UConn School of Law welcomes an accomplished group of four professors, a teaching fellow and a visiting professor this academic year, adding a broad set of talents and scholarly expertise to the distinguished faculty.
Ashley B. Armstrong, assistant clinical professor of law, will teach legal practice courses to strengthen students’ skills in research, writing, negotiation, interviewing, counseling and oral advocacy. She is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, where she earned a JD and an LLM in Advocacy.
Her research focuses on refugee and human rights law, analyzing how governments create barriers that thwart asylum-seekers. Among her most recent scholarship is an article in the Georgetown Immigration Law Review, “Co-opting Coronavirus, Assailing Asylum.” She previously taught at New York University Law School and the Georgetown University Law Center.
“I am excited to call UConn Law my academic home,” Armstrong said. “I have really appreciated the warm reception by faculty and staff, and I am already so impressed by the thoughtful curiosity that my students bring to our class discussions.”
Anya Bernstein, an expert in administrative law and civil procedure, will join the UConn Law faculty in Spring 2023 as a tenured professor of law. A graduate of Yale Law School with a Ph.D. in sociocultural anthropology from the University of Chicago, she has been teaching at the University at Buffalo School of Law since 2013.
Bernstein has conducted extensive research into the administrative state in the United States and Taiwan. Her most recent published work includes “The Accountable Bureaucrat” in the Yale Law Journal. Her scholarship has also been published in The University of Chicago Law Review; Cornell Law Review; William and Mary Law Review; The Yale Journal on Regulation, Law and Social Inquiry; and PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review.
“I’m thrilled to be joining UConn Law’s dynamic, creative, and congenial faculty,” Bernstein said. “And I can’t wait to meet my new students, who are known for combining legal acumen with plain old kindness.”
Diana R. Blank is a visiting assistant clinical professor appointed to a three-year term as the William R. Davis Clinical Teaching Fellow, joining Professor Jon Bauer in the Asylum and Human Rights Clinic. She is a graduate of Yale Law School with a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley.
Blank previously served as a staff attorney for the New Haven Legal Assistance Association, specializing in family law and immigration law, and as a visiting clinical lecturer in law at the Yale Law School, where she co-founded and co-taught the Legal Assistance Immigrant Rights Clinic.
“I’m grateful for the warm welcome I’ve received at UConn Law and exhilarated to be part of the formidable Asylum and Human Rights Clinic, as well as the Law School’s unique community of interdisciplinary thinkers,” Blank said.
Aaron Dhir, a scholar of corporate law and governance, will begin teaching in Spring 2023 as a tenured professor of law. He is a graduate of the New York University School of Law and Dalhousie Law School in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He previously taught at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in Toronto.
Dhir’s scholarship focuses on corporate law, governance, theory, history, and accountability. He is an internationally recognized expert on the intersections of corporate law and governance with diversity and human rights and is the author of the book “Challenging Boardroom Homogeneity: Corporate Law, Governance, and Diversity” published by Cambridge University Press.
“I am absolutely thrilled to join UConn Law,” Dhir said. “Not only does the law school offer a rich intellectual environment, and a vibrant research culture, but also a supportive pedagogical community that is committed to educating thoughtful, creative, and humane lawyers and leaders who are well-equipped to tackle the most difficult and pressing of issues.”
Anne Goldstein is visiting from New York Law School for the 2022-23 academic year to serve as director of the Legal Practice Program and to teach international LLM students. Goldstein taught Legal Practice at UConn Law between 1996 and 2008. She is a graduate of New York University School of Law, where she most recently has served as director of the First-Year Legal Skills Program.
“It’s not often that one gets a second chance to rejoin a great community,” Goldstein said. “During my visit this year, I’m looking forward to contributing some new perspectives from my work at NYLS, reconnecting with former colleagues and getting to know new colleagues and students. It’s been over 10 years but UConn Law is as welcoming and vibrant as ever, and it seems to me that it’s only the trees that have gotten any older.”
Rachel Reeves is joining the law school as an assistant clinical professor of law and director of field placement and pro bono programs. She is a graduate of the University of Maine School of Law, where she directed the field placement program for seven years.
Reeves also led the Rural Practice Fellowship, a collaborative project within and outside Maine Law that works toward alleviating the widening justice gap in Maine’s rural communities.
“It’s great to be at UConn Law! Everyone has been so welcoming,” Reeves said. “I’m excited for the semester to get underway – I’ve always loved the energy on campus at the start of a new academic year – and I look forward to being part of this community.”
“I am thrilled that these amazing teachers and scholars are joining our dynamic and distinguished faculty at UConn Law,” Dean Eboni S. Nelson said. “Their expertise and commitment to teaching and research excellence will greatly benefit our students and law school community.”
“With this new group of stellar faculty, UConn Law goes from strength to strength in cultivating ground-breaking and innovative legal research and providing a high quality legal education,” said Richard A. Wilson, associate dean of faculty development and intellectual life.
