VANDERBILT LAW
Making the case for AI
Preparing the next generation of lawyers to practice alongside artificial intelligence
Dear alumni and friends:
Rapid advancements in Generative AI have fundamentally shifted how we think about teaching and practicing law in less than two years, and the full effects of this revolutionary technology remain to be seen.
By seizing early opportunities and investing in bold initiatives, VLS finds itself at the forefront of AI-related teaching and scholarship. The cover story of this issue of Vanderbilt Law Magazine details the progress we’ve made and the people behind it. Through innovative coursework, events, policy-making, and scholarship, our faculty have explored the practical, social, and ethical applications of tools like ChatGPT while preparing students to leverage AI in their work. As Cat Moon ’98 (BA’92) and Mark Williams, co-directors of the Vanderbilt AI Law Lab (VAILL), point out in our feature, Generative AI education is as much about preparing students to navigate a constantly evolving set of capabilities as it is understanding how to use a particular application.
We are expanding the breadth and depth of other educational offerings as well. We have deepened our expertise in Criminal Law, through the creation of VPOPP and Access to Justice, and Environmental Law, through the Private Climate Governance Lab. Thanks to the generosity of the Canizares Family and Sara Finley ’85 we have a new innocence clinic and initiative dedicated to inquiry into women, law, and public policy, respectively (see pages 20-21).
We also welcome new faces, including Professor Sannoy Das, and bid farewell to others, including Professor Nancy King, admissions dean Todd Morton, and career services dean Elizabeth Workman. Nancy, Elizabeth, and Todd have helped shape the VLS experience for generations of students, and their impact will be felt for generations more. In the midst of changes both existential and closer to home, Vanderbilt Law is poised to rise to the occasion, due in large part to the support of our alumni. Your participation in our community helps us deliver a transformative education in transformative times.
Sincerely yours,
Chris Guthrie Dean and
John Wade-Kent
Syverud Professor of Law
Editor & Assistant Dean for Communications
Nate Luce
Design and Art Direction
Anita Dey
FINN Partners - Nashville
Editorial Contributors
Katie Armstrong, Bianca Cegatte, Olivia Chung (BS’26), Clay Cline, Eileen Cunningham, Kara Sherrer (BA’16), Vincent Xu (BS’27)
Dean & John Wade-Kent Syverud Professor Chris Guthrie
Associate Dean for Development & Alumni Relations
Clay Cline
Faculty Thought Leaders
Introducing Sannoy Das. FTC Chair commends Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator initiative for research on policies to help govern AI Yesha Yadav on mandatory central clearing.
Four law professors among most-cited administrative and environmental scholars in the U.S.
Making the Case for AI
Alumni in the Headlines
Sara Finley ‘85 makes $10 million commitment for cutting-edge inquiry and dialogue on women, law and public policy
The gift will be used to establish a chair and to endow a program for research, education and advocacy relating to equal rights, equal opportunity and nondiscrimination.
Anbridge Charitable Fund endows the creation of The Gail Anderson Cañizares Innocence Clinic at VLS Clinic will support the exoneration of wrongfully accused individuals in the state of Tennessee.
Vanderbilt Law School
Office of Development & Alumni Relations
131 21st Avenue South Nashville, Tennessee 37203
Tel: 615-322-2606
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How Vanderbilt Law School is preparing the next generation of lawyers to practice alongside artificial intelligence.
Nancy King Retires
Nationally renowned criminal procedure expert retires after serving more than 30 years at Vanderbilt Law.
Environment is often a key determinant of success, and it is difficult to imagine a better environment than our highly collegial and uniquely personal school culture, one that students and alumni consistently cite as the most valuable and enduring aspect of a Vanderbilt legal education,
Todd Morton
Admissions Dean Todd Morton to Retire
Department Innovator to Retire this Summer
Todd Morton, Dean of Admissions at Vanderbilt Law, has announced his intention to retire at the end of Summer 2025. He has held the position for nearly 20 years.
“Todd transformed our admissions office throughout his tenure, introducing programs and initiatives that helped us better identify and recruit generations of successful, highly engaged students and alumni,” said Dean Chris Guthrie. “I am grateful for his leadership, vision, and service.”
Morton joined Vanderbilt Law School as Dean of Admissions in 2005. He joined Vanderbilt from Harvard Law School, where he served as Director of Admissions. Prior to Harvard, he served as Director of Recruitment and Admissions Services at New York University School of Law. He holds an Ed.D. and Ed.M. in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from Harvard, and an A.B. in Government from Dartmouth.
Throughout his time at Vanderbilt Law, Morton created innovative programs that enhanced his department’s ability to recruit students and navigate changes in the higher education landscape.
In the area of admissions, he created an alumni admissions interview program to assist with student selection and alumni engagement; each year, nearly 900 Vanderbilt Law alumni interview one-third of J.D. applicants. Morton also designed and implemented Binding Early Decision and Early Action programs for J.D. and transfer applicants, respectively, and led the build-out of the application, admission, and enrollment systems for the recently launched online MLS program.
Morton implemented several unique and impactful scholarship programs as well.
He designed and launched Access2VLS, a ground-breaking needbased aid program with the goal of meeting all student need up to the cost of tuition. Access2VLS has awarded more than $1 million in aid during its first four years of operation.
The “Dean’s Leadership Awards,” which support incoming students with strong leadership skills and potential, have enabled the Law School to recruit students committed to institution-building and has had a positive impact on recruitment of veterans. He designed and implemented other programs that provide rising 2Ls with supplemental scholarship funds to explore social justice or public interest careers, international legal studies, or business law in their second and third years.
“Environment is often a key determinant of success, and it is difficult to imagine a better environment than our highly collegial and uniquely personal school culture, one that students and alumni consistently cite as the most valuable and enduring aspect of a Vanderbilt legal education,” he said. “I am grateful for having the opportunity to play a role in the life of this extraordinary community.”
Elizabeth Workman to Retire from Career Services Office
Workman has led the Career Services Office for over 25 years, helping place thousands of Vanderbilt Law graduates across the country
Elizabeth Workman, Assistant Dean for Career Services at Vanderbilt Law School, has announced her intention to retire at the end of Summer 2025. She has held the position for over 25 years.
“In her nearly three decades of service at the Law School, Elizabeth has led one of the most successful career offices in the country,” said Dean Chris Guthrie. “She has deftly navigated the legal hiring market, always ensuring that our graduates have a pathway to achieve their career goals.”
Workman joined Vanderbilt Law School in 1996 as Director of the Annual Fund. She assumed the role of Assistant Dean for Career Services in 1999. Prior to joining the Law School, she served as Assistant Director of Development for Vanderbilt Divinity School and Director of Development for the John F. Kennedy Institute for Handicapped Children. She began her career as a teacher at Trinity Lutheran School.
As head of the Career Services Office, Workman has developed countless relationships with alumni and other hiring partners, creating programs and initiatives that met employer needs while positioning decades of Vanderbilt Law graduates for success.
“Dean Workman has been passionate for nearly three decades in not just finding jobs, but facilitating the right placement of VLS grads entering the workforce,” said Rita Powers ’90, National Co-Chair Real Estate Litigation and Chicago Co-Managing Shareholder at Greenberg Traurig. “The recruiters feel her equal commitment to them and their organizations. That she has done it all with
Dean Workman has been passionate for nearly three decades in not just finding jobs, but facilitating the right placement of VLS grads entering the workforce.
Rita Powers’90
charm, wit, joy, genuineness, and a true love of Vanderbilt and its unparalleled attributes means she will be sorely missed, and her legacy will endure for decades to come.”
Workman created the “Public Service Pathways” initiative, which generated opportunities for graduates to provide legal services to underserved populations around the country. She spearheaded the launch of interview programs in major markets like New York, D.C., Chicago, and Houston to ensure employers throughout the U.S. have exposure to Vanderbilt Law students. Her law firm hiring programs have continually adjusted to varying timelines around the country. Under her leadership and in response to the move toward virtual interviewing, she created Firm “Mingle” events in 2022 to provide opportunities for 1Ls to connect in person with law firm representatives about summer employment.
“Having led, together with David Gelfand, Milbank’s recruiting at Vanderbilt for over 25 years until my retirement earlier this year, I witnessed firsthand Elizabeth’s extraordinary talents and commitment,” said Jay Grushkin
‘82. “Her impact on Vandy law students and alumni has been profound. I feel fortunate to have worked with Elizabeth over so many years and, more importantly, to have her as a friend.”
The Career Services Office has produced exceptional outcomes under Workman’s leadership, including the best in the Law School’s history in 2024, as measured by compensation, employment percentages, and national scope.
“I cannot adequately express what an honor it has been to work in the Career Services Office at Vanderbilt,” said Workman. “I have received incredible support from Dean Guthrie. I have had the honor of working with fantastic alumni whose loyalty and generosity continually inspire me. I have had the good fortunate of being assisted by committed faculty and colleagues in working together for positive outcomes. And I have loved working with talented, motivated students as they identify and pursue their career goals. To everyone here at Vanderbilt, I am truly, truly grateful.”
Workman will continue in her position through this summer.
Jake Robbins ’25 and Chelsea Summers ’25, two students with the Stanton Foundation First Amendment Clinic at Vanderbilt Law School, delivered oral argument in Open Justice Baltimore v. Baltimore City Law Department on October 29, 2024. Students represented two journalists and a nonprofit organization before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The case raises First Amendment retaliation and viewpoint discrimination claims that arose out of a series of requests made through the Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA), Maryland’s state public records law. Faced with numerous delays, stalling tactics, and the imposition of unreasonable fees, Plaintiffs filed their complaint in June 2022 and are seeking review of a determination by the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland dismissing the claims.
“Watching our students advocate at the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on such vital issues of First Amendment rights and transparency is an incredibly proud moment,” shared Professor Jennifer Safstrom, the clinic’s supervisor. “Their commitment and skill in presenting these complex arguments exemplify the power of experiential learning and the profound impact young lawyers can make in defending the rights of journalists and nonprofit organizations. This case is not just about legal theory; it’s about the critical importance of government accountability and upholding the freedom of expression against retaliatory acts in the administration of the records request process.”
Robbins shared, “It was an absolute honor to deliver oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. We feel quite fortunate that such a rare opportunity was made available to us through the First Amendment Clinic.”
“I am so grateful for the opportunities I’ve had through clinic this semester,” noted Summers. “I never would have expected to deliver oral argument as a law student, and it was a highlight of my experience here at Vanderbilt.”
Lisa Bressman Promoted to Vice Dean of Academic Affairs at Vanderbilt Law School
Administrative law expert has served 2 terms as Associate Dean since joining Vanderbilt in 1998
Dean Guthrie has promoted Lisa Bressman, David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law, to the role of Vice Dean of Vanderbilt Law School, effective for the 2024-25 academic year.
“Lisa shines as a scholar, teacher, and administrator,” said Guthrie, “and her contributions in each area have elevated the Law School throughout the 21st century. It’s fitting that she become the first Vice Dean in the history of the school.”
Bressman joined the Vanderbilt Law Faculty in 1998 after working in the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice and serving as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Judge José A. Cabranes. An influential scholar in administrative law and statutory interpretation, her work has been cited by the Supreme Court on multiple occasions. She has co-authored, with Vanderbilt colleagues Edward Rubin and Kevin Stack, The Regulatory State, a course book designed to teach statutes and regulations to students, particularly in the first year of law school.
A 3-time recipient of the Hall-Hartman award outstanding teaching, Bressman teaches Regulatory State, Life of the Law, and the Legal Scholarship Seminar, among other courses.
As Vice Dean, Bressman is responsible for a range of academic and administrative matters, including the planning the law school curriculum; oversight of the Legal Research & Writing Program, the Master of Legal Studies Program, and the Undergraduate Minor in Legal Studies; and managing routine faculty personnel processes.
She served as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs from 2010 to 2016 before beginning a second term in 2021. She also served as co-director of Vanderbilt’s Regulatory Program from 2006-2010. Bressman earned a J.D. from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from Wellesley College.
(P)reviewing the Supreme Court Term
Each year, the Vanderbilt Program in Law and Government hosts a panel to preview major cases before the Supreme Court for the upcoming term. For this year’s event, panelists also reviewed several highly influential decisions passed in 2024.
The panel featured Vanderbilt Law professors Lisa Bressman, Kevin Stack, and James Blumstein.
Bressman on Loper Bright
For 40 years, the “Chevron doctrine,” established in the case Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., allowed courts to defer to administrative agencies to interpret ambiguities in regulatory statues, which Bressman categorized as effective and expeditious.
“If a statute charges an agency with responsibility to implement a statutory program … then it makes sense that the agency would be the one to interpret any ambiguities that arose over the meaning of the language in that statute,” she said.
But some policymakers and judges took issue with this, believing that only courts should be allowed to interpret the law. Among the dissidents were several justices of the Roberts Court, who took the opportunity to strike down Chevron with Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.
“Loper Bright arose and gave the Court an opportunity to follow through on some of the comments,” Bressman explained. “[Loper Bright] gave them a chance to decide whether Chevron was the right law.”
While Bressman anticipated that the Roberts Court would overrule Chevron, she was still caught off-guard when the opinion was released.
“The way that the opinion was written was more stark than I expected,” she said.
The opinion cited the Administrative Procedure Act as the final word in administrative law and concluded that Chevron could not be reconciled with the APA’s wording. The opinion offered that courts could consider agency interpretations but should ultimately be responsible for interpretations of ambiguous statutes.
Stack on Corner Post
Prior to Corner Post v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, rules established by agencies could only be challenged for six years after creation; the Court’s ruling in Corner Post essentially negated the previous six-year statute of limitations.
The Court concluded that a plaintiff created after the original six years should have their own six years to challenge any rules. According to Stack, the most important post of Corner Post is its interaction with Loper Bright.
“If the Supreme Court had not changed the standard of review applicable to agency statutory interpretation, then the change in the
statute of limitations wouldn’t be that significant,” Stack said. “This potentially opens the door to re-litigate any existing regulation that’s already on the books.”
Stack foresees potential political implications to Corner Post, primarily because many industries are built on long-standing federal regulations that can now be called into question.
“If we start to see many regulations reversed upon which industries have relied, there might be a bit of pushback,” Stack said. “There are currently pending bills in Congress to reverse Corner Post. There’s certainly going to be a divided set of interest groups that might want to contain the scope of broad litigation.”
Blumstein on Jarkesy
In SEC v. Jarkesy, hedge fund manager George Jarkesy argued that administrative proceedings brought against him by the SEC violated his Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial. Previously, no jury trial was required when the SEC sought civil penalties for securities fraud, but the Court ruled in Jarkesy’s favor, opening the door for anybody to take an agency before a jury for civil penalties.
“The key question that really divides the justices is whether an exception to the coverage of the Seventh Amendment, a so-called public rights exception, applies in this case,” Blumstein said. “The SEC and Justice Sotomayor’s dissent focused primarily on this idea of a public rights exception.”
But ultimately, the court emphasized that the Seventh Amendment itself favored adjudicating these claims with a jury, as the role of the jury is to prevent government overreach.
“You can see a form of populism developing in the majority opinion, where juries are a response to concerns about governmental overreaching,” Blumstein said. “There’s a lot of criticism, especially in Justice Gorsuch’s concurrence, about the lack of procedural protection.”
Looking ahead to the next term
According to Bressman, San Francisco v. EPA might be one of the first chances to see the impact of Loper Bright. San Francisco’s wastewater treatment plants overflow into the Pacific Ocean during heavy rains and the EPA requires that cities obtain permits for these types of dumping. San Francisco brought forth the case to challenge two provisions in the most recent permit and the Court’s ruling on their validity will set a precedent for the balance between courts and agencies post-Loper Bright
“How is that going to work out? What part do courts get to say, and what parts grant the EPA authority?” Bressman asked. “We’ll maybe learn a little bit more about Loper Bright.”
Bressman also flagged FDA v. Wages and White Lion Investments, which involves the regulation of e-cigarettes and how they are marketed towards youth. The FDA is asking for studies that show marketing will not entice youth, while the companies argue that the FDA is constantly changing their requirements.
Vanderbilt Law’s Respectfully Dissent Series Launches with Debate on the Limits of Antitrust
Vanderbilt’s Rebecca Haw Allensworth Faced Off Against Missouri’s Thom Lambert
The first installation of the Respectfully Dissent Debate series, held in October, pitted Rebecca Haw Allensworth, Associate Dean for Research and David Daniels Allen Distinguished Professor of Law, against Professor Thom Lambert of the University of Missouri Law School in a debate on antitrust litigation’s limits.
Moderated by Morgan Ricks, Herman O. Loewenstein Professor in Law, in front of a packed Flynn Auditorium, the debate addressed three distinct areas of antitrust law.
Ricks kicked off the debate by asking if antitrust should be limited by an error cost analysis. Lambert explained that the common school of antitrust is when it comes to enforcement, false positives are more harmful than false negatives. While false negatives may correct themselves, over-enforcements are more costly.
He described the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts, two of the most impactful antitrust laws, as too vague. “They don’t look anything like the tax code or the securities laws or the environmental laws,” said Lambert, “and that means that the federal courts have had to flesh them out in deciding discrete cases.”
While resulting regulations target competition-reducing agreements and monopolization, Lambert believes the statues are still not appropriate. “Many agreements that reduce competition between firms also benefit consumers by reducing costs or enabling the creation of new products and services or creating other efficiencies,” he argued.
Costly errors that present themselves as both false positives and negatives can be reduced by making rules more nuanced. More nuanced rules present a third cost of antitrust regulation that fall on firms and enforcers: decision costs.
“[Courts] should decide cases creating liability rules with an eye toward minimizing the sum of error and decision costs,” Lambert said.
Allensworth agreed that antitrust regulation is a mixed bag and caution is necessary but also pointed out what effect the approach outlined by Lambert has had in the past.
“The idea that we need to proceed cautiously was taken to heart by the enforcers who essentially stopped enforcing the antitrust laws,” Allensworth said. “Merger enforcement went way down. It went down to almost zero.”
The last 40 years have been dominated by what she described as the “Chicago” school of thought, which in Allensworth’s estimation, has had longstanding effects on the economy.
“Economists tell us that entry is way down, competitive entry has declined over the last 40 years,” Allensworth said. “We know that concentration has essentially gone through the roof, and this is across industries.”
Some companies hold immense market power in products that the public doesn’t consume, but rather relies on, according to Allensworth.
“What would you do if you got locked out of your Apple ID—how much would you pay to be let back in?” Allensworth said. “If Amazon raised its prices 25% across the board, would you stop using the platform?”
Allensworth went on to blame the rationale that false positives are worse than false negatives for the lack of regulation in the past.
“The idea behind error-cost analysis was that the false positives were really costly because they were precedential, but I would argue that the false negatives were also precedential,” Allensworth said. “Other companies were watching as enforcers didn’t go after their peers for anti-competitive conduct. This emboldened a whole generation of businesspeople to suppress competition freely.”
In his rebuttal, Lambert doubled down on his argument that false convictions are worse than false negatives by again emphasizing that markets are self-correcting and false convictions can take lots of time and resources to overturn. Cases of collusion are examples of the worst instances of false convictions, according to Lambert.
Lambert also chalked higher price markups to changes in business models and the nature of the tech industry, which has higher fixed and lower marginal costs, citing economists like Carl Shapiro.
Allensworth noted in her response that economists can give two different answers to the same question, depending on who’s funding them.
“The idea that economists have some monopoly on not just antitrust policy, but antitrust litigation, I think is part of the problem with where we are now,” Allensworth said.
Ricks continued the debate with his second question: should antitrust be limited by the consumer welfare standard?
The quick answer for Lambert was yes, but the professor also saw lots of nuances. In some instances, mergers may harm competitors but also benefit consumers, such as the 1962 Brown Shoe Case. The merger in question was ultimately blocked because Congress wanted to protect small businesses, but Lambert saw an issue with that.
“When enforcers can pick and choose like that and courts just defer, we have a real problem,” Lambert said.
Lambert reasoned that in order to assign liability, reliable harm to consumers must be present.
The quick answer for Allensworth was no, but she believed that she and Lambert were more aligned on this question than the previous one.
“I do think the point of antitrust law was, is, and should be the protection of consumers,” Allensworth said. “The problem is the idea that this is some sort of rule or even standard that we can apply to each individual case.”
But Allensworth reasoned that, regardless of intention, antitrust laws are framed towards promoting competition on the grounds that competition benefits consumers.
“I am a capitalist. I believe in markets,” Allensworth said. “I believe markets do give consumers what they want when they’re properly run, and that’s why I think the real problem for the consumer welfare standard is it’s not a standard.”
For his final question of the afternoon, Ricks asked whether antitrust remedies should be limited to avoid breakups and courtimposed duties.
Vanderbilt National Moot Court Team Wins Regional Round, Advances to Nationals
Team received Best Brief, Best Orator awards, went undefeated in 5 rounds of argument
On November 15 and 16, the Vanderbilt National Moot Court Team won the Region 7 National Moot Court Competition at the University of Mississippi, earning a trip to the Nationals. The victory is Vanderbilt’s first in regional competition since 1999.
“In each round, the team demonstrated incredible advocacy skills, poise, and preparation,” said Amy Enix, team Coach and Lecturer in Law. “All of the judges, including Chief Judge Deborah Brown (of the Northern District of Mississippi), commented on how well-prepared and persuasive the advocates were.”
The team consists of competing members Amaris Aloise, Dallas Kastens, and Grace Hayes (all 3L students), supported by 2L students Nicholas Wallenburg and Karli Tellis. Mark Pickerell, Lecturer in Law, coaches with Enix.
The team earned the Best Brief award, while Hayes earned recognition as Best Oralist in the Final Round.
“While it was incredibly exciting to win the tournament, the most rewarding part of the experience was getting to compete
“I am not categorically opposed to breakups, but I think that they should be rarely used,” Lambert said. “The reason for that is that the record of breakup revenues is really poor. When you breakup companies, you often destroy productive efficiencies.”
“I think we have to think bigger. We have to think about the incentives,” Allensworth said. “When it comes to remedies, we’re thinking about that one little competitor, and if their sales team will have to get divided. That’s protection of competitors, not competition. That’s the opposite of what antitrust should be worried about.”
alongside my amazing teammates,” said Hayes. “Working with such talented and wonderful people was truly the highlight of my weekend.”
The National Moot Court Competition is co-sponsored by the American College of Trial Lawyers and the New York City Bar Association. In addition to sharing the financial costs, many Fellows of the College assist as judges in the 15 regional competitions and at the finals held in New York each year. More than 180 accredited law schools participate in this program involving more than 1,000 students.
Faculty Thought Leaders
New Faculty Spotlight: Sannoy Das
Assistant Professor of Law’s scholarship touches on international economic law and political philosophy
Professor Sannoy Das joined Vanderbilt Law School last summer. He received an interdisciplinary doctorate (S.J.D.) from Harvard Law School earlier this year. Sannoy previously taught as an Assistant Professor at Jindal Global Law School in India and as a Lecturer at Boston University. He has also litigated corporate, commercial, and constitutional cases at the High Court at Calcutta, India.
A Shift from Litigation to Academia
After a brief but enriching stint in litigation, Das realized that his intellectual curiosity required a different outlet. “I enjoyed my time in litigation,” he shared. “The interesting thing about doing litigation, especially where I was doing it in India, was that I saw a wide variety of cases. I’d litigate standard property disputes and big companies having disputes, to very meaningful constitutional cases as well.”
His transition to academia was influenced by personal and professional factors. “While I was practicing, I also thought I wouldn’t have the time to think about the very things that I see in a more sustained manner,” he explained. “People do things for love and family and joy, and I think those are much more important than some well thought out plan.”
Exploring Political Economy: What and Why?
Das’s research focuses on political economy, a field that examines the intersections of economic systems, politics, and governance. He credits his interest in the subject to personal experiences and global trends. “In 2014 in India, we had a shift in our regime. We went to an extreme right-wing government for the first time, and a couple of years later, here [in the U.S.] you had the election of Trump,” Das explained. “I was motivated largely by sympathy for… the
sort of left-behind [people] of the world who decided that right-wing populism is their way to salvation.”
This motivation led him to explore the historical and intellectual foundations of political economy. Das describes the field as encompassing “political questions of entitlements, distribution, inequality, and so on,” while drawing on the work of thinkers like Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Karl Marx. As for his research, Das explained, “I bring some insights from political and economic philosophy in order to reflect on why these modern structures of international economic law have fallen into crisis as they have over the last 10 years, and then from this kind of debris, what better and newer forms of international economic order are possible.”
Studying political economy for Das is about understanding and addressing inequality and disempowerment on a global scale. He argues that the “modern international economic order” has inflamed economic inequality and suffering across the world. “Jobs have been dislocated, people have felt disempowered, and people feel constrained, as if they have no freedom and no voice in their own governance,” he said.
Das' research aims to uncover ways to build more equitable international systems that still maintain global cooperation. “We need a degree of internationalism, but we need a kind of internationalism that’s more equitable and less inequality-inducing than the one that we have been living under,” he asserted.
Teaching the Next Generation of Thinkers
Das approaches teaching with the reflective mindset that defines his research. “My aim is [not to] teach people the material, but more so ways of academic thinking—to think deeply about how we think, is my primary goal in life,” he said. He encourages students to examine their instincts and reactions, questioning the sources and mechanisms behind their thought processes—“the job of a scholar is to think carefully about these reactions in some way.”
In his international law classes, Das challenges misconceptions about the field, particularly the belief that international law lacks enforceability or relevance. For Das, understanding international law equips students with skills applicable to a broad range of professional contexts, including roles in government and international organizations. “The whole of our endeavor as international lawyers is to teach one of two things: why [international law is] meaningful as a legal system, and, if it is not a meaningful system, why do we think that, and what does that tell us about law in general?”
Jobs have been dislocated, people have felt disempowered, and people feel constrained, as if they have no freedom and no voice in their own governance.
Sannoy Das
FTC Chair commends Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator initiative for research on policies to help govern AI
The Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator for Political Economy and Regulation is leading the way in research and policy recommendations on the governance of artificial intelligence
At the Third Annual Networks, Platforms & Utilities conference hosted by the VPA in June, the groundbreaking initiative was commended by FTC Chair Lina Khan for its impact on her work with the agency.
As part of Discovery Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator for Political Economy and Regulation is a groundbreaking initiative to bolster innovative research and education at Vanderbilt. The mission of VPA is to swiftly develop and advance cutting-edge research, education and policy proposals at a pace that aligns with the urgency of today’s challenges.
The VPA encompasses several projects, including one dedicated to revitalizing the study of the law and political economy of networks platforms, and utilities (NPUs) in transportation, communications, energy, and banking.
“Many of our country’s most pressing economic and social challenges are directly tied to how we govern network, platform, and utility industries, including airline flight cancellations, social media regulation, banking failures, and electric grid crashes,” said Ganesh Sitaraman, the New York Alumni Chancellor’s Chair in Law at Vanderbilt Law School and director of VPA.
VPA’s Project on Networks, Platforms and Utilities has developed a series of papers and policy proposals to improve the governance of these sectors. Among this work are a set of proposals to policymakers for regulating air travel, a plan for stabilizing and regulating the banking sector, and 40 recommendations to promote competition throughout the American economy.
With growing interest in AI, VPA has turned its eye to how policymakers can address the harms that come from concentration in the AI technology stack. VPA’s papers have developed an antimonopoly approach to regulating AI, addressed public capacity for AI, and offered proposals on federal procurement of AI resources.
VPA’s work in this field has gotten increasing attention. VPA director Ganesh Sitaraman participated in one of the U.S. Senate’s AI Fora in 2023. And during the Third Annual Networks, Platforms & Utilities conference hosted by the VPA in June, FTC Chair Lina Khan specifically noted VPA’s impact on the agency. “I think the work that VPA has been doing on AI has been so enormously useful," said Khan. "It’s really striking how it took 15 years before the NPU toolkit was even discussed alongside the Web 2.0 giants. So, the fact that from the very get-go this kind of framework is being applied in the context of AI policy discussions really marks that forward movement."
During the June conference, participants—which included 64 attendees from 15 different countries— discussed how their jurisdictions of study approach the regulation of network, platform and utility industries. This year’s conference was structured around eight panels, one on general themes and seven featuring a specific NPU sector: railroads, electricity, banking & finance, airlines, social infrastructure, tech platforms, and telecommunications.
“Vanderbilt is a leader in research on these topics, and we were very excited to welcome scholars from around the world to Nashville and to Vanderbilt, in order to explore these issues from a comparative and global perspective,” said Sitaraman.
In the coming months, the conference organizers intend to compile the papers presented at the conference into an edited volume.
Four Vanderbilt Law Professors Among 20 Most Cited Administrative and / or Environmental Law Faculty in the U.S.
Edward Rubin also mentioned in Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports
According to the latest scholarly impact study by Gregory Sisk & colleagues at the University of St. Thomas, four Vanderbilt Law professors rank among the 20 most cited Administrative and / or Environmental Law faculty in the U.S. for the period 2019-2023 – more than any other U.S. law school.
The full list, published in Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports, ranks Vanderbilt faculty members as follows:
J.B. Ruhl, David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law and Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished University Professor for 2024-25, Co-Director of the Energy, Environment & Land Use Program
Lisa Schultz Bressman, Vice Dean and David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law
Jim Rossi, Judge D. L. Lansden Chair in Law
The Effects of Mandatory Central Clearing on the U.S. Treasury Market
Vanderbilt Law’s Yesha Yadav and Columbia Law’s Josh Younger analyze the benefits and drawbacks of the SEC’s new rules
The market for U.S. Treasury securities has grown from roughly $5 trillion in mid-2008 to approximately $27 trillion today. Default-free, tradable, and dollardenominated, Treasuries play an essential role in the functioning of financial markets.
Recent shocks to the Treasury market, most notably the one that occurred at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, prompted several proposals to strengthen its foundations. These include a transformative 2023 SEC rule designed to subject most trades involving Treasury securities to central clearing.
Kevin Stack, Lee S. and Charles A. Speir Chair in Law
Edward Rubin, University Distinguished Professor of Law and Political Science, was listed in the publication as another highly cited scholar who works partly in these areas.
The professors have collaborated with one another on several publications, including The Regulatory State, a textbook on statutory interpretation and administrative lawmaking co-authored by Bressman, Stack, and Rubin.
To learn more about their impact and other Vanderbilt Law faculty, visit our directory.
In a paper forthcoming in the University of Chicago Law Review, Yesha Yadav and Joshua Younger examine the impact of the rule on the Treasury markets, spotlighting the potential benefits and tradeoffs to be considered as the rule takes effect over the next two years.
The central clearing mandate represents a significant shift for the structure of the Treasury market
Central clearing, where a well-resourced and informed central counterparty (CCP) backs a transaction in a bid to minimize counterparty risky, already features prominently in equity, bond, and derivative markets – far more so than in Treasuries. Less than 20% of the secondary market for Treasuries and roughly 20-30% of repo markets (short-term lending markets that commonly use Treasuries for collateral) are centrally cleared.
J.B. Ruhl
Yesha Yadav Josh Younger
Lisa Bressman Jim Rossi Kevin Stack
Under current practice, the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC), the only CCP in the Treasury market, clears Treasury trades that occur between two netting members of FICC, constituting a small subset of market participants. The new rule will require FICC members to clear the vast majority of cash and repo trades, regardless of counterparty. Estimates suggest that as much as $4 trillion in daily transaction volume will need to be centrally cleared.
Central clearing offers several potentially important payoffs…
The authors detail four most important benefits central clearing may provide.
First, it should reduce settlement risks, by lowering the frequency of settlement failures (i.e., when trades fail to complete. Such fails can result from miscommunications between parties, back-office issues, or periods of highly active trading.
“Because CCPs have visibility into the activity of all their members, trades can be compared and netted before settlement, reducing the likelihood that one idiosyncratic fail triggers a chain of additional fails,” the paper explains.
Second, central clearing should ease pressure on the balance sheets of major Treasuries dealers which could reduce capital requirements and promote balance sheet elasticity.
Third, margin requirements on Treasury derivatives, which can be volatile and lead to rapid liquidation events in the current structure, would be stabilized or possibly reduced through stress periods, by the “cross-margining” of offsetting case and derivative positions.
“In these arrangements,” the authors explain, “two CCPs develop a mechanism to transfer or share their claim to collateral posted by the trade counterparties which in principle allows margin requirements to reflect the overall economic risk of the exposure rather than simply the side visible to each CCP individually.”
Lastly, central clearing should provide a volume of “comprehensive, reliable, and constant data” that has long been missing from Treasury markets. CCPs will collect granular transaction-level data from entities that may not otherwise be required to report (e.g. hedge funds and high-frequency traders) and improve data quality through standardization and vetting.
“A deeper and more intricate picture of repos and the Treasury secondary market can facilitate a fuller understanding of Treasury ecosystem more broadly as well as probe how disruptions in one segment impacts the other,” the authors write.
There is clear value in research that sets out realistic expectations for how a broad clearing mandate might improve the resiliency of Treasury market functioning to a broad variety of shocks.
…But the SEC’s clearing mandate comes with potential challenges as well
The paper highlights three concerns that may create serious trade-offs for the new rule.
First, central clearing will not, by itself, solve the liquidity issues that have plagued Treasury markets in recent years and whose damaging effects clearly visible in the market’s breakdown in March 2020 as well as during other disruptive trading episodes.
Secondly, central clearing comes with the possibility of evasion. The clearing mandate comes with exceptions – meaning that here are ways around the clearing requirement. For example, trades that are carried out between two non-members of a Treasuries clearinghouse are exempt. Additionally, repurchase transactions without a fixed maturity fall outside of the mandate. Further, repo trades can be packaged as “securities lending transactions,” pushing them outside of the rule. The extraterritorial reach of the new mandate is also not clear, such that parties may may relocate their Treasury trades “to offshore jurisdictions and into entities that fall outside the scope of the SEC’s mandate and the visibility of U.S. authorities.”
This type of activity, the authors write, may complicate risk management of CCPs and increase blind spots for regulators and CCPs alike.
Second, the mandate shifts more risk onto the CCPs as more Treasury market activity requires central clearing. While the authors detail throughout the article how CCPs “have well-established techniques for mitigating this risk,” the failure of a Treasury CCP could have significant systemic consequences.
“If the instability of a Treasury CCP were to significantly impair market functioning (which is more likely if a greater fraction of the market is cleared), liquidity constraints on other CCPs could adversely affect their perceived stability,” the authors write. “This dynamic increases the risk of contagion.”
While they add that such a risk “may seem exceedingly remote,” they caution against complacency, pointing to near misses like the stock market crash on Black Monday, which led to the near-failure of U.S. clearinghouses, as well as actual failures overseas.
“There is clear value in research that sets out realistic expectations for how a broad clearing mandate might improve the resiliency of Treasury market functioning to a broad variety of shocks,” the authors conclude. While a central clearinghouse can address many of the Treasury market’s foundational issues, “it is not able nor designed to address every element of the demonstrated fragility of Treasury market structure by itself.”
“The introduction of the clearinghouse represents a major intervention for reforming the Treasury market – but far from the last word on the topic.”
“Central Clearing the US Treasury Market” is forthcoming in the University of Chicago Law Review. Yesha Yadav is the Associate Dean and Robert Belton Director of Diversity, Equity & Community, Milton R. Underwood Chair of Law, and Faculty Co-Director of the LL.M. Program at Vanderbilt Law School.
Making the
By Kara Sherrer
Case for AI
As generative AI changes the legal profession, VLS uses innovative teaching and scholarship to prepare the next generation of lawyers
Professor Mark Williams spent the last weeks of 2022 preparing for his annual course on Law Practice Technology. Having taught the class for nearly a decade, he was no stranger to updating the course content to include the latest technological developments. ChatGPT had just made its public debut a month before, so he used winter break to experiment with the tool, planning to use it as an example during his unit on artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
When students came back to campus and the class began, it became clear that “during that month that they were home, they were all playing with [ChatGPT],” Professor Williams recalled. “I couldn’t just have a unit on AI anymore. I was now teaching an AI course… That was January 2023, and in AI time it might as well be like 30 years ago.”
The evolution of AI education at Vanderbilt Law Williams immediately reached out to fellow Professor Cat Moon ’98 (BA’92), who specializes in technology and innovation, to develop a course about AI in legal practice. While other tech trends like blockchain had made a big splash in the legal world and then fizzled out, they both knew that artificial intelligence was here to stay. In fact, Moon says that many lawyers were already using AI-powered legal tech, they just might not have realized it before.
“AI has been around for a long time and has been really built into a lot of the tools that lawyers use. We just weren't so hyper aware of it. It’s moving the needle in ways that prior waves of technology did not,” she said.
Throughout the Spring 2023 semester, both professors had long conversations with Dean Guthrie and Vice Dean Lisa Bressman about how Vanderbilt Law School could prepare students and faculty for using AI legal practice. That fall, Professor Moon and Professor Williams launched the new course in AI and legal practice, now in its fourth iteration.
“At the time that we launched, you could sense the anxiety in the room with the students…they were thinking, ‘Is this another thing that I have to learn? Is this going to replace me? Am I not going to have a job?’” Williams said. “What we've been able to do is equip them with tools that they need to make these tools work for them, rather than to fear them. We also help them to understand both the benefits and limitations and risks of what these tools can do right now, but also how they're going to develop going forward.”
Both professors say that the class changes every single time they teach it, and they update the syllabus during the semester as well. The pace of AI development is moving so fast that they have to stay nimble, so they can teach Vanderbilt law students about the most up-todate tools.
“It's amazing to see how the goal posts have moved over time, because the ChatGPT that came out in November of 2022 is a model that has basically been decommissioned, and we would look back on that now as being very quaint,” Williams said.
This state of constant flux may seem unusual, especially compared to teaching
other areas of the law where doctrine has been established for decades or even longer. However, Professor Moon says this has always been true of teaching technology for legal practice.
“I've always had to adjust all my coursework,” she said. “Everything I teach has to be radically updated every single time I teach it, just because of the pace of change, right? I don't teach doctrine. This semester will look very different than last semester, and I may make a change based on something that’s released tomorrow.”
Other faculty members are developing new ways to introduce AI into their coursework as well. Daniel Gervais, Director of the Vanderbilt Intellectual Property Program, published Forever: A Legal Sci-Fi Story, a “new type of fiction” designed to help readers consider the legal issues arising from AI.
“Fiction can be a good platform for teaching,” he says. He notes that college students have been living in a world where the distinction between reality and fiction has grown increasingly blurred – “it’s entirely natural to post a pic that they modify with AI” – and so it stands to reason that a novel like Forever could be an effective tool for addressing a technological phenomenon with existential near-term implications.
While Professor Gervais hopes Forever will be a book that students will enjoy using to address important questions of AI and the law, he hopes the audience expands beyond the classroom, to “anyone who’s thinking about the ethics and the future of AI.”
Getting hands-on experience with AI legal tech In addition to teaching the AI in legal practice course, Professor Williams and Professor Moon also co-founded the Vanderbilt AI Law Lab, commonly abbreviated as VAILL, in October 2023. The lab is part of the Program on Law and Innovation, which sets it apart from similar labs at other universities, which are typically housed in a different department such as business or engineering.
VAILL’s primary objective is providing learning opportunities for the law students at Vanderbilt, through academic courses and hands-on experiences. This fall, Professor Moon launched the VAILL practicum class, a three-credit-hour course in which students work directly on lab projects.
“The practicum really is focused on hands-on building, and so it’s less of a survey of the impact of AI on the practice of law and more focused on how we can build some things that serve as examples of what lawyers can be doing in practice,” Moon said.
One of the works in progress is an endof-life planning tool, which Professor Moon hopes could help mitigate what she calls the “access to justice gap.” She says in any given year, Americans experience about 360 million legal problems, but with only about 1.3 million practicing lawyers, there are not nearly enough attorneys to help everyone. Resources like an end-of-life planning tool could help users put together a simple will without having to pay a lawyer hundreds of dollars to complete a relatively simple job.
Multiple other projects are currently in development at VAILL. Professor Williams is working with a law school alum to develop an AI in governance course. He’s also collaborating with students to create a tracker for state-by-state legislation about artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, Professor Moon is building a resource database that will eventually become an AI chatbot that can make recommendations based on user queries.
While most of VAILL’s work currently caters to Vanderbilt law students, they do offer some resources for the rest of the legal community. They recently released a 10-day
course on Substack that is designed to bring readers up to speed on the basics of using generative AI tools in their law practice; anyone can subscribe to it. Professor Williams also teaches a free course on Coursera that is geared towards practitioners instead of law students.
As VAILL continues to grow, the professors hope to do more educational outreach to law firms, in-house legal departments, and legal aid organizations about using AI tools wisely in legal practice. “We're very interested in making our learnings, expertise, and knowledge available to the wider legal community,” Moon said.
AI in legal practice vs. AI in the law
Except for the state legislation tracker, VAILL projects and classes concentrate almost exclusively on leveraging AI tools in day-to-day legal practice, and not laws concerning AI. “The lab is focused on the use of the technology to deliver legal services and to provide legal help, as opposed to the law of AI. So we’re not really at all focused on what is the impact of AI on intellectual property law [for example],” Moon clarified.
“We focus more on the impact of legal services delivery,” Williams confirmed. “But what you find is that you can only go a couple degrees in any direction before you start running into the more policy-oriented implications and governance implications of [artificial intelligence].”
That’s why there is another Vanderbilt organization focused on influencing public policy about AI: the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator (VPA), a Discovery Vanderbilt Initiative. Launched in 2023, the VPA is overseen by Professor Ganesh Sitaraman and Executive Director Grace May.
The purpose of VPA is to “do research related to policy and to connect research to policy and policy makers,” according to Professor Sitaraman. VPA’s research focuses on three overarching policy areas: industrial policy and economic security; regulation of platforms, networks, and utilities; and public options and public governance. Professor Sitaraman explains that artificial intelligence “cuts across” all three of these areas, making it a natural issue for VPA to focus on.
There’s also a gap in academic research that VPA seeks to fill. While some specific aspects (like AI safety) have attracted research attention, very few academics work on competition and regulatory issues, such as the government using AI to improve public services. “We wanted to tackle these areas because they are comparatively understudied and under researched, but on a topic of enormous and urgent public importance,” Professor Sitaraman said.
The VPA is already gaining traction in policy circles. Its paper “Promoting Competition in Federal AI Procurement” was turned into bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate last year. Professor Sitaraman also presented at the U.S. Senate's AI Insights Forum. VPA has also provided briefings to the White House, Federal Trade Commission, and congressional staff on AI issues, and its work has been featured in news outlets such as Politico, Axios, and Project Syndicate.
The VPA isn’t the only Vanderbilt entity to produce research and explore the implications of AI policy.
The Vanderbilt Project on Prosecution Policy (VPOPP), a criminal justice hub, recently published a paper titled “AI & Prosecution: Mapping the Current and Future Roles of Artificial Intelligence in Prosecution” in collaboration with NYU Law's Policing Project. Professor Gervais co-authored a 2023 paper on “interspecific law” that argues for more research on the legal compliance of nonhumans with human-level intellectual capacity. “The possibility of an interspecific legal system provides an opportunity to consider how AI might be built and governed,” the paper states. “We argue that the legal system may be more ready for AI agents than many believe.”
The Law School’s Music Law Summit, held last spring, featured scholars and music industry professionals discussing the impact of generative AI on the music industry.
While experts at Vanderbilt are actively working to shape AI policy, Professor Williams says that legislation will still lag behind AI’s lightning-fast developments — which is why
If you're not the expert and you're trying to use it to replace your expertise, and you don't have the skills to evaluate what it's doing, or you're just going to use it like it's Google, you're not going to get a lot out of it. It might actually be detrimental to your work.
Mark Williams
it’s so critical to teach students how to use these tools wisely. “The technology is just always going to move faster than the law can keep up with it. So it’s going to be incumbent upon people like our law students to engage in self-governance,” he said.
Preparing law students for the future of AI Through the AI in legal practice course and the VAILL practicum, the students experiment with the latest AI legal tools. However, Professor Moon says that teaching students how to use AI more generally is more important than learning the specifics of any individual app (which could quickly be made obsolete by technological advances). That way, students will be prepared whenever the next disruptive innovation comes along.
“Even though AI is now the shiny new toy, it’s not going to be the last one,” she said. “Our work is really, in many ways, technology agnostic, and I think that’s what makes us so unique, is we’re not chasing the latest shiny thing. We are looking at ‘What's the foundation we give students that gives them the tools they need, no matter what the next new toy is?’”
“What I can teach students is a framework for continuing how to learn… and a mindset of curiosity and experimentation, because that is going to be maybe the number one feature that anyone who's going to continue on a knowledge work and be successful is going to have to have,” Professor Williams added.
While headlines constantly proclaim that AI is going to replace various jobs, neither professor sees that happening to lawyers anytime soon, even entry-level associates. Of course, there are real-life examples behind these headlines: For instance, CoCounsel, an AI legal assistant built on top of GPT-4, passed all sections of the bar in spring 2023.
But for each of these instances, there’s another example of AI legal tools gone badly wrong — like the lawyers who submitted fake case laws created by ChatGPT in an aviation injury claim. Incidents like that are why the professors say that developing expertise in your chosen field is key for using these AI tools judiciously, especially in high-risk professions like the law.
“If you're not the expert and you're trying to use it to replace your expertise, and you don't have the skills to evaluate what it's doing, or you're just going to use it like it's Google, you're not going to get a lot out of it. It might actually be detrimental to your work,” Williams said.
“Students are keenly aware of the risks and understanding that this technology is not a magic wand and in fact, makes human expertise even more relevant and important when it comes to wielding them,” Moon added. “This technology is not a replacement for a low-level associate… It is potentially an augmenting superpower, if you understand it, and you start off as a really good lawyer, that's when it really helps you soar.”
These classes are already helping to accelerate some law students’ careers, even though they haven’t technically graduated yet. Some firms have asked incoming Vanderbilt graduates to participate in AI committees and innovation practice groups, which is highly unusual for early-career associates, because the students are so well-equipped to address AI issues.
As Williams describes it, AI presents a unique opportunity for current law students that isn’t really offered by any other area of interest. “It's been an incredible way for students to get into or be a part of leadership groups and decision making,” he said. “They wouldn't be able to [get] those opportunities in any other subject matter other than [artificial intelligence], because they're coming in prepared more than a lot of the people that they're working with.”
“Our students go into large corporate law firms that advise some of the most powerful corporations on the planet,” Moon added. “Our students have the opportunity to help lead how this technology is going to evolve, and how we as humans are going to grapple with this technology. So we equip our students with not only the knowledge and the understanding [of AI], but [also] the mindsets of leadership and the mindsets of innovation.”
The past two academic years have been exciting and transformative here at Vanderbilt Law School.
In early 2024, Chris Guthrie was reappointed for a fourth term as Dean of the Law School. The school has benefitted tremendously from his leadership, including increased philanthropic investment from supporters like you. This was evident in early 2025, when we surpassed our $195 million Dare To Grow campaign goal eighteen months ahead of schedule. Thank you to all who have contributed to this success and who continue to make a difference for our law school.
Your generosity impacts the school in myriad ways, providing life-changing
Dear alumni and friends:
student support through Access2VLS scholarships, powering cutting-edge innovation through the Vanderbilt Artificial Intelligence Law Lab, and providing students and faculty with updated facilities to foster collaborative learning and the collegial spirit that VLS is known for.
Philanthropic support has also allowed us to launch the Gail Anderson Canizares Innocence Clinic, which will support the exoneration of wrongfully convicted individuals in Tennessee while providing students with hands-on experience beginning in Spring 2026. The clinic will be led by VLS alumna Anne-Marie Moyes ’02.
A transformational gift from Sara J. Finley ’85 will establish a new chair and endow a program advancing the law school’s leadership in the study of how law, regulation and policy impact equality, equity and opportunity for women.
Finally, at the 2025 Founders Circle Dinner this March, we were proud to announce that thanks to a generous commitment from alumni Hal Hess ’90, Andy Bayman ’89, and Lawrence Epstein ’92 (BA’89), the law school’s courtroom will be renamed in honor of beloved professor and Chancellor Emeritus Nicholas S. Zeppos.
We appreciate your gifts, big and small, and while we are proud of the above developments, we remain ambitious and strive to be a law school that our students, alumni, and friends can all be proud of. I am especially grateful for the service and support of our Board of Advisors, Campaign Cabinet, and many volunteers. Thank you for all that you do for Vanderbilt.
I hope to see many of you this year, either on campus for Reunion on November 7 & 8, at an alumni reception in NYC this fall, or at a Dare To Grow event in a city near you.
Sincerely yours,
Clay Cline Assistant Dean for Development and Alumni Relations
Founders Circle Dinner
Held at the Conrad Hotel in March, this year’s Founders Circle Dinner honored Jim Cuminale ’78 and Nicholas S. Zeppos, Chancellor Emeritus and University Distinguished Professor of Law and Political Science Emeritus. Andy Bayman ’89, Lawrence Epstein ’92 (BA’89) , and Hal Hess ’90 were recognized for making an $8 million gift to rename the VLS courtroom in honor of Chancellor Emeritus Zeppos.
Reunion Highlights
This November, we welcomed alumni from class years ending in -4 and -9 back to the Law School to celebrate their Reunion. Thank you to all of our Class Committee members who helped ensure the weekend was a success. A special thanks to our Class Chairs [Lee Barfield’74 (BA’68), Bob Buchanan’74, Torry Johnson’74, Robert’79 and Terry’79 (BA’72) Banta, Blaine’84 and Ann’84 (BA’79) Sanders, Andy Bayman’89, Brad Williams’94 (MBA’94), JP Motley’99 (MBA’99), Sarah Brooks Gabriel’04, Dave Bartz’09, Sabrina Tour’14, and Ben Colalillo’19] and our Class Promotion Chairs [Bill Purcell’79, Lisa Welch Silbar’84, Brad Gilmore’89, Jack Risenhoover’94, Brian Michael’99, Tony De Yurre’04, Ben’09 and Julia’09 Ost, Merrick Parrott’14, and Garrah Carter-Mason’19 (BA’14)]. A full list of class volunteers can be viewed at https://law.vanderbilt.edu/reunion-2024-volunteers/
Vanderbilt Law School receives $10 million philanthropic commitment for cutting-edge inquiry and dialogue on women, law and public policy
Gift from Sara J. Finley creates new chair and provides program support
Va nderbilt Law School has received a $10 million commitment from Sara J. Finley ’85 to advance Vanderbilt Law School’s leadership in the study of how law, regulation, and policy impact equality, equity, and opportunity for women.
“This is an extraordinary gift that will advance our understanding of the ways in which law and policy shape our experiences in leadership, in the workplace and across so many other spheres,” Provost C. Cybele Raver said. “Sara is such a remarkable, pathbreaking corporate leader and Vanderbilt Law School alumna. I am so very grateful to her for her vision, generosity and support of our school.”
The gift will be used to establish a chair and to endow a program for research, education and advocacy relating to equal rights, equal opportunity, and nondiscrimination.
The investment will also fuel the continued progress and deepen the impact of Vanderbilt’s Dare to Grow campaign, which supports the Law School through scholarships, faculty support, facility upgrades, and programming to prepare our next generation of lawyers and legal scholars.
“Sara has long been a leading adviser and supporter of the Law School, and we are grateful that our faculty and students will have additional opportunities to both study and impact our legal system through her visionary gift,” said Dean Chris Guthrie.
Professor Jennifer Bennett Shinall, JD/ PhD’12, has been appointed as the inaugural holder of the Sara J. Finley Chair in Women, Law and Policy. Shinall’s research focuses on discrimination, particularly in the areas of gender and disability. Her work examines how obesity, pregnancy and health status more
generally affect labor market outcomes, the gender disparities these effects may have and potential remedies for those disparities. She won a 2022 Chancellor’s Award for Research in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion for research on laws protecting women in the workplace.
“I am thrilled that Professor Shinall will hold the Sara J. Finley Chair,” Dean Guthrie said. “She is a wonderful scholar, teacher, and leader in the field.”
Shinall was the first graduate of the Ph.D. Program in Law and Economics at Vanderbilt University, earning her J.D. and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt. Before returning to Vanderbilt in 2013, Shinall was a clerk for Judge John Tinder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. She earned an A.B. in history and economics magna cum laude at Harvard University and was named to Phi Beta Kappa.
Shinall teaches Employment Discrimination Law and Employment Law to J.D. students and teaches Labor Markets and Human Resources and the Ph.D. Workshop for the Ph.D. Program in Law and Economics.
“Just down the street from our law school, women first earned the right to vote when Tennessee became the final state to ratify the 19th Amendment,” Finley said. “Now, over 100 years later, the roles and rights of women continue to dominate headlines and policy, as women continue to navigate a complex legal framework impacting their lives at work, at home, and in society.
“Vanderbilt University will be an outstanding steward for this important work, and I am proud to know that future generations of lawyers, both women and men, will benefit from the teaching and programming offered through this new Women, Law and Policy initiative. The program aspect of this initiative has the potential to be innovative and transformative, and I hope my gift will inspire others to support the programming so that we can expedite its development and impact.”
If you are interested in supporting this initiative, please contact Associate Dean Clay Cline at clay.cline@vanderbilt.edu
This is an extraordinary gift that will advance our understanding of the ways
in which law and policy shape our experiences in leadership, in
the workplace and across so many other spheres.
Provost C. Cybele Raver
Anbridge Charitable Fund endows the creation of The Gail Anderson Cañizares Innocence Clinic at VLS
Clinic will support the exoneration of wrongfully accused individuals in the state of Tennessee
Vanderbilt Law School has received a $6.8 million gift from Gail Anderson Canizares (BA’75) and Roberto Canizares to support the creation of an Innocence Clinic, which will support the exoneration of wrongfully accused individuals in Tennessee while providing students with hands-on case experience.
"I am humbled by the transformative gift that Gail and Rob have made to the law school,” said Dean Chris Guthrie. “Thanks to their vision and generosity, we will be able to provide our students with a transformative educational experience in pursuit of justice for the innocent.”
The clinic, which functions as a course available to 2L and 3L students, launches in the 2026 Spring Semester. Students will work on exoneration cases under the supervision of incoming Clinic Director Anne-Marie Moyes ’02, a long-time Federal Public Defender currently serving as Executive Director of the Korey Wise Innocence Project at the University of Colorado Law School. Moyes will join Vanderbilt next summer.
“The clinic will provide our students with an incredible opportunity to provide needed help to vulnerable clients who are suffering
as victims of wrongful convictions,” said Susan Kay, Associate Dean for Experiential Education and Clinical Professor of Law. “It is so wonderful that Anne-Marie Moyes will be coming home to Vanderbilt and bringing her wealth of experience and expertise to direct the clinic and teach our students.”
Gail Canizares, a lifelong educator, graduated from Vanderbilt in 1975 with BAs in French and Spanish. Rob served as president of MSA International and the head of Trane in Asia during his long and successful career. Two of Gail and Rob’s children, Andy Canizares (BA’00) and Monica Anderson Rosenquist (MD’10/PHD’18) graduated from Vanderbilt.
Through the Canizares Anderson Foundation, Gail and Rob support their passion for Innocence work as well as educational efforts in Colombia. Gail’s parents, Jack and Rose-Marie Anderson, endowed three scholarships at Vanderbilt.
BLSA Dinner
BLSA alumni and friends enjoyed a gala dinner at the Law School in Nashville organized and hosted by current BLSA members. BLSA Chapter President Sophia Howard ’25 and Fundraising Chair Miles Brinkley ’25 welcomed students, alumni and guests. The event featured alumni panelists who spoke about their careers: Mark A. Baugh ’92, Shareholder, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz, Jordyn Conley ’19, Public Defender with Nashville Defenders, Kyrus Freeman ’02, Partner and Land Use Attorney at Holland & Knight, and Janna Perry ’23, Board Liaison for BeyGOOD Foundation. Our thanks to all the sponsors: Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, and Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson; Silver Sponsors Alston & Bird, Greenberg Traurig, and Kirkland & Ellis; and Bronze Sponsors Holland & Knight, Milbank, Weil Gotshal & Manges, VLS Dean’s Office and Alumni Office.
Nancy King Retires from Vanderbilt Law Faculty, Takes Emerita Status
Nancy King, who held the Lee S. and Charles A. Speir Professor of Law from 2003 to 2024, has retired from the Vanderbilt Law Faculty, effective January 1, 2025. King is a nationally renowned expert in criminal procedure, ranking among the most cited criminal law professors in the U.S.
“Through her scholarship and teaching, Nancy King has profoundly impacted the way that we think about and teach criminal law in America, and decades of Vanderbilt law students have benefitted from her instruction,” said Dean Chris Guthrie. “We are grateful for her service at the law school and her contributions to the legal field.”
King joined the Vanderbilt Law faculty in 1991 as an Assistant Professor. She served as Associate Dean of Research and Faculty Development from 1999-2001.
King earned the University’s Distinguished Faculty Award in 2003, the Chancellor’s Award for Research in 2005, and the Alexander Heard Distinguished Service Professor Award -- given each year to a single faculty member whose research has made distinctive contributions to the understanding of contemporary society -- in 2010. She held the FedEx Research Chair at the Law School in 2001.
Over the course of her academic career, King has authored or co-authored two leading multi-volume treatises on criminal procedure, the leading criminal procedure casebook, dozens of articles and book chapters, and several books, including Habeas for the Twenty-First Century: Uses, Abuses and the Future of the Great Writ. Her articles have been published in the Yale Law Journal, Duke Law Journal, and Stanford, UCLA, and Vanderbilt Law Reviews, among many others.
Through her scholarship and teaching, Nancy King has profoundly impacted the way that we think about and teach criminal law in America.
Dean Chris Guthrie
King is an Associate Reporter for and former member of the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and a member of the American Law Institute. She was Touroff-Glueck Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School in fall 2015.
Prior to entering the legal academy, King served as a law clerk for Judge Douglas W. Hillman, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, and Judge Michael F. Cavanagh, Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. She earned her J.D. from the University of Michigan, where she was inducted into the Order of the Coif.
King was affiliated with the Criminal Justice Program and the Branstetter Litigation & Dispute Resolution Program. She taught Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure: Adjudication, White Collar Crime Seminar, and Sentencing, among other courses.
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At the Law School, we are daring to grow by maximizing support for our world-class faculty and students. Join us on this courageous journey. Together, we will reduce barriers to a Vanderbilt education and empower the exceptional legal scholars of tomorrow.
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131 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37203
In compliance with federal law, including the provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972, Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, Executive Order 11246, the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 as amended by the Jobs for Veterans Act, and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, as amended, and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, Vanderbilt University does not discriminate against individuals on the basis of their race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, military service, covered veterans status, or genetic information in its administration of educational policies, programs, or activities; admissions policies; scholarship and loan programs; athletic or other university-administered programs; or employment. In addition, the university does not discriminate against individuals on the basis of their gender expression consistent with the university’s nondiscrimination policy. Inquiries or complaints should be directed to Anita J. Jenious, J.D., Director; Equal Employment Opportunity Office; Baker Building; PMB 401809, 2301 Vanderbilt Place; Nashville, TN 37240-1809. Telephone (615) 343-9336; FAX (615) 343-4969.
LAW SCHOOL REUNION 2025
Save the date for our Vanderbilt Law School Reunion! This year, we celebrate classes ending in 0 and 5. Don’t miss the chance to see old friends and revisit memories of your Law School days. Mark your calendars and start planning. If you’re interested in helping with your Reunion, email reunion.vuls@vanderbilt.edu.
We look forward to seeing you in Nashville!
VISIT VU.EDU/REUNION-LAW TO LEARN MORE!
More details, including registration information, will be available this summer.