For the Record: Special Merit Award, Virtual Presentations and Faculty in the Media

Jan. 25, 2021
University of Arizona campus at sunset

Catch up on recent University of Arizona Law faculty accomplishments, including awards, new positions and media coverage.   

News 

Arizona Law Faculty Speak at Virtual AALS Annual Meeting 

Seven of Arizona Law's faculty members spoke at the 2021 Association of American Law Schools' Annual Meeting, providing a snapshot of faculty scholarship and expertise for colleagues from across the country.  

Stacy Rupprecht Jane, Director, Innovation for Justice and Professor of Practice.  
Session: "AALS Hot Topic Program: Breaking News in U.S. Legal Regulatory Reform" 

Jessica Findley, Research Scholar.  
Session: "An Empirical Look at Influences on Access to Legal Education & the Profession" 

Bashar Malkawi, Global Professor of Practice in Law.  
Session: "East Asian Responses to Crises -- Pandemics, Trade, Climate, and Beyond" 

Marc Miller, Dean and Ralph W. Bilby Professor of Law.  
Breakout Session on "Financial Issues: Developing New Revenue Streams" (facilitator) 

Barak Orbach, Professor of Law.  
Session: "Section on Antitrust and Economic Regulation: Antitrust In--And After--A Time of Crisis" 

Tara Sklar, Professor of Health Law and Director, Health Law & Policy Program.  
Session: "Intersectionality, Aging, and the Law" 

Priya Sundareshan, Director, National Resource Use & Management Clinic.  
Session: "Exploring the Role of State and Local Government Laws in Environmental Sustainability" 

Pidot Article Included in Top 20 List in the 2021 Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review  

Arizona Law professor Justin Pidot’s recent article, “Contingent Delisting,” has been selected for inclusion in the top 20 articles as part of the article selection process for the 2021 Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review (ELPAR), a joint project of the Environmental Law Institute and Vanderbilt University Law School. 

The top 20 list will be published in the 14th issue of ELPAR (August 2021 issue of the Environmental Law Reporter) this summer. 

Jane Receives the State Bar of Arizona’s Award for Special Merit for 2020 

Professor Stacy Rupprecht Jane has been awarded with the State Bar of Arizona’s Award for Special Merit for 2020. The Award of Special Merit is presented by the Board of Governors to members of the State Bar of Arizona who have made significant contributions to the furtherance of public understanding of the legal system, the administration of justice, and confidence in the legal profession.    

Jane, director of the Innovation for Justice (i4J) Program, has recently joined the nation's leading health and housing advocates to co-author the report on "The COVID-19 Eviction Crisis: an Estimated 30-40 Million People in America Are at Risk,” She has led partnerships between i4J and the National Low Income Housing Coalition on a recently published study on the cost of COVID-19 evictions and has led i4J in developing the Cost of Eviction Calculator, which sheds light on the aggregate community costs of eviction and promotes systemic shifts toward eviction prevention. 

Article Co-Authored by Salmon Makes List of Best Legal Education Articles of 2020 

An article co-authored by Director of Legal Writing, Susie Salmon, “Treating Professionals Professionally: Requiring Security of Position for All Skills-Focused Faculty under ABA Accreditation Standard 405(c) and Eliminating 405(d),” was on the list of Best Legal Education Articles of 2020 on TaxProf Blog.  

Salmon co-authored the article with J. Lyn Entrikin (Arkansas-Little Rock), Lucy Jewel (Tennessee), Craig T. Smith (North Carolina), Kristen K. Tiscione (Georgetown) and Melissa H. Weresh (Drake). 

Innovation for Justice Faculty and Staff Present Program’s Work in the Community and Beyond  

University of Arizona Law professor Stacy Rupprecht Jane presented the work from Innovation for Justice Program at the Eviction Forum, presented by the Arizona Housing Coalition and to the Legal Services Funders Network's Fellows Program. Jane also presented at the Decolonizing Justice event, a virtual gathering to advance community-grown justice solutions.  

Mackenzie Phish spoke at Open Studio sponsored by the Waters Center for Systems Thinking and presented i4j work to the Arizona Prevention Research Center. Sarah Mauet presented i4j’s work to the Self Represented Litigation Network.   

Innovation for Justice will also be sharing their work at CyberJustice Laboratory web-conferences and Legal Services Corporation’s Innovations and Technology Conference in January 2021.  

In the Media 

Business Insider 
Jan. 20, 2021 

Op-ed by lawyer Mark Bankston on Trump's social media ban quotes professor Derek Bambauer’s article on misinformation, Ecosystem of Distrust. 

The University of Arizona College of Law, the School of Journalism, and the School of Government and Public Policy have launched a Participatory Democracy Initiative. Former Tucson Mayor and Arizona Law professor of practice Jonathan Rothschild writes that the purpose of the initiative is to make a difference in practice by educating and developing students and the community to find ways out of the partisan thicket and share a common foundation for debate and rationally engaging in the challenges that lie ahead. 

Big Tech companies' enforcement of acceptable use policies following Capitol riots is questioned by some experts, as they argue that First Amendment rights to free speech should extend to social networks. Arizona Law professor Derek Bambauer comments when social platforms can be used as megaphones to incite violence and provide material support to terrorists, which is illegal under the First Amendment, the government has reason to regulate speech on social media to some extent. 

Have Trump’s Lies Wrecked Free Speech? 
New York Times 
Jan. 6, 2021 

A debate has broken out over whether the once-sacrosanct constitutional protection of the First Amendment has become a threat to democracy. Dean Emerita Toni Massaro weighs in on free speech and democracy.  

Arizona Law professor and one of the nation's preeminent experts on water policy and law Robert Glennon writes on the Trump administration's last-minute rollback on water-saving standards for shower heads. 

Arizona Law professor Derek Bambauer discusses with how tech policy might differ from the Trump to the Biden administration. 

As President-elect Biden begins naming his picks for Cabinet positions, many are paying attention to the lawyers whose roles will shape the new administration’s work on the environment. Professor Justin Pidot weighs in.  

Professor Keith Swisher, a legal ethics expert, weighs on possibility of attorney discipline for making false claims.  

Major changes in environmental policy expected under Biden 
Arizona Public Media 
Nov. 25, 2020  

Environmental Law professor Justin Pidot comments on the potential changes in federal policy with the incoming Biden Administration. 

Professor Justin Pidot quoted on possible changes to the Justice Department’s environment division when the Biden administration takes office in January.  

Professor Shalev Roisman breaks down the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.