Karen Usselman Lindell was awarded the Founder’s Medal, signifying first honors in Vanderbilt Law School’s Class of  2012, at the university’s commencement ceremony. Lindell was also winner of the Robert F. Jackson Memorial Prize, awarded to the member of the second-year class who maintains the highest scholastic average during the first two years of law school, in 2009-10; the Bennett Douglas Bell Memorial Prize, awarded to "the student of the senior law class who is not only well-versed in the law, but who shows the highest conception of the ethics of the profession;" and the Stanley D. Rose Memorial Book Award for submitting the best legal writing in the field of jurisprudence or legal history in fulfillment of the law school's advanced writing requirement. She shared the Law Review Editor's Award, which honors the third-year editorial board members who have made the most significant contributions to the Vanderbilt Law Review, with Rebecca Dunnan. Lindell is a native of Atlanta, Georgia, and will clerk for Judge Kent Jordan on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Wilmington Delaware during 2012-13.

Evan M. Brewer received the G. Scott Briggs Transnational Legal Studies Award, awarded to the third-year student who has exhibited a high degree of scholastic achievement in transnational legal studies and who has made the most significant contribution to the development of international legal inquiries while a student at Vanderbilt, and the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law Outstanding Editor Award, which goes to the member of the third-year staff selecting as having done the most outstanding work on the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law during the academic year. Brewer is from Reno, Nevada.

Megan V. LaDriere received the Chris Lantz Memorial Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law Outstanding Service Award, which goes to the student, other than the editor-in-chief, who has made the most significant contribution to the advancement of the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law, and the National Association of Women Lawyers’ Outstanding Law Student Award, which goes to the student whose law school involvement best fulfills the goals of contributing to the advancement of women in society and promoting women’s issues in the legal profession, and “who has exhibited tenacity, enthusiasm, and academic achievement while earning the respect of others.” LaDriere is from Dallas, Texas.

Samara Spence received the Carl J. Ruskowski Clinical Legal Education Award, which goes to the student who, in his or her representation of clients in the law school’s clinical program, demonstrated excellence in practice of law and best exemplified the highest standards of the legal profession, and the Grace Wilson Sims Medal in Transnational Law, awarded to the editorial board member, other than the editor-in-chief, selected as having done the most outstanding work on the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law during the academic year. Spence is a native of Austin, Texas.

William A. Airhart received the Weldon B. White Prize, awarded to the graduate who submitted the best paper in fulfillment of the law school’s advanced writing requirement. Airhart is from Houghton, New York.

Nathan C. Pysno received the Morgan Prize for submitting the most outstanding piece of student writing to the Vanderbilt Law Review during his second year.

John C. Williams received the Myron Penn Laughlin Note Award, which goes to the student, other than the winner of the Morgan Prize, who contributed the best student Note published in the Vanderbilt Law Review.

Marie Elizabeth Roper received the Grace Wilson Sims Medal in Transnational Law, awarded to the member of the graduating class contributing the best Note submitted for publication in the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law.

Rebecca Dunnan of New York, New York, and Karen Usselman Lindell of Atlanta, Georgia, shared the Law Review Editor’s Award, which goes to the third-year editorial board members who make the most significant contributions to the Law Review.

Mary Alexander Myers received the Law Review Candidates Award, awarded by the second-year Vanderbilt Law Review staff to the third-year student, other than the editor-in-chief, who has made the most significant contribution to the development of Law Review staff members. Myers is from Trion, Georgia.

Rachel Beck received the Jordan A. Quick Memorial Award, awarded to the student judged to have made the greatest contribution to the quality of life at the law school through leadership with the Vanderbilt Bar Association. Beck is a native of Leawood, Kansas.

Gavin Reinke received the Richard Nagareda Award, awarded by the Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program to recognize extraordinary achievement in the study of litigation and dispute resolution. Reinke is from Naples, Florida.

Matthew J. Meltzer received the K. Harlan Dodson Moot Court Staff Award, which goes to the senior member of the Moot Court staff, other than the chief justice, who has rendered the most outstanding service throughout the previous year in all aspects of the Moot Court program. Meltzer is from Wayne, Pennsylvania.

Ashley Dennis received the Damali A. Booker Award, which is presented each year to the third-year law student who has a keen dedication to legal activism and a demonstrated commitment to confronting social issues facing both Vanderbilt Law School and the greater Nashville community. Dennis is from Duncanville, Texas.

Virginia Maynard Yetter received the Junius L. Allison Legal Aid Award, which goes to the graduate judged to have made the most significant contribution to the work of the Vanderbilt Legal Aid Society during his tenure at Vanderbilt. Yetter is a native of of Maitland, Florida.

Kathryn R. Brown received the Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law Student Writing Award, which goes to the graduate who submitted the most outstanding piece of student writing for publication in the journal. Brown is a native of Rockville Centre, New York.

Mark A. Hammervold received the Thomas C. Banks Award for the Outstanding Jessup Moot Court Team Member, awarded by the competition team to the members who have made the greatest contribution to the overall success of the team during the previous year. Hammervold is from Edmunds, Oklahoma.

Kent R. McKeever received the Philip G. Davidson Award, presented each year to the student who has demonstrated dedication to the law and its problem-solving role in society, and who has provided exemplary leadership in service to the law school and the greater community. McKeever is from Abilene, Texas.

Eighteen Vanderbilt Law graduates honored with awards was originally published by Vanderbilt Law School on May 12, 2012.

This issue includes three articles, an essay and three notes:

Articles

• “Costly Intellectual Property,” by David Fagundes and Jonathan S. Masur, page 677
• “Extralegal Punishment Factors: A Study of Forgiveness, Hardship, Good Deeds, Apology, Remorse, and Other Such Discretionary Factors in Assessing Criminal Punishment,” by Paul H. Robinson, Sean E. Jackowitz and Daniel M. Bartels, page 737
• “Loss Aversion and the Law,” by Eyal Zamir, page 829

Essay

• “Siblings in Law,” by Jill Elaine Hasday, page  897

Notes

• “After GINA, NINA? Neuroscience-Based Discrimination in the Workplace,” by Stephanie A. Kostiuk, Class of 2012, page 933
• “Standing on the Edge: Standing Doctrine and the Injury Requirement at the Borders of Establishment Clause Jurisprudence,” by Mary Alexander Myers, Class of 2012, page 979
• “Hazy Shades of Winter: Resolving the Circuit Split over Preliminary Injunctions,” by Rachel A. Weisshaar, Class of 2012, page 1011

Vanderbilt Law Review April 2012 issue released was originally published by Vanderbilt Law School on May 01, 2012.

Seymore was also presented with the University of Tennessee Accomplished Alumnus Award at a dinner held in his honor, at which Jeffrey Kovac, professor of chemistry and director of the University of Tennessee’s College Scholars Program, noted Seymore’s research contributions during his senior year to The Ethical Chemist: Professionalism and Ethics in Science, a book authored by Kovac.

Seymore was the University of Tennessee’s first African-American and first out-of-state Tennessee Scholar, then the university’s signature honors program. As an undergraduate, Seymore received a Chancellor’s Citation for Academic Achievement and the American Institute of Chemists Senior Award.

Seymore has also been invited to serve as the keynote speaker at the Chancellor’s Honors Program Graduation on May 10.  He will be the first honors program alumnus to serve in that capacity. Recent speakers have included Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, former Congressman Harold Ford Jr., and Sharon G. Lee, former Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court.

Seymore was the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Associate Professor at MIT during spring 2012. At Vanderbilt, he teaches Patent Law, Torts and Advanced Patent Law and Policy.

Sean Seymore is University of Tennessee’s Inaugural Distinguished Honors Alumnus in Residence was originally published by Vanderbilt Law School on Apr 24, 2012.

In his paper, “After AEP: The Climate Change Tort and the Social Cost of Carbon,” Airhart proposes that the social cost of carbon (SCC), a metric currently used by federal agencies to calculate the costs and benefits of various government actions, also be accepted as a means to satisfy a key requirement of a successful tort lawsuit: a reliable method to establish a damages claim.

Airhart’s proposal is based on an analysis of the Supreme Court’s 2011 decision in American Electric Power Company v. Connecticut (AEP), in which eight states, New York City and three land conservation groups filed suit against four electric power companies and the Tennessee Valley Authority, arguing that the utility companies were a public nuisance because their carbon dioxide emissions contribute to global warming.  In that decision, the Court ruled in part that the federal Clean Air Act displaces “any federal common-law right to seek abatement of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel fired power plants.” To reach that holding, however, the Court first upheld the lower court’s exercise of jurisdiction over the dispute.

In his paper, Airhart asserts that the Court’s jurisdictional holding “leaves the door open to climate change plaintiffs alleging state tort claims,” because only federal claims are now displaced. He suggests that climate change tort plaintiffs “may survive threshold review and proceed to adjudication on the merits. In other words, the climate change tort remains alive and well in state courts, if…a plaintiff can craft a successful tort suit that makes a colorable damages claim.” He then argues that the SCC metric used by federal agencies may serve as a credible means of calculating damages for the purposes of a tort suit. “Reliance on the SCC metric will produce damage calculations that are consistent, comparable and predictable across the country,” he writes, “and it will ensure that tort law remains an important component of the future regulation of greenhouse gasses.”

Airhart’s winning entry in the Hastings writing competition was condensed and refined from a research paper he wrote for Professor Michael Vandenbergh’s Climate Change Justice seminar in fall 2011. However, although his paper asserts that the Court’s jurisdiction holding in AEP will allow plaintiffs to continue to bring climate change tort claims in state court, Airhart does not believe that these individual suits will be easy to win. “Tort law is not easily compatible with climate change, because it requires a tricky demonstration of elements like causation and duty,” he said. “Most practitioners and academics believe that it is nearly impossible to win a climate change tort case. My paper isn’t intended to address all of these concerns; my proposal is limited to the harm element of a traditional tort.”

Airhart’s interest in the intersection of climate change and tort law arose from discussions in a seminar class regarding regulation, compensation and fairness. “Over the next century, climate change is going to create winners and losers, and some of these losers will not be compensated in a regulatory regime with broad applicability,” he said. “Compensation is one of the traditional goals of tort law, and I wanted to explore whether future litigants will have any viable tort options. The SCC metric is one possible avenue to satisfy the harm requirement of a climate change tort.”

“Will’s paper is creative and remarkably well written,” said Vandenbergh, who directs Vanderbilt’s Energy and Environmental Law Program. “It is a great example of how a student can look across different fields, such as torts, administrative law and environmental law, to develop a fresh approach to a difficult problem. His work underscores the value of intensive legal writing experiences in law school and the contributions students can make by developing practical legal strategies that draw on the best theoretical literature.”

Airhart currently serves as treasurer of the Environmental Law Society. He will join the environmental practice group at Baker Botts in Houston, Texas, as an associate after graduating in May.

The Jon E. Hastings Memorial Award honors the late Jon Hastings, a founding member of the Environmental Law Section of the Tennessee Bar Association and an attorney with Boult Cummings Connors & Berry who focused on environmental, telecommunications, and public utility law.

Will Airhart ’12 wins TBA’s Jon E. Hastings Memorial Award for writing on environmental law was originally published by Vanderbilt Law School on Apr 20, 2012.

Tosin Fadarey '13 awarded 2012 Peggy Browning Fellowship was originally published by Vanderbilt Law School on Apr 20, 2012.

Professors Michael P Vandenbergh, Tracey George and Suzanna Sherry were honored for their first-year courses in, respectively, Property Law (Section A), Contracts (Section B) and Civil Procedure (Section C).

Professor Edward K. Cheng was honored for his upper-level Evidence course, and Professor Daniel J. Sharfstein for his seminar on the Legal History of Race in America.

"This recognition is especially significant here at Vanderbilt, because the overall quality of teaching is so high," Dean Chris Guthrie said.

Michael P. Vandenbergh, who heads Vanderbilt’s Energy and Environmental Law Program and currently 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. Professor Vandenbergh co-founded and directs Vanderbilt University’s Climate Change Research Network. He teaches courses in environmental and energy law in addition to Property. He also received a Hall-Hartman Award for his Property course in 2011.

Tracey George directs the Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program. Her research on the behavior of federal judges and courts has been published in the American Political Science Review, Judicature, North Carolina Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Supreme Court Economic Review and Vanderbilt Law Review, among others. She also has published studies of legal education and legal scholarship and serves on the LSAC Grants Subcommittee, which supports work on legal education and the legal profession. George has been honored with Hall-Hartman Awards in 2004 and 2010.

Suzanna Sherry, who is the Herman O. Loewenstein Professor of Law, is a noted scholar of constitutional law who writes extensively on federal courts and federal court procedures. She was honored for her creative scholarship and stimulating and inspiring teaching as Vanderbilt’s 2012 Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor in March. Her influential book, Judgment Calls: Principle and Politics in Constitutional Law, co-authored with Daniel Farber (Oxford University Press, 2009) explores how constitutional adjudication works in practice. Sherry has been honored with with Hall-Hartman Awards in 2005, 2009 and 2010. In 2011, she was honored with awards for both first-year and upper-level courses.

Together, Professors George and Sherry developed the Life of the Law, an introductory course all first-year law students take during Orientation Week, and they co-authored the course textbook, What Every Law Student Really Needs to Know: An Introduction to the Study of Law (Aspen, 2009).

Edward K. Cheng is a coauthor of Modern Scientific Evidence: The Law and Science of Expert Testimony, a five-volume treatise which is updated annually. His articles, in which he explores evidence law from an empirical and statistical perspective, have been published in the Yale Law Journal, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Columbia Law Review and Stanford Law Review, among other prestigious law journals. Cheng is affiliated with Vanderbilt's Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program and teaches Torts and Statistical Inference in Law in addition to Evidence. Cheng has been honored with a Hall-Hartman Award in his first year of teaching at Vanderbilt.

Daniel J. Sharfstein's scholarship focuses on the legal history of race in the United States. His book, The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White, was released in 2011 by Penguin Press and won the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize in 2012. For his research on civil rights and the color line in the American South, Sharfstein was awarded an Alphonse Fletcher Sr. fellowship and a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship. He was the inaugural recipient of the Raoul Berger Visiting Fellowship in Legal History at Harvard Law School. He teaches Property as well as courses in legal history.

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.

Cheng, George, Sharfstein, Sherry and Vandenbergh honored for outstanding teaching with Hall-Hartman Awards was originally published by Vanderbilt Law School on Apr 16, 2012.

Bressman joined Vanderbilt’s law faculty as an assistant professor in 1998, was named a professor of law in 2002, and served as co-director of the Vanderbilt Regulatory Program from 2007-10. She was Vanderbilt’s FedEx Research Professor of Law in 2008-09, the Roscoe Pound Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School in fall 2008, and a visiting professor of law at Cornell in winter 2006. She served as faculty advisor to the Vanderbilt Law Review staff from 2002-10, and currently serves as faculty advisor to two student organizations, the Administrative Law Society and the Vanderbilt chapter of the American Constitution Society.

In 2010, Bressman began serving a two-year term as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, and has served as chair of its Judicial Review Committee. She is a vice chair of the ABA’s administrative law section and has been a contributor to the OMB Watch Regulatory Reform Project.

Her works include numerous influential law review articles, including “Reclaiming the Legal Fiction of Congressional Delegation (97 Virginia Law Review, 2011), “Chevron’s Mistake” (58 Duke Law Journal, 2009) and “Procedures as Politics in Administrative Law (107 Columbia Law Review, 2007), which was awarded second place in the American Constitution Society’s 2008 Richard D. Cudahy Writing Competition for Regulatory and Administrative Law. She is the co-author, with Vanderbilt Law School colleagues Edward Rubin and Kevin Stack, of a textbook, The Regulatory State (Aspen, 2010).

Bressman earned her J.D. with honors at the University of Chicago, graduating Order of the Coif, and holds a B.A. magna cum laude in English and philosophy from Wellesley College.

Before joining the academy, Bressman clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer in 1994-95 and for Judge Jose A. Cabranes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1993-94. After practicing law at Kellogg Huber Hansen Todd & Evans in Washington, D.C., she joined the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel as an attorney advisor, serving from 1996-98.

Bressman’s appointment to the David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law was announced by Vanderbilt Provost Richard McCarty at a university celebration at the Student Life Center March 26. Her extensive service to the law school and the university includes chairing the Dean Search Committee in 2009, chairing the Ad Hoc ABA Reaccreditation Committee in 2009-10, and five years of service, including as chair, on the Faculty Appointments Committee, among many other committee appointments.

“Lisa has been a tremendous asset to Vanderbilt Law School and to the university, and I’m extremely pleased to recognize her impressive career accomplishments with this appointment,” said Dean Chris Guthrie.

The David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law is one of three chairs honoring David Daniels Allen (BA’58), a founding partner of Reynolds Allen & Cook in Houston.

Lisa Bressman named to the David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law was originally published by Vanderbilt Law School on Apr 03, 2012.

O’Connor joined Vanderbilt’s law faculty as a professor of law in 2001.  She served as the law school’s associate dean for academic affairs from 2008-10 and as director of the Law and Human Behavior Program from 2007-10. She was Vanderbilt’s FedEx Research Professor of Law in 2010-11 and a fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies at Ludwig Maximilians Universität Műnchen in fall 2011. O’Connor currently serves as director of graduate studies for Vanderbilt’s Ph.D. Program in Law and Economics. In addition, she is a research associate of the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research. She chaired the American Association of Law Schools Section on Conflict of Laws in 2009-10.

Before joining Vanderbilt’s law faculty, O’Connor taught at George Mason University School of Law from 1995 to 2001. She has been a visiting professor at Northwestern University School of Law and at Georgetown University Law Center, where she also served as co-director of the Olin Faculty Workshop in Law and Economics, and she was a scholar in residence at Florida State University Law School in summer 2008.

O’Connor is the author, co-author or editor of three books, the most recent of which is the sixth edition of a casebook, Conflict of Laws: Cases and Materials, co-authored with Lea Bilmayer and Jack Goldsmith in 2011. The Law Market, a book co-authored with Larry Ribstein that explores the global trend of corporations and individuals “shopping” for the most favorable legal regime, was published by Oxford University Press in 2009, and a two-volume edited collection, The Economics of Conflict of Laws, was released by Elgar Publishing in 2007. Her recent articles include “Preemption and Choice of Law Coordination,” co-authored with Larry Ribstein (Michigan Law Review, forthcoming); “Customizing Employment Arbitration” with Randall Thomas and Ken Martin (Iowa Law Review, forthcoming); “Organizational Apologies: BP as Case Study” (Vanderbilt Law Review, 2011); “Economics, Behavioral Biology, and Law,” co-authored with Owen Jones and Jeff Stake (Supreme Court Economic Review, 2011); “The Limits of Contract Law Harmonization” (European Journal of Law & Economics, 2011); “Exit and the American Illness,” co-authored with Larry Ribstein (in The American Illness, forthcoming from Yale University Press, Frank Buckley, editor, 2012); and “Outsourcing, Modularity and the Theory of the Firm,” co-authored with Margaret Blair (BYU Law Review, 2011).

Her appointment to the Underwood Chair was announced by Vanderbilt Provost Richard McCarty at a university celebration at the Student Life Center March 26.

“Erin is a widely respected scholar and teacher whose work addresses the intersection of economics, behavior and law as well as choice and conflicts of law,” Dean Chris Guthrie said. “I’m extremely pleased to recognize her prolific scholarship and many contributions to Vanderbilt Law School with this appointment.”

The Milton R. Underwood Chair in Law is one of three chairs honoring Milton R. Underwood endowed by the Fondren Foundation in honor of Milton Underwood, Class of 1928, who was a member of Vanderbilt’s Board of Trust from 1954-82 and a founder of Underwood Neuhaus & Company.

Erin O’Hara O’Connor named to the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Law was originally published by Vanderbilt Law School on Apr 03, 2012.

The Lowell Milken Institute was established in 2011 by a $10 million gift from Lowell Milken '73, a leading philanthropist and pioneer in education reform.

Kaufman is the founder and former head of Kirkland & Ellis' debt finance group. He earned his bachelor's degree cum laude from Yale University in 1971 before earning his law degree from Vanderbilt, where he was editor-in-chief of the Vanderbilt Law Review and was elected to Order of the Coif.

He is presently a member of the TriBar Opinion Committee, a well-respected non-partisan panel addressing legal opinions in transactional practice, and serves as program chair for the national Working Group on Legal Opinions. He is also a member of the Uniform Commercial Code Committee, the Commercial Financial Services Committee, the Legal Opinions Committee and the Audit Responses Committee for the American Bar Association Section of Business Law.

Kaufman lectures and writes frequently on financing, commercial law and legal-opinion issues at national professional seminars and programs and in related publications. Since 2009, he has been a professor of the practice of law in the law and business program at Vanderbilt Law School, teaching courses on secured transactions, transactional practice, leveraged buyouts and syndicated loan transactions in commercial lending. At Vanderbilt, he also serves on the dean's board of advisors.

Andrew Kaufman '74 to head UCLA's Milken Institute of Business Law and Policy was originally published by Vanderbilt Law School on Apr 03, 2012.

The award was presented by Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos. “Suzanna is widely respected as one of the top scholars of constitutional law and the Supreme Court, and she has authored numerous books and more than 70 articles and is one of the most cited members of the Vanderbilt Law School faculty,” he said.

Sherry joined Vanderbilt’s law faculty in 2000 from the University of Minnesota Law School, where she had taught since joining the legal academy in 1982. She holds a J.D. from the University of Chicago, where she graduated cum laude and was admitted to the Order of the Coif, and earned her undergraduate degree at Middlebury College in Vermont, where she was a Davison-Foreman Scholar. She clerked for Judge John C. Godbold on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and practiced at Miller Cassidy Larroca & Lewin before joining the faculty of the University of Minnesota.

Sherry’s most recent book, Judgment Calls: Principle and Politics in Constitutional Law co-authored with Daniel Farber (Oxford University Press, 2009), received a 2010 Scribes Book Award Honorable Mention. Other influential books, also co-authored with Farber, include Desperately Seeking Certainty: The Misguided Quest for Constitutional Foundations (University of Chicago Press, 2002) and Beyond All Reason: The Radical Assault on Truth in American Law (Oxford University Press, 1997). Recent articles include “Democracy’s Distrust: Contested Values and the Decline of Expertise” (Harvard Law Review Forum, 2011), “Foundational Facts and Doctrinal Change” (Illinois Law Review, 2011), “The Four Pillars of Constitutional Doctrine” (Cardozo Law Review, 2011), and “Wrong, Out of Step and Pernicious: Erie as the Worst Decision of All Time" (Pepperdine Law Review, 2011), among others. “Hogs Get Slaughtered at the Supreme Court” is currently forthcoming in the 2012 volume of the Supreme Court Review. Sherry regularly teaches Federal Courts, Civil Procedure, and an advanced seminar in litigation theory. She is the author, with Thomas D. Rowe Jr. and Jay Tidmarsh, of a casebook, Civil Procedure, the third edition of which will be released by Foundation Press in 2012, and of Federal Courts: Cases, Comments and Questions with co-authors Martin Redish and James Pfander (West, 7th edition 2011). She has also taught courses in constitutional law, theory and history.

With co-author Tracey George, Sherry developed the Life of the Law, an introductory course all first-year law students take during Orientation Week, and co-authored the course textbook, What Every Law Student Really Needs to Know: An Introduction to the Study of Law (Aspen, 2009). Sherry was honored with the student-selected Hall-Hartman Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

She is an associate editor of the Journal of Law and Courts and serves on the board of advisors of The Green Bag. She is a member of the American Law Institute and Phi Beta Kappa. She served on the university’s faculty promotion and tenure review committee from 2000-03 and in 2005, chairing that committee from 2002-03 and in 2005. She also served as the chair of the university-wide grievance process from 2007-2010.

“The Branscomb Award recognizes faculty for outstanding scholarship and inspiring teaching that results in learning of the highest order as well as devoted service to students, colleagues, the university and society at large,” Dean Chris Guthrie said. “It recognizes faculty for their total contribution to the institution. Suzanna has made significant contributions to the law school and the university through her tenure here and richly deserves this award.”

The Branscomb award was established in 1963 to honor retiring Chancellor Harvie Branscomb and endowed with funds contributed by members of the faculty. The winner receives a cash award of $2,500 and an inscribed silver plate and is recognized as the Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor for one academic year.

Suzanna Sherry honored as 2012 Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor was originally published by Vanderbilt Law School on Apr 02, 2012.

His many friends and colleagues recalled him as a dedicated jurist who showed compassion to all who entered his courtroom, according to an obituary by Todd South published in the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Bill Carter, Class of 1968, replaced Powers when he was appointed to the bench in 1999. Powers had completed two eight-year terms but then was recalled to part-time status until his full retirement. "He really helped me learn my way as a judge,” Carter told South. "He was a great colleague, friend and mentor."

Powers was appointed to the bench by U.S. District Judge H. Ted Milburn in 1984. Originally from Jackson, Tennessee, he moved to Chattanooga in 1959 and practiced law there until his appointment to the federal bench. After law school, he served in the U.S. Army in counter-intelligence and the JAG Corps, retiring with the rank of colonel. He met his wife, Bobbie, while stationed at Fort Holabird in Baltimore, Maryland, where the Army Intelligence School and the Counter Intelligence Records Facility were located.

Chief U.S. District Judge Curtis Collier, appointed in 1995, related a story of one of Power’s many empathetic actions while serving as a magistrate judge. A woman who had won a civil lawsuit as a plaintiff lived in a remote county in the region. Before she could receive the settlement she was awarded, the woman was required to come to court so that Powers could explain the results of the case to her and sign the paperwork. But the woman, who disliked cities and courtrooms, refused to return to Chattanooga. Powers drove to her remote county, where he had arranged to meet her on the side of a country road near her home at 8 p.m. one evening to explain the judgment and sign the paperwork.

In addition to his wife, Judge Powers is survived by four sons and daughters-in-law and seven grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at noon on Monday, April 9, 2012, at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church on Signal Mountain, with visitation at the church beginning at 10:30 a.m. before the service.

This story includes reporting by Todd South of the Chattanooga Free Press from April 2, 2012.

Judge John Powers ’53 (BA’51) dead at 82 was originally published by Vanderbilt Law School on Apr 02, 2012.

Newbern will serve as one of 17 commissioners appointed by the mayor who work with the Metro agency tasked with investigating complaints regarding perceived discrimination, reviewing allegation of discriminatory misconduct by Metro Government employees, developing education programs designed to eliminate prejudice and promote tolerance, and proposing legislation to address human relations issues.

At Vanderbilt, Newbern teaches the Appellate Litigation Clinic, in which students gain practical legal experience by working on federal appellate cases under her supervision. She is affiliated with the law school’s Social Justice Program, and her research focuses on underrepresented litigants. Newbern is president of the Nashville chapter of the American Constitution Society, and also serves on the Steering Committee for Nashville for All of Us and on the Access to Justice Committee of the Tennessee Bar Association.

“Alistair Newbern is an awarding-winning legal scholar and writer who also advances social justice within our community,” said Caroline Blackwell, executive director of the Metro Human Relations Commission. “She has used her professional expertise to successfully represent victims of consumer fraud, employment discrimination, and civil and immigration rights violations. I’m thankful she has volunteered to contribute her time and talents to the Metro Human Relations Commission.”

Alistair Newbern appointed to Metro Human Relations Commission was originally published by Vanderbilt Law School on Mar 29, 2012.

Johnson joined the staff of Meharry Medical College in 2005. She began her career as an attorney specializing in estate tax with Internal Revenue Service from 1975-79. Her career includes work as a supervisor at Peat Marwick Mitchell and Touche Ross, as a Title III coordinator at Fisk University and later as an adjunct professor in Fisk's business division, as an affiliate broker for Broker South Real Estate, and as an attorney in private practice.

Johnson served under Tennessee Governor Don Sundquist as the state's Commissioner of Revenue from 1995 to 2003. She earned her law degree at Vanderbilt after earning a B.S. with honors from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Johnson is married to Richard Manson, Class of 1975, who is a founding partner in Manson Johnson Stewart & Associates in Nashville.

“No one woman can create the change that is needed. That work must be done by all of us. It takes all of us to change the way that women are viewed and treated in this society,” Johnson said in accepting the award. More than 500 participants attended the gala at Nashville Schermerhorn Symphony Center at which Mayor Karl Dean, Class of 1981, announced Johnson as the 2012 Athena Award recipient.

Ruth Johnson '75 wins 2012 Nashville Athena Award was originally published by Vanderbilt Law School on Mar 28, 2012.

“[The Invisible Line] makes real the fact that, not so long ago, American citizens were forced into hiding their lineage and identity just to live free in this democracy, the perils and sense of loss, no matter which road they chose, and the price being paid even to this day by their descendants, and by extension, all of us," the judges said in a press release issued by Columbia and Harvard universities.

The J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project, established in 1998 in honor of Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist J. Anthony Lukas, is co-administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. The prize recognizes excellence in nonfiction that exemplifies the literary grace and commitment to serious research and social concern that characterized the work of its namesake, J. Anthony Lukas, who died in 1997. Sharfstein will receive the award prize of $10,000 on May 1, 2012, at a ceremony at Harvard University.

In The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White, Sharfstein chronicles the history of three African American families who crossed the color line and assimilated into white communities, starting in the 17th century. The book is a result of Sharfstein's research on the legal history of race in the United States and on dozens of families that, for social, economic, safety and other reasons, chose to change their racial identity and create new lives. He found court and government records, personal letters and other archives that helped paint vivid pictures of these Americans and document their migration across the racial divide.

While previous records of African Americans “passing” as whites have focused on individuals’ struggles to redefine themselves, often by leaving their homes and fabricating new identities, Sharfstein found many who managed to defy the legal definitions of race right within their own communities. What mattered most, he discovered, was not the color of their skin, but how they defined themselves and related to their neighbors. “What this research tells us is that the categories of black and white have never been about blood," Sharfstein said. "There were plenty of people throughout American history who were not just white, but quintessentially white, powerfully white, and had African American ancestors. Then we’re left thinking, ‘What is black and what is white then, if it’s not about blood and biology?’ And what we wind up with is just the fact of separation, hierarchy, and discrimination.”

Sharfstein teaches courses in legal history, race and the law, and property at Vanderbilt Law School. Before joining Vanderbilt’s law faculty in 2007, he was a Samuel I. Golieb Fellow in Legal History at New York University School of Law. For his research on civil rights and the color line in the American South, he was awarded an Alphonse Fletcher Sr. fellowship in 2011 and a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship in 2004-05, and he was the inaugural recipient of the Raoul Berger Visiting Fellowship in Legal History at Harvard Law School in 2005-06.

Daniel Sharfstein wins 2012 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize was originally published by Vanderbilt Law School on Mar 16, 2012.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder exhorts Vanderbilt students to seek liberty and learning was originally published by Vanderbilt Law School on Mar 16, 2012.

Perry joined Bone McAllester, where she focuses on real estate and commercial lending law, in 2006. She had previously practiced with Miller & Martin. She is a member of the Nashville, Tennessee and American Bar Associations, the National Bar Association, the Lawyers' Association for Women and the Christian Legal Society. She is a member of the Nashville Bar Association's Minorities Opportunities Commission and past chair of the Commission's high school summer intern program. She also served as co-chair of LAW's Minority Outreach Committee. She was a member of the 2008 class of the Tennessee Bar Association Leadership Law Program. She is also active in the Napier-Looby Bar Association, in which she has held several executive positions and is immediate past president. 

Perry currently serves as secretary of the Tennessee Alliance for Black Lawyers and as vice president of J.W. Walker III Ministries Inc. She is a board member of CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) and is the co-chair of their Red Shoe Party. She is a past recipient of the Community Service Award from the Nashville Club of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs Inc.

Perry graduated magna cum laude from the University of Memphis before earning her J.D. from Vanderbilt Law School, where she was a co-founder and associate editor of the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment Law and Practice, in which she also published an article, "Changing the Rules: Why the Current Actual Knowledge Sexual Harassment Standard Does Not Make the Cut In Athletics."

Andrea Perry '00 wins Athena Young Professional Leadership Award was originally published by Vanderbilt Law School on Mar 15, 2012.

Each scholarship award includes a summer clerkship at one of the firm's offices. This summer, Tanner will return to the firm's Nashville office and Wright will return to the firm's Birmingham office for second-year clerkships. "We are thrilled to welcome Zeterrika and Wendy back to the firm this summer," said Beau Grenier, firm chairman. "Diversity has been a core value and guiding principal of our firm, and we believe it is important to contribute to the development and success of these deserving students."

A native of Dumas, Arkansas,Tanner earned her undergraduate degree at Princeton University, where she majored in French. At Vanderbilt Law School, she is a member of the Black Law Students Association, the Women Law Students Association, the International Law Society and the International Arbitration Association. In addition to serving as a summer associate at Bradley Arant in 2011, Tanner was an intern with the Church Pension Group in New York, New York.

Wright, who is from Madison, Mississippi, earned her undergraduate degree in sociology summa cum laude at Louisiana State University. In addition to serving as a summer associate with Bradley Arant in 2011, she also served a summer associateship with Balch & Bingham in Jackson, Mississippi. Wright taught sixth and seventh graders at the Allapattah Middle School in Miami, Florida, with Teach For America from 2008-10. At Vanderbilt, she is a Chancellor's Law Scholar and serves on the editorial staff of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law. She is a member of the Black Law Students Association, where she co-chairs the community service committee, and participates in the Street Law program.

Zeterrika Tanner '13 and Wendy Wright '13 awarded Bradley Arant Boult Cummings Diversity Scholarships was originally published by Vanderbilt Law School on Mar 13, 2012.