Law alumnus represented detained journalist
KU Law announces fall events
Law professor receives $50,000 award for work on race relations project
Law alumnus represented detained journalist
A KU School of Law graduate was part of the legal team that worked to free a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer who was released in April after being detained for two years in Iraq by the U.S. military.
Bert Nunley, a Raleigh, N.C., attorney who graduated from the law school in 1987, recently told his story to Raleigh television station WRAL.
At the end of 2007, Nunley was asked to assist the Associated Press in freeing one of its employees, Bilal Hussein, who was arrested at his Ramadi apartment in April 2006 for suspicion of having ties to terrorists, Nunley told the news station.
Nunley, who is also a retired Marine colonel, began working with a team of lawyers to free Hussein. He spent three weeks in war-torn Baghdad, which he described as an intense experience.
“You travel in a three and a half-ton armored Mercedes with glass so thick you can’t really shoot a picture out of it,” Nunley told the news station, noting that the smile on Hussein’s face helped make the journey rewarding.
“He was just so happy to see someone who had traveled all the way from the U.S. to help him,” Nunley told WRAL.
Hussein was released after never being charged with a crime. Click here to read more and watch the WRAL TV story.
KU Law announces fall events
As another academic year begins, the KU School of Law looks forward to a rich slate of scholarly and alumni events. Here are some highlights:
• Dean Gail Agrawal will host a KU Law School Luncheon in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Missouri Bar Association. She will share good news from Green Hall during the event, which will be at 12:15 p.m. Sept. 19 in the Shawnee Room at the Weston Crown Center Hotel, 1 E. Pershing Road, Kansas City, Mo.
• KU Law alumni and current students will team up on Sept. 27 to complete service projects during the Second Annual “KU Law—Making a Difference for Lawrence.” Volunteers will gather at 10:45 a.m. at Green Hall to receive assignments and then fan out across the city to assist senior citizens and nonprofit agencies such as Habitat for Humanity, Habitat ReStore and Big Brothers Big Sisters.
• In honor of the Kansas Jayhawks’ Homecoming clash with Texas Tech, the law school will host its traditional reception Oct. 25 at Alvamar Country Club, 1809 Crossgate Drive.
• “Law, Reparations, and Racial Disparities” will be the topic for the 2008 Kansas Law Review Symposium Oct. 31 at Green Hall.
• World-renowned geneticist Lee Silver (Princeton University) will deliver the opening address at the Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy’s 2008 Symposium, “Biolaw 2.0: Law at the Frontiers of Biology." The conference will be Nov. 13-14 at Green Hall.
Regrettably, we have decided to cancel the KU Law Fall Reunion for the classes of 1968, 1978, 1983 and 1988 because of shrinking state and University budgets. The event was scheduled for Oct. 4, 2008. We hope to reinstitute reunions in upcoming years.
In the meantime, individual class members who wish to coordinate alumni gatherings on their own may request a KU Law Reunion Planning Guide. Please contact Sandy Patti, assistant to the dean and director of alumni relations, at patti@ku.edu or 785.864.9204.
Law professor receives $50,000 award for work on race relations project
A University of Kansas law professor has joined a distinguished handful of scholars, writers and artists who have been named Fletcher Fellows.
Stacy L. Leeds, professor of law and director of KU’s Tribal Law and Government Center, is among four academics in the country to receive the honor this year. The award comes with a $50,000 stipend for work that contributes to improving racial equality in American society and furthers the broad social goals of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
Leeds will produce a book called “Ties that Bind: Freedmen Citizenship and the Cherokee Nation,” which will provide a comprehensive history of the Cherokee freedmen, the African American slaves held by the Cherokee Nation until the 1860s, and their descendants.
While a justice on the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court, Leeds authored the majority opinion in Allen v. Cherokee Nation, a judicial decision that upheld the tribal citizenship rights of the “freedmen” and is considered a decision parallel to Brown v. Board. Leeds will focus on the unique role of the Cherokee nation within the United States with respect to issues of tribal citizenship rights and as a model of the larger issue of race relations and identity in the United States.
“Receiving the fellowship is a tremendous honor, and I am humbled by the generosity of the Fletcher Foundation,” Leeds said. “The fellowship will support research and scholarship on tribal sovereignty and the unique legal history of freedmen citizenship within the Cherokee Nation.”
The Fletcher Fellowship program, a charitable initiative created in 2004 and named for Alphonse Fletcher Sr., commemorates the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board. This year’s selection committee chose the four recipients from a pool of more than 80 applicants. Read more.
Visit the School of Law Web site for more information.
