Faculty Forum is a monthly feature written by Teri Baxter highlighting the achievements of faculty at UT Law including publications in academia and the media, speaking engagements, interviews, awards, and other accomplishments.
Professor Ben Barton was quoted in several media outlets in relation to hearings on President Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill the vacancy on the United States Supreme Court left by Justice Kennedy’s retirement. In The Washington Post article “Partisan politics and Kavanaugh’s defiant words put Supreme Court in unwelcome spotlight,” Professor Barton observed that the “partisan warfare” over the nomination will leave the public with the impression that the Supreme Court is more a political body than a judicial one,” which will be a disaster for the Court. In The Boston Globe article, “Brett Kavanaugh’s defiance brings echoes of Trump-style combat,” Professor Barton noted that “[t]he base that Trump appeals to, and that Kavanaugh was trying to appeal to, really, really want their people to fight. They want to see an aggressive performance.” Finally, Professor Barton was quoted in The Guardian article, “Kavanaugh’s angry testimony raises doubts over future impartiality.” “’The entire process struck me as unusually strident,’ said Barton, who was also critical of some Democrats for using the hearing as an opportunity ‘to fire up their base’ rather than assessing Kavanaugh’s fitness for office.”
Professor Doug Blaze presented to the Teachers’ Law School on Tuesday, on Sept. 25 at the United States District Court in Greeneville. The program is jointly sponsored by the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and the Federal Bar Association. The title of the presentation was “Teaching the 4thand 5thAmendments: Dogs, Cell Phones, and Miranda.”
Professor Blaze serves on the Board of Trustees for Law School Admissions Council, and he was recently appointed to their Investment Committee.
Open Global Rights published an opinion piece by Professor Robert Blitt that discusses the recent the caning of a lesbian couple in Malaysia. It focuses on how the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is spearheading international opposition to LGBTQ human rights and how this unanswered challenge is being used to validate punishments like the one meted out in Malaysia (an OIC member state). The article has also been translated into Arabic.
Professor Michelle Cosby’s article, Strategic Planning: Using SWAT or SOAR Analysis to Improve your Organization, was published in the November/December 2018 issue AALL Spectrum.
In September, Professor Joan Heminway participated in a campus Public Forum on Free Speech vs. Civil Discourse sponsored by the Tennessee Speech and Debate Society. She also presented her paper entitled “Lawyering for Social Enterprise” at Connecting the Threads, the Second Annual Business Law Prof Blog symposium, and moderated a panel on “The Coming Second Wave of Digital and other Electronic Signatures in Commerce” as part of a symposium the following week on Law and Business Tech: Cybersecurity, Blockchain and Electronic Transactions. Both symposia were sponsored by Transactions: The Tennessee Journal of Business Law.
In October, Professor Heminway presented her essay titled Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride: Business Deregulation in the Trump Eraat a symposium on Corporate Law in the Trump Erahosted by the Mercer Law Review. The essay will be published in a forthcoming edition of the law review.
Professor Heminway also was the keynote speaker at the 64th annual conference of the Southeastern Academy of Legal Studies in Business in Chattanooga. The topic of her talk was “Valuing and Visioning Collaboration.” It focused on inspiring increased and increasing joint efforts between law faculty teaching and writing in business school settings and those doing the same in law schools.
Professor Becky Jacobs’ response to a petition filed by the Alternative Dispute Resolution Commission to change Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 31, the ADR rule, was mentioned in the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Order ruling on the proposed change. The court adopted, in part, one of the changes that impacted UT students.
In October, Professor Brian Krumm presented his article entitled Regulatory Policy in the Trump Era and its Impact on Innovation at a symposium on Corporate Law in the Trump Era hosted by the Mercer Law Review. The article will be published in a forthcoming edition of the law review.
Professor Michelle Kwon’s article, Custom-Tailored Law: When Statutory Interpretation Meets the Internal Revenue Code will be published in volume 97 of the Nebraska Law Review (forthcoming 2019).
Professor Don Leatherman spoke on a panel at a meeting of the ABA tax section discussing how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act implicated the federal income tax treatment of consolidated groups.
Professor Leatherman has been elected as a fellow to the American College of Tax Counsel.
Professor Glenn Reynolds has signed a contract with Encounter Books to produce a short book tentatively titled: Social Media as Disease Vector. Publication will be in 2019.
Professor Dean Rivkin participated on two panels at the Critical Issues in the Development of Clinical Education Conference. The conference celebrated the legacy of Elliott Milstein and was hosted by the American University, Washington College of Law. The first panel was titled “Gaining Legitimacy within the Legal Academy: The Strategic Project of Clinical Education,” and the second panel was titled “Making Social Justice Integral to Clinical Education and Legal Education.”
Professor Paula Schaefer was invited to participate in The University of Toledo Law Review’sSymposium on The Role of Technology on Professional Advice. She presented “Trust Me” Versus Transparency in Civil Document Discoveryon a panel concerning The Evolving World of Electronic Discovery.
Professor Gregory Stein has been named a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. The fellows comprise a global honorary society of attorneys, judges, law faculty, and legal scholars whose public and private careers have demonstrated outstanding dedication to the highest principles of the legal profession and to the welfare of their communities. Membership is limited to one percent of lawyers licensed to practice in each jurisdiction. Fellows are recommended by their peers and elected by the Board of the American Bar Foundation.
Professor Maurice Stucke testified, via videoconference, before Canada’s House of Commons, specifically, its Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. His participation, as part of a panel, consisted of an opening statement, followed by rounds of questions from the Standing Committee members. The members of the committee were interested in Professor Stucke’s expertise with regard to antitrust law and big data, and the issue of monopolies and data-opolies. The members were also interested in hearing about his knowledge/experience with privacy legislation/antitrust law in the U.S., which could provide areas of reflection for any legislative changes that could be recommended in Canada.
Last March, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Development Policy and Analysis Division, invited Professor Stucke to testify as an expert about the competition and privacy risks posed by data-opolies. Now, the World Economic and Social Survey, which is the Department’s flagship publication, has come out, citing favorably Professor Stucke’s two books, Virtual Competitionand Big Data and Competition Policy, and his article, Should we be concerned about data-opolies? (forthcoming in Georgetown Law Technology Review).
The Economist article, “Economists think antitrust policy should pay more attention to workers” cited a paper written by Professor Stucke and Marshall Steinbaum. The paper supported an “‘effective competition’ standard, which would push regulators to assess the health of competition in all markets. Importantly, it would also shift the burden of proof onto merging firms, asking them to demonstrate that consolidation would not undercut competition.”
In early October, Dean Melanie Wilson spoke at the National Diversity Congress’s Women in Leadership 2018 Conference held at the Harvard Faculty Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The title of her talk was “Holding to Principles While Leading: Supporting diversity in the Higher Education Workplace.”
On Oct. 6, Dean Wilson took part in a panel discussion on “Innovating in Legal Education to Support Diversity and Access to Justice” at the 2018 SALT Teaching Conference. Dean Wilson participated virtually. Laura Rosenbury, Dean at the University of Florida College of Law, and Madeleine Landrieu, Dean at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law were also panelists.