Jacksonville University College of Law announced April 24 it will add four faculty members who will begin teaching in the fall 2023 semester.
The college is wrapping up its inaugural year of classes.
JU’s new law professors are Assistant Professor Lindsay Head, Assistant Professor Alex Yelderman, Associate Professor Latisha Nixon-Jones and Assistant Professor Lauren Knight.
They will teach courses across the college’s three-year juris doctor curriculum.
“Their abilities as teachers and scholars, their practical experience, and their commitment to serving the College of Law, the University, and the public will prove especially valuable as our inaugural class becomes second-year law students, and as we prepare to welcome our second class of students,” said Nick Allard, founding dean of the JU College of Law, in a news release.
Lindsay Head
Lindsay Head comes from St. Thomas University College of Law, where she was an assistant professor of legal writing.
Her scholarship and teaching focus on the intersections of rhetorical theory and legal discourse, criminal procedure and Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, rhetorics of citizenship and identity, composition theory, oral advocacy and legal writing pedagogy.
She holds a B.A. in English and Philosophy from Florida State University, a J.D. from Florida Coastal School of Law, an M.A. in English: Rhetoric and Composition from the University of North Florida, and a Ph.D. in English, with a concentration in Writing, Rhetoric, and Culture, from Louisiana State University.
Head has taught courses in undergraduate and law programs since 2014.
She is an active member of The Florida Bar and has practiced general civil litigation and family law at The Ticktin Law Group in Deerfield Beach, where she also directed and supervised the firm’s internship program.
Alexandra Yelderman
Alexandra Yelderman joins from the University of Notre Dame, where she was a visiting assistant professor of law.
Her research focuses on online platforms, black markets and crime-adjacent speech.
Her work explores how intermediary liability affects illicit commerce on the internet, with a recent focus on regulations that lead to increased crime. She has previously written about the role of the internet in combating sex trafficking and other forms of exploitation.
Yelderman holds a B.A. in religious studies and a minor in mathematics from New York University and received a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.
She previously practiced law at the Human Trafficking Legal Center in Washington, D.C., where she continues to serve as special counsel.
Latisha Nixon-Jones
Latisha Nixon-Jones comes from Mercer University School of Law, where she was an assistant professor of law.
Her teaching focuses on Torts, Legal Writing, and Environmental and Disaster Law.
She is an emerging scholar in the field of Disaster Law. Her scholarship centers on exploring innovative approaches to disaster law, with an emphasis on bolstering community resilience to natural and man-made disasters.
Nixon-Jones deduced that disaster law should prioritize community empowerment and participation in resilience-building efforts.
As a visiting professor at the University of Oregon, Nixon-Jones was the recipient of the COVID-19 Research Innovation Award.
Nixon-Jones earned her J.D. from Southern University Law Center and received her B.S.M. in Management and Finance from Tulane University.
Lauren Knight
Lauren Knight joins from Mercer University School of Law, where she was a visiting assistant professor of law.
Her teaching focuses primarily on areas including academic success, LSAT and Bar preparation, criminal law, legal writing, professional responsibility, and remedies.
She received her J.D. from Florida State University College of Law and a B.A. from the University of Florida. Knight previously practiced law in Jacksonville at Milton, Leach, Whitman, D’Andrea & Eslinger.
Before joining JU, Knight also taught at Savannah Law School and South University.
Knight also will serve as the College of Law’s associate dean for student success and Bar prep.
Accreditation process
The JU College of Law began the accreditation process in the spring of 2023.
It said its goal and highest priority is to achieve provisional accreditation by the time the first class of students graduates.
The college is not currently approved by the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar of the ABA and makes no representation to any applicant that it will receive approval from the council before the graduation of any matriculating student.
“In the last decade, Jacksonville University has received full accreditation for over 30 programs ranging from healthcare to business administration and is fully accredited through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges,” said the news release.