Professor Jeff Ferriell Serves on Ohio Commission on Uniform State Laws

August 25, 2008

Professor Jeff Ferriell has been appointed by Ohio Governor Ted Strickland to the Ohio Commission on Uniform State Laws. As a member of this Ohio group, Professor Ferriell is also a member of Ohio’s delegation to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL). This is the first time that a member of the Capital University Law School faculty has been a member of the NCCUSL.

NCCUSL is a non-profit association, comprised of more than 300 commissioners on uniform state laws from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It has worked for uniformity of state laws since 1892. Most of NCCUSL’s volunteer members are practitioners, judges and law professors. Since its organization, NCCUSL has drafted more than 200 uniform laws on numerous subjects and in various fields of law, setting patterns for uniformity across the nation. Uniform acts include the Uniform Probate Code, the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, the Uniform Partnership Act, the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, the Uniform Limited Partnership Act, and the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act. NCCUSL’s most significant project is the Uniform Commercial Code, which took 10 years to draft and another 14 years to become adopted across the country. It has been revised numerous times and has been in effect in Ohio since 1962. The most recent NCCUSL project to be adopted in Ohio is the revised Uniform Partnership Act.

As a member of the NCCUSL, Professor Ferriell was among 250 attorneys, judges, law professors, legislators, and other state officials participating in the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) in Big Sky, Montana during July. 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.

Professor Ferriell, like all Commissioners, donates his time as pro bono public service.  He has taught bankruptcy, secured transactions, contracts, and other commercial law courses at Capital since 1987. He is the coauthor of “Understanding Bankruptcy” published in fall 2007 by Lexis Nexis and he is currently working on the second edition of his other Lexis/Nexis hornbook, “Understanding Contracts,” which is expected to be published in spring/summer 2009.