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law.arizona.edu | Link                                                                                        June 12, 2013

Greetings!

 

This week's three featured members of the Arizona Law community are student Sean Estrada, Professor Roy Spece, and alumna Keri Silvyn. Enjoy!

 

Until the footnotes,

 

Marc 

 

Student News
Sean Estrada (Class of 2014)
  
Few law students can claim "pro football player" as their former vocation. But Sean Estrada has always been a standout, whether tackling opponents on the gridiron or opposing counsel in a simulated trial in law school.
Sean Estrada played for the San Francisco '49ers in 2007
  
Sean, the incoming Student Bar Association (SBA) president for 2013-14, earned his BS in economics and business management from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a two-time All Ivy League guard and captain for the Quakers.

 

The California native went on to fulfill a lifelong dream when he signed with his favorite team, the San Francisco '49ers, in 2007; he started playing the day after graduating college. After stints with two other pro teams -- the San Jose SaberCats (2008) and the New York Sentinels (2009) -- he turned his focus to law.

 

"One of my favorite things about football was the competition -- the ability to go one-on-one against an opponent and ultimately beat them through hard work and tenacity," Sean says. "The legal profession offers me a unique avenue to recapture that experience and do so while pursuing justice."

 

To date, Sean's favorite Arizona Law experience has come in Professor Mauet's Trial Advocacy class. "I served as defense counsel and prepared and argued an entire case in a murder trial. The jury acquitted the defendant who, as this was a simulation class, just happened to be my roommate!" Of Professor Mauet, Sean says, "He breaks down rules of evidence and trial advocacy elements in such a way that it seamlessly blends them. His approach in class is to throw you into the fire of a direct or cross examination, which really allows you to start thinking like a trial lawyer. It is absolutely great. His class validated a large reason for my coming to law school: to become a trial attorney."

 

Sean's making the most of his time at Arizona Law. This year he'll be communications director of the student-run Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law and will remain actively engaged with the Latino Law Student Association.

 

Sean has never forgotten something his former coaches at Penn told him when he left to play for the '49ers: "Make sure you get noticed every day."

 

His fellow law students have taken notice, by selecting him to lead the SBA. With Sean representing them, students at Arizona Law can look forward to a very good season.

Faculty News
Roy Spece (on right) gave up a scholarship as Cal State Long Beach's top scholar athlete to transfer to USC Gould School of Law, where he graduated at the top of his class.
Roy Spece
 

For nearly 40 years, Professor Roy Spece has schooled U of A law students in the complex issues at the interface of law, medicine, and science. He helped establish two areas of interdisciplinary study: bioethics and law and conflicts of interest, and he has spoken and published papers on such hot-button topics as scientific misconduct and the Affordable Care Act. He is also widely recognized as a leading scholar in the area of constitutional analysis of problems raised by advances in science and medicine.

 

Roy was interested in law teaching even before he started law school at the University of Southern California. Wanting to obtain practical experience before teaching, he practiced for three years with the national law firm Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher in Los Angeles, specializing in litigation, including medical negligence defense.

 

"I wanted to teach classes dealing with the intersection of law, medicine and science, in a warm climate," he recalls. "I was fortunate that Arizona Law was willing to allow me to teach in these areas as well as constitutional law."

  

Roy's publications include the first casebook on bioethics and law and a pioneering book from Oxford University Press, Conflicts of Interest in Clinical Practice and Research. He has long argued in favor of disclosure of physicians' conflicts of interest based on constitutional law, common law, and ethical principles.

 

Last semester, as a student in Professor Chris Robertson's Behavioral Research Lab, Roy completed an experiment testing how disclosure affects patients' willingness to accept physician recommendations regarding treatment choice. "What I learned in Professor Robertson's class now enables me to pursue answers to empirical questions I have pondered for years," he says. Not many classes include selected undergraduate honors students, law students, postdoctoral students, and -- in a participatory role-- a fellow professor.

  

Roy has participated in several high-profile cases, including the hemophilia/HIV mass tort litigation and the Watergate litigation, in which he helped represent alleged Watergate "plumber" David Young. "When I interviewed at Arizona Law, I was asked whether I did pro bono work," he recalls. "I said I did, referring to the Young case -- though it was not, perhaps, the most typical kind of pro bono work!"

 

You can learn more about Professor Spece from his faculty profile.

 

Alumni News
Keri Silvyn (JD '97)

 

Her love of Tucson and passion for community building drive double Wildcat Keri Silvyn (BA '93) in her quest to ensure the region grows and prospers in a more sustainable way.

Keri Silvyn (JD '97, BA '93)

 

Silvyn is the founder of Imagine Greater Tucson, a nonprofit organization that connects government, business, and citizens to create community-driven choices to work, learn, live, and play in the Tucson region. The organization developed a vision for the region's future based on input from over 10,000 residents. The goal: A Greater Tucson with more office, commercial, and residential density; improved transportation corridors and public transit options; and less sprawl.

 

Keri is in a unique position to oversee the endeavor. The partner/owner of Lazarus,Silvyn & Bangs, PC, a Tucson-based firm focused on zoning and land use (her father is noted land use attorney Larry Lazarus), she has a deep understanding of, in her words, "the interplay of sense of place, economic development, environmental preservation, government, and business."

 

In her representation of developers and private property owners creating jobs and a stronger economy, Keri also works with communities and neighborhoods to maintain a sense of place as they accommodate growth and new jobs. "I enjoy helping communities make difficult decisions, while striving to see as many perspectives as possible," she says.

 

"Some see the practice of zoning and land use law as untraditional, since it straddles the law and public policy," she notes. "But in hindsight, it is exactly the reason I went to law school. I love working with the development and growth community, helping people see the bigger picture and shaping public policy."

 

A former partner at Lewis and Roca, Keri has received such honors as the Judge Learned Hand Award and State Bar of Arizona Young Lawyer of the Year Award and has been listed in the Arizona Daily Star "40 Under 40" and Woodward/White's "Best Lawyers in America." She serves on the Arizona Law College Association Board of Directors and was LCA president in 2006-08.

 

When choosing among law school offers, Keri, raised in Phoenix, admits she did consider ASU. "But after attending the U of A as an undergraduate, it became apparent that I was becoming a Tucsonan and a true Wildcat!" She has never regretted her decision to become an Arizona Law student and stay in Tucson, where she and her husband Jeff, former general counsel with the US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution and now general counsel for Pima Community College, are raising their three children. 

 

"I want our region to be the best that it can be," Keri says.

 

You can read more about Keri at her firm's website or connect with her at her LinkedIn profile.

Footnotes

Online Recurring Giving: Green, Great, Grateful

Are you wondering how you can make a difference? A gift to the Arizona Law Fund allows us to support student scholarships, fellowships and grants and provide new career development initiatives. Our online option to make monthly gifts using a credit card is an easier, greener way to support Arizona Law: www.law.arizona.edu/give.

 

Every gift matters. Recurring giving is a way to show your steady support for the College of Law as we continue to guide one of the world's great public law schools through changing and challenging times.

 

We Need Your Help -- Update Your Contact Information!

In an effort to stay in closer contact with all of our alumni, we are asking you to update your contact information this summer. Please help us by filling out the brief form at the link below. Let us know the best way to contact you. Tell us more about your career and how we can better serve you! You can find the form here.

 

UPCOMING EVENTS 

Join Arizona Law Faculty and Alumni at the State Bar

* Faculty Presentations -- Wednesday, June 19

 

Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program Staff Attorney Mary Guss will discuss tribal veterans

courts at the Veterans Courts seminar, 10:30 am-noon

 

IPLP Distinguished Jurist in Residence Ray Austin will serve on the morning session of the Navajo Peacemaking Panel, 8:45 a.m.-noon

 

Professor Jamie Ratner will moderate the antitrust/business law panel and discuss whether Google and Apple antitrust enforcement helps or hinders e-commerce, 8:45 am-noon

 

* Battle of the Bands -- Thursday, June 20

Don't miss the many Arizona Law alumni and faculty playing to win at this year's "Battle of the Lawyer Bands!" They include Professor Susie Salmon of The Gotes; Judge Philip Espinosa (JD '83, BA '78), Christopher J. Smith (JD '85), and Peter Akmajian (JD '84, BA '80) of Los Big Grandes; and Frank Leto (JD '74), Richard Kingston (JD '84), and Staci Vierthaler (JD '08) of Guilty as Sin. For more information about the event, visit the State Bar Convention Webpage.

 

Also Join Us for a Reception to Meet the Dean During the State Bar -- Friday, June 21

Wine and Cheese Reception hosted by Fennemore Craig, 2394 East Camelback, Suite 600, Phoenix RSVP here.

 

Other Opportunities to Meet Dean Miller

 

* Tucson - June 18, Breakfast, Arizona Law, 7:30-9am RSVP

* Seattle - June 24, Williams Kastner, 4-6pm RSVP

* Portland, OR - June 26

* Washington, DC - July 10

* San Francisco - July 18

* Sacramento - July 29

* Chicago, NY, Boston - August 5-7

 

 

  

 

 

 

University of Arizona Alumni Association Events

*San Francisco Wildcat Pride Coming Out -- Wednesday, June 26

Join LGBTQA alumni from the U of A at this San Francisco event. For more information visit Wildcat Pride.

 

*Annual BayCats Day with the San Francisco Giants -- Saturday, July 27

Join alumni and Greg Byrne, U of A vice president of athletics, at AT&T Park. For more information, visit Annual Day.

 

 

Warmly,

 

 

Marc Signature  

 

Dean & Ralph W. Bilby Professor of Law
James E. Rogers College of Law

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