Professor Thomas joined the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 2000.  In 2003, she received the Goldman Prize for teaching excellence.  In 2007, she received the Harold C. Schott Law Review award for her article "Why Summary Judgment is Unconstitutional," published by the Virginia Law Review.  More recently, she received the Harold C. Schott Scholarship Award, which recognizes outstanding research and scholarly achievement by a member of the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College of Law.  As a part of this award, during the 2007-08 school-year, Professor Thomas will deliver a public lecture that highlights her scholarship. 

Professor Thomas's research interests include the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial and theories of constitutional interpretation. Professor Thomas's article on summary judgment is currently the basis of arguments in the federal courts, and was recently featured in a piece in the New York Times where her argument was referred to as "perfectly plausible."  Professor Thomas's other work has also been influential.  Her article on remittitur was the basis of a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court, and a federal judge has commented that "her caution [regarding the effective elimination of the jury trial right through remittitur] merits evaluation by the federal courts."

Professor Thomas graduated from New York University School of Law, where she served as an Articles Editor on the Law Review and where she received several awards including the Leonard M. Henkin Prize for her note on equal rights under the 14th Amendment, the Mendes Hershman Prize for excellence in writing in the field of property law and the William Miller Memorial Award for outstanding scholarship in the field of municipal law.  After a federal clerkship in Chicago, Professor Thomas practiced law in New York City with Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard, P.C. and Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP.

She has spoken at several schools including, in the last year, the Ohio State University College of Law, the University of Minnesota Law School, New York Law School and William Mitchell College of Law.

In the fall of 2007, Professor Thomas is on academic leave and is a visiting scholar at Northwestern University School of Law. In the spring of 2008, she will be a visiting professor at Vanderbilt University School of Law.

Professor Thomas was a panelist for the Iowa Law Review Symposium entitled Procedural Justice: Perspectives on Summary Judgment, Preemptory Challenges, and the Exclusionary Rule. For more information about the symposium please click here. For a podcast of the symposium panels on Summary Judgment, please click here.

Download a copy of Professor Thomas' Curriculum Vitae (pdf).

Publications

Why the Motion to Dismiss Is Now Unconstitutional, 92 Minn. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2008).

The PSLRA's Seventh Amendment Problem (working paper 2007).

Why Summary Judgment is Unconstitutional, 93 Virginia L. Rev. 139 (2007).

Judicial Modesty and the Jury, 76 U. Colo. L. Rev. 767 (2005).

The Seventh Amendment, Modern Procedure and the English Common Law, 82 Wash. U. L.Q. 687 (2004).

Re-Examining the Constitutionality of Remittitur Under the Seventh Amendment, 64 Ohio State Law Journal 731 (2003).

Note, Efforts to Integrate Housing: The Legality of Mortgage-Incentive Programs, 66 New York University Law Review 940 (1991).