Law Faculty Fellowships Announced for Teaching, Scholarship, and Service W&L Law Dean Melanie Wilson has announced the annual awards that recognize faculty members for their accomplishments as teachers and scholars and for service to the school.

By Law Communications
June 15, 2023

W&L Law Dean Melanie Wilson has announced the annual awards that recognize faculty members for their accomplishments as teachers and scholars. Dean Wilson also announced a new award to recognize service to the Law School.

Teaching Fellowships

Professors Beth Belmont and Catlin Meade received the John W. Elrod Law Alumni Fellowship for teaching excellence this year.  

Belmont leads the Community Legal Practice Center, a clinic that provides legal services to qualified residents in the Rockbridge community. This year she also taught Evidence, a clinic capstone course, the advocacy portion of the 3L Immersion program, and as part of the Law, Justice, and Society undergraduate minor. Belmont also supported the BLSA mock trial team, teaching first-year students both evidence and trial techniques.

Meade completed her first year teaching at the Law School, after a career that included a stint at Covington & Burling and a large government contracting firm before her move into academia. She did a masterful job of adapting to the community and teaching legal writing at an inspiring level. She simultaneously challenged and supported her students, earning their respect and improving their writing and analytical abilities.

Scholarship Fellowships

Professors Sarah Haan and Brandon Hasbrouck received the Ethan Allen Faculty Fellowship for outstanding scholarship.

Haan continues to produce outstanding scholarship and raise the school’s national reputation for scholarly excellence. Her recent works include “Voting Rights in Corporate Governance: History and Political Economy,” forthcoming in the Southern California Law Review; “Corporate Governance and the Feminization of Capital,” in the Stanford Law Review; “Women in Shareholder Activism” solicited for the Berle XIII Symposium at Seattle Law School and forthcoming in the Seattle University Law Review; and “Campaign Finance: Corporations and Unions,” forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of American Election Law. Haan is currently working on a book about corporate democracy.

Hasbrouck has been incredibly prolific over the past year and continues to build a strong national scholarly following. In fact, his scholarship was among the most downloaded in the country from the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). His work was accessed nearly 13,500 times during the year, placing him 16th on a list combining scholars from all categories of legal research. He placed tenth in downloads for U.S. law professors. In the last two years alone, he has published, or had accepted for publication, nine separate scholarly articles and essays, including placements in the Yale Law Journal, the Harvard Law Review, the Columbia Law Review Forum, the Michigan Law Review, and the UCLA Law Review.

Experiential Education Fellowships

In 2009, Jessine Monaghan ‘79L, established an endowed fund to support the experiential curriculum of the Law School. The primary objective of the fund is to provide grant support for the development of new experiential courses.  More broadly, the fellowship supports innovation and excellence in our experiential curriculum.

Professors Matt Boaz and Karen Woody received the Jessine A. Monaghan Fellowship for Experiential Education.

Boaz continues to handle his responsibilities as acting director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic with incredible skill and ability. He and the clinic students have worked seamlessly in collaboration with the English for Speakers of Other Languages student organization to the benefit of clinic clients. Boaz also traveled with David Baluarte and a number of students to Mexico City, connecting with a Mexican university and other resources in furtherance of immigrant rights work, providing students with a once-in-a lifetime experience.

Woody provides transactional students with invaluable experiential opportunities for learning the law. She taught a Securities Regulations Skills course this year in which students drafted IPO documents and private offering memoranda. She also continues to find innovative and interesting ways to engage students. For example, this year Woody launched a blog about insider trading to which both she and her students contributed. She also remains involved in the Walker Program, a local community initiative that helps jumpstart businesses owned by people of color in the area, interacting with students helping the organization’s companies.

Law School Service Fellowships

Professors Brian Murchison and Alan Trammell received the inaugural Dean’s Service Award for exceptional and dedicated service to the Law School.

Murchison and Trammell worked tirelessly and collaboratively co-chairing the faculty appointments committee this past year, while remaining perennial participants in all of the Law School’s important community events. While their service activities are too numerous to recount, highlights include Murchison coordinating the highly successful Law and Literature Program and Trammell teaching a mock class during admitted students’ day, as well as his active engagement on the clerkship committee.

“It felt like Brian and Alan attended every event – from the Powell, Tucker, and Smith lectures to our first annual field day,” said Dean Wilson. “They supported our entire community with their presence, energy, and positivity. It is my honor to recognize those meaningful contributions.”

If you know a W&L faculty member who has done great, accolade-worthy things, tell us about them! Nominate them for an accolade.