Four professors join faculty
Victoria J. Haneman has been appointed the new holder of the Verner F. Chaffin Chair in Fiduciary Law, after serving as a visiting professor at UGA during the 2024–25 academic year. She will teach Estate and Gift Tax, and the Estate Planning Seminar.
Haneman came to UGA from Creighton University, where she was a member of the law school’s faculty for seven years. In 2023 she was appointed the associate dean for research and innovation. She also held the Frank J. Kellegher Professorship of Trusts & Estates and served as the interim director of the health law program for the 2023–24 academic year.
Specializing in taxation, wills, trusts and estates, and business associations, Haneman has published extensively in flagship and specialty law reviews, including the Boston College Law Review, the Wisconsin Law Review, the North Carolina Law Review, the Wake Forest Law Review, the Harvard Journal on Legislation and the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. She has also co-authored four books, including Planning for Large Estates; Questions & Answers: Wills, Trusts, and Estates, 4th ed.; Federal Taxes of Gratuitous Transfers: Law & Planning, 2d ed.; and Making Tax Law.
A recipient of several scholarship and teaching awards, Haneman has held leadership positions in the Women in Legal Education, Trusts and Estates, and the Aging and the Law sections of the Association of American Law Schools.
Haneman earned her B.A. from Arizona State University, her J.D. magna cum laude from California Western School of Law and her LL.M. in Taxation from New York University.
Anne M. Tucker became the holder of the Robert Cotten Alston Chair in Corporate Law at UGA Law this fall.
Teaching and researching in the areas of contracts, corporations, securities regulations and investment funds, she came to Athens from the Georgia State University College of Law, where she was a professor and served as the associate dean of research and faculty development.
Tucker is the author of Business Organizations and more than 25 articles in leading law journals. Her recent work includes: “Settlement as Construct: Defining and Counting Party Resolution in Federal District Court” in the Northwestern Law Review and “Text, Tone, and Legal Language: Analyzing Mutual Fund Disclosure Sentiment” in the American Business Law Journal. Her scholarship has also been published in the Harvard Business Law Review, the University of Chicago Business Law Review, the Yale Law Journal Forum, the Columbia Business Law Review and the Journal of Corporate Law.
Recognized for her teaching and scholarship on multiple occasions, Tucker is a member of the American Law Institute and the National Conference of Bar Examiners. She is presently an affiliated researcher with the Impact Finance Research Consortium, which is sponsored by the Harvard University Business School, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School.
Tucker earned her B.A. summa cum laude from Butler University and her J.D. magna cum laude from Indiana University, where she served as the senior managing editor of the Federal Communications Law Journal and was inducted into the Order of the Coif.
Specializing in criminal law, criminal procedure and evidence, William Ortman came to UGA Law as a professor with 12 years in the legal academy.
Most recently, he was at Wayne State University Law School, where he was the David Adamany Research Scholar (2024–25) and the Edward M. Wise Research Scholar (2020–23). While at Wayne State, Ortman was also recognized with multiple teaching awards. He previously held positions as a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School and as a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School.
Ortman’s scholarship focuses on the institutional and legal design of criminal adjudication. His recent work includes “Confession and Confrontation” in the California Law Review and “Cliff Running” in the Washington University Law Review (forthcoming). His work has also appeared in the Columbia Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Boston University Law Review, the Vanderbilt Law Review, the Michigan Law Review and the Stanford Law Review.
Before entering the legal academy, Ortman practiced as a criminal defense lawyer and commercial litigator at Weinhardt & Logan and Belin McCormick in Des Moines, Iowa. He also clerked for Judge David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Ortman earned his J.D. with highest honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where he served as an articles editor on the University of Chicago Law Review. He holds a B.A. with highest honors from Swarthmore College.
Teaching in the area of criminal law, Eileen Prescott joined the School of Law faculty in the fall of 2025.
She came to the School of Law from Wake Forest University, where she served as the project director for the law school’s Accountable Prosecutor Project. For four years, Prescott led research in collaboration with students on prosecutor accountability and published the National Report of the State Law on Prosecutor Immunity.
Her scholarship includes “Absolutely Unnecessary Immunity” forthcoming in the Nebraska Law Review and “Carceral Control and Choice Paralysis” forthcoming in the Touro Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity.
Previously, she served as an assistant district attorney in the Federal Litigation Unit of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and was a judicial clerk for Chief Judge James E. Shadid of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois.
Prescott earned her bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Bradley University and her law degree from the University of Chicago, where she served on the Chicago Journal of International Law.
Hines becomes lecturer
Sherrie L. Hines (J.D.’09) became a lecturer at the School of Law during the spring semester.
Previously, she worked for more than seven years in the Athens-Clarke County Attorney’s Office, having served as a deputy chief attorney.
From 2009 to 2015, Hines served as an assistant public defender in the Western Judicial Circuit Public Defender Office. She also worked for two years at the Institute for Continuing Legal Education.
While at the Athens-Clarke County Attorney’s Office, she prosecuted all of the animal services ordinance violations and worked with the School of Law’s Practicum in Animal Welfare Skills to overhaul the government’s animal services ordinances, which were adopted in 2022. Additionally, her position involved collaborating with PAWS to develop animal welfare classes to educate citizens and reduce recidivism. Her work also involved a wide range of local government law topics.
She earned her bachelor’s degree summa cum laude and her law degree cum laude from UGA.
Violi serves as student engagement librarian
Anjelica C. Violi presently serves as the Alexander Campbell King Law Library’s student engagement librarian. She is responsible for the development and implementation of library activities and programs for law students and serves as the primary liaison between the law library and the student body.
She came to UGA in 2024 after serving as a staff attorney for the Indiana Gaming Commission, where she communicated and managed public records requests and license verifications, along with managing statewide patron exclusion lists and engaging in patron services. Violi also oversaw the revocation and suspension of occupational licenses for the commission.
Previously, Violi worked as a deputy attorney general in the Office of the Indiana Attorney General, a staff attorney at the Indiana Department of Child Services and as a contract document review attorney for PricewaterhouseCoopers, Legility (Consilio) and Knowable.
She earned two bachelor’s degrees from Indiana University – Bloomington, a J.D. from Valparaiso University Law School and a M.L.I.S. from Indiana University – Indianapolis.
