Suzanna Sherry, Jeffrey Schoenblum & Michael Vandenbergh honored with Hall Hartman Outstanding Teaching Awards
Release Date: Apr 25, 2011
Suzanna Sherry, Jeffrey Schoenblum and Michael Vandenbergh are the winners of the 2011 Hall-Hartman Awards for Outstanding Teaching, which are awarded each spring based on students' vote.
Four Hall-Hartman Outstanding Teaching Awards are given each year based on the results of a student poll run by the Vanderbilt Bar Association. The awards recognize faculty whose teaching is deemed outstanding in each of the two first-year sections and for large and small upper-level elective courses.
Professor Sherry received two Hall-Hartman Awards: the outstanding teaching award for first-year Section B, and the award for outstanding teaching in upper- level small courses. Professor Vandenbergh was honored as the outstanding teacher for first-year Section A and Professor Schoenblum for outstanding teaching of upper-level large courses.
"This recognition is particularly noteworthy here at Vanderbilt, because the overall quality of teaching is so high," Dean Chris Guthrie said.
Professor Sherry, who is the Herman O. Loewenstein Professor of Law and director of the Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program, is a noted scholar of constitutional law who writes extensively on federal courts and federal court procedures. Her recent book, Judgment Calls: Principle and Politics in Constitutional Law, co-authored with Daniel A. Farber (Oxford University Press, 2009) explores how constitutional adjudication works in practice. She also co-authored What Every Law Student Really Needs to Know: An Introduction to the Study of Law (2009, with Tracey E. George). She teaches Civil Procedure, Federal Courts and the Civil Litigation Capstone Seminar.
Professor Schoenblum, who is the Centennial Professor of Law, is one of the world's preeminent scholars and experts on international estate taxation. He is the author of leading treatises, including the 2011 Multistate Guide to Trusts and Trust Administration, the 2011 Multistate Guide to Estate Planning, and Multistate and Multinational Estate Planning, all published by CCH. He teaches Wills and Trusts, Drafting and Analysis of Business Documents, and courses addressing estate taxation and planning.
Professor Vandenbergh, who holds the Tarkington Chair in Teaching Excellence, is a leading scholar in environmental and energy law whose research explores the relationship between formal legal regulation and informal social regulation of individual and corporate behavior. In addition to directing Vanderbilt’s Climate Change Research Network, Professor Vandenbergh serves as director of the law school’s Environmental Law Program. He teaches courses in environmental law, energy, and property.
The Hall-Hartman Awards are named in honor of former professor Paul Hartman, a renowned teacher who joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 1946, retired in 1976, and continued teaching until 1988, and Professor Emeritus Donald J. Hall, an expert in criminal law and dynamic teacher who taught at Vanderbilt from 1970 until his retirement in 2007.