With the new year, the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law announced the installation of several scholars to faculty positions. Each of these positions recognizes the talents of the staff and the work they perform —in the classroom, in research and in their careers.
DR. ALAN CHEN
Chen was named the Thompson G. Marsh Law Alumni Professor, which was established by alumni of the college to recognize “an outstanding faculty member” of the school.
Author or co-author of books, scholarly articles and work published in multiple national law journals such as the Columbia Law Review, Chen is an expert on free speech doctrine and theory, law of federal courts and public interest law.
Prior to his time at DU, Chen served as a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union in Chicago and served as clerk to the Honorable U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of Illinois Marvin Aspen. He joined the Sturm College faculty in 1992, and is a full-time academic, while also continuing to carry active litigation docket and represents plaintiffs in civil rights cases in federal courts across the nation.
K.K. DuVivier
DuVivier was named the John A. Carver, Jr. Chair in Natural Resource Law, an award intended for a nationally recognized scholar and leader in the field of natural resources.
Holding degrees in English, geology and law, she interned with both the Smithsonian Institution and Hudson River Museum prior to her law career and worked as an exploration geologist.
Heading to DU law school in 1982, she eventually worked for several firms, became assistant city attorney for the City and County of Denver and started full-time teaching in 1990. Her teaching has covered topics ranging from mining law to local government, wills & trusts to energy law and more.
DuVivier has also taught inter-disciplinary courses and received awards from the National Science Foundation, and many other recognitions for her teaching. She has further served as an officer on multiple organizations including the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, Association of American Law Schools and several different American Bar Association committees. She further has authored two books.
SAM KAMIN
Having joined the DU law school faculty in 1999, Kamin’s research interests cover criminal procedure, death penalty jurisprudence, federal courts and constitutional remedies. He was awarded the Chauncey G. Wilson Memorial Research Chair. The position was created for full professors and “recognize extraordinary records of nationally and internationally renowned” legal scholarship, engagement, presentations and internal advancement of scholarship at Sturm.
As an expert on the regulation of marijuana, he was appointed to former Gov. John Hickenlooper’s Task Force to Implement Amendment 64 and the ACLU of California’s blue-ribbon panel to study marijuana legalization.
Kamin holds both a J.D. and a Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley and a B.A. from Amherst College. He has authored several articles and is a co-author of West Publishing’s “Investigative Criminal Procedure: A Contemporary Approach and Cases and Materials on the Death Penalty.”
CATHERINE SMITH
A member of the Sturm College of Law faculty since 2004, Smith was named also named a Chauncey G. Wilson Memorial Research Chair.
Smith teaches torts, employment discrimination, family law and sexuality, gender and law. She was co-author on an amicus brief on the constitutional rights of children which was cited in the case Obergefell v. Hodges the landmark SCOTUS same-sex marriage decision.
She joined the faculty of DU after serving as an assistant professor at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law from 2000-2004. Her articles have been published in many publications such as the U.S. Davis Law Review, Ohio State Law Journal, Wisconsin Law Review and Washington University Law Review.
JAN LAITOS
Laitos was named the Joe T. Juhan Endowed Professor in Property Rights and Policy. The position was named in December 2019 with more than $1 million in commitments from donors. The position recognizes “outstanding” faculty in the Sturm College with expertise in fields of private property and natural resource law.
Prior to joining DU, Laitos served as law clerk to the Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court and an attorney with the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. That’s not to mention his time as director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program at DU from 1981 to 2004.
DU has long recognized Laitos’ talent, awarding him several awards in his time at the school. He has further lectured in Argentina, Turkey, Hungary, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Scotland and Australia. He has also worked as a consultant on cases decided by the 9th Circuit Court of Federal appeals, Montana, Colorado, Idaho and Nevada Supreme Courts, as well as several cert. petitions before the U.S. Supreme Court.
NANCY LEONG
Leong was named the William M. Beany Memorial Research Chair, created for full professors, recognizes records national and international renowned published legal scholarship, scholarly engagement, presentations and advancement of scholarship at the school.
Holding degrees and honors from Northwestern University and Stanford Law School, where she was a member of the Stanford Law Review, Leong has served as a clerk in the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, and a professor at several institutions.
Leong has authored over 30 law review essays and her first book was published last year. Her research topics of interest range from criminal procedure, antidiscrimination, law and culture, judicial decision making and constitutional rights and remedies.
Leong has received many honors and awards, such as the 2015 Eric K. Yamamoto Award for excellence in scholarship and teaching, and her research was selected for presentation in 2016 at the Yale/Stanford/Harvard Junior Faculty Forum held at Yale Law School.
JUSTIN MARCEAU
Marceau was named the Brooks Institute Faculty Research Scholar of Animal Law and Policy. As a joint donation between the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law and Policy and the Brooks McCormick Jr. Trust for Animal Rights Law and Policy, the position recognizes “exemplary research and scholarship in animal rights.”
Marceau’s past work ranges from assistant federal public defender specializing in capital habeas to law clerk for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. While teaching at DU he has continued to practice. Currently, Marceau serves as reporter for the pattern criminal jury instruction committee of the 10th Circuit, an inaugural member of the Governor’s Council for Animal Protection and a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.
He’s authored two textbooks and over 40 articles and essays. Marceau’s death penalty research, co-authored with Prof. Kamin, was cited in a dissent by Justice Stephen Breyer in a U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down the death penalty.
SARA SCHINDLER
Schindler was named a Maxine Kurtz Faculty Research Scholar, a position designed to support initiatives aimed at maximizing the long-term strength and leadership of the law school. Schindler has been recognized by her peers and other institutions around the country for her scholarship focusing on property, land use, local government and sustainable development. Four articles written by Schindler were selected for the Land Use and Environmental Law Review, an annual compendium of 10 land use and environmental law articles by peers.
In addition, she was awarded a Law and Public Affairs Fellowship from Princeton University, where she spent a year and named the Pace Environmental Law Center Distinguished Young Scholar of 2013. She has taught at institutions, served as a White House intern and practiced in the areas of land use and environmental law in San Francisco.
MICHAEL SIEBECKER
Siebecker, also named a Maxine Kurtz scholar focuses his research on the intersections of law and political theory, particularly mainly on corporate law, securities litigation, corporate social responsibility and corporate speech.
His writings have found their way onto pages in the First Amendment Handbook, Fordham Law Review, George Washington Law Review, Connecticut Law Review, Alabama Law Review and Journal of Corporation.
Siebecker attended Yale University and received both a J.D. and LL.M. from Columbia Law School where he was both a James Kent Scholar and Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.
He also holds a Ph. D. in political science from Columbia University Graduate School as a President’s Fellow.
Annecoos Wiersema
Besides being both a professor and serving as the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Wiersema was named Catherine Boggs Endowed Faculty Research Scholar this year. This recent position recognizes an outstanding member faculty member of the school and expertise in one or more fields of property, natural resource, mining or sustainability law.
Her research focuses on international environmental law, and has an emphasis on international wildlife law, species and biodiversity conservation and forest conservation. She’s a member of multiple groups including the Accountability Panel for the Wildlife Justice Commission, Board of Editors for the Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy and a member of the IUCN’s World Commission on Environmental Law.
Her time at DU has included directing the International Legal Studies Program from 2013-2015 and holding the Ved P. Nanda Chair. Before joining DU, she worked as part of the faculty at Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law, was a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund and worked in Denver as a litigation associate.
—Avery Martinez