Virginia law professors, judge elected to American Law Institute

Three Virginia law school professors and a Virginia federal judge have become members of the American Law Institute.

The ALI announced that Aditya Bamzai of the University of Virginia School of Law, James Y. Stern and Lynda L. Butler of the College of William & Mary Marshall-Wythe School of Law and United States District Judge M. Hannah Lauck have been elected to the institute as part of the 60-person class of new members.

Bamzai joined the University of Virginia School of Law faculty in 2016, where he teaches administrative law, civil procedure, computer crime and conflicts of law. He has argued before numerous federal courts of appeal, including the U.S. Supreme Court in Ortiz v. U.S. in 2018. Prior to joining the UVa. faculty, he served as an attorney-adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense and worked in private practice. According to UVa., Bamzai is the 32nd member of the UVa. law school faculty currently affiliated with the ALI.

Stern joined the College of William & Mary faculty in 2013, where he has taught intellectual property, property and torts. He has been published in legal journals including the Harvard Law Review and the Michigan Law Review and has been cited by numerous courts. Stern previously served as deputy general counsel at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. As an attorney, he participated in litigation involving intellectual property in various capacities.

Butler is currently the Chancellor Professor of Law, Emerita, and Director of the William & Mary Property Rights Project at the College of William & Mary Marshall-Wythe School of Law. She previously practiced law in Washington, D.C. and was a visiting professor at Ohio State University. Butler served as interim dean for the William & Mary Law School from 2008 through 2009.

Lauck has served as a judge in the Richmond Division of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia since 2014, the first woman to hold that position. Prior to becoming a district judge, Lauck served as a U.S. magistrate judge in the Eastern District for nearly a decade and taught at the University of Richmond School of Law. In 2019, the Virginia State Bar Criminal Law Section awarded Lauck the Harry L. Carrico Professionalism Award.

Founded in 1923, the ALI’s website describes the institute as “the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and otherwise improve the law.”

According to the ALI website, the institute “elects individuals who reflect the excellence and diversity of today’s legal profession.” Potential new members, who can be judges, lawyers or law professors, are nominated confidentially by a current ALI member.