University of Richmond Law Professor Receives State Outstanding Faculty Award

March 7, 2002

Rodney A. Smolla, a University of Richmond law professor and leading American scholar of the First Amendment, has won a 2002 Outstanding Educator Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV).

The annual awards recognize excellence in teaching, research and service. All Virginia colleges and universities can nominate faculty members, and a committee of previous recipients, faculty, administrators, and business and community leaders chooses the winners.

Smolla and professors from 10 other institutions were selected this year from among 75 nominated. Three Richmond Law professors have won the award since its inception in 1987, more than any other law school faculty in the state.

Smolla joined Richmond Law in 1998 and is in demand nationally as a lecturer on constitutional, First Amendment and mass media law. He frequently serves the news media as a guest expert and participates in public service projects at the national, state and local levels. A prolific scholar, he has written numerous legal treatises, law school casebooks, and other publications. His book "Free Speech in an Open Society" won the William O. Douglas Award in 1992 as the year's best monograph on freedom of expression. A 2000 made-for-TV movie, "Deliberate Intent," chronicled Smolla's work to hold the publisher of a "hit man" manual liable for contributing to a murder.