Faculty Forum: January 2020

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 Eric Franklin Amarante’s article, “Criminalizing Immigrant Entrepreneurs (And Their Lawyers),” was the Immigration Article of the Day at the Immigration Prof Blog, and it was featured on the Crim Prof Blog as well. 

At the AALS 2020 annual meeting, Professor Wendy Bach was appointed chair of the section on clinical legal education.

Professor Ben Barton’s book Fixing Law Schools was excerpted in The Chronicle of Higher Education and featured on the website Inside Higher Ed. Professor Barton also appeared on the Thinking LSAT and Geek in Review podcasts.

At the AALS 2020 Annual Meeting, Professor Doug Blaze was appointed chair of the section on leadership.

In an article posted to the BYU International Centre for Law and Religion Studies “Talk About: Law & Religion” blog, Professor Rob Blitt examines allegations that the United States interfered in the decision by the Ecumenical Patriarchate to grant a Tomos of autocephaly to the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine. 

Professor Zack Buck was invited to participate in episode 172 of the podcast, This Week in Health Law, entitled “Who’s Been Naughty or Nice?” (hosted by Professor Nic Terry).  Listen to the podcast here. 

Professor Sherley Cruz spoke at an AALS discussion group “If, How, and When: Politics and Priorities in the Classroom” about her experiences as a clinician and professor of color. 

At the AALS 2020 annual meeting, Professor Cruz was appointed co-chair of the clinicians of color committee.

At the AALS 2020 annual meeting, Associate Dean Michael Higdon was appointed chair-elect of the section on associate deans for academic affairs and research.

Associate Dean Higdon presented at AALS 2020 as part of a panel titled “Trusts and Estates – Estate Planning in the Modern Age: How Technology and Societal Trends Change the Landscape.” He presented his paper, “Parens Patriae and the Disinherited Child,” which is forthcoming in the Washington Law Review.

Professor Becky Jacobs was part of a team that applied for a grant for a project entitled, “Integrating Climate Change and Hydrological Modeling in Efforts to Enhance the Sustainability of Agricultural Production and Watershed Management in Guatemala.” The grant was approved to receive up to $10,000 for 2019-2020 from the Center for Global Engagement (CGE) in collaboration with UT’s Office of Research and Engagement and the Smith Center. Professor Jacobs’ particular role was to collaborate with local institutional partners in Guatemala on the development and implementation of policy for water resource management.

Professor Lucy Jewel presented at the AALS annual meeting on “Elitism and Inequality in U.S. Legal Culture: An Intellectual History,” tracing the historical roots of gender and class inequalities within the legal profession.

Professor Jewel presented “Under Pressure 2.0: Do As I Do,” at the Legal Writing Institute’s writing workshop in Memphis. She explained how doing high-pressure legal practice tasks has positively influenced how she teaches those same tasks to students.

Professor Jewel participated on two panels at the 12th annual ClassCrits conference at Western New England School of Law. She presented her recent paper on critical rhetoric with Elizabeth Berrenguer and discussed her sumptuary law project (class-based regulation of clothing). Professor Jewel is a long-time board member of the ClassCrits organization and is now the incoming president of the organization. 

Professor Jewel’s article, “Does the Reasonable Man Have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?,” has been published in Volume 54 of the Wake Forest Law Review. 

Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds’ latest article, “Rethinking Libel for the 21st Century,” will appear in the Tennessee Law Review.

Associate Dean Paula Schaefer was appointed chair-elect of the section on professional responsibility during the AALS 2020 annual meeting, 

Professor Maurice Stucke was quoted by Bloomberg Law in an article titled “New U.S. Vertical Merger Rules Fall Flat for Antitrust Advocates.”

Inc. magazine has listed Professor Stucke’s “Competition Overdose: How Free Market Mythology Transformed Us from Citizen Kings to Market Servants,” as one of its New Business Books You Need to Read in 2020.

“For The Defense” published Professor Penny White’s third of five articles that will appear in a handbook for Tennessee lawyers. The article is titled “Preserving Issues, Avoiding Waiver: Preservation Related to Summonsing the Venire, Empaneling the Petit Jury, and Selecting and Challenging Trial Jurors.”

Throughout November and December, Professor White presented a series of continuing legal education programs for lawyers and judges including a three-hour evidence and trial practice program for the Memphis Bar Association; a three-hour advocacy and ethics program at UT Martin; and a three-hour program to on evidence and civil actions damages, to the annual Tennessee Justice Programs seminars in Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis. 

Professor White is again serving as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, for three weeks teaching 2Ls and 3Ls in the Trial Advocacy Workshop.

Dean Melanie Wilson was elected to the executive committee of AALS at the organization’s annual meeting. 

Dean Wilson recently spoke at an event for the Knoxville Bar Association on the topic of communicating with and understanding younger lawyers.