In this edition of our Law Matters story series, Dean Jelani Jefferson Exum speaks with Professor Eva E. Subotnik, Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship at St. John’s Law. Professor Subotnik recently organized and participated in Impact That Endures: Celebrating the Past, Present, and Future of St. John’s Law Faculty Scholarship, a symposium held as part of the Law School’s year-long 100th anniversary celebration. Their conversation explores her leadership role, the inspiration behind the symposium, and how St. John’s Law fosters a vibrant, impactful scholarly community.

JJE: As Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship, you support and guide our faculty in their scholarly work. How do you approach that role?

EES: I focus my attention on supporting all faculty members looking to engage in scholarship—whether junior colleagues looking to develop their scholarly voices, or more seasoned colleagues looking to move into new topics or new formats, like book projects or podcasts. My overriding goal is to encourage research and writing at all career stages. This includes providing welcoming forums to support faculty writing projects—whether early-stage or more fully developed.

JJE: When I asked, you didn’t hesitate to take the lead on organizing the faculty scholarship symposium. What excited you most about the opportunity?

EES: This symposium came at a time of inflection points for the Law School community: welcoming you as our 10th Dean last year; completing our first 100 years and starting our next 100 years; and transitioning presidential administrations. It seemed to be the perfect opportunity to pause and take stock of our faculty’s role as legal scholars. Additionally, given the 24-hour news cycle environment, I saw the symposium as an avenue for exploring the nature of legal scholarship today and how we might envision its continued evolution to ensure maximum impact.

JJE: The Symposium featured panels on the evolving role of legal scholarship, a panel putting the U.S. Supreme Court in context, and a presentation on being a scholar and teacher in polarized times. Why did you choose those topics?

EES: We live in interesting times, and these topics seemed perfectly suited for our current moment. With respect to the panel on the Supreme Court specifically, it provided a forum to consider decisions from last Term that legal scholars—and the legal community at large—are still grappling with, as well as a chance to look ahead to cases in the upcoming Term and in the pipeline. It made sense to showcase for students and faculty how our expertise can help provide useful context for understanding this critical institution’s opinions and impact.

JJE: Student leaders from the Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development and St. John’s Law Review introduced the symposium panels. Why was it important for them to participate in the symposium?

EES: What legal scholarship is and where its value lies can be a mystery for law students. At St. John’s Law, our students take on at least one scholarly writing project, allowing them to engage deeply and thoughtfully with a topic of their choosing. My hope is that the journal students involved in the symposium—and those in the audience—came away with additional insight into, and greater appreciation of, the resources that excellent scholarship on hard issues can provide to lawyers in practice.

JJE: What makes St. John’s Law a distinctive scholarly community?

EES: St. John’s is an institution that impressively manages to focus on scholarship and on teaching. Our commitment to our students is paramount, and we’re able to use our scholarly achievements to infuse our teaching with nuanced, cutting-edge perspectives in our areas of expertise. This creates a virtuous circle in which our scholarship informs our teaching and, in turn, our deep engagement with our teaching can inspire our next scholarly research projects.

JJE: What does it mean to you to serve that community and help deepen our faculty’s impact within and beyond the academy?

EES: My goal throughout my time as Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship has been to help serve as a resource internally and externally for the St. John’s Law faculty. It’s been rewarding to see my colleagues reach new audiences in the legal community and beyond. It’s also been exciting to share our community with outside scholars we invite to campus through our annual Hon. Edward D. Re Faculty Workshop Series. It’s been meaningful to be along for the ride from the heart of the pandemic, when I started in this role, to the present moment and to see how we’ve learned to innovate and make use of the best techniques from that time, like welcoming far-away speakers for virtual presentations. It’s a privilege to serve in this role and to work with such dynamic and dedicated legal scholars.

We share the full symposium program, including moderators, panelists, and speakers, on our full-time faculty webpage.