A Message from Dean Aiken
Dear Wake Forest Law community,
Welcome to the Spring 2022 semester! Worrell Professional Center is back to the hustle-and-bustle we saw in the Fall.
At the start of this semester, students, faculty, and staff were greeted with the first snow of the winter season. While our community went to our homes to stay warm, classes were able to continue virtually. As we moved into February, the Winston-Salem community was shaken by the events of the Weaver Co. fire and potential explosion. Some students, faculty, and staff were forced to evacuate from their homes for close to a week. Tuesday through Friday classes were suspended in order to keep students safe and accommodate those who were evacuated. We are currently trying to reschedule classes with as little impact on the academic calendar as possible. Here’s hoping that we manage to make it to the end of the semester without any other challenges.
One thing for sure, even in the face of these unprecedented events, the Wake Forest Law community continued to move forward. I am grateful for the compassion and strength shown by all of our students, faculty, and staff.
While 2022 started with challenges that were unforeseen, Wake Forest Law has launched into the new year with renewed energy, continuing to innovate and lead the legal world. We recently gained national USPTO accreditation of our new Intellectual Property Clinic, held a fully student-run symposium on Preserving American Democracy and were honored by the White House for our interdisciplinary work on the eviction crisis. Of the 99 law schools involved, our exceptional work was featured.
As you all know, the Wake Forest Law community is strong and resilient. I have no doubt that we will continue to grow, learn, and move forward.
With warm regards,
OUR PEOPLE
We're excited to share a special pieces of news about our faculty and students at Wake Forest Law.
U.S. Patent & Trademark Office Certification
Beginning this semester, Wake Forest Law students will have the opportunity to practice trademark law before the United States Patent and Trademark Office following the Intellectual Property Law Clinic’s recent acceptance into the Law School Clinic Certification Program. The program will grant limited recognition for Wake Forest Law students enrolled in the Intellectual Property Law Clinic to provide pro bono representation to inventors, entrepreneurs, and small businesses in filing trademark applications before the USPTO.
Under the supervision of Associate Clinical Professor Zaneta Robinson (JD ’03), who launched the clinic in Fall 2021 and serves as its founding director, students assist clients with the clearance, protection, and management of copyright, trademark, and related intellectual property rights. The clinic offers Wake Forest Law students an opportunity to bridge the gap between their doctrinal courses and real-world intellectual property law practice. Its inclusion in the USPTO program means that clinic students will now have the unique chance to gain experience drafting and filing trademark applications at a federal level, communicating with Trademark Examining Attorneys about those applications, and drafting briefs in response to Office Actions or initial refusals to register.
White House Honors
In the wake of the housing and eviction crisis precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a call to action to the legal profession to address access to justice and increase housing stability in communities across the nation.
Nearly five months later, at a virtual event on Jan. 28, Wake Forest Law student Katie Merlin (JD ’22) spoke to senior administration officials about Wake Forest Law’s efforts to swiftly answer that call by partnering with Wake Forest School of Medicine and others across the University and local community to respond to the crisis and provide legal services to Winston-Salem residents at risk of eviction.
STUDENT FOCUS
2022 Wake Forest Law Review Symposium
On Jan. 28, the Wake Forest Law Review hosted its 2022 Symposium, “Preserving American Democracy: Exploring Modern Democracy Through the History and Development of the First Amendment Jurisprudence and Election Law”. This year’s symposium was a hybrid event with in-person and online attendance. The symposium included presentations from scholars across the country discussing topics such as the impact of First Amendment rights on privacy and civil rights, how free speech jurisprudence could better protect against incitement of harm, and how to minimize risks of election subversion in modern elections.
Four different sessions throughout the course of the day included 10 speakers from a multitude of different backgrounds. The entire symposium was planned, advertised, and run by members of the Wake Forest Law Review.
Stay tuned for a link to the recorded symposium.
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Vicki Banks (MSL ’19)
It was after nearly two decades of working in human resources at The Biltmore Company that Vicki Banks (MSL ’19), then the Vice President of Human Resources, knew she wanted to expand her knowledge in ways that wouldn’t just propel her to the next phase of her career, but would also help her continue to add unique value to the company.
“I always wanted to get my master’s, but all of my friends, my peers, and my coworkers had MBAs, and that never really rang true to my career and my path,” said Banks, who has now been at The Biltmore Company for 21 years and since been promoted to Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Government Relations. “I was thinking about what I could do with a master’s degree that would differentiate myself from everyone else.”
That’s when Banks found Wake Forest Law’s Master of Studies in Law (MSL) program, which she says spoke to her professional experiences in human resources but also offered the opportunity to broaden her knowledge of how those experiences intersect with the law, compliance, and other business areas in ways that other graduate programs she explored did not.
FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP & RESEARCH
Alyse Bertenthal
- Panel Organizer and Moderator, “Teaching from the ‘Law and…’ Perspective”, The Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting (January 7, 2022)
- Research Presentation, “Wildfire Forensics: A Comparative Cultural Perspective”, Wake Forest EEB Seminar (January 26, 2022)
Meghan Boone
- Research Presentation, “Perverse and Irrational”, University of Georgia School of Law Faculty Exchange Series (January 24, 2022)
Chris Coughlin
- Speaker, “Accelerated Approval, Emergency Use Authorization and PreApproval Access: Considerations for Use in Public Health Emergencies”, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Law, Journal of Law and Technology (January 28, 2022)
Sarah Morath
- Panel Moderator, “Promoting Justice Through Animal Law Clinics”, Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting (January 9, 2022)
Sid Shapiro
- Speaker, “Fisher and Shapiro, Reimagining Administrative Law”, Oxford University (January 18, 2022)
FACULTY IN THE MEDIA
Kami Chavis
Professor Kami Chavis, Director of the Criminal Justice Program at Wake Forest Law and Vice Provost of Wake Forest University, continued to serve as an expert in local and national news coverage of recent criminal justice issues. She spoke with the Associated Press about the start of the second trial in the George Floyd case and how individual police officer behaviors affect police departments. Professor Chavis wrote a piece for the Duke Center for Firearms Law about the expansion of “stand-your-ground” laws and its racial implications.
Brenda Gibson
Professor Brenda Gibson was featured in an article by the American Bar Association Journal about teaching the law in the middle of a pandemic. She speaks on the importance of authenticity between professors and students during the trying times of COVID-19.
Mark Hall
Professor Mark Hall has continued to serve as an expert to many news outlets regarding COVID-19 vaccination mandates and their place within the workforce. In January, Professor Hall spoke with Check Your Fact about OSHA’s role in imposing vaccination mandates.
Tanya Marsh
Professor Tanya Marsh was a guest on NPR’s popular podcast The Takeaway about “green burials”, burials of humans that use natural resources to break down remains, and the legal implications of these types of arrangements.
Gregory Parks
Professor Parks wrote a piece for the Duke Center for Firearms Law titled “When CRT meets 2A” in January about seeing the Second Amendment through the lens of Critical Race Theory, and how this affects black gun owners.
Mark Rabil
Professor Mark Rabil, director of the Innocence and Justice Clinic, continues his work in criminal justice within North Carolina. Professor Rabil filed a motion asking for forensic testing in the case of John Robert Hayes, who was convicted in a double homicide from 1994. This filing was reported by the Winston-Salem Journal who has been following Haye’s case. Additionally, he spoke with Indy Week about the work of the Innocence and Justice Clinic at Wake Forest School of Law, and how the clinic has impacted North Carolina inmates with legitimate claims of innocence.
Ron Wright
Professor Ronald Wright was able to serve as an expert to multiple topics of criminal law. He spoke with El Pais about discrimination against races when juries are being selected for criminal cases. Additionally, Professor Wright spoke with the Asheville Citizen Times about District Attorneys and their power to dismiss cases. He also spoke with The Christian Science Monitor about how prosecutors are starting to look at the data associated with plea bargains. “We have really needed this kind of data, this kind of research, for a long time,” said Wright, “It’s groundbreaking.”
LEADERSHIP, ACCOMPLISHMENTS & AWARDS
Professor John Korzen selected as one of NC’s “Legal Elite”
Business North Carolina has named Professor Korzen among its 20th class of “Legal Elite” in appellate law in North Carolina, placing him among the three percent of the state’s lawyers who were selected by their peers for this recognition in their respective fields. As Director of the Appellate Advocacy Clinic, he has
John Korzen is the Director of the Appellate Advocacy Clinic and an Associate Professor of Legal Writing. Professor Korzen is certified by the North Carolina State Bar Board of Legal Specialization as a specialist in Appellate Practice. He has argued appeals in the Supreme Court of the United States, Fourth Circuit, Eleventh Circuit, Supreme Court of North Carolina, and the Court of Appeals of North Carolina. He has supervised the work of third-year law students in all of those appellate courts and others.
Professor Sarah Morath was elected Chair of the AALS Section on Agricultural and Food Law
The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) elected Professor Sarah Morath as the Chair of their Section on Agricultural and Food Law. The Section on Agricultural and Food Law provides for the development and sharing of research, teaching methods, and materials in legislative process, legislative drafting and interpretation. Professor Morath was elected to this position during the AALS annual meeting in January 2022.
EVENTS
Save the Date: Journal of Business and Intellectual Property Symposium
Friday, February 25
The Journal of Business and Intellectual Property Law (JBIPL), seeks to narrow and focus the issue of sustainability into SME (small and medium enterprise) as the dominant theme of the 2022 Spring Symposium. Within this broad and overarching topic, JBIPL intends to identify and discuss three subtopics in the form of three interactive panels: Law in Governance; Environmental-Impact IP; and Incentives and Regulations.
The symposium is partnering with the Wake Forest University Graduate School of Art and Science and will host speakers from within Wake as well as across the nation. The symposium is planned to be held at the Benson Center on the Reynolda campus and be a place for engagement between students, faculty, and professionals.
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.
In Case You Missed It: Slavery, Race, and Memory Project Annual Lecture
This year's Annual Lecture Series, presented by the Slavery, Race and Memory Project, was with Professor Dorothy A. Brown.
Dorothy A. Brown is Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law and an advocate for economic and social justice. She is the author of The Whiteness of Wealth: How The Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans - And How We Can Fix It. She is well known for her work in a variety of areas: the effects of tax policy by race, class, and/or gender; workplace equity and inclusion; and law school reform.
The lecture took place on February 1, 2022, at 6:30 pm. You can find a recording of the event here.
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