Category: Fall/Winter 2025

SMU Law Dean Storey’s journals chronicle Nuremberg trial

Post author By Sarah Bennett
Post date October 27, 2025

Robert G. Storey (left) and son Charles P. Storey in Italy during World War II

Long-forgotten diaries of former SMU law dean Robert G. Storey have found a new home at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum. The 1945 and 1946 handwritten diaries describe Storey’s years in Nuremberg as executive trial counselor to Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson at the International Military Tribunal, which tried dozens of high-ranking Nazis for war crimes.

Storey’s family found the diaries in a suitcase at the bottom of a closet while cleaning out the family home.

Excerpts from former SMU Law Dean Storey's Nuremberg journals

Dean Storey’s work on the Tribunal is well documented – he helped gather and review the Third Reich’s own meticulous documentation to provide what Storey called “unimpeachable evidence” of crimes against the laws of war and humanity. The daily entries in the diaries, however, tell a more nuanced story of his time in Germany.

To 1983 Dedman Law graduate Harry Storey, Robert Storey was “Papaw,” a busy man who traveled the world on U.S. and legal business but still found time to host his extended family for Sunday afternoon swims and watermelon. Reading the diaries gave Harry Storey new insight about his grandfather’s life.

“He wrote often how about how much he missed his family,” Harry Storey says. “He never intended to have a military career; he was ready to return to Dallas to resume his legal career.”

A World War I veteran, Robert Storey returned to service in World War II where he served as colonel in the United States Army Air Corps, led the War Crimes Commission in Bulgaria and conducted intelligence work in the Mediterranean theater before staying in Europe after the war ended to gather evidence and support Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson’s prosecution of some of the most serious human rights crimes in history.

For his work preparing for and leading the trials, Storey received the U.S. Medal of Freedom and the French Legion of Honor. He also developed a firm belief in “world peace through law,” a philosophy that motivated his work as dean of the SMU Law School and further international negotiations on behalf of the United States.

“After seeing the horrors of two world wars, he was hopeful we could find a better way to settle our differences,” Harry Storey says.

After returning to the United States, Robert Storey became dean of SMU’s law school in 1947, serving until 1959. He recruited three other Nuremberg prosecutors to join the law school faculty and focused on making the school an international legal center by hiring international law experts, promoting foreign exchange training programs and hosting international law conferences. He also created the Southwestern Legal Foundation, dedicated to providing continuing legal education to legal professionals. In 1947, he created one of the nation’s first community legal clinic programs at Dedman School of Law.

To read Robert Storey’s 1945 and 1946 digitized diaries, visit the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum website.

The Storey journals displayed at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum

Tags Alumni, Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, Dedman School of Law, French Legion of Honor, Nuremberg trials, SMU, SMU Alumni, SMU Law Dean Robert Storey, Storey Hall, US Medal of Freedom, World War II

2025 Alumni Fall/Winter 2025

SMU alum Costa Christ builds a photography legacy

Post author By Sarah Bennett
Post date October 27, 2025

Costa Christ ’12 was about to graduate with a degree in accounting when he realized it wasn’t the career for him. As he was interested in photography, his then-girlfriend Jackie Christ ’12 drained her savings to help him purchase a camera and lens.

“I said, ‘I don’t know how, but I will absolutely repay you,’” he recalls.

He kept his promise. Now married, together they run his architectural and fine art photography businesses.

Costa and Jackie Christ at their wedding in Greece.

Costa Christ’s break into architectural photography happened thanks to SMU, when Jon Altschuler ’94 hired him to shoot property listings for his commercial real estate business, Altschuler and Company.

“Jon would never have hired me if I wasn’t an SMU grad,” Costa Christ says. “I went in for a photography position with an accounting degree, and he didn’t bat an eye.”

Costa Christ struck out on his own in 2014 and launched Strictly Natural Light. After running it solo for a few years, he asked Jackie Christ, who was working as a CPA, to help run the business. Given that the couple had studied together at SMU, working with one another came naturally. “It was like we were going back to our roots,” Jackie Christ says.

When she joined, they “immediately compounded the amount of business [they] took in,” he says. In Strictly Natural Light’s 10 years, Costa Christ has photographed over 3,000 homes and has been published in Architectural Digest, Southern Living and Forbes.

Now they’re pursuing their creativity even further with their fine art photography venture. Costa Christ Art started with photos from their vacations, with Jackie Christ finding the unique spots for him to shoot.

“Jackie’s not the one pushing the button on the camera, but she’s getting me to these places that I would never in a million years find without her,” Costa Christ says.

The business has since expanded to working with brands like Porsche and is currently represented by Christopher Martin Gallery in Dallas.

While SMU played a significant role in the Christs’ personal story, they credit the University for a lot of their success. Not only did they take several “life-changing” classes like business negotiations, marketing and business law, but Costa Christ says the University opened many opportunities.

How did SMU impact your journey?

“I was able to land jobs and earn the respect of clients that would have otherwise never met me because of SMU’s stellar reputation,” he says.
Costa Christ ’12

Tags Altschuler and Company, Alumni, Architectural Digest, Christopher Martin Gallery, Costa Christ, Costa Christ Art, Cox School of Business, Forbes, Jackie Christ, Jon Altschuler, SMU, SMU Alumni, Southern Living, Strictly Natural Light

2025 Alumni Fall/Winter 2025

SMU students get their kicks with new Sneaker Law course

Post author By Sarah Bennett
Post date October 20, 2025

Jenny B. Davis teaches students in her Sneaker Law class.

SMU’s new Sneaker Law course could be perceived as hyper-niche, but that would misjudge the wide-reaching legal implications of fashion and visual culture. Over the fall 2024 term, fashion media professor and Dedman School of Law graduate Jenny B. Davis ’95 introduced students to the $80 billion sneaker business – including its connection to sports, fashion and culture – with legal themes laced throughout every topic.

“Understanding foundational legal concepts prepares students to take advantage of the myriad opportunities arising in this exciting, expanding space,” Davis says.

Davis brings her professional background to Sneaker Law: As a writer, editor, stylist and licensed attorney, she has styled musicians and athletes, launched fashion lines and authored two textbooks, one on fashion journalism and the other on fashion styling.

Davis was inspired to develop the course from its core text, Sneaker Law: All You Need to Know About the Sneaker Business by Jared Goldstein and Kenneth Anand, a legal bible which covers the many creative and legal workflows that go into the sneaker market, including collaborations, licensing and business development.

What is sneaker law?

“What’s Sneaker Law, right? We do talk about sneakers in the culture, but at its core, it’s business entities, it’s contract formation, it’s public policy, and it’s employment law,” Davis says, clarifying the pragmatic lessons of the course.

Sneaker Law garnered interest from students across disciplines. Fashion media major Cody Kim ’26 describes his past as a basketball player as formative in his connection to sneaker culture and eventually a greater love of fashion.

For Samantha Forrester ’26, a journalism major on the pre-law track, the course connected to her interest in sports law.

“It opened up my eyes to business law and to intellectual property and trademark and patent law,” she says.

Sneaker Law culminated in an assignment to design and pitch a sneaker collaboration with Dallas Trinity FC or midfielder Haley Berg. Berg and Dori Neil Araiza ’09, SMU alumnus and co-founder and principal of Dallas Trinity FC, came to the class to discuss team branding and field questions from students.

Trinity FC, Dallas’ first professional women’s soccer team, has garnered attention for the strength of their branding. Araiza, whose family are Dallasites and grew up playing the sport, used her marketing background to leverage the team’s branding and merchandise – including a partnership with Nike. The Neils have an all-in attitude about the direction of Trinity FC, signing on for the Cotton Bowl as their home arena and playing their inaugural game against FC Barcelona on August 30, 2024.

Design teams then developed a pitch for either a team or player collaboration, using AI software to design the sneaker. Davis worked with Meadows academic technology services director Tyeson Seale to craft this element of the assignment.

Their final designs were judged by a panel consisting of Araiza, Berg and textbook author Anand.

An AI-generated image from the Sneaker Law students' project.

Araiza then sent the designs to representatives at Nike for feedback, which opened the door for students to make meaningful professional connections. The value of pitching to a pro team in Dallas’ esteemed sports market, as well as having their projects seen by Nike, was not lost on the students or Davis.

“You really get to see what goes inside of a company and a brand and everything they have to think about when it comes to legal perspectives and how they will produce something that will succeed,” says Kim.

Davis plans to teach Sneaker Law again in the spring 2026 term.

Its relevancy, as Davis points out, continues to grow as collaborations such as Nike and Kim Kardashian’s NikeSKIMS and the launch of fashion line Off Season by designer Kristin Juszczyk and the NFL exemplify the ongoing connection between fashion and sports.

“As the market for these collabs continues to grow,” Davis says, “the glue holding them together is law.”

SMU + DALLAS TRINITY FC CONNECTIONS

Nicholas Petrucelli ’17, ’18

Trinity FC assistant coach

SMU women’s soccer assistant coach, 2017–2018

Allie Thornton ’19

Trinity FC forward

Samantha Estrada ’21, ’22

Trinity FC goalkeeper

Chris Petrucelli

Trinity FC general manager

SMU women’s soccer head coach, 2012–2022

Dori Araiza ’09

Trinity FC co-founder and principal

Tags Alumni, Dallas Trinity FC, Dedman School of Law, Jenny B. Davis, Meadows School of the Arts, SMU, SMU Alumni, Sneaker Law

2025 Alumni Fall/Winter 2025

Arteriors founder and SMU alum Mark Moussa on life and change

Post author By Sarah Bennett
Post date October 20, 2025

Mark Moussa sits in the living room of his home.

Mark Moussa ’80, founder and former-president of the Dallas-based design firm Arteriors, has built a life defined by creative ingenuity and entrepreneurship. In 2019, over thirty years after he started his business, Moussa sold Arteriors at the height of success with four storefronts and customers across the globe. When reflecting on the framework of his success, Moussa sees his time at SMU as foundational to his story.

During his time at the University, Moussa, who graduated with a business degree, found himself gravitating toward arts classes at Meadows School of the Arts. Like many SMU students, staying in one lane did not align with Moussa’s ambitions.

“I am, first and foremost, a visual person,” Moussa explains. “That visualization is so important [and] is why I gravitated toward Meadows.”

An openness to evolution, both personal and institutional, seems to be a core tenant for Moussa.

“The most important thing – for me as an individual but also SMU as a University – is to evolve and change and better [oneself]. From a style point of view, an educational point of view, and now an athletic point of view, SMU continues to build. Now is an incredible time in SMU’s history.”

Moussa is widely known for his brand, which is no stranger to ambitious growth. He started Arteriors as an accessories business in 1987 in a warehouse in Dallas’ Design District. The company soon became known for its sculpturally inspired lighting and eventually expanded into multiple storefronts in Dallas and showrooms in Los Angeles, New York, and London.

Knowing when to leave a good thing takes an acute business mind and a level of instinct. When Moussa sold Arteriors in 2019, he had grown the company into an all-encompassing interior design brand that served to-the-trade and the public. But something was telling him it was time for a new pursuit.

“Timing is everything,” Moussa says. “Eight months later, COVID hit.” Moussa was also dialed into the disruptive nature of modern markets and had the foresight to step away during a peak.

Looking toward a post-Arteriors future has also had Moussa investing in his past. For him, donating to arts education – specifically at SMU – is both an act of social responsibility and intergenerational connectedness.

“The overall experience of going to SMU played a gigantic role in my life,” Moussa explains. “It’s important for the current student body to see alumni that give back to the University.”

The Mark S. Moussa Foundations Studio at SMU — Mark S. Moussa Foundations Studio

The establishment of the Mark S. Moussa Foundations Studio is emblematic of this commitment to arts education. The classroom serves as a makerspace in which arts students in Meadows learn fundamental techniques and principles. Every time Moussa passes the Foundations Studio, there are new projects and ventures to take in.

“It’s a classroom with a story behind it,” he explains.

Since stepping back from Arteriors, Moussa has been given the opportunity to evolve once again, and, as he says, “live life to its fullest.” For him, there is always another story to tell, and he advises young Mustangs to remember this: “Don’t put limitations on yourself. It may not be the first idea – you may develop it down the road into a second or third – but it’s the idea generation that’s so important.”

What’s inspiring you right now?

History, architecture and modern art, specifically the works of James Surls (former SMU professor) and SMU alum David Bates ’75.
Mark Moussa ’80

Tags Alumni, Arteriors, Mark Moussa, Mark S. Moussa Foundations Studio, Meadows School of the Arts, SMU, SMU Alumni