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Academics: Professional Training
Woolhandler

Engaging Students

In the fall of 2006, Professor Ann Woolhandler met regularly to discuss constitutional law with then-student Porter Wilkinson ’07, who is now clerking for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Four third-year law students from Woolhandler’s first-year Civil Procedure class wanted to continue the tradition. They asked their former teacher to make the group a one-credit course, through which they could discuss important legal scholarship.

“It operated like a small seminar that we designed,” Woolhandler said.

Each week the students and Woolhandler would gather in her office to discuss articles that Virginia professors and the students recommended.

“It was a great way to study topics that were interesting to us, and a chance to really get to know a professor,” said participant Katherine Twomey ’08, who will clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in 2009-10.

Working with Faculty

Professors at Virginia have a reputation for being available, for working with students on legal scholarship or having lunch to discuss the latest concept they taught in class.

Internships

In addition to interacting with professors in and outside the classroom, many students work for faculty during the school year or their first-year summer, collecting and fact-checking research or completing other legal work.

Brady Cox ’10 has worked with Professor Chris Sprigman on a range of projects, including examining trademark in a clown makeup registry, researching the history of the “law of nature doctrine” in patent law, and helping with an antitrust symposium featuring a number of well-known professors and practitioners.

“‘I’ve not only had the opportunity to learn a lot about IP, but have also developed a great relationship with a fantastic professor,” Cox said. “He has helped me gain a greater understanding of a lot of the current issues in copyright and trademark today, especially in areas where intellectual property protection is very thin.”

Independent Research

Students can design their own research paper for credit, allowing them to work closely with a faculty mentor who supervises their work.

Partnership

Recent graduate Gregg Macey ’06 co-edited a book with law professor Jon Cannon, director of the Environmental and Land Use Law Program.

“Toward the end of my first year at UVA Law, I tried to find a long-term project that built on some of the research I conducted as a doctoral student. Jon Cannon was an obvious choice for a collaborator — he is a dynamic lecturer and an engaging personality who has spent a lifetime thinking about topics that interest me,” Macey said. “I approached him as a student but was quickly welcomed into the collaboration as a colleague. We share a mutual interest in land use and environmental regulation, which made for many stimulating conversations.”

“Reclaiming the Land: Rethinking Superfund Institutions, Methods, and Practices,” features an introduction by Macey, who has a Ph.D. in urban planning from MIT and is now an associate with law firm Kirkland & Ellis in New York City.