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Sotomayor also met with student leaders. When asked what she PROVOST TEACHING
regretted most in her career, she told students it was not having served
as a federal law clerk even though her mentors encouraged her to do so. EXCELLENCE AWARDS
Following the discussion, Sotomayor was given the Dean’s Award from
Law Center Dean Leonard M. Baynes at a luncheon sponsored by UH University of Houston Law Center Professors Meredith J.
Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Paula Myrick Duncan, who joined the faculty in 1998, and D. Theodore “Teddy”
Short. UH President and System Chancellor Dr. Renu Khator, UH Rave, who joined the faculty in 2013, are this year’s recipients of
administrators, elected officials, local attorneys, students, alumni, and Provost Teaching Excellence Awards.
friends of the Law Center were in attendance. “I love the law and
“As a university president you have many special moments,” Khator said. enjoy helping my
“But there are some where you just stand in awe and in humility in front students achieve their
of somebody who is bigger than life, someone who is such an amazing goals of success in
and inspiring story that you just get speechless. This is one of those law school and their
moments.” future legal practices,”
“Justice Sotomayor was very down to earth and brilliant,” Baynes added. Duncan, winner of
the Distinguished
“Her background is so fitting of many of our students. Being the third Leadership in
woman and the first Hispanic to sit on the Supreme Court is an amazing Teaching Excellence
accomplishment. Her background is really the story of the American Award said. Duncan
dream.” teaches Professional
One of only four women to serve on the Supreme Court, Sotomayor Responsibility, Torts,
was nominated by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009, and Criminal Law and
joined the court on Aug. 8, 2009. She previously served as assistant oversees the award-
district attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office winning Pre-Law
from 1979–1984. She then litigated international commercial matters Pipeline Program, a
in New York City at Pavia & Harcourt, where she served as an associate program designed to
and then partner from 1984–1992. In 1991, President George H.W. increase the diversity of
Bush nominated her to the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New the law school applicant Professor Meredith J. Duncan
York, where she served from 1992–1998. She served as a judge on the pool.
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1998 until “I enjoy teaching very
her appointment to the Supreme Court in 2009. much, and I work hard
at it, I would like the
dean and other faculty
who nominated me for
this award to know how
grateful I am for their
confidence in me and my
teaching. I also would
want them to know how
wonderful it feels for my
efforts to be valued by
my peers. It means a lot.”
“It’s an incredible honor
to have been selected for
the Teaching Excellence
Award,” said Rave, who
Associate Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor responds to teaches Civil Procedure, Professor D. Theodore Rave
a question from Carl Stewart, a 1L student, after meeting and Complex Litigation,
greeting the audience. Constitutional Law, and Elections and the Law of Democracy.
Sotomayor earned a B.A. in 1976 from Princeton University, graduating “I couldn’t do it without so many amazing students, who are
summa cum laude and receiving the university’s highest academic always teaching me as much as I teach them, and make the
honor. In 1979, she earned a J.D. from Yale Law School where she served effort so rewarding. In fact, the recommendation letters that my
as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. students wrote in support of my nomination mean more to me
than the award itself.”

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