School of Law

The United States Supreme Court agreed Nov. 6, for the fourth time in three years, to rule on challenges to the Affordable Care Act. This time the court will rule on the birth control mandate. A decision siding with large nonprofit corporations in this new case means that employers would prevail at significant cost to employees, said Elizabeth Sepper, JD, religious freedom and health law expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

The School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis is hosting this year’s National Board of Trial Advocacy Tournament of Champions, one of the premier law school trial competitions nationwide. The competition runs Oct. 28 through Oct. 31 at the Thomas Eagleton Federal Courthouse in St. Louis and at the School of Law.

​David M. Becker, JD, Joseph H. Zumbalen Professor of the Law of Property Emeritus, will be honored during a ceremony Nov. 14 with a $25,000 tribute from the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award Trust for motivating a former student to make a difference in his or her community.​

Three people from Washington University in St. Louis have been appointed to the Missouri Supreme Court’s newly formed Racial and Ethnic Fairness Commission. They are: Kimberly Norwood, JD; Geetha Sant, JD; and Karen Tokarz, JD.

Robert J. Iversen, a third-year student in the School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, died recently. Iversen was 39. An accomplished and involved law student, Iversen was expected to earn a juris doctoris in May 2016.

Maxine I. Lipeles, JD, senior lecturer in law and director of the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, was honored by the Sierra Club at its annual awards program in San Francisco.

Lisa Cristine Simone, 25, a doctoral candidate in the Program in Physical Therapy at Washington University School of Medicine, died unexpectedly Sept. 29, 2015, in St. Louis.

The Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis has bestowed its 2015 World Peace Through Law Award on former Nuremberg prosecutor Benjamin B. Ferencz.

The Supreme Court decision that the Constitution requires that gay couples be allowed to marry no matter where they live has caused many religious conservatives to feel that the tax-exempt status of religious institutions is under threat. There is a fundamental reason we should protect religious organizations — even those we disagree with, said John Inazu, JD, associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

Hillary A. Sale, JD, the Walter D. Coles Professor of Law and professor of management at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, recently attended a conference of securities and corporate governance experts in Vienna, Austria, gathered to comment on a model statute for corporate law throughout the European Union.