Law & Innovation Faculty

J.B. Ruhl , Director
David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair of Law
Co-director, Energy, Environment and Land Use Program

J. B. Ruhl is an expert in environmental, natural resources and property law. His influential scholarly articles relating to climate change, the Endangered Species Act, ecosystems, governance, and other environmental and natural resources law issues have been selected by peers as among the best law review articles in the field of environmental law eight times from 1989 to 2013. Before entering the academy, he was a partner with Fulbright & Jaworski in Austin, Texas, where he also taught on the adjunct faculty of the University of Texas Law School.

Larry Bridgesmith, Coordinator
Adjunct Professor of Law
Senior Fellow and Associate Professor
Inaugural Executive Director, Institute for Conflict Management, Lipscomb University

Larry Bridgesmith brings more than 30 years of experience in dispute resolution and innovative workplace strategies to clients, students and business entities. Bridgesmith integrates the practical, legal and academic "best practices" in dispute resolution strategies in service to his client relationships. He practices employment law as Of Counsel with Bone McAllester Norton. In 2010, he co-founded ERM Legal Solutions which provides technology tools to assist lawyers in adopting legal project management (LPM) methodologies in their practices.

Caitlin Moon, Director of Innovation Design
Director, PoLI Institute
Adjunct Professor of Law
Founder and Legal Counsel, Ledger Law

Caitlin "Cat" Moon works with law firms, legal departments, and law schools across the U.S. to bring a human-centered design perspective to firms and legal services companies as they re-imagine the delivery of legal services and education. In her role as Director of Innovation Design, she works with Vanderbilt colleagues to design the curriculum for both the JD program and the PoLI Institute, which provides interactive training in legal innovation to practicing lawyers and legal professionals. Professor Moon co-founded the Summit on Law and Innovation, an outreach effort of the Program on Law and Innovation.

PoLI Fellows

Reem Blaik

Reem Blaik is a research fellow for the Program on Law and Innovation. As a fellow to this program, Reem conducts research on the changes in the private sector legal services industry. She also assists in developing and planning an artificial intelligence design workshop in the spring.

Reem graduated with a B.A., magna cum laude, in Sociology/Law & Society from the University of California, Riverside. Prior to attending law school, she worked as a Policy Analyst for a federally designated project. She is currently the Executive Editor of the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law. Her latest work, Prescriptions at a Price: America’s Opioid Crisis and the Increasing Toll on Drug Record Privacy, 21 Vand. J. Ent. & Tech. L. (forthcoming Fall 2018), analyzes constitutional protections in the digital age.

Jimmy Maners

Jimmy Maners is a research fellow for the Program on Law and Innovation. As a fellow, Jimmy’s research is focused around the ever-changing landscape of the legal profession and how those changes affect the skills, tools, and knowledge required by future legal practitioners. He is also involved with research concerning what is being done to help empower individuals with legal information and enabling self-help among those who most need help from the legal system.

Jimmy graduated with a B.A., summa cum laude, in Philosophy and a B.A., magna cum laude, in History from Clemson University. He also earned his M.B.A from the College of Charleston. Prior to law school, Jimmy worked as a high school history teacher, a community college administrator, and as a medical sales representative. Jimmy is married to his wife of five years, Elizabeth Montgomery. They are both proud parents of their new-born daughter, Connelly.

Affiliated Faculty

Michael Bressman , teaches Intellectual Property and the Arts Clinic and directs the law school's clerkship program.	Daniel Gervais , who directs Vanderbilt's Intellectual Property Program is an expert in intellectual property and is the author of an influential book on the TRIPS Agreement.
Chris Guthrie is a leading expert on behavioral law and economics, dispute resolution, negotiation and judicial decision making.	Nancy Lea Hyer’s work in academic and business communities focuses on cellular operations, quality and process improvement, and project management.
Terry Maroney 's work focuses on juvenile justice, the relevance of adolescence brain science, and law and emotion.	Sean Seymore 's research focuses on how patent law should evolve in respponse to scientific advances and the ways in which technological change influences public policy.
Mark Williams is the Head of Digital Initiatives in the Alyne Queener Massey Law Library.	Yesha Yadav 's research interests lie in the area of financial and securities regulation with respect to the evolving response of regulatory policy to innovations in financial engineering, market microstructure and globalization.