Six professors will join the faculty at UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law for the fall 2023 semester. The 2023-24 academic year will mark the 50th anniversary since the law school opened its doors in 1973.
The incoming faculty include Mailyn Fidler, Daniel Pi, Bill Shaw, JD ’04, Julian Jefferson, JD ’11, and Peter Karol. A well-known scholar and IP practitioner, Karol joins the faculty from New England College of Law. The law school also announced its inaugural Visiting Assistant Professor position, and its inaugural hire in that post, Michael Dube. In announcing their appointments, Dean Megan Carpenter expressed excitement for what each of the experienced attorneys and educators will bring to UNH Franklin Pierce.
“We can’t wait to welcome our new faculty to the law school,” Dean Megan Carpenter said. “They are an impressive group of academics, scholars, and professionals, who will enhance our course offerings through their knowledge, experience, and expertise in a variety of areas. We are fortunate to be able to welcome them to our community.”
Peter Karol will join the faculty as professor of law and faculty director of the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property, bringing with him nearly a dozen years as a full-time professor at New England Law and more than 20 years of IP practice experience.
Karol graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2004, and joined the Boston-based law firm of Sunstein LLP that same year as a member of the Intellectual Property Litigation, Trademark, Copyright, and Business Practice Groups.
Karol most recently served as associate dean at New England Law, where, in addition to being a doctrinal law professor, he was the founding director of the Intellectual Property Law Certificate Program, the co-coordinator of the Business and Intellectual Property Clinic, and an advisor to the Trademark Moot Court team, Intellectual Property Law Association, and Art & Fashion Law Society. He has long taught a range of classes, including Property, Law & the Visual Arts, Trademarks & Unfair Competition, Copyright Law, and Current Issues in Intellectual Property. He has published and presented numerous articles pertaining to U.S. trademark and copyright law and is co-author of Posthumous Art, Law and the Art Market: The Afterlife of Art (Routledge, 2022).
In his prior career as a full-time IP attorney, Karol counseled clients on all aspects of patent, trademark, and copyright litigation, as well as trademark and copyright portfolio development. He will remain of counsel with Sunstein after he joins the UNH Franklin Pierce faculty.
At the law school, Karol expects to teach Trademarks and Deceptive Practices, Law & the Visual Arts, Fundamentals of Intellectual Property, and Property Law.
Mailyn Fidler will teach in-person and online as part of the law school’s expansion of its Hybrid JD and online graduate programs.
Fidler previously served on the faculty at the University of Nebraska College of Law in Lincoln, where she was the advisor to the Student Intellectual Property Association and a faculty fellow with the Nebraska Governance & Technology Center. She also worked with a local prison reentry organization.
Fidler is also a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Prior to entering academia, Fidler clerked on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and served as the tech and First Amendment legal fellow at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
She is a graduate of Yale Law School, Oxford University (where she was a Marshall Scholar), and Stanford University. Her research sits at the intersection of criminal law, technology, and speech, with current projects that examine technology and the Fourth Amendment; speech at “non-standard” moments of the criminal process; and international regulation of cybersecurity and cybercrime.
At UNH Franklin Pierce, Fidler will teach a combination of IP and criminal law classes, with a focus on cybercrimes.
Daniel Pi will teach in-person and online as part of the law school’s expansion of its Hybrid JD and online graduate programs.
Pi most recently served as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Maine School of Law in Portland. Before that, he was a visiting assistant professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, and at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia.
Pi has taught courses in criminal law, law and economics, contracts, and legal philosophy. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School, with a concentration in criminal law, and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he majored in film and television production. Pi did his Ph.D. work as an Erasmus Mundus Fellow at the University of Hamburg in Germany and the University of Bologna in Italy.
Recent published works include “The Limits of Behavioral Economics in Tort Law” in the Review of Law and Economics and “Courts as Auditors of Legislation” in the George Mason Law Review. His current research focuses on enforcing criminal contracts and the foundations of law and economics. At UNH Franklin Pierce, Pi will teach a variety of classes.
Bill Shaw, JD ’04, joins the faculty as director of the renamed Health Law and Life Sciences Program at the law school. In a career that has put him at the intersection of the healthcare and life sciences industries, Shaw spent seven years as executive director of the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital.
In his role at MGH, Shaw was exposed to many of the legal issues that face the healthcare sector, from patient privacy issues to payor issues to regulatory matters to labor law to medical malpractice. In making the announcement about Shaw’s appointment, Dean Megan Carpenter called him “particularly well suited for the unique combination of health law and innovation practiced by many of the graduates of the law school.”
In addition to his work with the Martinos Center, Shaw spent three years as vice provost for innovation at Tufts University. In 2017, he was named an Eisenhower Fellow and spent time traveling through China exploring its innovation ecosystem. He also completed a fellowship at Harvard Medical School’s Center for Bioethics, where he focused on the ethical issues related to the interface of artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and business. Shaw’s educational path also reflects his expertise; prior to enrolling in law school, he earned a BS (2001) in chemical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Shaw will add to the strong foundation of his predecessor, Lucy Hodder by helping to create new classes in both the residential and online programs that build on the law school’s strengths. Under Hodder’s supervision of the Health Law and Policy Certificate Program, UNH Franklin Pierce expanded its course offerings and residency placements, created bio-innovation and IP-related classes, and supported classes in the Hybrid JD program. Under Professor Shaw’s leadership, the law school will build a specialization in health law, biotech, and life sciences for the Hybrid JD in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Information Law, one of the law school’s core academic programs created to launch leaders in IP and tech law and designed for working professionals.
Shaw’s goals for the program include building its reputation for generating attorneys who possess the breadth of knowledge needed work in healthcare law, while understanding the role of technology and innovation in healthcare.
Julian Jefferson, JD ’11, will become an assistant clinical professor of law, teaching criminal-law-related courses and overseeing the UNH Franklin Pierce trial practice program. His appointment comes after several years of teaching part-time at his alma mater. Jefferson spent more than a decade as an attorney with the New Hampshire Public Defender, where he successfully handled hundreds of cases, from misdemeanors to juvenile offenses to felonies.
In addition to his work as a public defender in the state, Jefferson was appointed in 2014 by the State Supreme Court to the Complaint Screening Committee of the Attorney Discipline Office. He became chair of the group in 2021.
He was the 2019 recipient of the Champion of Justice Award from the New Hampshire Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and, in 2020, was appointed by Governor Chris Sununu to the Commission on Law Enforcement, Accountability, Community, and Transparency (LEACT). Jefferson’s work on that commission resulted in Governor Sununu’s endorsement of all recommendations to further study how New Hampshire treats juveniles in the criminal justice system.
In his new role, Jefferson will teach trial advocacy, criminal procedure, criminal law, professional responsibility, and evidence. He looks forward to sharing his professional experience with law students and witnessing their drive to succeed in a collaborative environment.
Michael Dube joins the faculty as the inaugural Visiting Assistant Professor (VAP). While 2023-24 may represent the first official year of Dube’s career as a full-time academic, he is a seasoned professional.
A 2002 graduate of Rutgers Law School, Dube joined the UNH Franklin Pierce community in 2015 as an adjunct professor, teaching Amateur Sports Law. He continued in that capacity until last year, when he became a VAP in a teaching-only role, which included being named the co-recipient of the students’ teaching award. This fall, Dube will again serve as VAP, but will focus on both teaching and scholarship.
As a practitioner, Dube spent the majority of his time working on complex civil litigation, clinical trials litigation, and matters involving sports law. In a legal career that has spanned two decades, Dube was most recently of counsel at Sherman Silverstein Kohl Rose & Podolsky in Moorestown, New Jersey. Among the highlights of his career has been the “privilege of representing and seeking justice for individuals from around the country who participated in clinical research and alleged that they had suffered serious personal injuries.” Dube also was part of a team instrumental in convincing the courts to recognize a lack of informed consent cause of action against drug companies and other sponsors of clinical trials based on FDA and HHS regulations.
As a sports fan, Dube also has enjoyed the chance to represent — and occasionally litigate against — top professional and amateur athletes. He looks forward to teaching Amateur Sports Law, Civil Procedure, and Drug Law at UNH Franklin Pierce in addition to developing new course offerings.
On the scholarship side, Dube looks forward to continuing his work on a law review article relating to the enforceability of parental releases in youth sports. Outside of his legal and academic careers, Dube is a prolific songwriter, who has written several musicals, including one about fraudulent conveyances.
