Faculty Forum (Blaze and Baxter)

Faculty Forum, June 2016

Faculty Forum is a monthly feature highlighting the achievements of faculty at UT Law including publications in academia and the media, speaking engagements, interviews, awards, and other accomplishments. 


Annual Meeting for the Law and Society Association

Professors Joan Heminway, Lucy Jewel, Karla McKanders, and Val Vojdik all gave presentations at the Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association, held earlier this month in New Orleans.

  • Jewel spoke on “The Tragic Vulnerability of the Rogue Lawyer” as part of a panel on “Media Renderings of Identities and Institutions: Lawyers, Gender, and Courts.”
  • Heminway spoke on “Pillow Talk, The Parent Trap, Sibling Rivalries, Kissing Cousins, and Other Personal Relationships in U.S. Insider Trading Cases” as part of a panel on “Financial Market Regulation” that she chaired.
  • McKanders chaired an International Research Collaborative on “Gender and Human Rights in the MENA Region.”
  • Vojdik participated in a panel on “Gender, War, and Peacebuilding” that she chaired and also co-chaired an International Research Collaborative on “Gender Inequalities and Enforcement of Human Rights in the MENA Region.”

Symposium on Professional Leadership Education

Several College of Law faculty members participated in the recent symposium on “Leading the Future: 2016 Symposium on Professional Leadership Education,” held in the building on April 1, 2016. The symposium was organized by Professor Doug Blaze, who serves as director of the Institute for Professional Leadership, and Brad Morgan, who serves as associate director. Dean Melanie Wilson and Blaze welcomed the attendees. Alumnus and Practitioner-in-Residence George T. “Buck” Lewis (’80) presented on “Leadership Education Today: Lessons Learned.” Morgan and Professor Paula Schaefer spoke on “Future Directions for Legal Leadership Education.” Blaze’s introduction to the symposium will appear in Tennessee Law Review, as will Blaze’s and Lewis’s jointly authored article entitled, “Training Leaders the Best Way We Can.”

Wendy Bach

Professor Wendy Bach and Knox County Public Defender and alumnus Mark Stephens (’79) were both interviewed by WBIR-TV for a segment entitled, “Stop the Violence: Panel Discusses Juvenile Justice System.” The segment aired on May 23.

Ben Barton and Joy Radice

Professors Ben Barton and Joy Radice, along with Tennessee Chief Justice Sharon Lee, all spoke recently at a conference at New York University School of Law that Radice co-organized. The conference was entitled “Beyond Elite Law: Access to Civil Justice in America,” and it celebrated a new book by the same name that was published recently by Cambridge University Press and co-edited by Radice and NYU Professor Samuel Estreicher.

  • Barton participated in the panel on “Small Firm and Solo Practice” (video).
  • Radice welcomed the participants, moderated several panels, and participated in the panel on “Enhancing the Potential of Law School Clinics and Internships” (video).
  • Justice Lee and three Supreme Court Justices from other states participated in a panel entitled “What Can Courts Do?” (video).

Doug Blaze

Professor and Dean Emeritus Doug Blaze was selected as the recipient of one of this year’s Harold Love Outstanding Community Involvement Awards. This award, presented by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, recognizes community service by higher education students, faculty, and staff in Tennessee. Criteria for receiving the Love Award include demonstrated public service and effectiveness. Blaze, the Art Stolnitz and Elvin E. Overton Distinguished Professor of Law, serves as the director of UT Law’s Institute for Professional Leadership, which he helped found in 2014. He also served as dean of the College of Law from 2008 to 2015.

Blaze has also been invited to serve as a member of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Evolving Legal Markets Committee. This special, multi-year committee is charged with examining the changing nature of the legal profession and the forces that are driving those changes – including technology and changing delivery systems – and making recommendations to TBA regarding possible bar association responses and programming.

Additionally, Blaze has been appointed to the Membership Review Committee of the Association of American Law Schools. Blaze has also been appointed to the Data Policy and Collection Committee that advises the Accreditation Committee of the American Bar Association.

Doug Blaze and Brad Morgan

Professor Doug Blaze and Pro Bono Coordinator Brad Morgan traveled to Cherokee, NC, in May to meet with leaders of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Nation (EBCI). Their visit was in connection with the College of Law’s ongoing relationship with the EBCI, whose members are developing their own unique civil and criminal justice system, addressing issues such as social services, laws, and infrastructure. UT Law has provided assistance through the Leadership Practicum, the Alternative Spring Break Program, and UT Pro Bono. Blaze and Morgan explored continuing and potentially expanding the relationship between the EBCI and the College of Law.

Additionally, Blaze, who serves as director of the Institute for Professional Leadership, and Morgan, who serves as the Institute’s associate director, presented a leadership development program for the lawyers and staff of Legal Aid of East Tennessee in April at the Alex Haley Farm. Their program was entitled “Leading By Helping Others.”

Amy Morris Hess

Professor Amy Morris Hess moderated a panel discussion entitled “Nationwide Marriage Equality (Almost) One Year after Obergefell,” at the ABA Real Property, Trust & Estate Spring Symposia in Boston, MA, in May. The program dealt with family estate planning and real estate title issues that have arisen in light of the Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage.

Additionally, Hess was selected to become a fellow of the American Bar Foundation in March.

Brian Krumm

Professor Brian Krumm gave a presentation entitled, “Clinical Methodologies to Expose Chinese Law Students to the Principles and Process of American Transactional Law.” Krumm’s talk was part of the 15th Annual Transactional Clinical Conference held at the University of Baltimore School of law on April 29, 2016. Krumm also gave a presentation at this conference entitled, “Using the Other ‘Case Method’ for Teaching Transactional Skills: Extended Case Base Simulations.”

Additionally, Krumm was a presenter at the 39th Association of American Law Schools Conference on Clinical Education, on “Clinics and Communities: Exploring Community Engagement Through Clinical Education,” held in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 3, 2016. His talk was entitled, “Transactional Clinic Impact on the Community Ecosystem.”

Krumm was also a presenter on the topic, “Using the Other ‘Case Method’ for Teaching Transactional Skills,” at the 5th Biennial Transactional Conference. This conference, on “Method in the Madness: The Art and Science of Teaching Transactional Law and Skills,” was held at the Emory Law Center for Transactional Law and Practice on June 10-11, 2016.

Joy Radice

Professor Joy Radice gave a presentation at a recent works-in-progress session in which she discussed her upcoming article on “Problematizing Expungement.” Radice’s presentation took place at the AALS Clinical Conference held in Baltimore on May 3.

Additoinally, Radice attended the ABA Council Meeting as a representative of the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA). Radice, who serves on the CLEA board, presented a report to the Council on CLEA’s activities. The meeting took place in Louisville, KY, on June 3.

Glenn Reynolds

Professor Glenn Reynolds’ article, “When Leaders Cheat, Followers … Follow,” was published recently in the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

Dean Rivkin

A Vanderbilt Law Review special project co-authored by Professor Dean Rivkin was cited in a recent case, United States v. Nesbeth, decided by the Eastern District of New York on May 24. In the case, federal judge Frederic Block sentenced a woman convicted of drug crimes to probation rather than prison because the collateral consequences of her conviction, in his opinion, constituted sufficient punishment. The special project, “The Collateral Consequences of a Criminal Conviction,” was co-authored by Rivkin in 1970, when he was a law student at Vanderbilt. The book-length publication includes a pre-computer state-by-state survey of the laws imposing civil disabilities on convicted persons.

Paula Schaefer

Professor Paula Schaefer will give a presentation at the International Legal Ethics Conference, as part of a panel entitled, “Technology, Ethics & Legal Education.” The conference will take place at Fordham Law School in New York on July 14-16, 2016.

Additionally, Schaefer twice presented a CLE program entitled, “2016 Attorney Ethics Update,” first at the Environmental Show of the South Annual Conference in Gatlinburg on April 21, 2016 and second at the Office of the Tennessee Attorney General in Nashville on May 20, 2016.

Greg Stein

Associate Dean Greg Stein’s article, “Do Progressive Property Scholars Really Want to Limit Nollan and Dolan to Administrative Exactions?,” has been published in Jotwell–Property.

Additionally, Stein gave a presentation at the Seventh Annual Meeting of the Association for Law, Property and Society, held in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in May. Stein’s presentation was entitled, “The Expiration of Chinese Land Use Rights.”

Maurice Stucke

Professor Maurice Stucke was quoted in an article, “Merger Crackdown Part of ‘Mixed’ Obama Antitrust Record,” published in BloombergBNA. The article discusses levels of antitrust enforcement under different administrations.

Additionally on June 15 Stucke was quoted in a story, “Justice Department’s Win in Blocking a Newspaper Deal Raises Questions,” which appeared in FTC: Watch.

Kris Tobin and Brad Morgan

Professor Kris Tobin and UT Pro Bono Coordinator Brad Morgan will give a presentation at the upcoming CALI conference entitled, “Combining Legal Research Pedagogy, Pro Bono and Experiential Learning in the First Year Curriculum at the University of Tennessee.” The conference takes place June 16–18 at Georgia State University College of Law in Atlanta. Their panel was selected in part by a “community voting” process, with attendees voting on which panel proposals are selected for the agenda; their proposal was the second highest vote-getter of all submissions. For more about Tobin and Morgan’s work in this area, read “Connecting the Dots.”

Val Vojdik

Professor Val Vojdik has been invited to give a presentation on current developments in LGBT law at a CLE program sponsored by the Tennessee Bar Association’s LGBT Section. The program will take place on Sept. 22 in Nashville.

Melanie Wilson

Dean Melanie Wilson will give a presentation as part of this year’s conference on “Promoting Diversity in Law School Leadership.” The conference, which will be held on August 12–13 in Seattle, is hosted by the University of Washington School of Law and co-sponsored by Seattle University School of Law and the Society of American Law Teachers.