Students for Scott Shepard

To: Dean John Corkery, Dean Ralph Ruebner, Faculty Hiring Committee
From: Students of Professor Scott Shepard
Date: December 6, 2010
Re: Letter in Support of Adding Professor Scott Shepard to the Full-Time Faculty

As students who have enjoyed the great privilege to experience a class taught by Professor Scott Shepard, we wish to enthusiastically endorse and recommend him for a full-time position within the property faculty at the John Marshall Law School.

Professor Shepards extensive credentials and prolific publications represent only a fraction of what makes him one of the best professors John Marshall has to offer. His dynamism while teaching, his ability to spark and nurture hearty student debate over traditionally dry topics, and his commitment to and rapport with his students combine to yield a professorial powerhouse in the classroom that remains warmly approachable in office hours, in the halls, and on the street. To forego the opportunity to add Professor Shepard to the property faculty would be a grave error and a disservice to future John Marshall students.

Professor Shepard embodies the type of professor that the faculty currently needs. His sharp wit and humility make him easily relatable and approachable to his students. Day in and day out, he puts fire into his teaching, creating interest in larger classes that many students initially take only because the class is required or the subject will be tested on the bar exam. His topical seminar classes, which double as LLM credit, offer even more exciting opportunities for lively discussion and student-chosen research projects.

The students signing this letter come from Professor Shepards first semester property classes, upper-level estates and trusts and sales classes, and his more intimate courses like last semesters natural resources seminar. We have seen him excel in each setting and many of us seek out his classes from semester to semester to ensure that we receive the best classroom experience possible. Moreover, we have seen ourselves excel as a direct result of Professor Shepards excellent teaching abilities, heavy time commitment to his students, and his unique skill of engendering interest that comes from his own extreme enthusiasm for his topics of choice.

For these reasons, we hope the administration and faculty will strongly consider this recommendation by his students to offer a full-time faculty position to Professor Scott Shepard.

Sincerely,
Students of Scott Shepard