March 20, 2009

Professor Andew Kull wins Law Professor of the Year Award

While Sean Penn and Kate Winslet may not have been nominated, the 2009 “Lawscars” honored some of the best performers in the legal community during the Excellence in the Law event at Boston’s Copley Fairmount on March 5th. Among the Lawscar winners was Boston University School of Law Professor Andrew Kull, who received the Law Professor of the Year Award.

Hosted by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and the Massachusetts Bar Association, the annual Excellence in the Law event recognizes the best in the field with such distinctions as the Excellence in Legal Journalism Award and Lawyers Weekly’s Lawyers of the Year Awards. The Lawscars are a recent addition to the ceremony, which included awards for Best Courthouse Character and Court Clerk of the Year.

With a legacy for bringing drama to the classroom through his first-year contracts course known as “Kulltracts,” Professor Andrew Kull’s nomination as Law Professor of the Year Award comes as no surprise to his students.

“Contracts takes on a whole new light when Professor Kull ‘sets the stage’ and the contract is seen through the eyes of a jilted lover, a drunken horse owner, a bamboozled cattle rancher or a nitpicking homeowner, to name just a few,” says Adam Holland ('10).

Awards from Excellence in the Law event

Kull infuses enthusiasm and liveliness into every aspect of his contracts course. “I remember several of us laughing out loud during one of his exams because the question was hilarious, and yet simultaneously incredibly instructive. It takes someone with special talent to take a group of law students, who tend to take themselves too seriously, and make them laugh during an exam while inspiring them to do their best work at the same time,” recalls Anna Schleelein ('08).

BU Law professors are similarly full of praise. Professor Tracey Maclin regards Kull as “a tremendous asset” to the law school, and colleague Professor Robert Bone echoes the sentiment: “Andrew Kull is a highly gifted teacher and a major scholar in his field. Indeed, his teaching represents the very finest BU Law has to offer.”

Regarding Kull’s most recent award, Professor Ward Farnsworth adds, “[Kull] already has won the University's highest teaching prize [The Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching]. It's great to see him now get some recognition outside the University, too.”

Beyond his reputation as a beloved professor and colleague, Kull is a Paul M. Siskind Scholar, a national expert in the area of Restitution and the U.S. Regional Editor of the Restitution Law Review. He is also a Constitutional historian and the author of the Silver Gavel Award-winning book The Color-Blind Constitution.

Kull's achievements and praises both inside and outside the BU Law community are many. As BU Law student Holland says, he is “outstanding in a gestalt sense--thoroughly remarkable in every way.”

Reported by Lauren Shiraka