Branstetter Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program

Vanessa Demaral named 2023 Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow

May. 18, 2023—Demaral will be representing unaccompanied minors facing deportation during her two-year fellowship with Church World Service

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Evan Donaldson ’24 and Mary-Preston Austin ‘23 to compete in National Trial Competition finals

Feb. 15, 2023—Donaldson and Austin defeated Moot Court teams from four law schools to qualify for the national tournament in San Antonio, Texas, which starts March 29.

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Fee matrix developed by Professor Brian Fitzpatrick and Brooke Levy ’22 adopted by Federal Court

Feb. 7, 2023—A D.C. District Court judge has ordered use of the “Fitzpatrick Matrix” to calculate attorneys’ fees, signifying the new tool’s formal acceptance.

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Ellen Ward ’24 and Samantha Paradela ’24 win 2023 Bass Berry & Sims Moot Court Competition

Feb. 6, 2023—The final round was argued before Judge Andre B. Mathis of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Robin S. Rosenbaum of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Eli J. Richardson ’92 of the Middle District of Tennessee. Rachel Wagner and Madison Porth were finalists.

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Three VLS students pursue legal careers focusing on civil rights as Marshall-Motley Scholars

Jan. 24, 2023—Ashley Fox ’24, Adom Abatkun ’25 and Sophia Howard ’25 were selected for the first and second cohorts of a groundbreaking scholarship program created “to endow the South with the next generation of civil rights lawyers.” The program was developed by the Legal Defense Fund and named for former Supreme Court Justice and LDF founder Thurgood Marshall and pioneering civil rights litigator and former LDF attorney Constance Baker Motley.

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Ingrid Wuerth featured in Jan. 18 Lawfare podcast: “Halkbank Hits the Supreme Court”

Jan. 19, 2023—Wuerth is one of two sovereign immunity experts interviewed by Lawfare senior editor Scott R. Anderson in a discussion of U.S. v. Halkbank, a Supreme Court case that addresses criminal charges brought by the U.S. government against a Turkish state-owned bank.

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Brian Fitzpatrick’s study of contingency-fee cases cited in Bloomberg Law coverage of $185 million fee award in Obamacare lawsuit against the federal government

Dec. 7, 2022—The case highlights a long-running dispute in the judiciary over the best way to pay lawyers for winning contingency-fee settlements. Fitzpatrick's study looked at two years' worth of settlements and examined the use of paying lawyers a flat percentage of the total award versus a more complicated approach based on how much the lawyers would have received had they been paid on a billable hour scale.

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Branstetter Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program


New Transnational Litigation Blog Post from Ingrid Brunk: Foreign Data Protection Laws: Greater Impact on U.S. Discovery than Foreign Blocking Statutes

Oct. 25, 2022—Ingrid (Wuerth) Brunk writes that litigants are increasingly using foreign data protection laws-especially new laws in China and the EU-to resist discovery requests from U.S. courts.

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Personal Jurisdiction, Due Process and Originalism: Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., a moot court argument Oct. 28

Oct. 13, 2022—Vanderbilt litigation experts Brian Fitzpatrick, Suzanna Sherry and Ingrid Brunk will preside over this moot-court-style event highlighting Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., a case to be argued before the Supreme Court on Nov. 8, 2022. The event starts at 12:30 p.m. in Flynn Auditorium.

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View Supreme Court Affirmative Action Oral Argument, with introduction by Matthew Shaw, Nov. 1

Oct. 13, 2022—Education policy expert Matthew Shaw will provide an introduction to a recording of the Supreme Court hearing of the oral arguments in SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA v. UNC, both of which are Title VI cases.. Both schools are accused of discriminating against Asians and Aisan-Americans in their admissions policies. The event is sponsored by the Asian Pacific American Student Association and the George Barrett Social Justice Program.

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Judge Claria Horn Boom ’94 confirmed to U.S. Sentencing Commission

Aug. 8, 2022—Judge Boom has served as a swing judge on the Eastern and Western Districts of Kentucky since 2018. She is one of seven new commissioners appointed to the Sentencing Commission.

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Why designating Russia a state sponsor of terrorism is a bad idea: Washington Post Opinion by Ingrid Wuerth

Aug. 1, 2022—Wuerth is a foreign policy expert and holds the Helen Strong Curry Chair in International Law. "The state sponsor of terrorism designation is not a symbolic act to chastise states that behave badly," she writes. "It is a legal trigger embedded in an extremely complex statutory and regulatory framework. The effects of pulling that...trigger are not easy to identify and untangle."

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Brian Fitzpatrick’s book, The Conservative Case for Class Actions, discussed in NYTimes opinion piece by business columnist Peter Coy

Jul. 26, 2022—In Fitzpatrick's 2019 book, The Conservative Case for Class Actions, he argues that limiting plaintiffs' ability to bring class action lawsuits will inevitably result in more government regulation, and that with some reforms, class actions can and should function as a better alternative for disciplining businesses. Coy cites the book and quotes Fitzpatrick in a column discussing Republican support for private lawsuits to implement rights, such as a Texas law promising to pay legal expenses and $10,000 to successful anti-abortion litigants who prevail in private suits against providers and helpers.

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Russia should not be designated a state sponsor of terrorism: Opinion by Ingrid Wuerth

Jul. 20, 2022—Wuerth's column, published in Just Security and in the Transnational Litigation blog, suggests the designation would be largely symbolic and could ultimately harm the interests of the Ukrainian government and the people of Ukraine.

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Jorge A. Rodriguez ’04 nominated to seat on Northern District of New York

Jul. 14, 2022—Rodriguez currently serves as an assistant attorney general for the Northern District of New York.

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Ten Branstetter Summer Fellows to intern in federal Attorney Generals’ offices, state law offices and judicial chambers

Jun. 1, 2022—Fellows receive stipend support to serve internship in government legal offices and judicial chambers. 2022 fellows will be interning in judicial chambers and in federal and state attorneys’ offices in six states.

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Nick Prendergast, Class of 2022

May. 12, 2022—Incoming associate, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Washington, D.C.

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Jeffrey Usman ’03 appointed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, Middle Division

May. 4, 2022—Usman is an associate professor of law at Belmont University College of Law, where he has taught for 10 years. He was a senior law clerk on the Tennessee Supreme Court and an assistant attorney general in the Tennessee Attorney General's Office before joining the Belmont Law faculty.

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Alumni Branstetter Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program


Ingrid Wuerth cited in Lawfare discussion of legislative proposals to allow the seizure of frozen Russian assets

Apr. 28, 2022—Wuerth's March 7 Lawfare blog post, "Does Foreign Immunity Apply to Sanctions on Central Banks?", and her Fordham Law Review article, "The Due Process and Other Constitutional Rights of Foreign Nations," are both cited extensively in UVA Law Professor Paul Stephan's April 26 Lawfare blog post, "Giving Russian Assets to Ukraine—Freezing Is Not Seizing."

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“Implicit Bias, Structural Bias and Implications for Law and Policy,” April 21 lecture by California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu

Apr. 20, 2022—The Dean’s Lecture Series on Race and Discrimination for spring 2022 will conclude with Justice Liu's lecture in Flynn Auditorium from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, April 21. The public is invited to attend the lecture via Zoom.

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