Professors Mitchell, Freyermuth and Lietzan win 2024 Mizzou Law Faculty Awards

Each year, three faculty members receive Mizzou Law awards for their outstanding work: one for a scholarly work, one for teaching, and one for the administration of justice. The Husch Blackwell Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award is awarded for teaching excellence, and the recipient is chosen by the Missouri Law Review’s editorial board. This years’ awardee is Professor S. David Mitchell. In a nomination letter, the Missouri Law Review’s editor-in-chief wrote that Professor Mitchell “consistently show[s] acceptance for diverse viewpoints, and . . . encourage[s] his students to step outside of their comfort zones to expand their perspectives.” The Shook, Hardy…

Professor Lietzan Speaks at Food & Drug Law Institute Annual Meeting

Last week, Professor Erika Lietzan spoke at the Food & Drug Law Institute’s annual meeting. Her talk discussed the Fifth Circuit’s Apter v. HHS decision (which relates to FDA’s famous “you’re not a horse” tweet.) The FDLI is a nonprofit membership organization for specialists in food and drug law, whether they are in private practice, industry, government, or academia. Professor Lietzan has held multiple leadership positions at the FDLI since the early 2000s, most recently serving on the committee organizing programs and publications to celebrate its 75th anniversary.  Her talk on Apter focused mainly on sovereign immunity and…

Professor Lietzen Fall 2023 Scholarship Recap

In September, Professor Erika Lietzen presented a work in progress at BYU’s law school.  The presentation was called “Accountability By Petition.” She will be submitting the paper – now called “The Power of Petitions” – in the February cycle. The paper explores the role that petitions to federal agencies can play in helping us hold agencies accountable, and it is based in part on a review of several thousand petitions that FDA has received since the mid 1970s. On Nov. 3, Prof. Lietzen moderated a panel on the Food & Drug Law Journal‘s symposium (agenda is here). The…

Prof. Lietzan named to Best Lawyers List

For the 10th straight year, Erika Lietzan, William H. Pittman Professor of Law & Timothy J. Heinsz Professor of Law at Mizzou Law, was named a Best Lawyer in FDA Law and for the 16th straight year as a Best Lawyer in Biotechnology & Life Sciences Law for 2024.

Are Drug Companies the Villain?

For years, brand drug companies have been villainized for “evergreening” or manipulating the law to extend the period of exclusivity for drugs beyond their 20-year patent — a practice critics say unfairly prevents competition from generic drug companies and that has prompted legislators to consider significant reform to policies that govern the pharmaceutical industry. But an audit of more than 200 drugs by a University of Missouri researcher found generic versions of all the drugs were available before their patents expired, raising questions about data being used by policymakers to prove evergreening exists. According to the new study, a comprehensive…

Prof. Lietzan publishes new paper on why medical device companies rarely renew patents

Professor Erika Lietzan, the William H. Pittman Professor of Law and Timothy J. Heinsz Professor of Law at Mizzou Law, recent published a new paper, “The Case of the Missing Device Patents, or: Why Device Patents Matter,” in the Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal. To read Prof. Lietzen’s article, visit: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4223781

Prof. Erika Lietzan Re-appointed to ACUS, Named to Best Lawyer in America List

Erika Lietzan, the William H. Pittman Professor of Law & Timothy J. Heinsz Professor of Law was recently re-appointed to a two-year term as a public members of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS). ACUS is an independent federal agency dedicated to improving the administrative process through consensus-driven applied research and providing nonpartisan expert advice and recommendations for federal agency procedures. Its public members are academics, practicing lawyers, and other experts drawn from the private sector. Additionally, Professor Lietzan was named a 2022 Best Lawyer in America for her high caliber work in Biotechnology and Life…

Prof. Lietzen named Best Lawyer in America in FDA and Biotechnology & Life Sciences Law

Professor Erika Lietzan has again been named a “Best Lawyer in America”  in both FDA Law and Biotechnology & Life Sciences.  This marks the eighth year in a row for FDA Law and the fourteenth year in a row for Biotechnology Law.  The Best Lawyers honor is meant to identify the top 5 percent of attorneys in the United States, and it is based on the judgment of one’s peers.  Professor Lietzan practiced law for 18 years prior to joining the University of Missouri in 2014, including eight years as a partner in the Food and Drug group of Covington…

Professor Lietzan elected as a member of the CREDIMI

Professor Erika Lietzan is a “Membre Associé” at the Centre de Recherche sur le Droit Des Marchés et des Investissements Internationaux (CREDIMI), which is part of the Faculty of Laws, Economics, and Politics of Dijon, within the University of Bourgogne in Dijon, France. The CREDIMI focuses on the study of the market, its functioning, and its players, including specific sectoral markets. Professor Lietzan works with specialists in drug law and health law at the CREDIMI. She has guest lectured to students, participated in conferences (both in Dijon and virtually), co-authored (e.g., in the Yale Journal of Health Policy,…