Richard L. Aynes Receives the 2010 Scholar of the Year Award
Akron, Ohio, May 17, 2010 – Professor Richard L. Aynes received the inaugural 2010 Scholar of the Year Award at The University of Akron School of Law 2010 commencement ceremony. Members of the Akron Law Review select the recipient of this award. This year, the students selected Professor Aynes on the basis of his nationally known scholarship in Constitutional Law and longstanding encouragement of scholarly endeavors among the Akron Law faculty.
“Scholarly legal writing has played a large role in the development of our legal system – and indeed in the manner our nation has developed. Today, I am here to present the Faculty Scholar award to a professor at Akron who is among the strongest legal minds in the nation, and who shares so much of his insight with the legal community,” said 2009-10 Akron Law Review Editor-in-Chief Michael Rasor. “His contributions to academia are unmatched. In the past year alone, he has published four articles. During his career, he has been published in journals at Yale and Harvard, as well as five articles in our own Akron Law Review. He has published a total of 21 articles, 3 books, 14 contributions to books, and 11 other miscellaneous writings.”
Professor Richard L. Aynes earned Bachelor and Juris Doctor degrees from Miami University and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law before joining The University of Akron School of Law in 1976 as coordinator of the Appellate Review Office and a Lecturer. He was Associate Dean from 1984 - 1993 and has held the rank of Professor since 1986. He served as UA's interim athletics director in 1993-94 and returned to Akron Law where he held the John F. Seiberling Chair of Constitutional Law for the balance of 1994. Professor Aynes was appointed Dean of Akron Law in 1995, a position he held through 2007. Beginning in spring 2008 he returned to the faculty as holder of the John F. Seiberling Chair of Law and Director of the Constitutional Law Center. His research and teaching interests include constitutional law, the 14th Amendment and legal history. He has written numerous articles in the area of Constitutional Law including articles published in the Yale Law Journal, the Journal of Southern Legal History, the Chicago Kent Law Review and the Catholic University Law Review. Professor Aynes has been admitted to the bar for the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and U.S. District Court for Northern Ohio. Among his current and past memberships are the American Bar Association, Ohio State Bar Association, Akron Bar Association, Western Reserve Legal Services (Board of Trustees), ABA Special Committee of Evaluation of Judicial Performance (reporter), and consultant to the ABA Victim's Committee, Ohio Supreme Court Racial Fairness Implementation Committee, Ohio Supreme Court Continuing Legal Education Committee and Scanlon Inn of Court.
About The University of Akron
The University of Akron is the public research university for Northern Ohio. The Princeton Review listed UA among the “Best in the Midwest” in its 2008 edition of Best Colleges: Region-by-Region. Serving 26,000 students, the University offers approximately 300 associate, bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral and law degree programs and 100 certificate programs at sites in Summit, Wayne, Medina and Holmes counties. For more information, visit www.uakron.edu.
About The University of Akron School of Law
The University of Akron School of Law promotes justice, the protection of individual liberty and the rule of law through commitment to excellence in teaching, scholarship and service. A regional school of national impact, the law school features renowned programs in intellectual property, professional responsibility and trial advocacy, and is home to one of four Constitutional Law Centers in the United States, established by the U.S. Congress in 1986.To learn more, visit www.uakron.edu/law.