UNM Law Professor James Ellis has been named the 2002 "Lawyer of the Year" by the National Law Journal, an award he admits he never would have received without help from a tireless group of students and colleagues.
Ellis received the award for successfully arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court that a national consensus exists opposing the execution of mentally retarded inmates. Ellis represented Virginia death row inmate Daryl Atkins in the landmark case, Atkins v. Virginia, in which the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Atkins' favor.
The Lawyer of the Year award is given each year to someone who has had, for better or worse, a major impact on the law, said Journal staff writer Marcia Coyle, who covers the Supreme Court and recommended Ellis for the award.
"I was impressed by, not only that he argued and won the case, but that it was the first case he had ever argued anywhere," Coyle said. "It's really quite amazing."
She added that past winners of the award include Attorney General John Ashcroft and Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel investigating President Clinton.
Ellis, who has taught Constitutional Law at UNM since 1976, said that he enjoys teaching first-year Criminal Law as well. His classroom duties also include Mental Health and Retardation Law, a civil law class, and Mental Disabilities in Criminal Law, which he teaches during alternating semesters.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
While the Atkins case ultimately became the basis for new national legislation, it was Ellis' work on a previous case, McCarver v. North Carolina, that laid the groundwork for convincing the Supreme Court that the consensus existed.
"Atkins was sort of a follow-up to work I'd done with students on the McCarver case," Ellis said.
The Law School invites students to help prepare briefs for cases, as well as to learn litigation, Ellis said. He added that when students begin the process, the atmosphere becomes very formal.
"We tell them, 'this is now a law firm,'" Ellis said.
An effort is also made to get most, if not all, students involved in the actual oral arguments of a case, Ellis said. Three students accompanied him to the Supreme Court, though due to time restrictions, none were able to argue.
Since Atkins, which was decided in February 2002 and changed the face of mental retardation law, Ellis has been dedicated to drafting a guide for revisions which will help states make the transition to the new legislation.
"(The states) will be implementing a new constitutional law," Ellis said. "It's a whole new ballgame."
He added that much of the work students did on the McCarver and Atkins briefs has ended up in the guide.
"The guide is an attempt to show what has worked and what hasn't worked from state to state, and to remain faithful to the Court's decision," Ellis said. "I've had tremendous help from a group of absolutely spectacular students, as always."
Suellyn Scarnecchia, dean of the UNM School of Law, said that Ellis'having received the award is the product of years of hard work.
"It's nice when someone like (Ellis) finally gets recognized," she said. "He's done the hard work for people who can't do it for themselves."
