UConn Law Professor Alexandra Lahav will receive the 2019 Perry Zirkel ’76 Distinguished Teaching Award at the UConn Law commencement on May 19, 2019.

Lahav, the Ellen Ash Peters Professor of Law, is a nationally recognized expert on the civil justice system and tort law. She teaches Civil Procedure, Torts, and Professional Responsibility. Her book, “In Praise of Litigation,” won the 2019 Pound Civil Justice Award and an honorable mention in the American Bar Association’s 2018 Silver Gavel Awards.

The teaching award was established in 2016 through the generosity of Perry Zirkel, who graduated from UConn School of Law in 1976. He became a professor of education and law at Lehigh University and served as dean of the university’s College of Education.

Alumni are invited to nominate faculty members for the award and a committee of graduating students chooses three to five finalists. The entire graduating class is invited to vote to choose the winner.

Past winners are Associate Dean Paul Chill in 2018, Professor Richard Pomp in 2017 and Professor Jeremy McClane in 2016.