Faculty Forum: August 2019

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

Professor Dwight Aarons published The Legislature as the Place for Crafting Policies for Corporations, 20 Tenn. J. Bus. L. 959 (2019).

Professor Eric Amarante moderated the discussion group entitled “Social Justice & Transactional Clinical Work” at the 2019 Southeastern Association of Law Schools Conference (SEALS), in Boca Raton. The group, which included Professor Sherley Cruz, Professor Brian Krumm, and Professor Joan Heminway, wrestled with the question of how transactional clinics can address the tension between preparing students for modern transactional practice and providing valuable legal resources to underrepresented communities.  

Also at SEALS, Professors Eric Amarante and Joy Radice were part of the informal planning group for the SEALS clinical track, a group that included Danny Schaffzin (Memphis), Chrissy Cerniglia (Stetson), Kendall Kerew (Georgia State), and Lis Martin (South Carolina). 

Professor Brad Areheart had a variety of speaking engagements at SEALS 2019. He co-chaired and coordinated the annual Prospective Law Teachers Workshop, and participated in panels “What’s in a Job Talk?” and “Crafting your Scholarship Goals.”

At SEALS, Professor Wendy Bach moderated the “Teaching Rounds: Using a Signature Clinical Methodology Across the Curriculum” discussion aimed at demystifying the role of teaching rounds in clinical education. Professors Joy Radice and Eric Amarante served as discussants.

Professor Ben Barton moderated and Professor Alex Long and Associate Dean Paula Schaefer served as panelists on the “Professional Responsibility Discussion Group” at SEALS.

Professor Teri Dobbins Baxter served as a panelist at the SEALS 2019 panel discussing the book “Shortlisted: Women, Diversity, the Supreme Court and Beyond,” by Professors Hannah Brenner and Renee Knake.

Professor Zack Buck moderated a SEALS panel titled “Health Law Year in Review: Health Care Finance.”

Professor Judy Cornett made a presentation to the Tennessee Attorney General’s office in Nashville on “Reading Jurors – and Others.”

Professor Sherley Cruz’s article, Coding for Cultural Competency: Expanding Access to Justice with Technology, was published in Volume 86 of the Tennessee Law Review.  

Professor Cruz participated in a SEALS discussion group, “Social Justice and Transactional Clinical Work.” The group, which was moderated by Professor Eric Amarante, discussed the role of social justice in transactional clinics from various perspectives.

Professors Joan Heminway and Joy Radice have both been named finalists for the 35th annual Tribute to Women Awards sponsored by the YWCA of Knoxville and the Tennessee Valley.

At the SEALS annual meeting, Professor Heminway was a panelist on recent U.S. Supreme Court business law cases, a mentor to a SEALS “new scholar,” a co-moderator in a discussion group on insider trading, the moderator of a discussion group on the value of benefit corporations, and a discussant in a variety of sessions tailored to aspiring law faculty.

Professor Heminway presented “Neither Here nor There: Tennessee’s Laws Protecting Animals” at the 2019 Tennessee Animal Care and Control Conference.

Professor Heminway published Lawyering for Social Enterprise, 20 Tenn. J. Bus. L. 797 (2019).

Associate Dean Michael Higdon’s latest article, Parens Patriae and the Disinherited Child, was recently reviewed on JOTWELL by Professor David Horton of UC Davis School of Law.  The article has been accepted for publication in volume 95 of the Washington Law Review.

Professor Becky Jacobs published A Cyber-Skeptic’s Concerns About the State of Lex Crytographia, 20 Tenn. J. Bus. L. 911 (2019).

West Academic recently published  Entrepreneurial Law, written by Professors Brian Krumm and George Kuney.  The book is being translated into Mandarin by Renmin University of China College of Law, for publication in China.

Professor Krumm‘s article “Regulatory Policy in the Trump Era and its Impact on Innovation” was published in 70 Mercer Law Review 685 (2019).

At SEALS, Professor Krumm was a discussant in four panels including “Benefit Corporation (or Not)? Establishing and Maintaining Social Impact Business Firms,” “Clinicians and Librarians: Improving Status in the Legal Academy,” “Autonomous Corporate Personhood,” and “Social Justice & Transactional Clinical Work.”

Professor George Kuney published From Colonies to Corporations, 20 Tenn. J. Bus. L. 1043 (2019).

Two of Professor Michelle Kwon’s works have been published recently: To Tax or Not To Tax Social Enterprises appears in 20 Tenn. J. Bus. L. 815 (2019) and Custom-Tailored Law: When Statutory Interpretation Meets the Internal Revenue Code has been published in the Nebraska Law Review. 

Professor Kwon has been appointed to the University of Tennessee Chancellor’s working group on preventing sexual harassment of students.

Professor Alex Long was quoted in a news report by News Channel 9 in Chattanooga concerning the ethical responsibilities of a Bradley County attorney accused of creating fictitious social media accounts and berating clients.

Professor Tom Plank published Valuing the Duty of Loyalty in a Limited Liability Company, 20 Tenn. J. Bus. L. 993 (2019).

At SEALS, Professor Joy Radice moderated a discussion group titled “Is Clinical Legal Education the Conscience of the Legal Academy?,” which featured discussants Professor Wendy Bach and Professor Eric Amarante. Professor Radice also participated in the discussion group titled “Law School Assessment & Developing Professional Identity.”

Professor Glenn Reynolds recently appeared on the Acton Institute podcast to promote his book “The Social Media Upheaval.”

Professor Briana Rosenbaum published When Congress Acts: Judicial Procedural Innovation and the PSLRA, 20 Tenn. J. Bus. L. 777 (2019).

Professor Greg Stein’s paper, Inequality in the Sharing Economy, was selected by SEALS to be presented at the annual meeting, one of only two papers so honored. Stein’s article will be published in the Brooklyn Law Review in 2020.

Professor Maurice Stucke was featured on Briefly, a production of the University of Chicago Law Review, where he debated antitrust‘s consumer welfare standard, and why we would be better served with an effective competition standard.

Professor Valorie Vojdik was recently interviewed by Nashville Public Radio for a story on the proposed anti-abortion bill currently under consideration by the Tennessee legislature.

Professor Vojdik published The Statutory Expert Reliance Defense and Federal Rule of Evidence 702: Lessons in Gatekeeping, 20 Tenn. J. Bus. L. 727 (2019).

Professors Penny White and Joan Heminway, along with Interim Dean of Students Brad Morgan, participated in the University of Tennessee’s supervisor summit at which White facilitated a breakout session on Leading with Authenticity and Morgan facilitated a breakout session titled “Oh Lord, Please Do Not Let Me Be Misunderstood.” Heminway participated in a panel discussion on “Leadership Lessons.”

Dean Melanie Wilson moderated a panel titled “What & Why: Deciding to Become a Dean” at the Eighth Annual Promoting Diversity in Law School Leadership Workshop. She also was a panelist for the session “Institutional Priorities, Budgeting & Financial Management for Deans.”

At the Lavender Law Conference, Dean Wilson served as a co-presenter (along with Judy Shepard and Cynthia Deitle of the Matthew Shepard Foundation), discussing “Joining Together to ‘Erase Hate’ and Embrace Diversity: How LGBTQ+ Lawyers Can Live Their Best Lives at Work.”

Dean Wilson was a co-panelist on “Live With Kellye & Ken” discussing Innovations in Learning Assessments at SEALS and participated in the panel “Giving Advice to Newer Law Professors.”

Professor David Wolitz presented “The Professor as Moderator and Censor” at SEALS as part of the Free Speech on Campus discussion group.   He also moderated a works-in-progress panel on cultural preservation law.