School Notes: Yale Law School
March/April 2021

YLS professor joins White House team

Abbe R. Gluck ’96, ’00JD, the Alfred M. Rankin Professor of Law and the founding faculty director of the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, is taking leave to serve as special counsel with the Biden administration’s COVID-19 Response Team in the White House, and will work on other issues, including the Affordable Care Act.

Professor honored with jurisprudence prize

Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law Owen Fiss received the 2020 Henry M. Phillips Prize in Jurisprudence from the American Philosophical Society. Established in 1888, the Phillips Prize is awarded in recognition of outstanding lifetime contributions to the field of jurisprudence and important publications which illustrate that accomplishment. Since its inception, the prize has been bestowed only 26 times. At the Law School, Fiss has taught procedure, legal theory, and constitutional law. 

Book lauded for impact on education law

Yale Law School professor Justin Driver was awarded the Steven S. Goldberg Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Education Law for his book, The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind. The award is given annually by the Education Law Association to a singular author whose scholarly excellence impacts education law. Driver’s book has already been cited by federal judges in two significant students’ rights decisions of recent vintage.   

Law School clinic scores victory for DACA recipients

On December 4, 2020, a federal court ordered the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program completely restored in a case led by Yale Law School’s Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic (WIRAC). The ruling reopens DACA to first-time applicants and restores work authorization and renewals to two years for the first time since 2017. WIRAC is part of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School. It represents immigrants, low-wage workers, and their organizations in labor, immigration, civil rights, and other matters.