2015-16 Dean's Award for Excellence in Scholarship: Dean Tacha's Remarks

February 15, 2016 -- Last Saturday, at Pepperdine School of Law's 43rd Annual Law Dinner, Dean Deanell R. Tacha honored three faculty for their recent achievements in legal scholarship. The Dinner, attended by several hundred alumni, students, and friends, was held at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina Del Rey, and featured as keynote speakers a panel of top appellate judges from the United Kingdom and United States. In announcing the awards to the audience, Dean Tacha made the following remarks:

As all of you know, the rank and reputation of the Pepperdine School of Law is determined, in large measure, by the strength of our faculty. Each year our faculty produce legal research and writing at the highest levels and present their work at conferences nationally and around the world.

To recognize and encourage such scholarly efforts, we showcase our very best faculty through the Dean's Award for Excellence in Scholarship. The award is determined by an award selection committee, composed of the associate dean for research and two faculty members with strong national scholarly reputations.

It is my pleasure to confer the Dean's Award—upon the nomination of their faculty colleagues and the unanimous recommendation of the selection committee—to three outstanding members of our law school faculty. This is the first year we have ever given the award to three professors, recognizing the increasing quantity and quality of scholarship produced by our faculty.

First, we recognize in absentia Professor Maureen Weston for her article "The Clash: Mandatory Arbitration and Administrative Agency and Representative Access," recently published in the Southern California Law Review. The article diligently examines the impact of private arbitration on rights to access to agency regulatory procedures and assert representative claims under state laws authorizing private attorney general or federal qui tam enforcement.

Second, and also in absentia, we are pleased to honor Professor Victoria Schwartz for her article "Overcoming the Public-Private Divide in Privacy Analogies," published in the Hastings Law Journal. It is compelling research offering a coherent and consistent normative framework to analyze when privacy analogies are appropriate across the public-private divide.

Last but not least, we recognize Professor Derek Muller for his article "Scrutinizing Federal Electoral Qualifications," published in the Indiana Law Journal. His article takes fresh eyes at the qualifications candidates must meet to hold federal office and offers a framework for future litigation that protects the guarantees of the Constitution, rights of voters, and authorities of the sovereigns.

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