Faculty Activities 2022

Getting to Know Prof. Jonathan Skinner-Thompson

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 02:33:44 +0000

Getting to Know Prof. Jonathan Skinner-Thompson Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 08/17/2022 - 20:33

Jonathan Skinner-Thompson, who joined the Colorado Law clinical faculty in 2020, has transitioned from his role as associate clinical professor and director of the Getches-Green Natural Resources, Energy & Environmental Law Clinic to associate professor of law on the research faculty. He will continue to teach natural resources courses in his new role, including Climate Change Law and Policy and Environmental Law. Skinner-Thompson also serves as affiliated faculty for the Graduate Certificate in Environmental Justice at CU ��«��Ƶ and sits on the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment’s (CDPHE) Environmental Justice Advisory Board.

Skinner-Thompson has had a diverse career in environmental law, holding positions at public interest organizations, in private practice, and at all levels of government.

He graduated cum laude from Duke University School of Law and with high honors from the University of California, Berkeley.

Q: It’s great to speak with you, Professor!

Likewise!

Q: What excites you the most about the upcoming fall semester?

I can’t wait to be back in the building. Our students and community bring the school to life and make teaching and learning a joy.

Q: What originally sparked your interest in environmental law?

My interest in environmental law started as a public health and safety concern. I love the outdoors, but I’ve also experienced the bodily damage that can come with pollution and exposure to toxic chemicals. Environmental protection and human health are related, of course. Those experiences just sparked the interest.

Q: Is it safe to assume you will be focusing more on research in your new position?

Yes, that’s right. While I may continue some pro bono counseling on the side and will be serving on CDPHE’s Environmental Justice Advisory Board, my focus will shift to research and scholarship.

Q: What will you miss about your work with the clinic, and what excites you most about your new role?

I will miss strategizing and talking with clients and community groups around the country.

Q: Can you share a bit about what you’re working on now?

I have two projects at the moment. The first will touch on decolonial theory and environmental governance. The second builds on my recent article on procedural environmental justice. I’ll be doing a national survey of public participation procedures under a specific permitting program to see what we can learn about practices across the country.

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Getting to Know Clinical Prof. Christina Stanton ‘15

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 02:21:11 +0000

Getting to Know Clinical Prof. Christina Stanton ‘15 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 08/17/2022 - 20:21

This fall, Colorado Law alumna Christina Stanton ’15 joins the faculty as an associate clinical professor and director of the American Indian Law Clinic. Stanton previously served as an adjunct professor at the law school, interim director of the American Indian Law Clinic, and director of operations at First Peoples Worldwide, an organization housed in the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Colorado. There, she led targeted international strategy on behalf of Indigenous partners in parallel with market-based corporate advocacy and directed the student research program, which seeks to develop early career professionals and Native leaders in the field.

She earned a JD with an American Indian Law certificate from the University of Colorado and a Bachelor of Arts from Johns Hopkins University.

Q: Thanks so much for speaking with us, Prof. Stanton!

You’re quite welcome!

Q: After the last two years of hybrid and remote learning due to the pandemic, what are you most looking forward to about the fall semester?

I think like many of my colleagues, I'm looking forward to continuing to teach and connect with students—and everyone at Colorado Law, for that matter—in person. For the clinic specifically, a return to in-person can mean the opportunity to meet with clients face to face. I am always so grateful for the ability to connect with clients and partners around the world via Zoom, but there is something special about the return to sharing space. There is so much that is said beyond the confines of the Zoom squares, and I'm excited to navigate that again.

Q: What originally got you interested in American Indian law?

In college, I was a creative writing student and was fortunate to attend the school where Louise Erdrich received her MFA. Love Medicine was so inspiring to me as a writer, but it also unlocked something else. The Round House was published right before I began law school. Its depiction of the epidemic of violence against Indigenous women, as well as the jurisdictional maze that allows these crimes to occur without real recourse, drove me to Colorado Law's American Indian Law Program. Faculty like Kristen Carpenter, Charles Wilkinson, and Carla Fredericks allowed me to grapple with the legal complexities of this history, as well as the very real challenges of the present moment. They allowed me the space to consider where I fit into this work as a law student. A year later, the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization of 2013 was passed and I observed in real time how Indigenous leaders, Native lawyers, and allies were pivotal to the success and how they worked to continue this momentum.

Q: How fascinating. Can you expand on that?

Of course. This moment was activating for me, as these were the same years that my own LGBQTIA community was fighting for marriage equality. I worked in Washington, D.C., that same summer and waited in line overnight to be in the Supreme Court to hear the decisions about the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8 cases. These two threads of my experience may seem disparate, but to me, have always pointed me towards this path. I know that my rights as a queer person, the rights of my trans and non-binary siblings, the rights of all LGTBQIA2S people, are interconnected with the rights of everyone who have been historically marginalized and subjected to systems that were not built to serve us.

At the 1985 United Nations Decade for Women Conference, Lilla Watson delivered this quote on behalf of an Aboriginal rights group based in Australia: "If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together." It is this sentiment that once sparked my interest in this field of law, but it is also the sentiment that has kept me doing this work and inspires me to continue critiquing how I can be a better advocate and ally. Working to support Indigenous peoples is a privilege and I am so grateful to step into this work and strive to uphold the sovereignty and self-determination of Native nations.

Q: What has it been like teaching at your alma mater? Have you observed changes in the law school since your days as a student? What has remained the same?

It has been wonderful to come back and teach at Colorado Law and contribute to the American Indian Law Program. The best part about being a student at Colorado Law was studying alongside others that were committed to service and thinking about how they could use their law degree as a tool to better the world. It is incredibly energizing to be back in the halls with another generation of students who are asking the same questions with a new set of facts. Colorado Law continues to attract these students and it is an honor to teach them, knowing that one day soon I will be working alongside them.

Q: Has anything surprised you?
There are so many new spaces around the law school—the Solidarity Suite, the new journal offices, the garden level conference room—that I have been discovering, and so jealous that I didn't get to use as a student! But I was happy to see that Charles Wilkinson's espresso machine was still alive and well in the (now renamed) Foolish Craig's cafe.

Q: Can you share a bit about what you’re working on now?

Right now, as I wrap up at First Peoples Worldwide (First Peoples) and join Colorado Law full-time, I am working to transition the international advocacy strategy and program that I've built into a project for the students. Recent responses from the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)'s early warning and urgent action procedure have been exclusively focused on human rights allegations from Indigenous peoples. These inquiries identify rights violations attendant to trans-national business development, climate change mitigation and adaptation measures that exclude Indigenous peoples, and the violence and harassment that Indigenous human rights defenders are subjected to.

Q: Your work is quite interdisciplinary, with crossover into climate change and natural resources, energy, and the environment. Can you expand on that?

As the world continues to chase green energy to mitigate the effects of climate change, these specific rights violations will continue at increased levels because there will be increased mineral extraction on Indigenous lands. This means there will be even more violations of Indigenous rights, including the right to free, prior, and informed consent. My work at First Peoples has been to support a global campaign to ensure that Indigenous rights are considered and prioritized in the growing demand for minerals that are often found on their lands. And there are so many examples of this in our own backyard—Thacker Pass, the Back Forty Mine, the Big Sandy River Valley. Each of these projects directly impacts Indigenous peoples.

How would the conversation about green energy change if consumers understood the impacts to Indigenous peoples at the start of the supply chain for their electric vehicles? How could U.S. policy better uphold Indigenous human rights and treaty rights? How could transnational companies integrate a rights-based framework in their internal policies? I am interested in the ways that recent responses from the United Nations, through CERD, for example, can support advocacy efforts drive better consideration of Indigenous rights into domestic law and routine business practice, especially as we turn to greener policies and practices.

Colorado Law alumna Christina Stanton ’15 joins the faculty as an associate clinical professor and director of the American Indian Law Clinic. Stanton previously served as an adjunct professor at the law school, interim director of the American Indian Law Clinic, and director of operations at First Peoples Worldwide, an organization housed in the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Colorado.

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Getting to Know Prof. Michael Pappas

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 22:35:07 +0000

Getting to Know Prof. Michael Pappas Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/16/2022 - 16:35

Michael Pappas joins the Colorado Law faculty this fall as professor of law from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where he taught since 2012. A preeminent voice in property, natural resource, and environmental law, his scholarship draws upon interdisciplinary influences associated with economics and political economy.

Pappas’ teaching experience includes serving as a Forrester Fellow and instructor in legal writing at Tulane University Law School, where he also taught international and domestic fisheries law. He also taught natural resources law as an adjunct professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law and served as an instructor for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers PROSPECT Training Program, where he taught environmental law and regulation.

Q: Thanks for joining us, Prof. Pappas!

It’s my pleasure!

Q: These past few years have been unusual for all of us. Now that things are starting to feel a little more “normal,” what are you most looking forward to about the fall semester?

I find that fall semesters have a particular excitement and energy. New first-year students join the law school. Second and third years return from all sorts of summer experiences. Faculty have had a chance to develop new projects and ideas. The last few years have presented a number of barriers to fully connecting within a law school community, and this has dampened that excitement of fall. I am looking forward to having more opportunities to enjoy connecting and interacting with students and faculty colleagues outside of just classes and Zoom meetings.

Q: What originally drew you toward property and natural resources law?

I think my interest grew out of a combination of disposition and experience.

In disposition, I’ve always been curious about places. For as long as I can remember, when I would see something like a hillside or island or beach or wooded area or even an interesting building, I would be interested in seeing what it was like. I would want to check it out. From that impulse, the wanting to see something or go somewhere, it’s not a far leap to ask, "How do you get there?” as well as, "Who gets to go there?” As it turns out, that last question—“Who gets to go there?"—essentially asks a fundamental issue in property and natural resources law, which is, “Who gets to control who goes there, or uses that?" If you look around the physical environment and ask “who gets to control” that building or parcel of land or body of water or flock of ducks, you are usually asking a property or natural resource question, and I am fascinated by thinking about the answers to that kind of question.

Q: That’s such an interesting point. How did your early life experiences shape your interest in this area of the law?

I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was lucky to spend a fair amount of time in the brackish marshes of southeast Louisiana. Erosion is a major issue in those marshes; large areas of land disappear at an alarming rate. The erosion is so significant that you can see it firsthand. I remember when I first noticed it myself. As a teenager, I went fishing in an area of marsh that had numerous peninsulas of land and little islands covered in marsh grass. I returned to that exact same spot about a month later, and the peninsulas and islands were gone. It was now just open water. I became curious about what law could do regarding an issue like coastal erosion, which arose from a combination of policy choices and natural forces. That early experience helped point me toward environmental and natural resource law.

Q: Your work has involved quite a bit of interdisciplinary teaching and research collaborations. Could you explain what that means for a law professor? Will that be a part of your work at Colorado Law?

Many different perspectives inform law and policy. For example, environmental and natural resource law and policy rely on a variety of scientific, economic, and philosophical perspectives, just to name a few. In my opinion, the more one understands those different perspectives, the better one can understand, teach, argue, or implement the relevant law and policy. For that reason, I try to pursue and encourage interdisciplinary opportunities. The world is an interdisciplinary place.

I certainly intend for interdisciplinary teaching and research to be part of my work at Colorado Law! Part of the challenge in that is finding collaborators in other disciplines, but I am enormously excited about the prospects that CU offers.

Q: You studied English literature while at Stanford. Have your studies in that realm influenced your academic career or contributed to your pursuit of a law degree?

The thing I found most interesting in studying English literature was investigating the meaning of texts, especially when that was disputable. For instance, you and I might disagree about what a poem means. We might argue for a certain meaning based on the choice of words used, or potentially based on the author’s intent, or the context in which the poem was written. The same search for meaning occurs all the time in law, for instance when interpreting statutes or constitutions. The close study of written works and the inquiry into meaning was a major bridge for me between English literature and law.

Q: Can you share a bit about what you’re working on now?

I have a few projects going on now, but I am particularly excited to share a bit about a work in progress tentatively titled “Structuring Climate Policy.” Here is an abstract of the project.

Climate change is both global and local. Climate changing emissions are worldwide in aggregate, but they emanate from distinct individual sources. Climate impacts include global temperature rise as well as regional droughts or floods. Accordingly, climate policies have arisen at all jurisdictional levels: international, federal, state, and local. However, this jurisdictional fragmentation, along with the reticence of many jurisdictions to undertake any impactful climate response, has rendered current climate policies patchy, uncoordinated, and insufficient. Moreover, the urgent need for action to avert the worst climate impacts piles additional pressure on any adopted policies to be as effective and complementary as possible.

Q: How interesting! What does your research suggest for how local jurisdictions can do more to combat climate change?

Against this backdrop, my project analyzes climate policy structures to help jurisdictions maximize the efficacy of their climate initiatives. It identifies the comparative advantages that international, federal, state, and local governments hold for certain types of policies, and it highlights complementary policies that reinforce each other across jurisdictions.
This project builds on my previous work, which observes that jurisdictions can adopt two basic policy structures to address harms: prevent harms or try to cure them. In applying this prevention-and-cure analysis to climate policy, this project reveals that different levels of government show competencies in different types of prevention or cure approaches. These structural observations yield some surprising results. For instance, contrary to the accepted theory that local governments have budgetary incentives to avoid proactively addressing local climate vulnerabilities, this analysis indicates that local governments, rather than larger jurisdictions, have a comparative advantage in implementing preventative policies to avoid climate harms (such as prospective buy-outs of vulnerable properties).
Through structural observations like these, this project provides jurisdictions with a framework to identify and amplify their comparative advantages, complement other jurisdictions’ approaches, and make the most of their climate policies.

Michael Pappas joins the Colorado Law faculty this fall. A preeminent voice in property, natural resource, and environmental law, his scholarship draws upon interdisciplinary influences associated with economics and political economy.

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Getting to Know Professor Amanda Parsons

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 22:54:21 +0000

Getting to Know Professor Amanda Parsons Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 07/13/2022 - 16:54

This fall, Colorado Law will welcome Amanda Parsons to the faculty as associate professor of law. Most recently an academic fellow and lecturer in law at Columbia Law School, Parsons focuses her research on corporate and international taxation with a particular emphasis on the impact of digitalization on tax law.

She holds a JD from Yale Law School, where she served as projects editor on the Yale Law Journal; a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Oxford, with a focus on evidence-based social intervention; and a bachelor’s in history from Columbia University.

Q: It’s great to speak with you, Prof. Parsons!

Likewise!

Q: These past few years have been unusual for all of us. Now that things are starting to feel a little more “normal,” what are you most looking forward to about the fall semester?

First of all, I am really excited to be in-person in the classroom. I taught virtually for one semester at Columbia, and it was so hard to develop a sense of community in the classroom. So I am especially grateful to be able to have those in-person interactions as I come into a new community. I am also looking forward to being able to travel more. I have family and friends scattered across the world, and I am looking forward to being able to visit more easily. FaceTime just isn't quite the same.

Q: What originally got you interested in corporate and international tax law?

I started to like tax law for two reasons. The first is the challenging nature of the tax code. Answering tax questions is like solving a complex puzzle, and it is so satisfying when you get to the answer. The second is that tax law is an inherently social subject.

Q: How interesting! To be honest, “social” isn’t the first word that comes to mind when I think of taxes. Could you say some more about that?

Of course! Designing a system of taxation and redistribution implicates all these questions of equity in society, and so many of our public policies are implemented via the tax code. I found the subject fascinating when I first studied it at law school. When I went into practice after graduation, corporate and international taxation were major areas that the large firms advised on. As I started to learn more about international tax in particular, I began to think a lot about the implications of our current international tax policies and the outcomes those policies were creating, particularly in the context of the digital economy. The build-up of those questions fueled my move into academia.

Q: That makes a lot of sense. So, is it safe to say your earlier studies in social policy and evidence-based interventions have intersected or perhaps influenced your legal scholarship?

Because so many of our social policies are implemented via the tax code, there is definitely some overlap between my study at Oxford and my current work. My degree course at Oxford also involved a lot of statistical and empirical work. Because a lot of tax scholarship is empirically driven, that training has been helpful in allowing me to engage with that scholarship.

Q: Can you share a bit about some of your current projects?

I've recently become interested in the taxation of cryptocurrency. I just finished a short article discussing how cryptocurrency presents a challenge of legibility—to govern an activity, we must first be able to understand and categorize it, and cryptocurrency is defying categorization. I am starting to build that argument out into a larger piece.

Q: I look forward to learning more! So, one last question for you… How are you feeling about trading Manhattan for ��«��Ƶ?

It has definitely been a big shift! I moved a little over a month ago, and the things I find that I miss most about Manhattan are walking through the city and the parks and playgrounds. In Morningside Heights we were so lucky to be right next to three wonderful parks—Riverside, Morningside, and Central Park—and I spent a lot of time there with my toddler. But ��«��Ƶ seems great so far, and I still have a lot to explore. I have a view of the Flatirons from my home, which is lovely and such a contrast to the city. I also have a car again for the first time since I was 18, which has been very nice!

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Professors Colene Robinson and Violeta Chapin to Lead Clinical Program

Anonymous — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 18:58:12 +0000

Professors Colene Robinson and Violeta Chapin to Lead Clinical Program Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/27/2022 - 12:58

The Colorado Law Clinical Program is welcoming new leadership for the 2022-23 academic year—Professors Colene Robinson and Violeta Chapin will serve as co-directors.

Professor Robinson currently teaches the Juvenile & Family Law Clinic and co-directs the Juvenile and Family Law Program (JFLP). She has been on the faculty of the law school since 2005 after nearly a decade of representing children and families throughout Colorado and in New York City.

Professor Chapin teaches the Criminal & Immigration Defense Clinic, having joined the faculty in 2009. Prior to joining Colorado Law, she served for seven years as a trial attorney with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. She has represented both adult and juvenile indigent defendants with serious felony offenses at all stages of trial.

“We are both feeling very excited to lead the Clinical Program at a time when experiential education is in high demand from students, alums, and employers seeking to hire graduating law students with real client experience,” remarks Professor Robinson. “There is truly no replacement for this kind of hands-on participation in the legal system when it comes to connecting theory with practice.”

The Colorado Law Clinical Program, founded in 1948, has long played a crucial role in providing free legal services to a diverse array of community members. The Program spans a wide range of legal areas including wage theft, wrongful convictions, fair and just access to technology, affordable housing, new entrepreneurship, environmental justice and domestic and international indigenous rights.

“The Clinical Program is very grateful to Professor Deborah Cantrell, our previous director, who excelled at managing the myriad practice and logistical issues of running nine Clinics,” says Professor Chapin. “She wisely and consistently emphasized the importance of clinical teaching and education for our students, advocating for the program as zealously as she advocates for her clients.”

Professor Deborah Cantrell—who will continue her work teaching the Sustainable Community Development Clinic—joined the Colorado Law faculty in 2007. Before coming to the Centennial State, Professor Cantrell served as a Senior Lecturer of Law, Research Scholar, and Director of the Arthur Liman Public Interest Program at Yale Law School, ran a regional anti-poverty law program in California, and supervised a statewide direct legal aid program for the rural elderly in New Mexico.

Professor Cantrell led the Clinical Program with great dedication for 16 years. During her tenure, the Clinical Program’s capacity to serve our Colorado communities markedly grew, including supporting the launch of the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic, and envisioning and creating the Sustainable Community Development Clinic. Under Cantrell's leadership, the Program organized and facilitated an ongoing learning community among faculty who teach clinical courses to explore issues related to pedagogy, social justice and diversity and inclusion. It also fostered collaborations among faculty—both those who teach clinical course and those who lead experiential offerings outside of the Clinical Program.

In 2013, Professor Cantrell received the Clifford J. Calhoun Public Service award—the Law School’s highest service-related honor. Then, in 2020, Professor Cantrell received the ��«��Ƶ County Public Health’s Heathy Community Award in recognition of her work through the Sustainable Community Development Clinic.

“It has been an honor to lead the Clinical Program, and to be a part of Colorado Law’s ongoing and sustained commitment to public service,” reflects Professor Cantrell. “The Clinical Program is a true place of collaboration and innovation. I’m grateful to my faculty and staff colleagues for their steady engagement, and to the hundreds of student attorneys who participated in the Clinical Program during my tenure and provided thousands of hours of free legal services across our communities.”

The Colorado Law Clinical Program is welcoming new leadership for the 2022-23 academic year—Professors Colene Robinson and Violeta Chapin will serve as co-directors.

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Prof. Scott Skinner-Thompson Discusses Privacy in Constitutional Law for "The Conversation"

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Jun 2022 19:19:42 +0000

Prof. Scott Skinner-Thompson Discusses Privacy in Constitutional Law for "The Conversation" Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/16/2022 - 13:19

Privacy isn’t in the Constitution – but it’s everywhere in constitutional law

By Scott Skinner-Thompson, o riginally published in the Coversation on June 15, 2022 8.26am EDT

Almost all American adults — including parents, medical patients and people who are sexually active — regularly exercise their right to privacy, even if they don't know it.

Privacy is not specifically mentioned in the U.S. Constitution. But for half a century, the Supreme Court has recognized it as an outgrowth of protections for individual liberty. As I have studied in my research on constitutional privacy rights, this implied right to privacy is the source of many of the nation’s most cherished, contentious and commonly used rights – including the right to have an abortion.

A key component of liberty

The Supreme Court first formally identified what is called “decisional privacy” – the right to independently control the most personal aspects of our lives and our bodies – in 1965, saying it was implied from other explicit constitutional rights.

For instance, the First Amendment rights of speech and assembly allow people to privately decide what they’ll say, and with whom they’ll associate. The Fourth Amendment limits government intrusion into people’s private property, documents and belongings.

Relying on these explicit provisions, the court concluded in Griswold v. Connecticut that people have privacy rights preventing the government from forbidding married couples from using contraception.

In short order, the court clarified its understanding of the constitutional origins of privacy. In the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision protecting the right to have an abortion, the court held that the right of decisional privacy is based in the Constitution’s assurance that people cannot be “deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law.” That phrase, called the due process clause, appears twice in the Constitution – in the Fifth and 14th Amendments.

Decisional privacy also provided the basis for other decisions protecting many crucial, and everyday, activities.

The right to privacy protects the ability to have consensual sex without being sent to jail. And privacy buttresses the ability to marry regardless of race or gender.

The right to privacy is also key to a person’s ability to keep their family together without undue government interference. For example, in 1977, the court relied on the right to private family life to rule that a grandmother could move her grandchildren into her home to raise them even though it violated a local zoning ordinance.

Under a combination of privacy and liberty rights, the Supreme Court has also protected a person’s freedom in medical decision-making. For example, in 1990, the court concluded “that a competent person has a constitutionally protected liberty interest in refusing unwanted medical treatment.”

Limiting government disclosure

The right to decisional privacy is not the only constitutionally protected form of privacy. As then-Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist noted in 1977, the “concept of ‘privacy’ can be a coat of many colors, and quite differing kinds of rights to ‘privacy’ have been recognized in the law.”

This includes what is called a right to “informational privacy” – letting a person limit government disclosure of information about them.

According to some authority, the right extends even to prominent public and political figures. In one key decision, in 1977, Chief Justice Warren Burger and Rehnquist – both conservative justices – suggested in dissenting opinions that former President Richard Nixon had a privacy interest in documents made during his presidency that touched on his personal life. Lower courts have relied on the right of informational privacy to limit the government’s ability to disclose someone’s sexual orientation or HIV status.

All told, though the word isn’t in the Constitution, privacy is the foundation of many constitutional protections for our most important, sensitive and intimate activities. If the right to privacy is eroded – such as in a future Supreme Court decision – many of the rights it’s connected with may also be in danger.

Almost all American adults — including parents, medical patients and people who are sexually active — regularly exercise their right to privacy, even if they don't know it.

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Colorado Law Welcomes New Professors

Anonymous — Tue, 17 May 2022 16:55:26 +0000

Colorado Law Welcomes New Professors Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/17/2022 - 10:55

Faculty whose expertise includes environmental law, American Indian law, administrative law, corporate and international taxation, natural resources law, and international Indigenous issues will join the University of Colorado Law School this August.

Lolita Buckner Inniss, Dean and Provost’s Professor of Law, announced the appointment of four professors to Colorado Law’s full-time faculty: Michael Pappas, Amanda Parsons, Jonathan Skinner-Thompson, and Christina Stanton '15.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome these fine scholars and teachers to our faculty,” said Dean Inniss. “Their unique perspectives and talents will no doubt enrich our wonderful community.”

Meet Colorado Law’s newest professors:

Michael Pappas

Recognized as a preeminent voice in property, natural resource, and environmental law, Michael Pappas, who has taught at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law since 2012, will join the faculty as Professor of Law in August. Pappas’ scholarship draws upon interdisciplinary influences associated with economics and political economy, and his work explores the nature of property expectations, governmental responsibilities, and private rights in managing resources such as land, energy, water, wildlife, fisheries, and food. Pappas has also worked extensively to advance interdisciplinary teaching and research collaborations and was voted Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year in 2014.

Prior to joining the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law faculty, Pappas was a Forrester Fellow and Instructor in Legal Writing at Tulane University Law School, where he also taught international and domestic fisheries law. In addition, he taught natural resources law as an adjunct professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law and served as an instructor for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers PROSPECT Training Program, where he taught environmental law and regulation.

Pappas graduated from Stanford University with his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in English Literature, then went on to earn his JD from Stanford Law School, where he was the co-Editor-in-Chief of the Stanford Environmental Law Journal and a member of the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic. After law school, he clerked for the Hon. James L. Dennis, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Amanda Parsons

Most recently an Academic Fellow and Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School, Amanda Parsons focuses her research on corporate and international taxation with a particular emphasis on the impact of digitalization on tax law. Parsons will join the faculty as Associate Professor of Law.

Before coming to Columbia Law School, Parsons worked as an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom, LLP. While there, she participated in tax planning and strategy for large, multinational corporations, advised on the tax components of a variety of complex transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and capital markets transactions, and advised private clients on individual tax matters in both the domestic and international context.

Parsons’s scholarship has appeared in publications such as the Yale Law & Policy Review and Duke Law Journal. She holds a JD from Yale Law School where she served as Projects Editor on the Yale Law Journal, as well as a Master’s in Philosophy from the University of Oxford in Evidence-Based Social Intervention, and a Bachelor’s in history from Columbia University.

Jonathan Skinner-Thompson

Already a widely respected presence at the law school, Professor Jonathan Skinner-Thompson will be transitioning from Associate Clinical Professor and Director of the Getches-Green Natural Resources, Energy & Environmental Law Clinic to Associate Professor of Law on the research faculty. He will continue to teach natural resources courses in his new role. Skinner-Thompson also serves as affiliated faculty for the Graduate Certificate in Environmental Justice at CU ��«��Ƶ and sits on the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment’s Environmental Justice Advisory Board.

Skinner-Thompson’s scholarship focuses primarily on administrative and environmental law issues and has appeared or is forthcoming in many publications including the Washington Law Review, the environmental journals at Duke, Stanford, Vermont and Virginia law schools, the ABA’s Natural Resources & Environment magazine, and elsewhere.

Before joining Colorado Law, Skinner-Thompson was an attorney at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency—first in the Office of General Counsel and then with the Office of Regional Counsel in Denver. He also has served in the U.S. Department of Justice's Environmental Defense Section and was an environmental associate with firms in New York and Seattle. For his federal service, he received the Administrator's Award for Excellence, a Special General Counsel's Award, and the Assistant Attorney General's Award for Excellence, among others.

Skinner-Thompson graduated cum laude from Duke University School of Law and with high honors from the University of California, Berkeley.

Christina Stanton ‘15

Another highly esteemed member of the Colorado Law community, Christina Stanton, will join the faculty as an Associate Clinical Professor and Director of the American Indian Law Clinic. Stanton previously served as an adjunct professor at the law school, Interim Director of the American Indian Law Clinic, and as Director of Operations at First Peoples Worldwide, an organization housed out of the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Colorado. There she led targeted international strategy on behalf of Indigenous partners in parallel with market-based corporate advocacy and directed the student research program, which seeks to develop early career professionals and Native leaders in the field.

Stanton is a licensed attorney who previously worked as an Associate at Wagenlander & Heisterkamp, LLC. She exclusively focused on public housing with tribally designated housing entities and some local public housing authorities. She practiced in both tribal and state court on behalf of Native Nations.

Stanton also worked as a Fellow at the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment, focusing on treaty fishing rights for tribes in the Pacific Northwest, violence against Native Women, and international Indigenous issues. She is passionate about ending the epidemic of violence against all women, particularly Native women, and has trauma-informed training that has influenced her own research and writing.

Stanton holds a JD with an American Indian Law certificate from the University of Colorado and a Bachelor of Arts from Johns Hopkins University.

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Departing Faculty

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 14:35:35 +0000

Departing Faculty Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 03/25/2022 - 08:35

Today we share some bittersweet news. At the end of the spring semester, three of our extraordinary faculty will depart Colorado Law for their next exciting chapters. Here, we are pleased to celebrate their many achievements and wish them our very best.

Professor Ming Hsu Chen:

Professor Ming Hsu Chen came to the University of Colorado Law School in 2011. From the beginning of her tenure at Colorado Law, she has brought a unique, interdisciplinary perspective to her teaching and scholarship, having held appointments in law, political science, and ethnic studies. Professor Chen founded the Immigration and Citizenship Law Program as Faculty-Director and served as faculty-advisor to the Chancellor's Immigration Task Force, Immigration Law and Policy Society, and APALSA. Profesor Chen served as a member of the Colorado Advisory Committee to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 2016-2021.Her contributions were recognized with the Calhoun Public Service Award in 2017 and a Gordon Gamm Justice Award for Faculty Scholarship in 2015. Her students and fellow faculty alike are honored to engage with Professor Chen in the study of race, immigration, and the administrative state.

“The University of Colorado has provided me a place to define myself as a scholar, and it has provided meaningful opportunities to build a community of interdisciplinary race and immigration scholars across the university,” remarked Professor Chen. “The Front Range has become a dynamic place for immigrants and racial diversity. I'm glad to have played a small part in its transformation."

Professor Chen will join the faculty at the UC Hastings College of Law, where she has been serving as a visiting professor for the 2021-22 school year. She continues in her position as co-editor for the Immigration Prof blog (@immprof) and in leadership roles for the AALS Immigration Law section and the Law and Society Association's Citizenship and Migration section.

Professor Chen's book, Pursuing Citizenship in the Enforcement Era, was the subject of the Byron R. White Center's Rothgerber Symposium in 2021 and a TEDxMileHigh Talk in 2020. Prior to joining the legal academy, Professor Chen clerked for the Honorable James R. Browning on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. She earned degrees from the University of California Berkeley (Ph.D 2011), New York University Law School (JD 2004), and Harvard College (AB 2000)."

Professor Sharon Jacobs:

Professor Sharon Jacobs has been a highly esteemed presence at Colorado Law since she joined the faculty in 2014. She is an Associate Professor and the John H. Schultz Energy and Natural Resources Law Fellow at Colorado Law and serves as a board member of the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment. At the conclusion of the Spring semester, Professor Jacobs will be joining the faculty at The University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

“The thing I will miss most about Colorado Law is our remarkable student body,” reflected Professor Jacobs. “The enthusiasm our students show for the law, and the care they show to one another, inspire all of us to do our best work. I am also grateful for the support of my fellow faculty, and for their generosity of spirit and tireless commitment to the scholarly project.”

Professor Jacobs's research focuses on the impact of regulatory structure and process on policy outcomes in energy and environmental law at the federal and state levels. In 2017 Jacobs earned the Haub Environmental Law Distinguished Junior Scholar Award, which recognizes an emerging junior environmental law professor who exhibits scholarly excellence and promise at an early stage in his/her career. In 2020, Professor Jacobs began administering and overseeing a new website, EnergyTradeoffs.com, a website that publishes scholarly treatments of the energy transition and fosters nuanced, constructive dialogue around that transition.

She was previously a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and an associate in the energy and environmental regulatory groups at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Yale Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, Columbia Law Review, and Iowa Law Review, among other publications. Professor Jacobs graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2009, where she was the Executive Articles Editor of the Harvard Law and Policy Review. Prior to attending law school, Professor Jacobs was a professional classical cellist and holds a master’s degree in Music Performance from the Juilliard School and a bachelor's degree in Music Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Susan Nevelow Mart:

Beloved professor and director of the William A. Wise Law Library, Susan Nevelow Mart will retire at the end of the 2021-22 school year.

Since she joined the Colorado Law faculty in July of 2011, Professor Mart has been a source of great wisdom and collegiality in the community. She has written and presented nationally and locally on the effects of algorithms on legal research, legal information policy, national security and libraries, access to information, computer information retrieval systems, and legal research pedagogy.

“Law Librarianship has been my favorite career,” remarked Professor Mart. “And the support of the faculty and staff at Colorado Law has been a major part of making my career as a law librarian so enjoyable. I am proud to be part of the Colorado Law community.”

In 2004, 2007, and 2018, her superior scholarship received the Article of the Year Award from the Law Library Journal, law librarianship's premier journal. She currently teaches Writing and Research in the Regulatory Context, Advanced Legal Research and Analysis and Environmental Legal Research. She has been on the Board of Directors of LawArXiv, the Society of American Law Library Directors, and the Legal Information Preservation Alliance. She serves as the Chair of the Government Relations Committee of the Colorado Association of Law Libraries and is active in advocating on information policy issues on behalf of libraries and the public.

Before joining Colorado Law, Professor Mart served as the Faculty Services Librarian and adjunct professor of law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Prior to her work at Hastings, Professor Mart practiced law for seventeen years. Professor Mart holds an M.L. I.S. from San Jose State University, a J.D. from Berkeley Law School at the University of California at Berkeley, and a B.A. from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

At the end of the spring semester, three of our extraordinary faculty will depart Colorado Law for their next exciting chapters. Here, we are pleased to celebrate their many achievements and wish them our very best.

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Kristelia García Named Gilbert Goldstein Faculty Fellow

Anonymous — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 16:39:42 +0000

Kristelia García Named Gilbert Goldstein Faculty Fellow Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 01/28/2022 - 09:39

The 2022-23 Gilbert Goldstein Faculty Fellowship has been awarded to Colorado Law Professor Kristelia García. Awarded by the Dean, the fellowship provides one semester without teaching responsibilities to enable concentration on research and writing.

Professor García teaches Copyright, Property, and Trademark and Unfair Competition Law and serves as Director of the Intellectual Property Initiative at the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship.

She graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Economics and earned her J.D. at Yale Law School where she served as editor-in-chief of the Yale Journal of Law & Technology. She is a member of the American Law and Economics Association and the Society for Empirical Legal Studies.

Gilbert Goldstein ‘42, for whom the fellowship is named, is remembered not only as a tremendously successful graduate of the law school, but also as a longtime, dedicated supporter of the greater Denver legal community. The MDC/Richmond American Homes Foundation established the Gilbert Goldstein Fund in recognition of his dedication and generosity. The fund includes scholarships and fellowships to deserving Colorado Law students and faculty.

“Professor García is incredibly well-deserving of a Goldstein fellowship!” said Colorado Law Dean Lolita Buckner Inniss, “Her scholarship digs into endlessly fascinating questions and garners avid attention from fellow scholars, popular media, and, not least of all, her students. We are on the edge of our seats about what comes next.”

The law school’s Robyn Munn spoke with Professor García about her upcoming semester of research.

RM: Thank you so much for taking some time to chat! Let’s get right to it. Would you tell us a bit about your research and your plans for the Goldstein Fellowship?

KG: Of course! I’ve written a lot already about how the law that protects music, art, and films tends to presume that content owners and people who use copyrights all want the same things. And, as you can imagine, that is just not true when it comes to real life. Much of my scholarship has challenged the “one size fits all” approach. So, I want to take these same questions and ideas around when parties act in ways that surprise us under the law and look specifically at enforcement.

RM: Enforcement of copyright law?

KG: Among other fields, yes. I imagine the project proceeding in two parts. First, I’ll be looking at enforcement decision making—when parties decide to enforce their right and when they don’t. And second, I’ll consider when people outsource that decision, when the rights holders aren’t even the ones making the decision about whether rights should be enforced.

I want to know what those behaviors tell us about how representative the law is of reality, how good of a job it’s doing accomplishing its purported goals, and whether there are certain groups who are particularly impacted by this. My hope is that this research goes beyond copyright law, to include examples from other fields like property, criminal, and tort law. What does it look like when parties decide not to enforce their rights, and who’s impacted by that?

RM: Fascinating! Where do you begin when tackling an ambitious line of inquiry like this?

KG: I personally begin with the notions that have come to me from other projects. For instance, I have ideas about places where rights-holders overreach and where the law is a mismatch for what’s happening on the ground. Then I find examples that illustrate what I think is going on.

Take for example when you hear about Taylor Swift’s unexpected strategy in the battle for rights over her master recordings. Why is that happening? Or when you hear about disgruntled YouTubers complaining about a new policy and their content being taken down. The research helps me decide if the examples prove or disprove my theories.

RM: How does having a break from the demands of teaching impact your ability to dive into this research?

KG: The idea behind these kinds of fellowships is that, while teaching is far and away one of the best and most rewarding parts of our profession, it is really time consuming. For every hour of teaching there are days and even weeks of preparation. And there are office hours, supervising student groups, commenting on papers, supervising projects, and grading. Law school exams are not easy reading.

The goal behind this is not just to receive the gift of time, which is super valuable, but also the gift of a mental reprieve. So, I can devote all my mental energy to the question that I’m puzzling through. Not having to split my thinking should give me a chance to make more progress and really bury myself in research.

RM: Do you anticipate there will be any kind of student involvement?

KG: Absolutely. This will be a great opportunity to bring in students who can help me with the actual research. Being a research assistant (RA) is a phenomenal learning experience. RA’s get a feel for the scholarly side of the law that they’re studying (even if they don’t plan to be professors). And, importantly, these assistantships give students a chance to build a closer relationship with a professor who can then become a recommender, provide a reference letter, or chat with a judge about a clerkship. So, hopefully I’ll be able to incorporate some research assistants.

RM: Did you read that, law students? Sounds like a great opportunity! Thank you again for your time, Professor. I can’t wait to learn more.

KG: The feeling is mutual!

Awarded by the Dean, the fellowship provides one semester without teaching responsibilities to enable concentration on research and writing.

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Suzette Malveaux Awarded Moses Lasky Professorship

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 00:26:57 +0000

Suzette Malveaux Awarded Moses Lasky Professorship Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/19/2022 - 17:26

Colorado Law Professor Suzette Malveaux has been named Moses Lasky Professor of Law, one of the school’s highest faculty distinctions. With this honor, Professor Malveaux joins a previously named Moses Lasky Professor, Sarah Krakoff, who is on leave while serving the Biden administration as Deputy Solicitor for Parks and Wildlife.

Professor Malveaux currently serves as Provost Professor of Civil Rights Law and as the Director of The Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law.

“Colorado Law couldn’t be prouder to count Professor Malveaux among our extraordinary faculty,” remarks Dean of the Law School Lolita Buckner Inniss. “As a leader, both in our community and beyond, she embodies values our school holds dear—namely the vigorous pursuit of justice, excellence, and exceptional civic engagement.”

Professor Malveaux teaches Civil Procedure, Employment Discrimination, and Constitutional Civil Rights Law. She researches and publishes on the intersection of civil procedure and civil rights and co-authored Class Actions and Other Multi-Party Litigation; Cases and Materials (West, 2006, 2012). She is also a member of the American Law Institute and Chair of the AALS Civil Procedure Section.

Professor Malveaux graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and earned her J.D. from NYU School of Law as a Root-Tilden Scholar. Upon graduation, she clerked for the federal district court (SDNY) for the Honorable Robert L. Carter.

As a practitioner, she has tackled complex legal matters in high profile civil rights cases at the federal trial and appellate court levels. In 2011, she represented over 1.5 million women in Wal-Mart v. Dukes, the largest employment discrimination class action in U.S. history to date. For six years, Professor Malveaux served as pro bono counsel to the plaintiffs in Alexander v. State of Oklahoma, a suit filed against Tulsa by victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot. As part of a team of attorneys, she represented the riot victims before the U.S. federal courts, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Organization of American States), and the U.S. House of Representatives.

Moses Lasky ‘28, for whom the professorship is named, remains one of the law school’s most exceptional graduates. A titan of trial and appellate law, Lasky appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court nearly 50 times and was nationally renowned for his intellect and legal acumen.

Colorado Law Professor Suzette Malveaux has been named Moses Lasky Professor of Law, one of the school’s highest faculty distinctions.

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