Wednesday, May 12, 2021
My Students: Eric Porterfield
I'm devoting Wednesdays to profiling my former students, alternating between Baylor and St. Thomas.
Eric Porterfield was a memorable student, in the best way. I remember seeing him do an exercise in practice court (Baylor's 3rd year program in trial advocacy). He made some mistakes and stumbled around a little, but he had three minutes in there which were totally brilliant. I knew that he was a remarkable talent, and chose him to be on an advocacy team I coached. He promptly led the team to the championship and won the prize as best overall advocate. He was a joy to work with.
After Baylor, he went on to private practice and then got an advanced degree in international civil litigation at Harvard. He now teaches at the University of North Texas, which started a law school in Dallas in 2014-- it's a great and worthwhile experiment in teaching a diverse student body in one of America's great cities.
I hint around now and then about giving a lecture there, and I hope it works out-- it would be great to reconnect with Eric and find out what great things he is working on.
