My Profile Search Directory Submit News Contact Us Logout Alumni Home
Spring 2005UVA Lawyer - Home
Dean's MessageOpinionClass NotesIn MemoriamIn PrintFaculty Briefs Home
Twitter

 
1970s Class Notes

1970 Reunion Year

Richard N. Carrell of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP was named a “Texas Super Lawyer” in the November Texas Monthly. Carrell’s practice area is antitrust. He is a partner in the Houston office.

GreeneKenneth M. Greene, a senior partner at Carruthers & Roth, PA, in Greensboro, NC, was selected for inclusion in the 2005–2006 The Best Lawyers in America. This marks the tenth anniversary of Greene’s first appearance in The Best Lawyers. Greene was also selected to this year’s Business North Carolina’s “Legal Elite” in the practice areas of bankruptcy and business law.

1971

The second edition of Geoffrey Hull’s book, The Recording Industry, was recently published (see In Print). The book explores the legal, economic, and business aspects of the music business. Hull is a professor in the Recording Industry Department at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.

David Robertson, partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP in New York, is the President-Elect of the New York County Lawyers Association. Robertson is also a member of the ABA House of Delegates and the National Conference of Bar Presidents.

1972

BlairMichael Blair was named to manage PennStuart’s workers’ compensation and occupation disease group. Blair was an assistant attorney general in Virginia for five years prior to joining PennStuart in 1979. An officer in the firm’s Bristol, TN office, Blair represents employers and insurance carriers before the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission and handles black lung cases before the Department of Labor.

HouseGeorge W. House, partner at Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, LLP, in Greensboro, NC, was selected for inclusion in the 2005–2006 The Best Lawyers in America. House also has earned recognition as North Carolina’s “Legal Elite” in environmental law and litigation.

Gregory L. Murphy was made a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Virginia Bar Foundation. Murphy is a partner at Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease LLP in Washington, DC.

1973

Robert M. Craig III is serving as co-chair of the Litigation Section’s Committee on Corporate Counsel for the American Bar Association. He manages the securities and mergers and acquisitions litigation docket for Waste Management, Inc., in Houston, where he is associate general counsel.

1974

DuBoseC. Wilson DuBose was recognized with awards from the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Georgia, and the Atlanta Bar Association. DuBose received the American Bar Association’s Access to Justice Award in 2004 for his role in indigent defense reform in Georgia. He was also chosen to receive the 2004 State Bar of Georgia Distinguished Service Award, described as the State Bar’s highest honor. DuBose then received the Atlanta Bar Association’s Leadership Award in January, for his contributions to indigent defense and school-failure prevention projects in the city and state. As chair of the State Bar of Georgia’s Indigent Defense Committee, which helps provide representation and equal justice to the poor, DuBose was instrumental in the passage of HB 770. The bill created the Public Defender Standards Council, an independent agency within Georgia’s judicial branch, whose mission is to ensure, independently of political considerations or private interests, that each client whose cause has been entrusted to a circuit public defender receives zealous, adequate, effective, timely, and ethical legal representation.

T.J. Wray of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP was named a “Texas Super Lawyer” in the November Texas Monthly. Wray’s practice area is labor and employment. He is a partner in the Houston office.

1975 Reunion Year

Zack A. Clement of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP was named a “Texas Super Lawyer” in the November Texas Monthly Magazine. Clement’s practice area is bankruptcy & workout. He is a partner in the Houston office.

William C. Cleveland III was selected by his peers for inclusion in the 2005–2006 The Best Lawyers in America. Cleveland was chosen in the business litigation category and is the business litigation practice group head at Buist Moore Smythe McGee in Charleston, SC.

Daniel T. Roble of Ropes & Gray LLP in Boston was selected by his peers for inclusion in the 2005–2006 The Best Lawyers in America.

Tom Schlosser continues to work for American Indian tribes, most recently, clearing the way for restoration of California’s great Trinity River in the case of Hoopa Valley Tribe v. Westland Water District. Find the story of the case at http://www.schlosserlawfiles.com. Schlosser is a director at Morisset, Schlosser, Jozwiak & McGraw in Seattle.

Peter Tennyson of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker in California’s Orange County, was selected as a recipient of the 2003 California Lawyers Attorney of the Year Award in transactional law. Tennyson was the lead attorney on one of the biggest acquisitions of 2003: a $2.5 billion deal on behalf of his client, David H. Murdock, chairman and CEO of Dole Food Company.

Michael L. Wells was appointed the Marion and W. Colquitt Carter Chair in Tort and Insurance Law at the University of Georgia School of Law in Athens, GA. Wells joined the faculty in 1978 and specializes in the fields of torts, federal courts, and constitutional law. The chair was established in 1986.

1976

CaryWilliam P. H. Cary, partner at Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, LLP, in Greensboro, NC, has been selected for inclusion in the 2005–2006 The Best Lawyers in America.

James Hingeley was selected as a fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation, Class of 2005. This honor is conferred on lawyers who have distinguished themselves in the legal profession, by service to the Bar and to their communities, and is limited to one percent of the active and associate lawyers in Virginia. Hingeley is a public defender in Charlottesville.

James J. Lee continues to practice in the Dallas office of Vinson & Elkins LLP, where he is a partner in the commercial litigation and insolvency areas, specializing in bankruptcy litigation. Recently, he was selected as a “Texas Super Lawyer” for the second consecutive year by Texas Monthly and Law and Politics. Earlier in the year, Lee was recognized as one of two top-ranked practitioners in bankruptcy litigation for the state of Texas in 2004 by Chambers USA. He was also selected for membership in the National Register’s Who’s Who in Executives and Professionals.

Michael J. Leech has been designated by the Washington, DC-based College of Labor and Employment Lawyers as its liaison to the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law of Employment, Third Project. Leech is a partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in Chicago.

M. Hamilton Whitman, Jr., of Ober|Kaler in Baltimore has been recognized in the 2005–2006 The Best Lawyers in America for his significant contribution in the area of maritime law. Whitman is chair of the admiralty group practice.

Purrington ’77 Helping Rebuild Iraq

Roliff Purrington ’77 (right) with an Iraqi Facilities Protection Officer in the Green Zone.

After spending three weeks in October escorting a delegation of Iraqi officials on a government sponsored trip to the United States, Roliff Purrington ’77 headed back to Baghdad in November 2004. As Senior Consultant to the Iraqi Ministry of Construction and Housing, Purrington is unsure precisely when he will finish his work in Iraq, but he is “feeling the tug, especially after coming home to the U.S., which the visiting Iraqi officials described as a ‘paradise’ upon seeing it for the first time.” Purrington volunteered to serve in Iraq in late 2003 and arrived there in March 2004, taking leave from his work for Cherokee Investment Partners, LLC, a private equity fund. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) first placed him as one of the advisors to the new Iraqi environmental ministry. Then, in April 2004, Ambassador Paul Bremer appointed him Senior Consultant to the Ministry of Construction and Housing, one of Iraq’s larger ministries with some 23,000 employees. His assignment runs well into 2005. With the transition of sovereignty to the Interim Iraqi Government from the CPA in June 2004, Purrington began working for the State Department in the same capacity. “With transition,” he said, “I became less involved in the day-to-day management of the Ministry and more involved in broader policy and reconstruction issues, though I still spend significant amounts of time fielding issues and addressing problems.” He follows up on old CPA matters and acts as an ombudsman fielding issues that arise between the Coalition and the Ministry. He is now advising on creating an Iraqi home mortgage facility, developing mechanisms to allow U.S.-funded construction projects to be administered through the Iraqi contracting system, and privatizing the Ministry’s twelve state-owned enterprises and directorates. “There are numerous initiatives I would like to complete and several staff positions to fill in my office,” he said. “I think we’re on the right track, but it is essential that everyone involved — the military, the Iraqis, the Department of State, USAID, and Washington — communicate and share information to maximize our resources and avoid duplication of effort. As is often the case, effective execution of various strategies is dependent on attention to detail and follow through.” He cited the distance from Washington, all the “moving parts” in the reconstruction operation, and the obvious security distractions as posing challenges to effective communication and coordination. Purrington said that there were many Iraqi contractors and citizens able and willing to work to rebuild the country, and that “we are improving with time on our abilities to execute projects and promptly deploy funding allocated to rebuild the country. Construction projects mean jobs and jobs enhance social stability, so the reconstruction is an important element of the foreign policy task.” He interacts with the military regularly, including when he goes out in the Red Zone in convoys to the Ministry offices and elsewhere during the week. He has also had an opportunity to observe the military while working on the reconstruction of Samarra and Fallujah and visiting those cities. They are “among the most effective operators in the theater,” he said. “They’re disciplined and practical, and the combination produces good results. I’m impressed by first, their bravery, and second their ‘can-do’ attitude.” Purrington says he is too busy day-to-day to contemplate how the experience has affected him. “Things move so fast out here that there is little time to stop and reflect.” He says that witnessing the interaction of the cultures and the unique aspects of the foreign policy mission has been one of his most interesting experiences. “The symbolism of planting democratic values and freedom in the ‘fertile crescent’ and birthplace of civilization also gives the mission a special energy,” he said. “And after having spent so many years in a law office, I have enjoyed engaging a wider spectrum of abilities and emotions and with the people in my work. It has also been moving to see the silently heroic efforts of the military, the Iraqis, and my Coalition colleagues here at all levels."

1977

J. Herbie DiFonzo, professor of law at Hofstra University School of Law, delivered the Peter E. Herman Prize Lecture, titled, “Unbundling Marriage: Interpreting the Legal and Cultural Changes in Family Structure.” He also was named a co-reporter for the Family Law Education Reform Project, sponsored by the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. His most recent article, “In Praise of Statues of Limitations in Sex Offense Cases,” will be published this winter. Hofstra is in Hempstead, NY.

Michael Fix became Vice President of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, DC, in January.

Following a professorship at Wake Forest Law School, David A. Logan was appointed Dean of the Roger Williams University Law School in Rhode Island.

MeckJohn F. Meck, a partner at Fox Rothschild LLP in Pittsburgh, was named a “Pennsylvania Super Lawyer” as selected by his peers statewide, representing the top five percent of all lawyers in the Commonwealth. From this group, Meck was singled out as one of the Top 50 in the city. Meck also was chosen as one of the best in the nation by fellow attorneys in the 2005–2006 of The Best Lawyers in America. He focuses his law practice on estate, trust and tax planning, administration, and litigation.

Eva Nilsen is a law professor at Boston University’s School of Law, where she runs a criminal justice clinic and teaches criminal law-related subjects, as well as a seminar on U.S. drug policy. Her husband Eric Blumenson is also a law professor, and daughter Claire is a junior at Wesleyan. Nilsen reports that she regularly sees many 1977 classmates. For the spring semester,

John E. Noyes is a distinguished visiting professor of law at Suffolk University Law School. He has been a professor of law at California Western School of Law in San Diego since 1982. Professor Noyes is currently the United States member of the International Law Association’s Committee on the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf, and a vice president of the American branch of the International Law Association.

Will Shortz is the crossword editor of the New York Times and “Puzzlemaster” for National Public Radio’s “Weekend Edition Sunday.” As a non-practicing lawyer who never took the bar exam, Shortz has always considered himself a “black sheep in the legal world.” He will be the keynote speaker at the annual Law School Admissions Council meeting on June 2–4 in Palm Springs, CA.

1978

D'AngeloChristopher Scott D’Angelo was appointed to a second term as chairman of the International Law Committee of the Defense Research Institute (DRI). DRI is a national and international membership association of lawyers and others concerned with the defense of civil actions. D’Angelo is a partner in the law firm of Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads, LLP, based in Philadelphia, and is chairman of the products liability & toxic torts section of its litigation department. His practice emphasizes business, class action, intellectual property, and products liability counseling and litigation, including his role as national counsel for several major U.S. clients and his representation of foreign concerns in the United States and U.S.-concerns abroad, as well as litigation and other matters in probate courts or involving estates and trusts.

Peter Flynn and his wife Jenifer ’79 report that they hope to be in Charlottesville this spring with their daughter Elinor (17), who is a junior at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. Both she and their son Peter, a sophomore at Deerfield, are planning to apply for admission to the University of Virginia.

HaggertyMichael Haggerty, a partner in the business transactions section of Jackson Walker’s Dallas office, was named a “Texas Super Lawyer” by Texas Monthly in 2004.

Arthur L. Schwarzwaelder was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers. Schwarzwaelder is an attorney with John A. Caputo & Associates in Pittsburgh. His practice is concentrated in plaintiff’s medical malpractice and personal injury.

William K. Smith joined Ulmer & Berne LLP as of counsel in the firm’s real estate and business law groups in Cleveland. Prior to joining Ulmer & Berne, Smith was at Frantz Ward LLP. At Frantz Ward, Smith represented banks and other lending institutions in financial transactions and loan workouts.

1979

As a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Council on Competitiveness, Jerry W. Cox is explaining the implications of U.S. Homeland Security Policy to business leaders around the world. Cox was the kick-off speaker at a conference in New York, and addressed a worldwide conclave of transportation experts in Belgium in March. Cox owns Potomac Strategy Associates, a law and public affairs fi rm in Washington, DC.

Dr. Hugh Hill is back at Johns Hopkins after a three-year stint at the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services. He continues to write and consult in health law and policy.

Elizabeth Kelley of Oak Forest, IL, practices social security disability law with her husband John Horn. The couple celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary with trips to Rome, Vienna, Cornwall, Paris, and Naples last year. Their daughters Anne McDonough (18) and Parham (16) attend St. Andrew’s School in Middletown, DE ; while son John Mathias (13) is at the Papplewick School in Ascot, England, prepping for Eton College.

David B. McCormack, a principal at Buist Moore Smythe McGee PA, in Charleston, SC, was selected for inclusion in the 2005–2006 The Best Lawyers in America. McCormack was chosen in the labor and employment law category and is the firm’s employment practice group head.

UnderwoodRandall A. Underwood, partner at Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, LLP, in Greensboro, NC, was selected for inclusion in the 2005–2006 The Best Lawyers in America.

Emily White, a former Deputy Secretary with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, joined Duane Morris LLP as a partner in the corporate practice group in Harrisburg, PA. Prior to her role as Deputy Secretary, White served the Pennsylvania Department of Commerce as Director of the Office of Small Business, and as in-house counsel.

UVA Lawyer Home

E-mail this page