UM Announces New Acting Law Leadership Team
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Professors Monte Mills, Sara Rinfret and Cathay Y. N. Smith began their service as acting deans of the Alexander Blewett III School of Law beginning Oct. As the only law school in Montana, the Blewett School of Law serves as the state’s academic legal center and contributes to the development of national, state and tribal law and legal institutions through teaching, scholarship, and service. The Blewett School of Law provides nationally ranked programming, serving more than 500 students across programs in law, policy and public administration. This team of acting deans was formed after extensive discussion among the Blewett School of Law faculty. Professors Mills, Rinfret and Smith are respected colleagues who are highly regarded in our community. They will help guide the Blewett School of Law over the coming months as a national search for a permanent dean takes place. Monte Mills is a professor and co-director of the Margery Hunter Brown Indian Law Clinic. He has helped lead a reinvigoration of the school’s Indian and tribal law program and teaches a variety of law courses in addition to his work in the Clinic. Prior to joining the law school, Mills served as director of the legal department for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe in Colorado. He is a leading scholar on tribal sovereignty and natural resources. Dr. Sara Rinfret is a professor of public administration and policy and serves as MPA director. Since coming to the UM in 2013, she led the strategic charge to create the first-ever department of public administration and policy in Montana housed within a law school in the United States. Rinfret is a nationally recognized teacher and scholar. Cathay Y. N. Smith is a professor in the School of Law. She joined the faculty after a teaching fellowship at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and practicing as an intellectual property law litigator at the law firm of Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP in Chicago. A nationally recognized scholar in copyright law, Smith has redeveloped the property law curriculum and created several new courses in intellectual property and property law. She is admitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Third Circuit and Federal Circuit and is an active member of the IP Law Section of the Montana Bar and co-organizes an annual IP Day in Montana conference.
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These law students and their coach won the right to compete at nationals as part of UM’s American Bar Association Negotiation Team. They are (left to right) Mikayla Schneider, Kelly Lamb, coach Nicole Siefert, Kiki Huettl, Eric Monroe, Bethany Niman and Marisa Owens.
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UM Sends Two Law Negotiation Teams to Nationals
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In a first for the University of Montana, two teams competing as part of the Blewett School of Law’s American Bar Association Negotiation Team qualified for national competition.
UM captured the top two spots at the Northwest Regional ABA Negotiation Competition, which was hosted virtually Oct. 29-30 by the University of California, Berkeley. The national competition will be held online Feb. 4-5, 2022.
“I was very impressed with the team’s resilience,” said Nicole Siefert, the UM coach. “We lost some team members earlier in the season, got the teams finalized significantly later than usual and the virtual competition was weeks earlier than normal. But our students competed well when it mattered.”
This year’s team included Kiki Huettl (’22) of Cypress, California; Eric Monroe (’23) of Great Falls; Mikayla Schneider (’22) of Missoula; Kelly Lamb (’22) of Bozeman; Bethany Niman (’24) of Santa Barbara, California; and Marisa Owens (’23) of Fresno, California.
They faced off against 20 teams from 10 law schools across the Northwest. Working in pairs, one UM team consisting of Lamb and Schneider and another formed by Niman and Owens took the two top spots, advancing to the national competition in the spring.
Although this is the first time UM had two teams advanced to nationals, over the years the negotiation team has earned numerous accolades. Sixteen teams have proceeded to the quarterfinal round at their respective regional competitions, nine teams have advanced to the National Competition and three teams have placed at the National Competition. The 1997 team ranked third in the nation, and the 2002 team placed second. Read more |
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UM Law Ranked No. 7 Best Value School in Nation
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National Jurist’s PreLaw Magazine ranked the University of Montana’s Alexander Blewett III School of Law No. 7 in the nation on its 2021 list of Best Value Law Schools. The ranking uses a formula incorporating the rate of employment after graduation, bar passage rate, tuition costs, living expenses and the average debt students accrue. It recognizes schools that graduate students who excel at passing the bar and landing jobs without taking on excessive debt. With low tuition costs, UM’s law school brings legal education into reach for many students. It helps them accumulate minimal debt while receiving a practical education for which the school is known. Read more |
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Alumni Spotlight: Tony McCormick
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I am a partner at the law firm Perkins Coie in Seattle, Washington, and work in the Trusts and Estates group for the firm. In my practice, I work with clients in both the tax and non-tax aspects of estate planning, and I advise individuals and tax-exempt organizations on the wide range of legal issues affecting charitable giving, the formation of nonprofit organizations and the organizational steps required to maintain a charitable organization's tax exempt status. While much of the work is based on the technical application of the law, estate planning and
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charitable giving are inherently personal and require a lot of non-technical planning and approaches. When entering law school after obtaining accounting and psychology degrees from the University of Montana, I envisioned that I would end up practicing some sort of business law. That interest only grew while attending law school after taking business, contracts, bankruptcy and tax courses. After law school, I enrolled at New York University to obtain my LL.M. in taxation (or what I called “a bonus year of law school”). Upon completion of my LL.M., I was not exactly sure where I would end up, and my hope was to find a job back on the west coast to be near family. Luckily, despite the lingering effects of the financial crisis, I was able to get an associate position with my current firm in a group that was well suited for my personality and background.
I really enjoy my current position because of the broad range of legal issues and non-legal issues that I have the opportunity to work on each day. As an estate planning attorney, you have the opportunity to touch so many aspects of the laws—real estate, public company work, private company work, private equity, litigation and many more areas—while working with clients on an intimately personal level to help them determine how they wish to pass those assets to their family, friends or charity. The objectives of clients vary greatly, and it is very fulfilling being able to help clients to develop a plan to achieve those goals. I often know more about my clients’ families and financial circumstances than their closest friends and family members. I appreciate and cherish these relationships and feel privileged to assist in fulfilling their personal wishes.
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The Board of Regents has officially approved faculty promotions for the academic year. Craig Cowie has been promoted from assistant professor to associate professor. Cathay Smith and Monte Mills have advanced from associate professors to full professors with tenure.
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3L Liz Forster Published by ABA Section on Environment, Energy and Resources
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Third-year law student and MPA candidate Liz Forster recently published an article with the American Bar Association's Section on Environment, Energy and Resources. In the article, "Branching Out: Protecting State Forests Under the Public Trust Doctrine," Forster notes that forests are widely recognized as a key tool in confronting the climate and biodiversity crises and that the law can play a role in securing their protection. Read more |
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Professor Michelle Bryan Explains CSKT Water Compact on Voices of Montana
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A century-long water conflict and a decades-long process for resolve has come to its final conclusion with the official implementation of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) Water Compact. The compact is an agreement between the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the state of Montana and the U.S. Government. It’s far from a simple process, and University of Montana Law School Professor Michelle Bryan joined the show to explain the ins and outs of the compact. Listen to the podcast |
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Updates from the Baucus Institute and Department of Public Administration and Policy
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UM Climate Change Event Featured Max Baucus and Al Gore
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Montana former U.S. Senator and former U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus hosted an annual speakers series recently at the University of Montana. This year's topic was climate change and featured environmental heavy-hitter – former Vice President Al Gore. The inaugural speaker series in 2018 brought to UM Maureen Dowd, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and op-ed columnist who has written for The New York Times and Time Magazine, and Carl Hulse, New York Times chief Washington correspondent and veteran of more than three decades of Washington reporting.
In 2019, the Baucus Institute Speaker Series featured CNN's Chief National Security Correspondent and co-anchor of CNN Newsroom Jim Sciutto. The event also included award-winning author Michael Punke and former Senator and Ambassador Max Baucus in conversation on China-U.S. relations.
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Dr. Sara Rinfret Applies Theory to Practice in New Book on Environmental Policy
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Temple University Press published Dr. Sara Rinfret’s new book “Who Really Makes Environmental Policy? Creating and Implementing Environmental Rules and Regulations.” It brings together top scholars to provide an explanation of rule-making processes and regulatory policy and shows why it's important for U.S. environmental policy. Illustrative case studies about oil and gas regulations in Colorado and the regulation of coal ash disposal in southeastern states apply theory to practice. Ultimately, the essays in this volume advance our understanding of how U.S. environmental policy is made and why understanding regulatory policy matters for its future. Contributors include Jeffrey J. Cook, Deserai |
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Crow, Charles Davis, Robert J. Duffy, Sara K. Guenther, Lydia A. Lawhon, Michelle C. Pautz, and the editor. Learn more |
New Faculty Publication Explores LGBT Justice in Federal Service
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Dr. Blake Emidy's recent article “Sexual Orientation and Organizational Justice in the Federal Service: Exploring Differences through an Intersectional Lens” was published in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. The article investigates differences in perceptions of justice in the federal service between lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees and their heterosexual colleagues. Read the article |
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Alexander Blewett III School of Law University of Montana - 32 Campus Drive Missoula, MT 59812 406-243-4311 | www.umt.edu/law |
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