Bio

Jennifer Bennett Shinall is the first student to earn both the J.D. and the Ph.D. in law and economics at Vanderbilt University. She earned a B.A. in economics and history from Harvard University and entered the J.D. program at Vanderbilt Law School in 2006. In 2007 she joined Jinghui Lim to form the first cohort of students in the Ph.D. Program in Law and Economics at Vanderbilt. Ms. Shinall was a Vanderbilt Legal Academy Scholar and served as staff on the Vanderbilt Law Review in 2008-2009 and as senior articles editor for VLR in 2009-2010. Ms. Shinall is a member of the Vanderbilt Law School Chapter of Order of the Coif. Her fields of interest are labor economics and employment law and legal and economic history. Ms. Shinall is currently a judicial clerk for the Honorable John Tinder in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Ms. Shinall will return to Vanderbilt as Post-Doctoral Scholar in Law and Economics for 2013-2014.

Dissertation

"Obesity in the Labor Market: Implications for the Legal System"
Advisor: Professor Joni Hersch

Publications

"Slipping Away from Justice: The Effect of Attorney Skill on Trial Outcomes," Vanderbilt Law Review 63(1), January 2010, 267-306. Winner of the Myron Penn Laughlin Award for excellence in a published Note.

Presentations

"Legal Largesse or Big, Fat Failure: Do Weight-Based Discrimination Laws Improve Employment Outcomes for the Obese?" Presented at Southern Economic Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., November 2011; Presented at American Law and Economics Association Annual Meeting, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, May 2012

In the News

Jennifer Bennett Shinall's findings on possible legal remedies to combat weight discrimination in the workplace are featured in "Two Cities Offer Model to Fight Weight Discrimination," Research News @ Vanderbilt, article by Jim Patterson (June 21, 2012).

Read the Vanderbilt Law School profile of Jennifer Bennett Shinall by VLS graduate and Adjunct Professor David L. Hudson, Jr. (June 2012).

Contact Info

jennifer.shinall@vanderbilt.edu

Curriculum Vitae

 Download Jennifer Bennett Shinall's CV