Jane Campbell Moriarty has been named the inaugural Carol Los Mansmann Chair in Faculty Scholarship at Duquesne University’s School of Law. She will begin her new role on Aug. 16.

The Mansmann chair is awarded to a faculty member who exhibits great accomplishment in legal scholarship; has the potential to contribute to the scholarly output of the law school faculty; and is acknowledged as a leader by disciplinary peers nationally and at Duquesne.

“Carol Mansmann was a devoted graduate of the law school, a prominent federal court of appeals judge and a gifted jurist who believed in the power of scholarship and mentored many young lawyers, judges and law professors,” said Law Dean Ken Gormley. “Professor Jane Moriarty likewise has a contagious enthusiasm for legal scholarship and for helping young faculty members contribute to society through cutting-edge work. She will help take our law school to higher levels of excellence. We’re honored to have a scholar with such respected credentials join our ranks, and doubly honored to have her occupy this prestigious new chair named for one of our most beloved alumnae.”

Mansmann, a 1967 graduate of Duquesne’s law school, was the first woman to be appointed to the bench in the Western District of  Pennsylvania. She served for three years on the U.S. District Court before her appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals. Mansmann also served as an assistant district attorney and as a special assistant to the Commonwealth attorney general, and engaged in private practice. She died in 2002 at age 59 after battling breast cancer.

“I am thrilled to be joining the faculty at Duquesne law school as the Inaugural Carol Los Mansmann Chair in Faculty Scholarship,” said Moriarty. “Judge Mansmann was such a great inspiration for so many women in the Pennsylvania legal community and I feel so honored to have this position and a title that includes her name.”

Currently a professor at the University of Akron School of Law, Moriarty teaches courses on evidence, expert and scientific evidence, and professional responsibility. Other topics she has taught include family law, disability discrimination and employment discrimination, among others.

Moriarty was the 2002 Professor of the Year at Akron law school, where, in 2007, she received an Alumni Faculty Scholarship Award and a Faculty Research Award. She served as editor of Women and the Law from 1998-2010. Her articles have appeared in Behavioral Sciences & the Law, the Nebraska Law Review, the ABA Judges’ Journal and the Utah Law Review. Moriarty’s new book, Misconvictions: When Law & Science Collide, will be published in 2012 by New York University Press.

“It is an exciting time for scholarship at Duquesne Law School,” said Moriarty. “Ken Gormley has set the pace with his remarkable publications, and I believe that the appointment of a chair in faculty research signals the support that the University and the law school have for the faculty’s scholarly endeavors.”

Moriarty held visiting professor posts at Case Western Reserve University’s law school and the University of Pittsburgh’s law school. At Duquesne, she was a program chair for Does Forensic Science Need Fixing?, the Wecht Institute’s 2009 symposium. A popular speaker, Moriarty has presented at numerous conferences and symposia, including events for the Ohio State Judges’ Convention, the Association of American Law Schools’ Annual Meeting and the Pennsylvania Conference of State Court Judges.

A resident of Shadyside, Moriarty earned bachelor’s degree in philosophy and her law degree from Boston College, where she received the Bapst Philosophy Medal as an undergraduate. She served as managing editor of the Boston College Third World Law Journal.