 Matthew Doré |
From holding chair positions in sections to delivering presentations, Drake University law professors are gaining national visibility for themselves and the Law School. This year at least four Drake law professors will be actively involved at the annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), to be held in New York from Jan. 3-6, 2008.
Matthew Doré, the Richard M. and Anita Calkins distinguished professor of law, will represent the Law School in the AALS House of Delegates, which votes on executive officers and any proposed changes to the organization’s rules for the coming year.
In addition, Doré has been invited to present a paper at an annual section meeting of the AALS Section on Agency, Partnerships and Unincorporated Business Associations at the annual meeting. His paper covers the topic of tort liability exposure for participants in limited liability companies.
 Neil Hamilton |
Neil Hamilton, the Opperman professor of law and director of the Agricultural Law Center, will make a presentation during a session hosted by the Section on Agricultural Law and co-sponsored by the Section on Natural Resources Law.
The session is titled “Energy, Food and the Environment: Agriculture’s Future.”
Professor Hamilton will address the growth in ethanol production in Iowa and the Midwest and the possible effect on land stewardship, food supplies and the development of other sources of renewable sources in rural America. Hamilton previously served as a chair of the Section on Agricultural Law.
 Mark Kende |
Mark Kende, the James Madison chair in constitutional law, director of the Constitutional Law Center and professor of law, will become the chair of the Section on Constitutional Law in January 2008.
It is one of the largest sections in AALS and has many members who are prominent nationally on a variety of constitutional, legal and political issues.
His primary job will be to organize scholarly panels for the annual AALS conference to be held in San Diego in January 2009. Kende will also play a role in the section’s 2008 mid-year meeting in Cleveland, Ohio.
Previously, Kende served as chair of the Section on Africa, and organized several scholarly panels for annual meetings and represented the section at various academic events. He has given speeches on his work and research about South Africa.
 Lisa Penland |
Lisa Penland, associate professor of law, designed a poster that was selected for presentation by the Section on Teaching Methods section. The poster is titled “The Hypothetical Lawyer: Warrior, Wiseman or Hybrid?”
The poster encourages law school educators to take a closer look at methods used to teach future lawyers, and to adopt curriculum and teaching methods that better prepare young lawyers as both transactional attorneys and litigators.
 Melissa Weresh |
Melissa Weresh, professor of law and director of legal writing, is serving as the treasurer of the Section on Teaching Methods, of which she will become chair in 2010.
Weresh also served as chair of the poster committee for the section, which is responsible for selecting academic posters for presentation for the section at the 2008 annual meeting.
Weresh has been selected to present academic posters for two different sections at the meeting.
One poster, titled “The Path to Clinical Tenure,” will be presented to the Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research. The poster illustrates Weresh’s research on standards for promotion and retention of legal writing faculty who are eligible for clinical tenure.
The other poster, titled “Geographic Inequity in Medicare Reimbursement: Effect of Geographic Practice Cost Indices on Physician Reimbursement and Patient Access,” will be presented to the Section on Law, Medicine and Health Care. This poster illustrates the effect of geographic modifiers on physician reimbursement fees as contrasted with uniform Medicare premiums.
It also reveals the effect of geographic variation in reimbursement on patient access to physician care. This poster has also been selected for publication in The Rutgers Journal of Law & Public Policy.