University of Arizona Law Welcomes Six New Faculty

The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law has hired six new faculty members who will join the college at the beginning of the 2019-20 academic year. Their collective scholarship, teaching and advocacy experience spans many disciplines and jurisdictions.  

 

Dean Marc Miller reflected the excitement of the entire community about these new faculty members.   

 

“Our faculty have been, are, and always will be the lifeblood of our college,” Miller said. “Our new colleagues embody the vision of innovative scholars, committed and effective teachers and engaged and supportive community members that have defined and distinguished our college for generations.”   

 

Justin Pidot joins as a professor of law whose teaching and research relate to public lands, natural resources, environmental law, administrative law and property. His publications have appeared in the Stanford Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, Harvard Environmental Law Review and other journals, and he co-authors the casebook “Practicing Environmental Law.” Previously, Pidot taught at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. He also served as the deputy solicitor for land resources for the U.S. Department of the Interior, a political appointment within the senior executive service, as an appellate lawyer for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Judith W. Rogers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Pidot received his JD, with distinction, from Stanford Law School and a BA, with high honors, from Wesleyan University. 

Xiaoqian Hu joins as an associate professor of law and will teach property law and a seminar titled, “Property Rights, Social Justice, and the Environment.” Hu’s research examines the connections between property law and societal change and the limits and responsibility of the state in responding to and shaping societal change. She received her SJD from Harvard Law School and was awarded the Yong K. Kim ’95 Memorial Prize for her work on property struggles in urbanizing China. She received her PhD in comparative law and law and economics from Turin University in Italy, and both a master’s degree (in civil jurisprudence) and an LLB from East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai. Her previous work explores the mutual opposition and attraction that tie U.S. and Chinese law to each other. 

Shalev Roisman joins as an associate professor of law and will teach courses in administrative law, civil procedure and presidential power. His research and teaching interests include constitutional law, administrative law, national security law, international law and civil procedure. Roisman joins the University of Arizona from Harvard Law School, where he was a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law. Prior to that, he served as an attorney-adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice, an acting assistant professor of lawyering at New York University School of Law, a senior associate in the litigation department of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, and as a law clerk to Judge Gerard E. Lynch and Judge Robert D. Sack on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He received his JD, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School and his BA in history and economics from Cornell University. 

Arizona Law alumna Priyanka Sundareshan (‘11) is the new director of the Natural Resource Use and Management Clinic. She was most recently an attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund in Washington, D.C., where she advocated for sustainable federal fisheries management in legal and policy issues. Prior to that, Sundareshan was an associate at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in D.C., and her practice included a broad array of energy and environmental statutes. A Tucson native, she received her JD and an MS in natural resource economics through the University of Arizona’s dual degree program in Economics, Law and the Environment. She holds a BS in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

The Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy program welcomes Heather Whiteman Runs Him as the Tribal Justice Clinic’s new director. She joins Arizona Law from the Native American Rights Fund in Boulder Colorado, where she represented tribal clients on water rights and advised clients on claims relating to water, land and other natural resource issues. Prior to that she was joint lead counsel at the Crow Tribe Office of Executive Counsel and an assistant public defender for New Mexico Public Defenders – Metro Division. Whiteman Runs Him received her JD from Harvard Law School, her BAFA in studio art and art history from the University of New Mexico, and her AFA in museum studies from the Institute of American Indian Arts.  

Diana Newmark has been hired as an assistant clinical professor of law with a joint appointment as an assistant professor of practice and faculty fellow in the College of Education’s Education Policy Center. She will be developing a lay clinic at Arizona Law, working with Bachelor of Arts in Law and Master of Legal Studies students. Newmark joins the University of Arizona from Harvard Law School, where she was a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law. Prior to that, she was a staff attorney at the Children’s Law Center in Washington, D.C. She also served as a Skadden Fellow at The Legal Aid Society in the Bronx, New York, where she represented court-involved children in school discipline and special education matters. She received her JD, cum laude, from New York University School of Law and BA in philosophy from Columbia University. Before attending law school, Newmark taught special education for four years in the Bronx, New York.