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Attorneys
Robert E. Spoo 
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Of Counsel, since 2008
phone 918-582-1211
fax (918) 925-5260
email rspoo@dsda.com

Robert Spoo is Of Counsel with the firm's Litigation Department. He concentrates his practice in intellectual property, copyrights and general litigation.  

Mr. Spoo has experience providing copyright and intellectual property advice and litigation assistance to a wide range of clients including universities, libraries, scholars, writers, sports media, record companies and filmmakers and software technology companies. He has advised Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training regarding the development and protection of intellectual property within the country's university system.

Mr. Spoo is a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Tulsa College of Law, where he teaches a range of courses including Copyright Law, Contracts, Constitutional Law, and Decedents' Estates and Trusts. Previously, he served as law clerk to the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and worked as an attorney with law firms in New York and San Francisco. Prior to entering the legal profession, Mr. Spoo was a tenured member of the English Department at the University of Tulsa and served for ten years as Editor of the James Joyce Quarterly. He has authored or edited numerous books and articles on modern fiction and poetry, and regularly publishes and speaks on copyright law and other legal subjects.

 

Areas of Practice:
Copyright and Intellectual Property Advise and Litigation
Intellectual Property Counseling & Transactions
Commercial Litigation
Bar Admissions:
Oklahoma
New York
California
U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals 10th Circuit
U.S. District Court Northern District of California
U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Southern District of New York
U.S. District Court Northern District of Oklahoma
U.S. District Court Western District of Oklahoma
Education:
Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut, 2000
Juris Doctor
Honors: Michael Egger Prize
Law Journal: The Yale Law Journal, Executive Editor


Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
Ph.D. in English
Honors: Whiting Fellowship in the Humanities
Major:  M.A. in English


Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin
Bachelor of Arts in English
Honors: Magna Cum Laude
Honors: Phi Beta Kappa


Published Works:
Selected Writing on Copyright Law and Other Legal Subjects


Extra Pound's Copyright Statute; Perpetual Rights and the Problems of Heirs, The UCLA Law Review, Vol. 56, 2009


A Casebook on Shloss v. Estate of James Joyce, In Progress


Three Myths for Aging Copyrights: Tithonus, Dorian Gray, Ulysses, National Library of Ireland Monograph Series, Joyce Studies 2004, No. 6, 2004


Ulysses, Bloomsday, and Copyright, in Yes I Said I Will Yes, New York: Vintage Books, 2004


Copyright Protectionism and Its Discontents: The Case of James Joyce's Ulysses in America. The Yale Law Journal, Vol. 108, No. 3 (1998): 633-67, [Winner of Yale Law Journal's Egger Prize. Cited in Nimmer on Copyright]


Fair Use of Unpublished Works: Scholarly Research and Copyright Case Law Since 1992, Tulsa Law Journal, Vol. 34, No. 1: 183-200, 1998


Current Copyright Law and Fair Use, Journal of Scholarly Publishing, Vol. 33: 125-41, 2002


Injuries, Remedies, Moral Rights, and the Public Domain, James Joyce Quarterly, Vol. 37: 333-51, 2000


Copyright Law and Archival Research, Journal of Modern Literature, Vol. 24, No 2 (Winter 2000/2001): 205-12


No Word is an Island: Textualism and Aesthetics in Akhil Reed Amar's The Bill of Rights, University of Richmond Law Review, Vol. 33, No. 2 (1999): 537-78, 1999


Selected Literary Scholarship and Criticism:


James Joyce and the Language of History: Dedalus's Nightmare, Oxford University Press, 1994


Ezra and Dorothy Pound: Letters in Captivity, 1945-1946 (with Omar Pound), Oxford University Press, 1999


H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Asphodel, [Unpublished novel from 1927, edited, with introduction, textual note, and biographical appendix], Duke University Press, 1992


Patronage of the Arts. The Ezra Pound Encyclopedia, Greenwood Publishing, forthcoming


Joyce Scholars, Editors, and Imaginary Readers, College English, Vol. 60 (1998): 330-35


Ulysses and the Ten Years War: A Survey of Missed Opportunities , TEXT: An Interdisciplinary Annual of Textual Studies, Vol. 10 (1997): 107-118, 1997


H.D. Prosed: The Future of an Imagist Poet. The Future of Modernism, ed. Hugh Witemeyer, University of Michigan Press, 201-221, 1997


'Nestor' and the Nightmare: The Presence of the Great War in Ulysses. Joyce and the Subject of History, eds. Robert Spoo et al., Univ. of Michigan Press, 105-24, 1996


The Making of Modern American Poetry: Four Aspects, Princeton University Library Chronicle, Vol. 55: 365-86, 1994


Classes/Seminars Taught:
Contracts, The University of Tulsa College of Law, 2008 - Present


Constitutional Law II, The University of Tulsa College of Law, 2008 - 2010


Decedent's Estates and Trusts, The University of Tulsa College of Law, 2008 - Present


Literature and Law, The University of Tulsa College of Law, 2008 - Present


Copyright Law, The University of Tulsa College of Law, Spring 2005, 2005 - 2006


Media and Entertainment Law, The University of Tulsa College of Arts and Sciences, Fall 2004, 2004 - 2005


Copyright Basics for Architects (with Rachel Blue), American Institute for Architects, Tulsa, Oklahoma, February 22, 2005


Copyright Law for Science Fiction Writers, Conestoga 8: Science Fiction Writers Conference, Tulsa, Oklahoma, July 17, 2004


"Ethical Issues in Oklahoma Summary Process." Continuing Legal Education Seminar on Summary Judgment, Tulsa County Bar Association, December 17, 2003


"Copyright Myths and Truths for Writers" How We Make & Are Made by History (Co-Speaker with Rachel Blue), Nimrod/Hardman Writers Conference, Univsity of Tulsa, October 25, 2003


"Contests, Sweepstakes and Lottery Law Issues; E-Commerce/Online Contracts; Data Collection Issues", Lorman Education Services Seminar; Tulsa, OK, July 30, 2003


"Copyright Law for Science Fiction Writers", Conestoga 7: Science Fiction Writers Conference, July 20, 2003


"Copyright Law for Songwriters" (Co-Speaker with David Iandiorio), Nashville Songwriters Association International, Tulsa Chapter; Bartlesville, OK, July 17, 2003


Honors and Awards:
Lucia R. Briggs Distinguished Achievement Award - Lawrency University, 2008 - Present


Elected Editor-in-Chief, Tulsa Law Journal, Volume 34, University of Tulsa College of Law, 1998 - Present


Listed in Best Lawyers for Intellectual Property Law and Copyright, 2010 - 2013


Outstanding College of Law Professor for First-Year and Upper-Class Courses, Univeristy of Tulsa, 2010 - Present


Outstanding University Teacher, University of Tulsa, 2011 - Present


Professional Associations and Memberships:
International James Joyce Foundation
Legal Counsel


Twentieth Century Literature
Copyrights Editor


Journal of Modern Literature
Copyrights Editor


James Joyce Quarterly
Copyrights Editor


Modernist Journals Project
External Advisor


Past Employment Positions:
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Hon. Sonia Sotomayor, Law Clerk, 2001 - 2002


Howard Rice Nemerovski Canaday Falk & Rabkin, P.C, Associate Attorney, 2006 - 2008


Doerner, Saunders, Daniel & Anderson, L.L.P, Associate Attorney, 2003 - 2006


Debevoise & Plimpton, New York Office, Associate Attorney - Intellectual Property Group, 2000 - 2001


University of Tulsa,, Associate Professor of English and Editor, James Joyce Quarterly, 1988 - 2000


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Office Locations

Tulsa
Williams Center Tower II
Two West Second Street
Suite 700
Tulsa, OK 74103-3117
(918) 582-1211

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Oklahoma City
201 Robert S. Kerr Ave.
Suite 700
Oklahoma City, OK 73102
(405) 319-3500

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Norman
1800 N. Interstate Dr.
Suite 211
Norman, OK 73072
(405) 319-3501