Biography

Professor Niesel joined St. Mary’s University School of Law in May 2016. Professor Niesel’s legal scholarship focuses on civil procedure, federal court jurisdiction, and conflict of laws. In her scholarship, she examines difficult issues of civil and administrative procedure and how procedural concepts are challenged by advanced technology. Her work has been published in the Indiana Law Journal, Cardozo Law Review, SMU Law Review, and George Mason Law Review, among others.

Professor Niesel also serves as the law school’s Director of Assessment and Statistics. In this role, she uses data and research-based best practices to design programming and assessments for use throughout the law school curriculum and in bar preparation.

Professor Niesel began her teaching career as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at Wake Forest University, where she taught classes in Civil Procedure, Complex Commercial Litigation and Transnational Litigation. In addition to her experience in academia, she previously clerked for the Hon. Thomas D. Schroder, U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of North Carolina, and spent time in private practice as an associate attorney in the area of complex commercial litigation.

Professor Niesel received her Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from Southern Methodist University, and her law degree, summa cum laude, from Wake Forest University School of Law. She and her husband Tom reside in San Antonio.

Books

• Legal Research Guide: Patterns and Practice (Carolina Academic Press, 8th ed. 2019) (with Linda Schlueter).

Articles

• Machine Intelligence and the New Civil Procedure, 73 SMU Law Review (2020).
• Putting Poverty Law into Context: Using the First Year Experience to Educate New Lawyers for Social Change, 76 NYU Annual Survey of American Law (2020).
• Terrible Touhy: Navigating Judicial Review of an Agency’s Response to Third-Party Subpoenas, 41 Cardozo Law Review (April 2020).
• #PersonalJurisdiction: A New Age of Internet Contacts, 94 Ind. L.J. 103, 116-38 (2019).
• The Knottiest Problem: Unraveling Arising Under Jurisdiction in Copyright Cases, 23 George Mason Law Review (forthcoming March 2016) (with Bethany Corbin).
• Daimler and the Jurisdictional Triskelion, 82 Tennessee Law Review.
• Collateral Damage: Protecting Cultural Heritage in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, Wake Forest Law Review Online (2014).
• King Tut and Tahrir Square: The Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and the Advantage of Viewing Cultural Heritage Destruction through a Right to Culture Lens, 20 Southwestern Journal of International Law 283 (2014).
• Comment, Better Late Than Never? The Effect of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act’s 2010 Regulations, 46 Wake Forest Law Review 837 (2011).

Biography

Sevier has over 20 years of experience in higher education administration holding the positions of Assistant Registrar at Trinity University, Associate Registrar at the College of Charleston and currently serves as Assistant Dean of Graduate Law Programs for the School of Law. Sevier oversees all aspects of the graduate law admissions process and advising working with faculty and administrators to ensure successful admissions, registration, advising and graduation processes to support the recruitment and enrollment of a diverse and qualified student body of both domestic and international students.

As adjunct professor, Sevier teaches incoming Master of Jurisprudence students for one of their introductory courses, Fundamentals of American Legal System. She taught for the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) for 5 years in the fields of Business Law and Professional Ethics while overseas and is certified to teach online through the Quality Matters program as well as UMUC’s proprietary Webtycho program.

Before joining St. Mary’s Law Sevier was the Lead Trainer for Curriculum and Instruction for a child development center located on United States Army Garrison (USAG) Grafenwoehr and led the team to NAEYC accreditation. Her center was the first Army child development center to achieve NAYEC accreditation in the European Command. After that she became the program manager and lead trainer for a multiple site transition network (Soldier for Life) in Western Germany based at

USAG Vilsek. She was in charge of counselor training and curriculum implementation and delivery. She also supervised outreach, marketing, counseling and case management of 150+ new soldiers monthly, with a running population of 1500+.

Sevier has been an active volunteer for many years, helping non-profits overseas navigate garrison regulations, host nation laws and Status-of-Forces agreements. She received the Volunteer of the Year Award in 2012 from the Garrison Commander of USAG Grafenwoehr for her contributions. Concurrently Sevier also served as European PTA President for two terms and on the National Board of Directors for an additional 6 years. The final three years as the Vice President for

Advocacy for the National PTA, where she led advocacy efforts to include congressional testimony, federal rulemaking and legislative comments during mark-ups for National PTA positions on the topics of net neutrality, education policy, education funding, federal nutrition guidelines, student data privacy, special needs early intervention and services, and juvenile justice reform.

Biography

Shultz is a Professor of Law and the Assistant Dean of Legal Writing at St. Mary’s University School of Law. In her current role (as well as her previous roles at Mitchell Hamline School of Law and UNT Dallas College of Law), Shultz’s teaching focuses primarily on legal writing, but she also teaches Texas family law and professional responsibility. Shultz’s scholarship focuses on legal writing, legal education, law school curricular reform, and the NextGen bar exam. She is dedicated to the incorporation of skills teaching and assessment into all law school classes to better prepare law students for the practice of law.

Shultz graduated from Grinnell College with a B.A. in English and a concentration in global development and The University of Texas School of Law. After graduating from law school, Shultz joined the firm of King & Spalding LLP in Washington, D.C., where her practice focused on commercial litigation and criminal and civil antitrust law. After moving back to Texas, Shultz started her own freelance law firm (ReLegal Group) and then went to work in the legal ethics department of Gardere Wynne and Sewell LLP. Shultz is licensed in Texas and Washington, D.C.

• Practice Perfect: Professional Responsibility (Aspen Pub., 2024) (co-authored with Andy Perlman and Nancy Rapoport)
• Legal Writing Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Approach (Carolina Press, 2024) (co-authored with Christine Tamer).
• Professor, Please Help me Pass the Bar Exam: #NextGenBar2026, 71 J. Leg. Ed. 141 (Spring 2023).
• Change is Inevitable. Exhaustion is Optional: Get Your Students NextGen Ready with an Upcycled MPT, 36 Second Draft (May 2023) (co-authored) (co-authored with Maggie Eilertson).
• Writing by Numbers: Legal Writing Made Easy (Texas Edition) (Carolina Press, Jan. 2020) (co-authored with Christine Tamer).
• The Adaptable Law Professor: Ten Tips for Keeping the Magic of an Oral Argument Competition Alive on Zoom, Syllabus (Am. Bar. Assoc., Winter 2021) (co-authored with Christine Tamer).
• The Basics of Protective Orders in Dallas and its Contiguous Counties, Accessible Law by UNT Dallas L. Rev. (2020).
• Mastering Legal Analysis: Achieving the Best by Understanding the Bad, UNT Dallas Center for Writing Excellence (2018).
• How to Locate a Writ or Petition History and Create a Greenbook Citation for Civil Appellate Cases in Texas, UNT Dallas Center for Writing Excellence (2017).

• “Golden Ticket”: Using PR to Teach and Assess UBE and NextGen Skills, AASE Annual Conference (forthcoming Boise, May 2024).
• Pedagogy Pivots: Leading Legal Education’s Transition to the NextGen Bar Exam, AALS Annual Meeting (San Diego, Jan. 2023).
• A Grimm Future? Pick a Nextgen Curricular Change that Fits Your School—the Wee-little Change, the Medium-sized Change, or the Great-big Change, Legal Writing Institute Workshop (Charleston, Dec. 2022).
• Rediscovering Your Inner Writing Guru: Top Legal Writing Conventions to Remember and Top Legal Writing Conventions to Forget, CLE for Dakota County (Nov. 2022).
• NextGen Bar Exam, Southeastern Association of Law Schools (Summer 2022) (invited).
• NextGen Fullsend, AALS Clinical Conference (May 2022) (invited).
• The End Game: Teaching Legal Writing by Engaging Students in Social Media, Networking, and Reputation Building Exercises, ALWD Biennial Conference (June 2021).
• From IRAC to CRuPAC: Does Structure Matter in Legal Analysis?, a Continuing Legal Education Course offered via videoconference and on-demand to MHSL alumni (May. 2021).
• Keeping the Magic of an Oral Argument Competition Alive on Zoom (Pandemic be Damned), NOVA Law Rev. Legal Writing Symposium (Feb. 2021).
• From IRAC to CRuPAC: Does Structure Matter in Legal Analysis? a Continuing Legal Education course prepared for the Court of Appeals Quill & Bagel Society (Feb. 2021).
• The Adaptable Law Professor: Ten Tips for Keeping the Magic of an Oral Argument Competition Alive on Zoom, Legal Writing Institute One-Day Conference at California Western (Dec. 2020).
• Back to the Basics: Top Tips to Improve Your Legal Writing, a Continuing Legal Education course offered via video conference and on-demand to MHSL alumni (Oct. 2020).
• Using Multiple Assessments to Improve Learning Outcomes for the Modern Law Student, Institute for Law Teaching and Learning Conference (June 2019).
• Legal Writing for New Associates, Haynes & Boone, LLP (Oct. 2018).
• Legal Writing Made Easy (June 2018) Continuing Legal Education course offered to attorneys and alumni, UNT Dallas College of Law.
• Legal Writing Made Easy (Aug. 2018), a Continuing Legal Education course offered via video conference to eighteen offices of Legal Aid of North Texas.
• Legal Writing in an Electronic World (Jan. 2017) at the TIPPS section of the Dallas Bar luncheon.
• Teaching Legal Writing in a Multilingual World, Legal Writing Institute’s Rocky Mountain Conference (Mar. 2016).
• The Art and Ethics of Lawyering in a Bilingual World (Jan. 2016, Dallas Bar Association).
• Keep It Simple: Giving Feedback in Large Classes, Southeastern Association of Law Schools Conference (July 2019).
• Relativity of Miracles, Texas State Bar Meeting (July 2017).

Biography

After graduating from the University of Washington School of Law, Jennifer Stevenson, J.D., practiced at Perkins Coie LLP, a full-service, international law firm in Seattle, Washington, for nine years. Her practice focused on real estate transactions and estate planning.

She also served as a volunteer attorney for the Northwest Immigrants’ Rights Project, Volunteer Advocates for Immigrant Justice and the Holocaust Survivors Pension Project.

Stevenson then joined William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia. She taught Introduction to U.S. Law, Legal Writing and Research, Lawyering Skills and Advanced Lawyering Skills courses. She held various positions from 2011 to 2022, including Associate Dean, Graduate Programs, Director of the LL.M. program in the American Legal System, and Professor of Practice. She has taught and mentored hundreds of international students and scholars in the U.S. and abroad.

She is currently working on a three-year grant “Advancing Legal Reasoning and Writing in Moldova,” funded by the U.S. Department of State/INL

Stevenson is a frequent international traveler. She recently visited Armenia, Bulgaria, and Colombia.

• Li, Q., Hou, J., Stevenson, J.S. and Liu, C., “An integrated approach can improve China’s food additives security,” Trends in Food Science & Technology, Volume 157, March 2025. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2025.104904
• Li, Q., Liu, C. and Stevenson, J.S., “Laws and green incentives: guiding China’s new biomass energy future,” Trends in Biotechnology (published online November 7, 2024). Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2024.10.009
• Li, Q., Zhou, J. and Stevenson, J.S., “Assessing Legal Protection of Biometric Data in China: Gaps, Principles, and Policy Recommendations,” J. OF LEGAL MED., 42(3–4), pp. 123–141 (published online February 2024). Available at https://doi.org/10.1080/01947648.2024.2307624
• “Negotiating Across the Border: U.S. – Mexican Law School Collaboration,” Global Legal Skills Conference, Bari, Italy, June 5, 2024
• “Negotiations — A Developing Alternative Legal Regime,” Kristu Jayanti College of Law, Bengaluru, India (remote), Jan. 6, 2024
• “Professional Identity Formation and International Legal Education,” International Legal Personnel Training Conference (remote), Ningbo University School of Law, Ningbo, China, June 28, 2023

Biography

Thorner brings to the Office of Career Strategy 15 years of public interest experience, much of that in leadership positions. Prior to joining St. Mary’s Law, Thorner was a supervising attorney at Disability Rights Texas (formerly Advocacy Inc.), for which she represented individuals with mental health needs and intellectual and developmental disabilities. Previously, she was first a staff attorney and, later, a managing attorney at University Legal Services, the protection and advocacy program for individuals with disabilities in Washington, D.C. While there, she supervised and coordinated the office’s mental health advocacy, which included individual and systemic litigation.

After graduating from New York University School of Law, Thorner clerked for the Hon. Deborah Hankinson on the Texas Supreme Court and was an Equal Justice Works Fellow at South Brooklyn Legal Services, where she represented children with special needs with an emphasis on special education, disability discrimination and SSI advocacy.

In addition to overseeing the Office of Career Strategy, Thorner serves as the law school’s Director of Professional Identity Formation.

Biography

A Marianist Sister, Walle provides personal and spiritual counseling, and offers assistance to law students and their families whenever the need arises.

She offers a number of programs designed to assist men and women in their transition through law school. She also sponsors Law Partners, a support network for the spouses of law students.

Walle was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1951. In 1972, she entered the Marianist Sisters in San Antonio in 1972.

While her background was in education, she became involved in directing retreats at the Marianist Sisters Retreat House, which was later bought by St. Mary’s University to house The St. Mary’s Center for Legal and Social Justice. She ministered for two years at St. John Neumann parish in San Antonio. She began working in University Ministry at St. Mary’s University in 1982. Her responsibilities included retreat ministry and leadership development.

As campus minister for the School of Law, Walle has developed a nationally recognized program. She has been described as having her own “world wide web” based on the years of working with law students and the legal community. One student described her as “searching through her Rolodex to provide just the right connection for a career connection or linking law students to community service projects.”

• Marianist Heritage Award 2014
• Alice Franzke Feminist Award 2013
• Hispanic Law Alumni Award 2012
• CCMA Dean Cantu/President Cotrell National Outstanding University Administrator Award
• Yellow Rose of Texas Educating for a Lifetime Award 2010
• San Antonio Bar Foundation Peacemaker’s Award 2011
• CCMA National Educating for Justice Award 2006
• San Antonio Young Lawyers Liberty Bell Award 2005-2006
• Mexican American Bar Association Award 2003
• St Mary’s Law School St. Thomas More Award 2002
• St Mary’s University Santa Maria Justice Award presented by Center for Legal and Social Justice 2001
• Catholic Campus Ministry Association National Campus Minister Award (CCMA) 2000
• Campus Ministry

• Catholic services each day, including Sundays, in a chapel on campus
• Sacramental preparation
• Opportunities to gather as a community for prayer, retreats and Mass
• Programs to provide service to needy in San Antonio

Biography

Alcoser has been contributing to higher education in a development role for more than eight years. Prior to joining the St. Mary’s University School of Law, he served as a development officer at both The University of Texas at San Antonio and Texas A&M University-San Antonio.

From 2009 to 2015, he was instrumental in securing resources to attract the number of students necessary to allow the newly formed Texas A&M University-San Antonio to reach “stand-alone” status. In his most recent post, he played an integral role in supporting various functions of the UTSA College of Business to include the nationally ranked Cyber Defense program.

In addition to higher education development, Alcoser has been an active member of the greater San Antonio community serving as past treasurer to the City Council-appointed San Antonio Housing Trust, past treasurer for NowCast SA, and past president of the Harlandale ISD Board of Trustees.

He is an active member of the Rey Feo Consejo Education Foundation, member of the San Antonio ISD Gifted and Talented advisory committee and current vice president of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s Central Texas Alumni Chapter.