Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation & Dispute Resolution Program
2012 Cecil D. Branstetter Summer Fellows
The Branstetter Summer Fellows are selected as part of the summer stipend program. Recipients are selected based on the students interest in litigation and offered a summer position providing a valuable opportunity to develop practical skills and knowledge in the field of litigation and dispute resolution.
Top row (L to R): Brandon Fyffe, Zachary Roth
Middle row: William Weaver, Katherine Horton, William Marks
Bottom row: Jeremy Gove, Bryan Gramlich, Katharine Skinner, Alex Webb, Melanie Erb
The Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation & Dispute Resolution Program
The Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation & Dispute Resolution program offers students an advanced legal curriculum designed to enable them to step immediately into sophisticated litigation practice anywhere in the country. The program’s name underscores a simple fact: The vast majority of litigation in the U.S. today results in settlements rather than trials. As a result, litigation practice today primarily involves the management and resolution of disputes. Students who complete Vanderbilt’s program are prepared to enter legal practice with both a practical and conceptual understanding of the different methods that our justice system employs to resolve disputes.
The Litigation & Dispute Resolution program includes courses taught by accomplished Vanderbilt professors and by leading practitioners and judges from around the country.
Developing the Competencies Litigators Need
Students in the Litigation & Dispute Resolution program develop the core competencies essential to succeed as a litigator, including strong analytical, communication, negotiation, and writing skills. By placing litigation in the context of its role in the U.S. justice system, the program also teaches students what litigators do, how they interact with clients and other involved parties, and how litigation really works.
A Program Endowed through a Class Action Lawsuit
In 2005, the Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation & Dispute Resolution program received a $2.9 million endowment to fund significant research projects, course development and academic symposia. The endowment resulted from a cy pres settlement to a class action lawsuit brought in Tennessee Circuit Court by the Nashville law firm of Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings. Because the members of the plaintiff class were too numerous and difficult to identify to make distribution of settlement funds to all class members possible, the settlement agreement provided for a $2.9 million distribution to Vanderbilt Law School to support the study of litigation and dispute resolution as a cy pres (or “next best”) use of the settlement dollars to benefit the plaintiff class.
The program is named in honor of Cecil D. Branstetter Sr., ’49, a founding partner in Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings.
The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation visiting in 2010.
Vanderbilt Law School and the Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation & Dispute Resolution Program will host the 2012 New Voices in Civil Justice Scholarship Workshop at Vanderbilt on May 7, 2012
Junior Scholars:
- Elizabeth Chamblee Burch (University of Georgia)
- Christina Boyd (University at Buffalo, SUNY)
- Alexandra Lahav (University of Connecticut)
- Ariana Levinson (University of Louisville-Brandeis Law)
- Corey Yung (University of Kansas)
Distinguished Visiting Senior Scholars:
- Robert Bone (University of Texas)
- Kevin Clermont (Cornell University)
- Myriam Gilles (Yeshiva University-Cardozo Law)
Branstetter Program Faculty:
- Edward Cheng
- Paul Edelman
- Brian Fitzpatrick
- Chris Guthrie
- Tracey George,
- Alex Hurder
- Susan Kay
- Nancy King
- Terry Maroney
- Alistair Newbern
- Erin O’Hara O’Connor
- Amanda Rose
- Suzanna Sherry
- Kevin Stack
- Ingrid Wuerth