Real Law
UM law faculty are there where the rubber meets the road

University professors are sometimes accused of living in an ivory tower. Not the law faculty at The University of Mississippi. Their feet are firmly planted on the ground—no towers or ivory in sight.

As is fitting for an institution whose graduates command respect at state, national and even international levels, the law faculty teach, write, lecture and consult about the law from all these perspectives. Some are active primarily on the national and international scene, bringing recognition to the law school and to Mississippi by their contributions in these venues. Recently tenured associate professor Chip Brower, for example, co-chaired the American Society of International Law’s 97th annual meeting. Others have forged national reputations in their particular areas of expertise: Larry Pittman concerning ERISA, Jack Nowlin and Lisa Roy in the area of constitutional law, Paul Secunda in employment law and Michael Waterstone in disability law.

A number of faculty have focused their energies on state law developments. Debbie Bell, for example, recently published the definitive reference volume on the state’s family law, following a tradition established by faculty such as Bob Weems, whose treatises on evidence and Mississippi’s law of wills and estates has been a mainstay for a generation of Magnolia State lawyers, and John Bradley, whose writing in the area of workers compensation is a valuable resource for Mississippi attorneys. Mid-career faculty members such as Michael Hoffheimer and Ronald Rychlak also have focused significant scholarly work in the area of Mississippi criminal law and procedure. Assistant professor Farish Percy has written about tort reform in the state, lending a scholarly voice to one of the most important legal debates of our state’s early 21st century.

Faculty at The University of Mississippi School of Law also have been active participants in CLE programs around the state over the past several years. Professor Bob Weems and professor emeritus Guff Abbott carry on their long-running Summary of Recent Mississippi Law CLE program. As long as Mississippi law keeps developing, Weems and Abbott will be there to cover the developments. Debbie Bell conducts regular daylong seminars on family law, and John Bradley and Karen Green lecture frequently on workers’ compensation and taxation, respectively. More junior faculty such as Jack Nowlin and Paul Secunda also have participated in local CLE programs. Moreover, personnel in the law school’s two federally funded centers—the Center for Justice and the Rule of Law and the Remote Sensing Center, directed by Tom Clancy and Joanne Gabrynowicz, respectively—have participated regularly in Mississippi-based CLE programs, even as they have attracted judges and attorneys from across the nation to conferences at the law school.

The most important impact of the university’s law faculty on the practice of law is, of course, their impact on students who will continue to make up the majority of Mississippi’s bar. But they are also committed to staying in touch with the practice of law and with the development of law at the state, national and international levels. This commitment is part of what it means to be a great law school anchored within a great public university.

—Reflection by Samuel M. Davis

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