Four professors were recently appointed to named professorships at South Texas College of Law Houston. Awarded by Interim President and Dean Jeff Rensberger at the end of a committee-driven process, these honors recognize excellence in teaching and significant contributions to various aspects of law.
“One of the law school’s key strengths is that we operate as a community of scholars,” said Rensberger. “These appointments recognize the important scholarship of these professors and the value it brings to their teaching. Their scholarship also enhances the law school’s reputation for academic excellence.”
Pamela George, the first tenure-track female professor hired at STCL Houston, was named the Stanley J. Krist Distinguished Professor of Texas Law. George, who is board certified in family law and civil appellate law, has spent her 43-year academic career at South Texas Law teaching Family Law, Marital Property, Texas Trial and Appellate Procedure, and Legal Research and Writing.
Before starting her teaching career in 1981, she served as an assistant attorney general for Texas, enforcement division, and an associate attorney at a firm specializing in family law.
George’s body of legal scholarship and her trial work as an expert witness have created both law and precedent. Her widely used and frequently quoted textbooks on Texas family law and Texas marital property are considered the ultimate resource on the subjects.
Joe Leahy is the Charles Weigel II Research Professor of Business Associations. A faculty member at STCL Houston since 2009, he teaches Corporations, Securities Regulation, and Agency & Partnership and serves as the faculty editor of the Corporate Counsel Review. He co-authored the textbook The Revised Uniform Partnership Act (forthcoming 2024-25 edition).
Prior to joining South Texas Law, Leahy was a visiting assistant professor at Seattle University School of Law, Brooklyn Law School, and Florida State University College of Law. Prior to his role a law professor with numerous published articles and many national presentations to his credit, Leahy was an associate handling major securities litigation at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in New York City and at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in Washington, D.C.
Katerina (Katya) Lewinbuk has been named the Wayne Fisher Research Professor. She joined the faculty in 2006. Her previous academic experience includes teaching at DePaul College of Law and the School of Commerce in Chicago. She was an associate attorney at the law firms of Baker McKenzie and Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP.
Lewinbuk teaches Civil Procedure, Comparative Law, Contemplative Lawyering, Legal Research & Writing, Legal Skills, and Torts. In addition to authoring numerous published articles, her course book Connecting Ethics & Practice: A Lawyers Guide to Professional Responsibility (Aspen Publishing) is currently in its third edition. She also co-authored the third edition of West’s Global Issues in the Legal Profession with Professor Moliterno (2022).
A double-Fulbright Senior Specialist grant recipient (Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, and Facultad Libre Derecho de Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico), Lewinbuk has international teaching experience. She has lectured and presented at law schools in Ireland, Turkey, the Republic of Georgia, and the United Kingdom, among others, and now serves as the director of international programs at South Texas Law.
Val Ricks is the Godwin Lewis PC Research Professor. He joined the faculty in 1996 after serving as an associate at Kirton & McConkie in Salt Lake City. He specialized in transactional and corporate law and appellate litigation.
Ricks was previously appointed as the Charles Weigel II Research Professor for 2015-19 and the Vinson & Elkins Research Professor for 2005-09. He teaches Contracts, Corporations, Agency & Partnership, and Antitrust.
With scholarly interests that include contract law history and theory, business associations law, and jurisprudence, his writings have appeared in the Georgetown Law Journal, Indiana Law Journal, BYU Law Review, George Mason Law Review, University of Kansas Law Review, Baylor Law Review, Florida State University Law Review, Texas A&M Law Review, and South Texas Law Review. He is the author of a contracts casebook published through CALI.
