Name: Professor John Calmore

Title: Reef Ivey Professor of Law

School: University of North Carolina

Mailing Address:

cb 3380

University of North Carolina Law School

Chapel Hill, NC 27599

Phone: 919-962-4417

Email: john_calmore@unc.edu

Home Page:

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Summary Description:

I write to nominate John Calmore, Reef Ivey Professor at the University of North Carolina Law School, along with his co-authors Martha Mahoney and Stephanie Wildman, for the publication of their path-breaking book, SOCIAL JUSTICE: Professionals, Communities & Law, Cases and Materials, West, 2003. It, almost literally, defines the terms of this award -- "innovation and excellence in teaching professionalism."

The study of law, as we know, turns out to be much about the reading of appellate opinions. The implementation of law, however, is much about power. And this side of our professional lives is under-attended in legal education. The Calmore-Mahoney-Wildman book is a step toward curing this obvious deficiency. It explores the legal profession from a considerably different perspective than typically occurs in Legal Ethics classes. It stimulates students to think broadly about the role of lawyers in working with movements for social change and working in conjunction with community activists. More generally, it explores the roles of tradition and status in law. It asks questions about an in egalitarian status quo that go unexplored in the traditional curriculum. In my judgment, it puts on the table many of the crushing issues of equal justice that seemingly confound the American justice system. I have heard from law professors and practitioners alike that "this ground-breaking case book is the one that many of us hoped to read when we first attended law school."

I hope that you will seriously consider SOCIAL JUSTICE for the ABA and Chief Justices award for professionalism. If helpful, I would be happy to forward the text under separate cover, I can also solicit external reviews of the project from around the country. In brief, I mean only to say that professors Calmore, Mahoney and Wildman have, for several years, constructed a course in social justice lawyering that plugs a massive hole in present-day legal education. Now they have produced a casebook, through West Publishing, that will make it possible for scores of law schools and law professors to follow in their footsteps. I hope you will afford them this recognition.

Gene R. Nichol

Dean and Burton Craige Professor

University of North Carolina Law School

Chapel Hill, NC 29599

919-962-4417

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Program History:

see above

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Confidential Items:

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Supporting Materials:

I will be glad to forward a copy of Professor Calmore's book, if needed

Gene Nichol

Dean, UNC