Gordon R. Muir, a partner with the law firm of Hawkins Folsom & Muir in Reno, has been traveling internationally to study and teach courses on freedom of religion, freedom of speech, trial advocacy, citizenship, ethics, democracy, and the rule of law in a free society to law students at various law schools throughout the world, including Warsaw, Poland; Brno, Czech Republic; and Mandalay, Myanmar.
The arrangements for these courses were facilitated by Dennis Campbell and the Center for International Legal Studies (CILS), a nonprofit legal research, training, and teaching institute, established and operating as a public interest society under Austrian law. CILS’s international headquarters has been in Salzburg, Austria since 1976. Its essential purpose is to promote and disseminate knowledge among members of the international legal community.
In preparation for his assignment to teach in Brno, Czech Republic, Mr. Muir studied in Salzburg, Austria where he attended various courses, including one on Comparative Eastern European Legal Systems taught by Dr. Michael Geistlinger, University of Salzburg.
Gordon R. Muir, a partner with the firm of Hawkins Folsom & Muir recently returned from Ukraine where he taught part of a course on trial advocacy, citizenship, ethics, democracy, and the rule of law in a free society to students at the National University Yaroslov Law Academy, Karazin University, and Internal Affairs University in Kharkiv, Ukraine; and at Shevchenko University, Internal Affairs Police Academy, European University, and Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kyiv, Ukraine. The course was co-sponsored by The Leavitt Institute and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Gordon R. Muir had a wonderful experience presenting successful oral arguments to all seven Nevada Supreme Court justices, as well as to juniors and seniors at Reno High School, in the case of In the Matter of the Estate of Bethurem, deceased; Caraveo v. Perez, et al., 129 Nev.Adv.Op. 92, 313 P.3d 237 (2013) – now a seminal case on the burden of proof in undue influence cases. Holding oral argument in the gymnasium at Reno High School gave students a chance to understand the Nevada Supreme Court’s role as Nevada’s highest court of law in the Nevada judicial system, and also gave them the opportunity to view and better understand the work and responsibility of attorneys in our judicial system.
