Jefferson Teaching Award Goes to WM Law Professor

By Amber Lester Kennedy Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Laura Heymann will receive the Jefferson Award on Feb. 3.

Heymann is the first law professor to receive the award, which was established in 1970 to annually recognize a faculty member with fewer than 10 years of service whose “personal character, concern as a teacher and influence has demonstrated the stimulation and inspiration of learning for the betterment of the individual and society as exemplified by the life of Thomas Jefferson.”

Heymann joined the faculty in 2005. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law and Yale University. She was selected by the 2008 graduating class as the recipient of the Walter L. Williams, Jr., Memorial Teaching Award. In 2011, the College of William and Mary conferred tenure on her and promoted her to Professor of Law.

She teaches torts to first-year students and intellectual property courses to upper-level students. She incorporates technology into the classroom, showing students photographs of the parties in a negligence case or a video of a defective car exploding. In Copyright Law, students hear clips of songs central to infringement cases, then look at sheet music and then decide which presentation would be more compelling to a jury.

“In every class, my goal is to make the cases come alive for my students,” Heymann told W&M News. “I want them to see that the cases we’re studying together are not mere academic exercises but involve real clients with real problems. And it’s not a one-way street: students will often alert me to great material for future classes.”

Alumnus Emily Powell, class of 2009, took Heymann’s fall 2006 Torts class. “Professor Heymann is sincerely committed to enhancing the experience of every student,” she said. “She demonstrates this not only through well-prepared lectures, but also by encouraging students to understand the policies that underlie the law, to connect legal concepts to students’ every day experiences, and to explore and engage in other aspects of law school and the legal field.”

Heymann’s scholarship is already having a significant impact in the academic community, according to Paul Marcus, Haynes Professor of Law. “As a scholar, her achievements are so impressive it is hard to imagine she has been with us for such a relatively short period,” he said.

Heymann hopes that her research provides a useful contribution to the ongoing debates in intellectual property law.

“I’m very happy when other scholars and practitioners respond to my work. It’s wonderful to be part of the discussion about the future of intellectual property law and to engage with – and learn from – the leading academics in the field,” she said. “But there is something special about overhearing students debating a legal issue or having a student send me a news article that reminded him or her of something we discussed in class. One of my favorite things is when students suddenly realize that they have the tools to analyze some tort, copyright, or trademark issue they’ve read about in the news. That’s a real ‘light bulb’ moment, and when it happens, I feel as if I’ve done my job.”