Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog

Attorneys Help Plan Emergency Workers' Estates

The following kudos to estate planning attorneys is found in David Unze, Attorneys lend a hand to heroes, USA Today, April 22, 2008:

In the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Anthony Hayes was like many Americans: He had a desire to do something to help.

Hayes, a South Carolina attorney who worked at 4 World Trade Center before attending Tulane University Law School, acted on that desire.

He called the fire chief in Columbia, S.C., to ask what he might do for emergency first responders. A brainstorming session followed with a group of 15 firefighters, during which Hayes asked whether they regularly updated their wills and powers of attorney.

Only one raised a hand.

"I was dumbstruck, and then I became agitated," Hayes said. "How is it possible that a community does not provide basic trust and estate planning when your job is to risk your life to save me? That was counterintuitive."

Two months later, Hayes started the "Wills for Heroes" program. He returned to the Columbia Fire Department in November 2001 to offer free wills, powers of attorney and health care declarations for first responders.

Hayes says the program has expanded to 11 states: Georgia, Minnesota, California, Arizona, Texas, Illinois, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Utah, where lawyers prepared 41 estate plans at the state's first Wills for Heroes event in March.

Several other states, including Louisiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio, Connecticut and Michigan, are planning to come on board later this year, Hayes says. He estimates the program has helped 10,000 first responders since it began.

The services provided would otherwise cost $800-$1,500 depending on the law firm you choose, said Susan Link, a Twin Cities attorney who volunteers for the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area Wills for Heroes program.

Law School Rankings

The following is posted as per the request of Edward A. Adams, Editor and Publisher of the American Bar Association Journal:

Because you’re a blogger who is a member of the legal education community, we thought you and your blog’s readers would be interested in an ABA Journal cover story about U.S. News & World Report’s law school rankings that was posted today (http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/the_rankings_czar/). And we’re holding a live online chat next month with the rankings czar from U.S. News in which you can participate.

Robert Morse, the man who created the law school rankings for U.S. News, offers an olive branch to law school deans who have long complained about the effect of the rankings on legal education. “Deans are welcome to call me or come by my office in Washington,” Morse says. “I want to work with them to improve the rankings.”

Some deans and former deans think they should engage the magazine, rather than just complain about it. “I think rankings need to be changed, and the only way that will happen is if law school deans sit down with Bob Morse for honest discussion,” says Nancy Rapoport, who resigned as dean of the University of Houston Law Center after her school dropped almost 20 points in the rankings. “I would attend a meeting like that without hesitation.”

This year’s U.S. News law school rankings are scheduled to be released this Friday, March 28.

Morse will be taking questions from the public on ABAJournal.com on Friday, April 11, from 3 to 4 p.m. ET. We hope you and your readers will participate.

Seminar Papers for Sale – A Warning to Law Professors

While it is common knowledge that students can and do sometimes commit plagiarism, we may not always take into consideration that with improved communications and technology, law school assignments can turn into a marketplace commodity.

Consider for example the following entry that was posted on craigslist on Nov. 27, 2007:
   

I am looking for someone to write a law school paper. The person either needs to be in law school or has a JD and is looking to make fast cash. The paper is on a specific subject – “Estates,” and involves answering a fact pattern which I can produce for them to answer. The total length should be 18-23 pages.
   

Anonymity is of course key for this. I will pay $700 via a money order check (from the U.S. Post Office). I will only send the fact pattern and question via my e-mail address. Thank you.
   

This disturbing posting is a reminder to us as law professors to be aware of and alert to the possibility of plagiarized student work.

Call for Information -- AALS Donative Transfer Section Newsletter

Each year, the AALS Section on Donative Transfers publishes two newsletters for its members.

The Section welcomes news about its members' publications, professional activities, conferences, teaching and service.  The Section is in the process of assembling the Spring 2008 newsletter.

Please send any news you would like to share by March 1, 2008 to Professor Bridget Crawford (Pace) at bcrawford@law.pace.edu.

Would a T&E Professor Merit a $4.2 Million Condo?

To convince Catherine M. Sharkey to leave Columbia University, The New York University purchased for her a $4.2 million condo with 4,000 square feet overlooking Central Park.

The following is from Josh Barbanel, Recruiting With Real Estate, NY Times, Jan. 20, 2008:

The property records show that the foundation spent $4.2 million two weeks ago to buy an 80 percent interest in the turreted apartment. The foundation had $155 million in assets at the end of 2006 and it is dedicated to supporting N.Y.U.’s law school, including the hiring and retention of faculty members.

Ms. Sharkey and her partner, Ina Bort, who practices commercial and maternity law in New York, bought the remaining 20 percent interest in the apartment for $1.05 million, but the foundation provided them with a mortgage to cover $650,000 of their share of the purchase price for up to 30 years (unless Ms. Sharkey leaves the university before then).

John Beckman, an N.Y.U. spokesman, said that the university and its law school provide housing for a “very large percentage” of faculty members, but he could not recall the purchase of such an expensive apartment for other faculty members.

Note that Prof. Sharkey is not a senior faculty member -- she graduated from law school in 1997 and has been teaching for only five years.  I wonder what fancy digs their senior faculty receive and whether  such perks go to their T&E faculty?

Using "Feelings" to Teach Intestacy and Wills

Alyssa D. DiRusso (Assistant Professor, Cumberland School of Law) has recently published her article Tactile Learning in the Wills Classroom, Law Teacher, Spring 2007, at 4, which discusses innovative ways of teaching (1) the difference between probate and non-probate assets, (2) the right of a surviving spouse to a forced share, and (3) the different methods of distributing property when there are heirs from more that one generation of descendants.

Here is an excerpt from her discussion of how Prof. DiRusso uses this technique to teach the differences between per stipes, per capita with representation, and per capita at each generation:

Students were divided into groups of three and given a chart showing a family tree, and a bag holding 36¢ (four nickels and sixteen pennies). The family tree showed one decedent at the oldest generational level with three children (A, B, and C). A had two children, and B and C had one child each. Students were told that the decedent had died leaving an estate of 36¢ (net of legal fees) and instructed to place the 36¢ on the decedent’s square on the family tree. Students were given a set of fact patterns, and asked to move the coins to represent how the property would pass under each system of inheritance. * * *

Having the students physically move the coins across he page seemed to help them understand the practical implications of these three systems of inheritance - that it actually changes how much money each heir gets - better than talking about the systems in the abstract or working through hypotheticals.

Are you happy as a law professor??

Prof. Paul Caron of the Tax Prof Blog reports that law professors are unhappy with their jobs.  See Why Are Law Professors So Unhappy? -- Part Two, Dec. 28, 2007.

In my opinion (and do you really care?), if a person is unhappy in his/her job, he/she should leave!  There are mass quantities of lawyers anxious to join the academic ranks as demonstrated by the huge number of resumes in the AALS Faculty Register.

Also, in my humble opinion, being a law professor is one of the absolute best jobs in the world.  Other than being on perpetual vacation (which is not a bad idea), being a law professor is one of the most enjoyable, fun, rewarding, and challenging positions imaginable.  About the only "down" side is grading hundreds of exams but since that occupies only a de minimus amount of time per year, it is not really worth worrying about it.  (Being a rock star, of course, also sounds pretty good!)

And then, teaching in the wills, probate, trusts, and property areas just makes things even better!!

Passing of Prof. Neill Alford, Jr.

I have just learned that noted trusts and estates professor Neill Alford, Jr. died in Charlottesville, Virginia on October 20, 2007.
   

Here are some excerpts from his obituary:

He was a distinguished legal scholar and teacher, a loving husband, an imaginative father, a devoted grandfather, and a thoughtful son and son-in-law. He will be remembered for his integrity, unpretentious manner, keen mind, kindness and generosity, adventurous spirit, and good sense of humor. * * *
   

He joined the University of Virginia law faculty in the fall of 1947 and spent most of his career at Virginia, teaching there from 1947 to 1974 and from 1976 until his retirement in 1990. He was Doherty Foundation professor of law from 1966 to 1974 and Percy Brown Jr. professor of law from 1976 to 1990.

He was a gifted teacher whose lively law lectures were remembered vividly years later by former students. He taught courses including trusts and estates, international law, professional responsibility (ethics), legal history, tax law and insurance law. * * *

From 1974 to 1976, he was dean of the law school and Joseph Henry Lumpkin professor of law at the University of Georgia.

The Laptop Debate Continues

The controversy regarding permitting students to use laptop computers during class continues to grow.  On one hand, some professors claim that students become "court reporters" and use their computers for non-class related activities.  These professors seek their students' rapt attention.  On the other hand, some professors argue that laptops allow students to take faster notes, giving them more time to think, and that laptops facilitate the quick retrieval of material important to class discussion.

For a review of the growing battle, see Jill Schachner Chanen, Profs Kibosh Students’ Laptops, ABA J. Law News Now, Nov. 2007.

Helping Students Find Comment Topics

The following material was originally posted on the Workplace Prof Blog:

The ACH Research Link, developed by the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy,

collects legal research topics submitted by practitioners for law students to explore in faculty-supervised writing projects for academic credit.  Topic authors will receive a copy of the resulting student papers, which ACS will also post in a searchable online library.  By connecting law students and faculty with the research needs of public interest organizations and advocates, ACS ResearchLink will become an increasingly comprehensive and powerful engine for change, while also enhancing the relevance and influence of student academic scholarship.

Phoenix School of Law Receives Provisional ABA Accreditation

On June 11, 2007, The Phoenix School of Law, Arizona’s first private law school, received notification of the ABA's provisional approval.

Prof. Mary Radford of Georgia State University School of Law served as a Visiting Professor of Law this past semester and will also serve as visitor during the Fall 2007 semester.

Virtual Internship Program

The National College of Probate Judges and the Stetson University College of Law have created a Virtual Internship Program.

The intern will be assigned to do legal research for a probate judge at no charge.  The benefit to the Intern is the opportunity to work with a judge and receive useful feedback.  Professor Rebecca C. Morgan will coordinate at Stetson’s end and John N. Kirkendall (NCPJ President) will be the point of contact for the National College of Probate Judges.  At the conclusion of the internship, the probate judge will be asked to prepare an evaluation and the student may ask the judge to be a reference for use in job seeking at graduation. 

The National College of Probate Judges will also arrange for a suitable certificate to be presented to the student at graduation.

[The above information is adapted from an e-mail I received from John N. Kirdendall.]

Teaching RAP -- Is there a better way?

Maureen E. Markey (Professor of Law, Thomas Jefferson School of Law) has recently published her article entitled Ariadne's Thread: Leading Students into and out of the Labyrinth of the Rule Against Perpetuities, 54 Clev. St. L. Rev. 337 (2006).

Here is the conclusion of her article:

The Rule Against Perpetuities may be inconsistent, illogical, needlessly complicated, and often brainlessly applied--but it serves a purpose. Abolishing the Rule or avoiding it is not the solution. There is good policy here. To the extent there is a solution to teaching the Rule, it is to streamline and simplify the presentation of the Rule so as to avoid ridiculous applications. My guidelines for following my own advice are as follows: Keep in-class explanations and examples simple, especially in Property. Emphasize relevance, context, and connections. Liberally use analogies to familiar concepts and situations. Minimize outrageous examples, except as illustrative of absurdity. Use the whiteboard, slides, power point, diagrams, graphics, and any other visual aids you can think of to help your students. Develop a step-by-step process that fits your style and your students. Give your students plenty of problems (required, optional, or both), so they can practice. Provide some method of feedback so they can gauge their level of understanding. Finally, keep a sense of humor and hope your students do the same.

I have searched valiantly for a shortcut through the labyrinth of the Rule Against Perpetuities. Alas, my quest for that particular holy grail has been in vain. But what I have discovered is a wealth of valuable suggestions from many teachers, whose combined years of teaching experience numbers in the many hundreds. In this Article, I have tried to set forth some of those ideas so that anyone teaching this Rule can pick and choose from them. Each of us must weave our own Ariadne's thread that will help our students through this impossible maze without being gobbled up by this Minotaur of the Property curriculum.

Anna Nicole Smith -- Update

Many law school professors, myself included, have found the Anna Nicole Smith case a fascinating topic of class discussion, especially the terms of her (in my opinion) poorly drafted will.

The use of Anna's situation in the law school classroom has received national attention in Jessica Gresko, Anna Nicole Smith has become model study for law students, AP, March 9, 2007:

Now, one poorly drafted will and a court battle over her body later, law professors are finding her troubles can again serve as an example to students. Over the past month, professors say they have answered questions about court proceedings or used Smith to illustrate an issue in passing. Some have even distributed and discussed copies of her will. Students say it has been interesting and instructive to watch the case play out.

Here is a list of the law professors cited in this story:

• Susan French, University of California, Los Angeles
• Stephen Urice, University of Miami
• G. Eric Brunstad Jr., Yale
• Robert Sitkoff, New York University
• James Lindgren, Northwestern University 

In other ANS news,

Police investigating the death of Anna Nicole Smith said Friday they are seeking additional information in the case and may need a court order to obtain it. * * *

Broward County Medical Examiner Joshua Perper, whose ruling on the cause of Smith's death is pending, said Thursday a new piece of evidence that "might change some of my conclusions" needs to be obtained and evaluated. Perper said he is waiting a week or two to release his findings, until the evidence is available. * * *

Among the evidence Perper wants to evaluate is Smith's computer, according to Ron Ishoy, spokesman for the Broward County attorney.

See Susan Candiotti and Rich Phillips, Police seek new evidence in Anna Nicole Smith case, CNN.com, March 9, 2007.

Spring 2007 AALS Donative Transfers Newsletter

Prof. Melanie Leslie, of Cardozo, is now preparing the Spring 2007 newsletter for the AALS Donative Transfers section.

Please send your news regarding publications, appointments, promotions, etc., to Melleslie@comcast.net.

The "Body Heat" T&E Interface

Associate Professor Diane J. Klein of the La Verne College of Law has recently published her article entitled Not Just a Study Break: Using Body Heat, Kanye West's "Gold Digger," and South Park to Teach (and Examine!) Wills & Trusts, Family Law, and Property in the Fall 2006 issue of The Law Teacher (at p. 8).

Included in this article is a detailed discussion of how to use the 1981 movie Body Heat in a Wills & Trusts class and/or examination.  The key issues surround the Rule Against Perpetuities.  Prof. Klein's discussion provides both the questions the students should address and a brief analysis of the answers.

Note that students are unlikely to be familiar with this movie -- it was released before the vast majority of our students were born.

Fall 2006 AALS Section on Donative Transfers, Fiduciaries and Estate Planning Newsletter

The Fall 2006 Newsletter from the AALS Section of Donative Transfers, Fiduciaries, and Estate Planning is now available.

Here are the key features of this newsletter:

• Message from the Chair (Prof. Gary Spitko)
• Message from the Program Chair (Prof. Tom Gallanis)
• Members' News
• Mentors Available, Mentors Wanted
• Status Report: ALI and NCCUSL Projects of Note
• Recent Cases of Note
• Selected Publications

Seeking your input in a survey of new attorneys

The following post is reproduced from the Law School Innovation Blog:

LexisNexis has offered to help us (the Berkman Center's research initiative) learn more about how prepared new lawyers are for today’s legal work world by conducting a survey of recent graduates. I ask anyone with an interest in the topic to submit your suggestions for what this survey should entail. While not every question can be answered by this survey, I hope to get some good ideas as well as instigate some good discussion.

Because our project focuses on the influence of technology on practice and on education, I would especially appreciate questions that poke in that general direction.

So, to restate the question: As someone interested in legal education or training (whether you’re a law professor, law firm manager, CLE provider, director of professional development, legal technologist, associate, or law student), what did you wish you knew about today’s newest attorneys (say, those with 0-5 years of experience)? Also, given limited resources, should we attempt to survey one population (say, big firm associates) more thoroughly, or try to get participants from across practice settings?

Gene Koo

Follow this link to leave your suggestion(s).

Research Canons from Prawfsblawg for Trusts and Estates

The Research Canons from Prawfsblawg for Trusts and Estates begins today, October 25, 2006. 

Matt Bodie requests that you "[p]lease comment on the books and articles that are essential to a new academic in the field."

Request for Contributions to Fall 2006 AALS Donative Transfers Newsletter

The following is an e-mail I received from Prof. Sitkoff:

Dear All:

The Fall 2006 newsletter for the AALS Donative Transfers section is now being prepared.  Please send me your news:  publications, appointments, promotions, or anything else of that might be of interest to your colleagues.

Many thanks,

Rob Sitkoff
Robert H. Sitkoff
Professor of Law
New York University School of Law
40 Washington Square South
New York, NY  10012
(212) 992-8845|
(212) 656-1144 (fax)
robert.sitkoff@nyu.edu

Tributes to Prof. Richard Wellman

Earlier on this blog, I reported on the passing of Prof. Richard Wellman.

A recent issue of the Georgia Law Review is dedicated to Prof. Wellman.  The forward is by Paul M. Kurtz and includes tributes by Mary Louise Fellows, Gregory S. Alexander, Thomas L. Jones, John H. Langbein, Eugene F. Scoles, and Lawrence W. Waggoner.

See Dedication: Richard Vance Wellman, 40 Ga. L. Rev. 1041 (2006).

The Laptop Debate Continues

The debate over laptop usage in the classroom continues in No logoff in fight over laptops in class (June 30, 2006), by Eric Finkelstein, in the National Law Journal.

   

Professors are continuously plagued by students surfing the internet, playing games, shopping, and other non-class related activities during lectures.  Also, there are problems with students that second-year Brooklyn School of Law student Daniel Schudroff calls the "angry typist." Those are the students whose typing is both loud and fast, which is very distracting to professors and students alike.

   

Schools such as the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Virginia School of Law have used technology to prohibit internet usage when the student is in class.

   

Despite the controversy, including rumors at Harvard Law that faculty were voting this fall to ban laptops all together, some professors remain in favor of laptop usage in the classroom. See Paul Caron and Rafael Gely, Taking Back the Law School Classroom: Using Technology to Foster Active Student Learning, 54 J. Legal Educ. 311 (2004).
   

For more on this topic, see this post on Prof. Caron's blog.

The Musical Side of the Rule Against Perpetuities

Prof. Darryl C. Wilson (Stetson University College of Law) has recently published his article entitled Waltzing to R.A.P., 39 Creighton L. Rev. 129 (2005).  In the author's words, "this Article takes a very brief look at the common law real property rule and hopefully demystifies its meaning, simplifies its application, and verifies the sour notes that students have been singing about it are really a bum rap."

Given the limited amount time we have to cover RAP in most Property and T&E courses, Prof. Wilson's discussion of his teaching approach is both interesting and helpful.

Protests Erupt After Law Professor Bans Laptops in Class

Prof. June Entman of the University of Memphis School of Law noticed something that I have seen in class way too often -- students who use laptop computers turn into "scribes" or "court reporters" attempting to type every word spoken rather than thinking about what is being said and taking well-reasoned "notes."  In addition, she noticed the inability to make eye contact with students because the laptop screens block the view of the students' faces.

Prof. Entman decided to take action.  On March 6, 2006, she sent an e-mail message to her students prohibiting her first-year students from using laptops in class.

Student outrage followed.  Students are collecting signatures in hopes a petition will lead to a reversal of the new policy.

The students also filed a complaint with the American Bar Association.  The ABA did not take too kindly to the complaint and dismissed it quickly stating that a professor is entitled to make the decision regarding use of laptops in class.

See Law professor bans laptops in class, over student protest, USA Today, March 21, 2006.

Comprehensive List of Legal Blogs

For what is probably the most complete list of legal blogs in the United States, check out the taxonomy prepared by Ian Best, a law student at the Ohio State University College of Law.

Message for Law Professors -- Call for News

The following is from Prof. Sitkoff:

Dear All:

The Spring 2006 newsletter for the Donative Transfers section of the AALS is now being prepared.  Please send me your news:  publications, appointments, promotions, or anything else of that might be of interest to your colleagues.

Many thanks,

Rob Sitkoff

Robert H. Sitkoff
New York University School of Law
40 Washington Square South
New York, NY  10012
(212) 992-8845
(212) 995-4760 (fax)
robert.sitkoff@nyu.edu 

Wills of Famous People

Students often find it interesting to review actual wills.  Below is a list of wills of some famous individuals which are available on-line from Court TV.

• Burger, Warren
• Diana, Princess of Wales
• DiMaggio, Joe
• Duke, Doris
• Garcia, Jerry
• Helmsley, Harry
• Jackson, Joe
• Kennedy Onassis, Jacqueline
• Kennedy, John F., Jr.
• Lennon, John
• McCartney, Linda
• Monroe, Marilyn
• Nixon, Richard
• Packard, David
• Presley, Elvis
• Ruth, Babe

Lesbian/Gay Law Notes

The following information is courtesy of Mr. Patrick Campbell of the New York Law School:

The Lesbian/Gay Law Notes reports on lesbian/gay and AIDS related legal developments. It tracks significant new legislation, reports on new court decisions, administrative rulings, and executive actions, and highlights new publications of interest.

A main focus of the Lesbian/Gay Law Notes is the legality of same-sex marriage. The publication reports on major decisions from many jurisdictions across the country upholding or rejecting the legality of same-sex marriage. For example, the lead article of the January 2006 issue of the Lesbian/Gay Law Notes reported on the recent New York First Department Appellate Division decision that held the Domestic Relations Law provisions allowing marriage only to persons of opposite sexes are constitutional, reversing the summary judgment granted by the district court to same-sex couples wanting to broaden the statute.  Another article, found in the December 2005 issue, reported on an Oregon judge rejecting a state marriage amendment challenge. The Lesbian/Gay Law Notes also reports on other issues regarding estate planning, wills, and trusts from time to time and as appropriate.

Please visit www.nyls.edu/lel for access to the Lesbian/Gay Law Notes archive and to sign up for email notification of each month's new edition.

Songs to Teach Intestacy By

Assistant Professor Julia Belian of Creighton University supplied me with the following song lyrics which she finds useful in teaching intestacy concepts.  Now if only I could sing ---

THE BASIC RULES OF INTESTATE SUCCESSION

No one takes if they have an ancestor who takes.
(Set to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It”)

If your parent got a share, then you get none;
If your parent got a share, then you get none;
You can only get a share
If your dad’s (mom’s) no longer there
If your parent got a share, then you get none.

“The Rule”
(Set to the tune of “Yankee Doodle”)

One share for each child then living,
one share for each child who
predeceased but only if they still have living issue.
Every distribution scheme
Splits the shares the same way;
Use this rule on your exam
And you can get a good grade!

Per stirpes distribution
(Set to the tune of “Three Blind Mice”)

Per stirpes, per stirpes
By the roots of the family trees
Siblings will have to divide one share.
“Only” kids end up as  only heir!
Big families think it is so unfair
With per stirpes.

Per capita distribution
(set to the tune of “Silent Night”)

Bundle and drop, bundle and drop,
Per capita, bundle and drop.
Shares of decedents with issue alive
Add them together and then you divide
All their kids take equally;
All their kids take equally.

New Books for Texas Courses on Wills, Trusts, & Estates

Two books have just been released which may be of interest to readers who teach wills, estates, trusts, estate planning, and related courses in Texas law schools or paralegal schools.

Texas Estate Planning Statutes -- 2006 Student Edition organizes in one volume all of the Texas statutes that students in wills, estates, trusts, and estate planning courses need to have readily available. The volume contains the entire Probate and Trust Codes along with relevant provisions from many other codes, such as the Family Code, the Health and Safety Code, and the Government Code, as well as the Texas Constitution.  Key features include:

• Updates throughout, reflecting the activity of the 2005 Texas Legislature and recent judicial opinions
• Author-written commentary, providing background information, explanations, examples, and citations to key cases
• Only those statutory provisions that are most relevant to legal education, making the book instructor- and student-friendly
• A convenient and cost-effective one-volume format

Texas Wills and Estates: Cases and Materials (5th ed. 2006) is designed for law school courses covering wills, intestate succession, and estate administration.  The cases, problems, and questions are drawn extensively from Texas materials and attempt to provide the student with a comprehensive understanding of how decedent’s estates are handled in Texas.

The 1678 Will of Col. Jordan

Col. Jordan (a distant relative of President George Washington) executed his will on May 28, 1678.  Later that year, he died and his will was probated in November 1678.  Here are some of the interesting provisions of his will which may provide the basis for some good classroom discussion on the validity of will restrictions and requests.

[A sermon is to be preached every October 15th at his home] it being the day that my daughter Fortune Hunt died, and that all the neighborhood have notice of it, that they may come; leaving it to the discretion of my executor what entertainment he will give, and some time when that day shall fall upon Sunday, I desire that the Holy Communion shall be given. * * *

And whosoever in time to come shall enjoy my land in this County, though it be a thousand generations hence, shall perform this sermon and prayer.

Washingtons of Surry County, 7 Tyler's Quart. Mag. 45, 48 (1925).

Want to be a Law Professor??

The following information is reproduced from the TaxProf Blog:

For practitioners and others contemplating joining the law professor ranks, many law schools offer wonderful opportunities to transition into the legal academy with one- or two-year fellowships which allow you to enter the AALS Faculty Recruitment Conference (the "meat market") armed with teaching experience and published scholarship under your belt:

• Alabama: Hugo Black Fellowship Program (for Supreme Court clerks)
• Chicago:
  • Harry A. Bigelow Teaching Fellowships
  • John M. Olin Fellows in Law
• Chicago-Kent: Visiting Assistant Professor Program
• Columbia:
  • Associates in Law Program
  • James Milligan Law Review Fellowships (for Columbia Law Review alumni)
• Florida:  Visiting Assistant Professor Program (Tax)
• Georgetown: Graduate Fellowship Program for Future Law Professors
• Harvard:
  • Charles Hamilton Houston Fellowships for Law Teaching
  • Climenko Fellowship
  • Petrie-Flom Fellowships in Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics
  • Reginald F. Lewis Fellowships for Law Teaching
• Iowa:  Faculty Fellows Program
• John M. Olin Fellows in Law
• New York University:
  • Acting Assistant Professor Program (Tax)
  • Furman Academic Fellowship Program (for NYU grads)
• Northwestern:  Visiting Assistant Professor Program
  • John M. Olin Fellows in Law
  • Searle Fellows in Public Law
  • VAP in Finance
  • VAP in Health Care Law and Economics
  • VAP in Negotiations
  • VAP in Securities and Finance
  • VAP in Taxation
• Stanford: Teaching Fellowship Program
• Temple:  Abraham L. Freedman Graduate Teaching Fellowship Program
• Texas:  Emerging Scholars Program
• Wisconsin: William H. Hastie Fellowship Program
• Yale:  Robert M. Cover Fellowship Program

A great discussion of many of these fellowship programs can be found in Patricia A. Cain (Iowa) & Faith Pincus (Iowa), Faculty Fellowship Programs That Lead to Law Teaching.

For more information on becoming a law professor, including a discussion of the advantages of these fellowship programs, see:

• Jack Chin (Arizona), TeachLaw:  Resources for Lawyers Who Want to be Law Professors
• Jack Chin (Arizona) & Denise Morgan (New York Law School), Breaking Into the Academy: The 2002-2004 Michigan Journal of Race & Law Guide for Aspiring Law Professors, 7 Mich. J. Race & L. 457 (2002)
• Eric Goldman (Marquette), Careers in Law Teaching
• Institute for Humane Studies, George Mason University, Law School and Beyond: The IHS Guide to Careers in Legal Academia
• Law Crossing, Becoming a Law Professor: Part 1 and Part 2
• Brian Leiter (Texas), Information and Advice for Persons Interested in Teaching Law
• Brad Wendel (Cornell), The Big Rock Candy Mountain: How to Get a Job in Law Teaching
• Don Zillman (Maine), Marina Angel (Temple), Jan Laitos (Denver), George Pring (Denver) & Joseph Tomain (Cincinnati), Uncloaking Law School Hiring: A Recruit's Guide to the AALS Faculty Recruitment Conference, 39 J. Legal Educ. 345 (1988)

Mentors for Law School Professors

The following is from the AALS Section on Donative Transfers, Fiduciaries and Estate Planning Fall 2005 Newsletter: 

Mentors are available to help with questions about teaching and scholarship. If you are interested in being matched with a mentor, please e-mail me [Wendy Gerzog] the following: your name; your e-mail address; and the areas in which you would like a mentor (e.g., trusts and estates, wills, estate and gift tax, estate planning).

 

If there are any experienced professors who would like to add their names to the list of mentors, please contact me [Wendy Gerzog] as well.

Listserv for Law Professors

If you are a law professor and are interested in joining a listserv which allows you to post messages to your colleagues, you may wish to register for the Donative Transfers, Fiduciaries and Estate Planning listserv which is run by the American Association of Law Schools.

To subscribe, please e-mail Patricia Roberts.

Santa Clara Seeks T&E Professor

Santa Clara University School of Law is seeking to hire an entry level or experienced professor with a primary teaching and scholarly interest in trusts and estates.  An emphasis on estate planning is desired but not required.  Interested persons should contact Professor Brad Joondeph (bjoondeph@scu.edu).

Survivorship When Father and Son Hanged Together

To be an heir, an individual must outlive the intestate.  At common law and under the 1953 version of the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act, an heir needed to survive the intestate for only a mere instant to be entitled to inherit.  This rule lead to many proof problems as family members tried to prove that one person outlived the other or vice versa.  Some of these cases read like horror novels as the courts evaluate evidence of which person twitched, gurgled, or gasped longer.

In one old case, Crown Elizabeth 503, a father and son were, in the words of Blackstone:

"both hanged in one cart, but the fon was fuppofed to have furvived the father, by appearing to ftruggle longeft ; whereby he became feifed of an eftate by furvivorfhip."

Most jurisdictions now impose a survival period, that is, the heir must outlive the intestate by a statutorily mandated length of time before being entitled to inherit.  Under the 1991 version of the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act and UPC § 2-104, the heir must outlive the intestate by 120 hours (5 days).  If an heir survives the intestate but dies prior to the expiration of the survival period, the intestate’s property passes as if the heir had actually predeceased the intestate.

Keep Close Hold on Your Teaching Position!!

Sara K. Stadler, an assistant professor at Emory, has prepared an article entitled The Bulls and Bears of Law Teaching which is describe on SSRN as follows:

This Essay provides readers with a unique perspective on the world of law teaching: Employing a quirky methodology, Professor Stadler predicts which subjects are likely to be most (and least) in demand among faculties looking to hire new professors in future - rating those subjects, like so many stocks, from "strong buy" to "weak buy" to "weak sell" to "strong sell". To generate the data on which her methodology is based, Professor Stadler catalogued, by subject, almost every Article, Book Review, Booknote, Comment, Essay, Note, Recent Case, Recent Publication, and Recent Statute published in the Harvard Law Review between and including the years 1946 and 2003. In the end, she found an interesting (and, she thinks, predictive) relationship between the subjects on which faculty choose to write and the subjects on which students choose to write.

Prof. Stadler's results do not bode well for wills, trusts, and estates professor-want-to-bes -- she ranked our field as a "strong sell."  Here is an excerpt from her discussion:

Why would I include these two curves [admiralty and trusts/estates] on the same chart? They have at least one thing in common: Since 1989, both curves look like the heart monitor of a terminal patient; although the heart may be beating, however feebly, for trusts and estates, the doctor called a “code” in admiralty law more than a decade ago.  This is not to say that these courses are uninteresting; at Emory, at least, both are taught by popular professors, and both are well subscribed. But they are not oversubscribed, and class sizes are modest. If nothing else, this chart shows that law schools are making efficient use of their resources in admiralty law and trusts and estates. There is, to use an economics term, equilibrium between supply (on the faculty side) and demand (on the student side). Even when it comes to hiring, my handful of law schools may have gotten this one right: 0 in admiralty; 4 (.92% of the total) in trusts and estates.

My advice to hopefuls in these subjects is this: You know who you are. Find the people like you; wait for them to retire; and replace yourselves in the population.

A Sad Day -- The Passing of Dick Wellman

The following is from an e-mail message I received from Prof. Larry Waggoner:

I'm sad to report that Dick Wellman passed away Friday, June 3, at age 82.  Dick is known to most of us as the Chief Reporter for the 1969 Uniform Probate Code, the source of the statutory law that most of us teach.  Until his death, Dick continued to serve the Uniform Law Conference in many capacities, as Executive Director of the Joint Editorial Board for Uniform Trust and Estate Acts and as chair of numerous drafting committees.  The widely enacted Uniform TOD Security Registration Act was his invention.

Those of us who were fortunate enough to have known Dick personally remember him as smart, charming, gracious, friendly, witty, and above all else, humble. 

The family has told me that anyone wishing to make a contribution in his honor should send it to the Uniform Law Foundation, 211 E. Ontario St., Chicago, IL 60611.

Dick will be greatly missed but his legacy will live forever.

Mentoring

The AALS Section of Donative Transfers, Fiduciaries and Estate Planning has a mentoring program to match mentors with mentees to assist newer professors with their questions regarding teaching and scholarship.

If you are interested in this program, either as a mentor or mentee, please contact Prof. Wendy Gerzog at wgerzog@ubalt.edu.