Law School Announces 2025 Faculty Fellowships 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 9, 2025

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 the award to recognize service to the school.

Scholarship Fellowships

Professor Mark Drumbl and Professor Russell Miller received the Ethan Allen Faculty Fellowship for outstanding scholarship.

Professor Drumbl, the Class of 1975 Alumni Professor of Law and Director of the Transnational Law Institute, enjoyed an exceptional year in scholarly achievement, completing a number of significant book projects. Among his many recent publications is a book titled, “Informers Up Close: Stories from Communist Prague.” This work looks at people who informed on their friends and neighbors for the secret police in Czechoslovakia under Communist governance from 1948 to 1989. The book, which was published by Oxford University Press, is coauthored with Professor Barbora Holá. Professor Drumbl also produced three edited collections, including “Children and Violence” with Christelle Molima, Mohamed Kamara, et al., and most recently, “The Character of International Law,” co-edited with Emma J. Breeze, Gerry Simpson, and Marianne Wade. Further, Professor Drumbl produced several scholarly symposium pieces and multiple book reviews, including “Smoldering Semantics,” published in the London Review of International Law as part of a symposium on Gaza and genocide.

Professor Miller, the J.B. Stombock Professor of Law, published a number of scholarly works this year, while teaching two 1L courses this spring—Constitutional Law and Transnational Law—and other upper-level courses in the fall. “An Introduction to German Law and Legal Culture” (Cambridge University Press) is a 469-page text that offers students, comparative law scholars, and practicing lawyers a thorough and readable survey of the German legal system that engages with Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Criminal Law and Procedure, and other key legal areas. Professor Miller also published a beautiful picture book, or Bildband, titled “Constitutional Places: Landmarks on the Road to German Democracy,” which walks the reader through Germany’s impressive constitutional history, complete with extraordinary photography illustrating that path. While he completed these extensive works, Professor Miller also continued to produce law review articles, including a piece about stare decisis and the Roberts Court, and an article about stare decisis and the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Teaching Fellowships

Professor Shannon Fyfe and Professor Tammi Etheridge received the John W. Elrod Law Alumni Fellowship for teaching excellence this year.

Professor Fyfe, assistant professor of law, joined the faculty this year from George Mason University, where she taught philosophy and served as Director of the Graduate Studies program. Professor Fyfe immediately added enthusiasm and energy to the community, teaching important required courses this spring, including Transnational Law to our 1L students and Professional Responsibility to our 2L students. She also taught a Mass Atrocities Seminar in the fall semester. Already a popular teacher, Professor Fyfe demonstrated both effectiveness and innovation in her classes, using a variety of tools to reach and motivate learning.

Professor Etheridge, associate professor of law, who teaches torts, administrative law, public health law, and law and economics, is an adaptive and thoughtful teacher who is constantly modifying her teaching approaches to fit the course type and size. Professor Etheridge offered her students numerous formative as well as summative assessments to ensure exceptional learning outcomes. These assessments ranged from quizzes to response papers, and her teaching methods ranged from the traditional to a flipped classroom model.

Experiential Education

Professor Tim C. MacDonnell, Director of the Advanced Administrative Litigation Clinic (commonly known as the Black Lung Clinic), received the Jessine Monaghan Experiential Education Fellowship.

Professor MacDonnell has held the position of Clinic Director for seventeen years, teaching students how to effectively represent real clients under his guiding mentorship. This year, as in prior years, Professor MacDonnell spent countless hours helping students prepare their legal cases, including spending numerous hours assisting one student as she prepared for an oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Professor MacDonnell is also a member of the Immersion Litigation teaching team, adding extensive value to students’ trial skills. He also taught Criminal Procedure: Investigation this year.

Dean’s Service Award

The Dean’s Service Award recognizes exceptional service to the law school and to the University community more broadly. Michelle Drumbl, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and the Robert O. Bentley Professor of Law, is this year’s recipient. Dean Drumbl provides exceptional service to the law school every day in her administrative role, which involves assisting with curricular, student, and other academic needs. This year, she went well above and beyond the usual service obligations of the associate dean. Dean Drumbl organized, oversaw, and led the law school’s efforts in preparing the ABA Self Study and in responding to the ABA Accreditation survey, as well as the corresponding AALS survey. She also played an integral part in hosting the ABA Site Team in March during which they assessed our program of legal education. Dean Drumbl spent hundreds of hours on this service, all while also teaching Federal Income Taxation of Individuals in the fall of 2024.

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