The LSU Law Faculty Scholarship Committee has announced its lineup of distinguished guest scholars who will visit the Paul M. Hebert Law Center for the Spring 2023 Faculty Speaker Series, which kicks off on Thursday, February 9.
The lectures will take place in the Tucker Room and are open to LSU Law faculty and invited guests. Attendees will have the opportunity to review papers being presented at each lecture in advance of each speaker.
Spring 2023 Faculty Speaker Series
Professor Kaipo Matsumura, Loyola Marymount University
Thursday, Feb. 9 | 3 p.m.
Professor Kaiponanea Matsumura is an expert on the legal regulation of families. His scholarship consists of two interrelated strands: one explores the promises and limits of private agreements between intimates, and the other focuses on the tailoring of status-based family law rules to nonmarital relationships. He is a co-author of the sixth edition of the popular casebook, Contemporary Family Law (forthcoming 2023).
Matsumura is a co-founder and co-organizer of the Roundtable on Nonmarriage and the Law, which brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars interested in studying nonmarital relationships. He has also co-chaired the Family Law Scholars and Teachers Conference, and is the co-section editor of the Family Law section of JOTWELL. He is currently serving as co-lead of the CNM Families Initiative for the American Psychological Association Division 44 Committee on Consensual Non-Monogamy.
A passionate classroom teacher and mentor, Matsumura was twice voted Professor of the Year by the graduating class of Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.
Professor Sue Provenzano, Georgia State University College of Law
Tuesday, Feb. 28 | 3 p.m.
Professor Sue Provenzano joined the Georgia State University College of Law faculty in fall 2022. Before coming to Georgia State, she was a professor of practice at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in Chicago, teaching civil procedure, evidence, employment discrimination, and employment law.
Provenzano’s research applies philosophical, linguistic, and rhetorical theories of meaning across the law in pursuit of what she terms “unsolved interpretive mysteries.” She has contributed to multiple university press volumes and speaks on the topics of civil procedure, law and rhetoric, and legal education.
Both before and during her life as an academic, Provenzano has enjoyed writing United States Supreme Court merits briefs, amicus briefs, and petitions for certiorari. She has tackled interpretive issues involving the insanity defense, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the False Claims Act, and the Copyright Act.
Professor Carliss Chatman, Washington and Lee University School of Law
Friday, March 17 | 12:40 p.m.
Professor Carliss Chatman teaches an array of business law, commercial law, and ethics classes. Her scholarship interests are in the fields of corporate law, ethics, and civil procedure. Her scholarship is largely influenced by 11 years of legal practice in complex commercial litigation, mass tort litigation and the representation of small and start-up businesses in the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As a result, her scholarship is intersectional with a focus on issues at the heart of commercial litigation: the interplay of business entities, government, and natural persons.
Chatman’s work is also influenced by over two decades of service on nonprofit boards and involvement with community organizations. Through leadership positions, she has developed expertise in corporate governance and non-profit regulation. She has also been instrumental in strategic planning and fundraising efforts. Chatman has actively advocated on behalf of non-profit organizations at state and federal legislatures.
Prior to law teaching, Professor Chatman was a commercial litigation attorney in Houston, Texas. In practice, she focused on trial law, appeals and arbitration in pharmaceutical, healthcare, mass torts, product liability, as well as oil, gas. and mineral law.
Professor Bertrall Ross, University of Virginia School of Law
Friday, March 31 | 12:40 p.m.
Professor Bertrall Ross joined the law faculty in 2021. He teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, constitutional theory, election law, administrative law and statutory interpretation. Ross’ research is driven by a concern about democratic responsiveness and accountability, as well as the inclusion of marginalized communities in administrative and political processes.
Prior to joining the Virginia faculty, Ross taught at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where he received the Rutter Award for Teaching Excellence. He has also been awarded the Berlin Prize from the American Academy in Berlin, the Princeton University Law and Public Affairs Fellowship, the Columbia Law School Kellis Parker Academic Fellowship and the Marshall Scholarship. Ross is currently serving on the Administrative Conference of the United States and the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court.
