Five VLS professors – Michael Bressman, Sara Mayeux, Francesca Procaccini, Daniel Sharfstein and Kevin Stack, as well as adjunct professor Alexis Hoag-Fordjour – were honored with Hall-Hartman Awards for Outstanding Teaching from the Vanderbilt Bar Association.
Hall-Hartman Awards are based on a student poll administered by the VBA. The annual awards, which recognize excellent teaching of both first-year and upper-level classes, are given to one professor in each of Vanderbilt’s three first-year sections and to two professors who taught upper-level courses, with separate categories for large classes with 30 students or more and classes with fewer than 30 students.
These awards are a longstanding Vanderbilt tradition recognizing faculty whose teaching is deemed outstanding in each first-year student section and for large and small upper-level elective courses. The awards are named in honor of former professors Donald J. Hall and Paul Hartman, both of whom spent their academic careers at Vanderbilt and were revered for their teaching.
“We have many outstanding teachers on our law faculty, which makes these awards particularly coveted,” Dean Chris Guthrie said. “Professors cherish this recognition because it comes directly from the students they’ve taught this year.”
Daniel J. Sharfstein, who holds the Dick and Martha Lansden Chair in Law and co-directs the George Barrett Social Justice Program, was recognized for first-year teaching by Section A. He teaches Property. Professor Sharfstein has previously received Hall-Hartman Awards for both first-year and upper-level teaching. He also teaches American Legal History, Federal Indian Law, and a seminar on the Legal History of Race in the United States.
Michael Bressman, professor of the practice of law, was recognized for first-year teaching by Section B. He teaches Contracts. Professor Bressman also teaches the Intellectual Property and the Arts Clinic and directs the Law School’s clerkship program.
Francesca Procaccini, assistant professor of law, was honored for first-year teaching by Section C. She teaches Civil Procedure and upper-level courses on First Amendment law and Constitutional Law. Professor Procaccini joined the Vanderbilt Law faculty in fall 2022. She had previously taught as a Climenko Fellow at Harvard Law.
Sara Mayeux, associate professor of law and associate professor of history, was honored for her upper-level class, First Amendment Constitutional Law. She also teaches Constitutional Law II: Individual Rights, American Legal History, and Law and History.
Kevin Stack, who holds the Lee S. and Charles A. Speir Chair in Law, was recognized for his upper-level Administrative Law class. He also teaches Regulatory State for first-year students and Election Law. Professor Stack has previously received Hall-Hartman Awards for both first-year and upper-level teaching.
Alexis Hoag-Fordjour was honored for outstanding teaching as an adjunct professor of law for her short course, Abolition: Imaging a Decarceral Future. She is an assistant professor of law and co-director of the Center for Criminal Justice at Brooklyn Law School.
