A. Michael Beaird has been appointed interim library director at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center for the 2008-2009 academic year, effective June 1. Beaird was appointed on the recommendation of a search committee consisting of Professor Wendell Homes, Vice Chancellor Glenn Morris, and librarians Charlene Cain and Melanie Sims.

Beaird comes to LSU after having previously worked in a similar capacity at UNLV. He has served as the law librarian at the University of Mississippi and as law library director and tenured associate professor of law at the University of Arkansas/Little Rock School of Law. Beaird also served as vice president of a major legal publisher for 15 years.

Beaird received his bachelor's degree in 1969 from the University of Texas, his J.D. in 1974 from the University of Oklahoma, and his master's in law librarianship in 1975 from the University of Washington.

"LSU is in the game, and we must compete in that game," said John Lombardi, president of the LSU System. Lombardi addressed the Law Center's Young Alumni Leadership Council at its May 10, 2008 meeting. The advisory group convened for its second meeting since being appointed by LSU Law Chancellor Jack Weiss in 2007.

With straight talk, Lombardi candidly discussed issues that impact top-flight, national research universities. Among the biggest concern is, "competing for the best faculty, students, grants, and even facilities," said the president. "You don't get points for anything other than quality." The same is true for law schools, according to Lombardi.

As a researcher, Lombardi found that 75 percent of the differentiation between top research universities can be attributed to money. "You've got to have the dollars to drive performance. Money matters; performance counts; and time is the enemy."

He discussed his plans for growth of the main campus and emphasized the importance of...

Governor Jindal, President Lombardi, Members of the Board of Supervisors, Colleagues, Parents, Friends... and Members of the Law Center Class of 2008:

Class of 2008, this is a proud day for all of us and for all of you.

Although you leave us today, we are confident that you begin—that you "commence"— a future of accomplishment, professional satisfaction, and public service.

You have a rigorous foundation in both the common law and the civil law that qualifies you to practice skillfully not just in Louisiana, not just in the other 49 states of the United States, but throughout the world.

We confidently expect that you will be leaders—in this State, in your communities, at the bar and bench, and in the nation. And not just any leaders—but leaders who stand for positive, reasoned, honest change, and who care about the lives of others.

Today is a particularly special day for me because your class is the first to graduate during my tenure as...

The Order of the Coif. Bottom row: (l to r) Professor Andrea Carroll; Judge Ernestine Gray; Chancellor Jack Weiss; Jennie Jackson Miller; Christina Ashley Fannin Welch; Jennifer Lynn Keefe; Brandee Ketchum; Professor Randall Trahan; Professor Lucy McGough. Middle row: (l to r) Charles Edward Tabor; Jessica L. Gladney; Kelly Jasena Kromer Boudreaux; Alexandra Leigh Clark; Sara Strogner Brehm; Sean Thomas McLaughlin; David Thames Grand, Jr. Top row: (l to r) Louis Edward Layrisson, III; Benjamin West Janke; Lauren Ashleigh Fritz; Yvette Karlene Schultz; Joshua Allen DeCuir; David Phillip Hamm, Jr. Not pictured: Louis O. Ducote, II; Brook Marie Landry Thibodeaux.

Dignitaries at Paul M. Hebert Law Center Commencement Exercises. From left to right: Hank Gowen, LSU Board of Supervisors member; Charles Weems, LSU Board of Supervisors member; Gov. Bobby Jindal; Chancellor Jack Weiss; LSU Board of Supervisors Chairman Jerry Shea; LSU System President...

Norma Bennett, a 2000 graduate of the LSU Law Center, was recently named chair of the Law Center's Young Alumni Leadership Council by Chancellor Jack M. Weiss.

The YALC is made up of 20 members - two each from the last 10 graduating classes of the Law Center - and serves as an advisory board to the chancellor and the Law Center.

Bennett is an associate in the Patent Litigation practice of the Litigation Regulatory Department of Weil, Gotshal, & Manges' Houston office. She has represented clients in several industries, including oil and gas, energy services, pharmaceutical, and computer industries. Her clients have included Microsoft Corporation, Exxon Mobil Corporation, and Shell Oil Company.

In 1985, she received her bachelor's degree in chemistry from Princeton University and subsequently joined the U.S. Air Force, reaching the rank of captain and serving in the first Gulf War. At LSU, she was a member of the Moot Court Board, a finalist in the Tullis Moot Court...

Left to right: Dean A. Sutherland, Chair, Chancellor's Council; Jeffrey Toobin, guest speaker; Ann Weiss and Chancellor Jack Weiss; Oliver “Rick” Richard, President, LSU Law Alumni Board of Trustees.

LSU Law Center Chancellor Jack M. Weiss and Dean A. Sutherland, chairman of the Chancellor's Council, welcomed 188 guests to the annual black tie Chancellor's Council Dinner on Friday, May 2, 2008, at the Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center Hotel.

The dinner honored friends and graduates who annually contribute a minimum of $1,000 unrestricted gifts to the Law Center. Also recognized were donors of new endowments or major gifts to the Law Center during 2007.

Jeffrey Toobin, CNN legal analyst and author of The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, was the featured speaker.

For more information on how to join the Chancellor's Council, contact Bobbi...

Four new faces will be navigating the winding, M.C. Escher-like corridors of the Law Center soon, placing a premium on breadcrumbs, Post-it Notes, and anything else useful in leaving a trail.

Robert E. Lancaster, who previously served as Clinical Professor of Law at Indiana University School of Law, will assume the position of director of LSU Law's Clinical Legal Education Program. He will also have the title of Professor of Professional Practice.

Lancaster received his bachelor's degree at Millsaps College in 1989 and his J.D. at Tulane Law School in 1993. He was also named a Robert M. Cover Clinical Teaching Fellow from 1997-2000 at Yale Law School.

Among his achievements at Indiana University, he directed and co-directed the Judicial Externship Program from 2002-2006, and served as director of the Chinese Law Summer Program and faculty director of the China Trial Advocacy Institute in Beijing.

Melissa T. Lonegrass will join the Law Center faculty as an assistant...

Governor Bobby Jindal will serve as the speaker for the Paul M. Hebert Law Center 2008 Commencement exercises, Thursday, May 22, at 10:30 a.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Chancellor Jack M. Weiss will preside over the ceremony.

More than 200 students - from Alexandria, Louisiana, to Yantai, Shandong Province, China - will receive their degrees. Assisting in the conferring of degrees will be Chairman of the LSU Board of Supervisors Jerry E. Shea, Jr.

Guests to the commencement ceremony may enter through all portals - both ground and concourse levels.

Jindal was sworn in as governor of Louisiana on January 14, 2008. He was born in Baton Rouge in 1971 and graduated from Baton Rouge High School in 1987 before attending Brown University where he graduated with honors in biology and public policy. He then attended Oxford University in Oxford, England, as a Rhodes Scholar. In 1996, Jindal began his career in public service with an appointment as secretary of the Louisiana Department...

If you have checked your calendar recently and thought you were forgetting an important holiday, don't worry. You haven't missed the bicentennial of the Louisiana Civil Code.

To celebrate the event, there will be a number of lectures, Friday, May 16 and Sunday, May 18. In addition, the Digest Online will be unveiled to the public, marking the culmination of a project to make the text of the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825 available online. The Digest is published in both the original French and English translation, with the notes made by the drafters at the time. An added search function will make it an easily researchable source.

Events begin May 16, at 4 p.m., at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center's McKernan Auditorium with a welcome address followed by the presentation of the Digest Online by Professor Olivier Moréteau, Russell Long Chair and director of the Center of Civil Law Studies at the Law Center.

At 4:30 p.m., Jacques Vanderlinden - Professor Emeritus at The Free University...

Roe v. Wade, Bush v. Gore, Obama v. Clinton and Toobin v. Delay were just some of the topics addressed recently when Jeffrey Toobin—CNN analyst and author of The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court—sat down for a candid conversation with Law Center Chancellor Jack Weiss.

Toobin arrived 10 minutes late to the scheduled 2 p.m. forum in the student lounge because of travel delays but hit the stage straightaway, starting the discussion with a recollection of studying for the bar and constantly hearing "this applies everywhere except Louisiana."

Talk turned quickly to the upcoming presidential election and its impact on the Supreme Court. A win for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton would, Toobin said, lead to a much more liberal Court. A win for John McCain, however, would further solidify the conservative movement in the Court, which, Toobin said, is the central theme to his book The Nine.

"The Bush presidency will be remembered for two things -...

On April 3, 2008, the LSU Law Center faculty, friends, former colleagues and distinguished alumni gathered in the Tucker Room to commemorate the publication of a volume of Essays in Honor of Saúl Litvinoff.

Standing between the other two editors of the project, Mr. Julio Romañach and Professor Alberto Zuppi, Professor Olivier Moréteau, Russell Long Chair and Director of the Center of Civil Law Studies, presented the volume, 860 pages, consisting in 46 contributions by jurists from 12 different nations, honoring our world famous comparatist and civilian. The book includes testimonials reflecting how Professor Litvinoff contributed to the development of the law in all possible ways, including legal practice, teaching, writing textbooks and treatises, and legislation drafting.

Following the ceremony, a conference was held to present the other two parts of the book. These essays revisited some areas of the civil law and illustrated efforts to bridge the...