bar Association, the Eighth Circuit Appellate Practice Institute, and the Defense Research Institute. She is a two-time winner of the Arkansas Bar Foundation Writing Excellence Award for articles appearing in Arkansas Lawyer, a publication of the Arkansas Bar Association. At Bowen, Professor Barger teaches the two-semester, first-year course in legal writing, Research, Writing, and Analysis, in addition to upper-level courses such as Advanced Legal Writing and Advanced Legal Research. She is faculty advisor to the Bowen Moot Court Board, advising teams who represent the law school in national appellate competitions. In her role as Developments Editor of ��Vlog��ýLR’s Journal of Appellate Practice and Process, Professor Barger contributes to current scholarship on issues facing federal and state appellate courts. A graduate of ��Vlog��ýLR for both baccalaureate and juris doctor degrees, Professor Barger has three times won the Faculty Excellence Award in Teaching at the law school (1996, 2007, 2013), and she was awarded its Faculty Excellence Award in Service in 2000. “It’s an incredible honor, and one I hope to live up to. To be recognized nationally by one’s academic peers is over the top,” she said. “I truly appreciate my dear ��Vlog��ýLR colleagues who are joining me in this celebration. I am proud to represent them all. The Blackwell Award serves to give national recognition of all the ways we’ve built the legal writing program at Bowen.”

Conference to explore racial disparities in Arkansas justice system

Shanna Fitzgerald — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 14:35:34 +0000

A two-day conference designed to highlight and seek solutions to racial disparities in the Arkansas justice system is set to begin Friday, Aug. 28, at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. Black inmates make up nearly 45 percent of the incarcerated population in Arkansas, but only about 16 percent of the state’s population, according to a study scheduled to be presented for the first time during “Reveal, Restore and Resurrect: The Truth about Racial Disparities in the Arkansas Criminal Justice System”. “Some findings we were surprised about, and some findings we weren’t,” said Adjoa Aiyetoro, ��Vlog��ýLR associate law professor and the principal investigator of the two-year study of prison records and charging decisions by prosecutors. Dr. Tara DeJohn, from the ��Vlog��ýLR School of Social Work, was the lead researcher. The conference, which has a waiting list for attendees, begins with a 2 p.m. Friday welcome from ��Vlog��ýLR Chancellor Dr. Joel E. Anderson and School of Law Dean Michael Hunter Schwartz, followed by an overview of the research project’s results and findings at about 2:35 p.m. Other portions of the conference are organized into three categories:

Brokenness: Examines “the ways in which communities of color have been negatively affected by intentional or unconscious race-based systems and processes that result in racial disparities in Arkansas’ criminal justice system”

Restoration: Examines “barriers faced by those who have been involved in the Arkansas criminal justice system to access programs and services that will restore them to fully participating members of society”
Resurrection: Envisions “how communities can be uplifted, invigorated and assisted in shedding the burdens of inequality”

Those scheduled to moderate, serve as panelists or present include: Wilbert Rideau, author and journalist once called “the most rehabilitated prisoner in America”; former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker; Jin Hee Lee, deputy director of litigation, NAACP Legal Defense Fund; Regan Moffitt, associate vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation; and John Kirk, ��Vlog��ýLR Donaghey distinguished professor of history and the director of the ��Vlog��ýLR Institute on Race and Ethnicity. Attendee registration is at capacity, and organizers are compiling a waiting list. Those registering now will be admitted 15 minutes after the conference begins each day if seats are available. A schedule of conference events and a link to register can be found at: /law/disparityconf/

Bowen School of Law library wins marketing award

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Tue, 13 May 2014 14:33:30 +0000

The ��Vlog��ýLR William H. Bowen School of Law Library has won the American Association of Law Library’s 2014 Excellence in Marketing Award for the Best Public Relations Toolkit. The Excellence in Marketing Awards honor outstanding achievement in public relations activities. The category requires a combination of at least three promotional items. The items in the library submission included four brochures promoting library services to law students, law faculty, new graduates, and attorneys; mouse pads; bookmarks; pens; and sticky flag booklets. The library’s entry was titled “The Library is More Than a Place to Study.” The goal of the library items was to show each target audience how the library can assist them and to acquaint them with the resources and services the library offers. The library also submitted digital items, including Facebook and Pinterest pages, sample screens from the large-screen monitor at the library entrance and photos of the library displays. In addition to focusing on resources and services, the digital media spotlights events happening in the library and law school. To learn more about the law school, go to ��Vlog��ýLR William H. Bowen School of Law.

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Affordable Care Act Enrollment event scheduled at law school Feb. 3

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 01:39:05 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law and the Arkansas Insurance Department invite the public and ��Vlog��ýLR faculty, staff, and students to attend an Affordable Care Act Enrollment event.

The event will be held at two different times on Monday, Feb. 3, at noon and later at 5 p.m. in the student lounge of the ��Vlog��ýLR Bowen School of Law.

Participants will be given information about health insurance options and be able to meet with a licensed guide.

Both presentations are free and open to the public.

Open enrollment is available from noon until 6 p.m. that day. Healthy snacks will be available to potential enrollees.

Participants are reminded that coverage in the Health Insurance Marketplace will require certain information such as proof of income, any insurance the participant is currently holding, and Social Security number (or document number for legal permanent residents).

Open enrollment for the Health Insurance Marketplace ends March 31, 2014. Contact Leslie Copeland at lcfisher@ualr.edu for additional questions.

Smith Name to HighEdWeb Board of Directors

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 19:55:24 +0000

The ��Vlog��ýLR William H. Bowen School of Law Director of Communications, Tonya Oaks Smith, has been named to the Board of Directors for the . Smith is the co-chair of the HighEdWeb Regional Support Committee, and manages the website, communications, marketing, and public relations for the Bowen School. She served on the ��Vlog��ýLR Campus Campaign Steering Committee and is also on the board of IABC Arkansas as its vice president of university outreach. is an organization of web professionals working at institutions of higher education. HighEdWeb strives to advance web professionals, technologies and standards in higher education. The organization started in 1999 as a strategic alliance of web professionals in New York state higher education.

Governor Appoints ��Vlog��ýLR Alum to ��Vlog��ý Board

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 15:08:46 +0000

Gov. Mike Beebe recently named a ��Vlog��ýLR Bowen School of Law alum to the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees. Charles “Cliff” Gibson III, of Monticello, earned his juris doctorate at ��Vlog��ýLR while serving on the editorial board of the ��Vlog��ýLR Law Journal. The appointment replaces Mike Akin of Monticello and expires March 1, 2023. In 1981, Gibson established his own law firm in Monticello, where he continues to practice, also serving as attorney for Drew County for the past 12 years. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Arkansas at Monticello. “Cliff’s appointment helps ensure a dependable voice on the Board for the U of A campuses in South Arkansas,” Beebe said. “His sound judgment and calm demeanor will serve the entire system of schools well in the coming years.” Beebe has appointed Gibson multiple times as a Special Justice to the Arkansas Supreme Court. A former recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the City of Monticello, Gibson has also been president of the Monticello Economic Development Commission.

��Vlog��ýLR Names New Dean of Bowen School of Law

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 15:37:54 +0000

��Vlog��ýLR Provost Zulma Toro has announced the appointment of Michael Hunter Schwartz of Lawrence, Kansas, as the new dean of law at the William H. Bowen School of Law. Schwartz, who comes to ��Vlog��ýLR with more than 20 years of experience in legal education, is currently associate dean for Faculty and Academic Development at Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas. He is also co-director of the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning and professor of law at Washburn. Professor Paula Casey, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, has served the law school as interim dean since July 2012. She will continue to serve until Schwartz starts on July 1. Casey will then resume her role as professor. Prior to joining Washburn in 2006, Schwartz was a professor of law at the Charleston School of Law in South Carolina and at Western State University College of Law in Fullerton, Calif. He gained professional experience in California as an associate attorney at Graham & James law firm in Newport Beach and as an associate attorney at Hufstedler, Miller, Kaus & Beardsley law firm in Los Angeles. He practiced contracts, insurance, and construction law. “This is a very exciting time for the ��Vlog��ýLR Bowen School,” said Toro. “The fact that we have been able to hire a nationally and internationally recognized leader in legal education will bring many opportunities for the law school to reach an even higher academic level.” In his letter to the search committee, Schwartz said he hoped to forge successful collaborations with the faculty and ��Vlog��ýLR’s other academic units, build on the law school’s successes that leverage and promote the school’s location in the capital city, improve the school’s national and international profile, and lead major fundraising efforts for the school. “I know that faculty and staff at the ��Vlog��ýLR Bowen School of Law are incredibly excited about welcoming Michael to our school,” said Casey. “He brings a number of innovative ideas about legal education to the table, and his experience as an organizer of the first conference on Humanizing Legal Education at Washburn Law School will certainly help improve our already strong focus on student-centered legal education. He is highly respected as an educator and advocate for helping create practice-ready attorneys, and his work in these areas will continue to strengthen our focus on legal skills education.” Schwartz received his juris doctor from the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco in 1987 and his bachelor’s degree in mass communications from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1984.

Olson Works on Dispute Resolution, Family Law

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:43:44 +0000

Professor Kelly Browe Olson of the ��Vlog��ýLR William H. Bowen School of Law participated last month in the planning meeting for the American Bar Association’s Section of Dispute Resolution Annual Conference. In October, Olson presented a talk on “Dependency Neglect Mediation and How to Communicate through Conflict” at the Administrative Office of the Court’s Arkansas Trial Court Assistants Program in Hot Springs. Earlier this year, Olson – director of the Bowen School’s clinical program – served as facilitator for a housing work group at the Representing Hope, Access to Justice Commission Conference in Little Rock. She facilitated the Child Protection Mediation Think Tank at the AFCC Conference in Chicago. Olson was also appointed program chair for the ABA Conference Planning Committee for the 2013 ABA Section on Dispute Resolution Annual Conference. Olson was a participant in the family law discussion work group, “How the Recognition of Same-Sex Relationships Is Transforming Family Law Pedagogy and Scholarship,” at the annual SEALS conference in Amelia Island, Fla., and presented on the “Benefits of Child Welfare Mediation” at the National Association of Counsel for Children’s 35th Child Welfare, Juvenile, and Family Law Conference. Olson made two presentations on mediation trends and mediation ethics at the Arkansas Conflict Resolution Association Meeting in Little Rock.

Law School to Co-Host Water Conference

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 17:52:41 +0000

The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico and the practice of hydraulic fracturing to find oil and gas are among the topics planned for the “Water; The Choices: Water Law and Policy” conference from 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8, at the C.A. Vine Arkansas 4-H Center. The conference, sponsored by the Public Policy Center and the ��Vlog��ýLR William H. Bowen School of Law, will be at the center located at 1 Four-H Way in Ferndale. Admission is $55 for the general public and $20 for students. Lunch is included. . For more information, contact Kristin Higgins at 501.671.2160. Emeritus Professor Ken Gould of the Bowen School of Law also will lead a session on water navigability and the unanimous Supreme Court reversal of the Montana Supreme Court’s ruling that required a hydroelectric dam operator to pay the state of Montana nearly $40 million in back rent for the use of state-owned riverbeds. Joseph Dellapenna, law professor at Villanova University, will present the keynote speech. He is a co-author of “Water and Water Rights,” the standard reference work on water law in the United States. “The timing and topics of this Water Law and Policy Conference are extraordinary. The drought of 2012 underscores the importance of the state’s water resource,” said Tom Riley, director of the Public Policy Center of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. Combined sessions include:

Arkansas Water Plan – Ed Swaim, Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, Water Resources Division Manager.
Chesapeake Bay total maximum daily load litigation – National Issues and Implications for the Mississippi River Basin – Susan Bodine, a partner in Barnes & Thornburg LLP’s Washington, D.C., office. Bodine focuses her practice on environmental public policy issues including water pollution control and wetlands issues.

Concurrent sessions include:

Modeling data and the realities of using the information as a policy tool – Dr. Andrew Sharpley, professor, University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
Water navigability after the Montana court decision – Ken Gould, professor, Bowen School of Law.
Gulf hypoxia and the Mississippi River Basin Initiative, its footprint and a big picture/Arkansas perspective – Mike Sullivan, Arkansas state conservationist for the Natural Resource Conservation Service.
Infrastructure life cycle – Graham Rich, CEO, Central Arkansas Water.
An update on Union County; A success story; Water policy after Sparta – Robert Reynolds, president of the Union County Water Conservation Board.
Instream flows – Dr. Dan Magoulick, professor of biology, University of Arkansas.
Fracking and deep injection wells in Arkansas – Shane Khoury, deputy director/general counsel, Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission.
Invasive species – Dr. Raghu Sathyamurthy, associate professor, entomology, University of Arkansas.
Numeric Nutrient Criteria – Florida and beyond – Susan Bodine.

For more information, visit the online.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock