Dec. 26, 2022

LLM Alumni Spotlight — Flavia Fragale

In the United States, it’s nearly impossible to imagine becoming a judge before turning 25 years old. In Brazil, moving from law school directly to a judgeship is fairly common. For Flavia Fragale, LLM ‘05, ‘19, she became a judge at just 24. After growing up in Vitória, Brazil, she was admitted to a law program at the University of São Paulo, the oldest and most recognized law school in Brazil. “Law school in Brazil is a graduate course that lasts five years,” Fragale said. “There is no college before it— you finish high school and apply directly to law…

Dec. 13, 2022

Faculty Fellow Haley Proctor Publishes Paper in Yale Law Journal Forum

After U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement this summer, legal experts and analysts across the country have reflected on Breyer’s legacy of pragmatic and thoughtful leadership. Haley Proctor, a faculty fellow at Mizzou Law and the MU Kinder Institute for Constitutional Democracy, had the opportunity to collaborate with long-time mentor and retired federal circuit judge Thomas Griffith on an article for the Yale Law Journal Forum. The article, which was published in late November, tracks the past, present and future of the Major Questions Doctrine and its relationship to Justice Breyer’s jurisprudence. “The Major Questions Doctrine first emerged…

Dec. 9, 2022

Professor Oliveri participates in NAACP public housing forum

On Dec. 7, Rigel Oliveri, the Isabelle Wade and Paul C. Lyda Professor of Law at Mizzou Law, participated in a forum hosted by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s Thurgood Marshall Institute on Protecting and Expanding Public Housing. The invitation-only forum was held at the NAACP’s offices in New York and Washington, DC. The forum, which included former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, brought together scholars, advocates, and other experts to discuss ways to reimagine public housing to better provide for the…

Dec. 8, 2022

Associate Dean Sperino Provides Training to Federal Judges

Sandra Sperino, the associate dean for research and faculty development and the Elwood L. Thomas Missouri Endowed Professor at Mizzou Law serves as a faculty member for the Federal Judicial Center. The Federal Judicial Center is the research and education agency of the judicial branch of the U.S. government. On Dec. 5, Professor Sperino gave a 90-minute presentation at the Phase II Orientation Seminar for U.S. District Judges in Washington D.C. She discussed cutting edge issues in discrimination law and the recently enacted Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act. In late October, Dean Sperino conducted…

Dec. 6, 2022

Faculty Spotlight — Meet Yunsieg Kim

Yunsieg Kim was a self-proclaimed terrible law student. “I studied more coding and computer science than law. It’s a wonder I never failed my law courses,” Kim recalled of his time at Yale University, where he got his law degree. “The law seemed to be either outdated or just fundamentally incompatible with a lot of technological developments,” Kim said. “This was my impression going in, and that held up.” Having grown up in South Korea, Kim completed his bachelor’s degree at Dartmouth before collecting what he calls his “basket of graduate degrees” in fields ranging from a doctorate in…

Dec. 1, 2022

Professor Emeritus Esbeck Publishes Op-Ed on Respect for Marriage Act

Carl Esbeck, the R.B. Price Professor Emeritus and Isabelle Wade & Paul C. Lyda Professor Emeritus of Law, has published an op-ed in Christianity Today in favor of the bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act, which recently passed in Congress. Additionally, prior to the vote on the bill, Professor Emertus Esbeck co-authored a letter to Sen. Susan Collins and Sen. Tammy Baldwin. In the letter, Esbeck, along with fellow constitutional law experts Douglas Laycock from the University of Virginia, Thomas Berg from the University of St. Thomas, and Robin Fretwell Wilson from the University of Illinois, urged the senators…

Nov. 3, 2022

Alumni Spotlight– Meet Judge-Elect Kayla Jackson-Williams

By Anna Sago With local and midterm elections coming up soon, the unopposed candidate for associate circuit judge in Boone County is already clear. When elected this November, Judge-Elect Kayla Jackson-Williams, an alumna of Mizzou Law, ‘16, will be the first Black Boone County judge in its more than 200-year history. “I didn’t realize how monumental that would be,” said Jackson-Williams. “I was at Roots & Blues with my daughter, and this little girl, maybe 8 years old, said, ‘Mommy, that’s that Black judge.’ and they walked over, and her mom said, ‘I’m sorry, we talk about you a lot,…

Nov. 2, 2022

Are Drug Companies the Villain?

For years, brand drug companies have been villainized for “evergreening” or manipulating the law to extend the period of exclusivity for drugs beyond their 20-year patent — a practice critics say unfairly prevents competition from generic drug companies and that has prompted legislators to consider significant reform to policies that govern the pharmaceutical industry. But an audit of more than 200 drugs by a University of Missouri researcher found generic versions of all the drugs were available before their patents expired, raising questions about data being used by policymakers to prove evergreening exists. According to the new study, a comprehensive…

Oct. 4, 2022

Staff Spotlight — Meet Sarah Reesman

Bright lights. The roar of a crowd. The sound of the marching band and the announcer echoing across the field. These are all things typically associated with Mizzou Athletics. One thing that might not come to mind? The law. While Sarah Reesman loved the nearly three decades she spent working in the Mizzou athletics department, she jumped at the opportunity to move to Mizzou Law’s Career Development Office. She is excited to begin counseling students, helping them narrow down their legal and professional interests and find non-traditional career opportunities similar to the one she found in athletics. After Sarah Reesman…

Oct. 3, 2022

Prof. David English Honored as ABA Advocate of the Month

David English, the William Franklin Fratcher Endowed Professor of Law and the Edward L Jenkins Professor of Law at the MU School of Law, was honored as the September Advocate of the Month by the American Bar Association in their monthly Washington Letter newsletter. From the ABA’s Washington Letter: “We are proud to honor David English as our Advocate of the Month for September 2022 for his work on reforming the nation’s guardianship system, a task on which he has been continually engaged since 1987. He currently serves as Chair of the National Guardianship Network, which is a coalition of…