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July 01, 2016

Nominating Committee Announces 2016-2017 Council Slate

The Nominating Committee, chaired by the Honorable Solomon Oliver Jr., chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, presented the following slate to the Council. The election of Council officers and members will take place at the Section’s annual business meeting, Saturday, August 6, 10:15-11:15 a.m., at the Park Central San Francisco during the ABA Annual Meeting.

One or more additional nominations may be made for any designated seat on the Council, including officers of the Council (except Chairperson and Immediate Past Chairperson), by petition signed by not less than 50 members of the Section in good standing, not more than 10 of whom are residents of any one state. A person so nominated shall be called the "petitioner". The petition shall specify which nominee the petitioner is challenging and shall state that the petitioner has agreed to the nomination and meets the criteria for the position being sought. The petition shall be delivered in person or by mail to the Section Office at the Association headquarters and must be received no later than July 15. The Secretary shall thereupon confirm that such individual is eligible to serve if elected. If additional nominations are made, the Chairperson shall distribute to the membership a final notice of nominations as soon as practical but no later than July 22.

Chair (automatic under the Bylaws)
Gregory G. Murphy
Billings, Montana


Gregory Murphy has been practicing law in Montana for more than 35 years. After being awarded a B.A. with high honors at the University of Montana, he earned a J.D. at Notre Dame Law School where he was a Thomas and Alberta White Scholar and served as associate editor of the Notre Dame Law Review. After graduation, he served a law clerkship with the Honorable John F. Kilkenny of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit before returning to Montana to practice law.

Mr. Murphy has long been active in bar admissions and legal education. He has served as chair of the Montana Board of Bar Examiners, chair of the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), and chair of the Multistate Bar Examination Committee. For approximately a decade he served on the Multistate Performance Test Drafting Committee. He has served on and chaired numerous other committees and boards. He is currently serving as chair of the NCBE Uniform Bar Examination Committee.

Mr. Murphy was elected to the Council in 2010, served as vice chair from 2014 to 2015, and currently serves as chair-elect. His service to the Section also includes a term as chair of the Accreditation Committee. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and has received numerous awards for his leadership and service in bar admissions and his community.

Chair-Elect
Election to a one-year term
Maureen O’Rourke

Dean
Boston University School of Law


Maureen O'Rourke is the dean and Michaels Faculty Research Scholar at the Boston University School of Law. Dean O’Rourke joined the law school faculty in 1993 after working at IBM Corporation, where she handled software licensing issues. At the law school, her scholarship is focused on the intersection of intellectual property law and other fields, such as contract and anti-trust law. Dean O’ Rourke is co-author of a leading copyright casebook, Copyright in the Global Information Economy. She has published articles in the law reviews of Columbia, Duke, Iowa, and Minnesota and the technology journals of UC-Berkeley, Harvard, and Boston University. She was the associate reporter on the American Law Institute’s Principles of Software Contracting Project, is a past chair of the Association of American Law Schools' sections on the Law School Dean and Computers & The Law, and a past member of the Boston Bar Association Council. She currently serves on the Access Group's board of directors.

Dean O’Rourke graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of science degree from Marist College and earned a J.D. from Yale Law School. In May 2000, she became Boston University’s sixth recipient of the Metcalf Award, the school’s highest teaching honor. She served as acting dean for two years prior to becoming the dean in 2006. Dean O’Rourke was elected to the Council in 2010 and is the current vice chair.

Vice Chair
Election to a one-year term
Jeffrey Lewis
Dean Emeritus and Professor
Saint Louis University School of Law

Jeffrey Lewis joined Saint Louis University School of Law as dean in 1999 and served in that capacity for 11 years. He returned to full-time teaching in 2010 with the title of dean emeritus and professor. He began his law teaching career in 1970 at the University of Akron School of Law. He served on the law faculty at the University of Florida from 1972 to 1999, and during his tenure at Florida he served as associate dean for seven years and dean for eight years. Dean Lewis earned both his bachelor’s degree and law degree from Duke University.

Dean Lewis teaches Evidence, Remedies and a seminar entitled Famous Trials. Over his career he has also taught Civil Procedure, Federal Courts and Conflict of Laws. He has always favored procedure courses because of their trans-substantive nature and the mix of the practical and theoretical thinking that they require for mastery.   

In 2012, Dean Lewis received the Section’s Robert J. Kutak Award, which is given annually to honor an individual who has made significant contributions to the collaboration of the academy, the bench, and the bar. He is also the recipient of the Outstanding Professor Award at the University of Florida College of Law.

Dean Lewis has been active with the American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools throughout his career. He previously served on the Council from 1999 to 2004. He also chaired the Accreditation Committee and the Standards Review Committee, served on the AALS Accreditation Committee, and chaired or served as a member of more than 20 ABA/AALS site evaluation teams. Dean Lewis currently chairs the Section’s Appeals Panel and Kutak Award Committee.

Secretary
Re-election to a two-year term
Edward N. Tucker
Ellin & Tucker, Chartered
Baltimore, Maryland

After 40 years as a senior director, officer, and stockholder of Ellin & Tucker, Chartered, as of January 1, 2009, Edward N. Tucker became a consultant to the Maryland-based accounting and consulting firm.  He was a Certified Public Accountant for 45 years and held the Accredited in Business Valuation credential awarded by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. His practice specialties included management advisory services, particularly involving mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, general business advice, strategic business planning, human resources, real estate development, dispute resolution, investments, syndication, business valuation and litigation support. In 2015, after 45 years of practice and six years as a consultant to the firm, Mr. Tucker elected to place his Maryland CPA license on inactive status.

Mr. Tucker received a bachelor of science degree in business administration from the University of Maryland in 1963. He continued his education in the fields of accounting, business valuation, forensic accounting, damage analysis, and related topics through annual course study. Mr. Tucker is a Life Member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants. He serves on the board of the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs; chairs the board’s audit committee, and serves on its finance committee.

He served as a public member of the Section’s Accreditation Committee for six years and currently serves as a public member of the Council. In addition to his position as secretary of the Council, Mr. Tucker chairs the Finance Committee. He has served on two site review teams and had served as visitor to fourteen foreign summer programs of U.S. law schools.

Members-at-Large

Re-election to a second three-year term
Roger Dennis
Dean & Professor
Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law


Roger Dennis is the founding dean of the Thomas R. Kline School of Law at Drexel University in Philadelphia.  He was formerly the provost at Rutgers University-Camden as well as the dean at the Rutgers-Camden School of Law.  He clerked for Judge Richard McLaren of the U.S. District Court in Chicago before working in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and practicing at Skadden Arps in Washington, D.C.  Dean Dennis has published widely with a particular focus on the application of modern financial theory to corporate law, strategic corporate behavior, and securities regulation.  His teaching currently focuses on the federal regulation of the purchase and sale of securities, the raising of capital, and the operation of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in light of changing economic and political environments.

Dean Dennis is a member of the board of the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey and past chair of the board of the United Way of Camden County.  He was selected for membership on the national United Way Membership Accountability Committee. He also serves as a trustee of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) and board chair of the Greater Delaware Valley Chapter of NMSS.

He earned a B.S. in speech from Northwestern University and is a magna cum laude graduate of Northwestern University School of Law where he was selected for the Order of the Coif. Dean Dennis has held an elected seat in the American Law Institute since 1991 and has served in leadership positions on numerous committees of the ABA’s Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar as well as the Association of American Law Schools.


Election to a three-year term

David Byers
Administrative Director of the Courts
Arizona Supreme Cour
t

David Byers is the Arizona Supreme Court’s Administrative Director of the Courts. He is responsible for a overseeing the operations of the Arizona Court system with over 10,000 employees and a total budget of $740M. The system also operates both juvenile and adult probation and 13 juvenile detention centers.  Mr. Byers began his career with the court in 1978 as the first director of the Foster Care Review Board. Before being appointed administrative director by the Arizona Supreme Court in 1992, Mr. Byers was the director of the Program Services Division, director of Adult and Juvenile Probation, and deputy director of the Arizona Supreme Court. 

Mr. Byers has also served as chairman of the $34B Arizona State Retirement System; and is currently a member of the State Bar of Arizona, the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission, the Arizona Prosecuting Attorney’s Advisory Council, the Governor’s Drug and Gang Policy Council, and the Department of Justice Global Advisory Committee.  He is the founder and first president of the National Association of Foster Care Reviewers, and cofounder of the Arizona Friends of Foster Care Foundation.

Mr. Byers earned a B.A. from Northern Iowa University and a master’s degree from Arizona State University. He was honored with the 2012 Gabe Zimmerman Leadership Award, the 2013 Warren E. Burger Award, the National Center for State Courts’ Distinguished Service Award, the Arizona Supreme Courts Distinguished Service Award, the State Bar’s Award of Appreciation, and the Cedar Falls, Iowa 1970 Man of the Year Award.

Election to a three-year term
Joseph K. West
Partner and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer
Duane Morris LLP
Washington, D.C.


Joseph West is the lead trial counsel on behalf of Fortune® 100 companies in complex litigation and significant class action matters. His areas of concentration include insurance and coverage issues, environmental, land use, employment, contractual disputes, and catastrophic injury.

Mr. West frequently speaks and conducts training on litigation and case management, outside counsel management, law department metrics and the business of diversity and inclusion. As chief diversity and inclusion officer at Duane Morris, he chairs the firm-wide inclusion committee and manages all firm-wide inclusion initiatives with an emphasis on the recruiting, retention, mentoring, training, and advancement of minority and women lawyers. Mr. West also advises firm clients on diversity and inclusion issues and assists clients with developing meaningful diversity and inclusion programs and metrics.

Mr. West was appointed by ABA President Paulette Brown to the ABA Commission on Diversity and Inclusion 360, was a member of the ABA Task Force on the Financing of Legal Education, and has served on the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. He is also a member of the Association of Corporate Counsel's ACC Value Challenge Steering Committee. Mr. West formerly served on the Arts Council of New Orleans and the Walton Arts Center Corporate Leadership Council. Additionally, former Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco appointed him to chair the Louisiana State Museum Board.

Mr. West is a 1986 graduate of Tulane University Law School and earned a B.A. in journalism from Southern University. He has served as an adjunct professor of trial advocacy at Tulane’s law school.

Election to a one-year term
Law Student Division Member
Mayra Salinas-Menjivar
University of Nevada-Las Vegas
William S. Boyd School of Law
JD Expected: May 2017

Mayra Salinas-Menjivar is a student at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law, where she serves as the secretary to the Child Advocacy Law Association, and is an active member of the Public Interest Law Association, Nevada Justice Association (law student chapter), and La Voz (Hispanic Law Student Association).

Ms. Salinas served as the Circuit Governor for the 14th Circuit of the ABA’s Law Student Division for the 2015-2016 term. In addition to her service to the Law Student Division, Ms. Salinas is a member of the ABA’s Business Law Section, Section of Litigation, Section of Science & Technology Law, Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section, Section of International Law, and the Law Practice Division.

Ms. Salinas is always seeking to improve the law student experience at her school. Her efforts include participating in meetings with her law school’s administration to address mental health awareness, addressing and promoting student participation, and creating lasting partnerships with local professional organizations.

Ms. Salinas has worked as an office manager and paralegal for a boutique criminal defense law firm working on capital criminal cases. She has also worked as a legal intern at Caesars Entertainment Corp., and as an intern to the Honorable Cathleen Delaney, district court judge in the Eighth Judicial District Court in Clark County, Nevada. Currently, Ms. Salinas works as an intern to the Honorable Gloria Sturman, district court judge in the Eighth Judicial District Court in Clark County, Nevada; and as a law clerk at Donath & Medrala PLLC. Ms. Salinas holds a bachelor of science in business administration degree from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

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