School Notes: Yale Law School
July/August 2014

Professors elected to the American Academy

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences has elected George L. Priest ’69 and John Fabian Witt ’94, ’99JD, ’00PhD, to its 2014 class of members. George Priest is the Edward J. Phelps Professor of Law and Economics and Kauffman Distinguished Research Scholar in Law, Economics, and Entrepreneurship at Yale Law School. He has focused his research over the past two decades on antitrust, the operation of private and public insurance, and the role of the legal system in promoting economic growth. John Fabian Witt is Allen H. Duffy Class of 1960 Professor of Law at Yale Law School. His most recent book, Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History—awarded the 2013 Bancroft Prize—was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

New faculty at YLS

Issa Kohler-Hausmann ’08JD and Anika Singh Lemar ’01 have joined the Yale Law School faculty, effective July 1. Kohler-Hausmann’s primary interests are in criminal law, criminal procedure, empirical legal studies, tort law, sociology of law, and legal theory. As an associate professor of law, she will teach a Sociology of Law seminar during the 2014–2015 academic year. Singh Lemar is a clinical associate professor of law and will teach the Community and Economic Development Clinic during the upcoming academic year.

Yale trial advocacy team wins national championship

For the first time in 35 years, Yale Law School has won the National Trial Competition, a nationwide tournament that showcases trial advocacy abilities. More than 300 teams competed in the tournament at the regional level and 28 regional teams made it to the national championship held in Austin, Texas. After six trials over three days, Yale persevered to win the final round against Loyola–L.A. Yale’s team included John James “J. J.” Snidow ’14JD, who gave opening statements on both sides of the case; Hank Moon ’14JD, who closed for the defense; and Ben Wallace ’16, who closed for the plaintiff. In addition to the national championship trophy, the team was awarded an endowed prize of $10,000.