Research News

The State Bar of Georgia offered a new three-day conference to address the crisis in the legal profession regarding attorneys’ increasing levels of stress, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and suicide.

In 1986, Georgia State Law appointed Marjorie Fine Knowles as dean. At the time, only a handful of law schools were helmed by women — around six percent. Wendy F. Hensel, who was named dean in November 2017, is the fourth woman in the law school’s top role (out of six total deans). While Georgia State Law has had a history of women leadership, women have only begun to close the gap nationwide.

During his 30 years on the bench, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy angered people across the political spectrum. His decisions on gay rights, abortion, and prayer in school alienated the right, while his decisions on corporate speech, sovereign immunity and congressional power disturbed the left.

With the rapid growth in film and TV production in Georgia, there is a need for good legal representation at all levels of the business and this provides a way to build that legal talent locally, said Mo Ivory, professor and director of Georgia State Law’s Entertainment, Sports and Media Law Initiative.

When Phi Nguyen (J.D. ’09), litigation director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice –Atlanta, chose to pursue law school, the decision didn’t feel entirely like her own, but she quickly discovered that being an attorney armed her with the skills to fight injustice.

ATLANTA—Commissioner Kara M. Stein of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will deliver the 62nd annual Henry J. Miller Distinguished Lecture at Georgia State University College of Law at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 27. The event is invitation-only.

While writing her dissertation in neuroscience, Susanne Hollinger (J.D. ’08), now head of patents for The Coca- Cola Company, discovered something. She was about to become the world’s expert on one specific protein.

Georgia State University College of Law was named among the top law schools for public interest law by preLaw magazine. The college was one of 12 to receive an A+ ranking by the magazine in its Back to School 2018 issue.

The Honorable Catherine M. Salinas, United States Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Georgia, delivered the second annual Public Interest Keynote address at Georgia State University College of Law. Salinas encouraged students to begin thinking about their professional identity as lawyers and to commit to serving the public interest, whether full time or by doing pro bono work as part of a different full-time career.

Litigation was not the obvious choice for Maria Batres (J.D. ’11) when she decided to pursue a law degree. An introvert, the former middle and high school social studies teacher wasn’t entirely comfortable with public speaking outside of the classroom.

Georgia State University College of Law and the Center for Law, Health & Society welcome Margaret Middleton to the Health Law Partnership (HeLP) Legal Services Clinic. Middleton will serve as co-director of the HeLP clinic, following the retirement of HeLP’s founding director Sylvia Caley (MBA ’86, J.D. ’89).

Veronica Macias (J.D. ’21) sorted through books with a group of incoming first-year Georgia State Law students while volunteering at Books for Africa. During their community service project, the students reminisced about the books they read as children.

Georgia State University College of Law has a new senior director of Law Admissions, as of May 2018. Monique McCarthy is in position and has already began to set goals for the Law Admissions department.

Law and analytics students work together to build predictive models for case outcomes in Legal Analytics Lab sprint.

Like many leaders and faculty members at Georgia State Law, Associate Dean for Student Affairs Kelly Cahill Timmons puts students first. In fact, it’s part of why she has decided to step down from this role. After serving in the position for 11 years, she’s ready for a change, but there are some extraordinarily selfless reasons too.

Leslie E. Wolf, professor of law and director of the Center for Law, Health & Society, was among the five Georgia State University faculty to receive a Distinguished University Professorship. This prestigious honor recognizes faculty who have an outstanding record of scholarship, as well as a history of substantial contributions to the University and profession.

On May 5, 2018, (nearly six years after meeting in Georgia State Law Orientation), Kristin Roquemore (J.D. ’15) and Trent Duke (J.D. ’15) exchanged wedding vows at The Trolley Barn in Inman Park – and Associate Dean for Student Affairs Kelly Cahill Timmons officiated.

Dawn M. Jones (J.D.’00) was installed as treasurer of the State Bar of Georgia, Ana Maria Martinez (J.D. ’09) was appointed to its Board of Governors and J. Antonio DelCampo (J.D. ’94) was elected to the board’s executive committee.

The State Bar of Georgia recognized recently retired Georgia State Law professor Roy Sobelson’s service to legal education and the justice system during its annual meeting in June.

Joyce Gist Lewis (J.D. ’99) and Sutton Connelly (J.D. ’09) have been elected to the State Bar of Georgia Board of Governors and were installed during the State Bar’s annual meeting in June. They will serve for two years.

When Lauren Sudeall Lucas, associate professor of law and faculty director of the Center for Access to Justice, wrote “Keeping Gideon’s Promise: Using Equal Protection to Address the Denial of Counsel in Misdemeanor Cases,” she wanted to engage practitioners and policy-makers with its ideas and influence their thinking about how to advance indigent defense reform.

Georgia State University Law Dean Wendy F. Hensel, along with professors Eric J. Segall, Ryan Rowberry and Julian C. Juergensmeyer, will speak at the Poland-U.S. Conference on the Rule of Law held by The Center for American Law Studies at the University of Warsaw Faculty of Law and Administration on June 26.

“Investing has the ability to change an individual’s life, to take your family from one place and one plan to another, or to help you achieve a new goal,” said Commissioner Robert Jackson of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at a town hall meeting held at Georgia State University College of Law on June 13.

Georgia State University College of Law’s Center for Access to Justice has released a report, “Mississippi’s No-Counsel Courts,” detailing the denial of counsel in state criminal courts in Mississippi in violation of the Constitution’s Sixth Amendment.

In May, the Atlanta Bar Association leadership transferred from Margaret Vath, senior lecturer in law, to Nicole Iannarone, associate clinical professor—the first time presidents representing a law school have served in immediate succession. 

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Atlanta Regional Office will host an Atlanta Investor Town Hall from 2 to 4 p.m. Wednesday, June 13, at Georgia State University College of Law, 85 Park Place NE.

Georgia State University College of Law is ranked No. 25, tied with Cornell University, for bar passage rates in the Internet Legal Research Group’s 2017 Raw Data Law School Rankings Report.

“It’s revolutionary,” Chief Judge Stephen Dillard of the Georgia Court of Appeals said of Georgia State Law students’ linguistic and historical research into the original meaning of various provisions of the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights using the Corpus of Founding Era American English (COFEA) database.

The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) recognized the Georgia State University College of Law chapter with a 2018 ACS Program Award, which honors ACS student chapters that conducted at least 20 “substantive and compelling events” during the school year.

Margaret “Meg” Elizabeth Butler, associate director for public services, wrote three chapters in the book Negligence: Policy, Elements, and Evidence, which will be available in the coming weeks.

Georgia State University College of Law graduates finished with an 88 percent passage rate for first-time takers on the February 2018 exam, well ahead of the state rate of 70.4 percent and that of other law schools.

“I encourage you to allow yourself the grace to seek out a place where you can do what you really want to do, and what you do best,” Attorney General of Colorado Cynthia H. Coffman (J.D. ’91) said to graduates at the 2018 Commencement and Hooding Ceremony on May 11. Georgia State Law awarded 183 juris doctor and 18 master of laws degrees during the ceremony.

As a child, Yasmin Assar (J.D. ’18) would sit down with her parents every week to watch one of their favorite TV shows, the legal drama “The Practice.” From then on, when she was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, her answer never wavered—a lawyer.

More than 300 guests joined Georgia State University College of Law faculty and staff to celebrate and recognize the exceptional service of Sylvia Caley (M.B.A. ’86, J.D. ’89), Cheryl Jester-George, Paul Milich and Roy Sobelson, who are retiring this year.

Over her 30 years at the College of Law, Cheryl Jester-George was success and leadership served as a model to others, said Steven J. Kaminshine, professor of law.

Some titles are formal; others are not. Professor Roy Sobelson has gained several since joining Georgia State Law in 1985. Official positions he has served in include professor of law, associate dean for academic affairs, and director of the LL.M. program. In addition, students have given him nicknames like Sobe-Wan Kenobi and The Law School’s Dad to describe the roles he has played in their law-school experiences and lives.

When Brandon Reed (J.D. ’18) came to Georgia State Law, he’d been working as a sales representative for a medical device manufacturer for five years. The Georgia Institute of Technology graduate loved what he did. However, he wanted to continue his education; he just wasn’t sure in what way — at first.

As part of Teach For America, Andrew “Andy” Navratil (J.D. ’18) taught fourth- and fifth-grade math and science for two years in Miami before becoming a coach to train new teachers and then an academic dean of a charter middle school. After eight years in education, Navratil decided to pursue the career that he had thought about since middle school.

Jessica Williams-Vickery (J.D.’18), editor-in-chief of the Georgia State University Law Review, is more of a carrot than a stick kind of person when leading others toward a goal.

While at Georgia State Law, Karina Deochand (B.S. ’15, J.D. ’18) took advantage of several opportunities that piqued her interest in pursuing a legal career in an area with an international scope.

As the student commencement speaker this year, Thomas Michael “Mike” Hodell, 52, wants to impart what it has meant to him personally to attend Georgia State Law and embark on what he calls “my third career.”

He won the lottery. Now he’s graduating from law school—again. Serge Luhaga (LL.M. ’18), recipient of this year’s Pro Bono Award, graduated from law school and worked as an in-house counsel in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo when the manager of his father’s cybercafé, similar to a “FedEx Office,” urged him to apply online for the United States’ diversity visa.

“Jack Hardin is the quiet man in Atlanta who has been effective, diligent and determined over so many years in dealing with the problem of homelessness, indigent defense, health care for the needy and so forth,” said Emmet J. Bondurant. “He has never sought credit or the limelight for [his service]. He has been the quiet man for which the community depends on so much of its progress.”

A Georgia State Law Moot Court team won Best Brief and advanced to the quarterfinals at the Cardozo Entertainment and Copyright Law Moot Court Competition in New York City for the second year in a row. The Cardozo competition is one of the premier intellectual property law competitions in the nation.

Because of their defense for that Basil Elerby, two Georgia State University College of Law alumni are receiving the Gideon’s Promise Award from the Southern Center for Human Rights at a ceremony on Tuesday, May 1.

Collaboration among students and professors is not uncommon at Georgia State University College of Law, but “swing pricing” isn’t a topic that typically brings them together. However, when the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) finalized rules authorizing the mutual fund pricing mechanism, Holly van den Toorn (J.D. ’19) and Anne Tucker, associate professor of law, decided to collaborate on an article about their mutual interest, which the Columbia Business Law Review published April 2.

Sylvia Caley (MBA ’86, J.D. ’89) is retiring at the end of this school year after 11 years as the director of the Health Law Partnership (HeLP), a medical-legal community collaboration among Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the Atlanta Legal Aid Society and the College of Law and the co-director of the HeLP Legal Services Clinic, which she helped found.

On April 11, the Georgia Latino Law Foundation honored Georgia State University College of Law alumna Jessica J. Wood (J.D. ’94) with the Trailblazer Award.

Members of the Georgia State University College of Law Student Trial Lawyers Association (STLA) finished as finalists in the annual South Texas Mock Trial Challenge, March 22-25, which brings together nearly 30 teams from law schools across the country.

Georgia State University College of Law is known for educating well-rounded, diverse students. Gabriel Mobley (B.S. ’17, J.D. ’21) is no exception, besides his Cure Bowl championship ring of course.

Professor William A. Edmundson, Regents Professor of Law and professor of philosophy, will give the final presentation at the Inaugural Property and Political Economy Conference on Saturday, April 21, at Chapman University’s Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy, in Los Angeles.

Spencer Hsu, investigative reporter for The Washington Post and keynote speaker at the 2018 Georgia State Law Review Symposium, discussed weaknesses in forensic science and his 2012 series, Hsu was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize gold medal for public service.

Keeping a database of police and prosecutor misconduct can change the system by holding those accountable and preventing further wrongdoing, said Barry C. Scheck, co-founder and co-director of the Innocence Project at the 61st annual Henry J. Miller Distinguished Lecture at Georgia State University College of Law on Thursday, April 5.

Georgia State University College of Law is ranked the No. 2 best law school for those looking to minimize and repay their student loan debt, according to Student Loan Hero, an online site that helps borrowers manage student loans for the second year in a row.

Juvenile courts continue to be haunted by historical misunderstandings about the role of child welfare court, and there is a great need for advocates to effect change, said Jerry Bruce, Court Improvement Program director for the Georgia Supreme Court Committee on Justice for Children, during the Law Week 2018 keynote lunch on Tuesday, April 3.

Equal Justice Works has selected John Gainey (J.D. ’17) to serve as a legal fellow for the Georgia Housing Corps (GHC), a new fellowship program sponsored by the Georgia Bar Foundation, which addresses barriers to housing stability in Georgia’s rural and urban communities.

Brad Czerwonky (J.D. ’18), Mitch Foley (J.D. ’18) and Brandon Reed (J.D. ’18) took first place in the third annual International Patent Drafting Competition, held in Detroit in February.

Shelby McKenzie (J.D. ’18) has been selected as an American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) Next Generation Leader, one of a small group of students selected from its nearly 200 chapters who have demonstrated commitment to ACS engagement and strong leadership qualities.

A cornerstone of the Center for Access to Justice’s Pro Bono Program is the Alternative Spring Break, which allows students to spend a week immersed in a substantive legal area while engaging in related pro bono service. For the second year, the spring break program received more applications than available spots.

Georgia State University selected the Center for Access to Justice’s Pro Bono Program to receive the 2018 Carl V. Patton President’s Award for Community Service and Social Justice: Outstanding University Program Award.

Jerry Bruce, Court Improvement Program director for the Georgia Supreme Court Committee on Justice for Children, will be the keynote speaker for Law Week 2018, held April 2-6 at the College of Law.

Just as there are multiple causes that led to the opioid crisis, there are multiple intersections of response needed to address it, said Abbe R. Gluck, professor of law and the faculty director of the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School at Georgia State Law’s Order of the Coif Distinguished Lecture on March 27.

Georgia State Law is developing a program using data analytics to identify early warning signs for bar failure and to target interventions for at-risk students, which will further improve the college’s good bar passage rate.

Georgia State University College of Law’s programs in environmental law and intellectual property law were highlighted by preLaw Magazine as among the best in the country. The college’s new law building also was ranked No. 15 for law facilities.

ATLANTA-Attorney General of Colorado Cynthia H. Coffman (J.D. ’91) will speak at Georgia State University College of Law’s Commencement and Hooding Ceremony at 10 a.m., Friday, May 11 in the Georgia State University Sports Arena, 125 Decatur St.

ATLANTA—Barry C. Scheck, co-founder and co-director of the Innocence Project and professor of law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, will deliver the 61st annual Henry J. Miller Distinguished Lecture at Georgia State University College of Law at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 5. The event is invitation-only.

Seven College of Law graduates will be honored with Georgia State University Alumni Association’s 40 under 40 award, which recognizes the most influential and innovative alumni who are under 40 years of age, at a reception at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 22.

The 2018 Moot Court team of Cody Batchelor (J.D. ’19), Karina Deochand (J.D. ’18), Caitlin Fox (J.D. ’18),and Casey Holloway (J.D. ’18) will represent Georgia State Law at the Wilhelm C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Competition in Vienna on March 23-30.

ATLANTA—Jack Williams, professor of law, and Jessica Gabel Cino, associate dean for academic affairs and associate professor of law at Georgia State University College of Law, will be featured panelists at the Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute (SBLI) March 22-24 in Atlanta.

Georgia State University College of Law’s health law program rose to No. 3 and the part-time program rose to No. 10, while the full-time program held steady at No. 65 in the 2019 U.S. News & World Report rankings that were announced on March 20.

A DNA sample taken from a larger sample of mixed human DNA implicated Billy Ray Johnson in burglaries and sexual assaults. Johnson denied committing the crimes, but he received a sentence of life in prison without parole. Prosecutors based their case on results of a law enforcement tool running a sophisticated algorithm called TrueAllele.

This spring, after 34 years, Paul Milich, professor of law and director of Lawyering Advocacy, will teach his last Evidence class. He’s been a member of Georgia State Law’s faculty since a year after the school opened its doors. Many former students say he played an integral role in helping them become successful litigators.

Historically, businesses have had to declare themselves either nonprofit or for-profit. But some businesses are blurring the lines of these long-established categories by having two main objectives: doing public good and making money.

Law schools tend to focus, perhaps understandably, on the knowledge and skills lawyers need to serve their clients. But, in some states, 80 percent to 90 percent of litigants are unrepresented, and the number of these pro se litigants is on the rise. Understanding how lower-income people experience the civil and criminal justice systems is a vital part of a complete legal education.

Georgia State Law’s program allows full- and part-time students to learn and gain practical experience while taking care of work and family commitments. The Investor Advocacy Clinic, offered in the evening, enables students with daytime responsibilities to represent people with disputes with their broker.

The Health Law Partnership (HeLP), a community collaboration between healthcare providers and lawyers that works to improve the health and well-being of low-income children and their families, was approved as a Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) by the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH).

Georgia State Law’s Center for Access to Justice received a $24,000 American Bar Endowment (ABE) Opportunity Grant to support a pilot study on individuals’ experiences and interactions with dispossessory courts, which handle eviction proceedings.

ATLANTA — The Northern District of Georgia Bankruptcy Court selected visiting assistant professor B. Summer Chandler to serve on its Bench and Bar Committee in January.

ATLANTA—The Georgia State University Law Review will host its 2018 symposium, “From the Crime Scene to the Courtroom: The Future of Forensic Science Reform,” from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, April 6, in the Marjorie and Ralph Knowles Conference Center in the College of Law.

“Georgia State University College of Law had such a great deal to do with why I stand here as mayor of this city,” said Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (J.D. ’94) at a reception in her honor by the Ronald J. Freeman Chapter of the National Black Law Students Association (BLSA) on Wednesday, Feb. 28. “Georgia State helped create a work ethic in me that really has made all the difference.”

For her commitment to developing future lawyers, to the advancement of justice and to equal access to the law, Tanya Washington, professor of law at Georgia State Law, received the President’s Award for Excellence from the Gate City Bar Association.

ATLANTA—Timothy D. Lytton, associate dean for research and faculty development, Distinguished University Professor and professor of law at Georgia State […]

Lauren Sudeall Lucas, associate professor of law and faculty director of the Center for Access to Justice, testified Thursday, Feb. […]

Atlanta’s City Council, under the leadership of the newly elected Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (J.D. ’94), has unanimously adopted an […]

Two Georgia State Law Moot Court teams won the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition, South East Regionals, which took place […]

Georgia State University Law Review has announced its 2018-19 board members. Matthew Haan (J.D. ’19) will serve as editor-in-chief, and […]

What makes lawyers — and law students — happy? “Lawyer happiness is not correlated with extrinsic factors,” said Charity Scott, the Catherine C. Henson Professor of Law. “Income, class rank, whether you made Law Review—those things don’t correlate with happiness for lawyers in practice. Ironically, these factors are probably the very things that are causing you stress while in law school.”

By Stacey L. Evans (B.A.’02) Six arrests, four overdoses, four detoxes, three inpatient rehabs, three outpatient rehabs and countless halfway […]

Actually providing a stable home is not something Jessica Hunt (J.D. ’19) and fellow volunteer Monica Bai (J.D. ’18) can do for the renters facing eviction they serve at the Housing Court Assistance Center.

The many facets of the health care system can be as varied as the types of ailments that exist and […]

Charity Scott, the Catherine C. Henson Professor of Law, received the Section on Law, Medicine and Health Care Award for […]

Anne Emanuel, professor of law emerita, was a featured panelist at The Federal Judicial Center’s National Symposium for the United […]

ATLANTA—Owen D. Jones, the New York Alumni Chancellor’s Chair in Law and professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University, will discuss how neuroscience and behavior interconnects with law at Georgia State University’s College of Law in the 60th Henry J. Miller Distinguished Lecture in the Ralph & Marjorie Knowles Conference Center at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 10.

ATLANTA—As part of its goal to help identify and better understand the difficulties people face in navigating the justice system, the Center for Access to Justice produced an online Access to Justice map of Georgia.

Prominent voices question the value of a law degree and suggest the best and brightest should look elsewhere for satisfying careers.

Georgia State Law is ranked No. 6 on Law Street Media’s “Top 10 Law Schools for Health Law” list. The […]

How do you discover the facts that you need to support your claims? Once you know the facts, how do […]

I first encountered To Kill a Mockingbird in the sixth grade. I’m fairly certain I ended up buying the CliffsNotes […]

Julian Juergensmeyer, Ben F. Johnson Jr. Chair in Law, and director of of the Center for the Comparative Study of […]

Shelby R. Grubbs, executive director of the Atlanta Center for International Arbitration and Mediation, has been appointed chair of the […]

Georgia State University College of Law graduates led the state on the February bar exam, with an 82.1 percent passing […]

Russell Dean Covey, professor of law, participated in the 2016 American Bar Association (ABA) Leon Jaworski Public Program series as […]

Scholars from leading U.S. law schools gathered May 3 for a daylong conference to discuss and provide feedback on the […]

Candace Sneed (J.D. ’13) Firm: The Sneed Firm, LLC Specialty: Consumer protection, small business Community Involvement: Georgia Association of Black […]

The desire to help others is the driving force behind many who decide to purse a law degree. “When they […]

Alicia D. Mack (J.D. ’13) Firm: The Mack Law Firm, LLC Specialty: Personal injury, workers’ compensation (adding Grandparent Adoptions, Criminal […]

The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) recently named the Georgia State Law chapter as Rising Chapter of […]

Justice Antonin Scalia’s death dramatically affected the Supreme Court, the course of constitutional law, and the entire country. But there is […]

Cities can prepare for hurricane season by reforming shortsighted and outdated laws The 2016 Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1, and […]

In a 7-1 opinion in Foster v. Chatman written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the conviction […]

The Georgia State University College of Law new building, 85 Park Place, received an Award of Excellence from the Atlanta […]

At the Georgia State University annual faculty awards on May 10, several members of the Georgia State Law faculty, Natsu […]

The Georgia Asian Pacific American Bar Association (GAPABA) honored Georgia State Law alumni, Manoj Mishra (J.D. ’02) and Christopher J. […]

Attorney Ralph Knowles, 71, died May 17 after a battle with brain cancer. Knowles, a partner at Doffermyre Shields Canfield & […]

Taylor Retires After 25 Years Ellen Taylor, associate professor of law, retires in June after spending nearly 25 years teaching […]

Blasi Retiring After 30 Years In his 30-year tenure at Georgia State Law, Ronald W. Blasi, the Mark and Evelyn […]

Prior to Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in February, Justice Anthony Kennedy’s votes drove most five-to-four Supreme Court decisions. From 2010 […]

Nicole Iannarone, assistant clinical professor, Lauren Sudeall Lucas, assistant professor of law; and Margaret Hughes Vath, senior lecturer of law, rank among […]