Kimberly Kessler Ferzan L’95, the Earle Hepburn Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Institute of Law & Philosophy, teaches Criminal Law, Evidence, and a seminar on the theory and practice of criminal law. She was elected to the American Law Institute in 2015.
Ferzan writes in criminal law theory. She has co-authored two books, co-edited three volumes, and authored over 50 book chapters and articles. She received the American Philosophical Association’s Berger Memorial Prize in 2013 for “Beyond Crime and Commitment: Justifying Liberty Deprivations of the Dangerous and Responsible” (Minnesota Law Review, 2011). Before joining the Law School faculty, Ferzan was the Harrison Robertson Professor of Law and the Joel B. Piassick Research Professor of Law at the University of Virginia, where three different graduating classes recognized her with their highest teaching honor at graduation. Prior to her time at Virginia, Ferzan was a member of the faculty at Rutgers Law, where she was twice awarded Professor of the Year and received the Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence.
Karen Tani L’07, PhD’11 is the Seaman Family University Professor and holds a joint appointment with the Department of History in the School of Arts and Sciences. She is the University of Pennsylvania’s 24th Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor. Tani will co-teach a 1L elective course on Law and Inequality with Shaun Ossei-Owusu.
A celebrated legal historian, Tani’s work addresses poverty law and policy, disability, administrative law, federalism, and rights. Her book, States of Dependency: Welfare, Rights, and American Governance, 1935-1972 won the 2017 Cromwell Book Prize from the American Society for Legal History.
Before joining the Law School faculty, Tani was a Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. She was the first graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s JD/PhD program in American Legal History.
Assistant Professor of Law Yanbai Andrea Wang’s scholarship focuses on the emerging system of transnational civil litigation and arbitration, including procedural coordination across borders and institutional change in the global governance of health. At Penn Carey Law, Wang teaches Civil Procedure and courses in the area of transnational litigation.
Her most recent work, “Exporting American Discovery,” won the American Society of International Law David D. Caron Prize and is forthcoming in the University of Chicago Law Review. Before joining the Law School faculty, Wang was a Thomas C. Grey Fellow and Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School and an Associate Fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine’s Center for Innovation in Global Health.
In addition, the Law School announced six distinguished visitors and extended faculty for the academic year.
Benjamin Jealous is the former President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was the youngest-ever President and CEO of the NAACP. He is serving as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow who will teach a course on Leadership and Racial Justice. He is currently the president of People for the American Way. Jealous is a Rhodes Scholar. He has previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University.
Sandra G. Mayson, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law, is an assistant visiting professor of law at Penn Carey Law. She teaches Criminal Law, Evidence, and Criminal Justice Reform. Mayson has served as a research fellow with the Quattrone Center for the Fair.
Jennifer E. Rothman is a visiting professor. She will teach Trademarks and a seminar on the Right of Publicity. Rothman is nationally recognized for her scholarship in the intellectual property and constitutional law fields and is the leading expert on the right of publicity. She holds the William G. Coskran Chair and is Professor of Law at LMU Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, where she was the 2019–20 recipient of the David P. Leonard Faculty Service Award for outstanding teaching and service. Rothman is an elected member of the American Law Institute and an adviser on the Restatement of the Law (Third) of Torts: Defamation and Privacy.
Jim Sandman L’76 has joined the Law School as a Distinguished Lecturer and Senior Consultant to the Future of the Profession Initiative (FPI). Sandman is a vocal advocate for change to the regulatory framework governing lawyers. Through his work with FPI he will develop new approaches to the delivery of legal services that make them more accessible and useful to small business owners and individuals across the income spectrum. His new role with the Law School will also provide students the opportunity to learn from him, through his teaching courses like Professional Responsibility and Leadership in Law, and through mentorship.
Sandman is President Emeritus of the Legal Services Corporation, the largest funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans in the nation. He practiced law with the firm of Arnold & Porter LLP for 30 years, including 10 years as the firm’s Managing Partner. He is also Past President of the 100,000-member District of Columbia Bar and a former General Counsel for the District of Columbia Public Schools. He is currently Chair of the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Legal Issues Arising Out of the 2020 Pandemic. He began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Max Rosenn L’32 of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Leo Strine L’88, former Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice and longtime adjunct professor and participant in the Law School’s intellectual life around corporate governance and other topics, has taken on a new role as the Michael L. Wachter Distinguished Fellow in Law and Policy. Strine will bring his unique expertise and experience in this new role to the discussion around crucial issues facing business and financial law and policy and will work with Law School colleagues to develop new and innovative programming, both in-person and online.
Chief Justice Strine joined the Delaware Court of Chancery as a Vice Chancellor in 1988, later serving as Chancellor in 2011 and becoming the eighth Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court in 2014. Before joining the bench, Chief Justice Strine served as Counsel and Policy Director to Delaware Governor Thomas R. Carper and practiced corporate litigation with the firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. He is a member of the American Law Institute and currently serves as an advisor on the project to create a restatement of corporate law.
Miguel Willis, an emerging leader in the access to justice movement, joined the Law School’s Future of the Profession Initiative as Innovator in Residence. In this role, he will work closely with FPI leadership and colleagues around the Law School to educate students on emerging career opportunities that allow lawyers to deploy technology to respond to the American access to justice crisis. Willis will continue to grow the Access to Justice Legal Tech Fellows (“A2J Tech Fellows”) program he founded in 2016, which blends law student summer work experiences in the public interest with mentorship and educational and professional development programming. Willis, who also focuses on growing professional networks for traditionally underrepresented professionals in both law and technology, was named a “Legal Rebel” by the American Bar Association in 2018.