Faculty Activities and Accolades

Hillel Bavli’s new article, Character Evidence as a Conduit for Implicit Bias, 56 U.C. Davis L. Rev. (forthcoming 2022/23), has been selected for presentation at the Harvard/Yale/Stanford Junior Faculty Forum. This summer, he is scheduled to present the article at Vanderbilt Law School’s Evidence Summer Workshop, the Harvard/Yale/Stanford Junior Faculty Forum, and the annual conference of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law.

Andrew Davies, of the Deason Center, was a panelist at the 2022 ABA Public Defense Summit on April 21st where the topic was “Finding and Retaining Qualified Counsel.” As President of the Indigent Defense Research Association (IDRA), he presided over the IDRA Spring 2022 Virtual Conference on April 28th and 29th. During the IDRA Conference, Andrew Davies, Blane Skiles, Janelle Gursoy (student) and Alex Romo (student) of the Deason Center presented a paper on April 28th titled “Getting Gideon Right: Eligibility for Appointed Counsel in Texas Misdemeanor Cases.” The conference was hosted by the Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center.

Beverly C. Dureus was a featured speaker for “The Women of Color Collective and the Power of Narratives Research Cluster”, and presented an interfaith talk where she discussed among other things, women in the law and the intersections of faith, law, and religion; she was selected as “Blackulty of the Year 2022” by the Dedman School of Law Black Law Students Association for her “service to the Dedman School of Law and the Black Law Students Association,” and was honored at BLSA’s Year End Banquet where the Dallas District Attorney John Creuzot was the featured guest speaker; she will be the Baccalaureate Key Note Speaker for the Duncanville High School Graduating Class of 2022. Beverly will also be a faculty presenter at the Sidley Law Advantage Program 2022 this summer, teaching legal research and writing. Finally, she has accepted the invitation to become a member of The National Black Lawyers - Top 100, an elite national network of African American attorneys. Her selection was based on her legal successes and professional reputation in Texas.

Joanna Grossman had her new book The Walled Garden: Law and Privacy in Modern Society (2022) (with Lawrence M. Friedman) published.

Christopher Hanna’s article U.S. International Tax Policy and Corporate America, has been accepted for publication in volume 48 of The Journal of Corporation Law, published by the University of Iowa Law School.

Chris Jenks’ article, Ukraine Symposium – Comprehensive Justice and Accountability in Ukraine was published in Articles of War on April 15th.

Tom Leatherbury had his op-ed Opinion: Don't let authoritarian views dictate what our kids can read published in the Austin American-Statesman on April 7th.

Pamela Metzger was a panelist at the 2022 ABA Public Defense Summit on April 22nd where the topic was “Ethical Potpourri.” She was the speaker at the Deason Center CJR Workshop on April 26th. She presented her paper (which she co-authored with Janet Hoeffel of Tulane) titled Charging Time which will be published in Volume 108 of the Iowa Law Review. She also moderated a panel at the Deason Center STAR Justice Series event on April 28th which was titled “Conflicts of Interest and Judicial Ethics in Rural Criminal Law.” Her paper co-authored with Janel Hoeffel titled Charging Time was recently listed on SSRN’s Top Ten download list for Corrections & Rehabilitation eJournal and LSN: Procedure (Criminal Procedure).

Seema Mohapatra was interviewed and quoted in the following:

1. State Restraints on Abortion Pill Access Tee Up New Legal Battle, Lydia Wheeler, March 31st, Bloomberg Law;
2. Health Worker Vaccine Mandate Stays Intact as Pandemic Recedes, Allie Reed, March 21st, Bloomberg Law;
3. America’s Flu-Shot Problem Is Also Its Next COVID-Shot Problem, Katherine J. Wu, March 18th, The Atlantic.

She also appeared on the Skimm This podcast about Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination. She was an Invited Presenter for the following:

1. Intersectionality, Assisted Reproduction and Reproductive Justice, Centering Intersectionality in Human Rights Discourse, Washington and Lee Law Review Lara D. Gass Symposium, Lynchburg, Virginia;
2. Post Roe: Assisted Reproduction and Reproductive Justice at the Baby Markets Roundtable, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Seema was an Invited Moderator for Anti-Racist Teaching and Practice Session, Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics Health Law and Anti-Racism Symposium, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 30th, 2022. She published Structural Discrimination in Pandemic Policy: Essential Protections for Essential Workers (with Abigail E. Lowe and Kelly K. Dineen) in the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, Vol. 50, Issue 1, March 2022.

Natalie Nanasi has been named a Contributing Expert on the Gender-Based Violence Panel for the new edition of Our Bodies Ourselves. The groundbreaking book, originally published in 1970, provides evidence-based information about girls’ and women’s reproductive health and sexuality. After 9 print editions (which sold 4 million copies and were translated into 31 languages), the book will move online, as part of a collaboration with the Center for Health and Human Rights at Suffolk University. Natalie was also interviewed for and quoted in the following stories: As MLB Suspends Trevor Bauer, A New Accuser Speaks Out in the Washington Post on April 29th and U.S. to welcome Ukraine refugees but no longer through Mexico on Fox4 News on April 21st.

Anna Offit received the 2022 SMU Women in Law Distinguished Professor Award in recognition of excellence in teaching, leadership, and support of students at the law school. Anna was interviewed by WFAA News 8 about the upcoming trial of Aaron Dean in Tarrant County. She presented research on the application of ABA Model Rule 8.4(g) to the jury system as part of a CLE program for the North Texas Federal Criminal Law American Inn of Court. Anna’s forthcoming article Religious Convictions appeared on SSRN Top Ten lists for papers on Criminal Procedure, Law & Religion, and Juries in March and April. She was invited by the Dallas Bar Association Equality Committee to participate in a panel discussing Isabel Wilkerson’s book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Anna presented research on the Norwegian legal system as part of an SMU Law International Law Society event. She led sessions as part Admitted Students Day and as a Prelaw Scholars Course guest lecturer. Anna completed supervision of a Frisco Independence High School study of the relationship between mental health treatment and recidivism in Norwegian and American prisons and jails.

Carla Reyes led a discussion of definitional issues presented in the re-draft of the UCC at the UCC Subcommittee on Article 2 meeting on April 2nd, 2022 as part of the 2022 ABA Business Law Section Spring Meeting. From April 6th – 9th, Carla participated in the ASIL annual meeting in Washington, D.C., concluding her service as a member of the 2022 ASIL Program Committee. Carla presided over a virtual meeting of the Texas Work Group on Blockchain Matters on April 8th, 2022. Additionally, Carla presented her paper Emerging Technology’s Language Wars: Cryptocurrency at the University of Wisconsin School of Law Conference on Law, Legal Institutions, and Technological Change on April 22nd, 2022. The paper is forthcoming in the William & Mary Law Review, and the Wisconsin Law Review Forward has invited publication of a related essay, titled Emerging Technology’s Language Wars: Smart Contracts. Both the article and the essay are part of a series of papers presenting the results of linguistic studies investigating the impact of interdisciplinary language conflicts on law-making related to emerging technology. Finally, from April 25th – 28th, 2022, Carla participated as an Expert Member in the meeting of the UNIDROIT Work Group on Best Practices for Effective Enforcement at UNIDROIT headquarters in Rome, Italy. The Work Group is developing a best practices document to assist UNIDROIT member states in harmonizing their enforcement law and procedure. On April 29th, 2022, Carla spoke at the UNIDROIT-European Law Institute (ELI) Joint Conference on Digital Platforms and Global Law regarding the U.S. approach to platform regulation at UNIDROIT headquarters.

Marc Steinberg posted a piece based on his forthcoming law review article in The Journal of Corporation Law entitled To Call a Donkey a Racehorse: The Fiduciary Duty Misnomer in Corporate and Securities Law in the CLS Blue Sky Blog, Columbia Law School's Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets. Marc was quoted or paraphrased in several articles addressing Elon Musk's takeover bid for Twitter, including the following:

1. Elon Musk Makes Offer to Buy Twitter, Ephrat Livni, April 14th, New York Times;
2. 3 Lingering Questions About Musk's Twitter Takeover Bid, Tom Zanki, April 14th, Law360;
3. Controversial SEC Proposal Would Reign In Large Shareholders Like Elon Musk, Alexis Keenan, April 7th, Yahoo!Finance;
4. Elon Musk Risks New Fights With SEC Over Late Reported Twitter Stake, Megan Henney, April 6th, Fox Business News;
5. How Tesla CEO Elon Musk's Twitter Stake Could Affect His Legal Battles With SEC, Alexis Keenan, April 6th, Yahoo!Finance.