Moves, Honors & Promotions

Lauren E. Bartlett (St. Louis) received an Honorable Mention for the 2026 Saint Louis University Senior Faculty Scholarly Works Award for Articles and Book Chapter Non Medical for her article "An Indecent Exposure of the Rules of Legal Ethics," which was published in the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism in 2025.

Rachel Moran (St. Thomas) was promoted to Professor and appointed the Robins Kaplan Director of Clinical Education on July 1, 2025.

Annie Smith (UA Fayetteville) was named the Wylie H. Davis Professor of Law. In 2025, she was recognized as an Outstanding Faculty Mentor by the University's Office of the Provost and received the Arkansas Bar Foundation's Equal Justice Distinguished Service Award.

Natalie Nanasi (SMU Dedman) was promoted to Professor of Law.

Ryan Poe-Gavlinski (Wisconsin) has been named University of Wisconsin Law School's 2025 Clinical Teacher of the Year.

Eugenio Mollo (Toledo) was promoted to Clinical Associate Professor of Law.

Peter Norman's (UA Fayetteville) Community and Rural Enterprise Development Clinic was named Class of the Year by the University of Arkansas's Service Learning Initiative.

Laurel E. Fletcher (Berkeley) received UC Berkeley Law’s 2025 annual Stefan A. Riesenfeld Memorial Award, given to a distinguished scholar or practitioner for outstanding contributions to international law. Co-faculty director of the school’s Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law, director of the new Global Rights Innovation Lab Clinic, and former director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic (now the Human Rights Clinic), Fletcher has advocated on behalf of victims before international courts and tribunals, issued human rights reports on myriad topics, and led several empirical human rights studies.

Claudia Polsky (Berkeley) received the Environmental Leadership Award from the Ecology Law Quarterly (ELQ). From her early days as of ELQ's Editor-in-Chief to her current role as Clinical Professor and Founding Director of the Environmental Law Clinic, Polsky has consistently provided a model for leadership in impossible times. Her landmark pro bono Thakur v. Trump case has restored to the UC system more than 1,000 research grants valued at roughly $1 billion, emboldening a generation of advocates.

Laura Rovner (Denver) was the recipient of the 2026 Barry Strom Excellence in Clinical Teaching Award from Cornell Law School.

Kandace Walter (SMU Dedman) received the 2026 Award of Excellence for Sustained and Remarkable Contributions to the Barbara MG Lynn American Inn of Court.

Amy Spivey (UC Law San Francisco) was reappointed to another three year contract in her role as Director of the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic.

In April 2026, Elizabeth Hubertz (WashU), Director of Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic, received Special Recognition for Collaborative Research at WashU's 2026 Danforth St. Louis Confluence Award Showcase for the Clinic's reports—Environmental Racism in St. Louis (2019 and 2026)— documenting environmental injustices and highlighting community organizations doing legal, service, and advocacy work across the region.

Katie Meyer (WashU), Director of the Immigration Law Clinic, is serving as Vice-Chair of the American Immigration Lawyer’s national Asylum and Refugee Committee. The committee produces legal practice materials and promotes advocacy efforts to protect the right to seek asylum in the U.S.

Sara Gold (Maryland) received the 2026 University System Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Public Service

Leigh Goodmark (Maryland) received the Leaders in Law - Legal Education Award from the Maryland Daily Record

An article co-authored by Caitlin Glass (BU) and Julian Green, entitled The Innocence Trap (110 Minnesota Law Review 1183 (2026)) received a Participatory Law Fund Award for contributing to the emerging genre of participatory law scholarship.

Jade Brown (BU), Director of the Consumer Economic Justice Clinic, received the Up & Coming Lawyer Award at Excellence in the Law by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. Honorees are celebrated for excellence in pro bono, marketing, firm administration, and paralegal work.

Shira Diner (BU) received the Lawyer of the Year Award due to her lead role in the fight to secure bar advocates a pay increase that would create greater parity between them and their counterparts in neighboring states.

Caitlin Glass (BU) received the Public Service Faculty Award at the BU Law 2026 Annual Pro Bono Honors and Public Service Celebration.

Jef Pearlman (BU), Executive Director of the BU Law BU/MIT Student Innovations Law Clinic, was selected to be a 2026 Innovation in Legal Programs honoree in the inaugural event for Legal Excellence in Innovation by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

Amelia S. McGowan (UA Fayetteville) was selected to participate in the 2026 Especialización en Migración y Asilo desde una perspectiva de los Derechos Humanos (Specialization in Migration and Asylum from a Human Rights Perspective) hosted by the Universidad Nacional de Lanús and the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales in Argentina.

Meghan Knapp (Texas Tech) will join the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Civil Litigation Clinic.

Ian Kysel (Cornell) was promoted to Clinical Professor of Law.

David Reiss (Cornell) received the AALS Section on Commercial and Consumer Law Juliet Moringiello Mentorship Award at the 2026 Annual Meeting.

Carl Williams (Cornell) was promoted to Clinical Professor of Law.

Dayla Pepi (St. Mary’s) has been named an Englehardt Research Fellow beginning Fall 2026. She also has been reappointed to serve on a National Conference of Bar Examiners committee.

Erica Schommer (St. Mary’s) was awarded the 2026 St. Mary’s University School of Law Distinguished Faculty Award.

Greg Zlotnick (St. Mary’s) has been promoted to Associate Clinical Professor of Law beginning Fall 2026. He also has been named an Academic Fellow for the National Civil Justice Institute and invited to join the Texas Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities task force, regarding eviction protections for tenants with certain disabilities.

Christophe Courchesne (Vermont), Director of the Environmental Advocacy Clinic, was named the Associate Dean of Environmental and Experiential Programs and Director of the Environmental Law Center.

Emma Scott (Vermont), Director of the Food & Agriculture Clinic, assumed the additional role of Director of Clinical Programs.

Stephanie E. Kupferman (Vermont) and co-author Colette C. Schmidt received the Holloran Center Professional Identity Formation Outstanding Blog Award for their blog post, “Silent Struggle: Navigating Eating Disorders in the Legal Profession.”

Emily Cortes (Suffolk), Clinical Fellow with Suffolk University Law School’s Center for Housing Justice and Policy, was named 2026 Champion of Housing Rising Star by Metro Housing Boston.

Quinten Steenhuis (Suffolk), Practitioner-in-Residence with the Legal Innovation and Technology Clinic, was recognized as the 2026 Innovation Champion (Individual) Award honoree in the inaugural event for Legal Excellence in Innovation. He also won an award for his piece, “That’s So FETCH: Fashioning Ensemble Techniques for LLM Classification in Civil Legal Intake and Referral”, as the Best Paper at the 38th annual JURIX international conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems in Turin, Italy.

Carmen Halford (Suffolk) will be joining us as the new Director of our Transactional Clinic. Carmen comes to Suffolk with broad experience advising individuals, businesses, and nonprofits on transactions of all sizes, ranging from complex commercial, M&A, and financing deals to intellectual property matters in the music and film space. Suffolk thanks Sam Koolaq for sharing his expertise and dedication to student development during his time leading the clinic.

Hon. John Casey (Suffolk), Director of Online Dispute Resolution Clinic, was honored at the Massachusetts Bar Association Probate Conference.

Hon. John C. Cratsley (Ret.) (Harvard) received the 2026 CLEA Career Achievement Award in honor of his five decades of service, scholarship, innovative program design, and advancement of justice as Director of the Judicial Process in Trial Courts Clinic.

Noel Roycroft (Harvard), Director of the Transactional Law Clinics, was promoted to assistant clinical professor of law.

Andrew Mergen (Harvard), Faculty Director of the Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, was promoted to Assistant Clinical Professor of Law.

Andrew Budzinski (American) was named to a three-year term on the D.C. Access to Justice Commission.

Charles Ross (American) received the AUWCL Innovation in Pedagogy Award, recognizing exceptional creativity and innovation in instruction, including, but not limited to, the use of technology.

Avis Sanders (American), our long time Externship Director who retired in 2024, received the AALS Externship Section Career Achievement Award for her many years of service and dedication to the externship community.

Dree Collopy (American) joined the faculty in November as a Practitioner-in-Residence in the Immigrant Justice Clinic after working in private practice for many years, including most recently as the managing partner at Benach Collopy LLP, an immigration law firm, in DC. She served as the Acting Director of the Defending the AU Dream Initiative for six months prior to joining the clinic.

Megan Bess (UIC) earned tenure.

Alejandra Palacios (UIC) was named the recipient of the University of Illinois Chicago's Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Latinos Award of Recognition.

The International Human Rights Clinic (UIC) was named a recipient of the Illinois State Bar Association's 2026 John E. Thies Excellence in Legal Education Award.

Rebecca Sharpless (Miami) received the Swarthmore College, Eugene M. Lang ’38, H’81 Impact Award, a distinction reserved for alumni who have made significant contributions to society through their professional achievements and leadership.

Robert Latham (Miami) received the Cindy Lederman Humanitarian Hero Award, Miami-Dade County Community Based Care Alliance, February 2026.

Stanislav Moroz (Tulane) was promoted to Clinical Associate Professor of Law.

Carlotta Lepingwell (Tulane) was promoted to Clinical Associate Professor of Law and has been hired as Director of the Criminal Justice Clinic (moving from a faculty position in the Women’s Prison Project).

Becki Kondkar (Tulane) was appointed Faculty Chair of Clinics.

Madalyn Wasilczuk (South Carolina) was recently tenured and promoted to Associate Professor.

Her coauthored paper, The Interdisciplinary Policing of Pregnancy Criminalization (with Wendy Bach and Ji Seon Song), received the Ian Kerr Best Paper Award at the Privacy Law Scholars Conference.

Lisa Martin (South Carolina) was recently appointed to the South Carolina Access to Justice Commission and was sought out by The New York Times for her expertise. Read the story here.