Penn Carey Law recognized six faculty members with teaching awards for the 2022-2023 academic year.
In a year marked by our collective emergence from pandemic-necessitated restrictions, the energy and enthusiasm University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School faculty brought to their classrooms was deeply appreciated – and a cause for celebration. In addition to extending sincere gratitude to all of our esteemed faculty, lecturers, and adjuncts, Penn Carey Law recognizes six faculty members with teaching awards for the 2022–23 academic year.
The awardees include:
- Legal Practice Skills Senior Lecturer Matthew Duncan L’03 receives the Experiential Teaching Award for his work teaching Legal Practice Skills.
- Professor of Law and Philosophy and Co-Director of the Institute of Law and Philosophy Bill Ewald receives the LLM Teaching Award, selected by vote of the LLM Class of 2023.
- Professor of Law Jean Galbraith receives the Robert A. Gorman Award for Excellence in Teaching for her outstanding teaching of “Federal Courts.”
- Professor of Law Jasmine E. Harris receives the A. Leo Levin Award for Excellence in her “Access to Justice” course taught this spring.
- Incoming Dean and Professor of Law and History Sophia Z. Lee receives the Harvey Levin Memorial Teaching Award, selected by vote of the JD Class of 2023 (before her selection as dean was announced).
- Visiting Associate Professor Andrea Tosato receives the Adjunct Teaching Award for his work teaching “Blockchain in the Law” and “Consumer Finance.”
Matthew Duncan L’03: Experiential Teaching Award
An experienced litigator, Duncan received his undergraduate degree in civil engineering from Bucknell University and his JD cum laude from Penn Carey Law. After clerking for the Honorable Anthony Scirica of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, he practiced class action and complex antitrust litigation at the Fine, Kaplan, and Black firm from 2005-2018.
In 2014, Duncan received the American Antitrust Institute’s award for “Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement by a Young Lawyer” for his role in the Steel Antitrust Litigation. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and devotes his pro bono practice to representing abused and neglected children in Philadelphia family court proceedings.
What the students say:
- “Professor Duncan is an incredible writer and orator. He is extremely skilled at everything he teaches, and he is brilliant at teaching. He has pushed us all to become better writers, orators, and law students. He has encouraged us to keep our voice, what makes us special, while also pushing us to be the best version of ourselves we can be.”
- “Professor Duncan does everything and more to make that work feel relevant and empowering for those entering the profession. Moreover, he acts as an incredible role model for those who are just beginning to cognize themselves as lawyers.”
- “Professor Duncan emphasizes professionalism, and it shows in his interactions with students. He treats everyone with respect.”
Bill Ewald: LLM Award for Teaching Excellence
Ewald is a widely cited and internationally-recognized scholar of legal philosophy and comparative law.
He is currently working on a book, The Style of American Law, that examines the distinctive character of American law from a comparative perspective.
Importantly, his course, “Foundations of US Legal Systems,” provides the incoming LLM class with an intensive introduction to the American legal system, discussing topics including American legal history, the Constitution, basic civil procedure, torts, and legal theory.
Ewald holds a BA, AM in Mathematics, and JD from Harvard University and a DPhil from Oxford University.
What the students say:
- “[Ewald is a] brilliant, very knowledgeable professor who clearly cares for the issues and thus articulates them very thoroughly.”
- “[Ewald is] very approachable. I felt that the professor was really concerned with students’ well-being in class and out of the classroom.”
- “Professor Ewald definitely knows the subject; he is passionate about it and explains it really well. He is a great person from what we could tell and an extraordinary teacher.”
- “He hosted amazing coffee chats outside of class and answered all of our questions. He hosted a review session online and answers emails quickly.”
Jean Galbraith: Robert A. Gorman Award for Excellence in Teaching
A scholar of public international law and U.S. foreign relations law, Galbraith has published extensively on the separation of U.S. foreign affairs powers and on the design of international treaty regimes.
After graduating law school, she clerked for the Honorable David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, for Justice John Paul Stevens of the Supreme Court of the United States, and for Judge Theodor Meron of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. She practiced as an associate at Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin, and from 2019-2021 she litigated appellate cases as the Co-Director of Penn Carey Law’s Appellate Advocacy Clinic.
Galbraith received her BA summa cum laude from Harvard University and her JD from Berkeley Law, where she was the Editor-in-Chief of the California Law Review.
What the students say:
- “Professor Galbraith is brilliant and uses the Socratic dialogue masterfully. The cold calls are never too harsh, but they make students think on their feet and prepare for class.”
- “Professor Galbraith makes complex material accessible and always invites a robust interrogation of what the doctrine is, why it came to be this way, and how it could be different.”
- “Professor Galbraith encourages independent thinking in every one of her Socratic dialogues with students. She is extremely passionate about the material and engages students in a way that brings ‘Federal Courts’ to life.”
- “Professor Galbraith’s teaching is some of the best I’ve ever had, and she does a great job leading us through complicated doctrine.”
Jasmine E. Harris: A Leo Levin Award
Harris is a law and inequality legal scholar with expertise in disability law, antidiscrimination law, and evidence. Her work seeks to address the relationship between law and equality with a focus on law’s capacity to advance social norms of inclusion in the context of disability.
Harris has published extensively in academic journals, including the Columbia Law Review, New York Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and Yale Law Journal Forum. She also writes frequently about disability and equality law for popular audiences and is regularly interviewed and has been widely quoted in publications and media outlets such as The New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, and Forbes.
Harris graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College with a bachelor’s degree in Latin American & Caribbean Studies. She received her JD from Yale Law.
What the students say:
- “Professor Harris does a great job stimulating interest in the subject matter. She offers up cutting-edge scholarship for debate and does not require that we agree with all of the arguments, but rather that we engage with them and come to our own perspectives. Thoughtful disagreement is encouraged.”
- “Prof. Harris approaches hard discussions (and students) with compassion, respect, and humility.”
- “Prof Harris’ stimulation of interest was amazing. She led some great class discussion and brought in so many outside speakers who were obviously experts in their fields. I also really appreciated being able to explore my own independent thoughts in our papers.”
- “Professor Harris is an exceptional professor with a demonstrated deep knowledge and passion for the subject. She consistently fosters interest in the subject and helps us grapple with the topics, encouraging every one of us to engage with the subject matter…Overall Professor Harris was phenomenal.”
Sophia Z. Lee: Harvey Levin Award for Teaching Excellence
Lee is a legal historian who studies the intersections of constitutional and administrative law. Effective July 1, 2023, Lee will serve as the Dean of Penn Carey Law.
Her pioneering work has illuminated administrative agencies’ role in shaping constitutional law. She has written extensively about civil rights and labor advocates’ challenges to workplace discrimination during the early Cold War, conservative legal movements in the post-New Deal era, and is the author of The Workplace Constitution from the New Deal to the New Right.
In recent years, Lee has taught “Administrative Law,” “History of Privacy and the Law,” and “Employment Law” to the JD Class of 2023. Lee earned her BA and MSW from the University of California at Berkeley and her JD and PhD in history from Yale.
What the students say:
- “A true admin wiz! And so approachable.”
- “Professor Lee brought vibrancy and enthusiasm to each lecture, and it was a joy to learn from her.”
- “Professor Lee did an outstanding job of commanding interesting legal and policy discussions in an online format. Definitely my favorite professor best all-online law school course thus far.”
- “Professor Lee is always available to students outside of class.”
- “Sophia Lee makes every possible effort to connect with her students, both on the material and as students at the Law School.”
- “Professor Lee is absolutely fantastic. She’s an incredibly kind, smart, gracious professor and was extremely accessible to students from the outset. She was compassionate in recognizing the tough semester we are all facing with Zoom/quarantine fatigue, and that made it such a warm, and comforting learning environment.”
- “Professor Lee is absolutely brilliant, and I cannot say enough good things about this class. I have come away with such a nuanced, deep appreciation for the history of American constitutional privacy. The class opened up a whole world of fascinating constitutional history that helped me make sense of doctrine, rights claiming in the United States, and ongoing litigation before Court. It’s a perspective on the intersections of history, law, society, culture, and politics that is so often absent from law school classes.”
- “[Lee is] the kindest, most intellectually generous professor I have had in law school. She created a community of respect in our class that helped all students feel comfortable joining the conversation. She was very willing to meet with me mid-semester to discuss my writing and engagement in class and offered helpful feedback. I am genuinely going to miss spending Tuesday afternoons with this class.”
- “Professor Lee is one of the best professors I’ve had at Penn Carey Law. I like that she keeps the real-world implications of these doctrines at the forefront of each lecture.”
- “Professor Lee is accessible, welcoming, kind, and generous with her time. She makes herself available almost to a fault. Despite her busy schedule, I’ve always felt welcome to drop in with a question or to ask for clarification.”
- “Dean Lee is an amazing lecturer and academic, and future Penn Carey Law students will really be at a disadvantage since she probably won’t be able to take on teaching Admin Law during her deanship :(”
Andrea Tosato: Adjunct Teaching Award
Tosato is a leading private law scholar with internationally recognized expertise in the intersection between commercial law and new technologies.
In the United States, he serves as the Associate Research Director of the Permanent Editorial Board of the Uniform Commercial Code; he is also the Chair of the Sub-Committee for UCC and Emerging Technologies of the American Bar Association Business Law Section. In the United Kingdom, he has advised the Law Commission of England & Wales. Internationally, he regularly serves as an expert advisor to the UN Commission on International Trade Laws and the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law.
Presently, Tosato is engaged in several international legislative reform projects dealing with the impact of blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies on commercial law. In the United States, he was a key contributor to the ULC/ALI Uniform Commercial Code and Emerging Technologies Committee that drafted the 2022 Amendments to the Uniform Commercial Code and Article 12.
Tosato is an Associate Professor in Commercial Law at the School of Law of the University of Nottingham. His research has been published in leading law journals and has received international awards.
What students say:
- “Professor Tosato was an incredibly knowledgeable and engaging instructor. He was able to break down complex topics in a very digestible manner and did a great job facilitating classroom discussion.”
- “I cannot express strongly enough how grateful I am to have had Professor Tosato for two separate classes at Penn Carey Law and would be very sad to see him go.”
- “Professor Tosato is the consummate professor.”
- “Professor Tosato is extremely knowledgeable in the topic area; he is also accommodating to different levels of knowledge different students possess in the class. He covers the fundamentals but also provokes active and in–depth thoughts and discussions in class. Professor Tosato would always bring in his international background into the class, which I extremely appreciated to learn and understand the international landscape of the law.”
Learn more about the pathbreaking research and scholarship of our distinguished faculty.