Former Wake Forest Law adjunct Professor Guy Blynn, a retired Reynolds American executive who was the chairman of the Silk Plant Forest Citizens Review Committee and established the Blynn Holocaust Collection at Forsyth Technical Community College, died Wednesday. He was 69. Continue reading »

Professor Kami Chavis Simmons, director of the law school’s Criminal Justice Program, is quoted by The Associated Press about how police departments are revamping training guidelines as a result of the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, and the resulting protests in the story, “Police Altering Tactics After Killings, Protests,” which follows. Continue reading »

Professor Andrew Verstein has posted “Violent White-Collar Crime” (Wake Forest Law Review, Vol. 49, pp. 873-887, 2014) on SSRN. This essay was written in connection with 2014 Wake Forest Law Review Spring Colloquium: “The Law as Violence: An Interdisciplinary Conversation.” Continue reading »

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Recent protests against the police killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown have created a conundrum for the nation’s black fraternities and sororities: to remain relevant in the black community they need to be involved, but protect their reputations if demonstrations go awry. Continue reading »

Director of the Criminal Justice Program, Professor Kami Chavis Simmons, was interviewed on the “Just Love,” the Catholic Charities’ Weekly Radio Program on Sirius Satellite Radio regarding the topic of police reform on Friday, Dec. 12. Host of the show, Msgr. Sullivan also spoke with Rev. Gregory Carl Chisolm, Pastor of  St. Charles Borromeo/Resurrection Chapel on peaceful protests. Continue reading »

The state Board of Regents approved the University of Iowa College of Law’s proposed Master of Studies in Law degree at last week’s telephonic meeting. Generally, the regents expressed enthusiasm. Meazell, a Wake Forest professor of legal studies and director of law graduate programs, said in a quote in the article that enrollment in its MSL program is in the mid-teens with a “slow growth” since the degree’s inception three years ago.  Continue reading »

An important international conference on climate change is taking place in Lima, Peru and Wake Forest University has three distinguished voices in attendance.

Professor Mark Rabil, director of the law school’s Innocence and Justice Clinic, will join the Honorable Samuel Wilson (’74) on a panel discussion regarding the U.S. death penalty system on Tuesday, Dec. 16, at Taiwan National University in Taipei.

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Just after I graduated from law school, in 2008, my second book was published –Black Greek-letter Organizations in the Twenty-First Century: Our Fight Has Just Begun (University Press of Kentucky). In the foreword, I made two points about the choice of the title, one internal to Black Greek-Letter Organizations (BGLOs), the other external. First, there are a host of internal issues that they must address. Second, and similarly, their efforts to uplift African Americans must be robust and meaningful. Together, these two dynamics — internal and external — are fights that were not resolved in the 20th Century; they are fights that BGLOs must take-on in this day and in this age in order for to remain relevant, impactful, and even viable. Continue reading »

Professor John Knox, a U.N.-affiliated independent expert on human rights and the environment, says in the Reuters article following that climate change is already interfering “with an immense range of human rights, from housing in the Maldives, to water in Tuvalu to food in the Sahel region of Africa, and… the problems of course will only get worse.”

A human rights approach to solving these problems can ensure governments take care of the neediest people in their countries, he added. Continue reading »