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New to the Faculty

Hylton

Legal Historian J. Gordon Hylton '77

For J. Gordon Hylton ’77, joining the faculty is both a homecoming and history repeating itself. A legal historian, Hylton has been a visiting professor for more than a decade. He now formally joins UVA from Marquette Law School, where he had been on the faculty since 1995.

In addition to his J.D., Hylton holds an M.A. from the University, and earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in the History of American Civilization. After law school, he clerked for Justice Albertis S. Harrison ’28 and Chief Justice Lawrence I'Anson of the Virginia Supreme Court and later worked for a year at the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, but the bulk of his career has been spent in academia.

"I had pretty much decided by the time I finished law school that I wanted to be an academic," he said. His research interests focus on the history of the legal profession, the history of civil rights, and the legal history of American sports.

This year Hylton is teaching staple law classes such as Property (he is co-author of the textbook Property Law and the Public Interest: Cases and Materials, now in its fourth edition), as well as his own unique course: African-American Lawyers from the Civil War to Present. His research on the history of African-American lawyers, particularly in Virginia, has been an ongoing scholarly interest that has resulted in a book manuscript Hylton says he hopes to send to publishers later this year.

For Law alumni, Hylton may have already made his biggest contribution to school history. As a student he co-founded (with Fred Vogel '77) the North Grounds Softball League, which has since become famous for hosting its annual charity tournament among law schools.

"I don't think any of us thought the league would still be here even the next year, let alone 40 years later," he said.

—Eric Williamson

 Gregg Strauss

Family Law, Jurisprudence Expert Gregg Strauss

Gregg Strauss, a family law, jurisprudence, and philosophy expert who is offering fresh insight into questions about marriage, joined the Law School as an associate professor of law.

Strauss recently served as a visiting assistant professor at Duke Law School. At UVA he is teaching Torts and Family Law.

Strauss holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and a J.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a B.A. in philosophy from Emory University. He clerked for Judges William M. Conley and Barbara B. Crabb of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin for two years after law school.

Much of Strauss' recent scholarship has revolved around defining a theory behind marriage, including why the state is involved in licensing marriages at all.

"Why not just get out of that business altogether? It would certainly seem to make things easier: You would avoid the problems of the state deciding who gets to count their relationship as a marriage, you would avoid religious objections to being required to license same-sex marriages," he said.

In "Why the State Cannot 'Abolish Marriage,'" Strauss argues that the law could discard the title "marriage," but cannot extricate itself from it. Run-of-the-mill contract and tort standards, Strauss said, apply differently to different relationships — strangers, clients, employees — and the same is true for spouses. Even without an official status of "marriage," judges would still need to classify relationships and articulate marriage-like doctrines.

Understanding why the law involves itself in our relationships, Strauss argues, is necessary to unravel current marriage controversies. In particular, he's using these ideas to examine polygamy in light of the extension of marriage rights to same-sex couples.

Strauss said his interest in jurisprudence drives him to understand the "deep philosophical underpinnings" of certain areas of law, such as torts and family law. He said he believes the contours of marriage and divorce law reflect underlying moral obligations between spouses.

—Mary Wood

Jennifer Givens

Litigation Veteran Jennifer Givens  

Litigation veteran Jennifer Givens has joined the Innocence Project Clinic as legal director.

In her new role, Givens works with students as they investigate and litigate wrongful convictions of inmates in Virginia. She co-teaches the classroom portion of the clinic with Director of Investigation Deirdre Enright ’92, investigates cases and file pleadings, and helps evaluate which cases the clinic will take. Because some of the cases may go to court, Givens' role will include litigation and related efforts in those situations.

"This is an area of law that I feel very passionately about, so I feel fortunate to be able to do this critically important work," Givens said.

Most recently, Givens worked in Philadelphia as an assistant federal defender with the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She also previously handled death penalty appeals at the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center in Richmond and in Charlottesville.

Her career successes include securing a grant of clemency for a severely mentally ill client and winning a life sentence for an intellectually disabled client, both of whom had been sentenced to death in Virginia.

"The same types of issues are generally at play in all of these cases," she said. "We'll re-examine cases in the hopes of determining what went wrong at trial.”

"There are only a handful of lawyers in the whole country who can claim the necessary legal expertise that Professor Givens can, having devoted her entire legal career to the post-conviction defense of both state death row clients in Virginia and federal death row clients while working in Pennsylvania,” Enright said. “She is a necessary asset to both of our clinics — the Innocence Project Clinic and the student volunteer group, the Virginia Innocence Project Pro Bono Clinic — and of course, to all our clients.”

Givens said she is looking forward to helping foster student interest in criminal post-conviction work. "The criminal justice system remains in desperate need of talented and devoted lawyers," Givens said. "And the system certainly remains in dire need of prosecutors and defenders who are smart, fair and committed to their responsibilities under the Constitution. Exposing the law students to cases from the clinic will encourage them to put their talents to good use in that respect."

—Kimberly Reich