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Phelps Dunbar LLP is pleased to introduce the "Practice Before You Teach"
program, which targets federal and state appellate law clerks with an interest
in teaching law. Spear-headed by Phelps Dunbar's Jackson office, the program
is designed to provide former appellate law clerks both experience in an appellate
law practice, as well as time to work on law review articles that will advance
their careers.
Phelps Dunbar partners, based on their experiences as judges, law clerks, and
both full-time and part-time law teachers, created the program with two goals
in mind.
First, the program will expose future teachers to the practical side of appellate
litigation and provide them with a background that should improve their teaching.
Second, the firm will reduce the hours that would normally be expected of them
as lawyers with the firm and will instead require that each participant of the
program produce a publishable article each year of the program.
"We are asking for a two year commitment," said Luther Munford, a
partner in the Jackson office who originated the program. "We will offer
the former clerks an opportunity to work on a variety of issues with a group
of very experienced lawyers."
Phelps Dunbar's Jackson office includes 50 attorneys, approximately 10 of whom
work with the appellate practice group that is coordinating the program. Attorneys
regularly involved in the office's appellate practice include the following:
* Reuben V. Anderson, first African-American justice to sit on the Mississippi
Supreme Court, member of several boards of national corporations, and former
president of both the Mississippi Bar and the Mississippi Economic Council.
* Fred L. Banks, Jr., another former Mississippi Supreme Court justice who serves
as head of the legal committee of the national NAACP.
* Luther T. Munford, a former president of the American Academy of Appellate
Lawyers, who clerked for both Associate Justice of the United States Supreme
Court Harry A. Blackmun and United States Court of Appeals of the Eleventh Circuit
Judge Paul Roney.
* Mike Wallace, a former clerk to United States Supreme Court Chief Justice
William R. Rehnquist as well as Harry Walker of the Mississippi Supreme Court,
and counsel to Senator Trent Lott during the impeachment proceedings against
William J. Clinton.
* James W. Craig, a former member delegate to the Defender Services Committee
of the Judicial Conference of the United States and noted criminal appellate
lawyer.
* Rebecca Hawkins, member of the Appellate Practice Committee of the Litigation
Section and of the Appellate Advocacy Committee of the Tort Trial and Insurance
Practice Section of the ABA.
"It has become increasingly difficult to get a job teaching law. We hope
this program will improve the prospects of those who participate in it and make
them better teachers," quotes Munford. "Of course, we also believe
that having them around will be a benefit to us too."
Fred Banks added: "We don't know of any other firm in the country who does
this, but we are not so bold as to think one does not exist."
Interested applicants should contact Courtney Clayton in the Jackson office
at 601-352-2300 extension 723 for more information.