UGA LAW SCHOOL ASSOCIATE DEAN APPOINTED AS NCCUSL COMMISSIONER

Monday, June 4, 2001 WRITER: Molly Barrett, (706) 542-5172 CONTACT: Kathy Pharr, (706) 542-5172, pharr@arches.uga.edu UGA LAW SCHOOL ASSOCIATE DEAN APPOINTED AS NCCUSL COMMISSIONER ATHENS, Ga. - - Associate Dean Paul M. Kurtz of the University of Georgia School of Law has been appointed by Governor Roy E. Barnes as a commissioner to represent Georgia on the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL). Kurtz succeeds another UGA law faculty member, A. Gus Cleveland Professor C. Ronald Ellington, in the appointment. His term begins immediately. Kurtz will join other commissioners from each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands in August at the NCCUSL\u27s annual convention in West Virginia. The NCCUSL is a non-profit organization whose 300 members review state laws and determine which areas of law should be uniform. The commissioners draft specific acts and recommend acts to state legislators. While some commissioners also serve as state legislators, the majority of members are practitioners, judges and law professors, and all of them are members of the bar. Paul Kurtz\u27s appointment by Governor Barnes to the National Conference of Commissioners of Uniform State Laws is a great honor for Paul and the School of Law, said Dean David Shipley. He has been active nationally in the drafting of several model statutes in the family law area, and I know he will serve with distinction as a commissioner. Kurtz has been a member of the University of Georgia School of Law faculty since 1975, specializing in criminal, family, and constitutional law. He has served as the law school\u27s associate dean since 1991, and in 1994 was named to a prestigious chaired position as J. Alton Hosch Professor of Law. He served as Reporter for the NCCUSL for the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act from 1988-92; that statute is now law in each of the 50 states. In addition, he also served as Reporter to the NCCUSL drafting committee on the Status of Children of Assisted Conception from 1987-88. Kurtz is a member of the American Law Institute and served as adviser on the ALI Project on Principles of Family Dissolution in 1998-99. Kurtz earned his bachelor\u27s degree from Vanderbilt University, a law degree from Vanderbilt Law School and a master of laws degree from Harvard Law School. #