UT Dallas Magazine - Winter 2012 - (Page 33)

At the end of 2010, BDA was retired, and in addition to teaching I have been consulting on a freelance basis on corporate diplomacy and strategic communications. My work continues to span the globe and my focus most recently has been on emerging economies in South America and Africa. The summer brought assignments to West Africa, Colombia and Ecuador. I am passionate about supporting and working with entrepreneurs globally and in the fall I began teaching in an MBA program at HULT’s campus in Dubai for women entrepreneurs. Collecting and sharing insights from around the world through several blogs, I remain committed to finding new ways to bring peoples and cultures together to build understanding and tolerance. When I enrolled at Ohio State, I became the third generation of my family to become a Buckeye. Although I was intrigued by the university’s academics and tradition, the sheer size of the school, with more than 50,000 students, was overwhelming at first. If UTD was a comet, Ohio State felt like a solar system. Fortunately, the law school was more approachable, with only 600 students. First year was daunting. I met Dr. Champagne for lunch during the winter holidays after my first exams and remember saying, “Gee, I hope I can pass.” He cut me off, saying, “Now Chad, what about honor roll? What about law review? Enough of this ‘hope I can pass’ talk.” I followed his advice and became involved in extracurricular activities. The summer after my first year, I worked as a research assistant for two professors and, based on my writing competition entry, I received an invitation to join the law review. The next year I also had the privilege of interning for a federal judge in Columbus, which only confirmed my ambition— first realized in Dr. Champagne’s classroom—to become a law clerk. Drawing on my experiences as an editor of The UTD Mercury and a member of Dr. Champagne’s moot court teams, I dove headlong into law review and the Ohio State moot court program. Ultimately I was elected editor-in-chief of the law review and won best oralist in the law school moot court competition. During my last year, my moot court teammate and I won top-10 oralist awards at the American Bar Association regional competition in Boston, and my note on presidential signing statements was published in the Gonzaga Law Review. And in a small-world moment, I learned that one of the articles we had selected for publication in the law review was written by Professor Bryan Wildenthal (Thomas Jefferson School of Law), who is the son of UTD Executive Vice President and Provost Hobson Wildenthal. The highlight of my law school years was when Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg The University of Texas at Dallas accepted a faculty/law review joint proposal to headline the law review’s 2009 symposium. After applying for clerkships in every state and U.S. territory, I had the great fortune of landing a spot in the District of New Jersey in August 2008 with the Hon. Harold A. Ackerman, a federal district judge with more than 50 years of judicial experience. When Judge Ackerman retired, the district’s chief judge, the Hon. Garrett E. Brown Jr., asked me to stay with the court as his law clerk, a position that I held until August 2011. The past three years I have advised my judges on a number of criminal and civil trials, sentencings, multidistrict litigation, class actions, mediations, petitions and motions dealing with such challenging and important legal issues as child pornography laws, multimillion dollar contract disputes, consumer fraud, insurance claims, employment discrimination and constitutional privacy rights. There are so many disputes before the court at any time that trying to keep up with my judges has been a fantastic challenge. Observing their commitment to public service and the rule of law has been an inspiration. The past few years I have enjoyed returning to D.C. and UTD to discuss law school and clerkships with new Archer Fellows and the pre-law society. As I listen to the students’ internship experiences and professional ambitions, I can hardly believe that it has been six years since I was in their shoes. I now volunteer to judge the moot court competitions I once competed in and I find myself thinking that someday I would like to follow in Cari’s footsteps again and return to the classroom. Last fall, I called Dr. Champagne with the news that I would have the special honor of clerking for the Hon. Deborah L. Cook, circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Akron, Ohio. I began my new clerkship in August, and the past few weeks have been the learning experience of a lifetime. I am most fortunate to have learned so much from legends in the legal profession. Like Cari, I have had these opportunities because my professors at UTD believed in and encouraged me. IN 2008, CHAD BEGAN A CLERKSHIP FOR THE HON. HAROLD A. ACKERMAN, A FEDERAL DISTRICT JUDGE OF NEW JERSEY. CARI AND CHAD WERE NOT THE ONLY EGGSPUEHLERS TO ATTEND UTD. MIDDLE SISTER JAIME COMPLETED HER BACHELOR OF SCIENCE DEGREE IN SOCIOLOGY IN 2001. A FORMER MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHER, JAMIE WROTE A CHILDREN’S BOOK AND IS NOW ENROLLED IN A DOCTORAL PROGRAM AT TEXAS WOMAN’S UNIVERSITY. THE PHOTO SHOWS FAMILY PATRIARCH DON, LEFT, WITH CARI, JAIME AND CHAD. Winter 2012 33

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of UT Dallas Magazine - Winter 2012

UT Dallas Magazine - Winter 2012
Contents
On Campus
From the Lab
Arts and Culture
Courtside Success
Athletics
Research Is Teaching
Town and Gown
In Your Footsteps: An Alumni Perspective
Alumni Notes
In Memoriam
Hindsight

UT Dallas Magazine - Winter 2012