Law school

School Notes: Yale Law School
September/October 2024

Heather K. Gerken | http://law.yale.edu

Public-interest advocate joins faculty

Jason Parkin joined the Yale Law School faculty as a clinical professor of law on July 1. Parkin served as professor of law at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law since 2019. His scholarship focuses on poverty law, public law remedies, administrative law, and law and social change.

Professor awarded DeVane Medal

James J. Silk ’89JD, the Binger Clinical Professor Emeritus of Human Rights at Yale Law School, was awarded the William C. Clyde DeVane Medal in April by the university’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. The DeVane Medals, Yale’s oldest teaching award, are given annually to recognize “members of the faculty who have distinguished themselves as teachers of undergraduates in Yale College and as scholars in their fields,” according to the Yale Phi Beta Kappa website. At the Law School, Silk was codirector of the Orville H. Schell Jr. Center for International Human Rights and led the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic from 1999 to 2023. 

Program focuses on bridging divides

The Crossing Divides program hosted former homeland security secretary Jeh Johnson in conversation with Judge Thomas B. Griffith at Yale Law School. The conversation, which centered on the importance of working across ideological divides, was moderated by Luke Bronin ’01, ’06JD, visiting lecturer in law and Tsai Leadership Senior Distinguished Fellow in Residence at the Law School. Much of the conversation centered on the work of the American Bar Association’s Task Force for American Democracy. Both speakers are members of the task force, and Johnson serves as cochair. Dean Heather K. Gerken was appointed to the task force last year.

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