Category: Faculty News

March 11, 2022
Professor Oliveri Wins Outstanding Volunteer Service Award
Rigel Oliveri, the Isabelle Wade and Paul C. Lyda Professor of Law at the University of Missouri School of Law, has received the 11th Howard B. Lang, Jr. Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service to the City of Columbia. Professor Oliveri earned the award due to her involvement with fair and affordable housing programs and services, which includes her work with the Columbia Housing Authority and other agencies and programs. She currently serves on the Columbia Housing Authority Board and works on providing support services for low-income, public housing residents in Columbia in order to help them improve the quality of…

Feb. 8, 2022
Faculty Spotlight — Thomas Bennett
Starting a new job in the middle of a pandemic can be challenging at best. But when that job includes teaching students without ever meeting them face-to-face, “challenging” may be an understatement. For Professor Thomas Bennett, Mizzou Law’s newest faculty member, finally getting to step foot in a classroom this fall was a vast improvement over how he spent his first year teaching at Mizzou. Bennett, an associate professor of law and a Wall Family Fellow at the University of Missouri School of Law, began teaching at Mizzou in 2020 when most Mizzou Law classes took place over Zoom. Now…

Feb. 3, 2022
Mizzou Law Announces New Faculty Hires for Fall 2022
Officials at the University of Missouri School of Law are kicking off the 150th anniversary of the school by announcing two exciting new faculty hires joining the ranks of the nationally renowned faculty scholars and teachers at Mizzou Law. Sandra Sperino, a professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, and Rachel Wechsler, a research fellow at the New York University School of Law, will be joining the faculty at Mizzou Law in time to begin teaching classes in the Fall 2022 semester. “We are so excited to welcome these accomplished legal experts to our faculty,” said Lyrissa Lidsky,…

Dec. 7, 2021
MU researchers say it’s time to clean up the Clean Water Act
By Kenny Gerling, MU News Bureau In 1969, the Cuyahoga River near Cleveland was so polluted that it caught fire, helping to launch the modern environmental movement and prompting Congress to pass the Clean Water Act three years later. It was one of the first laws to safeguard waterways and set national water quality standards. While the Clean Water Act successfully regulated many obvious causes of pollution, such as the dumping of wastewater, it’s done less to limit more diffuse types of pollution, such as “nonpoint source pollution” that includes agricultural runoff from fields and urban stormwater from buildings,…

Dec. 2, 2021
Mizzou Law professor weighs in on implications of challenge to Roe v. Wade
Rigel Oliveri, the Isabelle Wade and Paul C. Lyda Professor of Law at Mizzou Law, spoke with KOMU 8 News in Columbia about the ongoing Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case currently before the US Supreme Court. To read the full question and answer session with Prof. Oliveri, visit: https://www.komu.com/news/mu-law-professor-weighs-in-on-implications-of-challenge-to-roe-v-wade/article_fa7b0482-52e0-11ec-a2a0-079576e7a7ba.html?utm_source=SocialNewsDesk&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=SND_facebook …

Nov. 2, 2021
Prof. Frank Bowman Speak at England Conference on Impeachment
Frank Bowman, F.L. Gibson Endowed Professor of Law and Curator’s Distinguished Professor at the MU School of Law, is appearing virtually at the International Conference: Questions of Accountability in England to discuss impeachment. He will take part in the keynote panel discussion from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 4. To learn more, visit: https://www.worcester.ac.uk/about/academic-schools/school-of-humanities/humanities-research/international-conference/

Nov. 1, 2021
Prof. Christina Wells Quoted in Springfield First Amendment Story
Christina Wells, the Enoch H. Crowder Professor of Law at Mizzou Law, was quoted last week by KY3 television news in Springfield, Missouri regarding the government’s ability to regulate profane and offensive political signs, especially with children present. “Use it as an opportunity to engage with our children. And it can be a talking point, to explain your values and why it is that you don’t think that those words should be used and why that person who’s doing those types of things, is not in line with what you think.” To view and read the whole story, visit:…

Oct. 15, 2021
Professor Frank Bowman Quoted in Washington Post and Slate Regarding Bannon Subpoenas
Frank Bowman, the Floyd Gibson Missouri Endowed Professor of Law and Curator’s Distinguished Professor at Mizzou Law, was quoted in the Washington Post and Slate about a recent subpoena for former President Trump aide Steve Bannon. “The objective in this case — for Bannon and for anybody similarly situated — is to run out the clock until the election in 2022 on the hope, at least, that Republicans will gain control of the House, at which point this investigation will be kicked into the tall grass,” Bowman told the Washington Post. “The law here is absolutely plain, I think…

Sep. 29, 2021
Paul Litton co-authors research study on how past suffering can result in future praise
A team of researchers at Mizzou, including Paul Litton, the associate dean for faculty research and R. B. Price Professor of Law at Mizzou Law, have discovered that people tend to give more praise to someone for their good deeds as an adult after discovering that person has also had to overcome adversity or suffering earlier in life, such as abuse and neglect as a child. Litton collaborated with Philip Robbins, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy in the MU College of Arts and Science. They say these findings can help to narrow a knowledge gap…

Sep. 20, 2021
Mizzou Law Professor Participates in Panel on Presidential Pardons
Frank Bowman, the Floyd R. Gibson Missouri Endowed Professor of Law at Mizzou Law, participated in a panel on the future of the presidential pardon power at Ohio State University in September. The panel: “Set the stage for the two subsequent panels about the future of presidential pardoning, by asking basic questions about the role of a regular pardon process and the result of its having been sidelined by Trump.” To learn more or to view a recording of the panel, visit: https://u.osu.edu/clemencyseries/panel-1/