Oct. 11, 2024

Alumni Spotlight — Meet Erin Webber

By Anna Sago Growing up with her father, then a state court judge in Memphis, Mo., Erin Webber, ’96, remembers a different kind of dinnertime chats: pre-trial conferences. “He was appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court to handle a lot of cases around the state that were tricky. He was a circuit judge in small three rural counties, so he had time, and was an excellent jurist,” she recalled. “Back in the day, he would invite the prosecuting attorney and the defense lawyer over to our house, and they’d knock things out over whatever we were having for dinner.” Her…

Oct. 10, 2024

Professor Renee Henson Speaks about A.I. in the Classroom

Professor Renee Henson, a visiting professor of law at Mizzou Law, spoke KBIA, the local Columbia NPR affiliate, to discuss her use of A.I. in the classroom to help students learn negotiation skills. To read and listen to the story, visit: https://www.kbia.org/kbia-news/2024-10-09/1008ailaw…

Oct. 7, 2024

Professor Crouch Presents at IPO Conference

Dennis Crouch, the Judge C.A. Leedy Professor of Law at Mizzou Law, presented twice at the annual meeting of the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) in Chicago. His first presentation was delivered to a specially convened group of chief intellectual property counsel. The talk was derived from an ongoing research project on the role of myth and legend within intellectual property law.  This talk used a Jungian frame to highlight a key shadow many attorneys face – that of perfection – and how it limits both our creativity and power.  In the talk, Professor Crouch relied on the Greek…

Oct. 3, 2024

Mizzou Law to host preeminent scholar at Health Law Colloquium

Professor Barak Richman of the George Washington University School of Law and of Duke University, will present his new draft paper, “Hiding in Plain Sight: ERISA’s Cure for the $1.5 Trillion Health Benefits Market”, co-authored with Amy Monahan, as part of the Mizzou Law Health Law Colloquium, on October 9th, from 4:20 to 5:20 pm Central Time. The Mizzou Law Health Law Colloquium is convened by Professor David Gamage of Mizzou Law. Some of the speaker sessions will be closed to only Professor Gamage and his Mizzou health law students. Other sessions will be open to guest participants via…

Oct. 1, 2024

Professor Lietzan Presents at NYU symposium

On Sept. 26-27, Professor Erika Lietzan participated in a symposium at New York University Law School Engelberg Center entitled “Health Care at Reasonable Cost: The Hatch-Waxman Act at 40 and Beyond.”  Sept. 24 marked the 40th anniversary of this statute, which established the modern generic drug approval framework and also amended the Patent Act to give brand drug companies back a portion of the patent term that is lost while they conduct premarket testing.   This symposium convened academic and industry experts to consider whether this transformational statute  has achieved its twin goals of facilitating drug competition and encouraging…

Oct. 1, 2024

Adjunct Professor Richard Middleton discusses immigration law with KMOX

Richard T. Middleton, an adjunct professor at Mizzou Law and a professor of political science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, spoke with KMOX radio about immigration law. To hear the full interview, visit: https://www.audacy.com/podcast/total-information-am-2922c/episodes/law-professor-immigration-law-is-strictly-the-jurisdiction-of-the-federal-government-fee33.

Sep. 25, 2024

Professor Ryan Vacca publishes article in Harvard journal

Ryan Vacca, the John D. Lawson Professor of Law at Mizzou Law, this week published a new article, Revisiting the Federal Circuit En Banc, in the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology. Professor Vacca’s article examines the recent move by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to abandon en banc review in utility law patents. The piece also evaluates the need for the court to revive its previous en banc practices to ensure an effective and consistent patent law landscape and to effectively guide patent stakeholders. En banc review is when all active judges…

Sep. 18, 2024

Veterans Clinic staffer wins Missouri Bar Award

Eugene O’Loughlin, intake coordinator and veterans benefits specialist in the Veterans Clinic at the University of Missouri School of Law, today was awarded the 2024 Liberty Bell Award from the Missouri Bar Young Lawyers’ Section Council. The Liberty Bell Award acknowledges a non-lawyer or non-legal organization engaged in public service activities that enhance the legal community or are dedicated to the advancement of justice. O’Loughlin is the veteran advocacy coordinator at the Mizzou Law Veterans Clinic, which helps veterans with discharge upgrades and VA disability compensation appeals at the agency level and in federal appellate courts.

Sep. 17, 2024

Faculty Spotlight — Meet Eric Hintz

To poet John Donne, no man is an island. To Eric Hintz, one of Mizzou Law’s newest professors, no area of the law is, either. With an undergraduate degree in economics and a graduate degree in global security studies, Hintz has always enjoyed approaching academic questions from a trans-substantive perspective. “I really liked the interdisciplinary component of [the law], and the sort of aspect that you can be a generalist, and learn all sorts of different things,” Hintz said. “One of the meta points that I enjoyed about economics and global security studies was that you’re thinking about all…

Sep. 13, 2024

Faculty Spotlight — Meet Ryan Vacca

When Ryan Vacca, ‘04, gave his first guest lecture to students studying the entertainment business at St. Louis Community College, the then-attorney at Stinson LLP began considering going back to school — as a professor. “I could see the light bulb was going off [for students,]” Vacca recalled. “They understood it and were asking great questions. It was a lot of fun, and at that point, I started thinking maybe academia might be for me.” Becoming a law professor was a far cry from what Vacca originally planned to pursue as an undergraduate at Amherst College, where he entered as…