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The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law was well represented at this year’s Association of American Law Schools (AALS) annual meeting, Jan. 3-6, with multiple award recipients, speakers, and attendees. Faculty recognized with awards were Professor Michael Pinard (pictured above), Associate Dean Russell McClain, and Vice Dean Deborah Eisenberg.
“I take great pride in Maryland Carey Law’s engagement with and recognition from AALS,” said Maryland Carey Law Dean Renée McDonald Hutchins, who serves on the AALS Executive Committee. “The annual meeting is an invaluable opportunity to join together with our colleagues in the academy to advance excellence in American legal education.”
Professor Michael Pinard received the prestigious Michael A. Olivas Award for Outstanding Leadership in Diversity and Mentoring in the Legal Academy. The Olivas Award is presented by the AALS sections on Civil Rights, Education Law, Immigration Law, Minority Groups, and Student Services to members who “most vividly exemplify Olivas’s devotion to mentoring junior and aspiring faculty from underrepresented communities and promoting diversity, inclusion, and equity in the legal academy.”
Pinard is the Francis & Harriet Iglehart Professor of Law and faculty director of the Gibson-Banks Center for Race and the Law at Maryland Carey Law. His scholarship focuses broadly on race and the criminal legal system, including criminalization, policing, incarceration, criminal records, and the interconnected harms of the criminal and civil legal systems. In 2011, he was honored as a Champion of Change by the White House for his work on behalf of individuals with criminal records. Currently, he serves as a commissioner with the Maryland Access to Justice Commission and a member of the Maryland Equitable Justice Collaborative.
Also recognized at the conference was Professor Russell McClain, associate dean for diversity and inclusion, and director of the Maryland Carey Law Academic Achievement Program. McClain received the Section on Academic Support’s 2023 Legacy Award, given to a senior member of the discipline who has “made outstanding contributions to the academic support profession throughout their career, including building and evolving the discipline of academic support.”
McClain’s scholarly interest is in the psychological factors that affect academic performance, including stereotype threat and implicit bias. A nationally recognized expert on inclusiveness and minority student achievement in law school, McClain is the author of The Guide to Belonging in Law School (West Academic, 2020).
This year’s Section of the Year Award was bestowed on the Dispute Resolution Section for which Maryland Carey Law Vice Dean Deborah Eisenberg was chair regent. The AALS Section of the Year Award recognizes excellence in member support and other activities that promote the core values of AALS. The Section on Alternative Dispute Resolution was selected for its “commitment to excellence in teaching, preparing members on the NextGen Bar Exam, developing engaging programing, collaborating with Mitchell Hamline School of Law to digitize dispute resolution teaching resources, and increasing outreach to law faculty.”
Eisenberg is Maryland Carey Law’s vice dean and Piper & Marbury Professor of Law. She is faculty director of the Dispute Resolution Program. Eisenberg continues her service in the AALS Dispute Resolution Section as a member of the executive committee.
Maryland Carey Law submitted two faculty members for recognition as the law school’s Teacher of the Year. They are professors Paula Monopoli and Kathryn Frey-Balter, selected for their expertise, passion, and superb teaching. Monopoli is the Sol & Carlyn Hubert Professor of Law and founding director of the Women, Leadership & Equality Program. Among other courses, Monopoli teaches the Gender in the Legal Profession Seminar; Women, Leadership & Equality Zetzer Fellows Workshop; and Property. Frey-Balter is professor of practice and interim director of the Maryland Carey Law Lawyering Program. She teaches Lawyering I and II and the Post-Conviction & Sentencing: Legal Theory and Practice course.
Additionally, Sarah Lorr, who joins the Maryland Carey Law faculty this summer, received Best Scholarly Paper Honorable Mention for “Disabling Families” forthcoming in the Stanford Law Review. Lorr’s work focuses on the rights of adults with disabilities to have and raise families and to be free from unwarranted intrusion in private spheres of decision making.
The Association of American Law Schools organized the 2024 annual meeting around the topic “Defending Democracy.” Maryland Carey Law faculty offered the following presentations:
- Professor Chaz Arnett, Section on Criminal Law, “Surveillance and Policing in Racialized Spaces”
- Professor Mark Graber, Section on Jewish Law, “The Proposed Judicial Overhaul and Israeli Democracy”
- Professor David Gray, Section on Criminal Procedure, “The Future of Miranda in the Roberts Court”
- Professor Paula Monopoli, Section on Women in Legal Education, “Feminism, the Development of Professional Identity, and Implementing Standard 303(b)”
- Professor Will Moon, Section on European Law, “New Scholarship in EU Law”
- Associate Professor Maneka Sinha, Section on Evidence and Law and the Social Sciences Joint Program, “Daubert at 30: Reflecting on the Past, Present, and Future of Expert Evidence”
- Professor Matiangai Sirleaf, Section on National Security Law, “Defending Democracy: Re-focusing the National Security Lens to Examine Threats from Within”
The Association of American Law Schools, founded in 1900, is a nonprofit association of 176 member and 18 fee-paid law schools.