Divorcing Gracefully

M. Marcy Jones, a 1995 alumna of the Washington and Lee School of Law, has become a leading proponent of  graceful divorces. She knows that that very phrase is apt to be greeted with rolled eyes. Here’s what she wrote on a recent blog: “When most people hear the words “graceful” and “divorce” in the same sentence, they think to themselves, ‘Yah, right!'” But, in that same blog entry, she goes on to offer an example of what she means — i.e., Sandra Bullock’s divorce from ex-husband Jesse James.

Marcy, who practices in Lynchburg, was divorced and had young children at home when she entered W&L. Since graduating, she has worked as a prosecutor of sexual assault and domestic violence cases, an associate in a law firm, and now as a solo practitioner specializing in “collaborative divorce law.”

In February, Marcy published Graceful Divorce Solutions: A Comprehensive and Proactive Guide to Saving You Time, Money, and Your Sanity, which is designed to offer “practical and compassionate solutions for achieving a better divorce process.”

In addition to her law practice, Marcy also does coaching and consulting, specializing in helping women lawyers find a work-life balance. Check out Marcy’s websites — one is for her legal practice and includes links to her blogs and several interesting articles; the other is for her consulting business.

Calyx Online

An opening spread of the 1960 Calyx from the online interface

Lost your Calyx in your last move? The University Library has felt your pain. This week, it has posted online more than 110 years’ worth of Washington and Lee’s student yearbook, all digitized.

Here is the library’s gateway page for the online Calyx: http://library.wlu.edu/details.php?resID=1848.

Once you find the volume you want, you can browse it right on the website or download it in several different formats — as a pdf in either color or black white; as an ePub for use on iPads, Sony Readers, iPhones, etc.; as a Daisy book; or as a Kindle file. John Tombarge, the interim University Librarian, says that there are still a few quality-control issues being address by the company that did the scanning, but all of the material has been posted.

This is the first of several projects that are scheduled for the Washington and lee Digital Depository. Other planned projects include honors theses fro the Class of 2010, a database of faculty publications, the Ring-tum Phi, older issues of local newspapers, materials documenting Mock Convention, and initiatives from the School of Law.

Mike Pressler ’82 Leads U.S. Lax to Title

Mike Pressler '82

Congratulations to Washington and Lee alumnus Mike Pressler ’82, who coached Team USA to a 12-10 victory over Canada in the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championship on Saturday in Manchester, England.

The victory avenged a loss to Canada in the 2006 world championships. It was the ninth time Team USA has won the title. The last time the Americans were triumphant was in 2002, and Mike was an assistant to former W&L head coach Jack Emmer on that squad. Tim Schurr of the Class of 1984 played for the 2002 champions.

The U.S. team trailed 10-9 with just under 10 minutes left before the Americans rallied for the win, which also avenged a 10-9 loss to Canada during pool play of the tournament. You can read details of the championship game in Lacrosse Magazine, where there is also a feature story that describes how Mike and  former Duke star Ned Crotty, the offensive hero for Team USA, finally teamed up for a title.

Inducted into W&L’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001, Mike has coached Bryant University to a 35-13 record in three seasons at the Rhode Island institution. The Bulldogs, who were members of the NCAA’s Division II for Mike’s first two seasons, moved up to Division I last year. Mike’s overall head coaching record stands at 264-115 in 25 seasons at VMI, Ohio Wesleyan, Duke and now Bryant. He ranks among the nation’s top 10 active coaches in both career victories (No. 8) and overall winning percentage (No. 8). He stands at No. 21 among the winningest coaches of all time (by percentage) and is No. 12 all-time by win count.

Mike Michaeles Elected to ABOTA

Michael Michaeles '65, 68L

Michael Michaeles, an alumnus of the classes of 1965 and 1968L, has been elected to The American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), the national organization whose aim is to foster improvement in the ethical and technical standards of practice in the field of advocacy.

Mike, who lives in Boylston, Mass., and practices in Worcester, is one of only 69 trial lawyers in Massachusetts who has been elected to membership in ABOTA. Membership is by invitation only, and based on character, reputation and proficiency as a trial lawyer.

Since starting his practice in 1969, Mike has been involved in a wide variety of cases, several of which have made headlines. For instance, the million-dollar verdict that he won in a 1998 sexual harassment was considered a landmark case since it was one of the first same-sex harassment cases in the nation. And in 1994, he won an injunction for Coca-Cola in a dispute over an advertisement being run by a Massachusetts soft drink company. You can see more of  Mike’s cases on his website.

NY Times on Alumna’s NOMA Exhibit

From "Ancestors and Descendants" at New Orleans Museum of Art

Another update on a recent blog post: Earlier this week we published an item about the work that Cristin J. Nunez, Class of 2005, had done on an exhibition that she co-curated at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA). The exhibition, which opened on Saturday (July 24), is titled “Ancestor and Descendants: Ancient Southwestern America at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century.” In that post, we noted a mention in the July 16 edition of the New York Times.

The exhibition got much greater attention in Friday’s edition of the Times when the Antiques column had an in-depth review of the show, including quotes from the catalog that Cristin co-authored with Paul J. Tarver. The show is significant, since it includes rarely seen material from Tulane University’s George Hubbard Pepper Native American Archive.

Read the New York Times piece here.

Three Reds, Third Place

Kathryn Sheppard Hoar '97

Here’s an update on an earlier post about Kathryn Sheppard Hoar’s participation in the 10th annual Florida Keys Outfitters/IGFA Inshore World Championship in Islamorada, Fla.

Kathy, a 1997 graduate of Washington and Lee, competed in the international tournament’s fly division and placed third. She had three redfish releases for 375 points.

Throughout the three-day tournament, 23 anglers caught 78 fish. Only four contestants were “fishless” during the event.

In order to qualify for the event, which was dubbed the Super Bowl of fishing, the competitors had to have won an IFGA-sanctioned tournament. Kathy had qualified by winning the grand championship of the Ladies Fly Tournament in Islamorada in both 2007 and 2009.  She was first runner-up in 2008.

Read the roundup of the tournament on ESPN Outdoors.