Faculty and Alumni Showcase Series 2010
Citizens United
Tamara Piety (9.10.2010)
Professor Tamara Piety discusses the recent Citizens United case on corporate free speech.
Piety, Tamara, "Citizens United" (2010). Faculty and Alumni Showcase Series. 13.
Trials, Tribulations and Triumphs
Bill Carmody (10.15.2010)
Bill Carmody (JD '88), a Long Island native, leads Susman Godfrey LLP’s New York City office and is a member of the firm’s executive committee. Prior to joining Susman Godfrey, Carmody began his career at Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P before opening his own trial firm in Dallas, building his reputation first as a successful plaintiffs’ lawyer, then becoming equally accomplished in representing defendants.
Working under the broad umbrella of complex litigation, Carmody has handled a wide variety of cases, including structured finance and derivatives litigation, commercial and securities fraud, antitrust, fatal and catastrophic injuries (including airplane crashes), oil and gas, trade secrets and patent infringement. As Carmody’s forte is the bet-your-company case – the kind that can mean the difference between the life and death of a business – he has represented some of the largest companies in banner-headline cases. Carmody is listed in The Best Lawyers in America, and his peers have voted him both a “Texas Super Lawyer” and a “New York Super Lawyer.” It is his fifth listing in the Lawdragon 500, and he is also among Lawdragon's top 100 securities lawyers in America. Author, speaker and commentator, Carmody has appeared in national and international media, from ABC’s Nightline to German TV. His trial victories have been profiled in The National Law Journal, Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, Dallas Business Journal, Texas Lawyer, Forbes and The American Lawyer.
Carmody, Bill, "Trials, Tribulations and Triumphs" (2010). Faculty and Alumni Showcase Series. 7.
Legal Considerations of Conducting Business in China
Aarron Hurvitz (10.26.2010)
Aaron Hurvitz obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Arizona in 2003, his Juris Doctorate from the TU College of Law in 2007, and his LL.M. in International Business and Trade Law from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago in 2008.
Hurvitz currently advises Kangxin's North American, European, Indian, and Australian clients on different aspects of Chinese intellectual property law. He specifically focuses on how best to introduce technology into China, and deals heavily with advising the firm's clients on how best to effectuate positive enforcement of their intellectual property rights.
Prior to joining Kangxin, Hurvitz started his intellectual property experience when he was hired as the sole law clerk on an antitrust and illegal patent tying case that was ultimately heard before the United States Supreme Court. He then drafted technology transfer agreements and worked on enforcement matters for an international law firm in Beijing, China.
Hurvitz, Aarron, "Legal Considerations of Conducting Business in China" (2010). Faculty and Alumni Showcase Series. 8.
Does the NCAA Exploit College Athletes? Rights of Publicity, EA Sports and the Video Game Industry
Ray Yasser & Sean M. Hanlon (11.19.2010)
Sean M. Hanlon is a member of the litigation department of Holland & Hart in Denver, Colorado, with a focus on construction and real estate litigation. Prior to joining Holland & Hart, Sean was a litigation associate with GableGotwals in Tulsa, Okla. Previously, he clerked for the Honorable Sam A. Joyner of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma. Sean is admitted to practice in both Colorado and Oklahoma. He is also admitted to practice in the United States District Courts for the District of Colorado and the Northern District of Oklahoma.
Professor Ray Yasser has served as plaintiff's counsel in a number of Title IX (gender equality) sports cases, several of which were settled in 1997. He is co-author of Sports Law: Cases and Materials , a sports law casebook widely used in law schools around the country. Professor Yasser, who earned his J.D. in 1974 from Duke Law School, teaches torts, trial practice and sports law. Prior to joining the TU law faculty, he served in the North Carolina Attorney General's Office.
Yasser, Ray and Hanlon, Sean M., "Does the NCAA Exploit College Athletes? Rights of Publicity, EA Sports and the Video Game Industry" (2010). Faculty and Alumni Showcase Series. 14.
Structured Settlements
Richard Risk (12.3.2010)
Dick Risk knew there was something wrong with the way the insurance industry in general handled structured settlements. He was introduced to structured settlements some twenty-five years ago, when they were first coming into use. Soon after he placed his first annuity as a structured settlement consultant, he realized that many liability insurance companies and self-insured corporations who used structured settlements as a negotiating tool to settle physical injury claims were secretly profiting from them at the expense of the victims. When he became a vocal critic of his own industry, they ostracized him. Each time he attempted to clean up the industry through legislation, the powerful insurance lobbyists thwarted his efforts. Undaunted, Dick knew there was still one viable avenue available to him—the courts. But, there was a problem—he wasn’t a lawyer.
To resolve that issue, he entered law school at The University of Tulsa at age 57, as a part-time student, graduating three years later by spending his summers abroad, including TU’s study program in Dublin, Ireland. While in law school, he was an honor roll student, an intern for two judges and a law firm, a member of Phi Delta Phi legal honors fraternity, and on the staff of the Tulsa Law Review (nee Tulsa Law Journal), which published his comment, “Structured Settlements: The Ongoing Evolution from a Liability Insurer’s Ploy to an Injury Victim’s Boon,” 36 Tulsa L.J. 865 (2001). That article foretold what would become his mission as a lawyer. Too old at age 60 to join a law firm as a junior associate with the prospect of someday becoming a partner, Dick set out on his own as a solo practitioner.
While developing his nationwide niche law practice, he collected facts about the structured settlement industry and developed theories of damages to a class of people who had settled their injury claims and were cheated in the process. A couple years later, Dick was able to convince a class action firm of the merits of his case, and he signed three individuals as class representative plaintiffs. Eventually, the litigation team grew to four law firms, including Dick’s solo practice, and they filed a class action in U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut (Civ. No. 3:05-cv-01681-JCH), in late 2005 against one of the nation’s largest financial services groups, alleging mail and wire fraud and violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). After nearly five years of legal wrangling and a trip to the Second Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals, where class certification was affirmed, and after two separate mediations earlier this year, the defendants maintain their innocence of wrongdoing, but they agreed to settle the claims of some 21,000-plus class members for $72.5 million. His class action lawsuit was followed by the insurer’s exit from the structured settlement annuity marketplace. Some other insurers have revised their structured settlement policies to allow plaintiffs more rights in structuring their settlements.
Dick is a 1963 graduate of Oklahoma State University, receiving a B.A. in Radio & Television, with postgraduate studies at Boston University (Public Communications), The University of Tulsa (Business Administration and Law) and the University of Oklahoma (Public Administration). He received a juris doctorate from The University of Tulsa College of Law in 2001 and is admitted to practice law in all federal and state jurisdictions in Oklahoma. He is certified by the Supreme Court of Oklahoma as a mediator. Prior to becoming an attorney, Dick served in the Senior Executive Service of the United States in a sub-Cabinet position as a bureau head in the administration of President Reagan. He was an executive with two publicly held corporations, and served as a staff officer, general’s aide and commander in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam era, receiving multiple decorations for meritorious service and the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for a squadron that he commanded in Thailand.
Risk, Richard, "Structured Settlements" (2010). Faculty and Alumni Showcase Series. 15.