UMass Law Professor Irene Scharf has volunteered over the past three months as an on-site mentor at Justice Bridge-Boston’s Grand Rounds.

Professor Rick Peltz-Steele has authored a chapter in a new book, The Media Method: Teaching Law with Popular Culture. Professor Peltz-Steele’s chapter talks specifically about using popular culture as a teaching aid in the 1L Torts class.

UMass Law Adjunct Professor Patrick Francomano was honored with the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Volunteer Recognition Award. Francomano’s decades of service evidence his belief that lawyers are called to public service as well and that education and social justice are essential to a healthy democracy.

A free speech defense bound for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) pits the UMass Boston student newspaper and the Massachusetts Attorney General against a plaintiff who claims he was defamed, and The Boston Globe quoted Professor Rick Peltz-Steele to analyze the case in July.

At the annual meeting of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools in Boca Raton, Florida, in July, Professor Rick Peltz-Steele joined a panel of law professors discussing the use of popular culture in legal education. The presenting professors, including Peltz-Steele, are collaborating on a book.

UMass Law Professor Margaret Drew was appointed Chair of the ABA AIDS Coordinating Committee and Special Advisor to the ABA Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence.

Professor Rick Peltz-Steele delivered a plenary address at a conference of mass communication scholars in Dubai and attended a global conference of digital human rights advocates in Tunisia.

Professor Rick Peltz-Steele recorded an audio commentary, published by the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, about a spring decision of the U.S. Supreme Court involving tort law and sovereign immunity.

UMass Law Professor Irene Scharf participated the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s National Day of Action.

Professor Richard Peltz-Steele presented on a panel called “Teaching Law in the Trump Era” at the annual meeting of the Law and Society Association (LSA) in Washington, D.C., on June 1. Peltz-Steele talked specifically about teaching 1L Torts with the defamation claims of Summer Zervos against the President, and First Lady Melania Trump against blogger Webster Tarpley.