Emphasis Added

Emphasis Added is a podcast by the Houston Law Review. Check out this episode in video on YouTube at https://podcast.houstonlawreview.org/

This month's episode of Emphasis Added is a special episode where we bring you a condensed version of the Houston Law Review's 26th Annual Frankel Lecture. The lecture features keynote speaker and Harvard Law School Professor Jeannie Suk Gersen, along with two commentators, UC Berkley School of Law Professor Khiara Bridges, and Princeton University Professor Keith Whittington.  Moderated by University of Houston Law Professor Dave Fagundes, the speakers explore academic freedom and discrimination in a polarizing time from a broad spectrum of viewpoints, and examine a wide array of topics from the history of academic freedom to the political pressures on professors and institutions in the 21st century. 

A special thanks to our sponsor
Vinson & Elkins, a global law firm with 11 offices and more than 700 lawyers, committed to excellence in serving and advising its sophisticated clients in industries such as energy, finance, technology, real estate, media, and beyond. V&E lawyers also are proud to support pro bono clients across their communities. To help clients navigate complex areas of law, V&E hires the best and brightest law students and lawyers, valuing diverse perspectives and backgrounds. Visit www.velaw.com to learn more about V&E’s summer associate program and hiring opportunities. Start your success story at Vinson & Elkins.

For more on the Houston Law Review, please visit houstonlawreview.org
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LinkedIn | The Houston Law Review

Emphasis Added is a podcast by the Houston Law Review. Check this episode out on video on YouTube at https://youtu.be/hl9dwGeEChY

The Law School Real Talk Series by the Houston Law Review was developed to provide useful and actionable advice to first-year law students regarding the many unknowns of Law School. On this episode of the series, I am joined by Houston Law Review members Drew McKay and Kirsten Williams as we discuss our experience and advice on how to navigate the legal market as a law student. Our guests provided a balance of experience and interest between big law firms and the public sector, with Drew planning to litigate at Hunton Andrews Kurth upon graduation, Kirsten to Clerk for judge Andrew Edison of the Southern District of Texas, and my plan to be a transactional attorney for Latham & Watkins.  Drew, Kirsten, and I discuss the entirety of the hiring process for law students while providing our own tips, tricks, and advice along the way, from where to search for job opportunities, to networking, applying, interviewing, and more. 

A special thanks to our sponsor
Vinson & Elkins, a global law firm with 11 offices and more than 700 lawyers, committed to excellence in serving and advising its sophisticated clients in industries such as energy, finance, technology, real estate, media, and beyond. V&E lawyers also are proud to support pro bono clients across their communities. To help clients navigate complex areas of law, V&E hires the best and brightest law students and lawyers, valuing diverse perspectives and backgrounds. Visit www.velaw.com to learn more about V&E’s summer associate program and hiring opportunities. Start your success story at Vinson & Elkins.

For more on the Houston Law Review, please visit houstonlawreview.org
Twitter | @HoustonLRev
Instagram | @HoustonLRev
Facebook | @HoustonLRev
LinkedIn | The Houston Law Review

Emphasis Added is a podcast by the Houston Law Review. Check out this episode in video on YouTube at https://youtu.be/uNTNpxvFBJs

On this month's episode of Emphasis Added, I spoke with Energy Law Professor James Coleman at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law. James has been teaching in the field of energy regulatory law for over a decade, has authored numerous articles on the regulation of North American energy companies, and produces a wealth of energy law content through a variety of platforms. We discussed Texas’s system for ensuring electricity reliability before and during Winter Storm Uri, the damage that occurred because of the near catastrophic failure of Texas’s grid, and the aftermath of Uri including the hundreds of cases of litigation pending and the Texas Legislature’s response to this disaster that took effect on/before September 1, 2021.

You can find more content from @EnergyLawProf James Coleman at the links below:
YouTube Page - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN0a_DKvsiN1Xcf-m0XW0sQ
Website - https://www.energylawprof.com/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/EnergyLawProf
SSRN Author Page - https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=900410
Energy Tradeoffs Website - https://www.energytradeoffs.com/

A special thanks to our sponsor
Vinson & Elkins, a global law firm with 11 offices and more than 700 lawyers, committed to excellence in serving and advising its sophisticated clients in industries such as energy, finance, technology, real estate, media, and beyond. V&E lawyers also are proud to support pro bono clients across their communities. To help clients navigate complex areas of law, V&E hires the best and brightest law students and lawyers, valuing diverse perspectives and backgrounds. Visit www.velaw.com to learn more about V&E’s summer associate program and hiring opportunities. Start your success story at Vinson & Elkins.

For more on the Houston Law Review, please visit houstonlawreview.org
Twitter | @HoustonLRev
Instagram | @HoustonLRev
Facebook | @HoustonLRev
LinkedIn | The Houston Law Review

Emphasis Added is a podcast by the Houston Law Review. Check out this episode in video on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/e33HEIZ3F58

The Law School Real Talk Series by the Houston Law Review was developed to provide useful and actionable advice to first-year law students regarding the many unknowns of Law School. On this episode of the series, I am joined by Houston Law Review members Katy Liebel and Natasha Kalaouze as we discuss our experience and advice on how to succeed academically in Law School. Natasha, Katy, and I were all academic enrichment tutors (teaching assistants) for a variety of classes for the University of Houston Law Center, and were happy to share how we navigated our way through 1L, including everything from preparing for class to preparing for exams, surviving being on call, and understanding the law school curve and the importance of grades.

A special thanks to our sponsor

Vinson & Elkins, a global law firm with 11 offices and more than 700 lawyers, committed to excellence in serving and advising its sophisticated clients in industries such as energy, finance, technology, real estate, media, and beyond. V&E lawyers also are proud to support pro bono clients across their communities. To help clients navigate complex areas of law, V&E hires the best and brightest law students and lawyers, valuing diverse perspectives and backgrounds. Visit www.velaw.com to learn more about V&E’s summer associate program and hiring opportunities. Start your success story at Vinson & Elkins.

Also, kudos to Frank Taylor of FiskPoint Productions for his assistance in producing this series.

For more on the Houston Law Review, please visit houstonlawreview.org

Twitter | @HoustonLRev

Instagram | @HoustonLRev

Facebook | @HoustonLRev

LinkedIn | The Houston Law Review

Emphasis Added is a podcast by the Houston Law Review. Check out this episode in video on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/vXHSEzhXrEA

On this month's episode of Emphasis Added, I spoke with University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Nina Varsava about her forthcoming article with the Houston Law Review, Professional Irresponsibility and Judicial Opinions. Nina researches areas including civil procedure, courts and judicial decision making, and ethics and professional responsibility in the legal and medical contexts, and employs both philosophical and empirical methods to study these areas. We discussed the ethical conundrum that contemporary advice on U.S.  judicial opinion writing poses to judges, and what alternatives might best balance the pros of this current method with its flaws. If you are interested in reading more of Nina's article with the Houston Law Review or her other works, links to her pages are included below.

Nina Varsava Contact Information and Articles:

Faculty Page
https://secure.law.wisc.edu/profiles/[email protected]

Professional Irresponsibility and Judicial Opinions
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3825848

Elements of Judicial Style: A Quantitative Guide to Neil Gorsuch's Opinion Writing
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3166538

Precedent on Precedent
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3591153

 The Role of Dissents in the Formation of Precedent
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3094016

 How to Realize the Value of Stare Decisis: Options for Following Precedent
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3016053

A special thanks to our sponsor
Vinson & Elkins, a global law firm with 11 offices and more than 700 lawyers, committed to excellence in serving and advising its sophisticated clients in industries such as energy, finance, technology, real estate, media, and beyond. V&E lawyers also are proud to support pro bono clients across their communities. To help clients navigate complex areas of law, V&E hires the best and brightest law students and lawyers, valuing diverse perspectives and backgrounds. Visit www.velaw.com to learn more about V&E’s summer associate program and hiring opportunities. Start your success story at Vinson & Elkins.

For more on the Houston Law Review, please visit houstonlawreview.org
Twitter | @HoustonLRev
Instagram | @HoustonLRev
Facebook | @HoustonLRev
LinkedIn | The Houston Law Review

Emphasis Added is a podcast by the Houston Law Review. Check out this episode in video on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/QXssG-XrY5E  

On this month's episode of Emphasis Added, I spoke with NASA Attorney and University of Houston Law Center Professor Rebecca Bresnik about the privatization of space, and the legal issues surrounding the rising prominence of private companies in the space industry. Rebecca has worked for NASA for over 16 years, and is currently NASA's Associate Chief Counsel for International Matters and lead attorney for the International Space Station. We discussed the current state of space law as it applies to private actors in a variety of situations, and contemplated the possible shortcomings and various interpretations of current law as the private space industry continues to expand on both Earth and beyond.

A special thanks to our sponsor
Vinson & Elkins, a global law firm with 11 offices and more than 700 lawyers, committed to excellence in serving and advising its sophisticated clients in industries such as energy, finance, technology, real estate, media, and beyond. V&E lawyers also are proud to support pro bono clients across their communities. To help clients navigate complex areas of law, V&E hires the best and brightest law students and lawyers, valuing diverse perspectives and backgrounds. Visit www.velaw.com to learn more about V&E’s summer associate program and hiring opportunities. Start your success story at Vinson & Elkins.

For more on the Houston Law Review, please visit houstonlawreview.org
Twitter | @HoustonLRev
Instagram | @HoustonLRev
Facebook | @HoustonLRev
LinkedIn | The Houston Law Review

On this month’s episode of Emphasis Added, I spoke with internationally renowned death penalty attorney David R. Dow just 24 hours after Virginia, the state with the second most executions over the past fifty years, outlawed the death penalty. David R. Dow is a professor at the University of Houston Law Center and the founder of the Texas Innocence Network—an organization that uses UH law students to investigate claims of actual innocence brought by Texas prisoners. Professor Dow is also the author of seven books and numerous scholarly articles, to include his critically acclaimed book The Autobiography of an Executioner. Professor Dow’s areas of expertise include contracts, constitutional law and theory, and death penalty law. I spoke with Professor Dow about his 30 years of experience representing Texas Death Row inmates, and how the inaccuracies, inequalities, and expense of death row sentencing has led to a general decline of the death penalty over the past decade.

A special thanks to our sponsor

Vinson & Elkins, a global law firm with 11 offices and more than 700 lawyers, committed to excellence in serving and advising its sophisticated clients in industries such as energy, finance, technology, real estate, media, and beyond. V&E lawyers also are proud to support pro bono clients across their communities. To help clients navigate complex areas of law, V&E hires the best and brightest law students and lawyers, valuing diverse perspectives and backgrounds. Visit www.velaw.com to learn more about V&E’s summer associate program and hiring opportunities. Start your success story at Vinson & Elkins

For more on the Houston Law Review, please visit houstonlawreview.org

Twitter | @HoustonLRev

Instagram | @HoustonLRev

Facebook | @HoustonLRev

LinkedIn | The Houston Law Review 

Gillian Hobson is a partner at Vinson & Elkins in Houston, Texas. Her practice focuses on corporate finance and securities. Gillian has been recognized as a Minority Corporate Counsel Association “Rainmaker” and has been selected as a Texas Super Lawyer several years running. Gillian is not only a leader in her area of practice, she is also a champion of diversity and inclusion efforts at Vinson & Elkins and was the first woman of color elected to the Management Committee. We spoke with Gillian about her 20 year career with Vinson & Elkins and how she navigated growth during that time, her role on V&E’s management committee, and how to create your own doors in your career development. 

A special thanks to our sponsor

Vinson & Elkins, a global law firm with 11 offices and more than 700 lawyers, committed to excellence in serving and advising its sophisticated clients in industries such as energy, finance, technology, real estate, media, and beyond. V&E lawyers also are proud to support pro bono clients across their communities. To help clients navigate complex areas of law, V&E hires the best and brightest law students and lawyers, valuing diverse perspectives and backgrounds. Visit www.velaw.com to learn more about V&E’s summer associate program and hiring opportunities. Start your success story at Vinson & Elkins

For more on the Houston Law Review, please visit houstonlawreview.org

Twitter | @HoustonLRev

Instagram | @HoustonLRev

Facebook | @HoustonLRev

LinkedIn | The Houston Law Review 

Support the show 

Travis Torrence serves as the Global Litigation Bankruptcy & Credit Team Lead for Shell Oil Company and manages a team handling bankruptcy and credit legal issues for all of Shell’s business units in the U.S. and Canada. Torrence has been recognized as a “Rising Star” in the area of bankruptcy and creditor/debtor rights by Texas Super Lawyers, and was a 2016 Houston Business Journal “40 Under 40” honoree and a finalist in the publication’s Best Corporate Counsel Awards. He was recently appointed to serve on the Board of Directors for the Texas Access to Justice Foundation, a non-profit that provides grant funding for civil legal aid in Texas. 

Travis and I discuss his college experience and the mentor that encouraged him to reach higher than he thought possible, the time he met Maya Angelou and the words he carried with him from that meeting, and the lessons he carried from his experiences into his current leadership role. 

A special thanks to our sponsor

Vinson & Elkins, a global law firm with 11 offices and more than 700 lawyers, committed to excellence in serving and advising its sophisticated clients in industries such as energy, finance, technology, real estate, media, and beyond. V&E lawyers also are proud to support pro bono clients across their communities. To help clients navigate complex areas of law, V&E hires the best and brightest law students and lawyers, valuing diverse perspectives and backgrounds. Visit www.velaw.com to learn more about V&E’s summer associate program and hiring opportunities. Start your success story at Vinson & Elkins
 

For more on the Houston Law Review, please visit houstonlawreview.org

Twitter | @HoustonLRev

Instagram | @HoustonLRev

Facebook | @HoustonLRev

LinkedIn | The Houston Law Review 

John Tehranian is the Paul W. Wildman Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School. A graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, Professor Tehranian's scholarship focuses on the interface between law and culture, with an emphasis on issues of technology, entertainment, and race. In private practice, he has litigated numerous high-profile lawsuits, including copyright, trademark and right of publicity disputes involving Madonna, Don Henley, B.B. King, Bettie Page, Jimi Hendrix, and Perez Hilton, among others. 

We spoke with John about his recent article, published in Volume 58, Issue 1 of the Houston Law Review, titled: Is Kim Kardashian White? (and Why Does It Matter Anyway?) Racial Fluidity, Identity Mutability & the Future of Civil Rights Jurisprudence. 

A special thanks to our sponsor, Gibson Dunn, a premier, full-service international law firm with nearly 1400 lawyers and 20 offices. Gibson Dunn recognizes that a law firm is, at its heart, a collection of individual attorneys, so they strive to hire the highest-quality law students and attorneys, professionally and personally, and grant them autonomy in shaping their own career path. Gibson Dunn attorneys bring a unique, diverse perspective to the Firm’s community and the Firm values a culture of respect and professionalism that promotes dialogue with room for all viewpoints. Visit www.gibsondunn.com to learn more about Gibson Dunn’s Summer Associate Program and hiring opportunities.

For more on the Houston Law Review, please visit houstonlawreview.org

Twitter | @HoustonLRev

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LinkedIn | The Houston Law Review