April 2022 Legal Briefs News from Wake Forest Law

A Message from Dean Aiken

Dear Wake Forest Law community,

On March 25, President Susan Wente was inaugurated as the first woman president of Wake Forest University. President Wente is a brilliant thought-leader and promotes her goal of radical collaboration throughout all areas, departments, and schools at Wake Forest University. This past month proves that Wake Forest Law not only engages in radical collaboration but also benefits from it.

Wake Forest School of Law tied for No. 37 in the US News & World Report ranking of the top law schools in the country, up from No. 41 last year. We can directly attribute part of this jump in rankings to our employment outcomes, led by the outstanding work of our Office of Career and Professional Development, which ensured that 92.1% of 2020 graduates were employed within 10 months of graduating. The employment statistics for the class of 2021, which will be reported next year, are even stronger with 96.5% of graduates being employed as of mid-March 2022. Our Academic Excellence team also contributed to our ranking success through its support of our graduates and a resulting 94.6% bar passage rate for the class of 2021.

In late March, the Women in Law student organization held a symposium entitled: Wake Women in Leadership, and featured President Susan Wente, Dean of Wake Forest School of Medicine Dr. Julie Freischlag, Interim Dean of Wake Forest School of Business Michelle Roehm, and me. This conversation with my fellow Deans and President Wente allowed us to speak to our experiences of being women leaders in worlds often dominated by men. We shared insights about how we each manage that. Needless to say, the discussion was both illuminating and filled with laughter.

Our Spring Boards and Councils meetings also met recently. For the first time in years, Wake Forest Law hosted a breakfast with members of the boards from the School of Law, Business, and Divinity in the law school’s beautiful Commons. Our boards were able to discuss how they can all collaborate (radically!) to engage and address the academic priorities, University-wide initiatives, and therefore better support President Wente’s strategic planning goals.

I look forward to beginning the process of developing a University-wide strategic vision. The Law School will bring its unique mission to that project: to advance the cause of justice by creating knowledge and by educating students to meet the legal needs of the world, with confidence, character, and creativity. There is much to do and lots of opportunity. I look forward to working with many of you.

With warm regards,

Appellate Advocacy Clinic Students argued before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, VA

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, courts across the country were forced to pause hearings in person and move into virtual courtrooms. This change impacted many in the legal world, but clinics at Wake Forest University School of Law were impacted greatly. Students who entered their first year of school in 2019 were unable to practice in courtroom settings at all. But for the Appellate Advocacy Clinic, which had not had a case in-person since September 2019, was finally able to have students argue in person on March 8, 2022.

Third-year law students Chelsey Phelps and Jacqueline Winters, overseen by Professor John Korzen, argued before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, VA in a case where the court-appointed the Appellate Advocacy Clinic. Leading up to the in-person arguments, Phelps and Winters had arguments over Zoom in January, May, and September of 2021, and again in January 2022.

Read more about the Appellate Advocacy Clinic’s first in-person arguments since 2019 here.

Alyse Bertenthal

• Panelist, “The Rights of Nature and the Imagination” (March 3, 2022)
• Research presentation, “The Color of Eco-Crime”, Drexel University Kline School of Law (March 4, 2022)
• Research presentation, “Criminalizing Water (Mis)Use”, Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting (March 22, 2022)

Chris Coughlin

• Research Presentation, “Emergency Use Authorization and other forms of Pre-Approval Access in Public Health Emergencies”, Wake Forest University Center for Bioethics, Health & Society and Wake Forest University Department of Biology (March 31, 2022)

Marie-Amelie George

• Research presentation, "Reading Rainbows: Inculcating Tolerance in the Nation's Schools", Harvard School of Law Legal History Workshop (March 2, 2022)

Mark Hall

• Research report, “Short-Term Health Insurance and the ACA Market”, Commonwealth Fund (March 2, 2022)
• Speaking appearance, “State Pre-emption of Municipal Sanctuary Policies for Undocumented Immigrants”, Association of Public Policy and Management (March 10, 2022)
• Speaking appearance, “The Growing Role of Private Equity in Health Services”, Case Western Reserve University (March 20, 2022)

Sarah Morath

• Book release, Our Plastic Problem and How to Solve It, Cambridge University Press (March 24, 2022)
• Research presentation, “Our Plastic Problem”, The Virtual Environmental Law Guest Speakers Mercer Law School

Gregory Parks

• Panelist, “A Pledge with a Purpose: Black Sororities and Fraternities and Racial Uplift”, The James Weldon Johnson Institute of Emory

Sid Shapiro

• Speaking appearance, “Solutions to the Nondelegation Doctrine”, Campbell Law School, Law Review Symposium (March 25, 2022)
• Speaking appearance, “In Our Backyard”, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (March 30, 2022)

Save The Date: Hooding and Commencement Ceremonies

May 15 - 16

Wake Forest Law is excited for all of the students who will be graduating this year.

The Hooding Ceremony and conferral of degrees will be held in Wait Chapel, followed by a reception in the Law School Courtyard on May 15 from 1:30 PM to 5:00 PM.

Commencement will take place on Hearn Plaza, in front of Wait Chapel, on May 16 and will start at 9:00 AM.

Save the Date: Law Alumni Weekend 2022

September 16-18

Brand new this year -- Law Alumni Weekend will be held in conjunction with Homecoming! Along with Law School-only events held in Worrell Professional Center, all law alumni are welcomed back for all the weekend festivities, and Law School classes ending in 2 or 7 will be celebrating their reunions.