Two professors join USC Law

Rising scholars Kim Shayo Buchanan and Camille Gear Rich join the faculty

—By Gilien Silsby

The USC Gould School of Law has recruited two legal scholars, Kim Shayo Buchanan and Camille Gear Rich, who joined the faculty last summer as assistant professors.

Kim Shayo Buchanan

Buchanan specializes in constitutional law, torts, prisoners’ rights, reproductive rights, race, gender and sexual regulation. Her current research explores the gender stereotypes that inform courts’ and prisons’ toleration of sexual harassment among men. Rich specializes in children and the law and anti-discrimination law. Her current research explores the unstable and contingent nature of racial and ethnic identity, examining how racial and ethnic meaning is produced and negotiated by individuals, communities and the law.

“With Camille and Kim, we continue USC Law’s tradition of hiring superb faculty,” says Dean Robert K. Rasmussen. “Both were highly sought after and chose to come to USC because they recognized the unique nature of our academic community. We are fortunate to have them as colleagues.”

Rich, who taught a seminar on Children, Sexuality and the Law last fall and is teaching Legal Profession this spring, calls USC Law a perfect fit because of its “vibrant, top-quality faculty, superior research facilities, and diverse and dynamic student body.”

Camille Gear Rich

“My interactions with students both inside and outside of the classroom consistently demonstrate that I made the right choice,” Rich says. “Students here have outstanding potential and care deeply about the important issues of our time. Additionally, because a large portion of my work focuses on anti-discrimination issues and the challenges of managing diversity, USC and Los Angeles generally have provided me with the unique opportunity to explore these issues in an atmosphere where questions of race are not automatically reduced to a contest between blacks and whites.”

Most recently a senior associate with Debevoise & Plimpton in New York City, Rich earned her bachelor’s degree from Brown University and her law degree at Yale University, where she worked on the Yale Law Journal and Yale Journal of Law and Feminism. In 2001-02, Rich clerked for Judge Rosemary Barkett on the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. She spent the preceding year clerking for Judge Robert L. Carter on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Buchanan, who taught a seminar on Prisoners’ Rights in the fall and is teaching Constitutional Law this spring, says she chose USC because of the law school’s commitment to scholarly excellence and its strong, diverse student body.

“USC has an exceptional student culture. My students are great at expressing differing points of view in ways that are kind and mutually respectful, which is not necessarily the case at many law schools,” she says. “That makes it a pleasure to teach them, especially since my courses raise such hot-button political issues.”

She adds: “Because I’m working on prisoners’ rights, California — which, sadly, has a huge and expanding prison population — is the place to be. Between a vibrant community of advocates and a changing political scene, it’s exciting to be here right now.”

Stephen Rich

Also joining USC Law as visiting professors in 2007 are Stephen Rich, a civil procedure and constitutional law expert and associate professor at Rutgers University Law School, and Martin Stone, a legal philosopher from Cardozo Law School at Yeshiva University.

Clare Pastore, a visiting professor and senior counsel at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, has recently been appointed Professor of Practice. Mathew McCubbins, one the nation’s leading political scientists, received a joint appointment to the law faculty, while Michael Chasalow was named a Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor of Law.