February 8th 2005 • Printer version

Six members of the law faculty were recently honored for their scholarly achievements by being appointed to endowed professorships and faculty fellowships. Dean Laird Kirkpatrick announced the appointments on January 27.

We are extremely proud of our new endowed professors and fellows, whose scholarly work in such different areas   from real estate financing to natural resources law to feminist jurisprudence to constitutional law has brought national attention to our school, Kirkpatrick said.

Steven Bender will be the new James and Ilene Hershner Professor of Law. He is the coauthor of a well-known casebook on real estate transactions, now in its third edition, that brings taxation, corporate law, ethics and UCC principles into the traditional mix of real estate material. His multivolume treatise on real estate financing blends legal analysis with skills-oriented suggestions for real estate practitioners. Bender has served as codirector of the law schoolís Center for Law and Entrepreneurship and now directs the law schoolís Portland Program.

His professorship was endowed in 1992 by longtime Eugene business attorney and law graduate Jim Hershner, who died in 2001. Hershner was a named partner with the law firm of Hershner, Hunter, Andrew, Neill & Smith.

Garrett Epps is the new Orlando J. and Marian H. Hollis Professor of Law. Epps, a former Washington Post staff writer, is the author of a number of books, including To An Unknown God: Religious Freedom on Trial. It was a finalist for the ABA Silver Gavel Award in 2002. His new book on the Fourteenth Amendment and its effect on the nation is forthcoming from Henry Holt and Company. He also has published numerous articles in leading law reviews.

Epps is a constitutional law expert who has also taught Civil Procedure for several years. Kirkpatrick said of Epps: Garrettís journalistic background gives him the ability to explain complex legal concepts to a general audience. His media commentary on a variety of state and national policy issues makes him one of Oregonís foremost public intellectuals.

The professorship is a result of a bequest by Orlando John Hollis, who served as dean of the law school from 1945 to 1967, and whose 35 years at the law school included a stint as acting university president.

Dean Laird Kirkpatrick has been awarded the other professorship from the endowment and will become the Hollis Professor of Legal Procedure.

Caroline Forell, who served as the Wayne Morse Center director last year, is the new Clayton R. Hess Professor of Law. Her research focuses on women and the law and she is the coauthor of the 2000 book, A Law of Her Own: The Reasonable Woman as a Measure of Man.  In addition she has written nearly 20 law review articles and is currently working on a new article on breach of trust. In The Tort of Betrayal of Trust, she proposes a new statutory tort for the dignitary harm of betrayal, focusing in particular on breach of trust by attorneys and physicians.

The professorship is funded by a bequest from Clayton Hess, a Milwaukie attorney who served as an Oregon assistant attorney general for over 20 years. Hess was a 1949 graduate of the law school.

Mary C. Wood was awarded the Deanís Distinguished Faculty  Fellowship. An expert in Indian Trust Doctrine and wildlife law, Wood was also the founding director in 2003 of the schoolís Environmental and Natural Resources Law center. She has just finished a chapter in the forthcoming revision of Cohenís Handbook of Federal Indian law, the major reference on the subject. Wood is one of the leading scholars in the country working on common law trust theoriesósuch as the Indian trust doctrine, the wildlife trust doctrine, and the public trust doctrineóto achieve protection of the nation's natural heritage. She is a frequent speaker on these issues and is co-authoring a text on natural resources law for West Publishing.

Law professor Margaret Paris, who is also the law schoolís associate dean for academic affairs, received the Elmer Sahlstrom Senior Fellowship. Paris is the coauthor of a coursebook on criminal procedure used nationally, and numerous law review articles. She serves on the editorial board of the ABAís Criminal Justice magazine.

Eugene trial lawyer Elmer Sahlstromís 1993 gift originally came in the form of a vintage Rolls Royce that was sold to partially fund this fellowship. The late trial practice teacher and evidence expert Wayne Westling held the fellowship for many years.

Law professor Maurice Holland was awarded the James O. and Alfred T. Goodwin Senior Faculty Fellowship. Holland served as dean of the law school from 1986 to 1991 and is currently executive director of the Oregon Council on Court Procedures, based at the  law school. In that capacity, he drafts the rules and amendments to court rules that are used by judges and trial lawyers throughout the state. The fellowship will support the work Holland is doing for the Council as well as a new book he is writing on remedies.

The fellowship was endowed by a gift from the Honorable Alfred T. Goodwin, a senior judge on the Ninth Circuit and the highest-ranking judge to graduate from the law school, and his late brother James Goodwin, who was also a lawyer.