Hanbury

A second upper level administrator will leave the University of Southern Mississippi to open a Hattiesburg law practice.

Mark Dvorak, human resources director at USM, will set up an office with Jack Hanbury, his former partner who resigned earlier this month as the university's director of risk management.

The two will specialize in business-related law when the practice opens on July 1, Hanbury said Monday.

"What we intend to do with business clients is, at our own time and expense, take the time to learn about the client's business and its operation to better understand what the needs are and to fulfill those needs," he said.

The service will be called Total Client Service or TCS, Hanbury said.

Hanbury resigned on May 6, about a week after sending an e-mail to Southern Miss' deans admonishing some of them for talking to outside attorneys about a request from the Faculty Senate for information on pay raises.

Dvorak resigned on Saturday after talking with Greg Lassen, vice president for financial affairs.

"I met with my boss on Monday of last week to discuss my resignation from the university due to the fact that I want to go back to practice law," he said. "I tendered my resignation Saturday. I was hired here as interim anyway. I've totally enjoyed it."

He said the dissension on the USM campus in recent months played no role in his resignation.

USM President Shelby Thames suspended tenured professors Frank Glamser and Gary Stringer on March 5 and started the process of firing them.

The professors later settled with the university after a half day of testimony in which Thames said he ordered their e-mails monitored in connection with an investigation the USM chapter of the American Association of University Professors conducted into Angie Dvorak's academic background.

Angie Dvorak, also a lawyer, is vice president of research and economic development and the wife of Mark Dvorak.

A decision on who will take Mark Dvorak's human resources job hasn't been made, Lassen said.

The Hattiesburg telephone directory lists about 250 lawyers in the area, but Hanbury thinks he and Dvorak have found a niche market.

"To my knowledge there are very few who focus on strictly the business community," he said. "We feel like the business community is really growing in Hattiesburg and South Mississippi; plus we really love Hattiesburg. We think it's a great place to live."

The firm, Hanbury & Dvorak, P.C., has several prospective clients and is finalizing arrangements for office space, he said. The men were once partners in a law firm in Kentucky.

Hanbury, 47, holds a law degree from the University of Kentucky College of Law and is licensed to practice in federal and state courts in Mississippi, Kentucky and Ohio.

Dvorak, 42, received his law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in East Lansing, Mich. He is licensed to practice in the state and federal courts in Kentucky and before the U.S. Supreme Court and has applied to be licensed in Mississippi.