General News

William A. Fenwick ’67, founding partner of Fenwick, dead at 83

Oct. 8, 2021—Fenwick left a Wall Street firm in 1972 to start Fenwick & West, a Silicon Valley law firm focusing on the technology sector, and later helped incorporate Apple Computer. The son of a sharecropper in western Kentucky, he was the first in his family to attend college and go to law school.

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VLS announces $10M gift from private-equity entrepreneur Justin Ishbia ’04

Oct. 6, 2021—Justin Ishbia ’04 has donated $10 million to Vanderbilt Law School to support its key strategic priorities and strengthen its position as one of the nation’s premier institutions for legal scholarship. Ishbia is founder and managing partner of Shore Capital Partners, a private equity firm with offices in Chicago and Nashville. He is a member of the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust and the law school's Board of Advisors and endowed the law school's Justin R. Ishbia Scholarship in 2015.

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Housing Law Clinic director Jennifer Prusak addresses importance of legal representation for renters facing eviction

Sep. 29, 2021—In a column published online at The Conversation, Prusak explains why providing more tenants facing evication with access to a lawyer could be the key to keeping more people in their homes. Prusak is an associate clinical professor of law. She launched Vanderbilt's Housing Law Clinic in spring 2021.

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Justice Cornelia Clark ’79 (BA’71) dead at 71

Sep. 24, 2021—Justice Clark became the second woman in the state’s history to serve as chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court in 2010. She spent much of her legal career in public service, including 11 years as a circuit court judge and 16 years on the Tennessee Supreme Court.

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Dean Chris Guthrie joins with deans of more than 40 U.S. law schools in support of AG Garland’s call to the legal community

Sep. 1, 2021—Law deans express a commitment to ensuring that families and individuals facing eviction have access to legal representation, counseling and assistance.

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JD/PhD in Law and Economics student Scott Jeffrey ’23 wins second place in the Louis Jackson Memorial student writing competition

Aug. 30, 2021—The competition recognizes the best legal writing in the field of labor and employment law among current law students. Jeffrey’s paper, “The Occupational Illness of COVID-19: New Presumptions in Workers’ Compensation,” placed second in the longstanding competition, which is administered by the Institute for Law and the Workplace at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law.

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Securities law expert James H. Cheek III ’67, retired partner of Bass Berry & Sims, dead at 78

Aug. 30, 2021—Cheek was a nationally renowned expert in securities law and corporate governance who taught at Vanderbilt Law throughout his legal career and a dedicated public servant.

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Ramon Ryan ’21 named to 2021 Law Program of the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics

Aug. 24, 2021—Ryan is one of 16 FASPE Ethics Fellows chosen for the program, which examines the conduct of lawyers in Nazi-occupied Europe as a way to reflect on legal ethics today.

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Linda Breggin elected Fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers

Aug. 11, 2021—Breggin is a senior attorney and director of the Center for State, Tribal and Local Environmental Programs and teaches at Vanderbilt as a lecturer in law. Fellows are selected for substantial contributions to the field of environmental law.

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Youth Opportunity Clinic partners with Youth Law Center to promote pandemic relief program for former foster youth

Aug. 5, 2021—Youth ages 18 to 26 who were in foster care after age 14 are eligible for pandemic relief funds. Vanderbilt’s Youth Opportunity Clinic and the Youth Law Center are sharing information with other lawyers and service providers. The Clinic can help young adults who have aged out of foster care apply for up to $1,200 before the extended application deadline of September 15, 2021.

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Chris Slobogin’s new book suggests using algorithms may reduce prison sentences and increase use of evidence-based rehabilitative programs

Jul. 28, 2021—In "Just Algorithms: Using Science to Reduce Incarceration and Inform a Jurisprudence of Risk," released by Cambridge University Press, Slobogin supports his thesis that using risk-prediction algorithms to make sentencing decisions could help reduce unnecessary pre-trial detention, mitigate excessively punitive bail and prison sentences, and divert more eligible candidates to appropriate rehabilitative programs.

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Kate Uyeda ’22 receives Garrison Social Justice Scholarship

Jul. 22, 2021—Uyeda is working this summer at the Fair Elections Center, a nonprofit advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., with support from the scholarship, which provides summer stipends to help Garrison Social Justice Scholars launch their careers by engaging in summer pro bono legal work.

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Tasia Harris ’23 receives Garrison Social Justice Scholarship

Jul. 16, 2021—With support from the scholarship, Harris worked this summer as a consumer law intern for the Legal Aid Society for the District of Columbia supporting low-income clients whose income was negatively affected by the pandemic. Garrison Scholars receive supplemental scholarships and summer stipends to help them launch public interest law careers.

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Research by Erin Meyers JD/PhD’21 shows arrests have high economic costs even when no conviction results

Jul. 12, 2021—Meyers found that more than half of Black men had been arrested by the time they were young adults but that Black men were much less likely to be convicted than white men. Her dissertation, The Criminal Justice System and Social Mobility in the United States, documents the negative impacts of over-arrest on the employment and educational opportunities of Black men.

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Kyle Brinker ’22 wins Tennessee Bar Association Administrative Law writing competition

Jul. 12, 2021—In his paper, “A Gundy Revival in the Age of Public Health Crises,” Brinker argues for a more lenient interpretation of the nondelegation doctrine during public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Robert Mikos appointed to the LaRoche Family Chair in Law

Jul. 7, 2021—Mikos is a leading expert on federalism and drug law. His work analyzes the struggle among federal, state and local governments for control of marijuana law and policy.

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Terry Maroney named to the Robert S. and Theresa L. Reder Chair in Law

Jul. 7, 2021—Maroney investigates the intersection of law and emotion and is a scholar of criminal law. Her research has focused on the role of emotion in judicial behavior and decision-making.

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Ganesh Sitaraman named to the New York Alumni Chancellor’s Chair in Law

Jul. 7, 2021—Sitaraman teaches and writes about constitutional law, the regulatory state, economic policy, democracy and foreign affairs. He directs the Law School's Program in Law and Government.

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Research librarian Clanitra Nejdl honored by American Association of Law Libraries

Jul. 1, 2021—Nejdl is head of professional development and research services at the Alyne Queener Massey Law Library. She received the two 2021 awards from the AALL: the Emerging Leader Award, which recognizes professional contributions and leadership potential, and the Spectrum Article of the Year Award, which honors outstanding writing focused on law librarianship and scholarly legal research.

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Lisa Schultz Bressman named Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

Jun. 30, 2021—Bressman holds a David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law. A renowned scholar of administrative law and statutory interpretation, she previously served as associate dean for academic affairs from 2010 to 2016.

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W. Kip Viscusi featured on “The Economists” podcast from Australian Broadcasting Corp. addressing “Lockdowns and the Path Forward”

Jun. 25, 2021—Viscusi is the University Distinguished Professor of Law, Economics and Management and co-director of the Ph.D. Program in Law and Economics. He discusses how to measure the costs and benefits of lockdowns and how the statistical value of a human life underpins government decision-making in a podcast hosted by Peter Martin and Gigi Foster. Viscusi's segment starts at 20:10.

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“Sorting Guilty Minds,” article co-authored by Owen Jones, cited in SCOTUS dissent

Jun. 19, 2021—The article, published in the NYU Law Review, was cited in a dissenting opinion written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh in Borden v. United States, which addressed the question of whether a criminal offense with a mens rea of recklessness qualifies as a "violent felony" under the Armed Career Criminal Act.

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Celebrating Juneteenth, a message from Diversity, Equity and Community Dean Yesha Yadav

Jun. 18, 2021—As we gather to celebrate Juneteenth with our friends and families, we are humbled by the sacredness of this day and its profound significance for the history of our country. With the despicable inhumanity and evil of slavery ending, Black Americans began the slow and painful journey towards the fullest and most equal attainment of...

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Sara Mayeux wins 2020 David J. Langum Sr. Prize in American Legal History for her book, Free Justice

Jun. 17, 2021—The prize is awarded annually by the Langum Foundation to “the best book in American legal history that is accessible to the educated general public." Mayeux’s book chronicles the history of public defenders in 20th-century America.

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97 VLS students to work pro bono for judges, government agencies and law offices, and nonprofits in summer 2021

Jun. 16, 2021—Students will be working for course credit or stipend support in state and federal courts and government, nonprofit and corporate law offices in 20 states, Puerto Rico,, Washington, D.C., and Canada.

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