UConn School of Law welcomes six new faculty members this fall, including experts in prison reform, immigration law, white-collar crime and the application of technology in jurisprudence.
Mary Beattie, who has been an academic success counselor at UConn School of Law for five years, has been named an assistant clinical professor of law and the director of academic support. She has also taught Legal Practice, Legal Profession and courses in advanced legal writing as an adjunct professor at the law school. She previously practiced law and served as an assistant professor of legal skills at Quinnipiac University School of Law. She earned a BA at Providence College and a JD at the University of Bridgeport, now Quinnipiac University School of Law.
Kiel Brennan-Marquez has been appointed an associate professor of law. He has been a research fellow and adjunct professor at the New York University School of Law and Georgetown University Law Center and a visiting fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project. His research focuses on the nature of human judgment and the role of courts—especially in the criminal context—in the age of big data and algorithmic decision-making. At UConn School of Law he will teach Constitutional Law, Cyberlaw, and Evidence. He earned a BA from Pomona College and a JD from Yale Law School.
Jessica de Perio Wittman has been named law library director and associate professor of law. She has served for six years as the director of information technology services at UConn School of Law and four years as an adjunct professor, teaching Advanced Legal Research and Law Practice and Technology. She previously served as assistant director for academic technology at The John Marshall Law School and pioneered the first distance education class at the University of Florida. She earned a BA and MLS from the University at Buffalo and a JD from Seattle University School of Law.
Valeria Gomez has been named the William R. Davis Clinical Fellow in the Asylum and Human Rights Clinic. She specializes in immigration law, with a focus on immigrant children from Central America who have arrived in the United States unaccompanied by adults. She is the founder of VIDA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to quality pro-bono immigration legal services in underserved areas. She previously practiced labor and employment law. She earned a BA from Belmont University and a JD from the University of Tennessee College of Law.
Elizabeth Latif has been appointed a legal practice professor. She has served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York and the District of Connecticut, prosecuting financial fraud, public corruption, international terrorism financing and other crime. She has also worked as a partner with Day Pitney LLP, representing executives and companies in white-collar criminal and complex civil litigation. She is a member the Local Criminal Rules Advisory Committee for the District of Connecticut. She earned a BA from Boston University and a JD from Boston University School of Law
Jamelia Morgan has been appointed an associate professor of law. She has served as a staff attorney with the Abolitionist Law Center in Pittsburgh and as the Arthur Liman Fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, where she worked on the Stop Solitary campaign to end long-term isolation in the nation’s prisons, jails and juvenile detention centers. Before attending law school, she served as associate director of the African American Policy Forum. At UConn School of Law, she will teach Criminal Law and Critical Race Theory. She earned a BA and MA from Stanford University and a JD from Yale Law School.
“It is exciting to welcome these six teachers and scholars to our accomplished and vibrant faculty,” Dean Timothy Fisher said. “Their contributions will expand the opportunities for our students to learn from a faculty that is rich in expertise, experience and insight across myriad fields of law.”
