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. 7, 2022

Prof. Oliveri co-edits affordable housing legal guide

Prof. Rigel Oliveri, the Isabelle Wade and Paul C. Lyda Professor of Law, recently published a book on which she served as co-editor. This important book, The Legal Guide to Affordable Housing Development, Third Edition is a practitioners guide to the legal field of affordable housing development. To learn more about the book, visit: https://www.americanbar.org/products/inv/book/420065732/.  

Feb. 7, 2022

Prof. Oliveri’s publication cited by Connecticut Supreme Court

Prof. Rigel Oliveri, the Isabella Wade and Paul C. Lyda Professor of Law, recently had her publication, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination Claims Under the Fair Housing Act After Bostock v. Clayton County (Kansas Law Review, 2021) cited favorably by the Connecticut Supreme Court in Comm’n on Hum. Rts. & Opportunities v. Edge Fitness, LLC, — A.3d —, 2022 WL 222020, at *2 n.2 (Conn. Jan. 25, 2022): This appeal presents a significant question of first impression with respect to whether the Public Accommodation Act, General Statutes § 46a-64, contains an implied customer gender privacy exception to its general…

Feb. 7, 2022

Professor Lee elected as Chair-Elect, AALS Section on Law and Sports

Ilhyung Lee, the Edward W. Hinton Professor of Law and director of the MU Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution, was recently named chair-elect for the Association of American Law Schools Section on Law and Sports. To view the full list of officers for the section, click here.

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,…

Feb. 2, 2022

Assistant Dean Emeritus Bob Bailey Named 2022 Legal Champion

Robert G. Bailey, assistant dean emeritus of the University of Missouri School of Law, was honored with a 2022 Legal Champion award by Missouri Lawyers Media. Bailey was recognized alongside Pamela Meanes and Casey Wong for their work chairing a special committee within The Missouri Bar to increase the retention of diverse lawyers in the legal profession. Bailey joined Meanes in structuring the committee and leading this group of diverse and non-diverse lawyers in working together. Meanes resigned from the committee in late 2020 because of personal reasons. Bailey continued as chair, and Casey Wong — a litigation partner with…

Feb. 1, 2022

LLM Alumna Spotlight — Sharanya Rao

After years in the legal field, Sharanya Rao, LLM ’03, decided she wanted to pursue a career path where she could help people gain clarity and fulfilment in their professional lives. Rao says pivoting from a career in law to a career in coaching was made possible in part by the time she spent within the Mizzou Law dispute resolution LLM program. “The LLM program gave me deep insights into what I really wanted to do and helped me carve my career as a leadership coach,” Rao said. “The foundation I received in the program in mindfulness and cross-cultural communication…

Jan. 27, 2022

Registration now open for 2022 Missouri Law Review Symposium

About the symposium: Some of the country’s most eminent legal scholars, historians, journalists, and elected officials will assemble (virtually) at the University of Missouri School of Law on February 17-18, 2022, to discuss the two impeachments of President Donald Trump. President Trump was only the third American president to be impeached and was the only president to be impeached twice. The two impeachment proceedings and the resulting acquittals raised grave questions about the health and resilience of the American political system. The Missouri Law Review and the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy are jointly sponsoring a two-day…

Dec. 9, 2021

A Calm Space Amidst the Storm

A soft hum fades into the background as a slightly sweet, calming scent fills the air. One student distracts herself with a puzzle, another enjoys the rocking and squeezing of an oversized massage chair, while a third sinks deep into a plush couch, headphones exuding relaxing music. Despite final exams rushing on in earnest just outside the door, this scene hardly is illustrative of the clichéd stressful life of a law student. However, the Mizzou Law Wellness Room is designed to be that way: to break the cycle of pressure and provide a place of at least temporary respite for…

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,…