Jan. 16, 2024

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…

Jan. 11, 2024

Dean Sperino Cited in Eleventh Circuit Opinion

Associate Dean Sandra Sperino’s article, Rethinking Discrimination Law, 110 Mich. L. Rev. 69 (2011), was cited in a concurring opinion by Judge Newsom of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The case is Tynes v. Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, 88 4th 939 (2023). Judge Newsom advocates for the abolition of the McDonnell Douglas test, a burden-shifting framework courts use to analyze discrimination claims. Professor Sperino is an expert in McDonnell Douglas, writing numerous articles and a book on the topic. 

Jan. 9, 2024

Mizzou Law Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic Now Offers NIL Contract Review for Student-Athletes

Beginning this January, the Mizzou Law Entrepreneurship Clinic (ELC) will begin offering Name Image and Likeness (NIL) contract review services to all student-athletes at Mizzou and across the state of Missouri. The ELC already offers legal services for entrepreneurs and new business owners free of charge — and that same service will now be available for student-athletes. “In addition to reviewing their NIL contracts and helping the student-athlete navigate the complexities of the legal terms and conditions — convert the contract language from ‘lawyer words’ to more common explanations in layman’s terms — we can assist them in protecting…

Jan. 4, 2024

Prof. Boyack Discusses New Consumer Contracts Paper on Podcast

Professor Andrea Boyack discussed her forthcoming paper outlying a new framework for consumer contracts with the Ballard Spahr Consumer Finance Monitor podcast: https://www.ballardspahr.com/Insights/Blogs/2024/01/Podcast-A-Look-at-a-New-Approach-to-Consumer-Contracts.  

Jan. 3, 2024

Prof. Andrea Boyack writes in Bloomberg Law about her forthcoming publication

In a newly published piece in Bloomberg Law, Mizzou Law’s Andrea Boyack suggests a new framework for consumer contracts that prioritizes consumers’ agency over a blind agreement to a company’s boilerplate terms. “Companies have long claimed that their online boilerplates must be afforded contractual status, or else the world of commerce would be thrown into chaos. This is absurd. In the context of business-to-business transactions, the law rejects the need to adopt one party’s standard form as the parties’ contract.” To read the full piece, visit: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/consumer-contracts-must-be-based-on-real-agreement-not-clicks

Dec. 6, 2023

Dean Sperino Quoted in Bloomberg Law

Sandra Sperino, associate dean and Elwood L. Thomas Endowed Professor of Law, was quoted in Bloomberg Law about oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court on a work discrimination case. Narrowing the issue leaves out biased employer decisions on topics like when and where employees work, which job functions they’re required to perform, and discipline that doesn’t immediately result in docked pay or other serious consequences, said Sandra Sperino, a discrimination law professor at the University of Missouri. But it also eliminates the need for the justices to define what’s the most minimal conduct that would cross the…

Dec. 5, 2023

Mizzou Law Hires New Director of Family Violence Clinic

Leaders at the University of Missouri School of Law are excited to announce that Danielle Dodd has joined the Mizzou Law faculty as the new director of the recently reopened Family Violence Clinic. Professor Dodd joins the Mizzou Law faculty as an associate clinical professor of law after serving as legal counsel for the Department of Social Services. This included litigating termination of parental rights, adult guardianships, and opposing removal-of-name-requests under the Child Abuse and Neglect Registry.  From 2018 to 2022 Professor Dodd worked at True North of Columbia, Columbia’s local domestic and sexual violence agency. “We are…

Nov. 30, 2023

Mizzou Law student wins entrepreneur competition, $15,000 in seed funding

On top of his responsibilities as a law student, parent and president of the University of Missouri Graduate Professional Council, Mizzou Law 3L Parker Owens sets aside time for one of his favorite hobbies: Lego. However, Owens does more than just play — in July, he created Parker’s Brick Builds, a business which offers custom Lego kits to retailers and online to individuals. Owens said that he has enjoyed Lego since he was a child, so making the leap to creating his own models was a natural progression. “I grew up building with Lego, so I decided to make my…

Nov. 27, 2023

MU law professor pushes to redefine modern contracts, advocate for consumer protections

By Courtney Perrett, Show Me Mizzou Whether you’re subscribing to a dating app, getting a gym membership, visiting a website or purchasing a product, you’re probably entering into a consumer contract. As widely used as these agreements are, people rarely read, understand, or know the content of them. Although there are some government regulations, contract law generally treats online “terms as conditions” to be binding contracts for people who agree to buy, subscribe, borrower, join, or download. In her forthcoming article, The Shape of Consumer Contracts, Andrea Boyack, the Floyd R. Gibson Endowed Professor of Law, says that people’s…

Nov. 17, 2023

Mizzou Law Professors Quoted in ABA Journal

Mizzou Law professors Ben Trachtenberg and Richard Reuben were recently quoted in an ABA Journal article covering a recently disbarred Missouri attorney. Their quotes address ethical and legal questions surrounding the case of an attorney who broke local statute by remaining on a city council while no longer living within that municipality. “Not every lie is going to get a lawyer in trouble. There’s ordinary dishonesty, like telling your children there’s a Santa Claus, and then there’s deeper deceit, such as defrauding the public. That kind of deceit can get you in trouble even when you are acting…