Dennis appointed associate dean for academic affairs
On July 1, Andrea L. Dennis became the associate dean for academic affairs overseeing academic and student life at the School of Law.
The holder of the Martin Chair of Law, she previously served as the associate dean for faculty development and worked closely with the law school’s professors to promote their world-class scholarship and support the pursuit of extramural funding in addition to overseeing promotion and tenure matters.
Dennis, who joined the School of Law in 2010, teaches Criminal Law, Family Law and Evidence. For almost 20 years, her groundbreaking research on rap music as criminal evidence has been cited by practitioners and courts nationwide. In 2019, she coauthored Rap on Trial: Race, Lyrics, and Guilt in America (with E. Nielson), which has received national and international recognition. Most recently, her research has spurred lawmakers in several states and Congress to offer proposals limiting the use of rap music evidence in criminal cases. Additionally, she has authored works at the intersections of family law and criminal law, and law and mental health.
Earlier this year, UGA presented the Dawn D. Bennett-Alexander Inclusive Community Award to Dennis. The honor recognizes faculty members who have “contributed considerably to promoting inclusive excellence within and beyond the classroom.” Dennis has been vital in implementing the law school’s Strategic Plan and its Diversity and Inclusive Excellence Plan.
Over the years, she has served as faculty adviser to several student-led organizations, including currently the Georgia Law Review and Davenport-Benham Black Law Students Association. In 2021, she received the law school’s O’Byrne Memorial Award for Significant Contributions Furthering Student-Faculty Relations and was selected as a graduation faculty marshal.
This past year, she facilitated the creation of the law school’s Emerging Scholars program, an initiative aimed at creating new pipelines into the legal academy by identifying talented and experienced legal practitioners, providing them with teaching and research opportunities, and mentoring them as they pursue a career move into academia.
Outside of the law school and university, Dennis has served on the Board of Directors of the Athens Area Homeless Shelter, the Athens Neighborhood Health Center and Project Safe. She has also volunteered with Athens-based youth development programs.
Rodrigues named associate dean for faculty development
Usha R. Rodrigues, who served as associate dean for faculty development from 2015 to 2018, has once again assumed this important leadership position that seeks to grow the School of Law’s scholarly influence.
Rodrigues also holds the law school’s Kilpatrick Chair of Corporate Finance and Securities Law. A respected member of the greater UGA community, in 2019, she was chosen as a University Professor, an honor awarded to one UGA professor per year. From February 2022 to April 2023, she was UGA’s interim vice provost for academic affairs, and she has served as the University Council’s parliamentarian since 2014. Additionally, Rodrigues holds a courtesy appointment in the Terry College of Business, and she was recently elected to the UGA Athletic Association Board of Directors.
Specializing in corporate and business law, Rodrigues was invited to present on accredited investors before the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission Investor Advisory Committee last fall. Over the last 12 months, her analysis and commentary have appeared in articles in The New York Times, USA Today, Politico, The Washington Post, Bloomberg and Yahoo Finance.
Her scholarship has been published in the Virginia, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Fordham, Emory, Florida, and Washington and Lee law reviews, among others. It has also appeared in online fora of the Vanderbilt, UCLA, Texas and Harvard Business law reviews and in the peer-reviewed Journal of Corporate Finance. Her recent articles include “The SPAC Market” in the Washington University Law Review and “Redeeming SPACs” in the Florida State University Law Review.
During the past year, Rodrigues presented at the Conference on Emerging Trends in Asset Management hosted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, a Law and Entrepreneurship Association annual meeting and The Future of ESG symposium, hosted by the Institute for Law and Economic Policy.
She is active in the legal profession. She has served as the chair of the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law Schools Business Associations Section, as a member of the Securities Regulation Executive Committee and as the president of the Law and Entrepreneurship Association. In 2016, she was elected to the American Law Institute and she joined the board of the Institute for Law and Economic Policy in 2024.
Rodrigues became a member of the law school’s faculty in 2005 and has led courses in contracts, business ethics, business associations and securities regulation. She received the Ellington Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2022, and the Class of 2024 selected her to serve as a graduation faculty marshal.
