School: School of Law

Melissa Bezanson Shultz

Assistant Dean for Legal Writing | Professor of Law

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.

Publications

  • 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).

Presentations

  • “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).

Melissa Bezanson Shultz

Assistant Dean for Legal Writing | Professor of Law

Contact Information

Education

  • J.D., The University of Texas School of Law, Austin, Texas, 2002
  • B.A., Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa, 1998

License to Practice

  • Texas

Specialties and Courses

  • Legal Research and Writing
  • Advanced Legal Writing
  • Professional Responsiblity
  • Texas Family Law
  • From Bar to Practice Readiness

Amanda Stephens

Assistant Professor of Practice of Law

Biography

Amanda Stephens, J.D., joined St. Mary’s University School of Law as a Law Success Instructor in 2022 and is now an Assistant Professor of Practice of Law.

Before joining St. Mary’s, Stephens practiced general civil litigation at Ferguson law (Bloomington, Indiana) and insurance litigation defense at Valdez & Treviño (San Antonio, Texas). Throughout and after law school, she has also engaged in various pro bono activities in mostly of the area of family law and served on local city boards. 

Stephens grew up in Huntington, West Virginia, where she earned her B.A. and M.A. in English from Marshall University. Thereafter, she obtained her J.D. and Ph.D. in Gender Studies from Indiana University-Bloomington. Her qualitative research centers on women volunteers in northern India who navigate India’s patriarchal societies.

In her free time, Stephens enjoys weightlifting; being outdoors; and spending time with her spouse, dog and cat.

Honors and Awards

  • Internal Faculty Research Grant Award, for research project entitled, Brahman Saviors: Confronting Our Investments in Women’s Inequality, St. Mary’s University, 2023
  • Fulbright-Nehru Student Research Grant, Indiana University-Bloomington, India, 2017
  • Critical Language Enhancement Award—Hindi, Indiana University-Bloomington, India, 2016
  • Critical Language Scholarship—Hindi, Indiana University-Bloomington, India, 2015
  • Kenneth and Louise Yahne Fellowship, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, 2014
  • National Association for Women Lawyers Outstanding Law Student Award, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, 2014
  • Terry and Judy Albright Pro Bono Publico and Public Interest Award, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, 2014
  • Robert McConnell Memorial Scholarship, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, 2013
  • A* (Highest Grade in Class) in Feminist Jurisprudence, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, 2013

Publications

Academic Publications

  • Sean Viña and Amanda Stephens, Minorities’ Diminished Psychedelic Returns, 9 Drug Sci., Pol’y & L. 1 (2023).
  • Psychedelics and Workplace Health Promotion, 14 Frontiers in Psychiatry 1(2023).
  • Book Review, 115 Feminist Rev. 193 (2017) (reviewing Rethinking Peacekeeping, Gender Equality, and Collective Security (Gina Heathcote & Dianna Otto eds., 2014)).
  • Amanda Stephens and Sean Viña, On Women Professors Who Teach Legal Writing: Addressing Stigma and Women’s Health, Vermont L. Rev. (forthcoming 2024).

Articles in Periodical

  • Women Volunteers’ Navigation of Patriarchy and Respectability in Rajasthan, Indiana University-Bloomington, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing (2022). (Doctoral Dissertation.)
  • Review of Rethinking Peacekeeping, Gender Equality, and Collective Security, by Gina Heathcote and Dianna Otto, eds, Feminist Review (Mar. 2017).
  • Women with Short Hair, Marshall University, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing (2010). (M. A. Thesis.)

Presentations

  • “Brahman Saviors: Confronting Our Investments in Women’s Inequality,” St. Mary’s University’s Annual Research Symposium and Creative Activities Exhibition, 2023, San Antonio, TX, 2023.
  • “Addressing Stigma in the LRW Classroom,” Annual Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference, 2023, Las Vegas, NV.
  • “Law, Religion, and Gender: Strategic Entanglements for Women’s Empowerment,” Fulbright-Nehru Annual Conference, 2018, Delhi, India.
  • “Women’s Empowerment: Looking through the Prism of Law, Religion, and Gender,” United States-India Educational Foundation Speakers Series, 2018, Chennai, India.
    “Decolonial Methodologies in Jain’s Gulabi Gang,” National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference, 2016, Montréal, Québec.
    “From Feminist Mother to Militant Feminist: Changes in Women’s Rhetoric in India’s Gender Reservation Debate, 1974 to 2014,” National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference, 2015, Milwaukee, WI.

Public Commentaries

  • Commentary, Seek Gender Equity at Space Command, San Antonio Express-News, Dec. 8 2020.
  • Letter to the Editor, Brief Experience (criticizing the lack of legal and judicial experience of then-Supreme Court nominee Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett), San Antonio Express-News, Oct. 25 2020.
  • Letter to the Editor, Denounce Lawmakers’ Comments (criticizing Indiana state legislators’ sexist comments about the 2017 Women’s March in Indianapolis), Herald-Times, Feb. 16, 2017.
  • Guest Column, A Call for Daily Resistance to Rape, Indiana Daily Student, Apr. 26, 2016.

Amanda Stephens

Assistant Professor of Practice of Law

Contact Information

Education

  • Ph.D., Gender Studies, Political Science Minor, Indiana University-Bloomington, 2021
  • J.D., Gender Studies Minor, Indiana University Maurer School of Law
  • M.A., English, Marshall University, 2010
  • B.A., English, Marshall University, 2008

License to Practice

  • Indiana (inactive)
  • U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana (inactive)
  • Texas (active)
  • U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas (active)
  • The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas (active)

Specialties and Courses

  • Legal Communication, Analysis, and Professionalism (LCAP) I & II
  • Negotiations
  • Gender Studies
  • Feminist Legal Theories
  • Social Inequality

David White

Practicing Faculty

Biography

David White, J.D., LL.M., has concurrently held both law and CPA licenses for over 30 years. In addition to being admitted to practice before all Texas courts, White is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Tax Court, and the United States Court of Federal Claims.

White’s law practice helps clients protect, preserve and transfer wealth.  White advises clients on estate planning, asset protection, wealth preservation, probate/estate administration, federal transfer tax planning, trust creation, trust administration, trust taxation, incapacity planning, special needs planning and related topics.

White is a member of the American Bar Association, American Institute of CPAs, Texas Society of CPAs, Texas Bar College, San Antonio Estate Planners Council, San Antonio CPA Society, and the San Antonio Bar Association. He is also accredited by the American Institute of CPAs as a Personal Financial Specialist (PFS) and a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA).

White is a fifth generation Texan and has lived in San Antonio for over 20 years. He has served as a member of the practicing faculty of St. Mary’s University School of Law for over a decade.

Honors and Awards

  • Texas Comptroller’s Business Tax Advisory Committee (Dec 2006 – Aug 2008)
  • Texas Comptroller’s Taxpayer’s Advisory Group (Jan 2007 – Aug 2008)
  • Vice Chair, State and Local Tax Committee, State Bar of Texas (May 2004 – Aug 2008)

Publications

Books

  • Chapter 12: The Bundling of Taxable and Exempt Communications Services, Telecommunications: Taxation of Services, Property and Providers, at 237-58 (CCH 2002 ed.) co-authored with William A. Walsh

Bar Journal Publications

  • State & Local Tax: Recent Developments, Texas Tax Lawyer, Feb. 2005, at 13, 13-19 co-authored with Geoffrey Polma and Daniel Timmons
  • Implementation of the New Assessment Cap, Michigan Bar Journal, Feb. 1995, at 188, 188-90

David White

Practicing Faculty

Contact Information

Education

  • LL.M. in Taxation (with distinction), Certificate in Estate Planning, Georgetown Law School, 2009
  • J.D., (with distinction) Western Michigan University Cooley Law School, 1994
  • B.B.A. (Accounting), McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, 1989

License to Practice

  • Texas
  • Michigan
  • District of Columbia

Specialties and Courses

  • Trusts
  • Estate Planning

Stephanie Stevens

Clinical Professor of Law | Director of the Summer Skills Enhancement Program

Biography

After graduating from St. Mary’s School of Law, Professor Stevens worked for the law offices of Mark Stevens as a criminal defense attorney. She volunteered as a pro bono attorney to represent death row inmates in conjunction with the Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center.

Professor Stevens also taught constitutional law as an adjunct professor for Trinity University. She joined the Criminal Justice Clinic as Supervising Attorney in 1996 after serving in the clinic’s mentor program during the previous year.

Professor Stevens also serves as the director of the Summer Skills Enhancement Program, an intensive program designed to help prospective students develop the skills necessary to succeed in law school.

Honors and Awards

  • Texas Best Lawyers, 2019
  • San Antonio Scene Top DUI/DWI Lawyer, 2019
  • San Antonio’s Top 30 Criminal Defense Lawyers, 2015
  • Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, 2012
  • Texas Top Rated Lawyer, 2012
  • Distinguished Faculty Award, 2009-2010
  • Best Lawyers in America, 2005 to present
  • Best Lawyers in San Antonio, 2004 to present
  • Kimberly E. Young Defender of the Year Award 2006
  • Kimberly E. Young Defender of the Year Award 2004
  • Martindale-Hubbell AV rating, ongoing

Publications

Sampson, Tindall, and England’s Texas Family Code Annotated, Title Three Updates from 2005 to Present.

Stephanie Stevens

Clinical Professor of Law | Director of the Summer Skills Enhancement Program

Contact Information

Education

  • J.D., St. Mary’s University, 1991
  • B.A., St. Mary’s University, 1987

License to Practice

  • Texas
  • U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas
  • U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
  • U.S. Supreme Court

Specialties and Courses

  • Criminal Law, Board Certified since 1998
  • Juvenile Law
  • Texas Criminal Procedure

Robert L. Summers Jr.

Professor Emeritus of Law and Englehardt Research Fellow

Biography

Professor Summers served as the director of the law library for 22 years during which he oversaw the planning and construction of the award-winning Sarita Kenedy East Law Library and the significant expansion and modernization of its staff, services, automation and collection.

During this time, Professor Summers retired from military service as a Navy Captain (06) (Intelligence Corps) having completed 22 years of active and reserve service. His service included multiple tours in Vietnam and also a tour as the commanding officer of a Naval Investigative Service unit specializing in criminal investigations, counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence. This experience plus his advanced studies in national/homeland security as well as international relations and international ethics during armed conflict inform the broad array of specialized and inter-disciplinary courses which he teaches for the J.D., M.Jur. and LL.M programs.

Professor Summers was the director and later co-director of the law school’s LL.M. program for nearly twenty years, and he has also taught as an adjunct professor in the St. Mary’s International Relations master’s degree program as well as the Cyber Security master’s degree program for the School of Science, Engineering and Technology.

Highlights

  • As the former Law Library Director for 22 years, he oversaw the construction of the award-winning Sarita Kenedy East Law Library and the expansion of its staff, services, automation and collection.
  • Co-founder – St. Mary’s Center for Terrorism Law
  • Adjunct Faculty – University of Texas at Austin Graduate School
  • Adjunct Faculty – St. Mary’s University Graduate School (International Relations)
  • Adjunct Faculty – St. Mary’s University School of Science, Engineering and Technology (Cybersecurity Law)
  • Adjunct Faculty – University of Texas at San Antonio Graduate School (Cyber Law)
  • Captain (06), U.S. Naval Reserve, Intelligence Corps (Retired), Vietnam Veteran and Intelligence Specialist with command experience in the Naval Investigative Service: criminal investigations, counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence

Robert L. Summers Jr.

Professor Emeritus of Law and Englehardt Research Fellow

Contact Information

Education

  • Master of Defense & Strategic Studies (M.D.S.& S.), University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP) (cand.)
  • Certificate of Homeland Security, Bush Graduate School Texas A&M University, 2018
  • Certificate of Advanced International Affairs, Bush Graduate School Texas A&M University, 2011
  • M.A. International Relations, St. Mary’s University, 2007
  • M.S.L.S., University of North Carolina, 1976
  • J.D., College of William and Mary, 1974
  • B.A., Williams College, 1967

Specialties and Courses

  • Public International Law
  • Admiralty and Maritime Law
  • International Criminal Law
  • International Environmental Law
  • Homeland Security Law and Policy
  • International White Collar Crime
  • International Human Rights Law
  • International Law of the Sea
  • Law of Armed Conflict & Just War
  • International Law of Cyber Warfare
  • National Security-Intelligence Law & Policy

Sigrid Vendrell-Polanco

Assistant Professor of Law and Englehardt Research Fellow

Biography

Sigrid Vendrell-Polanco, J.D., is an Assistant Professor of Law and an Englehardt Research Fellow at the St. Mary’s University School of Law who specializes in Territorial Law, Criminal Law and Negotiations. She joined St. Mary’s Law in August 2017 as a Law Success Instructor.

Her legal scholarship focuses on territorial law, examining legal issues regarding the political status of Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories. In her scholarship, she examines the constitutional history of American territorial expansion and the ramifications of the application of the U.S. Constitution in the territories, including citizenship and nationhood.

Her work has been published in the Brooklyn Law Review, City University of New York Law Review, Stetson Law Review and her forthcoming research will be published in the University of Denver Law Review. She also has a forthcoming book to be published this year with Carolina Academic Publishing titled “The Law of the US Territories.”

Before transitioning to doctrinal faculty, Vendrell-Polanco taught courses as law faculty within the Law Success Program for over 6 years. She taught Legal Methods, Legal Communications, Analysis and Professionalism and Bar Preparation for Credit. Vendrell-Polanco also directed the supplemental bar preparation program (Raise the Bar) from 2018 to 2023, assisting graduates to prepare for the Texas Bar Exam.

Vendrell-Polanco graduated with honors from Texas A&M University with an undergraduate degree in International Studies and earned her law degree from California Western School of Law in 2014 with an Academic Excellence Award. Vendrell-Polanco has had a variety of professional experiences, including criminal defense in Southern California and representing low-income employees with numerous employment claims such as wage and hour violations, discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination claims.

During law school, Vendrell-Polanco worked at the California Western School of Law Library and worked with organizations such as California Innocence Project, Public Interest Law Foundation, Community Law Project Clinic, and clerked for the United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of California Criminal Enterprise Section.

Honors and Awards

  • Pro Bono/Public Service Honors Society, California Western School of Law, 2015
  • Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity

Publications

Articles

  • No Remedy for Colonization, 28 CUNY L. Rev. 1 (2025)
  • Checks, Balances, and Territories: The Founders’ Vision and the Reality of U.S. Territorial Governance, 54 Stetson L. Rev. 2 (2025)
  • The Law of the United States Territories, Carolina Academic Publishing, co-authored with Neil Weare Weare, Anthony Ciolli and Adriel Cepeda (forthcoming, 2025)
  • Puerto Rican Presidential Voting Rights: Why Precedent Should be Overturned, and Other Options for Suffrage, 89 Brook. L. Rev. (2024)

Presentations

  • “Courtroom Colonialism,” University of Denver Law Review Symposium on Modern Interpretations of the Fourteenth Amendment, April 2025
  • “Courtroom Colonialism: Navigating Federal Criminal Prosecution and Local Autonomy in U.S. Territories” (Nominated New Scholar Panelist), Southeastern Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, July 2024
  • “No Remedy for Colonization in Puerto Rico” (Accepted Speaker), Southeastern Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, July 2024
  • “Territorial Law Across the Curriculum” (Invited Speaker) Stetson Law Review Symposium, Stetson University College of Law, Gulf Port, Florida, March 2024
  • “Exploring Latinas in Academia,” (Invited Panelist) 2nd Annual Lawtina Network Summit, St. Mary’s University School of Law, San Antonio, Texas, October 2023
  • “Puerto Rican Presidential Voting Rights,” 8th Annual ACS Constitutional Law Scholars Forum, University of Oklahoma College of Law, Norman, Oklahoma, February 2023
  • “Building Communities for the Bar Exam,” Tenth Annual Association of Academic Support Educators Conference, May 2022

Sigrid Vendrell-Polanco

Assistant Professor of Law and Englehardt Research Fellow

Contact Information

Education

  • J.D., California Western School of Law, 2014
  • B.A. with honors, Texas A&M University, 2011

License to Practice

  • California
  • Texas

Specialties and Courses

  • Criminal Law
  • Criminal Procedure
  • Employment Law
  • Forensic Investigations
  • Negotiations
  • Legal Research and Writing
  • Bar Exam Preparation

Jennifer Stevenson

Assistant Dean for International Programs | Professor of Practice of Law

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.

Selected Publications and Lectures

  • 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

Jennifer Stevenson

Assistant Dean for International Programs | Professor of Practice of Law

Contact Information

Education

  • J.D., University of Washington, high honors, 2002
  • B.A., University of Washington, magna cum laude, 1995

License to Practice

  • Washington (inactive)

Specialties and Courses

  • Introduction to U.S. Law
  • Lawyering Skills and Advanced Lawyering Skills
  • Legal Writing and Research
  • Negotiations

Wendi Wilson

Assistant Professor of Practice of Law

Biography

Before joining St. Mary’s, Professor Wilson enjoyed a successful and rewarding career as an Assistant District Attorney for the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office. Serving over nineteen years as an ADA, she represented the State of Texas at all levels of proceedings in cases from arrest through sentencing, including jury trials, bond hearings, grand jury proceedings, pretrial motions, and sentencing hearings, involving all degrees of felony charges, such as drug possession, sexual assault, aggravated robbery, and capital murder. As a First Chair Felony Prosecutor, she also had the opportunity to train and mentor junior prosecutors, an aspect of the job she found especially enjoyable.

Originally from Greenwood, Mississippi, Professor Wilson came to Texas after law school as a direct-commissioned officer into the U.S. Army JAG Corps. As a JAG officer stationed at Fort Sam Houston, she served as a legal assistance attorney, Trial Counsel (Army prosecutor), and a legal instructor at the Army Medical Department Center and School. It was during this time that she became acquainted with San Antonio and decided to make it her permanent home. After serving four years, she left the Army to join the District Attorney’s Office in San Antonio.

For the past two years, Professor Wilson has been pursuing a Master of Arts in English through the University of Texas at Tyler. Her current research involves an analysis of the criticism of the English laws of primogeniture and coverture in the fiction of Charlotte Bronte. She is looking forward to completing her studies and receiving her master’s degree in December of 2022.

In her spare time, Professor Wilson enjoys Pilates, reading, attending her son’s football and basketball games and her daughter’s dance performances, and hanging out with her three spoiled dogs.

Wendi Wilson

Assistant Professor of Practice of Law

Contact Information

Education

  • M.A., English, University of Texas at Tyler, degree expected Dec. 2022
  • J.D., Vanderbilt University School of Law, 1993
  • B.A., cum laude, English and Political Science, Tulane University, 1990

License to Practice

  • Texas
  • Mississippi

Specialties and Courses

  • Legal Writing
  • Research
  • Criminal law
  • Law in Literature
  • English Composition

John W. Teeter Jr.

Professor of Law

Biography

Teeter practiced commercial litigation in Honolulu and labor and employment law in Boston. His teaching experience includes working for Oklahoma City University School of Law in 1988 and St. Mary’s University since 1991. Teeter has published numerous articles on labor law and a series of essays on how Buddhist insights can enhance the study, practice and teaching of law.

Teeter has taught many different subjects at St. Mary’s and has lectured at the summer programs in Austria and China. He takes pride in being accessible to his students and in making a meaningful difference in their lives through his classes. Teeter has received a number of awards for pedagogical excellence.

Honors and Awards

  • Most Influential Professor at St. Mary’s in Texas Lawyer’s Survey of Law Schools (August 18, 2008 edition)
  • Phi Delta Phi Most Outstanding 1L Professor, 2003
  • Student Bar Association Professor of the Year, 2001
  • Student Bar Association Professor of the Year, 2000
  • Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1999
  • Phi Delta Phi Outstanding Faculty Member, 1993
  • Phi Beta Kappa, 1982
  • Recipient, St. Mary’s University Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Award

Publications

Articles in a Periodical

Shorter Works in Collections

  • Book Review, Sam Roberts, The Brother: The Untold Story of Atomic Spy David Greenglass (2001), 13 Bimonthly Review of Law Books 6 (Sept.-Oct. 2002).
  • Book Review, Lawrence Schiller, Into the Mirror: The Life of Master Spy Robert P. Hanssen (2002), 13 Bimonthly Review of Law Books 7 (Sept.-Oct. 2002).
  • Book Review, Tammy Bruce, The New Thought Police: Inside the Left’s Assault on Free Speech and Free Minds (2001), 13 Bimonthly Review of Law Books 15 (July-Aug. 2002).
  • Book Review, Thomas H. Koenig and Michael L. Rustad, In Defense of Tort Law (2001), 13 Bimonthly Review of Law Books 24 (March-April 2002).
  • Book Review, John Grisham, The Brethren (2000), 11 Bimonthly Review of Law Books 14 (May-June 2000).
  • Book Review, Alan M. Dershowitz, Just Revenge (1999), 11 Bimonthly Review of Law Books 9 (Jan.-Feb. 2000).
  • Book Review, Derrick Bell, Afrolantica Legacies (1998), 10 Bimonthly Review of Law Books 2 (Jan.-Feb. 1999).
  • Book Review, Dominick Dunne, Another City, Not My Own (1997), 9 Bimonthly Review of Law Books 13 ( March-April 1998).
  • Book Review, Vincent R. Johnson and Alan Gunn, Studies in American Tort Law (1994), 6 Bimonthly Review of Law Books 12 (July-Aug. 1995).
  • Book Review, Richard A. Epstein, Cases and Materials on Torts (6th ed. 1995), 6 Bimonthly Review of Law Books 13 (July-Aug. 1995).
  • Book Review,  Richard A. Epstein, Cases and Materials on Torts (5th ed.1990), 1 Bimonthly Review of Law Books 1 (Sept.-Oct. 1990).

John W. Teeter Jr.

Professor of Law

Contact Information

Education

  • J.D., magna cum laude, Harvard University, 1985
  • B.A., University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, 1982

License to Practice

  • Massachusetts
  • Hawaii

Specialties and Courses

  • Administrative Law
  • Criminal Law
  • Labor Law
  • Torts

Robin Thorner

Assistant Dean for Career Strategy

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.

Robin Thorner

Assistant Dean for Career Strategy

Contact Information

Education

  • J.D., New York University School of Law, 1999
  • B.A., magna cum laude, Yale University, 1995

License to Practice

  • Texas

Awards

  • President’s Award for Excellence, St. Mary’s University, 2022

Specialties and Courses

  • Professional Identity Formation
  • Mental Health and the Law
  • Client Interviewing
  • Special Education Law
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