Bertel Sparks specialized in equity, estate planning, and property. He served on the Drafting Committee for the Review of Laws Relating to the Administration of Estates of the North Carolina General Statutes Commission from 1967 until his retirement. Sparks was also a member of the Drafting Committee for the Multi-State Bar Exam. He acted as a consultant to the Subcommittee on the Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. Senate.
Sparks completed a B.S. at Eastern Kentucky University in 1938. During World War II he served as a special agent in the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps. In 1948 Sparks earned an LL.B. at the University of Kentucky where he was editor-in-chief of the Kentucky Law Journal. He completed an LL.M. in 1949 and an S.J.D. in 1955 at the University of Michigan. Sparks joined the law faculty at NYU in 1949, a position he kept until coming to Duke Law in 1967. He retired in 1988 and died in 1994.
Sources:
Duke University, School of Law, Bulletin of Duke University School of Law [serial]
Steve Flairty, Everyday Heroes: Wilmore Native Martha Evans Sparks Provides a Voice for Caregivers [perma.cc/2D96-XNT4], KyForward (July 15, 2014) (last viewed Oct. 21, 2015)
- Property I, II, & III
- Mortgages
- Property
- Trusts and Estates I & II
- Seminar in Estate Planning
- Equitable Remedies
- Fiduciary Administration
- Future Interests
- Trusts and Wills
Books
- A Quarter Century of Transition in the New York Law of Trusts and Estates (Association of the Bar of the City of New York, )
- Cases on Trusts and Estates (Callaghan & Company, )
- Contracts to Make Wills (New York University Press, )
Articles & Essays
- A Quarter-Century of Transition in the New York Law of Trusts and Estates, 30 Record of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York 619-639 ()
- Lewis M. Simes as Teacher, 73 Michigan Law Review 638-642 ()
- Retreat from Contract to Status, in Champions of Freedom 59 (B. Smith, )
- Changing Concepts of Private Property, 43 Oklahoma Bar Association 355-363 ()
- A Draftsman's View of Joint and Mutual Wills, 4 Institute of Estate Planning 1 ()
- Operation of Joint Wills in Texas, 31 Texas Bar Journal 277-325 ()
- Application of the Marital Deduction to Joint and Mutual Wills, 37 Mississippi Law Journal 226 ()
- Future Interests, 1966 Annual Survey of American Law 435-446 ()
- Future Interests, 1964, 1965 Annual Survey of American Law 535 ()
- Future Interests, 1963, 1964 Annual Survey of American Law 397 ()
- Future Interests, 1961, 1962 Annual Survey of American Law 394 ()
- Evidentiary Problems Relating to Contracts to Make Wills, 99 Trusts and Estates 878 ()
- Future Interests, 1959, 1960 Annual Survey of American Law 522 ()
- Future Interests, 1960, 1961 Annual Survey of American Law 486 ()
- Future Interests, 1960 Survey of N.Y. Law, 35 New York University Law Review 1509 ()
- A Decade of Transition in Future Interests, 45 Virginia Law Review 493 ()
- Marketability Problems of Land Use Restrictions, Florida Bar Journal 76 ()
- Policy Considerations: Alienability of the Beneficial Interest in a Trust in New York, 9 Buffalo Law Review 26 ()
- Future Interests, 1957 Annual Survey of American Law 468 ()
- Contract to Devise of Bequeath as an Estate Planning Device, 20 Missouri Law Review 1 ()
- Perpetuities Problems of the General Practitioner, University of Florida Law Review 465 ()
- Enforcement of Contracts to Devise or Bequeath After the Death of the Promisor, 39 Minnesota Law Review 1 ()
- Historical Development of the Law of Contracts to Devise or Bequeath, 42 Kentucky Law Journal 573 ()
- Legal Effects of Contracts to Devise or Bequeth Prior to the Death of the Promisor, 53 Michigan Law Review 215 ()
- Problems in the Formation of Contracts to Devise or Bequeath, 40 Cornell Law Quarterly 60 ()
- Admissibility of Oral Declarations of a Testator to Prove a Lost Will in Kentucky, 36 Kentucky Law Journal 431 ()
- Tort Action in Kentucky for the Wrongful Destruction of a Will, 36 Kentucky Law Journal 431 ()
- Virtual Representation of Holders of Future Interests in Actions Involving Titles in Kentucky, 37 Kentucky Law Journal 96 ()
- Should the Objective Test be Applied in Negligent Murder Cases? (Affirmative View), 35 Kentucky Law Journal 242 ()
- Wills: A Problem in Statutory Interpretation, 36 Kentucky Law Journal ()
Newspaper Articles and Commentary
- A Legal System for a Free Society, 33 The Freeman (, at 135)
- How Many Servants Can You Afford?, 26 The Freeman (, at 591)
- Caveat Emptor: The Consumer's Badge of Authority, 25 The Freeman (, at 323)
- Is Escape From the Poverty Trap Possible?, 23 The Freeman (, at 579)
- Changing Concepts of Private Property, 21 The Freeman (, at 583)
- Conflict of Whose Interests, 21 The Freeman (, at 682)
- The Role of a Conservative, 20 The Freeman (, at 535)
- What Is a Witness?, 3 Presbyterian Layman (, at 5)
- Freedom Is Responsibility, 19 The Freeman (, at 522)
- Why Have an Electoral College?, 19 The Freeman (, at 219)
