PUBLISHED:January 09, 2012

Faculty for Judicial Studies program continues to expand

A noted journalist, a former law school dean, and several distinguished federal judges have joined the faculty roster for the inaugural term of Duke Law’s new master’s program in judicial studies. They join a list of well-known legal scholars and Duke Law faculty who will teach in the program when it launches in May 2012.

Listed below are the guest lecturers for the Judges’ Seminar, which will focus on presentations by visiting judges and others who have particularly unique experiences or perspectives on judging. See the program’s website for more details.

Linda Greenhouse
Senior Research Scholar in Law, Knight Distinguished Journalist-in-Residence, and Joseph Goldstein Lecturer in Law, Yale University
Ms. Greenhouse will co-teach a short seminar on judicial biography with John Jeffries. An author and reporter, Greenhouse covered the Supreme Court for The New York Times from 1978 to 2008 and currently writes a biweekly column on law for the newspaper. In covering 29 terms of the Supreme Court, she published more than 2,800 articles and received the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism, the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism, and the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism, among other awards. She is the author of three books: The U.S. Supreme Court: A Very Short Introduction; Becoming Justice Blackmun: Harry Blackmun’s Supreme Court Journey; and Before Roe v. Wade: Voices That Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court’s Ruling, co-authored with Yale law professor Reva Siegel. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, where she serves on the council, and is one of two non-lawyer honorary members of the American Law Institute, which in 2002 awarded her its Henry J. Friendly Medal. A graduate of Radcliffe College (Harvard), Greenhouse earned a Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale Law School.

John C. Jeffries Jr.
David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Professor Jeffries will co-teach a short seminar on judicial biography with Linda Greenhouse. Jeffries served as dean of the University of Virginia Law School from 2001 to 2008. His primary research and teaching interests are civil rights, federal courts, criminal law, and constitutional law. He is the author of a biography of Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., and co-author of a number of casebooks on civil rights, federal courts, and criminal law. He has held a variety of academic appointments at the University of Virginia and has visited at Yale, Stanford, Columbia, and the University of Southern California. He holds a JD from the University of Virginia and a bachelor’s degree from Yale University.

Christine M. Durham ’71
Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Utah
Justice Durham has been on the Utah Supreme Court since 1982, and has served as chief justice and chair of the Utah Judicial Council since 2002. She previously served on the state trial court after a number of years in private practice. She is the past-president of the Conference of Chief Justices of the United States, and also the past-chair of the American Bar Association's Council on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, the entity that accredits American law schools. She is a member of the Council of the American Law Institute, the Board of Overseers for the Rand Corporation's Institute for Civil Justice, and a Fellow of the American Bar Association. Durham has been active in judicial education and was a founder of the Leadership Institute in Judicial Education. She was an adjunct professor for many years at the University of Utah College of Law, teaching state constitutional law, and served for 12 years on the Utah Constitutional Revision Commission. In 2007, she received the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence. Durham received her A.B. with honors from Wellesley College and a J.D. from Duke University, where she is an emeritus member of the Board of Trustees.

Vaughn R. Walker
Retired Chief Judge, U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Judge Walker served on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California from 1990 until his retirement in 2011. He served as chief judge from 2004 to 2010. He presided over a number of high-profile cases during his tenure, including arguments in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the federal-constitutional challenge to California Proposition 8, and the multi-district docket of cases challenging electronic surveillance under the government’s Terrorist Surveillance Program. He holds an A.B. from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. He practiced law in San Francisco prior to his appointment to the bench.

William H. Pauley III ’77 

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York 

Judge Pauley was appointed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1998. From 1985 until his investiture, Judge Pauley was a founding partner of a litigation boutique in mid-town Manhattan where his practice focused on complex federal civil litigation. Between 1978 and 1985, he practiced as an associate and then a partner at a New York City law firm. Prior to that, he served as a Deputy County Attorney in the Appeals Bureau of the Nassau County Attorney’s Office. He also served as Assistant Counsel for the New York State Assembly Minority Leader between 1984 and 1998. Judge Pauley graduated from Duke University in 1974 and received his J.D. from Duke University School of Law in 1977. He is a senior member of the Duke Law Board of Visitors.

Wallace B. Jefferson
Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Texas
Chief Justice Jefferson has served on the Texas Supreme Court since 2001; he was appointed chief justice in 2004 by Texas Gov. Rick Perry. He previously was a partner in the appellate-specialty firm Crofts, Callaway & Jefferson, in San Antonio. He served in 2010-11 as president of the Conference of Chief Justices, an association of chief justices from the 50 states and U.S. territories. As president, Chief Justice Jefferson chaired the National Center for State Courts board of directors, a policy and resource organization. He is a graduate of the James Madison College at Michigan State University and the University of Texas School of Law and a member of the American Law Institute.

Eldon E. Fallon
Judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
Judge Fallon has served on the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, since his appointment by President Clinton in 1995. He had previously practiced law in Louisiana and taught at the Tulane University Law School. He is a member of the American Law Institute and a recipient of the American Bar Association’s National Pro Bono Publico Award and the American Board of Trial Advocates’ Thomas Jefferson Award. He holds a bachelor’s degree and J.D. from Tulane University and a Master’s in Law from Yale Law School.