Faculty News

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Professor Oliveri Named Women’s and Gender Studies Alumnae Anniversary Award

Rigel Oliver, the Isabelle Wade and Paul C. Lyda Professor of Law at Mizzou Law, was honored March 15 with a 2022 MU Women’s and Gender Studies Alumnae Anniversary Award. The award was given by the MU Department of Women’s and Gender Studies for Prof. Oliveri’s impressive networking and advocacy work across campus. Congratulations to Prof. Oliveri!.

Prof. Larry Dessem

Dean Emeritus Dessem Publishes Op-Ed on Refuting LSAT Scores’ Relevance for Judge Appointments

R. Lawrence Dessem, Mizzou Law Dean Emeritus and Timothy J. Heinsz Professor Emeritus, published an Op-Ed piece in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In his piece, Dessem refutes attacks on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination for the U.S. Supreme Court based on her Law School Admission Test (LSAT) score decades earlier. To read Dean Dessem’s full piece, visit: https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/columnists/dessem-an-admissions-exam-has-zero-relevance-on-judge-brown-jacksons-qualifications/article_ec8920a9-8864-53ba-ad12-406db3369f9d.html…

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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…

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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…

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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,…

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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,…

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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  …

bowman conference information

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/  

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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:…

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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…