W. David East
Professor W. David East is the Director of the Center and collaborated with the other faculty and with practicing attorneys in creating the capstone courses. He continues to teach the Transaction Skills – Corporate course, which he initially created.
Professor East has been a professor at South Texas College of Law Houston since 1981. He teaches and writes in the commercial law (Uniform Commercial Code) areas of Payment Systems, Bank Collections and Deposits, Letters of Credit, Secured Transactions in Personal Property, and Sales of Goods. He has also taught Bankruptcy, Commercial Law and Human Rights, Consumer Transactions, Property, and Transaction Skills. During 1987-1990 Professor East was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at South Texas College of Law Houston College of Law, returning to full-time teaching in 1990.
In 1998-1999 he began developing and teaching problem model courses in Transaction Skills and is now the Director of the Transactional Practice Center at South Texas College of Law Houston. He holds a Juris Doctor from Baylor University and an LL.M. from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the American Bar Association’s Section of Business Law. In addition he was the Chair of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of Texas for 2001-2002 and also was appointed Chair of the Council of Chairs Committee of the State Bar of Texas for 2001-2002. In June, 2003 Professor East was appointed as a Section Representative to the Board of Directors of the State Bar of Texas; that appointment continued through June, 2006.
As an advisory member of the Texas Business Law Foundation Professor East has testified several times before legislative committees in Austin on pending commercial statutes. He is a co-author of Anderson, Bartlett & East’s Texas Uniform Commercial Code Annotated (Thomson/West, current ed. 2008-2009).
John J. Worley
Professor John J. Worley is the Director of the Certificate Program in Transactional Law Practice. He took the lead in designing the program and obtaining faculty approval.
Cherie O. Taylor
Professor Cherie O. Taylor teaches the Transaction Skills – International Business course and took the lead in creating that course, working with Adjunct Professor Irene Kosturakis and Professor East. She team teaches that course every spring semester.
Professor Taylor has been a professor at South Texas College of Law Houston since 1990. She teaches and writes in the field of international economic law offering courses on Transactional Skills – International Business Transactions, International Business Transactions Survey, NAFTA: Trade & Transactions, World Trading Systems, European Community Law, International Civil Litigation and Civil Procedure. She has published widely in such journals as the U.Penn J. Int’l & Econ. Law, Vanderbilt Transnational Law Journal, Northwestern J. of Int’l Law & Business. Professor Taylor also founded CURRENTS: International Trade Law Journal at South Texas College of Law Houston in 1991.
In 2005-2006 Professor Taylor began developing and teaching a Transactional Skills course (along with Irene Kosturakis) which focuses on international investment, licensing of intellectual property rights and distribution of goods. She holds a J.D. from the University of Georgia and an LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to joining the faculty of South Texas College of Law Houston College, she practiced law in the International/Antitrust group of Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, D.C. and clerked on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Professor Taylor currently serves on the Advisory Board of the International Economic Law Group (IELG) of the American Society of International Law. She has also served as Vice Chair (1999-2001) and Chair (2001-2003) of that group. During that service she organized two IELG symposiums, one held at South Texas College of Law Houston in 2001.
Allan Boss
Adjunct Professor Allan Boss teaches Transaction Skills – Real Estate and also teaches Real Estate Finance Law at South Texas College of Law Houston.
Lisa Dahm
Adjunct Professor Lisa Dahm teaches the intermediate level contract drafting courses Contract Building Blocks and Contract Negotiation and Drafting.
Ms. Dahm spent more than 20 years in all facets of the healthcare information systems business prior to attending law school. Immediately following her graduation from South Texas College of Law Houston, she worked as an in-house counsel for Memorial Hermann Healthcare System where she was responsible for drafting and negotiating system agreements, drafting system-wide policies and procedures, developing the System’s Corporate Compliance Program, and coordinating outside defense counsel.
Three years later, Ms. Dahm joined Deloitte & Touche as a Senior Manager where she focused her practice on providing healthcare compliance consulting services and services related to HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. She was a member of the firm’s National Healthcare Regulatory Practice, and helped develop the firm’s approach to and service line for HIPAA consulting services.
Currently, Ms. Dahm is the Director of Continuing Legal Education and an Adjunct Professor at South Texas College of Law Houston teaching Legal Medicine, Forensic Medicine, the Privacy Law Seminar, Contract Negotiations and Drafting, and Contract Building Blocks. She also has a solo practice and specializes in health law, employment law, information technology, HIPAA, and contract negotiations and drafting.
Ms. Dahm recently published three major articles:
- Healthcare Systems and Quality of Care: Do International Measurement Standards Exist? (Temple International & Comparative Law Journal);
- Regulation of Nurses: Should the NPDB Be Expanded? (Journal of Medicine and Law, Michigan State University); and
- Consultants and Other Advisors: A New Target for Fraud and Abuse Prosecutors? (American Bar Association, Health Law Section, The Health Lawyer).
She has written numerous other articles and papers on HIPAA as well as other legal topics, and is a frequent speaker at healthcare, HIPAA, and legal regional and national conferences across the United States.
Ms. Dahm received her B.S. from Duke University, her J.D. ( magna cum laude ) from South Texas College of Law Houston and her LL.M. in Health Law from the University of Houston.
Irene Kosturakis
Adjunct Professor Irene Kosturakis team teaches the Transaction Skills – International Businesscourse with Professor Cherie Taylor every spring semester and collaborated with Professor Taylor and Professor East in creating that course.
Irene is an adjunct professor at South Texas College of Law Houston in its International Business Transaction Skills course, which she co-teaches with Professor Cherie Taylor. In her teaching, she draws upon her 19 years of experience practicing intellectual property law. Irene is Chief Intellectual Property Counsel at BMC Software, Inc., where she is responsible for all intellectual property matters for the Company, including patent and trademark portfolio development, IP-related litigation, copyright protection, intellectual property transactions, IP due diligence of acquired companies and assets, and industry standard-setting efforts.
Irene was at the Hewlett-Packard Company and Compaq Computer Corporation for 16 years prior to BMC. At HP, she performed in the role of IP transactions attorney, drafting and negotiating licensing and development agreements for the industry-standard server business unit. While at Compaq, Irene went through the two largest IT industry mergers at that time: Compaq/Digital Equipment and HP/Compaq. At Compaq, she managed the company’s patent portfolio, establishing strategy and processes for growing it into an assertable and valuable patent portfolio.
Irene has a Masters of Law in Intellectual Property from the University of Houston, a J.D. from South Texas College of Law Houston, a Masters of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Houston, and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso. She is licensed to practice law in the State of Texas and is a registered patent attorney. She was president of the 2006-2007 Houston Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and is the current Chair of the State Bar’s Business Law Section’s E-Commerce Committee.