Moot Court Board Officers Announced

Rhonda Amis (center) of Batesville chairs the Moot Court Board. Other officers include (from left) Jason Akers of Tupelo, review of first impressions editor; Lani Pepper of Ocean Springs, vice chairman and moot court competition director; Tom Mueller of Hattiesburg, appellate requirement co-director; Amis; Alan Alexander of New Albany, trial requirement director; Preston Lee of Clinton, special competitions director; and Kelly Bridgforth of Olive Branch, special competitions co-director.

Outstanding Students Serve Mississippi Law Journal

Trey Bourn (seated, center) of Jackson heads the Mississippi Law Journal as editor in chief. Other members of the Executive Board include Billy Berryhill (seated, left) of Magnolia, executive articles editor; Lendy Van Slyke (seated, right) of Jackson, business manager; and (back, from left) Michael Dunavant of Memphis, executive editor;Doug Morgan of Richmond, Va., notes and comments editor; and Ben Watson of Jackson, executive articles editor. Not pictured is Michael Hewes of Hattiesburg, Mississippi cases editor.

Mississippi Bar Foundation Funds Scholarships Through IOLTA

The Mississippi Bar Foundation through its Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts (IOLTA) fund has granted $10,000 to the School of Law for student scholarships.

Since the first funds were disbursed in 1987-88, the Law School has received IOLTA grants of from $5,000-$15,000 each year. The Office of Career Services and Scholarships distributes the money in several scholarships to deserving law students based on financial need and academic records.

We are grateful to the lawyers of our state who make these funds possible through this unique channel," said Dean Samuel M. Davis. "It is a source that we can count on for much-needed student support, which is becoming more and more important in legal education today.

IOLTA began in Mississippi in 1984 when the state's Supreme Court made it possible for lawyers to convert their general pooled trust checking accounts into interest-bearing accounts. The resulting funds are directed to the Mississippi Bar Foundation for disbursement. The MBF was chartered in 1962 and qualifies as a non-profit charitable, educational corporation.

IOLTA is supported by some 1,600 lawyers in the state, who maintain the confidential, fiduciary attorney-client relationship regarding the deposit, and serve the profession and the public by making the interest earned on their trust accounts available to support needed and worthwhile public service projects including scholarships for law students.