Releases Archive

In 1983, a first-of-its-kind government study revealed race was the primary factor that determined where hazardous waste winds up in the South—which was predominantly in Black communities.

Emory Law’s Center for Civil Rights and Social Justice and The Carter Center will host “Advancing the Rule of Law in U.S. Elections.” This symposium will launch a partnership between the CCRSJ and the Center that aims to increase support for civil rights and social justice in the legal community.

Provost Ravi Bellamkonda has announced an internal search for a candidate with deep commitment to Emory Law to build on the progress made by Dean Mary Anne Bobinski, who recently shared plans to step down at the end of her term.

Emory Law's Volunteer Clinic for Veterans (VCV) has evolved into a pivotal touchpoint addressing the legal needs of low-income Georgia veterans

Kelly Woodford joins Emory Law as assistant dean of student affairs and a member of the law school’s senior leadership team. 

Emory Law’s Volunteer Clinic for Veterans former Senior Staff Attorney Carlissa Carson 08L has received the Georgia State Bar’s Marshall-Tuttle Award, which honors lawyers who work on behalf of Georgia’s more than 700,000 veterans.

In three consolidated lawsuits, Alabama voters are currently challenging the state’s most recently enacted Congressional map, arguing that it violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated decision in Haaland v. Brackeen, a case brought in separate actions by the state of Texas, a biological mother, and non-Native American adoptive and potential adoptive parents challenging the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

The Supreme Court just issued a significant environmental law ruling in Sackett v. EPA, ruling against the EPA’s authority to regulate certain wetlands under the Federal Clean Water Protection Act.  The Court’s holding is a massive disappointment for environmentalists.

The Supreme Court has taken an enthusiastic role in enforcing free speech guarantees. In 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, the Court made clear that customized website design is “pure speech,” and that free speech protections trump antidiscrimination law, even when the speaker is acting in the marketplace.

This summer, 49 Emory Law rising 2Ls and 3Ls are at work in government offices and nonprofits across the country. Most internships are in Georgia, but organizations from Los Angeles to Miami are also providing students with a firsthand view of what it’s like to practice in the public interest.

The courts have long applied a presumption against the extraterritorial reach of US law. While Congress can use domestic laws to regulate conduct outside of the United States, such regulation is not generally the norm.

Earlier this month, Professor Matthew Sag joined an artist whose work has been seen by millions in Marvel blockbusters when both testified before a Senate subcommittee on how U.S. copyright law should address generative artificial intelligence. Other panelists included executives from music, AI, and creative software industries.

Emory University School of Law joins Atlanta and the nation in mourning the loss of the Honorable Marvin Arrington Sr. 67L.

Ira Bedzow 14G has been selected to lead the Emory Purpose Project, a signature element of the Student Flourishing initiative.

The Center for Transactional Law and Practice celebrated its fifteenth anniversary May 18, 2023, at the Miller-Ward Alumni House.

On July 1, alumnus Andrew R. Klein 88L will join Wake Forest University as dean of the law school, following a national search. While a student at Emory Law, Klein was a Robert W. Woodruff Fellow and editor-in-chief of the Emory Law Journal.

Emory Law Associate Professor Martin Sybblis convened a symposium in April focused on the legacies of colonialism and how countries in the Caribbean and North Atlantic areas are working to grow their economies.

Two of Emory Law’s most recent graduates who designed projects to help citizens with little or no access to legal services have earned fellowships from Equal Justice Works.

Emory University School of Law held its Degree Candidate Recognition Ceremony, celebrating students who earned doctor of juridical science, juris doctor, master of laws, master of comparative law, juris master, and dual degrees. Nearly 300 students attended in person and approximately 15 students participated virtually, viewing the event as it was live streamed through the school’s website.

At 63, Robert Sharp Jr. has been an attorney for nearly 30 years. He’s licensed to practice before the US Supreme Court, as well as three federal courts of appeal.

Olubunmi Bakare’s path to become a leading neonatologist included immigration to the United States and tenacious pursuit of both MD and master of public health degrees from elite medical schools. This spring, Bakare 23L earned a juris master at Emory Law.

When Christina Morrison 23L receives her Emory Law diploma on Sunday with highest honors, Order of the Coif, one achievement will not be listed in the commencement program: a commendation letter from the US Ambassador in charge of investigating war crimes.

Bene Owanga 24L and his family created a climate tech company that rents portable solar-powered batteries to consumers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Chinelo Adi 24L joined as the company's business strategist. With help from The Hatchery, they secured funding from Divinc's Accelerator Program to address the energy crisis.

Both the editor-in-chief of the Emory Law Journal and an alumnus from the Class of 1992 have won Burton/Law360 Awards for Distinguished Legal Writing this year.

In late March, Emory welcomed 158 admitted students and their families for Emory Law’s annual admitted student Visiting Day.

Emory Law Associate Professor George S. Georgiev is among a select group of researchers who recently received funding from the Ford Foundation, as part of a far-reaching project on how some of the biggest companies in the United States manage and compensate their employees.

Mary Anne Bobinski will conclude her tenure as dean of Emory Law in the summer of 2024 after completing a five-year term. A national search for her successor will begin in the coming weeks.

The UN Convention on Biological Diversity also recommended creating a multilateral benefit-sharing fund for digital sequence information (DSI) on genetic resources, something Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law Margo A. Bagley advocates.

Emory Law’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law program has established a new DEI scholarship and stipend program to promote broader diversity in the practice of environmental law.

Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel of the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), to give 2023 MLK Day lecture.

Ross Fishman 85L was recognized by the City of Highland Park, Illinois, for bravery and negotiating skills that helped end a 12-hour police standoff that involved an armed neighbor who had threatened to harm himself.

Emory University will host the 2024 Conference on Empirical Legal Studies.

This fall term, 236 new JDs started their 1L year at Emory Law, joined by 13 transfer students, 22 LLMs, 33 students pursuing a juris master degree and three SJDs. As a whole, they represent 19 countries, 33 states and the District of Columbia.

Ifeoma Ajunwa, JD, PhD, will join the Emory University School of Law faculty in the fall of 2023, strengthening the school’s offerings in AI and employment law.

Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law Polly Price, author of Plagues in the Nation: How Epidemics Shaped America, sheds light on how the US has handled major outbreaks throughout history—from smallpox to COVID-19—and how we can use these lessons to prepare for the next one.

Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law Margo Bagley has been actively involved in negotiations for two proposed treaties that the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) General Assemblies agreed to send to diplomatic conferences.

Martha Albertson Fineman, Robert W. Woodruff Professor, will take the helm of Emory Law’s Center for International and Comparative Law in the coming academic year.

Professor Nicole Morris has agreed to serve as the inaugural director of the Innovation and Legal Tech Initiative (ILTI).

Dexter A. Smith will join the Emory University School of Law community this fall as assistant dean of admission and financial aid.

Two recent Emory Law graduates have been awarded national public interest fellowships based on proposals for two-year projects they designed to address as yet unmet legal needs.

Four Emory Law Juvenile Defender Clinic students worked on the amicus brief Waldman filed in November 2020 in a case that led to a June 1, 2022, Georgia Supreme Court decision that gives juveniles the right to an insanity defense.

Emory Law’s Kristin N. Johnson, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law, was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve a three-year term as a commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Marissa Cohen 22L already had a JD when she came to Emory Law. So, why invest in a master of laws at Emory? "My first reason ... was the realization that my JD wasn't enough to quench my thirst about the law," she says.

In these new volumes, Witte retrieves the major legal and theological teachings that have shaped these institutions and outlines ways to strengthen, reform, and integrate them anew.

Emory police officer Anthony ReFour 22L earned a juris master degree from Emory University School of Law in May 2022.

More than 240 law students recently gathered in person and virtually at Emory Law’s Degree Candidate Recognition Ceremony, held on Mother’s Day, which featured an address by former US Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates.

In addition to graduating with high honors and joining the Order of the Coif, Tejas Dave 22L will also receive the Keith J. Shapiro Corporate Bankruptcy Writing Award.

A day before his death from pancreatic cancer, a father handwrites a new will that blocks all his children from inheriting a sizable estate. The new beneficiary? Dad’s longtime caretaker. His children are outraged. Attorneys on each side arm themselves for a bruising trial. For the past week, hundreds of Emory Law students have lived this fictional controversy via the Kessler-Eidson Program for Trial Techniques (KEPTT), a required course for all 2Ls.

Martha Albertson Fineman, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law, is among four Emory professors recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Emory Moot Court Society concluded its annual Stange Competition with the Stange Awards Dinner, marking the Society’s first official return to in-person events since 2019.

Former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Q. Yates will address graduates of the law school.

This fall, Emory Law will welcome Tonja Jacobi to the faculty as the Sam Nunn Chair in Ethics and Professionalism, upon university confirmation.

Upon university confirmation, Matthew Sag will join the faculty as Professor of Law in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Science as part of Emory’s bold new AI.Humanity initiative.

Employment/HR and data, privacy, technology added to health care and business law offerings.

KMCL-gift to Emory Law will increase diversity among environmental lawyers

Professor Polly Price’s 2009 biography of Justice Richard S. Arnold was among those in the late Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s personal library, which was recently auctioned.

The Center for the Study of Law and Religion (CSLR) is pleased to announce the appointment of Terri Montague as McDonald Distinguished Senior Fellow at CSLR, and Senior Lecturer at Emory Law School.

Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law Martha Albertson Fineman has received the American Bar Foundation’s 2022 Outstanding Scholar Award.

Dean Mary Anne Bobinski's message on the importance of workers in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2022.

The North-West University in South Africa held its Biennial Alumni Excellence Awards last month, honoring Professor Johan van der Vyer with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The new center will enhance the law school’s already rich focus on issues of civil rights, human rights, and social justice.

Wednesday, November 17, Dean Mary Anne Bobinski welcomed members of the class of 2021 back to Tull Auditorium for the first in-person swearing-in ceremony held in Tull Auditorium since 2019.

We are honored by the many veterans who choose to earn their law degree at Emory. On Veteran’s Day, we honor the commitment, valor, and sacrifices made by military personnel and their families that safeguard both our democracy and the rule of law. 

Latest Sisk ratings rank most-cited law faculty

90.9% of Emory Law’s first-time test takers have passed the Georgia July Bar Exam.

The casebook’s third edition will incorporate transformations caused by coronavirus.

Emory Law students will be a critical part of commercializing NNSA lab technology

CSLR has received a $1.8M charitable gift from the MirYam Institute to fund a new program called The MirYam Project in International Ethics & Leadership: Law, Religion, Health & Security.

Emory Lecturer Sarah Geraghty has been nominated by President Biden to fill a seat on Georgia’s U.S. District Court, Northern District.

The Barton Juvenile Defender Clinic and partners prevailed in a 2019 court case that sought to provide special education services to disabled youths in the DeKalb County Jail, one of the largest in the country.

I learned over this past Friday of a planned student walkout and protest scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 21, at 3 p.m., to stand in solidarity with Black and LGBTQ+ communities and to protest against the use of slurs in the classroom. There may be additional planned student actions.

I am writing today to provide an important update about the law school’s efforts to promote an inclusive learning environment.

This week, President Joseph Biden nominated both an Emory Law professor and an alumna for important financial and regulatory posts within the administration. Also, Emory Law’s associate dean of enrollment management and student services recently joined the U.S. State Department as a deputy assistant secretary, where he will focus on international education initiatives including the Fulbright Program.

Morehouse School of Medicine has established a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) Fellowship, in which Emory's Barton Center will play an important part. Barton Center’s Melissa Carter and Randee Waldman hold adjunct faculty appointments that serve to formalize and institutionalize the programmatic partnership between the Barton Center and the Morehouse CAP Fellowship.

Professor Nicole Morris, director of the TI:GER (Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results) program, will serve as principal advisor for the inaugural HBCU IP Futures Collaborative, a program that will connect leading faculty at HBCUs to foster best practices for teaching IP to non-law students.

Rhani Lott Choi 10L was selected to direct a new student program for Academic Advising and Bar Success.

The Supreme Court of the United States recently rendered a landmark decision in the antitrust case National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston. On June 21, the court ruled on the legality of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s restrictions on student-athlete compensation and benefits.

Emory Law’s Hugh F. MacMillan Library recently received a Be Well Mini-Grant from Emory’s Office of Health Promotion.

For decades, many Americans have been seeking a reversal of the Supreme Court’s decision in Employment Division v. Smith (1990), where the court held that laws burdening religious practice are subject to only rational basis review so long that they are neutral, generally applicable, and do not discriminate against or target religiously motivated conduct. Smith reversed the court’s prior First Amendment jurisprudence that subjected all laws burdening religious practice to strict scrutiny.