Ramona Albin
Ramona Albin, associate professor and director of advocacy programs, in conjunction with Judge Jim Roberts, head of National Trial Teams and Elizabeth Lippy of Trial Advocacy Training and Consulting LLC, spearheaded "Training Advocates Conference 2020: Our Virtual Reality." This two-day virtual conference, hosted by Cumberland School of Law in August, addressed the new normal of teaching and coaching advocacy programs online.
More than 240 professors and advocacy coaches from law schools across the country participated in the event. Seventy expert panelists, including those from other prestigious advocacy programs such as Stetson University College of Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law, Baylor Law School and more, joined together to speak on topics ranging from “Teaching Advocacy for Online Competitions” to “How to Use Technology to Maximize Teaching Results” to “An Update on the Judiciary’s Virtual Reality,” and everything in between. The more than 20 virtual sessions also included breakout panels focusing on all areas of competition including moot court, mock trial and alternative dispute resolution. Professor Albin moderated and participated in a panel titled, “A Call to Change – A Time to Act: Responding to the National Movement for Social Justice.”
David Langum
The Joy of Scholarship: Teaching Law and Writing History (published August 2020) is a memoir of research professor David Langum’s teaching and scholarship, a lot from his time as a Cumberland professor, and includes material on issues facing law schools during his teaching years, 1968-2005. It also includes a bit about his law school days at Stanford Law School, his early practice years, how he selected the topics for his eight books, and brief mention of his personal life. The book is available to purchase from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Tim McFarlin
This past summer the Saint Louis University Law Journal published Associate Professor Tim McFarlin’s essay, “Using Open-Source, Collaborative Online Reading to Teach Property,” 64 St. Louis U. L.J. 355 (2020), in a special issue focused on teaching property law.
Tracey Roberts
Tracey M. Roberts, associate professor, presented "What the Response to COVID-19 Can Teach Climate Change Advocates," as part of the "Flattening the Curve – COVID-19 and Climate Change" webinar panel hosted by the American Bar Association Civil Rights and Social Justice Section, June 30. Her summer Tax Policy Seminar recently received certification as a Samford Approved Online Course. She was appointed as Director of Assessments for the law school in late September. On Sept. 24 she presented "The Carbon Tax: Efficient, Effective, and Procedurally Perfect" as part of the virtual "Global Conference on Environmental Taxation." She presented her paper "Regulatory Taxation Revisited" on Oct. 2 as part of the online "Junior Tax Workshop" hosted by the University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law, and she provided comments for papers by Daniel Schaffa and Michelle Layser on Oct. 16. She presented her paper, "Whiskey, Women and Tax," during a virtual panel talk offered by Vulcan Park & Museum on Nov. 12 and at the University of Oregon School of Law Tax Policy Colloquium on Nov. 18. Finally, she will be presenting her paper, "Stranded Assets and Efficient Pricing for Regulated Utilities: A Federal Tax Solution," 11 COLUMB. J. TAX L. 1 (2019) as part of the National Tax Association meeting on Nov. 19.
