Eight Faculty Appointments at Tulane Law Add Expertise, Leadership

Tulane Law School begins the new academic year with a distinguished chair appointment and a group of new scholars, practitioners and a visiting professor whose expertise ranges from artificial intelligence and intellectual property to environmental law, criminal defense, tax policy and international law.

Professor Ronald J. Scalise Jr. (L’00) has been named the Eason-Weinmann Chair of International and Comparative Law and director of the Eason-Weinmann Center for International and Comparative Law, an appointment that recognizes him as a scholar whose work in civil and comparative law has earned national and international distinction.

“Professor Ron Scalise is one of the leading civil law scholars of his generation and a pillar of Tulane Law’s intellectual community,” Dean Marcilynn Burke said in announcing the appointment. “The Eason-Weinmann Chair recognizes the distinction of his scholarship, and his leadership of the Center will advance Tulane Law’s longstanding strength in international and comparative law.”

The law school also welcomes a wide-ranging group of new faculty this year, adding expertise across emerging and established fields.

New scholars expand faculty strengths

Brian L. Frye joins Tulane as a full professor of law after previously serving as a visiting professor at the law school during the 2025-26 academic year. A nationally-recognized scholar of intellectual property and art law, Frye comes to Tulane from the University of Kentucky Rosenberg College of Law, where he served as faculty director of the Intellectual Property Program.

Frye’s scholarship explores creativity, ownership and artistic expression, often challenging conventional ideas about originality and intellectual property. He has published more than 100 academic articles and also produced the documentary Our Nixon, which aired on CNN and received a national theatrical release. At Tulane, he will teach intellectual property, art law and related subjects.

Walker Nelson Kahn joins Tulane as an assistant professor of law with a joint appointment at Tulane Law School and The Murphy Institute. A computational legal scholar, Kahn uses machine learning and artificial intelligence alongside doctrinal and ethnographic research to examine due process and access to justice in high-volume consumer debt litigation.

His research explores bankruptcy, mortgage foreclosure and the ways financial systems shape courts and economically vulnerable households. Before joining Tulane, Kahn was a postdoctoral fellow at the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy at the University at Buffalo School of Law. He earned his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At Tulane, he will teach bankruptcy, secured transactions and political economy.

Experienced advocates join Tulane’s clinics

Tulane Law’s clinical education program adds three faculty members with extensive experience in environmental enforcement, criminal defense and advocacy for survivors of gender-based violence.

Francesca Buzzi joins the Women’s Prison Project as a clinical assistant professor after working as an attorney with Orleans Public Defenders. She represented New Orleanians in cases ranging from misdemeanors to offenses carrying life-without-parole sentences, tried more than 15 jury trials and argued before the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal and Louisiana Supreme Court. At Tulane, she will supervise students representing incarcerated survivors whose experiences of abuse intersect with the criminal legal system.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan University and a J.D. from the University of California Berkeley School of Law.

Tasia Kastanek (L’21) returns to the Environmental Law Clinic as a clinical assistant professor after serving as an associate regional counsel with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 5 Office of Regional Counsel in Chicago.  A double graduate of Tulane University, she worked on federal environmental enforcement under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Superfund. Her appointment brings Kastanek back to the clinic where, as a Tulane Law student, she worked on litigation challenging permits for major industrial facilities in Louisiana.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Colorado, a Master of Arts from Tulane University and a J.D. from Tulane Law School

Jessica Wood (L’14) joins the permanent faculty of the Domestic Violence Clinic as a clinical assistant professor after serving as a visiting clinical professor during the 2025–26 academic year. A Tulane Law and clinic alumna, Wood has spent more than a decade advocating for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse and neglect. She previously served as managing attorney of the Domestic Violence Unit at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services.

As an attorney, Wood has mentored lawyers and law students in litigation and trauma-informed advocacy. Jessica holds a J.D. from Tulane University Law School and a Bachelor of Science from Texas A&M University. 

Forrester Fellows bring international perspectives

Ashita Alag and Marilyn Hajj join the law school as the newest Forrester Fellows, a program for early career scholars to teach and receive faculty mentorship. The Fellows are instructors in the Legal Research and Writing program, which is an essential part of the first-year law curriculum.

Alag joins Tulane while completing a D.Phil. in law at the University of Oxford. Her research spans feminist legal theory, criminal law, legal history and international law, with a particular focus on laws governing sexual violence and feminist responses to gender neutrality in rape law. 

Alag earned an LL.M. from Harvard Law School and previously served as a legal adviser to the Global Justice Center, working on gender-based violence under international law.  She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in law from Amity Law School in New Delhi, India.

Hajj’s scholarship sits at the intersection of tax law and poverty, examining how tax systems shape economic inequality and access to government benefits. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Columbia Journal of Tax Law, Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law & Policy and Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law.

A Fulbright Scholar, Hajj earned her LL.M. and S.J.D. in tax law from the University of Virginia School of Law.  She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in law from Saint Joseph University in Beirut. 

Leonhard joins as visiting professor

Chunlin Leonhard joins Tulane as a visiting professor of law from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law where she is the Leon Sarpy Distinguished Professor of Law.

She will teach Evidence during the fall semester.

Leonhard's teaching and scholarship encompass evidence, contract law and commercial law, including research on the admissibility of scientific evidence and contract law in cross-cultural contexts.

A Fulbright U.S. Scholar, Leonhard has taught at law schools in the United States and China, including Peking University School of Transnational Law. Before entering academia, she practiced law in Chicago and became a partner at Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal. She earned her J.D. from Boston University School of Law.