A ceremony in Pitt’s Barco Law Library on June 6 dedicated special collections of books honoring departing School of Law faculty members Judi Teeter and Jacqueline Lipton.
The Judi Teeter Alternative Dispute Resolution Collection and the Jacqueline Lipton Law and Technology Collection were dedicated, respectively, to Teeter, who taught legal writing and alternative dispute resolution at the law school for 16 years, and Lipton, who taught at the Pitt Law for seven years and was just hired to serve at Duquesne University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law.
(From left) Jacqueline Lipton, Linda Tashbook and Judi Teeter at a ceremony naming collections in the Barco Law Library after Lipton and Teeter.
Linda Tashbook, adjunct professor of foreign and international law and comparative law librarian, invited some of Teeter’s and Lipton’s past research assistants to the event. She read excerpts from some of their testimonials at the dedication.
Noah Gonzalez, who worked as an assistant for Teeter last summer, praised the professor for her contributions during his participation in a moot court competition.
“Professor Teeter’s observation on how the teams performed really stands out in my memory as she stated that coming to an agreement at the last second is fairly normal in practice (and) sometimes it may be better to walk away from the negotiation than to just rush an agreement,” he said.
“I hope this next chapter of life is fantastic for you,” he added. “Thank you for all you have done to make Pitt a brighter place.”
Tashbook called Teeter “a fundamentally humble human being. She was planning to retire this term, but our interim dean talked her into teaching one more class next fall, so she will retire in December,” Tashbook said.
By establishing the special collections, each book now has a book plate inside the front cover, identifying it as being in the Judi Teeter Alternative Dispute Resolution Collection or the Jacqueline Lipton Law and Technology Collection.
“We have also identified the books within our electronic catalog as being within these collections, so when you come upon the catalog record for one of the titles, it will indicate that the book is part of its special collection,” Tashbook explained, adding that researchers also can seek the collections by name in the PittCat search feature.
Teeter has “pivoted many times to teach whatever was asked of her, coordinated a grant-funded program in which she brought law students to train high school students in collegial dispute resolution, and in various ways served as an ambassador between the law school and the community,” Tashbook said. “In addition to being a great citizen of the law school and a good friend to everyone here, Judi has been a highly sought after mediator for more than 20 years and is well-respected in the alternative dispute resolution bar.”
Before coming to Pitt, Teeter clerked for Judge Cynthia Baldwin, who went on to serve as university counsel at Penn State University, Tashbook said.
Lipton, who, like Teeter, came to Pitt Law as a visitor, has been at the school for seven years. She was recently hired to serve as the Carol Los Mansmann Chair of Faculty Scholarship at Duquesne.
At Pitt, Tashbook said Lipton “eagerly engaged with every opportunity that arose,” including chairing the SJD Colloquium for foreign attorneys who come to Pitt Law for a doctorate, joining Pitt Cyber, and advising colleagues about book publishing. She authored articles and books in her combined legal fields of information, banking, international and comparative law, and intellectual property.
The Lipton collection consists of books in the K 564 call number range, which represent topics she taught in her seminars relating to law’s application to emerging technologies, Tashbook explained. The collection includes “Internet Domain Names, Trademarks, and Free Speech,” which Lipton wrote.
“We easily could have established multiple special collections in Professor Lipton’s name because she has taught and written about international intellectual property, legal writing, cyber law and the law of publishing in addition to emerging technologies,” she added.
For the Teeter collection, Tashbook selected items representing not only the skills involved in alternative dispute resolution, but “also the ways that mediation is beneficial for various types of people and conflicts,” she said. “So the books in the Teeter collection come from all over the law library, not just one call-number range.”
“Both of these women are imaginative and beloved teachers,” Tashbook said.
