LaVonda N. Reed Joins as Dean | |
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LaVonda N. Reed became dean and professor at The University of Baltimore School of Law on July 1, 2024. She is the first female dean at the School of Law.
Reed had been dean and professor at Georgia State University College of Law since July 2021. Her areas of focus in research and teaching include wills and trusts, property, and communications regulatory law and policy.
Prior to her appointment at Georgia State, Reed served as professor of law and associate provost for faculty affairs at Syracuse University, where she had oversight of research and administrative leaves, awards, promotion and tenure review, and other duties. Learn more about Dean Reed.
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New Faculty Hires in 2024 | |
The University of Baltimore School of Law welcomed four new faculty members this year. Three are tenure-track professors, and one is a clinical teaching fellow. | |
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Danielle Burs joined the faculty in 2024 as a teaching fellow in the Community Development Clinic. Prior to coming to UBalt Law, she held a variety of positions at the intersection of law, public policy, and community advocacy. She has focused on transactional, legislative, and regulatory work in her career, while also representing clients in administrative and civil cases.
Her professional experience includes positions at nonprofit organizations, government offices, and private practice. Burs also maintains roles on volunteer boards focused on community development. Learn more.
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B. Afton Cavanaugh joined the law school as an assistant professor. Prior to joining the faculty, he was a service professor of law and assistant dean at St. Mary’s University School of Law, where he taught a wide range of courses, including Legal Communications, Analysis, and Professionalism; Experiential Legal Analysis; Estate Planning; and Bar Prep for Credit.
At UBalt Law, Cavanaugh teaches Introduction to Lawyering Skills (ILS) and Trusts and Estates. Prior to his academic career, Cavanaugh practiced law as co-founder and managing member of Cavanaugh Quintanilla, PLLC in Austin, Tex., where he specialized in real estate, business law, and wills and estates. Learn more.
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Richard Luedeman joined the faculty as an assistant professor. He teaches Introduction to Lawyering Skills (ILS) and Federal Civil Rights Claims. Previously, at the University of Connecticut School of Law, Luedeman taught lawyering courses and Advanced Civil Procedure. He is a member of the legal writing community, following pedagogical developments in the field and serving on the awards committee for the AALS Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research.
Prior to teaching, Luedeman was a practitioner specializing in complex and appellate litigation. Before private practice, he clerked for judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. Learn more.
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Jessica Lynn Wherry joined the faculty as an associate professor teaching legal analysis and writing to first-year students, and upper-level writing in veterans law. Wherry began her teaching career as associate professor of legal research and writing, associate director of the legal research and writing program, and co-director of the scholarly writing program at The George Washington University Law School.
Previously, she taught legal research and writing courses at Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to her career in education, she served as assistant counsel in the U.S. Department of the Navy’s Office of the General Counsel and as a cryptologic technician in the U.S. Navy. Wherry’s scholarly interests are veterans and military law, legal communication and narrative, and the intersection of the two. Learn more.
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Recent Faculty Scholarly Achievements | |
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Prof. Nienke Grossman, co-director of the University of Baltimore’s Center for International and Comparative Law, was reelected to a second term on the Inter-American Juridical Committee (IAJC) at the 54th OAS General Assembly in Asuncion, Paraguay, on June 28, 2024. Grossman is the first woman and the first Latina nominated by the United States and elected to serve on the committee, and one of only eight women to serve on the committee since 1942.
This year, she completed a three-year term on the American Society of International Law’s Executive Council. She served as Special Advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in 2023.
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Prof. Dionne Koller, director of UBalt's Center for Sport and the Law, is the author of More Than Play: How Law, Policy, and Politics Shape American Youth Sport, forthcoming in April 2025.
Koller received the American Association of Law Schools’ (AALS) Section in Law and Sport’s section award for excellence in her scholarship at the organization’s annual conference on Jan. 3, 2024.
She was recognized for her forthcoming book; her testimony before the U.S. Senate on Name, Image and Likeness legislation; and her work co-chairing the congressionally appointed committee on the Olympic movement. Learn more.
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Prof. Kim Wehle published her fourth book, Pardon Power: How the Pardon System Works -- and Why, in September. She regularly provides insights on issues of constitutional and administrative law on ABC News, NPR and PBS, and in the pages of The Atlantic, The Bulwark, Politico and other outlets.
In Spring 2025, she will visit The Netherlands as a Fulbright scholar to examine how citizens internalize constitutional norms and use them, to varying degrees, to reinforce constitutional structures through voting, civic participation, financial support, and other means. Learn more.
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Prof. John Bessler, pictured, contributed chapters to two books, Death Penalty in Decline? The Fight Against Capital Punishment in the Decades Since Furman v. Georgia, published in May 2024, and The Slow Death of the Death Penalty: Toward a Post-Mortem, forthcoming in 2025.
Prof. Anne-Marie Carstens was appointed to a special committee of the International Law Association to draft a report on protecting cultural property during armed conflict.
Prof. Afton Cavanaugh wrote an article, Statutory Time Travel: Allow Same-Sex Couples to Recoup Tax Overpayments, for UMKC L. Rev., forthcoming in 2025.
Prof. Gilda Daniels published an op-ed, "Why Americans can keep faith in our election system," in The Baltimore Sun on Nov. 4, 2024.
Prof. Michele Gilman, director of the Saul Ewing Civil Advocacy Clinic, wrote Ten Empowering Strategies for Non-Directive Clinical Supervision, to appear in 31 Clinical L. Rev., forthcoming in 2025.
Prof. Daniel Hatcher's article, The Commodification of the Poor, and the Theory of Stategraft, was published in 2024 Wisc. Law Rev. 559 (2024).
Prof. William Hubbard, director of UBalt's Center for the Law of Intellectual Property and Technology, authored two articles, Drivers of Success: Crafting Effective Legal Foundations for Automated Vehicles, forthcoming in Vill. L. Rev., and An Empirical Roadmap to Reforming State Law for Automated Vehicles, co-authored with UBalt Law Prof. Colin Starger, forthcoming in Cardozo L. Rev.
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Prof. Margaret Johnson, director of the Bronfein Family Law Clinic and co-director of the Center on Applied Feminism, co-authored a chapter, "Menstruation and Abortion," in the forthcoming book, SAGE Encyclopedia of Menstruation and Society.
Prof. Jonathan Kerr's article, Riding on Horseback to the Moon: Consent Searches in the Age of Smartphones and Digital Tracking, is forthcoming in 82:2 Wash. & Lee L. Rev.
Prof. Katie Kronick, director of the Criminal Defense Clinic, published Intellectual Disability, Mitigation and Punishment in 65 B.C. L. Rev. 1561 (2024).
Prof. Richard Luedeman's article, Mitigate the Pro Se Pleading Farce by (Mostly) Abolishing the Rule 12(b)(6) Motion, will appear in 17 Ne. Univ. L. Rev, forthcoming in 2025.
Prof. Hugh McClean, director of The Bob Parsons Veterans Advocacy Clinic, co-authored Review of Veterans Law Decisions of the Federal Circuit, 2022-2023 Edition, for 73 Am. U. L. Rev. 1091 (2024).
Prof. Audrey McFarlane, pictured, has written a chapter, "Zoning's Racial Innocence and the Imperatives of Segregation," in the book, Intransigence and Hope: The Long Journey Towards Racial Justice in American Land Use, forthcoming in 2025. She also has written a chapter, "Race, Property and Power," in the book Race, Racism and American Law, edited by Derrick Bell and others, forthcoming in 2025.
Prof. Michael Meyerson's article, When One Door Closes: Legal Education and Racial Justice After Students for Fair Admissions, will appear in 103 Neb. L. Rev., forthcoming in 2025.
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Prof. Walter Schwidetzky's article, The Worthlessness Deduction for Partnership Interests: An Unguided Missile, appeared in 183 Tax Notes 461 (2024).
Prof. Mortimer Sellers, co-director of the Center on International and Comparative Law, was elected vice president and president-elect of the American Society of Comparative Law.
Prof. Matthew Sipe, pictured, wrote an article, Patent Law 101: I Know It When I See It, which appears in 37 Harv. J. L. Tech. (2024).
Prof. Amy E. Sloan published her book, Using Generative AI for Legal Research in 2024.
Prof. Ioanna Tourkochoriti was elected to the executive committee of the American Society of Comparative Law.
Prof. Shanta Trivedi, pictured, faculty director of the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts, has an article, The Continuing Harm of Child Removal, forthcoming in Fam. Ct. Rev.
Prof. Sonya Ziaja was named the Pace | Haub Environmental Law Distinguished Junior Scholar for 2024-2025.
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UBalt Law students Iyanna Arrington and Victoria Garner won the national finals of the Thurgood Marshall Moot Court Competition, hosted by the National Black Law Students Association on Mar. 9-10, 2024, in Houston, Texas. Learn more.
The UBalt School of Law’s finalist team in the Pace University Elisabeth Haub School of Law Environmental Law and Policy Hack Competition finished first in the nation for its brief and presentation, “Achieving a Circular Economy for Textile Waste in Baltimore City: Improving a Significant Public-Private Partnership Through Targeted Legal Reform.” The virtual competition took place on April 19, 2024. Learn more.
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University of Baltimore School of Law
1420 N. Charles St., Baltimore MD 21201
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