The 2023 Distinguished Alumni Awards were presented at a sold-out dinner on May 25, 2023. The winners were chosen by the UBalt Law Alumni Association based on nominations submitted by alumni and the public. Congratulations to the honorees!
The winners were:
Byron L. Warnken Memorial Alumni Award: Taren Butcher, J.D. ’07
Dean’s Award: Samuel G. Rose, LL.B. ’62
Distinguished Judicial Award: Hon. Barbara Waxman, J.D. ’80
Judge Robert Bell Award: Adam Shareef, J.D. ’17
Rising Star Award: Annice Brown, J.D. ’16.
Honoree Hon. Barbara Waxman, J.D. ’80, left, Hon. Mimi Cooper, J.D. ’87, and Carl Waxman.
Dean’s Award honoree Samuel G. Rose, LL.B. ’62, second from left, enjoyed seeing faculty and students from the Center for Criminal Justice Reform (CCJR) and Criminal Defense Clinic, which his philanthropy supports. From left, CCJR Faculty Director, Prof. David Jaros; Rose; UBalt President Kurt L. Schmoke; Prof. Katie Kronick, director of the Criminal Defense Clinic; Jonathan Kerr, teaching fellow in the Criminal Defense Clinic; student Sabrina Wood; CCJR Executive Director Heather Warnken; Braden Stinar, J.D. ’23.
Bonita Shareef with her son, honoree Adam Shareef, J.D. ’17, recipient of the Judge Robert Bell Award.
From left, Ross Albers, J.D. ’10; Allison Pirrello, J.D. candidate 2025; Holly Musselman, J.D. ’96; Annice Brown, J.D. ’16, recipient of the Rising Star Award.
A contingent of Baltimore City District Court judges turned out to honor their colleague, Hon. Barbara Waxman, J.D. ’80, recipient of the Distinguished Judicial Award.
Prof. Lande with the speakers at the antitrust symposium.
On March 10, 2023, the University of Baltimore Law Review hosted “The Quest for Progressive Antitrust,” a special symposium celebrating the career of Venable ProfessorRobert H. Lande, who retired earlier this year.
Lande was co-founder of the American Antitrust Institute, past chair of the Association of American Law Schools Antitrust Section, an award-winning scholar, and a leading intellectual force behind the 21st century’s reinvigorated antitrust movement.
Distinguished antitrust scholars, practitioners, policymakers and reform advocates participated in panel discussions addressing competition policy, antitrust law, and Lande’s vital role in shaping the national debate about the need to protect consumers from cartels and monopoly power. Lande also delivered a keynote address.
Welcome remarks were delivered by Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Jonathan Kanter and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Panelists included Randy M. Stutz, of the Federal Trade Commission; Albert Foer, founder and past president of the American Antitrust Institute; and Katherine Van Dyck, of the American Economic Liberties Project.
Prof. Daniel Hatcher is an uncomfortable celebrity, but the publication of his new book in March 2023 made him a creature of the airwaves for weeks.
The maddening pace of his promotional tour, which also took Hatcher to Harvard University for a book talk, was testament to the amount of national interest in this timely but little understood topic. Earlier this month, an excerpt of Hatcher’s book, Injustice, Inc., was published in The Appeal, a nonprofit news organization dedicated to “exposing the harms of a criminal legal system entrenched in centuries of systemic racism.” He has also been interviewed on numerous justice-themed podcasts and television programs like “Pittsburgh Now.”
Hatcher teaches in the Saul Ewing Civil Advocacy Clinic at UBalt Law. Like his 2016 book, The Poverty Industry: The Exploitation of America’s Most Vulnerable Citizens, his new book exposes the ways in which justice systems exploit America’s history of racial and economic inequality to generate revenue on a massive scale. Using detailed legal analysis, Hatcher uncovers how courts, prosecutors, police, probation departments and detention facilities are abandoning ethics to churn vulnerable children and adults into unconstitutional factory-like operations.
Hatcher reveals stark details of revenue schemes and reflects on the systemic racialized harm of the injustice enterprise. He details how these corporatized institutions enter contracts to make money removing children from their homes, extort fines and fees, collaborate with debt collectors, seize property, incentivize arrests and evictions, enforce unpaid child labor, maximize occupancy in detention and “treatment” centers, and more. Injustice, Inc. underscores the need to unravel these predatory operations, which have escaped public scrutiny for too long.
In a blog post he wrote for his publisher, University of California Press, available on its website, Hatcher explains his motivation to pull back the curtain and expose the heartless exploitation committed by institutions that were created to protect the most vulnerable.
“Inspired by the perseverance and determination of my clients,” the former Legal Aid lawyer wrote, “my own research strives to uncover structural failings within our justice systems that undermine equal and impartial justice. And what I found over and over again was how the systems commodify vulnerable populations to prioritize revenue and profit over justice.
“My research revealed a barrage of revenue schemes that were often buried within contract and budget documents. Our foundational courts, prosecutors, probation departments, police and sheriff’s offices, and detention and treatment facilities are all contractually collaborating with each other and with public welfare agencies—using vulnerable populations to generate revenue rather than ensuring their justice and welfare,” Hatcher continued.
“The moneyed operations are varied in structure but similar in unethical and unconstitutional mechanics, churning in symbiotic relationships: ‘In a vicious, racialized, industrialized, and monetized cycle, harm fuels and feeds from harm.’”
Anne-MarieCarstens joined the School of Law as associate professor. She teaches Property, Introduction to Lawyering Skills, Civil Procedure, and international and cultural heritage law courses. She previously taught Property, Civil Procedure, Copyright, Lawyering, and other IP and cultural heritage courses at Georgetown Law and the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, as well as in London-based international law programs for Georgetown Law-University College London and for the University of Tulsa Law School.
Her research and scholarship focus primarily on legal issues at the intersections of cultural heritage, international law, and property law. After law school, Carstens clerked for The Hon. Diana Gribbon Motz, on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and practiced litigation in Washington and in London at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.
She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown Law, where she served as executive articles editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. While completing her DPhil in Law (research doctorate in Public International Law), she was competitively selected by the Oxford Law Faculty for a research residency at Yale Law School and awarded a grant for summer study at the Hague Academy of International Law.
Patrick Grubel
Patrick Grubel is a clinical teaching fellow in the Saul Ewing Civil Advocacy Clinic, in which student-attorneys represent low-income individuals and community groups in a broad range of civil litigation and law reform projects.
Before joining the faculty, Grubel had a varied career litigating federal constitutional and civil rights cases. He was a staff attorney at the Council on American-Islamic Relations Legal Defense Fund; an associate at an education law firm in Texas; and a litigation fellow at Americans United for Separation of Church and State. He also clerked for The Hon. Debra H. Lehrmann, of the Supreme Court of Texas.
Jennifer Mitchell
Jennifer Mitchell is a visiting associate professor and interim director of the Introduction to Advocacy Program, where she teaches Torts, Introduction to Legal Skills, and Introduction to Advocacy. Mitchell previously taught in the Fundamentals of Lawyering Program at The George Washington University Law School.
Mitchell is a former active-duty Air Force Assistant Staff Judge Advocate (JAG), where she prosecuted military members for misconduct, counseled hundreds of legal assistance clients, and deployed to Afghanistan as a NATO Rule of Law Field Support Officer. She is currently a member of the District of Columbia Air National Guard.
After leaving active duty, Mitchell worked on Capitol Hill as a military legislative assistant and counsel for a United States senator, and handled the senator’s defense and veterans’ affairs portfolios. In this position she prepared legislative and regulatory language for inclusion in annual defense appropriations and authorization bills, and she was responsible for developing and executing strategies to advance legislative and policy objectives.
Ioanna Tourkochoriti
Ioanna Tourkochoriti teaches comparative law and human rights law. Prior to joining the UBalt Law faculty, she was Lecturer above the Bar at the University of Galway School of Law. For eight years, she held research and faculty appointments at Harvard University. She was a Wertheim Fellow with the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, and a lecturer on law and social studies at the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies at Harvard University.
She is a leading scholar on comparative law, jurisprudence and human rights and has published numerous articles on comparative constitutional law, freedom of expression and anti-discrimination law with leading journals all around the world. Her book, Freedom of Speech: The Revolutionary Roots of American and French Legal Thought, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022. She is co-organizer of the International Research Collaborative on “Religion and Women’s Rights: Global Perspectives” and international research networks on hate speech and anti-discrimination law.
Andrew Ziaja
Andrew Ziaja joined the faculty after a career in civil litigation as a labor lawyer and public servant. He teaches Employment Law, Labor Law, Contracts and Administrative Law. While serving with the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., he led efforts by the agency in relation to litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court, which included engagement with the Office of the Solicitor General to prepare the government’s position for briefing and oral argument. He has also served as lead counsel in trial and appellate litigation on behalf of government and private litigants.
His legal scholarship centers on administrative law and governance, including as they influence labor and employment policy. He earned a law degree from the University of California College of Law, San Francisco, where he was managing editor of the University of California Law Constitutional Quarterly. He also holds an MPA, magna cum laude, from the Paris Institute of Political Studies, known as Sciences Po, and a B.A. with honors in history and class distinction from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He additionally attended the University of California, Berkeley on a graduate fellowship in history.
Four professionals have joined the law school in senior administrative roles this year.
Patrice Wedderburn
Michelle Gunter came to UBalt Law in January 2023 as assistant dean of admissions and enrollment management with a decade of experience in higher education. Directly before joining UBalt Law, Gunter was the assistant dean of admissions at Oklahoma City University School of Law, where she created a high school summer pipeline program.
Earlier in her career, Gunter was a recruitment coordinator for her alma mater, Texas A&M University School of Law. She later became the director of admissions and recruitment management for the University of North Carolina School of Law.
Aubrey Edwards-Luce
Aubrey Edwards-Luce became executive director of the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts (CFCC) in July 2023. A zealous advocate for children, youth and families, Edwards-Luce most recently served as vice president of child welfare and youth justice at First Focus on Children, a bipartisan advocacy organization dedicated to making children and families the priority in federal policy and budget decisions. She has more than 15 years of experience working with and alongside children and families at risk or already court-involved.
In 2020, Edwards-Luce launched the Child Welfare and Race Equity Collaborative, which brings together federal policy strategists and lived-experience experts with a focus on transforming the child welfare system into an anti-racist system that supports providing children and families with the freedom to thrive in their homes and communities.
She has a master’s degree in social work and a Juris Doctor, both from St. Louis School of Law.
Rhonda Stokes
Rhonda Stokes joined the law school in November 2022 as director of enrollment and academic planning. Prior to joining the UBalt Law team, she spent four years as registrar at a local university.
Stokes began her career as an academic advisor and was particularly passionate about first-generation college students. She earned her bachelor’s degree in business from Radford University and her master’s degree in education from Marymount University.
Patrice Wedderburn is the new executive director of the Fannie Angelos Program for Academic Excellence. Before joining the School of Law in September 2023, she served as associate counsel in the Office of Legal Counsel for Baltimore City Public Schools, where she represented the school system in special education and related matters and provided advice and counsel to senior staff and school administrators on a variety of school legal issues.
Patrice Wedderburn
Prior to working for City Schools, Wedderburn served as an assistant attorney general in the Public Safety Division with the D.C. Office of the Attorney General. In this role, she represented the District in the D.C. Superior Court’s Family Division in juvenile delinquency, status offense, civil commitment and guardianship matters. She also worked as a staff attorney at Advocates for Justice and Education, the district’s federally funded Parent Training and Information Center. There, she represented parents and students in special education, school discipline and other education-related matters.
Wedderburn received her B.A. in Politics, with a concentration in poverty studies, from Washington & Lee University. She received her Master of Social Work degree from Boston College and her J.D. from the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law.
The Class of 2023 received their degrees in a May 17 commencement ceremony at Towson University’s SECU Arena.
Recipients of the Juris Doctor degree, Master of Laws in Taxation, and Master of Laws in the Law of the United States had their degrees conferred upon them by University of Baltimore Provost Catherine Andersen.
Valedictorian Joshua Gehret presented remarks, as did commencement speaker Ebony Thompson, J.D. ’13, acting Baltimore City solicitor. Guests were welcomed by School of Law Dean Ronald Weich, University System of Maryland RegentWilliam Wood, and alumna Jasmine Pope, J.D. ’18, president of the University of Baltimore Law Alumni Association.
The UBalt School of Law held its 27th Annual Awards Ceremony on April 23, 2023 at the Angelos Law Center. The Hon. Mary Ellen Barbera, former chief judge, Maryland Court of Appeals, was the keynote speaker.
Leaders of the Latin American Students Association, Karen Cedeno and Angely Luna, accepted the SBA Award for Outstanding Service to UBalt Law by a Student Organization.
For the Class of 2023, Joshua Gehret was the valedictorian, and Samantha Stephey was the salutatorian. Alona Del Rosario received the 2023 Pro Bono Challenge Award.
Akil Holmes, Jessica Sims and Amy Werner received the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) Outstanding Student-Attorney Team Award for their work with the Innocence Project Clinic. Alona Del Rosario received the CLEA Outstanding Externship Award.
The Clinical Excellence Award went to Sebastian M. Peñafiel-Garcia, for his work in the Mediation Clinic for Families.
The Student Bar Association recognized Prof. Jaime Lee with the James May Faculty Award and Prof. Marta Baffy with the Staff Mentoring Award. The SBA recognized Ashlyn Woods as the 2023 Student of Merit.
Ronald Weich, who has served as dean of The University of Baltimore School of Law since 2012, announced his decision to step down by the end of the 2023-2024 academic year.
“I am proud of my long tenure as dean of this outstanding law school. I have loved every minute of my deanship, but it is time for the school to enjoy a change in leadership while I pursue new professional opportunities,” Weich says. “In the coming months, I remain committed to keeping the law school strong and on track for its next chapter.”
Among the highlights of Weich’s 11-year tenure are the 2013 opening of the landmark John and Frances Angelos Law Center, with keynote speeches by then-Vice President Joe Biden and Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. Other distinguished speakers Weich brought to the law school over the years have included Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, and many leaders of the Maryland bench and bar.
During Weich’s tenure, the highly regarded Clinical Law Program saw continued success, rising to a ranking of 6th in the nation for 2024 by U.S. News & World Report. The law school continues to be recognized by preLaw magazine for the diversity of its student population and its success in preparing students for public interest law careers.
“It takes a special combination of strength, wisdom and humility to run a law school,” says UBalt President Kurt L. Schmoke, who previously served as dean of Howard University Law School. “The law is often subject to sweeping change, sometimes in the face of social disorder and systemic injustices. A great law school like ours requires leadership that can thrive in the face of that constant need to improve the landscape.
“Throughout his tenure, Ron Weich exhibited these qualities in abundance, and our students, professors, alumni, clients and friends were the beneficiaries. We thank him for his service and wish him all the best in the next chapter of his life.”
Weich says he is extremely proud of the faculty and staff at the School of Law. “Among other accomplishments, they kept the school running without interruption during the COVID-19 pandemic, pivoting swiftly to remote education when that was a public health imperative. We have happily resumed in-person classes and events, but we also are designing a number of online classes to provide more flexibility to students while maintaining the strong sense of community and shared purpose that makes our law school special,” he says.
After a nationwide downturn in law school enrollments following the 2008 recession, the School of Law bounced back under Weich’s leadership. “Our school now enjoys stable enrollment, a sturdy budget and a healthy relationship with the central university. We also have very loyal alumni, many of whom support the school financially,” says Weich.
“With their help, we have established new clinics and centers, such as the Center for Criminal Justice Reform. And perhaps the best measure of our success is the extent to which School of Law graduates secure jobs and contribute to the civic life of Baltimore, the State of Maryland and beyond.”
Plans are under way to celebrate Weich’s service later this academic year. The University will conduct a national search for Weich’s successor, with the goal of having a new dean in place by Summer 2024.
Prof. Michael J. Hayes was named chair of the Maryland Public Employee Relations Board by Gov. Wes Moore in August.
Hayes most recently served as attorney/advisor to the chair of the National Labor Relations Board. Earlier in his career, he served for nearly four years as director and deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.
He joined the University of Baltimore law faculty in 1998 and has taught courses in labor law, collective bargaining, employment law, employment discrimination, torts, negotiation and other lawyering skills.
The Public Employee Relations Act established the Public Employee Relations Board, which oversees collective bargaining activities for certain public employees in Maryland. The act repeals the State Labor Relations Board, the State Higher Education Labor Relations Board, and the Public School Labor Relations Board, consolidating their duties under the new board.
The Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts(CFCC) has earned the 2023 Impact of the Year Award from the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ). This accolade is a tribute to CFCC’s exceptional efforts in rethinking,reimagining, and redefining justice for children and families, according to the NCJFCJ. The award was presented in July.
“The NCJFCJ is proud to recognize CFCC’s dedication to redefining justice for children and families with programs that are making a profound difference in the lives of those they serve,” said NCJFCJ President Judge Gayl Branum Carr. “It is truly commendable. We applaud the organization for advancing the NCJFCJ’s vision of a society where every family and child has access to fair, equal, effective, and timely justice.”
“We are honored to receive this award in recognition of the years we have spent working with Baltimore’s most vulnerable youth and their families to increase their engagement in school,” said CFCC Faculty Director Shanta Trivedi, referring specifically to CFCC’s Truancy Court Program. “We are grateful for the opportunity to work closely with the judiciary and collectively brainstorm ways to minimize harms caused by legal system interaction. We look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with the community and bench to support families in Baltimore and beyond.”
