BU Law Celebrates Retiring and Departing Faculty (2024)

Professor of Law Daniela Caruso

Daniela Caruso has been a valued member of the BU Law community for thirty years. She is a distinguished expert and renowned scholar in contracts, comparative law, and European Union law. Caruso is well known for her prolific writing on private law and the regulation of markets—whether domestic, regional, or international—as crucial elements in the political transformation of institutions and governance. At the core of her research is the relationship between the laws of the market and the rise of inequality.

Caruso is the recipient of numerous awards for her scholarship and teaching, including the Melton Teaching Award and the prestigious Jean Monnet Chair.

She has made significant contributions to the field of international law, challenging conventional wisdom and pushing the boundaries of legal scholarship. Caruso’s research has explored some of the most pressing issues of our time, from the role of law in a globalized world to the social movement and legal change surrounding autism in the US.

In the classroom, Professor Caruso’s insight and passion have captivated and inspired her students for many years, instilling in them not only a deep understanding of the law but also a sense of purpose and a desire to effect positive change in the world.

Professor Katharine Silbaugh shares, “Daniela can weave together an elegant and poetic intellectual history tracing the transformation of an economic or political concept, butthen always land on the human consequences of our ideas.”

Please join us in congratulating Professor Daniela Caruso for her years of service.

Professor of Law Emeritus Kent A. Coit

Kent A. Coit joined BU Law in 2012, after retiring as partner at Skadden, Arps, Meagher & Flom LLP, where he practiced in the firm’s Mergers and Acquisitions department for almost thirty years. While at Skadden, Coit began his role as a teacher to law students by directing the firm’s Summer Associate M&A training program. During the summer program, he engaged students in simulated transactions to learn critical skills in contract drafting and analysis, negotiation, client counseling, and deal making. As Attorney Development Partner at Skadden, Coit was responsible for developing and implementing the firm’s associate mentoring program and was an instructor in firm-wide associate training programs.

Coit brought his years of experience and innovative teaching practice to BU Law. The Transactional Law Program was made successful due to his dedicated service as director of the program for the past twelve years. He focused on developing intensive, hands-on training in the key foundational skills students need for legal practice. Coit’s guidance, support, and mentorship has enabled BU Law students to graduate prepared to navigate the complexities of the legal profession.

Professor and the Hon. Frank R. KenisonDistinguished Scholar in Law Stacey Dogan reflects on their longtime collaboration and friendship, “In his time serving on the BU/MIT Student Innovations Law Clinic oversight board, Kent has lent his passion, his expertise, his time, and most importantly, his good judgment. I don’t know how we would have done it without him!”

Please join us in congratulating Professor Emeritus Kent Coit for his contributions to the BU Law community.

Professor of Law David J. Seipp

David Seipp has been a member of the BU Law faculty for thirty-eight years. Seipp is a legal historian who has taught American legal history, English legal history, the history of legal education, and property law. His scholarly passion project focused on the compilation of a searchable database of over 22,000 reports in the Year Books—cases decided in England’s courts of common law between 1268 and 1535. The database has become a critical resource used thousands of times each month by researchers and students of English legal history and other disciplines.

Professor Seipp contributed to the 60-volume Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and is a trustee of the Ames Foundation, a life member of the American Law Institute, and a life fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Seipp’s scholarship has shed new light on some of the most important moments in legal history, including the history of BU Law. As the resident expert on the law school, he ensures we retain the important, formative role BU Law has played in the structure of modern legal education in the US.

Fellow Professor Gerry Leonard shares, “David regularly confirms his devotion to BU by preserving and publicizing the history of the law school. Frequently serving up nuggets of BU Law’s remarkable history at pertinent moments in workshops and lectures, David has also performed time-consuming service to support the Alumni Office’s celebration of that history. David’s insistence that we remember and value the school’s history has for decades contributed to our community in unique and important ways.”

Please join us in congratulating Professor David Seipp for his years of service.

Philip S. Beck Professor of Law Gary S. Lawson

At the end of this academic year, Gary Lawson will be leaving the law school to join the faculty at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. For twenty-four years, the BU Law community has benefitted from Lawson’s keen intellect, sharp wit, and commitment to his students.

His colleague, Professor Jack Beermann, shares “Gary Lawson has been the ideal colleague, always happy to help and ready to share insights and sources.” He is equally dedicated to teaching and was honored with a Metcalf Award in 2017.

Lawson is one of the most highly cited and influential constitutional and administrative law scholars in the country. He has authored or co-authored nine editions of a textbook on administrative law, a textbook on constitutional law, five university press books, and more than one-hundred scholarly articles on topics ranging from constitutional theory to the proof of legal propositions. Lawson’s works have been cited over 3,400 times and is one of the most highly cited legal scholars in any field. His scholarship has been cited in twenty-one opinions of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States.

In 2022, he was recognized with the William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professorship. In response to the award, Dean Angela Onwuachi-Willig shared with BU Today, “Professor Gary Lawson is so richly deserving of this honor. He is a force of nature and an indispensable member of our law faculty. He is what you call a quadruple threat: a stellar, top-cited scholar; an excellent teacher; a highly conscientious and generous member of the law school and University community; and a good person.”

Please join us in wishing Gary all the best in his next endeavor.