UNIFORM LAW COMMISSION
111 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 1010, Chicago, IL 60602
312-450-6600, www.uniformlaws.org
Contact: Katie Robinson, ULC Communications Officer, katie.robinson@uniformlaws.org
For Immediate Release:
Michael Houghton of Wilmington, Delaware, Elected President of Leading National Law Group
July 22, 2011 – Michael Houghton, a partner with Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell, LLP, in Wilmington, Delaware, has been elected to serve a two-year term as President of the Uniform Law Commission (ULC). Mr. Houghton was elected President at the 120th Annual Meeting of the Uniform Law Commission which recently concluded in Vail, Colorado.
Founded in 1892, the ULC is an organization comprising more than 350 practicing attorneys, judges, law professors, legislators and other state officials – all lawyers – appointed by every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands to draft and promote enactment of uniform laws that are designed to solve problems common to all the states. Commissioners donate their time as a pro bono public service.
At the 120th Annual Meeting of the ULC, four new uniform acts were approved: the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act; the Uniform Certificate of Title Act for Vessels; the Harmonized Uniform Business Organizations Code; and the Model Protection of Charitable Assets Act.
Other officers elected at the ULC’s 120th Annual Meeting are: Rex Blackburn, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Idaho Power, in Boise, Idaho, Vice President; Anita Ramasastry, D. Wayne & Anne Gittinger Professor of Law at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle, Washington, Secretary; and Charles A. Trost, Of Counsel with the Nashville, Tennessee, law firm of Waller, Lansden, Dortch & Davis, Treasurer.
Mr. Houghton was first appointed to the ULC from Delaware in 1995. As a Delaware uniform law commissioner, he has served on numerous drafting committees, including the Uniform Limited Liability Company Act, the Revised Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) Article 9, and the Revised UCC Articles 3 and 4. He just completed a two-year term as Chair of the ULC Executive Committee, the governing body of the ULC, and the committee responsible for implementing the policies adopted by the ULC at its meetings. He has served as Vice President for the ULC, and has served as Chair of the ULC Scope and Program Committee, the committee which recommends the study and drafting projects which the ULC should undertake. Mr. Houghton is also the former Chair of the ULC Legislative Committee, the committee which develops and oversees the ULC’s legislative agenda.
As a partner at Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell, Mr. Houghton is a member of the Commercial Law Counseling Group. His practice involves the representation of governmental entities, such as the Delaware River and Bay Authority and the Port of Wilmington, as well as representation of banks, trust companies, insurance companies, and public utilities in commercial transactions and before regulatory authorities and state, county and local governments. He earned his B.S. from the University of Virginia in 1978, and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1982.
Uniform law commissioners come together as the Uniform Law Commission once a year to study and consider drafts of specific statutes in areas of the law where uniformity between the states is desirable. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, former U.S. Supreme Court Justices Louis Brandeis and David Souter, and former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, have all served as uniform law commissioners. Since its inception in 1892, the ULC has promulgated more than 200 uniform acts, among them such bulwarks of state statutory law as the Uniform Commercial Code, the Uniform Probate Code, the Uniform Partnership Act, the Uniform Securities Act, the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, and the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act.
Further information on the Uniform Law Commission can be found at the ULC’s website at www.uniformlaws.org.
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