The OCU LAW Library this week launched a new tech tool, allowing users of both Firefox and Internet Explorer to download an OCU LAW Library toolbar.

The toolbar gives users the ability to search the library catalog as well as other related databases, access library databases, submit reference questions and more.

To download the toolbar: http://oculawlibrary.ourtoolbar.com/.

For more information about the toolbar: http://www.okcu.edu/law/lawlib/pdfs/guide_toolbar.pdf

In this edition of the OCU LAW News Podcast, we speak to Instructor of Law C. Blue Clark, who has authored a new book detailing the American Indian tribes of Oklahoma. The book, published through the University of Oklahoma Press, is titled Indian Tribes of Oklahoma: A Guide. 

"It always surprises me that Native peoples are all but invisible within the contemporary United States," says Professor Clark. "There is a vast Indian Country out there that’s ready to be visited, that’s ready to be danced in if one is respectful, that’s ready to do business with, but it remains invisible."

Professor Clark holds the David Pendleton Chair in American Indian Studies and serves as Intertribal, Governmental and Cultural Advisor for the Native American Legal Resource Center at OCU LAW. He holds a bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma and is the author of Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock: Treaty Rights and Indian Law at the end of the Nineteenth Century (1999, paperback ed.). He is a member of the Muscogee Creek tribe.

Listen to the podcast in the player at left or by clicking below. The podcast also is available through iTunes, Podcast Alley and Odeo. 

 

 Episode 17 - August 2009: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

OCU LAW Professor Christina Misner-Pollard’s article, Domestic Violence in Russia: Is Current Law Meeting the Needs of Victims and the Obligations of Human Rights Instruments?, was published in the 2009 Columbia Journal of East European Law.

Misner-Pollard’s article analyzes Russia’s domestic violence laws from historical and modern-day perspectives, and explains what must happen in order for the Russian federation to comply with human-rights obligations on the global level. Misner-Pollard explores possible solutions for a country where 36,000 women are victims of domestic violence each day.

Misner-Pollard also teaches and runs OCU LAW’s Immigration Law Clinic, which puts students "in the trenches of immigration law" at Catholic Charities in Oklahoma City.

OCU LAW Professor Phyllis Bernard has been appointed by Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry to serve on the Oklahoma Clean Energy Independence Commission. State Secretary of Energy, the Hon. Robert Wegener, nominated Bernard to serve on the commission, which is designed "to utilize a dedicated group of Oklahomans with experience in energy-related industries to make a contribution to the nation’s efforts to address … energy issues, including the country’s dependence on foreign oil."

 “This is an important and exciting time,” Bernard said. “The interests of many sectors – from small, rural municipalities to environmental groups to big business – are converging around the need to provide sustainable, reliable, well-integrated energy for the power grid. The opportunities this Commission presents for constructive dialogue will contribute to our future economy and quality of life. I’m honored to be part of the process.”   

Bernard serves on the Board of Directors of Southwest Power Pool, Inc., a position to which she succeeded OCU President Tom McDaniel. SPP is the regional transmission organization mandated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (U.S. Department of Energy) to oversee the electric power grid and wholesale energy supply market for an area that includes Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico, Nebraska, Mississippi and Louisiana. SPP’s chief duty is to assure reliability and to administer the tariff that pays for the wholesale costs of transmitting power, working in cooperation with state entities such as the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. One of the most challenging issues facing SPP is how to integrate into the transmission system and allocate costs for emerging technologies such as wind power. Bernard serves on the Oversight (Regulatory Compliance) Committee and chairs the Human Resources (Compensation) Committee.

At OCU LAW, Bernard is Professor of Law and Director of the Center on Alternative Dispute Resolution. She directed the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s Early Settlement Central Mediation Program which operated through the law school. Bernard has served as a member of the Governing Councils for the American Bar Association Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, ABA Section on Dispute Resolution, and ABA Africa; and as chair of the Dispute Resolution Section of the Association of American Law Schools. She is co-editor of a leading ABA sourcebook on ethics in dispute resolution and a Fellow of the National Association of Administrative Law Judges. She has been recognized for her expertise on issues of ethics, culture and fairness in civil and commercial ADR, ADR and government processes, and court-connected ADR both in the U.S. and abroad.

OCU LAW Professor Deborah Tussey spoke at the Second Annual Conference of Innovation an Communication this August in Louisville, Kentucky. The conference focused on the roles intellectual property and communication law play in the dissemination of information.  Tussey’s topic was "Does Copyright Work?"

The Conference was jointly sponsored by the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law, University of Turku Faculty of Law, Drake University Law School, Michigan State University College of Law, and the IPR Center in Helsinki, Finland.

Tussey also has been featured the OCU LAW Podcast discussing how social media and user generated content are affecting intellectual property issues.

OCU LAW alumnus Rick Rescorla ‘75 will be posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame on Nov. 11. Rescorla, who served as Vice President of Corporate Security for the brokerage firm Dean Witter (which merged with Morgan Stanley in 1997), was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. In his position with the firm, Rescorla was known as the voice of calm during the 1993 attack on the WTC, and insisted on regular evacuation drills thereafter. It is estimated that the security measures that Rescorla put into place were responsible for saving hundreds of lives - only six Morgan Stanley employees lost their lives when building #2 collapsed. According to printed reports, Rescorla went upstairs before working his way down, telling people to remain calm and keep moving. In the stairwells, Rescorla sang "God Bless America" and Cornish folk songs. He called Morgan Stanley headquarters just before the building’s collapse to report that he was going back up to search for stragglers. 

"He was selfless in that situation, and that’s your ultimate character test," Bob Sloss, Morgan Stanley managing director, told The Washington Post. "He was not rattled at all. He was putting the lives of his colleagues above his own."

Born in Cornwall, England in 1939, Rescorla joined the British military at 16 and fought Communist-backed revolts in Cyprus and Rhodesia. In 1963 he came to America and joined the Army, fighting in Vietnam with the Seventh Air Cavalry after Officer Candidate School. He led a mobile combat platoon in the remote Ia Drang Valley near the Cambodian border and was ordered with the rest of his unit, Bravo Company, to the center of hostile action. As the platoon endured enemy fire, Rescorla would lead the troops in song to keep up their spirits. The combat that Bravo Company saw in the Ia Drang Valley would be featured in the book We Were Soldiers Once … And Young, which was made into the 2002 film We Were Soldiers, starring Mel Gibson and Greg Kinnear.

Rescorla earned a Silver Star, Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, Purple Heart and Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Gold Star, then left the military in 1968 to pursue his education. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Oklahoma and then enrolled at OCU LAW on the recommendation of then-Assistant District Attorney J.C. Wilson ‘69. While in law school he was a member of Phi Delta Phi. After graduating he taught criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, authored a book on emergency preparedness and security measures and began a career in corporate security. 

The Winter 2002 issue of the OCU LAW alumni magazine featured a story on Rescorla; it is available as a .pdf at the OCU LAW alumni & friends site. 

The induction ceremony for the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame, honoring Rescorla and eight other inductees, will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Gaylord Center on the campus of Oklahoma Christian University in Edmond. More about the induction is available in an article on the Enid News & Eagle website.

OCU LAW Professor Von Creel’s article, Republican Justices of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma, and Republican Judges of the Criminal Court of Appeals of Oklahoma, 1907-1966, will be published in the Oklahoma History Society’s quarterly journal, Chronicles of Oklahoma.

The article explores the history of Republican Judges in Oklahoma from statehood in 1907 through 1966.  Creel chronicles the election and appointment processes, and reveals as some interesting facts about Oklahoma’s judges

Creel also co-authoredOklahoma City University School of Law: A History in 2008.

The Journal Record’s Marie Price today featured OCU LAW’s recent announcement of a $250,000 gift to the Native American Legal Resource Center’s American Indian Wills Program.

The American Indian Wills program began in January 2009 as part of the NALRC’s Native American Externship Program — with $20,000 in seed funds provided by the Oklahoma Bar Foundation.

The program offers practical experience for law students at OCU LAW. Under the supervision of a licensed attorney, students provide needed legal services while receiving instruction and training in client relations, as well as the complex area of American Indian estate planning.

Recently, an anonymous donor gave $250,000 to the program. The funds will support the work of the wills program for many years, while also allowing the program to expand.

You can read the full text of Marie Price’s story at the Journal Record website.

Two prominent OCU LAW alumni are at the center of a case involving a 2008 state abortion law that requires ultrasounds.

Yesterday, Oklahoma County District Judge Vicki Robertson ruled the law unconstitutional — finding it violated a state constitutional requirement that legislation deal with a single subject.

Robertson is a 1978 graduate of OCU LAW.

The bill’s author is State Senator Todd Lamb, R-Edmond, who is a 2005 graduate of OCU LAW. Lamb yesterday told NewsOK he doesn’t think the law violates the single-subject rule, and that he would probably make a formal request that the state’s attorney general appeal the ruling.

Today, a spokesman for Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson confirmed the state would appeal the ruling to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

You can also read more about the case in a NewsOK.com article.

OCU LAW’s Native American Legal Resource Center (NALRC) has received a $250,000 gift to support a groundbreaking American Indian Wills Program that launched earlier this year.

"Under the leadership of Director Kelly Stoner, the mission of the NALRC has focused on providing direct services in tribal communities while providing hands-on instruction to our students," said OCU LAW Dean Lawrence K. Hellman. "Thanks to the NALRC, our students gain practical experience in what are often complex areas of law, while members of the 37 tribes throughout Oklahoma get valuable assistance that might otherwise be available to them. This $250,000 gift will support the work of the wills program for many years to come. It will also enable us to expand the services we provide to the tribes and the training we can offer to our students. I’m thankful for the vision and leadership of our NALRC staff and to our alumni who were involved in the matter that culminated in this significant gift. And I’m gratified that a program at our law school has attracted this level of support from an individual who had no prior relationship with our law school or, for that matter, Oklahoma."

The American Indian Wills program first began in January 2009 as part of the NALRC’s Native American Externship Program — with $20,000 in seed funds provided by the Oklahoma Bar Foundation. The program offers practical experience for law students at OCU LAW. Under the supervision of a licensed attorney, students provide needed legal services while receiving instruction and training in client relations, as well as the complex area of American Indian estate planning.

"Estate planning for American Indians is complex because of the unique land issues and federal law. But few lawyers are actually trained to work in this area," said Casey Ross-Petherick, deputy director of the NALRC. "As a result, American Indians lack access to good estate planning services. This program delivers critical help to individual Indian beneficiaries."

So far, the program has completed four services dates, two in Concho in association with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, and two in Anadarko in association with the Wichita Tribe of Oklahoma. Over 40 wills have been drafted by the project to date, and the externship student and supervising attorney have provided legal advice to more than 50 individual American Indians regarding their estate planning needs. The project has five service dates scheduled for the Fall 2009 semester.

Ross-Petherick said the new $250,000 gift came after hard work by a number of OCU LAW alumni and those involved in overseeing Indian trust land. The gift stems from a 2007 estate case involving Indian land being probated in the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes’ jurisdiction. As a result of the work of five OCU LAW alumni and a fiduciary trust officer working for the Pawnee Agency, the out-of-state beneficiary in that case (who wishes to remain anonymous) decided to give something back to the American Indian community through the American Indian Wills program at OCU.