Professor Peter K. Yu of Texas A&M University School of Law delivered a plenary address at the 9th Asia-Pacific Innovation Conference (APIC) at the Delhi School of Economics in New Delhi, India. Launched at the University of Melbourne and rotating around the Asia-Pacific region, this annual event is one of the premier conferences on innovation in the region. This event was organized by Professor Sunil Kanwar of the Delhi School of Economics. 

Current Texas A&M University School of Law students enrolled in the Immigrant Rights Clinic won an appeal to reopen the case of a client from Somalia who fears being tortured there by Al-Shabaab and the government as a Christianity convert. The case was reopened based on the condition changes in Somalia.  

TAMU Law students, Miranda Leach, Ruth Correa and Caitlin Revanna, were enrolled in the clinic's courses last spring and prepared the motion to reopen the case. This fall, Clarissa Dauphin, Denise Rosales and Wesley Salazar prepared a habeas petition and complaint for the same client.

The Texas A&M University Division of Research has awarded Professor Saurabh Vishnubhakat a 2019 PESCA Grant of $10,000.  Vishnubhakat received the grant through a competitive peer-review process.

The Division of Research funds the PESCA Grant Program to support significant research and scholarly projects that have the potential to lead to the awarding of external funding by agencies and endowments such as major federal research funding agencies, national endowments, institutes, foundations and councils.

Texas A&M University School of Law Dean Bobby Ahdieh comments, "At a university renowned for its strengths in science and technology, this recognition of Professor Vishnubhakat reflects the deeply interdisciplinary thinking of the Texas A&M School of Law faculty. Further, it bespeaks the scholarship with impact that has been a hallmark of our law school and its contributions.

Texas A&M University School of Law Professor William Byrnes is the only academic invited to join the Cambridge Forums' transfer pricing workshop in Frankfurt, Germany.  The workshop is an invitation-only event, limited to 20 leaders who will spend three days together to "develop meaningful relationships" with hiring partners of several global law firms and directors of multinational tax departments.

The Cambridge Forums website says, "The Forum is not for everybody.  Those nominated for invitation have demonstrated their excellence in this field and can confidently share their knowledge and experiences while being open to learning from their peers."  

Byrnes is a leading expert in anti-money laundering and risk management, financial planning and wealth management, international taxation and taxation. He is also recognized as a pioneer and leader for distance, legal education. Recently, he participated in a faculty series, "Exploring Pedagogy and Online Legal Education," held at the University of Memphis School of Law. 

TAMU Law's senior lecturer and director of the low income tax clinic, Bob Probasco, is the principal drafter for comments submitted to the U.S. Tax Court by the Tax Section of the State Bar. He and current law clinic students are advocating for change to the Tax Court’s Rules of Practice and Procedure, to provide for entries of limited appearance by pro bono volunteers. Probasco says this change would allow clinics to provide even more help to taxpayers.

The ABA (American Bar Association) Section of Taxation: Pro Bono and Tax Clinics Committee submitted similar comments in October. The State Bar Tax Section agrees with the TAMU Law clinic’s goal but, wrote separately, to suggest an alternative process that might be more effective. Probasco says the Court has already begun looking at the issue and hopefully will benefit from the law clinic’s input.

Texas A&M University School of Law's new Agriculture Law Society presented its research findings to Mark McPherson, a lawyer working on behalf of the Sandbranch community, as part of the members’ pro bono efforts. 

The 40-page local, state and federal research project, which covers issues associated with produce, egg production and distribution, was compiled by four teams of law students with faculty supervision. The document will be used in discussions with local, state and federal government authorities on important matters, including agriculture. 

Late October, Texas A&M University School of Law Associate Professor Brian N. Larson moderated the capstone panel titled, "The Next Chapter," at the annual Education Symposium co-sponsored by the Dallas Bar Association and SMU's Caruth Institute for Children’s Rights.

Gabriel Eckstein, professor of law at Texas A&M University School of Law and director of the Natural Resources Systems Program, has been elected president of the International Water Resources Association (IWRA).

The Association is an international, professional organization focused on improving and expanding the understanding of water issues through education, research and information exchange among countries and across disciplines.

“This is really a wonderful honor,” said Eckstein. “IWRA is one of the most respected, water-focused organizations globally, and I look forward to building on the association’s excellent policy work, which seeks to ensure sustainable water resources for people and the environment.”

In the months since my appointment as dean of Texas A&M School of Law, exciting news has come across my desk in a flurry: A colleague received a $371,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.  Faculty scholarship has been published in the California, Georgetown, NYU, UCLA and other top law reviews. A tenth state adopted the Uniform Law Commission model law developed by another colleague.  We admitted our most academically qualified and most diverse class ever. And both our bar passage and employment rates jumped significantly.

In real time, I have been able to witness the type of accomplishments that underlie the Law School’s broader advance in recent years.  I am especially proud of three clusters of achievement:

Faculty Excellence

• 11 members of the American Law Institute
• 28 new faculty since 2014 (many of whom gave up endowed chairs to join us)
• Top 50 schools in recent SSRN downloads
• Distinctive Strengths in Intellectual Property & Technology (#7 ranking in S. News), Dispute Resolution (#12 ranking), and Natural Resources/Environment

Interdisciplinary Engagement

• $1.1M in external grants since 2017
• 10%+ of tenure-stream faculty have joined in cross-departmental grant proposals
• 20%+ of tenure-stream faculty have joint appointments/affiliations

Diversity

• 28^th in the nation in faculty diversity
• 50% increase in ethnic diversity of the 1L class since 2016
• 62% of the 1L class are women