The UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law will welcome three full-time faculty members in the fall 2018 semester.
Deborah Borman
Professor Borman will be joining the legal writing faculty. She is currently a Visiting Professor at Seattle University School of Law in their highly ranked Legal Writing Program. Prior to Seattle, Professor Borman was a member of the Communication and Legal Reasoning faculty at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, visited in the Lawyering Process Program at University of Denver-Sturm College of Law, and taught both in the John Marshall Law School Lawyering Skills program, and DePaul University College of Law’s Legal Analysis Research and Communication program.
Professor Borman served as an officer in the AALS Section on Teaching Methods for four years, culminating as Chair in 2017-18. She currently serves as Chair of the ALWD Teaching Workshops Committee, and is a member of the Legal Writing Institute’s Monograph Editorial Board. For several years she served as an assistant editor of the LWI Journal.
Borman’s scholarship focuses on teaching methods, in particular incorporating professional identity in the law school curriculum. She has an article forthcoming in the Seattle Law Review, is the author or several articles in The Law Teacher, a publication of the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning. Her forthcoming book, A Short & Happy Guide to Legal Writing, will be published by West Academic Press.
andré douglas pond cummings
Professor cummings will be teaching Business Organizations, Contracts I and II, and related courses. He is currently a Visiting Professor of Law at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois, where he teaches Contracts I and II, Hip Hop & the American Constitution, and Sports Law. Prior to that, Professor cummings served as Interim Dean, Vice Dean and founding Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Indiana Tech Law School. Additionally, he was Professor of Law at the West Virginia University College of Law.
cummings has been recognized as Professor of the Year on numerous occasions including the University-wide Distinguished Professor Award by the West Virginia University Foundation. cummings has taught as a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Iowa College of Law, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, Syracuse University College of Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law (Tokyo Campus) and has taught as a Visiting Lecturer at the North Carolina Central University School of Law, Fundação Getulio Vargas, Direito Rio in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Universidade de Vila Velha in Vila Velha, Brazil, and Universidad de Guanajuato in Guanajuato, Mexico.
cummings has written extensively on investor protection, racial and social justice, and sports and entertainment law, publishing in the Washington University Law Review, Indiana Law Journal, Utah Law Review, Howard Law Journal, Marquette Sports Law Review, Iowa Journal of Gender, Race and Justice, Thurgood Marshall Law Review and Harvard Journal on Racial and Ethnic Justice, amongst many others. cummings has published three books including Corporate Justice (with Todd Clark) in 2016, Hip Hop and the Law (with Pamela Bridgewater and Donald Tibbs) in 2015, and Reversing Field: Examining Commercialization, Labor, Gender, and Race in 21st Century Sports Law (with Anne Marie Lofaso) in 2010.
Robert Minarcin
Professor Minarcin will be leading the Lawyering Skills program. For the past three years, he has run an in-house indigent Criminal Defense Clinic at Florida A&M University College of Law, which represents court-appointed clients charged with misdemeanor criminal offenses in County Court, allowing students to represent the clients from initial interview to final trial. Before this, he taught Legal Research and Writing for five years at Florida A&M University College of Law, earning the title of “Bluebook Geek.” While at Florida A&M University College of Law, Professor Minarcin also directed and coached their trial teams.
Prior to beginning his teaching career, he served as an Assistant General Counsel for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation in the Division of Real Estate. He also has practiced criminal law for over twelve years, in criminal defense firms in Central Florida, and the Public Defender’s Offices in Orlando, Florida and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has tried over seventy-five jury trials, including misdemeanor charges, armed robberies, drug trafficking cases, and child sex cases.
Minarcin is a firm believer in imparting both the doctrinal elements and particularly the practical elements for each course he teaches so that students are prepared to enter the legal profession with practical real-world skills upon graduation. His current research interests include the use of technology and social media in teaching and indigent criminal defendants’ treatment, punishment, and legal representation in the criminal justice system.
“We conducted an exhaustive national search looking for the best candidates to fill our faculty vacancies,” said Bowen Interim Dean John DiPippa. “We are pleased to welcome Professors Borman, cummings, and Minarcin to Bowen. They are committed to Bowen’s core values of Professionalism, Public Service, and Access to Justice. As leaders in their fields, they bring energy and innovation to their scholarship and teaching. Their addition to Bowen’s faculty is a great thing for Bowen’s students and the Arkansas legal community.”
