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.
ClassCrits VIII
The College of Law will host “ClassCrits VIII – Emerging Coalitions: Challenging the Structures of Inequality,” on October 23 and 24. This major conference has attracted speakers and attendees from across the US. The conference was organized by Professors Wendy Bach and Lucy Jewel. Other participants from UT include Professor Emerita Fran Ansley, Professors Becky Jacobs, Karla McKanders, Joy Radice, and Val Vojdik, and Dean Melanie Wilson.
Ben Barton
Professor Ben Barton’s book, “Glass Half Full: The Decline and Rebirth of the Legal Profession,” has been reviewed favorably in BloombergView. The review, “A ‘Big Law’ Revolution? Not Likely,” was written by Stephen L. Carter, who is a Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Barton was also quoted in “Commentary: Why Lawyers are Miserable,” in the Chicago Tribune. The article, also written by Carter, quotes Barton in a discussion of lawyers’ satisfaction with their careers.
Barton has been quoted in an article, “Big Firm Burnout and the New Virtual Lawyers,” at BloombergBNA. The article discusses several lawyers who have left large firms to launch practices through online sites that connect them with clients over the internet. And he was also quoted in Bloomberg Business, in the article, “Are Lawyers Getting Dumber?” The article addresses the dramatic dropoff in the number of law school applicants and asks whether that decrease has led to significantly lower bar passage rates.
Joan Heminway
Professor Joan Heminway has been invited to attend and participate in the 2015 ABA LLC Institute. She is organizing and will chair and present on a panel entitled, “The Legal Death of a LLC: A Nationwide Hodgepodge of Rules and Practices,” and she is an invited panelist on, “What Is An Operating Agreement and Why Do We Care?” The conference takes place in November in Arlington, VA.
Heminway also was quoted in an article, “Who Owns EPB? Judge Hears Arguments, Promises to Decide Legal Dispute,” in the Chattanooga Times Free Press. The article addresses the ownership of Chattanooga’s Electric Power Board.
Joan Heminway and Brian Krumm
Professors Joan Heminway and Brian Krumm both participated in a September 18 panel on “Crowdfunding: The Basics and Beyond.” The CLE program addressed the basics of crowdfunding, including legal background and history, and then moved to a more discussion-focused format. It was sponsored by the Clayton Center for Entrepreneurial Law and Transactions: The Tennessee Journal of Business Law.
Lucy Jewel
Professor Lucy Jewel will give a presentation at the Psychology of Persuasion Conference. The conference is hosted by the University of Wyoming Law School and will be held in September in Cheyenne, WY. Jewel will also speak at the Mediation Conference hosted by Pepperdine Law School, which will take place in November in Los Angeles, CA. Additionally, Jewel will travel to Chicago, IL in December to give a presentation at a Legal Writing Institute workshop.
George Kuney
Professor George Kuney’s book, “Legal Drafting in a Nutshell,” will be translated into Burmese, the language of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (also known as Burma). The translated work will be used by legislators in Myanmar as they draft new laws during the nation’s transition to democracy after nearly 50 years of military dictatorship.
Kuney’s most recent book, “Experiencing Remedies,” has been published by West Academic Publishing. The book is designed to be used in a general 2L or 3L remedies class and emphasizes a number of decisions, statutes, and legal structures particular to Tennessee and the Southeastern United States. It integrates exercises and problems within a traditional casebook framework. Chapters are accompanied by fact-specific problems that ask the student to apply the legal principles of each chapter to the facts presented to reach and defend a conclusion or course of action. The text, then, serves to survey the law of remedies and review many of the traditional 1L subjects in a new light while providing the opportunity for the instructor to engage the students in oral or written discussion of problem analysis and solving.
Kuney has filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the petition for a writ of certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Winget v. JPMorgan Chase Bank. He argues that the court should grant certiorari in order to address a split within the circuits as to what constitutes an “interest” for purposes of Section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code and several related issues. Cases addressing Section 363 sale order appeals at the circuit court of appeals level or above are rare.
Karla McKanders
Professor Karla McKanders was interviewed on WBIR-TV on August 21, discussing presidential candidate Donald Trump’s positions on immigration law. The story, “UT Professor Questions Trump’s Immigration Plan,” is available at the WBIR website.
Regina Lambert
Adjunct Professor Regina Lambert was quoted in a Washington Post article, “Tenn. Judge Refuses to Grant Straight Couple A Divorce Because … Gay Marriage.” The article discusses a Hamilton County Judge who refused to grant a divorce to a straight couple because of the U.S. Supreme Court case allowing same-sex marriage.
Sibyl Marshall
Professor Sibyl Marshall will present on a CLE panel on “Find it Free and Fast on the Net: Strategies for Legal Research on the Web.” The conference, sponsored by the National Business Institute, takes place on December in Knoxville.
Katrice Morgan
Assistant Dean Katrice Morgan, who was recently named the College of Law’s Director of Diversity and Inclusion, was featured in an article in The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. The article is entitled, “A Dozen African Americans in New Administrative Positions at Colleges and Universities.”
Glenn Reynolds
Professor Glenn Reynolds will give a presentation to the Knoxville Bar Association as part of its “Lunch and Learn” series. Reynolds will speak to the Government and Public Service Lawyers Section on “Civil Rights Update: The Second Amendment Right to Keep and Bear Arms.” The presentation takes place on October 22 in the City-County Building.
Greg Stein
Associate Dean Greg Stein has been invited to serve as one of the inaugural editors of Jotwell–Property. Jotwell, the “Journal of Things We Like (Lots),” is the place where legal academics identify, celebrate, and discuss the best new legal scholarship (by others) in short 500-1000 word articles. Stein will write regular articles for Jotwell–Property.
Maurice Stucke
Professor Maurice Stucke and co-author Professor Ariel Ezrachi of Oxford University have signed a contract with Harvard University Press, under which Harvard will publish their book, “Online Trade, Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence: The End of Competition as We Know It.” The book, which will be published in 2016, discusses how the development of sophisticated computer algorithms, self-learning, and independent computers has radically changed the social, economic, and political environment. It explores the ways in which recent technological developments have changed the competitive landscape and the nature of competitive restraints.
Stucke’s article, “When Competition Fails to Optimise Quality: A Look at Search Engines,” also co-authored with Professor Ariel Ezrachi of Oxford, has been accepted for publication in the Yale Journal of Law and Technology. The article will be published later this year.
Additionally, Stucke’s chapter, “Leniency, Whistle-Blowing and the Individual: Should We Create Another Race to the Competition Agency?”, has been published in Anti-Cartel Enforcement in a Contemporary Age (Caron Beaton-Wells and Christopher Tran eds. 2015). The book was reviewed favorably in the French Journal Concurrences. The book is published by Hart Publishing.
Stucke has also been invited to give a presentation at a conference on “The Sharing Economy.” Stucke’s panel will address the interplay among competition, consumer protection, and regulation. The conference will take place in Toronto, Canada, in December.
David Wolitz
Professor David Wolitz was a guest on the public radio show Your Weekly Constitutional, participating in a segment entitled, “RFRA Redux.” Wolitz was interviewed on the subject of federal and state religious freedom restoration acts by Summer Visiting Professor Stewart Harris, who serves as a Professor of Law at Appalachian School of Law.
Wolitz also was quoted in a news story on WATE-TV early in September. The story, “Knox County Clerk on Same-Sex Marriage Licenses: ‘You Have to Set Your Personal Beliefs Aside,’ Follow Law,” addresses the question of whether county clerks who oppose same-sex marriage are nonetheless required to issue marriage licenses.