Brandeis Brief 2023

BRANDEISBRIEF UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE LOUIS D. BRANDEIS SCHOOL OF LAW | 2023

ALUMNI NEWS First Night School Reunion, Golf Tournament, Alumni Awards

EVENT NEWS Constitution Day, Breonna Taylor Lecture Series, Brandeis Medal

FACULTY NEWS New Faculty, Research and Scholarship

MESSAGES FROM The Dean of Law, the Director of Development

STUDENT NEWS International Service Learning, Incoming 1Ls: The Class of 2026

PLUS: Alumni, We Want YourNEWS

INCOMING

Class of 2026

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Students

118

FIRST YEAR ENROLLMENT

156 3.68

MEDIAN LSAT

25th 152

75th 158

MEDIAN UGPA

25th 3.31

75th 3.83

56

%

WOMEN

21 24 19 %

STUDENTS OF COLOR

%

LGBTQ+

%

AGE 30+

27 36 %

%

FIRST

OUT OF

GENERATION

STATE

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PROFILE

A MESSAGE FROM Dean Jacobs

I am thrilled to present the 2023 edition of the Brandeis Brief. In these pages, you will find information on all the exciting initiatives that our students, faculty, staff, and alumni are carrying out. Collectively, we are making Brandeis Law School more vibrant and impactful than ever before.

Our cover story, “A Year of Bold Action,” takes you through an overview of how we are advancing the curriculum, creating an environment that fosters excellence in legal scholarship, and engaging our alumni and friends. Other stories throughout the magazine will tell you about the programs, events, and research we are conducting.

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We also have set out to more formally articulate what makes Brandeis Law distinctive from our peers throughout the nation, and we have found it is this: the Brandeis name and legacy. Our law school bears the unique distinction of being named for Justice Louis Brandeis, and we work to bring to life his commitment to public service and his belief in the value of an interdisciplinary approach to the law. His brief in Muller v. Oregon established a groundbreaking new standard in citing extra-legal data to prove an argument before the Supreme Court, the “Brandeis Brief.” This Brandeis Brief magazine reflects the ways we are breaking our own new ground in legal education, scholarship, and community engagement.

As you read the magazine, I hope you feel as proud of Brandeis Law as I do. And I hope that whenever you are near our campus, you will take time to visit. Our school has a great deal of momentum, fueled by our history and traditions and animated by our dedication to achieve greatness.

Thank you for being a valued member of the Brandeis Law community.

Melanie B. Jacobs Dean & Professor of Law

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A Year of Bold Action 4

Breonna Taylor Lecture 6

International Program 9

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Constitution Day 10 2

Introducing New Faculty 11

Professors take on Crucial Issues 14

Faculty Accomplishments 15

A Message from the Director of Development 18

Alumni Council Awards 22

2023 Golf Scramble 24

Night School Reunion 25

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Alumnus of the Year 21

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“IF WE WOULD GUIDE BY THE LIGHT OF REASON, WE MUST LET OUR MINDS BE BOLD.”

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What a difference just one year can make.

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he year 2023 saw bold changes at Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. A new dean in her first year brought new momentum and strategic execution. Administration, faculty, and staff have taken major steps to advance the curriculum and create an environment that fosters excellence in legal education and scholarship.

Brandeis Law School’s distinction as the only law school named for Justice Louis D. Brandeis gives it an unparalleled position in legal education.

Brandeis Law School students deserve unparalleled opportunity in the education and programs the school provides. Read on to see how the school has strengthened its ability to deliver that opportunity in the past year.

ADVANCES IN LEGAL EDUCATION Chief among Brandeis Law School Dean Melanie Jacobs’ initiatives in her first full year was strengthening and expanding experiential learning programs. Lars Smith, the Samuel J. Stallings Professor of Law, was tapped to fill a new position, associate dean for experiential education, to provide coordinated oversight of the school’s five law clinics, externships, and moot court program. During the year, the number of seats in

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JUSTICE LOUIS D. BRANDEIS

the Mediation Clinic were doubled and a pilot Housing Clinic for eviction defense was launched.

A new director of the Elder Law Clinic – adjunct faculty member Aaron Lee Shaw – was hired and clinic hours were expanded. The Ackerson Law Clinic also saw a new director come on board, Assistant Professor Heend Sheth, who previously served as interim director and assistant director.

Additionally, the interim director of externships, Dan Canon, was named to the permanent position and joined the faculty full-time as assistant professor.

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“JUST AS JUSTICE BRANDEIS BELIEVED IN THE VALUE OF AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO THE LAW, BRANDEIS LAW IS COMMITTED TO PROVIDING STRONG INTERDISCIPLINARY EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES ACROSS THE EXPERIENTIAL SPECTRUM OF OUR CLINICS AND EXTERNSHIPS”

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Other advances in education included recruiting 118 incoming 1Ls who have excellent academic credentials and represent one of the most historically diverse entering classes at Brandeis Law, including 21 percent who are students of color; 24 percent who are LGBTQ+ students; 27 percent who are first-generation college students; and 36 percent who are non-Kentucky residents.

The school also added pre-enrollment educational matter and revamped its orientation program to include more academic content, giving these new 1Ls a head start in the first-year curriculum.

Our upper-level students also benefited from a new partnership with Helix Bar Review in strengthening our bar exam prep skills class.

Perhaps most importantly is the continued affordability of a legal education at Brandeis Law School. “We remain one of the best values in legal education today, and we intend to make certain that affordability is protected,” Jacobs said.

Tuition per year is $25,500 for Kentucky residents and $30,500 for non-residents – approximately 48 and 38 percent below the Education Data Institute’s average of $48,828 for all law schools in the United States.

“I want to thank the law school faculty for their hard work and dedication in developing these new curricular initiatives and those currently in development for the coming year,” Jacobs said. “These efforts will ensure our students are able to pursue an affordable and excellent legal

education that makes them well prepared for the law profession of the 21st century.”

ADVANCES IN ENHANCING THE LAW SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT A significant number of empty offices in Wilson Wyatt Hall, home of Brandeis Law School, were filled during 2023 with more to come in 2024. The school hired six new permanent faculty members and three new visiting professors in the past year. In addition to Canon and Sheth, new faculty included Lonita K. Baker, professor of practice; Joe Dunman, assistant professor; Marc Murphy, professor of practice; and Susan Tanner, assistant professor. They were joined by visiting assistant professors Nina Couch, Kelly Meurer, and Jeffrey Metzmeier. Searches are currently underway for additional faculty positions to be filled in the coming year.

Efforts to support faculty governance and professional development also were undertaken in 2023. Under the direction of a faculty-led committee, the faculty governance architecture was revamped to be more focused and efficient.

Financial support for faculty and professional development, including the faculty workshop series, was increased. Support and infrastructure also were enhanced for grant-funded faculty research initiatives.

Staffing also was enhanced during the year. Both new and previously dormant positions in diversity and community engagement, instructional technology, development, and communications were filled to expand services and programming in these areas. The school also intensified alumni engagement and development efforts to raise funds for student scholarships as well as future facility renovation including the creation of an experiential learning center and the revamping of public spaces in the school.

“Our goal for these advances in the law school environment continues to be giving our students the support and infrastructure that will best position them for success in law school, in passing the bar exam, and in their future as practicing attorneys,” Jacobs said.

Justice Brandeis wrote, “The past is valuable as the mirror of the future. … Look courageously into the future, be it near or far.” With the foundation laid in 2023, Brandeis Law can boldly advance as a law school of the first order.

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NOTED ATTORNEY BENJAMIN CRUMP delivers Breonna Taylor Lecture on Structural Inequality Students

The second annual Breonna Taylor Lecture on Structural Inequality featured a nationally recognized speaker, the awarding of the first Breonna Taylor Legacy Fellowships, and the presentation of the 2023 Darryl T. Owens Community Service Award. The event was held at the Speed Museum Cinema in April.

The Breonna Taylor Lecture on Structural Inequality was established by the Brandeis School of Law in 2022 as an annual lecture series and

tribute to the life of the Louisville woman who was killed in a police shooting in 2020.

Benjamin Crump, one of the country’s most renowned civil rights attorneys, delivered the lecture. His law firm, Ben Crump Law of Tallahassee, Florida, represented Breonna Taylor’s family in the aftermath of the shooting as well as the families in several other well-known cases: Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd, Keenan Anderson, Henrietta Lacks, and Tyre Nichols.

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Faculty

Lonita K. Baker was presented with the Darryl T. Owens Community Service Award for her work in selfless advocacy and engagement with transformative social issues. At the time of the award, Baker was president of the National Bar Association and associate corporate counsel for Waystar Medical Technologies Inc. In August, she joined the Brandeis Law School faculty.

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3L students Margaret Hooks Fagala and Jasmyne Jones were announced as the first recipients of Breonna Taylor Legacy Fellowships. The fellowships were made possible through a 2022 gift endowment from artist Amy Sherald who painted the portrait of Taylor that was featured on the cover of the September 2020 issue of Vanity Fair magazine. Proceeds from the sale of the portrait fund the fellowship which is presented annually to Brandeis Law students who participate in social justice work over the summer between their second and third years of law school.

“The Brandeis School of Law was proud to host Attorney Crump as the 2023 Breonna Taylor lecturer as well as present the Owens award to Lonita Baker,” Melanie B. Jacobs, dean of the law school, said. “A special highlight of the evening was seeing our students, Maggie Fagala and Jasmyne Jones, receive funding that significantly helped them further their law school careers.”

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Professor of Law Laura R. McNeal and Wyatt Tarrant & Combs Professor Cedric Merlin Powell were instrumental in organizing and managing the event.

“It is important to honor Breonna Taylor’s profound legacy, not as a tragic victim, but as an empowering symbol of transformative social change in the never-ending struggle to eradicate structural inequality in all sectors of American society, but especially in the criminal justice system,” Powell said. “The lecture, Owens Community Service Award, and student legacy

fellowships are beacons of hope and light in these difficult times.”

“The annual lecture is a reminder that ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ It is an opportunity to celebrate the beautiful life of Breonna Taylor and inspire us all to be drum majors for justice in the fight to dismantle systemic inequalities in America,” McNeal said.

Plans are underway for the third annual Breonna Taylor Lecture on Structural Inequality, set for April 10 at the Speed Art Museum.

You can watch a recording of this event at bit.ly/btlecture2023

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LAW STUDENTS PARTICIPATE IN

UofL International Service Learning Program in Belize Students

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In 2023, students from Brandeis School of Law once again participated in UofL’s International Service Learning Program. Nine law students traveled to Belize, Central America’s only primarily English-speaking nation.

The program gives students the opportunity to spend three days teaching local high school students about the law, culminating in the running of a mock trial where the high schoolers were assigned various roles.

The students said the trip was more than just service and academic advancement; it was lifeenhancing both for the participants and the students they taught.

The trip also gave the students a unique perspective of the legal system in Belize and a more international context for the U.S. legal structure.

“Laws and the justice system as a whole can differ vastly from country to country,” Reese said. “In Belize there were aspects of their justice system that were better than the U.S system but also aspects that were worse.”

Reese recommends the trip to her fellow students: “Not only is it amazing working with the students but it is a beautiful country with a rich culture. And you learn so much by doing it.”

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Student Bar Association president, 3L Taylor Reese, related how affecting it was: “The experience meant a lot to me because the students we worked with were really excited to learn from us and to get to know us.”

“THEY WROTE US LETTERS ON THE LAST DAY, AND THEY TOLD US HOW MUCH IT MEANT TO THEM AND HOW MUCH THEY LEARNED. I WAS HAPPY THAT I COULD MAKE AN IMPACT.”

2022

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CONSTITUTION DAY

commemoration

Brandeis School of Law’s Breit Courtroom was nearly full to capacity with faculty, staff, and a sizeable number of students when Dean Melanie B. Jacobs and University of Louisville President Kim Schatzel welcomed attorney Frederick Lawrence on Sept. 19.

Lawrence keynoted the school’s commemoration of Constitution Day 2023. The event also helped kick off the university’s celebration of Schatzel’s inauguration as UofL’s 19th president and was part of the yearlong series of events marking the university’s 225th anniversary.

Lawrence today is the secretary of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and was previously president of Brandeis University and dean of George Washington University’s School of Law. His topic was the role of universities in a fully functioning democracy.

He opened with a quotation from Justice Louis D. Brandeis: “If we are to be led by the light of reason, let our minds be bold.” And he closed with a quote from Brandeis’ protégé, Justice Felix Frankfurter: “To regard teachers—in our entire educational system, from the primary grades to the university— as the priests of our democracy is … not to indulge in hyperbole.”

“It is the special task of teachers to foster those habits of open-mindedness and critical inquiry which alone make for responsible citizens who in turn make possible an enlightened and effective public opinion (needed to create a functioning democracy),” Lawrence said.

“A renewed and strengthened national commitment to accessible and inclusive education will not only permit members of our society to live more meaningful lives, and more productive lives, but it will allow our nation to resist authoritarian impulses and embrace the openness of mind and spirit that are as essential today for a selfgoverning people in a democratic society as they were … 236 years ago when the framers signed the Constitution. …

“INDEED, THE ULTIMATE AUTHORITY OF THEIR SIGNING AND THE ULTIMATE AUTHORITY TO WHICH WE MUST CONTINUE TO APPEAL AND WHICH OUR NATION IS DUTY BOUND TO EDUCATE, IS, ‘ ‘WE THE PEOPLE.’”

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Lawrence’s address was followed by a spirited panel discussion that included Brandeis Law professors Cedric Merlin Powell, Enid TruciosHaynes, and Joe Dunman and UofL General Counsel Angela Curry.

Left to right: Joe Dunman, Angela Curry, Enid Trucios-Haynes, Cedric Merlin Powell, Melanie Jacobs, Frederick Lawrence and Kim Schatzel

To see photos of the event, go to bit.ly/UofLConstDayPhotos You can watch a recording of this event at bit.ly/UofLConstDay

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Faculty

SIX NEW FACULTY join Brandeis Law in 2023 Faculty Brandeis Law School welcomed six accomplished legal educators to its faculty in 2023.

“These legal experts each bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to Brandeis School of Law,” Dean Melanie B. Jacobs said. The new faculty include the former president of the National Bar Association; accomplished civil rights litigators including the lead counsel for a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case and a capital crime defender; the former managing attorney for the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights; an intimate partner violence expert; and a legal writing scholar.

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Efforts are currently underway to bring more new faculty members on board in 2024, Jacobs said.

“We are interviewing a skilled group of candidates now, and I look forward to introducing them early in the year,” Jacobs said.

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LONITA BAKER Professor of Practice Lonita Baker joined Brandeis Law following a notable career as corporate counsel for Waystar Inc. and in personal injury litigation. She previously served as an assistant Jefferson County attorney in the Legislative Services Branch of the Civil Division and as a supervising prosecutor in the Criminal Division. Baker began her legal career at the Louisville Metro Public Defender Corporation. She graduated from the University of Louisville in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology and minors in Sociology and Pan-African Studies. She continued her studies at the Brandeis School of Law earning her Juris Doctor in 2006. In 2017, she earned a Master of Business Administration with Distinction from the University of Louisville College of Business.

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Baker has consistently shown her commitment to the legal community throughout her career.

She is immediate past president of the National Bar Association, after previously serving as a vice-president, member at large, chief of staff, and chief of communications. She held multiple terms as president of the Charles W. Anderson, Jr. Bar Association, an NBA Affiliate Chapter. She also served the Louisville legal community on the Louisville Bar Association Board of Directors and as an adjunct professor at Brandeis Law.

DAN CANON Assistant Professor and Director of Externships

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JOE DUNMAN Assistant Professor of Law

Dan Canon is a civil rights attorney, law professor, writer, speaker, and consultant based in the midwest. Canon is consistently voted one of the region’s top individual/constitutional rights attorneys. He has argued before the Sixth and Seventh Circuit Courts of Appeals, the Kentucky Court of Appeals, and the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Joe Dunman’s scholarly interests include religious rights and accommodation, employment law, and criminal procedure. He has published articles in the West Virginia Law Review, Pace Law Review, Louisville Law Review, and others. He is also the author of the free, open-access casebook “Religion in the Law,” first published in 2021 with a second edition in 2023.

Canon is best known as lead counsel for the Kentucky plaintiffs in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of Obergefell v. Hodges, which brought marriage equality to all 50 states. He also was plaintiffs’ counsel in Miller v. Davis, the highly publicized case in which couples were refused marriage licenses in Rowan County, Kentucky, and counsel for protesters in Nwanguma v. Trump. He has represented plaintiffs in numerous other highprofile cases involving the rights of incarcerated people, wrongful convictions, abuse and overreach by law enforcement, academic freedom, and Title IX claims.

Prior to teaching at Brandeis Law, Dunman served as the managing attorney for the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, the state agency responsible for enforcing the Kentucky Civil Rights Act, which prohibits class-based discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations.

While at the commission, Dunman authored or co-authored several amicus briefs on behalf of the agency filed in both state and federal appellate courts. He also initiated the first significant update of the agency’s regulatory code in nearly 30 years.

His writing has been featured in numerous publications, including The Washington Post, The National Law Journal, Above the Law, Salon, and Slate. He is a regular columnist for Louisville’s LEO Weekly, and has been quoted and profiled extensively in Time, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and many other national and international news sources. His 2022 bestselling book, “Pleading Out: How Plea Bargaining Creates a Permanent Criminal Class,” was praised by Kirkus Reviews as “a full-throated denunciation of a judicial system grown lazy, complacent, and overly given to forcing confessions for its own convenience. … a compelling document of interest to anyone concerned with civil rights and an equitable system of justice.”

Dunman taught for five years as an assistant professor of legal studies at Morehead State University. In 2018, he taught a month-long comparative law course at King’s College in London, England, with the Cooperative Center for Study Abroad. Dunman also served on the Morehead State Faculty Senate, was the coordinator of the school’s annual Constitution Day celebration, and helped dozens of graduates achieve law school admission as pre-law advisor.

He twice received the prestigious Apple Award for Educational Excellence from the Student Government Association and was a nominee for Faculty of the Year in 2022.

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MARC MURPHY Professor of Practice

the clinic, she has instructed 3L students how to interview and advise survivors of domestic violence and how to prepare the clinic’s cases for trial.

Marc Murphy has been a courtroom attorney for his entire career, prosecuting and defending in some of the most challenging, high-profile, and complex commercial and white-collar criminal cases in Kentucky and Indiana.

One of Sheth’s major interests, and a large part of the courses she teaches, is trial practice. She has coached and consulted with various mock trial teams over the years and is a proud alumna of the Bellarmine Mock Trial Team. She is a member of the Kentucky Bar Association, Louisville Bar Association, and the Women Lawyer Association.

Sheth also is a board member for the Friends of the Jefferson County Public Law Library.

As chair of Stites and Harbison’s White Collar Practice Group and a member of the firm’s Class Action Practice Group, Murphy represented individuals and corporations in complex commercial litigation and white-collar criminal matters, such as antitrust, environmental crimes, health care fraud, and tax fraud. He defended individuals in high profile general criminal matters and accepted appointments by the courts for indigent representation as a public service.

He has substantial experience in federal and administrative litigation and in federal and state grand jury investigations.

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Murphy’s success as a trial attorney includes defending two murder prosecutions to complete acquittals. He is a frequent lecturer on crime and justice issues and is a regular source and analyst for television and print publications.

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HEEND SHETH Director of the Ackerson Law Clinic Heend Sheth is the director of the Ackerson Law Clinic where she teaches both Clinic I and Clinic II courses, focusing on representing low-income survivors of domestic violence in Jefferson County Family Court and Jefferson County District Court.

Sheth has developed significant expertise in the area of intimate partner violence. She began her career as a Victim’s Advocate in Jefferson County’s Domestic Violence Intake Center and then served as an Assistant Jefferson County Attorney in the Domestic Violence Unit, prosecuting cases of intimate partner violence, child abuse, elder abuse, and sexual assault. She joined the University of Louisville in 2018 as a staff attorney for the Ackerson Clinic. Throughout her tenure with

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SUSAN TANNER Assistant Professor of Law Susan Tanner teaches lawyering skills at Brandeis Law and her scholarship focuses on legal language and linguistic access to justice. She was most recently an assistant professor of professional practice and taught first-year legal research and writing at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center, the law school of Louisiana State University.

Tanner served as the assistant director of First-Year Writing at Carnegie Mellon University, where she oversaw and mentored new writing faculty and helped develop the curriculum for a new first-year course, Writing about Public Problems, a course on written advocacy and proposal writing.

She received her Ph.D. in Rhetoric from Carnegie Mellon University, where she held the A.W. Mellon Digital Humanities Fellowship in 2016 and the William S. Dietrich II Presidential Doctoral Fellowship in 2017. She holds a Master’s degree in Rhetoric and Composition from Arizona State University and a J.D. from Indiana University Maurer School of Law, where she was a Balfour Merit Scholar and graduated cum laude.

Before entering academia, Tanner worked in a variety of legal areas including complex litigation cases at Orrick Herrington and Sutcliffe, education legislation for Students First, and taxpayer representation at a low-income tax clinic.

BRANDEIS LAW PROFESSORS Faculty

tackling crucial issues

Two Brandeis School of Law professors are tackling two of the most crucial issues facing society today – development of fair and equitable climate adaptation practices and the use of generative artificial intelligence.

Tony Arnold, the Boehl Chair in Property and Land Use, and his team are evaluating how climate adaptation planning can be more equitable for low-income communities in eight coastal cities, while Susan Tanner, assistant professor of law, and her collaborators are developing a toolkit that will enable law professors to incorporate generative artificial intelligence (genAI) into their legal writing curriculum.

Arnold was awarded a one-year, multi-institutional grant of $75,000 from the National Sea Grant Law Center through NOAA’s National Coastal Resilience Fund while Tanner received support from the Association of Legal Writing Directors for her work.

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Brandeis Law’s Resilience Justic Project, headed by Arnold, will examine coastal urban adaptation in Boston, Cleveland, Miami, New Orleans, San Diego, Savannah, Seattle, and Tampa. Resilience Justice Fellows from UofL and researchers at Georgetown University and Georgia State University will collaborate.

Tanner teaches legal writing at Brandeis Law and is working with colleagues from Louisiana State University’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center in developing the genAI toolkit.

She and her team will design, develop, and test resources based on genAI programs such as ChatGPT and others that will become open-source materials for use in teaching legal writing and other law subjects. Tanner wants the legal community to accept that genAI is becoming part of the teaching environment, and having resources that enable an instructor to use it is key to making it work effectively in the classroom.

“Generative AI will change the way we teach. Some professors worry that a sea change is on the horizon – that we will not be able to assess student learning the way we did pre-ChatGPT,” she said. “Undoubtedly, we will have to adapt. And though generative AI will challenge the way we teach, there also is significant potential for innovation.”

Both projects are expected to take a year to complete.

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The project will examine how the cities are currently ensuring that their climate adaptation plans are equitable and fair. “We will assess plans, policies, and laws affecting climate adaptation in these eight coastal urban areas with an eye towards addressing the vulnerabilities of low-income neighborhoods of color,” Arnold said. “We’ll then use our assessments to produce a guidebook of best practices and a series of webinars so that any city can use the information to make their climate adaptation planning equitable for all neighborhoods.”

BRANDEIS LAW FACULTY

accomplishments for 2023 Faculty

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Brandeis Law School faculty members are acknowledged experts, accomplished scholars, published authors, and significant contributors to the legal profession. Here are just a few highlights of what our faculty accomplished in recent months:

Cedric Merlin Powell, Dean and Professor Emerita Laura Rothstein and Catherine Fosl, retired director of UofL’s Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research. Arnold also was named among the winners of UofL’s Research, Scholarship and Creativity Awards for 2023.

Cassie Chambers Armstrong, assistant professor of law, authored “Gideon is in the House: Lessons of the Home Renters’ Right to Counsel Movement” which was accepted for publication in one of the premier law reviews in the U.S., the Harvard Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. For this achievement, she also was named among the winners of UofL’s Research, Scholarship and Creativity Awards for 2023.

Dan Canon presented at and helped organize the first academic conference on lawyer self-harm at Suffolk University Law School. He is currently working on an article regarding plea strikes and lawyer participation in collective action. One of the top news and issues magazines in the country, The Nation, featured an extensive discussion of his book, “Pleading Out: How Plea Bargaining Creates a Permanent Criminal Class,” in which Canon traces the emergence of plea bargaining to the 1830s and demonstrates how it is used to perpetuate class warfare today.

Craig Anthony (Tony) Arnold was lead author on the article, “Justice, Resilience, and Disruptive Histories: A South Florida Case Study” in the Colorado Environmental Law Journal. He also was invited to submit an essay, “The Evolution of Planning and Zoning for Environmental Justice” to a new book, “Environmental Justice and Zoning Reform,” by Christine Quattro. He is publishing a scholarly article, “Environmental Justice, Resilience Justice, and Watershed Planning” in the William & Mary Environmental Law & Policy Review and finalizing the editing of the book, “Racial Justice in American Land Use” with Brandeis Law Professor

John Cross gave a keynote speech at the Second Tricontinental Conference on Intellectual Property Law at the University of La Laguna in Spain. He spoke on “Extending the Right of Publicity to Nonhuman Entities,” addressing that while most courts and scholars argue the right of personality should be limited to humans, in fact the right has been extended to corporations and other non-human “persons.” The conference drew attendees from Europe, Africa, and North America.

Ariana Levinson was invited to contribute a book chapter, “Expanding the Ending: Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act to Protect Workers’ Rights,” in “The Federal Arbitration Act: Successes, Failures, and a Roadmap for Reform,” Richard A. Bales and Jill I. Gross, editors, forthcoming in 2024 from Cambridge University Press. Her law review article, co-authored with a team of clinical psychologists, “Challenging Jurors’ Racism” is being republished in the 2023 edition of the “Civil Rights Litigation and Attorney Fees Annual Handbook,” a 32-yearold series of the National Police Accountability Project of the National Lawyers Guild. She also was named among the winners of UofL’s Research, Scholarship and Creativity Awards for 2023.

Sam Marcosson continues to be a highly sought source for legal expertise by news media. Highlights of some of his interviews include “Dan Abrams Live” and WHAS-TV interviews addressing the trial of one of the police officers charged in the Breonna Taylor case; a Louisville Public Media interview on a Kentucky Court of Appeals charge against a judge for what it called a violation of the Code of Judicial Conduct; a WAVE-TV appearance on Attorney General Merrick Garland’s critical report on Louisville

Metro Police; and numerous interviews on elections and ballot initiatives throughout the year.

Laura R. McNeal’s interdisciplinary scholarship in law and education with emphasis on the intersection of structural inequality and students’ free speech rights was recognized by her invitation to publish in one of the nation’s premier law reviews. “Dismantling the Marketplace of Ideas: The Court’s Deliberate Indifference to Student Free Speech Rights” will be in a forthcoming issue of the Stanford Law Review.

Additionally, McNeal will present at a Stanford Law conference on the same topic in February 2024.

She also was named among the winners of UofL’s Research, Scholarship and Creativity Awards for 2023.

Kelly Meurer published “The Evolving Use of the Singular They Pronoun in Legal Writing” in Bench & Bar, the journal of the Kentucky Bar Association. She also joined Brandeis Law Professors JoAnne Sweeny and Heend Sheth presenting at the Global Legal Skills Conference in Nottingham, England.

Lisa Nicholson worked on a law review article exploring the efficacy of the shareholder primacy argument against board accountability system failures at specific large corporations. She also provided a book review of “Business Ethics” by J.S. Nelson and Lynn A. Stout (Oxford University Press) which she presented at Law and Society’s Book Roundtable. Nicholson also was named among the winners of UofL’s Research, Scholarship and Creativity Awards for 2023. Additionally, she was an invited speaker, both as a participant and discussant, at the Academic Forum on the Intersection of Race & Business Law, a conference of Business Law Scholars at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. As of November 2022, Nicholson was named the William Marshall Bulitt Chair in Business Law.

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Tim Hall’s most recent article “Consequences of Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health for Mental Health Law” is forthcoming in the American Journal of Law and Medicine. This research also will also be presented at the 38th International Congress on Law and Mental Health in Barcelona, Spain, in July 2024. He is currently working on an article titled “Medical Debt and the Doctrine of Necessities,” and was named among the winners of UofL’s Research, Scholarship and Creativity Awards for 2023. As of November 2022, he holds the Boehl Chair in Health Law.

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Cedric Merlin Powell’s book, “Post-Racial Constitutionalism and the Roberts Court,” published

by Cambridge University Press, received a “highly recommended” designation from Choice, the publishing unit of the Association of College and Research Libraries of the American Library Association. He is working on his second book, “Post-Racial Federalism: Race, Liberty, and the Democratization of Oppression,” forthcoming also from Cambridge University Press. Powell also was an invited presenter at a conference on the Harvard/University of North Carolina admissions decision for the Association of Law Firm Diversity Professionals and contributed an invited symposium article for the SMU Law Review entitled “The Post-Racial Deception of the Roberts Court.” In addition, he collaborated on “Racial Justice in American Land Use” with Craig Anthony (Tony) Arnold, Laura Rothstein, and Catherine Fosl – see the item on Tony Arnold for more details – and was named among the winners of UofL’s Research, Scholarship and Creativity Awards for 2023.

Christopher J. (CJ) Ryan has been working on projects involving judicial bias on the basis of religion in cy pres cases; a project with Cassie Chambers Armstrong looking at the demography and economy of eviction in Kentucky from both the tenant and landlord perspectives; and an analysis of trust litigation in San Francisco with David Horton at University of California-Davis and Reid Weisbord at Rutgers University. His article, “Confusing Cy Pres,” was accepted for publication in the Georgia Law Review. Additionally, he had three articles in print: “An Historical and Empirical Analysis of the Cy-Pres Doctrine” in ACTEC Law Journal; “Student Loans and Financial Distress: A Qualitative Analysis of the Most Common Student Loan Complaints” in Loyola Consumer Law Review, co-authored with Matthew Bruckner of Howard University; and “Affirmatively in Peril: Predicting Federal Judicial Decision Making in University Admissions Cases” in Harvard Law and Policy Review. He also was named among the winners of UofL’s Research, Scholarship and Creativity Awards for 2023.

JoAnne Sweeny’s article, “Social Media Vigilantism,” was published in the Brooklyn Law Review. She also was an invited presenter at the University of New Hampshire conference, The Jurisprudential Legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Based on a book of the same name, the conference examined Ginsberg’s profound contributions to numerous legal areas; Sweeny presented a session covering the chapter she authored for the book, “Freedom of Expression: A Practical Legacy.” Additionally, Sweeny is co-editing the book, “Fight Like Hell: Free Speech and Incitement in the Twenty-First Century” which was made possible by a grant from the Institute for Humanities Studies at George Mason University and will be published by SUNY Academic Press.

Susan Tanner has been working on an article about affirmative action policies and one about the role of narrative in law and policy with regard to confessions. She had multiple projects accepted for publication: “How Critical is Critical Race Theory?” with Amelie Whitehurst of Louisiana State University in Creighton Law Review; “Self-regulation and Legal Writing: An Application of the ABA standards on Professional Identity Formation” with Ryan Roderick of Husson University in Prompt: A Journal of Academic Writing Assignments; a chapter titled “Aristotle, the Syllogism, the Enthymeme, and the Starting Points of the Law” in a to-be-titled edited collection about ancient rhetoric and the law to be published

by Cambridge University Press, and two entries – “Equity v. Equality” and “Learning v. Performance and Encoding Specificity Principle” in “Constructing the Threshold: A Reference Work of Concepts between Teaching for Transfer and Teaching Writing,” published by WAC Clearinghouse/ University Press of Colorado.

Russell Weaver wrote an article entitled, “Should Congress (or, for that matter, a New Federal Authority) Regulate Social Media?” to be published in an issue of the Georgia Law Review, Volume 58, in 2024. He also has five other articles and six books currently in press.

A MESSAGE FROM the Director of Development

Your gifts to Brandeis Law will support our vision for legal education in Louisville and enable us to ensure a thriving legal community in Louisville, our surrounding areas, and across the country. There truly is no better place to invest your philanthropic dollar.

Invest in people, for the benefit of people. That is what your gift to Brandeis Law is – an investment in the next generation of lawyers to strengthen our collective community.

Recently I listened as Dean Jacobs recounted a partial list of her team’s accomplishments during her first year. I was astounded. New faculty; revamped bar preparation for our current students and alumni; curriculum reform, enhanced career guidance and on-campus recruiting for current students and alumni; increased opportunities for experiential learning, including creating a new Eviction Defense Clinic; an improved 1L orientation that emphasized academic and social readiness; financial support for faculty projects; and the addition of several new team members.

Plus, she guest lectures and always has an open door for students. Dean Jacobs is truly investing in our students and providing high quality legal education with enriching, experiential opportunities. But she needs your help.

But giving not only strengthens Brandeis Law; it also is a way to recognize your legacy and impact.

Naming opportunities abound and establishing an endowment ensures that your name and legal legacy will be remembered by countless generations of Brandeis Law students. Blended gifts, including current donations combined with planned giving, enable donors to be recognized for their gifts during their lifetime, but create a larger, lasting impact with gifts from their estate.

Recently, Brandeis Law established the Dinsmore University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law LGBTQ Community Impact Scholarship.

Established by John Selent, this scholarship benefits students who are members or allies of the LGBTQ community. Here’s what John had to say about why this gift was meaningful, both to him and to the legal community: This scholarship is focused on the LGBTQ community but it is open to anyone. That’s important because for so long, that community was excluded from the legal profession in both the public and private sectors. And this scholarship encourages opportunity for LGBTQ law students as well as an understanding of how important it is to have the LGBTQ voice represented in the public and private legal professions. I am very proud of Dinsmore. It has led the way in so many areas of diversity and vocations so that diverse people can succeed and have a say and be at the table, no matter where

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Alumni

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that table may be – private firms, public service agencies, corporate boards, large and small entities – anywhere. It makes a huge difference. I’m very proud of the Dinsmore law firm for leading the way.

John knows the value this kind of support means to our students. He was a work study student, and,

“.. IT MEANT EVERYTHING. WITHOUT THE AID I RECEIVED, LIFE WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE DIFFICULT. I DON’T COME FROM A WEALTHY FAMILY, AND IT WOULD HAVE BEEN MUCH MORE DIFFICULT FOR ME TO FOCUS ON SCHOOL IF I HAD TO WORRY ABOUT FINANCES. I LEARNED THAT EVEN A LITTLE BIT OF SUPPORT CAN MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE. IT CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHETHER SOMEONE IS ABLE TO ATTEND LAW SCHOOL OR NOT.”

JOIN THE BRANDEIS

Mentor Program

The goal of The Louis D. Brandeis Mentorship Program is to match law students with professional mentors and peer mentors who will serve as their role models and advocates throughout their law school experience.

The Louis D. Brandeis Mentor Program encompasses three distinct components: The Legal Professional Mentor Network (LPMN), the FirstGeneration Peer Mentor Connection (1st Gen PM Connection) and the Brandeis Leadership Initiative.

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Making a gift to Brandeis Law is easy. Just scan the QR code on this page and input your information.

Or if you’d like to explore corporate, foundation, or planned giving, contact me for a personal discussion on the giving strategies that work best for you. All of us at Brandeis Law are thankful for your generosity and support.

SUPPORT OUR STUDENTS BY GIVING YOUR TIME BIT.LY/GIVEUOFLLAW

SUPPORT OUR STUDENTS

BY MAKING A GIFT TODAY BIT.LY/GIVEUOFLLAW

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We want to hear from you!

Share your news with your fellow Brandeis Law friends and supporters. We invite our alums to send us the latest goings-on in your life. A new job? Your wedding? A new baby? Or just news about you and other alums getting together? We want to know!

To share news, please email us at lawschool@louisville.edu. Where possible, include a photo scanned at 300 dpi or higher as a jpeg or tif file. In addition to the information you’re sharing, be sure to give us your name and a daytime phone number where we can reach you if we have questions. And don’t forget the class years of each Brandeis alum pictured.

We also want to honor our graduates who have passed on. If you see an obituary of an alumnus, please email the link or the information to us at lawschool@louisville.edu.

We look forward to including your news in a future Brandeis Brief!

UofL ALUMNUS OF THE YEAR

is a Brandeis Law graduate nd for 2 consecutive year

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Alumni

The 2023 Wilson Wyatt Alumnus of the Year award was presented during Homecoming Week in October with 20 Alumni Fellow awards recognizing honorees who represent each of UofL’s colleges, schools, libraries, and student affairs division as well as signature areas.

The 2023 Alumnus of the Year is Louisville community leader and chairman and CEO of Republic Bank Steve Trager, ’85. Trager has had a long career with Republic Bank, joining as vice president and general counsel in 1989. He was promoted to his most recent positions as chairman and CEO in 2012. Trager is a member of the UofL President’s Council and president of the Trager Family Foundation. As a student, he was active in Delta Theta Phi and with the staff of the Brandeis Law Journal.

The Alumnus of the Year award honors a graduate who has demonstrated exceptional leadership in professional and philanthropic endeavors and who has shown loyalty and support to the entire university. Alumni Fellows are recognized for extraordinary achievements in their profession and enduring service in their community.

The 2023 Brandeis Law School Alumni Fellow is Justice Angela McCormick Bisig, ’87, ’90. Elected to the Kentucky Supreme Court in 2022, Bisig serves the Fourth Supreme Court District. She has served in both district and circuit courts and as chief judge of both terms. She is one of two founding circuit judges in Kentucky who presided over cases on a newly formed business court. She was a founding member of a restorative justice program that rehabilitates juveniles and brings healing to crime victims. She also helped to establish the enhanced supervision docket providing court supervision of domestic violence offenders.

“Steve and Angela epitomize what a Brandeis Law School graduate is and can be,” said Dean Melanie B. Jacobs. “Their lifelong commitments to public service mirror the fidelity our namesake, Justice Louis D. Brandeis, maintained to the same principle in his own life and career. We are honored to have them represent the law school in the 2023 class of UofL Alumni Awardees.”

Trager was preceded as Alumnus of the Year in 2022 by retired Starbucks executive Lucy Helm, ’79, ’82, who retired from Starbucks Coffee Co. after a prestigious 21-year career in legal and human resources roles.

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For the second consecutive year, the University of Louisville has bestowed its highest alumni award on a Brandeis Law School graduate.

ALUMNI COUNCIL presents 13 awards in 2023 Alumni Members of the Brandeis Law School Alumni Council honored members of the school’s community in April with the 2023 Law Alumni Awards. The awards are presented in recognition of exemplary service and support to the school and its students.

Distinguished Alumni Award 22

Judge Irv Maze Kristen Miller Judge Jessica Moore Terrence Sullivan Judge David Tapp Alex White

Terrance Sullivan

Judge Irv Maze

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Judge David Tapp

Kristen Miller Alex White

Lawrence Grauman Award Michael Lindenberger (posthumous), not pictured Judge Jessica Moore

Outstanding Faculty Member Grace Giesel & Les Abramson

Recent Alumnus Award Aaron Marcus

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Gail Robinson Award Justice Angela McCormick Bisig

Judge Erica Williams

Outstanding Staff Member Kyle Durbin

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Dean’s Service Award

GOLF SCRAMBLE sets new participant record Alumni

The third annual Brandeis Law School Golf Scramble saw a record number of participants this year, with 80 golfers vying for bragging rights. The tourney was held Aug. 14 at the University of Louisville Golf Club in Simpsonville.

Organized by Gulam Zade, ’11, of Nashville, the scramble began in 2021 with 10 foursomes and has doubled in participation to 20 foursomes this year.

“When we started the scramble, our goal was to engage alumni with the law school who hadn’t found another way to stay active with us,” said Zade, who serves on the law school’s Dean’s Advisory Board and Alumni Council.

“We’re excited to see the growth of the scramble and look forward to seeing even more participants next year for the 2024 scramble on Aug. 12.”

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“We are so grateful for the support of our alumni who participated in the scramble,” Brandeis Law Dean Melanie Jacobs said. “I want to thank Gulam for organizing the event as well as our sponsors for their support. It was great to be out at the club after the tournament’s conclusion and help present prizes.”

Winners

FLIGHT 1 1st Place: Gulam Zade, Wes Wade, Mark Wade, and Chase Kelly 2nd Place: Wade Yeoman, Seth Gray, Leland Gray, and Marc Crahan 3rd Place: Jerry Haywood, Robert Brown, Jay Haywood, and Blake Seawright FLIGHT 2 1st Place: Brennan Soergel, Taylor Gerlach, Luke Markushewski, and Casey Krill 2nd Place: Creighton Mershon, Creighton Mershon Jr., David Schuster, and Dylan Wagner 3rd Place: Monte Hall, Brandon Able, Rick Fryer, and Steve Fryer

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Closest to the Pin Anthony Johnson

Longest Drive John Smith

Sponsors for the event were Presenting Sponsor, Assembly; Beverage Cart Sponsor, Engleman Fallon PLLC; Longest Drive Sponsor, Colleen C. Hartley & Christopher J. Hartley; Putting Green Sponsor, R. Harvey Johnston, III; 18th Hole Bourbon Sponsor, Louisville Thoroughbred Society; and Hole Sponsors, Carpet Specialist Inc.; Dustin Meek, ’91, and Professor Marc Murphy, ’84; Frost Brown Todd LLP; Goldberg Simpson; SueDistractedDriver.com; and the Glenview Trust Company.

To see photos of the event, go to bit.ly/BrandeisLawGolfScramble.

Mark your calendar now for the 2024 scramble on Aug. 12.

FIRST REUNION

of night school alumni held

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Alumni

Featured was a presentation on the law school’s progress by Dean Melanie B. Jacobs. Bill Samuels Jr., chairman emeritus of Maker’s Mark and an attorney himself, keynoted the event.

“Our night school alumni are exceptional, distinguished professionals and we are proud of their achievements. Many had established, successful positions when they entered Brandeis and earned their law degree to enhance an already thriving career. Others were supporting a family and attended night school to take their careers in a new direction,” Jacobs said.

“Brandeis is proud to call them all alumni, and we want to give them an opportunity to rekindle their bonds with their classmates and Brandeis Law.” The setting was chosen to help revitalize those bonds. The Marcus Lindsey is an inviting re-purposed church and garden, circa 1888, that is now the law offices of Brandeis alum Paul A. Casi II, PSC. With Paul Casi, co-hosts for the event were his wife, UofL interior design alum Karen Casi, and Brandeis night school alums Ken Bohnert, Tim Corrigan, Roy Denny, Joe Dunman, Shannon Fauver, Maria A. Fernandez, Kelly Gannott, Liza Goykhberg, Ellen Hesen, Courtney Howell-Kidd, Mark Lloyd, and Kathy Quesenberry.

Thank you to our sponsors Paul A. Casi II & Karen Casi and guest speaker Bill Samuels Jr.

To see photos of the event, go to bit.ly/NightSchoolReunion2023

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Approximately 40 alumni of Brandeis Law’s former night program gathered Sept. 27 for an evening of reminiscing with one another at the Marcus Lindsey in Louisville’s NuLu district. The event was the first reunion held specifically for the night school, conducted 1950-2007.

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