Faculty News & Scholarship
Visit our Experts Guide for a complete listing of faculty, searchable by subject.
Margaret Bacigal and John Paul Jones were quoted in a November article in Virginia Lawyers Weekly dealing with competitions among law school teams, and what the article described as a "bowl system" for legal scholars. Teams from the Law School have done well in these competitions, contributing to "Top 20" rankings. Bacigal and Jones have worked with Trial Advocacy, Moot Court, Admiralty, and other Law School teams.
Henry L. Chambers presented "Slavery and Citizenship: Rights and Belonging" at the Working Group on Slavery and the Law at the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University in September. He spoke on recent developments in employment discrimination law at the Judicial Law Clerks Institute at the Law School in September.
Chambers provided entries on "Plessy v. Ferguson" and "The Civil Rights Act of 1964" for Milestone Documents in American History: A Reference Guide for Students (Schlager Group 2008). He also presented "Citizenship, Rights and Belonging" at the Maryland Constitutionalism Discussion Group at the University of Maryland School of Law in March.
Timothy L. Coggins, Associate Dean for Library and Information Services and professor of law, and Gail F. Zwirner, head of access services, contributed to the 2008 edition of A Guide to Legal Research in Virginia, published by the Virginia CLE Foundation. Coggins authored the chapter about "Legal Periodicals, Indexes, and Information Sources."
In addition to authoring the chapter on "Fastcase" (an online legal research system that the Virginia State Bar provides to its members), Zwirner served as one of the two editors of the new edition. Coggins recently published "Virginia Law: It’s Online, But Should You use It?" in the June/July 2008 issue of the Virginia Lawyer, the official publication of the Virginia State Bar.
Bill Fisher contributed the "Significant Caselaw Developments" section to the American Bar Association’s Annual Review of Federal Securities Regulation. The annual review was published in 63 The Business Lawyer. This was the eighth year in which Fisher prepared the caselaw developments for the ABA.
James Gibson published "Google’s New Monopoly?" on the op-ed page of the Washington Post, Nov. 3, 2008. He served as a panelist in an undergraduate forum on the Internet Piracy Act at the University. The program was sponsored by Gray Hall. On Sept. 23, he spoke to UR music majors on what they need to know about copyright.
Gibson was a panelist for a program "Viacom v. Google: Implications for Copyright Holders and User Generated Content," West LegalWorks Webcast, Aug. 14. On July 31, he presented "The Law of the Horse 12 Years After" at the 2008 SEALS Conference. Gibson was quoted in IP Law on Oct. 28, in the article "Google Settles E-Library Copyright Battle for $125 million," and in "Public Good" Oct. 6. He also was quoted in the D.C. Examiner on Sept. 13 on "Virginia Officials Can Recraft Anti-Spam Law, Experts Say," and in the Wall Street Journal, June 27, in "Musician Makes Tunes by Borrowing Others."
Melissa C. Goemann called on lawmakers facing budget shortfalls to maintain funding for programs that support children and families in an op-ed piece in the Nov. 18 Richmond Times-Dispatch. Goemann is director of the Juvenile Law and Policy Clinic, and co-director of the Mid-Atlantic Juvenile Defense Center at the Law School.
She also published "Who You Gonna Call? Virginia’s Multi-Year Effort to Create a Children’s Ombudsman Office," in the Law School’s Journal of Law and the Public Interest and "A Better Way To Handle Juvenile Offenders" on the op-ed page of the Newport News, Va., Daily Press, on Dec. 3, the latter co-authored by Dr. Jeffrey Aaron.
Ann Hodges published "The Electronic Workplace," Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal, with L. Camille Hebert. The article is the introduction to a symposium issue of the journal for which Hodges and Hebert are editors. In November, Hodges spoke on "Employment Issues of Cancer Patients" at a seminar sponsored by LINC, Massey Cancer Center, and the Financial Planning Association. She also spoke this fall at a statewide conference on cancer on "Joining the Race to Conquer Cancer." The conference was sponsored by the Virginia Cancer Plan Action Coalition. Her topic was "The Cancer Crisis: It’s Not Only Medical." Hodges was interviewed for the June 2008 issue of Insight, published by Commerce Clearing House about the case Penn Plaza v. Pyett, which is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Melanie C. Holloway was a panelist at the SEALS Conference in August, speaking on "Is There, Or Should There Be a Law of Cyberspace?"
Joyce Manna Janto, L’89, deputy director of the Law Library, has been elected vice president and president-elect of the American Association of Law Libraries, a
professional association with more than 5,000 members. Janto has chaired many AALL committees and served a three-year term as its treasurer.
Corinna Barrett Lain presented "Cutting Edge Criminal Procedure" in July at the National Association of Appellate Court Attorneys annual conference in Portland, Ore. In August, she presented her work-in-progress "Death Is Different (But Not Really)" at the annual SEALS Conference. In September, she presented "Death Is Different (But Not Really)" to the faculty at Emory Law School, and to the faculty at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at The College of William and Mary. In September, Lain gave the annual criminal procedure update for the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association at four locations around the state. She also presented on "Cutting Edge Criminal Procedure" at the Institute for Federal Judicial Clerks at the Law School.
Dale Margolin published "Securing Housing in Rough Times: Seeking Shelter for Youth Who Age Out of Foster Care," in The American Bar Association Child Law Practice, vol. 27, No. 5, July 2008, and "Advocating for Yourself" in the May issue of Represent Magazine.
Shari Motro published "Labor, Luck, and Love: Reconsidering the Sanctity of Separate Property," in 102 Nw. U. L. Rev. 1623 (2008). Her article "Why I Left Israel, and Why I’m Going Home" ran in The Wall Street Journal, May 8, 2008. Motro also published The Income Tax Map: A Bird’s-Eye View of Federal Income Taxation for Law Students, Thomson West (7th edition). She presented "Labor, Luck, and Love" in September, and she spoke at the International Society for Family Law’s world conference in Vienna, Austria. Motro also spoke on "Israel—Which Way the Exodus," in November as a panelist at the Boston Jewish Film Festival.
Jack Preis published "Alternative State Remedies in Constitution Torts" in the Connecticut Law Review in January 2008. In April, he presented oral arguments to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on state remedies addressed in the Connecticut article. In September, he presented an article on constitutional remedies at an American University colloquium on judges and the judicial process.
Emmy Reeves presented on "Bar Exam Preparation Programs" at the Academic Assistance Training Workshop in Los Angeles in September.
Noah Sachs spoke at a conference at Duke University Law School in October called "The Environmental Agenda for the Next President." He outlined an energy efficiency agenda for the next president. In December, Sachs presented a paper "Jumping the Pond: Transnational Law and the Future of Chemical Regulation" at an environmental law workshop hosted by Tel Aviv University.
Jonathan K. Stubbs published "Why America Still Needs Affirmative Action" in the October issue of Virginia Lawyer magazine. In the article, Stubbs, discusses what constitutes affirmative action; offers a history of affirmative action; evaluates various affirmative action programs, and explains why these programs are still necessary; and he provides some thoughts on when affirmative action should end. Stubbs also published "America’s Enduring Legacy: Segregated Housing and Segregated Schools" in the American Bar Association’s Minority Trial Lawyer magazine, winter 2008.
Peter N. Swisher recently completed the 2008-2009 edition of Virginia Tort and Personal Injury Law treatise for the Thomson/West Virginia Practice series. Co-authors are Robert Draim, L’79, and David Hudgins, L’80. Swisher attended the Asia Pacific Risk and Insurance Association annual meeting last summer in Sydney, Australia. He is court reporter for civil cases for the Virginia Court of Appeals, reviewing cases in areas of family law, workers compensation law, and administrative law.
Carl W. Tobias published an essay on Virginia state judicial selection in the University of Richmond Law Review and an article on the regulatory compliance defense in the Cornell Law Review. He published articles on federal judicial selection in the Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, National Law Journal, Miami Herald, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Wichita Eagle, Buffalo News, Roanoke Times, FindLaw, Legal Intelligencer, and Jurist. Tobias published articles on the federal courts in FindLaw, Jurist and the Denver Post. He published an article on Cooper v. Aaron’s 50th Anniversary in Findlaw. He published letters to the editor in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Salt Lake Tribune, Baltimore Sun and Richmond Times- Dispatch.
Tobias was a widely quoted contributor to the debates over judicial selection, the Vick litigation, and other topics. He has been quoted on various cases, especially the stock option backdating and Vick litigation, judicial selection, and the U.S. Attorney dispute in numerous newspapers, including the International Herald Tribune, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Newsday, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Detroit News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, The Recorder, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle.
Promotion & Tenure
Suzanne B. Corriell was promoted to head of reference and research services in the law library. Prior to her promotion, Corriell served as reference and research services librarian.
Professors Christopher A. Cotropia and James Gibson were tenured. Professors Kristen R. Jakobsen Osenga and Noah M. Sachs were promoted to Associate Professor of Law.