The Honorable
Myron H. Bright
Distinguished
Jurist-in-Residence
March 26 & 27, 2008
UND School of Law
Myron H. Bright's Publications
We are privileged to welcome United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit Judge Myron H. Bright to the School of Law as our Distinguished Jurist-in-Residence.
Judge Bright has served his country with distinction. His philosophy of fairness and justice has greatly influenced the Court's decisions in many important cases. The UND School of Law welcomes Judge Bright with great appreciation for his residence here. We hope you will join us in celebrating his outstanding 40-year career on the Federal bench.
The Distinguished Jurist-in-Residence Program, established in 2007, brings outstanding judges to the School of Law for an extended visit with our law school community. The schedule includes visits to classes, informal receptions, and a presentation by the judge on a topic of his or her choice, as well as a formal dinner honoring our Distinguished Jurist. This program provides a unique and varied opportunity to learn about the bench and adds greatly to the law school experience of our students, faculty and staff.
BIOGRAPHY OF JUDGE MYRON H. BRIGHT
Judge Myron H. Bright was appointed United States Circuit Judge for the Eighth Circuit by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. He served in that capacity as an active circuit judge from August 16th of that year until June 1, 1985, and since that time as a senior circuit judge, considering over 6,000 cases in all.
In addition to his duties on the Eighth Circuit, Judge Bright has also served by assignment with the United States Court of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Circuits and as a visiting federal trial judge in the District of Minnesota, in the Eastern District of Arkansas, in the District of North Dakota, in the Eastern District of Missouri and the District of Massachusetts.
Myron H. Bright served with the United States Army Air Corps as a Quartermaster Supply Officer, 1942-46, attaining the rank of Captain, with service in the Asia-Pacific Theatre. A graduate from the University of Minnesota with a B.S.L. degree in 1941 and a J.D. in 1947, Judge Bright practiced law in Fargo, North Dakota with the firm of Wattam, Vogel, Vogel, Bright and Peterson, 1947-68. He engaged in a general practice with heavy emphasis on litigation.
At Saint Louis University School of Law at St. Louis, Missouri, Judge Bright served as Distinguished Professor of Law from 1985 to 1990 and from 1990 to 1995 he served as Professor Emeritus at the Law School. Judge Bright has taught courses in trial and appellate practice at that institution.
Since his appointment to the federal bench, Judge Bright has had a continuing involvement with legal education. He has lectured at many law schools in the Midwest, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Texas, Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania as well as at the Centers for Law and Economics at the University of Miami and at Emory University. He has lectured to foreign LLM judges and students at the University of Minnesota, Duke University, Washington University at St. Louis, and Cardozo University.
Judge Bright has lectured to Chinese judges and Chinese government officials at programs sponsored by the Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii and at the University of Wisconsin Law School. He has been a longtime director of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute, headquartered in Honolulu. In 1996, he presented a lecture to Chinese officials on municipality law and Social Security in Honolulu, sponsored by the U.S.-Asia Law Institute.
He has been a frequent lecturer at The Attorney General's Advocacy Institute, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. He has presented lectures and programs in continuing legal education before local, state, and federal bar groups, including workshops at the 1982, 1987 and 1994 annual meetings of the American Bar Association. He has participated in scores of continuing legal education programs.
Judge Bright has served on a number of committees of the Judicial Conference of the United States including the Probation Committee (1977-1983), the Federal Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules (1989-90), and the International Judicial Relations Committee (IJRC) (1996-2003). This committee coordinates the federal judiciary's relationship with foreign judges and lawyers. In this committee, Judge Bright assumed a leadership role in helping train foreign lawyers attending U.S. law schools about the rule of law in this country by placing these lawyers as observers with federal and state judges.
Judge Bright has traveled twice on behalf of the State Department. In 2002, he traveled to Sweden and Latvia where he lectured to students at Stockholm University Department of Law and the Riga Graduate School of Law. He also met with ambassadors and members of the Svea Court of Appeal discussing the work of the IJRC. In 2007, Judge Bright traveled to Israel and the United Arab Emirates. He visited with judges in various courts in Israel. Judge Bright lectured to students at the University of Sharjah in Dubai and met with judicial educators, judges and lawyers.
Judge Bright is also active in lecturing Russian judges in the Open World Program, which recruits federal courts to host Russian judges who visit the United States in order to learn about the rule of law in the American judicial system.
In 1997, the ALI-ABA Committee on Continuing Professional Education awarded Judge Bright the Francis Rawle Award for outstanding achievement in post-admission legal education.
In 1998, Judge Bright received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of North Dakota School of Law.
On June 15, 2000, Judge Bright received the Herbert Harley Award from the American Judicature Society for promoting effective administration of justice.
In 2007, the University of Minnesota Law School, through its law review, presented Judge Bright with the Distinguished Alumni Award.
In 2008. the North Dakota State Bar Association will honor Judge Bright with the Liberty Bell Award for promoting understanding, respect, and citizens’ obligations to the law, the courts, and the government.
Judge Bright has initiated week-long Jurists-in-Residence programs at several law schools, including Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri; Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska; California Western, San Diego, California; University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota; University of Akron, Akron, Ohio; University of Arkansas, Little Rock, Arkansas; University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii; Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania; The John Marshall Law School, Chicago, Illinois and South Texas College of Law, Houston, Texas. He described this program in 65 Judicature 338 (Feb. 1982), under the title Query and in XVI Syllabus 4 (March 1985).
Judge Bright has participated with other jurists in these programs, including United States Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, Associate Justices John Paul Stevens, Harry A. Blackmun, Byron R. White, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Senior Judge Donald R. Ross and Judge Richard S. Arnold of the United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit; Judge Mary M. Schroeder of the United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit; Chief Judge Edward Becker of the United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit; Senior Judge Harlington Wood, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit; Judge Gerald B. Tjoflat and Judge Rosemary Barkett of the United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit; former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Walter F. Rogosheske and United States District Judge Henry Woods of the Eastern District of Arkansas at Little Rock. He described participation in these programs with Supreme Court Justices in Jurists-in-Residence Programs, 54 Federal Lawyer 38 (Jan. 2007).
In 2007, the Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii initiated an international jurists-in-residence program to be presented at the school in alternate years, naming the program the Myron H. Bright Jurists-in-Residence Program.
Some of Myron H. Bright's publications include: (links to HeinOnline)
Appellate Briefwriting: Some 'Golden' Rules, 17 Creighton L. Rev. 1069 (1984);
Oral Argument? It May Be Crucial, in collaboration with the Hon. Richard S. Arnold, 70 A.B.A. J. 68 (Sept. 1984);
The Ten Commandments of Oral Argument, 67 A.B.A. J. 1136 (Sept. 1981);
Book Review, 16 Loy. L.A.L. Rev. 205 (1983)(reviewing B.A. Murphy, The Brandeis Frankfurter Connection: The Secret Political Activities of Two Supreme Court Justices (1982));
Oral Argument: Why? How?, Minnesota Defense, Summer 1986, at 9;
The Power of the Spoken Word: In Defense of Oral Argument, 72 Iowa L. Rev. 35 (1986);
Book Review, 31 St. Louis U.L.J. 507 (1987)(reviewing R.J. Martineau, The Fundamentals of Modern Appellate Advocacy (1985)) and
Book Review, 33 St. Louis U.L.J. 279 (1988)(reviewing W. Rehnquist, The Supreme Court: How It Was How It Is (1987));
How to Succeed on Appeal by Trying Harder, 25 Int'l Soc'y of Barristers Q. 332 (April 1990);
Getting There, 77 A.B.A. J. 68 (March 1991);
The Litigator -- Then and Now, 35 St. Louis U.L.J. 519 (Spring 1991); Judicial Reflection No. 2,
Briefwriting (Cooley, § 2:27.30 Callaghan's Appellate Advocacy Manual (L.Ed. Supp. 1991));
Book Review, The Gavel (reviewing J. Leahy, The First Amendment, 1791-1991 Two Hundreds Years of Freedom (1991));
How to Succeed on Appeal: A View From the Bench, Trial, Nov. 1991, at 67;
Congress Should Reconsider Relevant Conduct, 5 Fed. Sent. Rptr. 194-95 (1993);
Gerald Bard Tjoflat: The Compleat Angler, 44 Duke L.J. 989 (1995);
Justice Harry A. Blackmun: Some Personal Recollections , 71 N.D. L. Rev. 7 (1995);
How to Win on Appeal: The New Ten Commandments of Oral Argument , 32 TRIAL Magazine 68 (July 1996);
Judicial Independence, 20 U.Haw.L.Rev. 611 (Winter 1998);
Focus on the Crucial Issue, 1 J. Appellate Prac. & Process 31 (1999);
Theodore McMillian: A Wise Judge, 43 St. Louis L.J. 1263 (1999);
The Judicial Observation Program for International Law Students, Lawyers, and Judges, 20 Penn. State Int'l L.Rev. 47 (Fall 2001);
Rodney S. Webb: My Friend and Colleague in the Law, 78 N.D.L.Rev. 207 (Summer 2002); and
Jurists-in-Residence Programs, 54 Federal Lawyer 38 (Jan. 2007).
See also A Tribute to Judge Myron H. Bright, 83 Minn. L. Rev. 219 (Dec. 1998).
Judge Bright and Professor Ronald L. Carlson of the University of Georgia School of Law have co-authored the national edition of Objections at Trial, and several state editions published by Lexis Law Publishing (1990)(Rev. ed. 1993) (3d ed. 1998)(4th ed. 2001), now available through National Institute for Trial Advocacy, Louisville, CO. The 1998 and 2001 editions also are co-authored by Professor Ed Imwinkelried, University of California-Davis. A 2008 edition is pending publication.
Judge Bright has recorded a number of CLE seminars on video/audio tape. Audiotapes, including trial and appellate practice, are distributed by the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association.
Schedule of Events
Wednesday, March 26
11:45 a.m.
Law Faculty Luncheon
Memorial Room, Memorial Union
2:30 p.m.
Law Student Lecture
“The Art of Judging”
Molbert Room, 211
Thursday, March 27
10:00 a.m.
Continental Breakfast with Students
Tisdale Lounge
11:15 a.m.
Professional Responsibility Class
"The Ethical Problems of the Lying Witness"
Room 8
6:00 p.m.
Celebration Dinner
Chester Fritz Auditorium
Liberty Bell Award Presentation
