Law School for Everyone

Edward K. Cheng is a Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where he focuses on scientific and expert evidence and the interaction of law and statistics.

Professor Cheng holds a J.D. (cum laude) from Harvard Law School, where he was the Articles, Book Reviews & Commentaries Chair of the Harvard Law Review; an M.A. in statistics from Columbia University; an M.Sc. (with distinction) in information systems from the London School of Economics, where he was a Fulbright Scholar; and a B.S.E. (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) in electrical engineering from Princeton University. He clerked for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and previously taught at Northwestern University and Brooklyn Law School.

Professor Cheng is a co-author of the five-volume treatise Modern Scientific Evidence: The Law and Science of Expert Testimony. His research has appeared publications including the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, and Columbia Law Review.

A six-time winner of the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award for Excellence in Teaching at Vanderbilt, Professor Cheng is a former chair of the Section on Evidence of the Association of American Law Schools and is the host of Excited Utterance, a podcast on scholarship in evidence and proof.

Molly Bishop Shadel is a Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, where she teaches negotiations and advocacy classes and is a senior fellow at the Center for National Security Law. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with an A.B. in English and American Literature and Language. Professor Shadel earned her J.D. from Columbia University.

Professor Shadel clerked for the Honorable Eugene H. Nickerson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Before joining the faculty of the University of Virginia, Professor Shadel worked as an attorney at the law firm of Covington & Burling, and then at the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review. Professor Shadel joined the faculty at the University of Virginia School of Law in 2005.

Professor Shadel is the author of two books: Finding Your Voice in Law School: Mastering Classroom Cold Calls, Job Interviews, and Other Verbal Challenges and Tongue-Tied America: Reviving the Art of Verbal Persuasion. Professor Shadel is also a planning faculty member of the Leadership in Academic Matters program, a biannual, semester-long leadership course for University of Virginia professors and administrators.

Peter J. Smith is the Arthur Selwyn Miller Research Professor of Law at The George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. He received his B.A. (magna cum laude) from Yale University and his J.D. (magna cum laude) from Harvard Law School, where he received the Sears Prize for highest academic performance.

Before joining the faculty at GW Law, Professor Smith was an attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he represented the government in the U.S. Courts of Appeals. At the Department of Justice, he defended the constitutionality of a number of federal statutes, including the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act (cases ultimately resolved by the Supreme Court). Before he worked at the Department of Justice, Professor Smith clerked for Judge Phyllis A. Kravitch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Professor Smith has twice received the Distinguished Faculty Service Award for outstanding teaching at GW Law. He has published dozens of scholarly articles and is the co-author of a popular casebook on constitutional law, Constitutional Law: A Contemporary Approach. His research focuses on constitutional law, constitutional interpretation, and civil procedure.

Joseph L. Hoffmann is the Harry Pratter Professor of Law Emeritus at Indiana University Maurer School of Law, where he has taught since 1986. He earned his JD from the University of Washington School of Law. He has taught about American federalism at leading universities in France, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Poland, and Thailand. At Indiana University, he has received the Leon H. Wallace Teaching Award, the Trustees’ Teaching Award, the Teaching Excellence Recognition Award, and the Gavel Award.