| UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
JAMES E. ROGERS COLLEGE OF LAW |
AUGUST 10, 2022 | | |
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Greetings,
This week, we recognize two members of our faculty: Bob Mundheim and Barak Orbach.
Friends, colleagues and former students have funded a named professorship in Bob’s honor, and Barak is the inaugural Robert H. Mundheim Professor of Law and Business. Both professors have brought decades of experience in corporate governance and regulation to their students and others in the community. Congratulations!
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Until the footnotes,
Marc
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Professorship Honors Professor, Corporate Governance Giant Robert Mundheim | |
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A new endowed professorship at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law has been created in honor of Robert H. Mundheim, long-time professor and corporate governance expert. The Robert H. Mundheim Professorship of Law and Business was established through a gift of close to $600,000 made by a group of his colleagues, friends and former students.
“I appreciate this honor immensely, particularly since it was made possible by the many people who I know personally and professionally,” Bob said. “I greatly enjoy my time at University of Arizona Law in large part because the students have been such thoughtful and active participants in my seminar and my faculty and staff colleagues have been so supportive.”
Bob has been a leader across the worlds of law and business, building an astonishing career that spans more than six decades. Among his many influential roles, he has served as the University Professor of Law and Finance and Dean at the University of Pennsylvania Law School; as general counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department, where he played a lead role in successfully negotiating the release of the U.S. hostages in Iran; as special counsel to the Securities and Exchange Commission; and as executive vice president and general counsel for Salomon Inc. Since 1999, he has been of counsel to the global law firm of Shearman & Sterling.
In 2011, Bob joined University of Arizona Law as a professor of corporate law and finance where, each spring, he teaches the popular annual seminar on Corporate Governance. As part of the seminar, he moderates conversations with national leaders in business and law, relating their experiences in and perspectives about corporate governance, markets, ethics and career development. Known as the Mundheim Speaker Series, these conversations are open to the public and often attended by alumni.
The inaugural Mundheim Professorship of Law and Business was awarded to Barak Orbach, who serves as the founding director of the Business Law program at University of Arizona Law. Internationally recognized as a leading scholar of antitrust and regulation, his most recent works explore what antitrust policies are likely to protect market competition in the digital age.
“I am humbled and honored to serve as the inaugural recipient of the Robert H. Mundheim Professorship of Law and Business,” said Barak. “What sets Bob apart from any other individual I have known is the scope and depth of his positive impact on many organizations and the lives of many individuals. Our college, faculty, staff, and students have been very fortunate to be among the beneficiaries of Bob’s professional and personal commitments. I have known Bob for more than a dozen years. My professional and personal growth during this period would have been very different without him. It is, therefore, a very meaningful honor to receive the Mundheim Professorship and also a responsibility to work harder and do things better.”
To learn more, see the full story here.
For more information on how to get involved with the Mundheim Professorship of Law and Business, contact Senior Director of Development Megan O’Leary at moleary@email.arizona.edu or via phone at 520-626-1330.
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Arizona Law Becomes Partner in Seminar on Latin American Constitutional Theory | |
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In June, members of the University of Arizona Law faculty participated in Yale Law School’s 2022 Seminar in Latin America on Constitutional and Political Theory (SELA) and Arizona Law was named as a partner in the SELA program.
This year, for the first time since SELA began in the early 1990s, two U.S. law schools were welcomed as partners in the program: the University of Arizona College of Law and the University of Miami School of Law.
Held in Santiago, Chile June 9 through 12, the SELA conference, “Fixing the Ship at Sea: Threats to Democracy and Efforts to Rebuild,” featured papers on aspects of democracy from scholars in the United States and Latin America. The SELA conference took place just before Chile’s Constitutional Convention presented its final draft charter, which will be voted upon in September. Members of the Constitutional Convention participated in panels during SELA.
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Xiaoqian Hu, Tammi Walker, Eunice Lee, and Teresa Miguel-Stearns | |
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The delegation from Arizona Law included Associate Professor of Law Xiaoqian Hu, Associate Professor of Law and Psychology Tammi Walker, Associate Professor of Law Eunice Lee, and Associate Dean of Legal Information Innovation and Director of the Law Library & Professor of Law Teresa Miguel-Stearns.
“SELA is more than a conference; it is a community of legal scholars,” Tammi said. “We are grateful to have been welcomed and look forward to participating next year.”
“It was truly a historic time to discuss law and democracy in the Americas—while just a few kilometers away from the Chilean Constitutional Convention,” Eunice recalled. “I learned so much from SELA participants, including those involved in drafting Chile’s new proposed Constitution.”
Not only is Teresa the Arizona Law representative on the SELA organizing committee, she also has been leading SELA Bibliotecarios, a parallel conference of Latin American law librarians, since 2017. SELA Bibliotecarios provides law librarians with education, training, and a regional network of colleagues, with the ultimate goals of more effectively supporting faculty research and elevating the profession in Latin America. She also has been instrumental in facilitating the University of Arizona Law’s partnership with SELA.
“The Arizona delegation engaged fully and actively in the panel discussions and conversations. I was told by several attendees that our participation was refreshing, generative, and greatly appreciated,” said Xiaoqian.
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Prof. Walker Principal Investigator in State Bar Survey | |
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If you are a member of the State Bar of Arizona, you probably have received an email about the member survey. Every three years, the State Bar conducts a survey on members’ satisfaction with bar membership and the profession.
Associate Professor of Law and Psychology Tammi Walker is the principal investigator on this year’s survey, and has been working hard for more than a year on the project. Congratulations to Tammi!
We encourage bar members to respond to the survey. All responses are confidential. If you are a State Bar member and have not yet received the survey, please contact Tammi Walker.
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Is Your Dog the Next Bruiser Woods? | |
While there is some controversy over the best law school movie of all time, no one can argue that Bruiser Woods, the canine sidekick of protagonist Elle Woods in “Legally Blonde,” is a credit to the genre.
The University of Arizona School of Theatre, Film & Television recently put out a casting call for a “small-medium sized well-trained dog” to play Bruiser in its October stage production of “Legally Blonde.” The ad invites interested pups (or, rather, their people) to contact Christie Kerr (Director) for more information: ckerr1@arizona.edu or 520-621-1324.
Even if you are team “Paper Chase,” you must admit it would be great fun to see a dog from the LawCat Community in the show!
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Bob Mundheim has had a long and striking career as a leader in law, governance, business and finance. We were fortunate that Bob and Guna found Tucson, and, finding Tucson, found our College.
For a dozen years, which I consider the capstone of this extraordinary career, each spring Bob has taught – and continues to teach – Arizona Law students in both the fundamentals and the intricacies of corporate governance. He does so not only by drawing on his own personal deep and current knowledge of corporate governance, but by drawing on the knowledge, expertise – and lifelong friendship – of general counsel and lawyers.
The generous gift from many of Bob’s friends and family to create the Robert H. Mundheim Professorship of Law and Business is a signal moment, illuminating Bob’s leadership here at Arizona and far beyond. Barak Orbach, a leading scholar in antitrust, regulation and corporate law, and a committed teacher, is a worthy inaugural holder of the professorship.
Thank you, Bob and Guna. And thank you, from me and the entire Arizona law community, to the many people who made this professorship to honor Bob Mundheim possible.
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