Former Williams Institute Law Teaching Fellows
Michael Boucai, Associate Professor of Law, SUNY Buffalo Law School
Michael Boucai teaches Family Law, Criminal Law, and Sexuality & the Law at SUNY Buffalo School of Law. His scholarship focuses on the regulation of sexuality and intimate relationships, and particularly law’s relationship to moral, social, and political norms and ideologies. His current projects treat the first same-sex marriage cases of the early 1970s, Anita Bryant’s pivotal 1977 campaign against gay rights, and the complicated legacy of Oscar Wilde and his trials. Professor Boucai’s most recent article, “Sexual Liberty and Same-Sex Marriage: An Argument from Bisexuality,” may be found in volume 49:2 of The San Diego Law Review. His other writings have been published in the University of Miami Law Review, the National Black Law Journal, the Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law, and the Journal of Social History. Professor Boucai is a graduate of Yale (B.A., history), Georgetown (J.D.), and Cambridge (M.Phil. history). He clerked for the Honorable Rosemary Barkett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Zachary A. Kramer, Professor of Law, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University
Zachary A. Kramer was the first Williams Law Teaching Fellow. Professor Kramer received his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin (2001) and his J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law (2004), where he was Editor-in-Chief of the University of Illinois Law Review (2003-04). At UCLA, Professor Kramer taught Law & Sexuality in the fall semester. Professor Kramer’s publications have appeared in the University of Illinois Law Review, the Seattle Journal for Social Justice, and the Chicago Tribune.
Holning S. Lau, Associate Professor of Law, UNC School of Law
Holning Lau researches and writes on antidiscrimination law, international human rights, and children’s rights. While a law teaching fellow for the Williams Institute, he taught Law & Sexuality at the UCLA School of Law. Lau completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude. He received his J.D. from the University of Chicago, where he served as the Executive Topics & Comments Editor of the University of Chicago Law Review and as a staff member of the Chicago Journal of International Law. At the University of Chicago, Lau was named a Stonewall Scholar for excellence in his work related to LGBT rights and was awarded the Ignacio Martín-Baró Award for the best human rights paper by a professional or master’s degree student.
Douglas NeJaime, Associate Professor of Law, Loyola Law School
Doug received his A.B. with Honors in American Civilization from Brown University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he graduated cum laude and served as a Senior Editor on the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Review. Doug also served as a Teaching Fellow to Professor Lani Guinier. He is the author of “Inclusion, Accommodation, and Recognition: Accounting for Differences Based on Religion and Sexual Orientation” (Harvard Journal of Law & Gender), “When New Governance Fails” (Ohio State Law Journal), and “Marriage, Cruising, and Life in Between: Clarifying Organizational Positionalities in Pursuit of Polyvocal Gay-Based Advocacy” (Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review), and he is the co-author of “Exposing Sex Stereotypes in Recent Same-Sex Marriage Jurisprudence” (Harvard Journal of Law & Gender). Before the Williams Institute, Doug was an associate at the Los Angeles law firm of Irell & Manella, where he focused on intellectual property litigation. At Irell, Doug also represented women’s rights organizations in same-sex marriage litigation around the country
Kim Pearson, Assistant Professor of Law, Gonzaga University School of Law
Kim Pearson’s research and writing interests are post-colonialism and sexuality, lesbians in patriarchal systems, the imputation of sexuality on minors, and sexualized violence in custody disputes. Kim completed her B.A. in English at the University of Utah. She also earned her M.A. in British and American Literature from the University of Utah. During her M.A. program, Kim studied critical theory with Professor Kathryn Bond Stockton, worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Asian-American Studies Department, and ran a collaborative workshop for book artists and creative writers. Kim graduated from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University where she was a senior editor of the BYU Law Review and worked as a research assistant for Professor Fred Gedicks. Kim practiced law in Las Vegas from 2005 to 2008 in a family law firm. In 2006, Kim published an article called “Patriotic Homosocial Discourse” which appeared in the William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law.
Cliff Rosky, Associate Professor of Law, S.J Quinney College of Law, University of Utah
Cliff Rosky writes on family law, antidiscrimination law, and criminal law, with a focus on the intersections of gender, sexuality, and violence. Before joining the Williams Institute, Cliff was an associate at the law firms of Covington & Burling and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, where he focused on criminal and pro bono matters, including the reform of child molestation statutes and the representation of human sex trafficking victims. Cliff received his B.A. from Amherst College with honors in Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude. His honors thesis won the Robert Cover Prize and the Law & Society Association’s Prize for Best Undergraduate Paper. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he served as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities and the Irving S. Ribicoff Postgraduate Research Fellow. His current research analyzes the significance of gender in more than 200 family law opinions involving gay, lesbian and bisexual parents. His writing has appeared in the Connecticut Law Review.
Dean Spade, Assistant Professor of Law, Seattle University School of Law
In 2002, Dean Spade founded the Sylvia Rivera Law Project (www.srlp.org), a non-profit law collective that provides free legal services to transgender, intersex and gender non-conforming people who are low-income and/or people of color. SRLP also engages in litigation, policy reform and public education on issues affecting these communities. Dean received his J.D. from UCLA School of Law. He has taught classes focusing on sexual orientation, gender identity and law at Columbia and Harvard Law Schools. Dean’s writing has appeared in the Berkeley Women’s Law Journal, the Harvard Lesbian and Gay Review, the Widener Law Review, the Chicano Latino Law Review, the Georgetown Journal of Gender and Law and several anthologies.
Alexandra Lang Susman, Research Associate, The Williams Institute
Before joining the Williams Institute, Alexandra was an associate at the Los Angeles law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson, where she focused on complex commerical litigation. At Munger, Susman also served as pro bono general counsel for a Los Angeles area rape crisis and domestic violence center, represented a transgender survivor of domestic violence in obtaining a U-Visa, and advised undocumented lesbians on their ability to seek asylum. Susman received her A.B. with Honors in Comparative Literature from Brown University, where she was awarded the Rosalie Colie Prize for Outstanding Scholarship on an Honors’ Thesis. She continued her studies of Comparative Literature at Stanford University as a doctoral candidate and lecturer. Susman received her J.D. from the University of Southern California, where she graduated Order of the Coif and served as Executive Articles Editor of the Southern California Law Review. After graduating, she served as a law clerk for the Honorable Raymond C. Fisher on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She is the author of “No Strings Attached: An Analysis of the Eruv Under the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act,” University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender & Class (2009).
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