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  • Take a photographic journey featuring the people who made this year one of Virginia's best. Click on the photos to skip ahead.
  • Four Virginia Law alumni started clerkships with the Supreme Court in the summer of 2011, tying the school for second nationwide in the number of alumni who are clerking for sitting U.S. Supreme Court justices in the 2011-12 term. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/supct_archive.htm' >Current and Past Supreme Court Clerks</a></u>)
  • The Class of 2014 started their law school careers by participating in a volunteer community service day organized by the Student Bar Association (left). Dean Paul Mahoney and Deborah Platt Majoras '89, chief legal officer of Procter & Gamble, welcomed the class to the school at orientation. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhbj7zO9F80&lr=1' >Video</a></u> | <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/majoras.htm' >Q&A with Majoras</a></u>)
  • The 357 members of the University of Virginia School of Law's entering Class of 2014 were selected via the most competitive application process in the school's history and boast the highest-ever median undergraduate grade-point average. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/classprofile.htm' >Story/video</a></u>) The school also welcomed 36 LL.M. students. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/llm.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • The Innocence Project Clinic helped overturn the convictions of two Virginia men, including one who was on death row, and recently won an exoneration for a man proven innocent of rape by DNA testing. They are also working with the Child Advocacy Clinic to clear the name of a man convicted of rape as a juvenile (above, Edgar Coker, his family and clinic attorneys and students). His alleged victim later recanted her story. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/coker_update.htm' >More on the Coker Case</a></u> | <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/wolfe.htm ' >Justin Wolfe Case</a></u> | <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/culpeper_three.htm' >"Culpeper Three Case"</a></u> | <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/barbour_update.htm' >Bennett Barbour Case</a></u>)
  • Entering first-year law student Lindsay Roberts (left) was named a Jefferson Law Fellow and classmates Laura Musselman and Kenneth Hoover received Hardy Cross Dillard Scholarships. Both the Dillard and Jefferson Law Fellow scholarships — the most prestigious the school offers — provide full tuition and a stipend to recipients. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/dillards.htm' >More</a></u>)
  • Students in Professor Margo Bagley's patent law classes traveled to Washington, D.C., in September to observe oral arguments before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has nationwide jurisdiction over appeals in cases involving patent laws and those decided by the Court of International Trade and the Court of Federal Claims. The head of the panel, Chief Judge Randall R. Rader, spoke with the students before and after the day's arguments. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/patent.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • In addition to a memorial created by students, the Law School marked the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks at an event in which some of the nation's leading experts analyzed the legal underpinnings of the war on terror. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/september11panel.htm' >Story/audio</a></u>)
  • Students from the Law School's International Human Rights Law Clinic traveled to the United Nations in New York in October to distribute a series of briefing papers they had prepared for a U.N. official on violence against women in the United States. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/vaw_report.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • In 2011, the Law School community welcomed new Senior Assistant Dean for Admissions <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_sum/richard.htm' >Anne Richard</a></u> and new Assistant Dean for Public Service <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_sum/kim_psc.htm' >Annie Kim '99</a></u>. Kim also recently won an appeal before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, as she wrapped up work from her prior role as in-house counsel attorney for Albemarle County. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/kim.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • Three first-year UVA Law students received an honorable mention — and $5,000 — in the UVA Entrepreneurship Cup, a university-wide competition that pitted their business proposal for a system providing clean drinking water in developing countries against an array of ideas from UVA business, graduate and undergraduate students. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/ecc.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • A coalition of law students and Professor Anne Coughlin contributed to the first lawsuit in the country charging the military with discrimination for not allowing women to officially serve in military combat roles. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/combat_exclusion.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • Two Law School alumnae, <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/gantt.htm' >Rebecca Gantt '11</a></u> (left) and <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/willard.htm' >Lauren Willard '11</a></u>, will clerk for the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2012-13 term. <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/bristow_fellow.htm' >Brinton Lucas '11</a></u> was named a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General, one of the most prestigious positions available to new Law School graduates. In the 2011-12 court term, 100 graduates clerked with judges across the country — a new school record. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/clerkships.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • The Public Interest Law Association's annual fall auction and dance netted more than $65,000 for public service grants, a new fundraising record. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/pila_results.htm' >Story</a></u>) PILA raised more than $100,000 this year, which goes toward funding students' summer public interest jobs.
  • Professor Douglas Laycock argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in October and in January earned a unanimous decision in his favor on a major religious liberty case, <i>Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission</i>. The justices sided with Laycock's arguments, finding that the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion limits the ability of religious institution employees from suing for employment discrimination. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://bit.ly/A0irdv' >Laycock's Take</a></u> | <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/hosanna_tabor.htm' >Decision Released</a></u> | <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/hosanna_tabor.htm' >Preview/Details of the Case</a></u>)
  • Almost three years after the end of a bloody civil war in Sri Lanka, a group of University of Virginia law students ventured into the Southern Asian island nation in early January to explore the current state of human rights. The eight field researchers served as Cowan Fellows in the student-run Human Rights Study Project. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/human_rights.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • Several UVA law clinics marked notable successes this year. In response to a motion prepared by students in the First Amendment Clinic (above), a federal judge in April ordered the Securities and Exchange Commission and AIG to publicly release the company's corporate monitor reports covering the lead-up to the financial meltdown in 2008. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/aig_first_amendment_clinic.htm' >Story</a></u>) Other clinics reported ongoing success: Students in the Child Advocacy Clinic helped juveniles get released from detention (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/child_advocacy.htm' >Story</a></u>), the Immigration Clinic helped win legal resident status for several clients (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/immigration_clinic.htm' >Story</a></u>) and the Nonprofit Clinic assisted local organizations (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/nonprofit_clinic.htm' >Story</a></u>).
  • Students contributed to the community this year in a variety of ways. First-year law students organized a fundraising drive that collected more than $5,000 for 11 charities (1L Simon Cataldo, above right, raised funds for the Harlem Lacrosse and Leadership Corp.) (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/first_year_charity.htm' >Story</a></u>), worked with local attorneys to help juvenile detainees (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/justchildren.htm' >Story</a></u>) and migrant farm workers (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/migrant_farmworker.htm' >Story</a></u>), and volunteered a record 10,000 pro bono hours over the winter break alone. In March, Salima Burke '12 received the 2012 Oliver White Hill Law Student Pro Bono Award. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/burke.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • The University of Virginia sponsored a number of events in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. The Law School held a candelight vigil (above) and civil rights leader Julian Bond and alumnus Michael Cody '61, both of whom knew King, spoke about his final days. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/bond_cody_panel.htm' >Story</a></u>) Professors Risa Goluboff and Tomiko Brown-Nagin also spoke to a University-wide audience about King's legacy. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/mlk_law.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • More than 100 lawyers from across the country and 35 University of Virginia law students convened at the Law School in January to brush up on their trial advocacy skills. Now in its 31st year, the Trial Advocacy College trains participants in oral advocacy through a variety of lectures, demonstrations and workshops that culminate in a mock trial in front of a live jury. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/trial_advocacy_college.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • The Law School hosted a range of conferences featuring national experts, including the inaugural <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/jefferson_keynote.htm' >Jefferson Symposium</a></u> (on free speech and campaign gift law), the Virginia Law & Business Review's symposium on the <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/collier.htm' >business of health care</a></u>, a <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/arab_spring.htm' >symposium on the constitutional implications of the Arab Spring</a></u>, the J.B. Moore Society of International Law and Virginia Journal of International Law symposium on <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/koh_talk.htm' >conflicting international legal norms</a></u>, a Center for the Study of Race and Law conference on <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/lsat.htm' >diversity in the legal profession</a></u>, a conference on the <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/smith_sportslaw.htm' >state of sports law</a></u>, and the 25th annual <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/sokol.htm' >Sokol Colloquium on Public International Law</a></u>.
  • Charlottesville police K-9 officer Lynn Childers and Leo, a 4-year-old Belgian malinois, visited Professor Anne Coughlin's Criminal Investigation class in February to give students a firsthand look at police dog procedures. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/policedog.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • The Law School hosted a number of well-known government officials, legal experts, and industry leaders this year, including U.S. Legal Adviser <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/koh_talk.htm' >Harold Hongju Koh</a></u>, former U.S. Senator <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/mitchell.htm' >George Mitchell</a></u>, former climate change czar <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/browner_lecture.htm' >Carol Browner</a></u>, Obama Campaign General Counsel and former White House Counsel <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/bauer_lecture.htm' >Bob Bauer '76</a></u>, media pundit <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/carlson.htm' >Tucker Carlson</a></u>, NFL Players Association chief <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/smith_sportslaw.htm' >DeMaurice Smith '89</a></u>, <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/women_in_the_judiciary.htm' >Slate's Dahlia Lithwick and former federal judge Nancy Gertner</a></u>, Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/morton_talk.htm' >John Morton '94</a></u>, former Ambassador for War Crimes Issues <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/scheffer.htm' >David Scheffer </a></u> and NAACP general counsel <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/lawweb/news.nsf/PP/PodcastFrontPage?open#keenan111111' >Kim Keenan '87</a></u>.
  • Professor Tomiko Brown-Nagin's 2011 book on the civil rights movement, "Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement," was named a 2012 recipient of the prestigious Bancroft Prize for history. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/brown_nagin.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • A record 60 University of Virginia School of Law students spent their spring break volunteering in legal aid, indigent defense and prosecutors' offices across the country. Students who participated in the Alternative Spring Break program this year contributed more than 2,000 hours at sites in North Carolina, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Orleans, New York, Charlottesville, Richmond and Washington, D.C. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/alternative_spring_break.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • The U.S. Supreme Court cited the scholarship of several University of Virginia law professors this year, including Professors Greg Mitchell, John Monahan and Larry Walker for their work in social framework analysis in the Wal-Mart sex discrimination case (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_sum/walmart.htm' >Story</a></u>); Professors Monahan and Brandon Garrett for their work in evaluating eyewitness testimony (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/eyewitness.htm' >Story</a></u>); and Professor Caleb Nelson's textualist theory of the Constitution's supremacy clause and federal preemption of state laws. Professor Mila Versteeg's co-authored article on the declining international influence of the U.S. Constitution also received significant attention from the media and legal experts. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/versteeg.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • The Law School began a series of ambitious renovations this spring that will improve the experience of students and visitors alike. The project, which will be completed in early August, will redesign student services offices in Slaughter Hall to include reception areas and expand the space allotted to the Law School's 20 clinics. The new space will be called the Karsh Student Services Center. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/renovations.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • Librarians at the University of Virginia School of Law are working to recreate a collection of rare law books — some dating back to the 1500s — that Thomas Jefferson personally selected for the university's library. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/jefferson_books.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • The Law School's student softball league raised $20,000 for a Charlottesville-area charity this spring during a tournament that attracted 1,800 students from 50 law schools across the country. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/softball.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • The Law School expanded its international footprint this year, including adding a new exchange program partner (Seoul National University) (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/international_exchange.htm' >More</a></u>) and a new January term course in Israel on bioethics law (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/jterm_israel.htm' >More</a></u>). Also, a UVA Law student team's brief placed eighth in the Jessup International Law Moot Court competition, in which they competed against 180 schools from 78 countries (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://on.fb.me/Kr0pAd' >More</a></u>), and Dean Paul Mahoney participated in a law school dean summit with Chinese educators in July. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_sum/dean_china.htm' >More</a></u>) Professor Paul Stephan, the new director of the Graduate Studies Program, which is comprised mostly of foreign students, plans to expand enrollment to about 50 students. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/stephan.htm' >More</a></u>)
  • U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas visited the Law School in March to speak to a Constitutional Law class and to meet with a number of law students and faculty members informally. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/clarence_thomas.htm' >More</a></u>)
  • Student leaders made their mark this year. <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/ashbrook_qa.htm' >(From left) Joey Ashbrook</a></u> is the Virginia Law Review's new editor-in-chief, and <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/aurisch_qa.htm' >Alexandra Aurisch</a></u> is president of the Student Bar Association. <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/powell_qa.htm' >Dan Hausman</a></u> was named the 2012 Powell Fellow in Legal Services, and <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_fall/gpa_awards.htm' >Katherine Mims Crocker and Benjamin Tyson</a></u> won awards for their academic performance.
  • A panel from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments at the Law School on March 23, allowing students a first-hand look at how a federal appellate case works. From left, Judges Allyson Duncan, J. Harvie Wilkinson III '72 and Diana Motz '68 presided. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/fourth_circuit.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • Law students had the opportunity to meet informally with a range of legal experts over the course of the year, including with Richard Goldstone, a former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, at a Charlottesville coffee shop. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://on.fb.me/Kr1Yy0' >More</a></u>)
  • The 104th Libel Show spoofed faculty, law school life and, yes — "The Walking Dead" — in their annual production featuring comedic skits, a live band and dance numbers.
  • Alumni opened up about their path to their current jobs and their time at Virginia Law in a series of Q&As. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/alumni_qa_archive.htm' >More</a></u>)
  • "The Diary of a Dean," published in March by the Law Library's Special Collections department, offers selections from the 11-volume diary kept by William Minor Lile, who joined the Law School faculty in 1893 and served as the school's first dean from 1904 until 1932. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/diary_of_a_dean.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • The Law School will welcome three new professors in the coming school year, including former U.S. State Department official <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/deeks.htm' >Ashley Deeks</a></u>, legal historian <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/lowe.htm' >Jessica Lowe</a></u> and former University of Maryland law professor <u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/hellman.htm' >Deborah Hellman</a></u>, an expert on discrimination.
  • Senior Assistant Dean for Career Services Kevin Donovan offered advice and support to graduating students during his Charge to the Class of 2012 on April 11. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://youtu.be/2uUeCOeXTLU' >Video</a></u>)
  • Law students participating in the University of Virginia's new partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in April presented on their semester-long research projects, all of which were based on ongoing NFWF conservation initiatives. The students researched some of the nation's most vexing conservation challenges in recent months and laid the groundwork for potential solutions. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/nfwf_partnership.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • The Law School welcomed 1,300 alumni and their guests during reunion weekend in May. More than 50 percent of alumni have donated to the Law School for each of the last six years, and more than 70 percent have given to the current Capital Campaign. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2011_sum/annual_gifts.htm' >More</a></u>)
  • The Public Interest Law Association will provide a record 109 students with $483,000 in grants to support their summer jobs with public service employers this summer. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/pila_grants.htm' >Story</a></u>)
  • During the Law School's commencement ceremony, former acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal advised the University of Virginia School of Law's graduating Class of 2012 that being a good lawyer requires an open mind, being principled and thinking independently. (<u><a target='_blank' href='http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2012_spr/graduation.htm' >Story/video</a></u>)
  • Congratulations to the Class of 2012!
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