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OCU LAW PROFESSOR OLDFATHER RECEIVES 2004 EISENBERG AWARD
Oklahoma City University School of Law (OCU LAW) professor Chad M. Oldfather has been selected to receive the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers’ 2004 Howard B. Eisenberg Award for writing the best article on appellate practice and procedure published between July 1, 2003 and June 30, 2004. The article, “Appellate Courts, Historical Facts, and the Civil-Criminal Distinction,” recently appeared in the Vanderbilt Law Review. The selection committee praised it for demonstrating “creativity, diligent scholarship, and keen insight.” Oldfather will be presented with the award at the Academy’s annual meeting in Seattle in October.
The Academy is composed of leading appellate lawyers from each state. The Eisenberg Prize was named for Howard B. Eisenberg, one of its earliest members. Eisenberg was dean of the Marquette Law School when he died on June 4, 2002 at the age of 55.
“I am deeply honored to have been chosen for this award by such a distinguished group of lawyers,” Oldfather said. “The primary point of the article,” he added, “is to question the traditional deference of appellate courts to trials courts regarding findings of historical fact. It suggests that appellate courts might be better positioned to perform this function with respect to certain types of evidence, and that appellate review should be recalibrated to take account of this.”
Oldfather holds an A.B., magna cum laude, from Harvard University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia, where he was selected for the Order of the Coif. Before joining OCU in 2002, he clerked for Judge Jane Roth of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, served in the appellate office of the Minnesota State Public Defender, and was an associate in the Minneapolis office of Faegre & Benson, one of the nation’s 100 largest law firms.
“Professor Oldfather exemplifies the deep commitment of our faculty to contribute to improvements in law, legal institutions, and the legal profession,” said OCU LAW Dean Lawrence K. Hellman. “We are immensely proud of this most deserving recognition that he has received.”
Oklahoma City University School of Law is fully approved by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. It offers full- and part-time degree programs and serves a diverse student body of approximately 600, including many working professionals and other non-traditional students. Approximately half of its students come from outside Oklahoma, and its nearly 5,000 alumni practice in every state and several foreign countries. For more information about the School of Law, visit the Web site at www.okcu.edu/law.