The Law School has named Laura Dolbow andAyodeji Perrin L’13 as Sharswood Fellows.
The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s George Sharswood Fellowship program supports burgeoning scholars as they embark on careers in legal academia. Since the program’s inauguration in 2007, Sharswood Fellows have produced a broad and diverse breadth of research that continues to push the boundaries of legal scholarship.
The Law School’s newest Sharswood Fellows will begin their positions in the fall.
Laura Dolbow
Laura Dolbow earned both her undergraduate degree and JD from Vanderbilt University. She earned several academic awards while a law student, then clerked on the Federal Circuit for the Honorable Timothy Dyk and on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Honorable Judith Rogers. Following her clerkships, she worked as an associate at Covington & Burling’s Washington, D.C., office, focusing on patent, administrative, constitutional, and appellate practice.
Dolbow is the author of multiple influential and award-winning pieces of scholarship. The Patent office cited her student note, “A Distinction Without a Difference: Convergence in Claim Construction Standards,” when it adopted the review standards that Dolbow recommended; further, her article, “Agency Adherence to Legislative History,” concerning whether the FDA responds to the instructions contained in congressional appropriation committee reports, has garnered significant attention and includes vital, pioneering empirical findings regarding the efficacy of congressional oversight of the executive branch.
During her Sharswood Fellowship, Dolbow plans to continue to engage in research at the intersection of administrative and patent law.
Ayodeji Perrin
Ayodeji Perrin L’13 earned his bachelor’s degree from Tufts, his master’s in Political Science from Columbia, his JD from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, and his PhD in Political Science from Northwestern. Currently, Perrin works as an Adjunct Professor at Temple, where he teaches Political Science in the College of Liberal Arts.
Perrin’s interdisciplinary work on transnational LGBTQ+ human rights litigation breaks new ground in the field. Using sodomy decriminalization as a case study, Perrin’s dissertation analyzed the ways in which grassroots activists change legal norms in domestic and international courts.
As a Sharswood Fellow, Perrin plans to continue his research at the intersection of international law, civil rights, and activism and pursue research focusing on sodomy decriminalization in the Caribbean, Africa, and Asian-Pacific regions.
