Victoria Duke-Dawson

Associate Professor of Practice of Law | Director of Academic Success 

Biography

Prior to joining St. Mary’s University, Duke-Dawson’s academia path started in Houston, Texas as a staff attorney for the Legal Clinics at Thurgood Marshall School of Law. After several years of showing students how to practice law with real clients, it was then time to make the transition to show students how to embrace legal writing. These skills were subsequently imported from Houston, Texas, to Orlando, Florida, at Florida A&M University College of Law. There Duke-Dawson served as the Director of Legal Writing and afterward an Associate Professor of Law in Torts, Elder Law, Juvenile Law, Advanced Torts, Professional Responsibility and a Law School indoctrination Program. Her accomplishments gained her an invitation to become an inaugural professor at the newly established law school, Indiana Tech, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. After two years in the Midwest, she returned back to the South. First, she went to Atlanta’s John Marshall School of Law where she taught legal writing, bar prep classes and served in the academic support classes, teaching skills labs. To complete the cycle Duke-Dawson transferred her talents and experience and returned back to Texas to teach at St. Mary’s School of Law. Here she supports students in skills-related courses, labs and workshops.


Publications

Periodicals

  • Workaholic Syndrome: Law and Psychology Explore the Far Reach of the Eggshell Doctrine (work-in-progress).
  • Co-authored Forward for the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Wiley A. Branton Issues Symposium Issue- Education: The New Civil Rights, 68 Arkansas Law Review 5 (Symposium Issue 2015).
  • Calumnious News Reporting: Defamatory Law Is More Than Sticks And Stones For Civic Duty Participants, 93 Nebraska Law Review 690 (March 2015).
  • A Silk Purse Does Not Come From a Sow’s Ear: Non-Class Aggregate Settlements Based on Public Law Erodes the Model of Private Law, 8 Seton Hall Cir. Rev. 309 (Spring 2012).
  • Reverse Mortgage Facilitators Harvesting Benefits While Escaping Fiduciary Duties: Who’s Really Looking Out For Whom? 10 Florida State Business Review Journal 117 (Spring 2011).
  • Who Is Responsible When You Shop Until You Drop? An Impact On The Use Of The Aggressive Marketing Schemes Of ‘Black Friday’ Through Enterprise Liability Concepts, 50 Santa Clara Law Review 747 (2010).

Victoria Duke-Dawson

Associate Professor of Practice of Law | Director of Academic Success

Education

  • J.D., Texas Southern University, 1987
  • B.A., Texas State University, 1982

Specialties and Courses

  • Legal Writing
  • Academic Support
  • Bar Readiness courses (MBE and MPT) Torts law
  • Elder Law
  • Advance Torts
  • Professional Responsibility
  • Juvenile Law
  • Civil Clinic
  • Criminal Clinic
  • Elder Law Clinic
  • Diplomatic Clinic
  • Juvenile Clinic
  • Homeless Law Clinic

Robert F. Eichelbaum

Faculty in Residence

Biography

Eichelbaum (J.D. ’97) has been an Adjunct Professor at St. Mary’s University School of Law since 1997. He currently teaches Mediation, Family Law Mediation, and Law Practice Management.

He is a native of San Antonio. His first legal job was as a partner with his father in the Eichelbaum Law Firm. He has previously worked for Davidson Troilo Ream & Garza, and the Davis Law Firm. His current position is as a full-time mediator for the Workers’ Compensation Administrative Courts. Rob is also the owner of San Antonio Mediation, a company providing both mediation training and conflict resolution services.

He is an active member of the greater San Antonio legal community. He is a former member officer of the San Antonio Bankruptcy Bar Association, and previously served on the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee. He is the immediate Past President of the San Antonio Bar Association Alternative Dispute Resolution section.

He is a frequent lecturer and presenter in the fields of Conflict Resolution and Ethics. Last year he presented two separate programs for the San Antonio Bar Brown Bag Luncheon program, including an interactive program entitled “Harry Potter and the Grievance Committee – What the Wizarding World can teach us about Legal Ethics.”


Honors and Awards

  • San Antonio Bar Foundation Class of 2021
  • San Antonio Bar Foundation Peacemaker Award – 2021
  • Scene in San Antonio – Best Lawyer’s Survey 2007-2013
  • Texas Super Lawyer 2012
  • College of the State Bar of Texas 1998- 2013

Publications

Presentations

  • Building Blocks of Mediation – A 40 Hour Mediation Training Course
  • Advanced Building Blocks of Mediation – A 24 Hour Mediation Training concentrating on areas of Family Law Disputes
  • Selecting a Mediator in a Guardianship Matter – National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys 2009 Annual Conference
  • Mediation and Bankruptcy – State Bar of Texas Advanced Consumer Bankruptcy Conference
  • Not Just Tilting at Windmills – Consumer Litigation on Behalf of the Bankruptcy Debtor.

Robert F. Eichelbaum

Faculty in Residence

Contact Information

Education

  • J.D., St. Mary’s University School of Law, 1997
  • B.A., University of Texas at San Antonio, 1994

License to Practice

  • Texas

Specialties and Courses

  • Negotiations
  • Mediation
  • Family Law Mediation
  • Family Law
  • Creditors Rights and Bankruptcy

The Hon. David Ezra

Visiting Jurist in Residence

Biography

Prior to assuming the bench, Judge Ezra was in private practice in Honolulu, Hawaii from 1972 to 1988, becoming a partner in the law firm of Anthony, Hoddick, Reinwald, and O’Connor in 1980. He became the Managing Partner of the law firm of Ezra, O’Connor, Moon and Tam in 1981.

Judge Ezra was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii in 1988, becoming the youngest federal judge in Hawaii history, and was the longest-serving active federal judge in Hawaii’s history. Judge Ezra took Senior Judicial status in 2012. He has handled complex litigation matters in Hawaii, and by designation of the Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit and the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, in many districts throughout the country. Judge Ezra is currently serving by designation on the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, San Antonio Division. He carries a full caseload, hearing cases both in the San Antonio and Austin Divisions of the Western District of Texas.

Judge Ezra was elected by the judges of the Ninth Circuit to a three-year term as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States, which governs the operations of the Federal Judiciary (2002-2005). Judge Ezra was appointed and served on the Judicial Conference Committee on the Administration of the Bankruptcy System and was its long-range planning chairman. In 2010, Judge Ezra was appointed to the Council on Budget and Finance of the Judicial Conference of the United States. He continues to be designated to serve on federal courts both within and outside the Ninth Circuit, particularly in complex cases and is often designated to sit on the Court of Appeals.


Honors and Awards

  • University of Hawaii Alumni Association Lifetime Achievement Award, 2013
  • Rosewood Gavel Award, St. Mary’s University, 2007
  • Lifetime Achievement Award, St. Mary’s University School of Law, 2013
  • Distinguished Law Graduate, St. Mary’s University School of Law, 2017

The Hon. David Ezra

Visiting Jurist in Residence

Education

  • J.D. St. Mary’s University School of Law, (Valedictorian), 1972
  • B.B.A. St. Mary’s University, (Magna Cum Laude), 1969

License to Practice

  • Hawaii

Specialties and Courses

  • Advanced Civil Procedure

Thomas Filopoulos

Practicing Faculty

Biography

Tom currently serves as an Assistant City Attorney in the Regulatory Division of the San Antonio City Attorney’s Office where he advises City staff and officials in various areas of municipal law. Prior to joining the San Antonio City Attorney’s Office, Tom was a judicial clerk for the Honorable N. Carlton Tilley, Senior District Court Judge for the Middle District of North Carolina in Greensboro. He also practiced defense litigation in North Carolina and later worked as in-house counsel for a Texas employee benefit plan administrator.

During law school, Tom served as Editor-in-Chief of the Wake Forest Law Review and as a member of the Moot Court Board. Tom attended UNC-Chapel Hill on a Morehead-Cain Scholarship—a full merit scholarship recognizing leadership, integrity, and academic excellence. He was also one of two students in North Carolina selected for a United States Senate Youth Scholarship. Tom lives in San Antonio with his wife Zoe.


Honors and Awards

Morehead-Cain Scholarship, UNC-Chapel Hill 2002-2006


Thomas Filopoulos

Practicing Faculty

Education

  • J.D. Wake Forest University School of Law, 2012
  • B.A. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with Distinction, 2006

License to Practice

  • Texas
  • North Carolina

Specialties and Courses

  • Administrative Law
  • Regulatory Interpretation

Eddie Chavez

Director of Admissions and Recruitment

Biography

Native to San Antonio, Chavez dedicates his professional career to the advancement of his community. Prior to obtaining his law degree, he served as an educator to underserved students throughout South Texas.

Continuing efforts to assist those in need, Chavez spent a portion of his academic time at St. Mary’s Law to volunteer under the guidance of Sister Grace Walle, providing pro bono services to local and national sites in dire need of legal assistance.

During law school, and after becoming licensed to practice law, Chavez worked within nonprofits and private practice firms in the area of Family Law. He is licensed to practice law in Texas and an active member of the San Antonio Bar Association, the San Antonio Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, the Mexican American Bar Association, and the Hispanic Law Alumni Association of St. Mary’s. Chavez is a first-generation lawyer and remains committed to the advancement of the profession serving under St. Mary’s School of Law.


Eddie Chavez

Director of Admissions and Recruitment

Education

  • J.D., St. Mary’s University School of Law, 2019
  • B.A., Northwestern University, 2008

License to Practice

  • Texas

Michael Forrest

Practicing Faculty

Biography

Michael Forrest brings to the classroom practical knowledge as a trial lawyer and academic teaching experience from two law schools. His past legal employment includes a judicial clerkship with the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, where he worked on prisoner rights and habeas corpus cases. Following that appointment, he was the judicial law clerk to Justice Linda K. Neuman at the Iowa Supreme Court.

In addition to serving state and federal court systems at the trial and appellate stages, Forrest practiced law as a litigator with the law firm Younge & Hockensmith, representing the municipalities and counties of Western Colorado as an insurance defense attorney in the areas of constitutional litigation and zoning compliance.

His faculty appointments have been at the University of the Incarnate Word teaching Business Law, Drake University Law School as the Assistant Director of Legal Writing, and St. Mary’s University School of Law as faculty in the Legal Research and Writing program.


Publications

Articles

  • “The Accounting Doctoral Shortage: Accounting Faculty Opinions on Hiring JD-CPAs as Accounting Educators,” 9 Administrative Issues Journal 19-34 (2019)
  • “Discharging Student Loans in Bankruptcy: Good Luck with That,” 23 Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies 16-19 (2017)
  • “Teaching Business Law from Literature: Lessons to Be Learned from the Novel Mildred Pierce and the Road to Entrepreneurial Success,” 33 Journal of Legal Studies Education 361-377 (2016)
  • “Bribery and China Go Together Like Yin and Yang,” 43 Cumberland Law Review 423-432 (2014)
  • “A Fresh Look at the Constitutional Rights of Teens: Sex and Drugs at the Supreme Court,” 45 Idaho Law Review 71-92 (2008)

Books

  • Patent Reform: A Legislative History of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, Public Law 112-29 (Bridge Publishing Group, 2012)
  • Health Care Reform: A Legislative History of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Public Law 111-148 (2010) (W.S. Hein & Co., 2011)
  • Finance Reform: A Legislative History of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Pub. L. 111-203 (2010) (Bridge Publishing Group, 2010)
  • Intelligence Reform: A Legislative History of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, Public Law No. 108-458 (2004) (W.S. Hein & Co., 2006)

Presentations

  • “JD-CPAs as Accounting Educators: Accounting Faculty Attitudes and Business School Accreditation Standards,” American Educational Research Association, April 2018, Annual Meeting, New York, New York.
  • “Litigation as a Business Strategy: Art and Appropriation for a Piece of the Profits,” Southern Academy of Legal Studies in Business, March 2018, Annual Conference, San Antonio, Texas.
  • “Looking Down the ‘Business’ End of a Colt Pistol: The Patent Story,” Southern Academy of Legal Studies in Business, March 2017, Annual Conference, San Antonio, Texas.
  • “Conversations on Wills and Trusts,” Financial Planning Association of San Antonio & South Texas, April 2013, Financial Planning Symposium, San Antonio, Texas.

Michael Forrest

Practicing Faculty

Education

  • M.S., University of North Texas 2005
  • J.D., Drake University Law School with honors, 1993
  • B.A., University of Dallas magna cum laude, 1989

License to Practice

  • Colorado (inactive)

Specialties and Courses

  • Negotiations
  • Business Law
  • International Business Law
  • Law for Accountants
  • Employment Law Legal Research and Writing

Carlos Gabuardi

Practicing Faculty

Biography

Dr. Carlos A. Gabuardi, Lic. Jur., LL.M., Ph.D., is a practicing lawyer and founder of Gabuardi Abogados. He holds a License in Jurisprudence from the Universidad de Monterrey; a Master of Laws, with distinction and a Doctorate of Laws (Ph.D.) both from Tulane University. He has published several articles in Law Reviews and Journals in Mexico and abroad. He is currently a Professor of Law and a Distinguished Legal Researcher at Facultad Libre de Derecho de Monterrey and teaches a Course on Legal Spanish: An Inductive Comparative Law Approach to the Mexican Legal System in St. Mary’s UNiversity School of Law

He was a lawyer in the Legal Department of the World Bank (Washington, D.C.) where he was in charge of the Bank’s portfolio for various countries in Latin America and the Caribbea,. Corporate Legal Manager and Assistant Secretary of Grupo Gamesa (currently Pepsico). In December 2004, he was part of the team that organized the first training for Judges in the Americas on the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction.

He was Professor of Law and researcher at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Head of the Law Department and Professor of Law at Universidad de Monterrey; Visiting Professor of Law, St. Mary´s University School of Law, San Antonio, Texas; co-planner and administrator of the program: “Joint Venture. A Transnational Study and Training Program for U.S. and Mexican Business Lawyers” (St. Mary’s University School of Law and Universidad de Monterrey); Adjunct Professor of Law, The Washington College of Law, American University, Washington, D.C., and Universidad Regiomontana,

Dr. Gabuardi is a member of the Mexican Bar Association, the Monterrey Bar Association the Mexican Academy of Private International and The Nuevo Leon Academy of Commercial Law.


Publications

  • The Correlation between Personal Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments (A Comparative Law Study about Canada, the United States and Mexico), VDM Verlag, 2008.
  •  El derecho y los signos de los tiempos. Ibañez y Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia. 1 enero 2014.
  •  Las Fuentes del Derecho Internacional Privado (Complejidades por su fragmentación). Editorial académica española. 2017
  • La Familia y su Trascendencia: (reflexiones sobre la vida familiar y los bienes materiales) (Spanish Edition) Kindle Edition. 2017.
  • Las Fuentes del Derecho Internacional Privado: (Complejidades por su Fragmentación). Kindle Edition. 2017.
  • La Dimensión Internacional del Derecho Privado: (Ejes temáticos y tendencias actuales) (Spanish Edition) Kindle Edition. 2017.

    II. Chapter in Books:
  • ¿Qué va a pasar cuando Bush y Salinas ya no sean presidentes? (Consideraciones jurídicas al proceso de integración económica con la América del Norte). Ponencia preparada para el Foro Nacional de Consulta convocado por el pleno del Senado de la República sobre “Las Relaciones de México con el Mundo” celebrada en la Cd. de Monterrey, N.L. los días 14 y 15 de mayo de 1990. Publicada en las Memorias del Foro Nacional de Consulta “Las Relaciones Comerciales de México con el Mundo.” Senado de la República. LIV Legislatura. Tomo II. 1990.
  • Open Price terms in the CISG, the UCC and Mexican Commercial Law, in Review of the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), (Michael Maggi, Editor), Kluwer Law International, 2004
  • Chapter 9. Biligual Promissory Notes, in Jorge A. Vargas, Mexican Law for the American Lawyer. 2009.

Carlos Gabuardi

Practicing Faculty

Education

  • Licence of Jurisprucence (Lic.Jur.), Universidad de Monterrey, México
  • Master of Laws (LL.M.), Tulane University School of Law, New Orleans, LA
  • Doctor of Laws (Ph.D.) Tulane University, New Orleans, LA

Contact Information

License to Practice

  • Mexico

Specialties and Courses

  • Comparative Law
  • Private International Law
  • International Law
  • international Business Transactions
  • Legal Spanish

Awards

  • Honorary Citizens of the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. In recognition for his work for the mutual understanding and cooperation of the business communities of the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and Monterrey. 1989.
  • Honorary Citizen of the City of Houston, Texas. In recognition for his work for the mutual understanding and cooperation of the legal communities of the Houston and Monterrey. 1998.

The Hon. Craig Gargotta

Practicing Faculty

Biography

The Hon. Craig Gargotta (J.D. ’19) was appointed to the bench on October 1, 2007. He was then appointed Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of Texas on November 2, 2021. Judge Gargotta has a B.A. and M.A. from Texas A&M University and his J.D. from St. Mary’s School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. After law school he clerked for the Honorable Ronald B. King, United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of Texas. He then served as an Asst. U.S. Attorney for 17 years prior to taking the bench. Judge Gargotta is a member of the NCBJ, Federal Bar Association, and Larry E. Kelly Inn of Court. He serves as an Associate Editor for the American Bankruptcy Law Journal and is an adjunct professor at St. Mary’s Law School. Judge Gargotta has spoken at numerous bar conferences on a local and national level. Judge Gargotta currently serves as a Master in the Larry E. Kelly Inn of Court and Director of the Texas Aggie Bar Association.


The Hon. Craig Gargotta

Practicing Faculty

Education

  • J.D. St. Mary’s University, 1989
  • M.A. History, Texas A&M University, 1984
  • B.A. History, Texas A&M University, 1981

Contact Information

License to Practice

  • TX

Specialties and Courses

  • Persuasive Legal Writing

Awards

  • St. Thomas More Award, St. Mary’s School of Law — 2022

Stacy Fowler

Professor | Technical Services Librarian

Biography

Professor Fowler joined the Sarita Kenedy East Law Library in 2005. She has a bachelor of arts in English and master’s degrees in library science and international relations. She has presented at numerous national and regional conferences on diverse subjects such as laws pertaining to women in the U.S. military and the current state of DEI efforts in Hollywood and the population at large.

She is also a writer whose poems have been published in several university journals, including the Pecan Grove Review from St. Mary’s University, The Tau, and the Pomona Valley Review. Professor Fowler is currently under contract for her third book about women in the military on film.


Publications

Presentations

  • What’s Gonna Work? Teaming Up with Your Academic Library for Life, the Universe, and Everything. Southwestern Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting, Dallas, Texas, 2024.
  • (Mis)sed Representation: DEI in Legal Reels and Reality, Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2024.
  • Comedians in Court Getting Censored: No Laughing Matter, Southwestern Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting, Tucson, Arizona, 2023.
  • Life in the Box: Psychological Issues of Drone Pilots in Fiction and Reality, Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2022.

Stacy Fowler

Professor | Technical Services Librarian

Contact Information

Education

  • M.A., St. Mary’s University, 2009
  • M.L.S., Texas Woman’s University, 2004
  • B.A., University of Texas at San Antonio, 2003

Dayna Jones

Practicing Faculty

Biography

Dayna Jones J.D., is a native of Eugene, Oregon and attended the University of Oregon for undergrad where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies with a focus on Law, Diplomacy, and Relations. She moved to Texas in 2004 to attend law school at St. Mary’s. Since graduating from law school in 2007, Dayna has focused solely on practicing criminal defense. After working as a defense attorney at Goldstein, Goldstein, and Hilley (now Goldstein & Orr) and with attorney Neil Calfas, Dayna opened her own office in 2010. She handles all stages of a case, but focuses mostly on post-conviction appeals and writs of habeas corpus. As lead counsel, she has overturnd over 12 wrongful convictions and she currently has six clients listed in the National Registry of Exonerations. Dayna has assisted as co-counsel on several other wrongful convictions as well. She sits on the Board of the San Antonio Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Association and she is on the Bexar County Managed Assigned Counsel’s Oversight Committee.


Dayna Jones

Practicing Faculty

Education

  • J.D. St. Mary’s School of Law, 2007
  • B.A., University of Oregon, 2003

Contact Information

  • Email Dayna Jones

License to Practice

  • TX
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