Newly named research scholars and professors
The University of Richmond School of Law is pleased to announce the appointment of two new faculty research scholars and one new professorship. Dean Wendy Perdue named Corinna Barrett Lain as the new S.D. Roberts & Sandra Moore Professor of Law, and named Henry L. Chambers Jr. and Kimberly Jenkins Robinson as the new Austin E. Owen Research Scholars.
Professor Lain is a nationally known constitutional law scholar who writes about the influence of extralegal norms on Supreme Court decision making, with a particular focus on the field of capital punishment. Her scholarship, which often uses the lens of legal history, has appeared in the Stanford Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Duke Law Journal, UCLA Law Review, and Georgetown Law Journal, among other venues. Her legal history work was cited by the Delaware Supreme Court in its 2016 opinion invalidating the death penalty, and her work on lethal injection drugs has been singled out as a “must read” for lawyers practicing in the capital punishment area.
Professor Lain has been appointed to a new professorship position established by Roberts Moore, L’61, and his wife, Sandra. Mr. Moore is a senior litigation partner with Gentry Locke in Roanoke, and a member of the University of Richmond Board of Trustees and the Richmond Law Advisory Board. He has been a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, and is a leading trial lawyer in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Professor Chambers teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, employment discrimination, voting rights, criminal law, and law and religion. His recent scholarship has appeared in publications including the Boston University Law Review, University of Colorado Law Review, Election Law Journal, and Maryland Law Review, and includes a book chapter, The President as Spiritual Leader: Pardons, Forgiveness, Mercy and Justice. Chambers' scholarship has led him to serve as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth concerning Virginia's most recent redistricting, and as a member of the American Law Institute. He also has won the University of Richmond's Distinguished Educator Award.
Professor Robinson is a national expert who speaks domestically and internationally about educational equity, civil rights, and the federal role in education. Her article, “Disrupting Education Federalism” in the Washington University Law Review, won the 2016 Steven S. Goldberg Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Education Law. Her work has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, William & Mary Law Review and the North Carolina Law Review, among other journals. She is co-editor with Professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr. of The Enduring Legacy of Rodriguez: Creating New Pathways to Equal Educational Opportunity (Harvard Education Press 2015).
The Research Scholar position honors the legacy of the Hon. Austin E. Owen, L’50. Judge Owen served as the Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and was a partner at Owen, Guy, Rhodes, Betz, Smith, and Dickerson before he was appointed judge of the Second Judicial Court of Virginia. The Austin E. Owen Research Scholar Endowment was established by Judge Owen’s daughter, Dr. Judith Owen Hopkins, and son-in-law, Dr. Marbry B. Hopkins.
Above, left to right: Chambers, Lain, Robinson