Three new professors join Charleston School of Law
September 5, 2012
Three experienced legal educators in tenure-track positions
CHARLESTON, SC – September 5, 2012 – Three seasoned legal educators have joined the faculty at the Charleston School of Law as new law professors, Dean Andy Abrams announced today.
“We are excited at the caliber of new faculty we have been able to recruit for the coming academic year and are confident that they will be excellent additions to our already outstanding faculty,” he said. “While these new faculty come to us with diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise, they each share a common trait—a passion for teaching, which is the highest priority for all faculty at the Charleston School of Law.
Associate Professor of Law Richard E. Mendales, who received his law degree in 1981 from Yale University Law School, has broad teaching and research experience in commercial law, international business transactions, corporate law, securities regulation, bankruptcy and corporate finance. Widely published, Mendales joined the Charleston School of Law as a visiting professor in 2010. A former Supreme Court Fellow with experience in major New York law firms, Mendales currently is working on two books — one that focuses on a new look at usury laws and another that examines bankruptcy laws.
Assistant Professor of Law Kimberly D. Phillips teaches criminal law, criminal procedure and constitutional law. Also a former visiting professor at the school, Phillips started her teaching career at Texas Tech University School of Law, where she worked for seven years. With a bachelor’s degree from Texas Tech, Phillips holds a law degree from Washburn University School of Law and a master’s degree in law from Columbia University. Phillips also served as a judge advocate in the U.S. Navy’s Judge Advocate General Corps where she won several commendations.
Associate Professor of Law William G. Merkel, a constitutional and comparative law specialist, taught American history for three years at Oxford University and comparative American law to foreign-trained master’s law students at Columbia Law School before joining Washburn University School of Law in 2005. While at the Kansas school, he was named Professor of the Year. With a doctorate in history from Oxford, a law degree from Columbia and a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, Merkel is co-author of “The Militia and the Right to Arms, Or, How the Second Amendment Fell Silent (Duke University Press, 2002). At the Charleston School of Law, he teaches courses in constitutional, comparative and international law, as well as Legal History.
