Page 7 - Delaware Lawyer - Summer 2022

| CONTRIBUTORS |
Joseph D. Farris is the Assistant Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and an adjunct faculty member
at the Widener University Delaware Law School, where he graduated Magna Cum
Laude and was awarded the Dean’s Award and the President’s Award. While at Delaware Law, he served as a Wolcott Fellow to Supreme Court Justice Karen Valihura. After gradu- ating from the University of Michi- gan as an engineer, he served as an Officer in the United States Navy. Farris has significant leadership experience working on diverse and multicultural teams, spanning from his roles in the military, church and nonprofit organizations to legal and business teams. Through DEI-relat- ed programming and messaging and a passionate commitment to social justice and the advancement of DEI interests and issues, he is helping the Delaware Law School and broader legal community become more adept at recognizing and responding to DEI-related interests and issues, resulting in greater awareness and action towards creating a more in- clusive and equitable environment.
Kathy Jennings
was sworn in on January 1, 2019, as Delaware’s 46th Attorney General. As a prosecutor for the Delaware
Department of Justice, she pros- ecuted scores of domestic violence, sexual assault and homicide cases. She later was named Delaware State Prosecutor and then went on to serve as Chief Deputy Attorney General under Attorney General
Charles Oberly. After a period of private practice, she returned to the Delaware Department of Justice in 2011 to serve as State Prosecutor under Attorney General Beau Biden and later under Attorney General Matt Denn. In January of 2017, she was appointed Chief Administrative Officer of New Castle County. As Delaware’s Attorney General, she has focused on making Delaware a safer place to live and raise our chil- dren, making the justice system fair and equal for ever yone, and combat- ing the opioid epidemic.
The Honorable Collins J. Seitz, Jr. was sworn in
as Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court of Delaware on November
8, 2019. He previously served as a Justice of the Supreme Court from April 2015 to November 2019. He was a founding partner of Seitz Ross Aronstam & Moritz LLP, and prior to that a partner of Connolly Bove Lodge & Hutz LLP. A member of the Delaware Bar since 1983, Chief Justice Seitz has served as a mem- ber and Chair of the Board of Bar Examiners, and as a member of the Board on Professional Responsibil- ity. Both federal and state courts often appointed Chief Justice Seitz as a Master and Trustee to oversee complex corporate, commercial and intellectual property cases. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Rodney A. Smolla is the President of the Vermont Law and Graduate School. He was previously
the Dean of the Widener University Delaware Law School, the President of Furman University, Dean of the Washington and Lee Law School, Dean of the University of Richmond Law School, Director of the Insti- tute of Bill of Rights Law at the William and Mary Law School, and a faculty member or visiting fac-
ulty member at the Duke, DePaul, Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, Denver, Georgia and Melbourne law schools. He is a member of the Illinois, Virginia and Delaware bars, and is an active and nationally recognized teacher, scholar and litigator on constitutional law and media law matters.
Aaron N. Taylor
provides leader- ship and oversight for the AccessLex Center for Legal Education Excel- lence. He joined
the AccessLex Institute in June 2017 from Saint Louis University School of Law, where he was a member
of the law school faculty. He also served as Director of the Law School Survey of Student Engagement, a national study that seeks to measure the effects of legal education on students. His scholarly articles have appeared in journals published by American University, Howard Uni- versity, Stanford University, Univer- sity of Notre Dame and University of New Mexico. His commentaries have appeared in numerous publica- tions, including the Chronicle of Higher Education and the National Jurist. He is also a frequent media commentator on education and diversity issues.
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