News

Sara Mayeux wins 2017 Cromwell Article Prize for best legal history article

Oct. 31, 2017—Professor Mayeux’s article, “What Gideon Did,” shows that Gideon v. Wainwright shifted indigent defense policy from a charity model toward a public model.

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Darby Dickerson ’88 wins 2018 AALS section award for lifetime contributions to legal research writing

Oct. 30, 2017—Dickerson is Dean of The John Marshall Law School in Chicago. She will receive the award Jan. 4 at the AALS Annual Meeting in San Diego.

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Daniel Gervais inducted as president of the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property

Oct. 27, 2017—Professor Gervais will serve a two-year term as president of ATRIP and preside over its 2018 and 2019 world congresses in Helsinki, Finland, and Nashville.

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Laura Dolbow ’17 wins ABA Section of Administrative Law’s Gellhorn-Sargentich Essay Competition

Oct. 18, 2017—Dolbow’s paper addresses the Senate Appropriations Committee’s oversight over guidance documents.

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Ganesh Sitaraman Looks at What Two Recent Books Can Teach Us about Defending Democracy

Oct. 16, 2017—Read "How the Oligarchy Wins: Lessons from Ancient Greece," Sitaraman's Oct. 15 column in The Guardian.

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Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, Kurdistan Regional Government Representative, discusses Kurdish independence referendum

Sep. 28, 2017—93 percent of Iraqi Kurds voted in favor of establishing an independent Kurdistan.

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Climate Change Research Network blog post addresses private-sector response to climate change

Sep. 26, 2017—The TIPS-funded research team of Alexander Maki, Michael Vandenbergh, Jonathan Gilligan and Mark Cohen is exploring private-sector programs offering "employee energy benefits."

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Class action expert Brian Fitzpatrick on the pros and cons joining an Equifax lawsuit

Sep. 22, 2017—Fitzpatrick recommends that people "stay in class actions. It is very hard to sue on your own."

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Jim Blumstein on “How to End Obamacare” in Wall Street Journal commentary

Sep. 19, 2017—Blumstein proposes that Republicans "pass a two-page bill clarifying that Congress did not intend to use its taxing power to enforce the individual mandate."

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Don Cochran ’92 (BA’80) confirmed as U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee

Sep. 18, 2017—Cochran currently serves on the law faculty at Belmont University.

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“Our Constitution Wasn’t Built for This,” Ganesh Sitaraman’s NYTimes Opinion column

Sep. 18, 2017—Professor Sitaraman's column focuses on the theme of his new book, “The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution: Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic.” It appeared in the Sept. 16 Sunday Review section of the New York Times.

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18 members of the Class of 2017 selected for Order of the Coif

Sep. 15, 2017—Amanda Rose, professor of law, who is president of the Vanderbilt Law School Chapter of Order of the Coif, has announced that 18 graduates of the Class of 2017 have been selected for membership in the Order of the Coif. Members of this prestigious organization are selected by faculty approval and represent the top 10...

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Matt Leggett ’07 named chief counsel of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works

Sep. 13, 2017—Leggett had previously served as policy counsel for the Senate Republican Policy Committee since 2012.

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Read legal historian Zephyr Teachout’s review of Ganesh Sitaraman’s book, “The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution”

Aug. 28, 2017—Teachout's review, published in the Summer 2017 issue of The American Prospect, says that Sitaraman brings a "fresh eye and impressive range of historical thinking to an ageless question: What are the conditions for freedom?"

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Bob Reder ’78 among first to respond to Chancellor’s Chair Challenge

Aug. 25, 2017—Reder and his wife, Theresa, have established the Enterprise Chair at VLS through a significant gift. Retired from a 33-year legal career with Milbank Tweed in New York, Reder is now a professor of the practice of law at Vanderbilt.

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Joycelyn Stevenson ’01 featured as “Attorney of the Month” in Attorney at Law Magazine

Aug. 24, 2017—Stevenson was recently named executive director of the Tennessee Bar Association.

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Nat Robinson ’18 (MBA’07) and team of MBA students seek to provide secure mobile banking for refugees

Aug. 23, 2017—Robinson's team of Turner Family Center for Social Ventures summer fellows won $15,000 at the 36/86 Student Edition Pitch Competition with their idea for a mobile banking service and researched countries where they will launch the new service. Their work will continue during this academic year.

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$2 million investment establishes Turner Family Community Enterprise Clinic at VLS

Aug. 22, 2017—The clinic will offer students hands-on opportunities to assist individuals who would otherwise not be able to afford legal assistance with matters such as applying for tax-exempt status and drafting lease agreements.

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Entering Students Learn about Professional Obligation to Provide Pro Bono Legal Services

Aug. 21, 2017—New orientation program introduces students to pro bono service opportunities in a diverse array of practice areas.

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Tim Meyer discusses constitutional obstacles to withdrawing from NAFTA

Aug. 16, 2017—"Even if the United States leaves NAFTA, the president will still be bound to implement the agreement's rules on the terms dictated by Congress until Congress says otherwise," Meyer notes in a post on The Conversation.

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Three VLS alumni are 2017-18 presidents of the Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee Bar Associations

Aug. 16, 2017—Augusta Dowd ’82, Brian D. (Buck) Rogers ’94 and Lucian Pera ‘85 are serving one-year terms as presidents of the Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee state bar associations, and Joycelyn Stevenson ‘01 was named executive director of the TBA.

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Robert Mikos urges congress to “repeal and replace” federal ban on marijuana

Aug. 7, 2017—In a commentary published in Fortune, Mikos discusses the Marijuana Justice Act proposed by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ).

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Holly Thompson ’19 selected for inaugural class of Douglass Fellows by Human Trafficking Institute

Aug. 7, 2017—Thompson will work throughout the academic year to support HTI’s justice and advocacy efforts.

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Brian Fitzpatrick supports downsizing 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Law360 editorial

Aug. 1, 2017—"There is a nonpartisan, good government reason for" splitting the 9th Circuit, Fitzpatrick writes: "Smaller circuits minimize outlier decisions in both directions."

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50 VLS graduates will serve 53 clerkships in 2017-18 or future terms

Jul. 28, 2017—VLS students and graduates will serve federal clerkships with a Supreme Court justice; appellate judges on the Third, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Eleventh, D.C. and Federal Circuits; a special master of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims; and district courts in 17 states and D.C.; and two state supreme courts.

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