These students are degree candidates in either law or philosophy, interested in the intersection of law and philosophy, and regular participants in LPP events and courses. The year the student started at Texas, and which program, follows in parentheses after the name.
David Bernard (2004, JD/PhD) graduated from Vassar College in 2002, where he received the Vernon Venable Prize for Excellence in Philosophy; his interests include moral, political, and legal philosophy, as well as Continental philosophy. Janice Chik (2006, PhD) did undergraduate work at Princeton University, and has interests in ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology. Stephen Davey (2006, PhD) earned both a B.A. and B.S. from Washington University in St. Louis, and is interested in moral and legal philosophy. Jennifer Neilson (2006, PhD) earned both a BA and MA at the University of British Columbia, and has also studied philosophy at Auckland; her interests range across political and legal philosophy, as well as aesthetics. Paul Neufeld (2004, JD) did undergraduate work at the University of Alberta, and is now finishing his dissertation (in ancient philosophy) for the Ph.D. in philosophy from Brown University. Matthew O'Brien (2004, PhD) did undergraduate work at Princeton University; he has interests in ancient philosophy, as well as moral, political, and legal philosophy. Michael Sevel (2002, PhD; 2005, JD) graduated summa cum laude in philosophy from the University of Southern Mississippi, and earned an M.A. in philosophy at Virginia Tech in 2001; his interests include moral, political and legal philosophy, ancient and modern. James Sherman (2004, PhD) did undergraduate work at the University of Chicago; his primary interests are in political philosophy. Graham Smith (2004, JD/PhD) graduated summa cum laude in physics from Utah State University in 1992, where he also earned a B.S. in philosophy in 1996. He holds both an M.S.E.E. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (2002) and an M.S. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison (2003), and has worked as an electrical engineer. His interests range widely across logic, epistemology, and philosophy of law, among other areas. Elizabeth Vernon (2006, PhD) earned a JD at UT and practiced law in Houston before returning to UT to study philosophy of law.
Some LPP students no longer in residence include: Ian Farrell (MA '05) got his undergraduate and legal education in Australia, earned an LL.M. at Harvard Law School and his M.A. at Texas with a thesis on "Conceptual Analysis and the Methodology of Jurisprudence" directed by Leiter; he accepted a tenure-stream position as Lecturer in Law at the University of Wollongong in Australia, where he hopes to finish his doctoral dissertation; his first publication, an essay defending the role of conceptual analysis in jurisprudence as Hart conceived it, recently appeared in the Texas Law Review; he is also co-editing the forthcoming Legal Philosophy: 5 Questions. Strefan Fauble (JD '06) graduated summa cum laude and Phi Betta Kappa in philosophy from Columbia University, earned a B.Phil. in philosophy from Oxford and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley (under the supervision of Bernard Williams and Richard Wollheim) and taught philosophy at the University of California at Irvine and the University of Pittsburgh, before coming to Texas for law school; he is currently practicing law with O'Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles, though we hope to lure him back into academia! Yonit Sharaby (MA '04, JD '05) did her undergraduate work in philosophy at Ohio State University, and started in the PhD program at Texas in fall 1999, subsequently starting in the law school; she received her M.A. with a thesis on "The Comparative Model of Legal Fact-Finding and the Criminal Standard of Proof," directed by Leiter; she is currently on leave of absence from the LPP.