Given the success of practice rules and banks’ ability to more readily find resources for the proper interpretation of the rule sets, does it not make sense to avoid inclusion of a governing law or jurisdiction clause?
The recent case of Illinois DNR v. Regions Bank illustrates the importance of clear wording of automatic extension clauses and issuing banks including a final expiration date in their standbys.
Frederick “Fred” Heins Miller, Jr, professor of law at the University of Oklahoma for 45 years, died on 13 February 2025 at age 87. Over the course of his career, Fred authored 26 books or material sections thereof and more than 100 articles on the Uniform Commercial Code and related consumer and commercial business law matters.
As a result of his exhaustive research, teaching and prolific publications, Fred was appointed by the Governor of Oklahoma in 1975 to the National Law Conference and the Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, where he was instrumental in drafting material parts of the Uniform Commercial Code, including UCC Article 5 (Letters of Credit).
James G. Barnes
Several lawyers, as well as bankers, played critical roles in the re-codification of letter of credit law in the U.S. in the 1990s when Fred Miller led the uniform state law commission that undertook to revise Article 5 of the Uniform Commercial Code. That effort was failing until Fred recognized the extent of the differences between the voting uniform law commissioners and the attending LC bankers, including their trade association. Fred proposed that the job of developing future drafts of RevUCC5 be left to negotiation between the Reporter, Professor James J. White, and me. Those negotiations were successful as shown in our Winter 1995 articles in the Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business. It helped that we were personally comfortable with each other. (It may also have helped that Fred Miller, Jim White, and I all graduated from Michigan Law School.)
— James G. Barnes (retired from Baker & McKenzie, LLP)
Dennis Noah
I liked Fred. He was reasonable in our private discussions. He also listened to our position as a champion of credits and not as a self-interested party. I recall the day he asked me if I wanted to postpone the revision for a later date. I said we should continue. He respected that decision. He was a good man and key to our success with Rev5.
— Dennis Noah Chairman of USCIB and UCC 5 Revision Banking delegation
Dr. Boris Kozolchyk
I too was impressed with Fred’s contributions to Article 5. He was a good faith jurist who invariably supported the UCC’s adoption of ‘honest, reasonable and equitable’ practices as rules; and this was especially true when James Barnes, Jim Byrne and I brought them to his attention.
— Dr. Boris Kozolchyk Kozolchyk National Law Center Founder and Director
