IP Institute Faculty and Staff

James Gibson
Professor of Law
Co-Director, Intellectual Property Institute
Co-Director, University of Cambridge Summer Program
Sesquicentennial Professor of Law

Jim Gibson founded and served as the first Director of the Intellectual Property Institute at University of Richmond School of Law. His research interests include the effect of new technologies on traditional legal regulation and the formation and breadth of IP entitlements. He frequently speaks, writes, and consults on issues involving law, innovation, technology, and ethics. His scholarship has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Virginia Law Review, the UCLA Law Review, and elsewhere, and he has been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Slate, National Law Journal, and other publications.

 

Roger Skalbeck
Professor of Law
Associate Dean for Library and Information Services
Co-Director, Intellectual Property Institute


Roger V. Skalbeck is a Professor of Law and the Associate Dean of Library & Information Resources. He teaches legal research, copyright law, and a course on comics and the law. He is a frequent presenter on artificial intelligence, legal innovation, and copyright. Dean Skalbeck is a member of the Virginia Access to Justice Commission’s Committee on Self-Represented Litigants, and is actively involved in access to justice initiatives. He was formerly an Adjunct Professor and Associate Librarian at Georgetown Law Center, where he co-taught a seminar on Technology Innovation and Law Practice.

 

Christopher A. Cotropia
Professor of Law - Returning Spring 2026

Before joining the law faculty, Chris Cotropia taught at Tulane University School of Law, where he was the C.J. Morrow Research Professor for the 2005-06 academic year in recognition of his productivity as a scholar. He also practiced with Fish & Richardson in Washington, DC, and clerked for the Honorable Alvin A. Schall of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Professor Cotropia received his law degree from The University of Texas School of Law, where he was elected to Order of the Coif and served as an editor of the Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal. He earned a B.S. in both Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering from Northwestern University.

Kristen Jakobsen Osenga
Professor of Law
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Julie & John Nowak Faculty Research Scholar and Professor of Law


Before joining the law faculty, Kristen Osenga spent two years as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, clerked for the Honorable Richard Linn of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and worked for Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, where she focused on patent litigation and prosecution. She earned her law degree from the University of Illinois, magna cum laude, where she served as the Notes Editor of the Illinois Journal of Law, Technology & Policy and was elected Order of the Coif. She also has a B.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Iowa and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Southern Illinois University. Professor Osenga's primary research interest is patent law, and she has written a number of articles on Patent Office reform, patent litigation, and Federal Circuit jurisprudence. She regularly speaks at conferences across the country on reforming the patent office, improving claim construction in patent litigation, examining the effects of patents on scientific research, protecting and utilizing intellectual property obtained by institutions of higher education, and other important IP issues.

Ashley R. Dobbs
Professor of Law, Legal Practice
Director, Intellectual Property and Transactional Law Clinic

Ashley Dobbs is a Professor of Law, Clinical Practice, and Director of the Intellectual Property and Transactional Law Clinic. Through the Clinic, she and participating law students provide IP and business transactional legal services to entrepreneurs, non-profits, artists, and small businesses. Professor Dobbs brings 10 years of experience in private practice, including at Hogan Lovells, P.C., one of the world’s largest law firms, and at Bean, Kinney & Korman, P.C., where she was a shareholder. In practice, she advised clients on the acquisition, protection and commercialization of intellectual property. While in private practice, Professor Dobbs was named a “Rising Star in Intellectual Property” by Virginia Super Lawyers and D.C. Super Lawyers. Prior to receiving her law degree, Professor Dobbs was an entrepreneur and founded her own consulting firm, offering strategic recommendations and business and marketing plans to Fortune 500 companies in the advertising, banking, cellular, and automotive industries.


Rebecca Crootof
Nancy Litchfield Hicks Professor of Law

Rebecca Crootof is a Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law and the Ethical, Legal, and Societal Implications (ELSI) Visiting Scholar (Emeritus) at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). She was the inaugural 2024 DARPA ELSI Visiting Scholar.

Rebecca Crootof’s primary areas of research include technology law, international law, and torts; her written work explores questions stemming from the iterative relationship between law and technology, often in light of social changes sparked by increasingly autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, cyberoperations, robotics, and the Internet of Things. She is interested in the ways legal regimes respond to and shape technological development, particularly in the armed conflict and national security context.

 

Cecil D. Quillen, Jr.
IP Institute Research Fellow

Cecil Quillen is the former General Counsel of Eastman Kodak Company, where he was also a senior vice president and member of the board of directors. Before becoming General Counsel, he had served as Vice President and Chief Counsel for Kodak's Eastman Chemicals Division. He is currently a senior advisor with Cornerstone Research, an economic consulting firm. He has spoken and written on innovation and the U.S. patent system on numerous occasions. Mr. Quillen's publications can be found on his Social Science Research Network webpage, and his publications and presentations can be found on the Research on Innovation website.