Two professorships awarded in School of Law

Davis joins faculty as Van Cleve Professor

Adrienne Davis, J.D., has joined the law faculty this semester as the William M. Van Cleve Professor of Law. An installation ceremony is planned for later this year.

Davis’ scholarship emphasizes the gendered and private law dimensions of American slavery. She also does work on race and feminist theory. At the law school, she will teach Contracts, Trusts & Estates; Slavery, Law & Literature; and Feminist Theory. The professorship recognizes her outstanding teaching and scholarship.

Adrienne Davis

“It is rewarding to have such an outstanding new incumbent for the William M. Van Cleve Professorship, and we look forward to the important scholarly and teaching contributions of Professor Davis,” Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton said. “We welcome her as one of the most outstanding scholars in our com-munity.”

“We are delighted that Adrienne has joined our law faculty as a named professor,” said Kent Syverud, J.D., dean and the Ethan A.H. Shepley University Professor. “Her groundbreaking work in the areas of law and slavery, critical race jurisprudence and feminist theory as well as her exemplary teaching make her an ideal candidate for this professorship.”

The professorship was established in 2003 in honor of the late William M. Van Cleve, J.D. ’53. An alumni leader and devoted friend of the law school, Van Cleve was chairman of the St. Louis firm of Bryan Cave, one of the nation’s leading corporate and litigation law firms. He was elected to the University’s Board of Trustees in 1983 and served as chair from 1993-95. In addition to leading the law school’s building campaign for Anheuser-Busch Hall, he served as a founding member and a chair of the school’s National Council. The professorship was made possible by gifts made in memory of Van Cleve, including support from the Emerson Charitable Trust. Van Cleve served with distinction as a longtime director of Emerson.

The inaugural holder of the Van Cleve professorship was Jane Aiken, J.D., LL.M

For his contributions to his alma mater, Van Cleve received the Eliot Society’s “Search” Award in 1996, the School of Law’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1992 and an honorary doctor of laws degree in 2001. He died in 2003.

With his wife, Georgia Dunbar Van Cleve, who earned a bachelor’s degree in Arts & Sciences in 1951 and attended WUSTL’s law school, he established the Dunbar-Van Cleve Professorship in Arts & Sciences. The Van Cleves also generously supported Arts & Sciences scholarships.

Davis is a distinguished lecturer with the Organization of American Historians. Before joining the law faculty, she served as the Reef C. Ivey II Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina (UNC), where she was awarded the Frederick B. McCall Award for Teaching Excellence.

At UNC, she also was a board member of the Center for the Study of the American South and of the Cultural Studies Program and a member of the Academic Affairs Committee. She previously was a professor and co-director of the Gender, Work & Family Project at Washington College of Law, American University, and has taught at the law schools at Cornell University, University of Alabama, University of Chicago, University of San Francisco, University of Texas and the University of Toronto, among others.

Davis is past chair of the Law and Humanities Section of the Association of American Law Schools and has been on the editorial boards of Law and History Review and Journal of Legal Education. She is the co-author of the book “Privilege Revealed: How Invisible Preference Undermines America” (NYU Press) as well as numerous articles and book chapters.

Davis has received two grants from the Ford Foundation: one to research women, slavery, sexuality and religion, and the other to research meanings and presentations of black women and labor.

She also was a resident fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study and Conference Center, where she researched the regulation of interracial intimacy.

After earning her juris doctorate from Yale Law School, Davis clerked for Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Tokarz named Charles Nagel Professor

Karen Tokarz, J.D., has been named the inaugural holder of the School of Law’s first endowed professorship in public service. Tokarz will be installed as the Charles Nagel Professor of Public Interest Law and Public Service April 1.

“I would like to congratulate Karen as the inaugural holder of this new public service professorship and on her more than 25 years of directing our school’s award-winning Clinical Education Program,” said Kent Syverud, J.D., dean and the Ethan A.H. Shepley University Professor.

Karen Tokarz

“Karen has inspired countless students and colleagues through her teaching, her activism, her scholarship, her generosity in assisting others and her unique ability to build institutions and coalitions within the law school, the University and the community,” he said.

The new professorship was made possible through the estate of Daniel Noyes Kirby, J.D., who earned his bachelor’s degree in 1886 and his law degree in 1888, both from the University. He was a member of the Washington University Corp. (the predecessor to the Board of Trustees), lecturer in the University’s Law Department (the predecessor to the law school) and a prominent St. Louis lawyer during his 57 years in practice.

Other professorships at the law school sharing the Nagel namesake include the Charles Nagel Chair of Constitutional Law and Political Science and the Charles Nagel Professorship in International and Comparative Law.

The new public service professorship is named for Kirby’s law partner, Charles Nagel, LL.B. 1875. Nagel was a member of the University’s Board of Directors and part-time lecturer on constitutional law and medical jurisprudence. He also was known for his public service, including serving as U.S. Secretary of Commerce and Labor under President William Howard Taft and as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives.

At the end of the 2007-08 academic year, Tokarz will step down as executive director of clinical education to redirect her energies to helping further develop the school’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Program.

She also will play a key leadership role in planning the school’s Africa Public Service Initiative. Tokarz, who also is a professor in the African & African American Studies Program in Arts & Sciences, has worked in Africa for several years.

In fall 2001, she assisted with clinical program development at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in Durban, South Africa, and subsequently initiated a law student exchange program between WUSTL and UKZN. She has coordinated placements for more than 50 law students in public interest law offices in Africa over the past six summers. She recently was named a Fulbright Senior Specialist and will return to UKZN in 2008 to assist in the development of the dispute resolution curriculum.

The law school is undertaking a national search for a new associate dean for clinical education. The Lateral Faculty Appointments Committee, chaired by Vice Dean Daniel Keating, J.D., the Tyrrell Williams Professor of Law, is leading the search.

A recipient of the 2005 Founders Day Distinguished Faculty Award, Tokarz is a recognized leader in clinical legal education on the national and international levels. She is past chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Clinical Legal Education, a founder and past president of the Clinical Legal Education Association, a founding member of the Global Alliance for Justice Education and a founding member of Mediators Without Borders.

She chaired the American Bar Association (ABA) Clinical & Skills Training Committee for four years, served on the ABA Standards Review Committee for three years and served on the ABA Accreditation Committee for two years. A frequently called upon clinical consultant here and overseas, Tokarz has served on multiple ABA accreditation teams and assisted many new clinicians in their promotion and tenure reviews.

After a sabbatical in 2008-09 in which she will study dispute resolution programs at U.S. and international universities, Tokarz will continue to teach the Civil Rights & Community Justice Clinic and dispute resolution courses, coordinate the school’s Public Interest Law & Policy Speakers Series and assist with faculty advising for the Journal of Law & Policy.