Professors Fleischer, Ramirez and Wiggins receive USD Honors and Professorships

Professors Fleischer, Ramirez and Wiggins receive USD Honors and Professorships

San Diego (September 14, 2020) – The 2020 Fall Convocation video was released Friday, with several University of San Diego (USD) School of Law professors selected as recipients of annual faculty professorships and honors. The awardees included Miranda Perry Fleischer, who was named University Professor, Jean Ramirez, who was named Class of 1975 Endowed Professor, and Mary Jo Wiggins, who was named the Herzog Endowed Scholar.

The University of San Diego recognizes esteemed faculty members with awards during the annual convocation, which was presented virtually this year. The University Professor award is the highest academic honor bestowed university-wide at USD and recognizes outstanding scholarly achievements in teaching and research. The Class of 1975 Endowed Professorship, created by the 1975 graduating class as its 25-year reunion gift to the law school, recognizes the meritorious teaching, leadership and academic work of a School of Law professor. The Herzog Endowed Scholar award recognizes the meritorious teaching and scholarly productivity of a School of Law professor.

Click here to learn more and watch the 2020 Fall Convocation.

About Professor of Law Miranda Perry Fleischer

Professor Miranda Perry Fleischer teaches and writes in the areas of individual taxation, wealth taxes and non-profit law. Fleischer was recently named the 2020-2021 University Professor, and also won the University of San Diego Law School’s 2014-15 Thorsnes Prize for Excellence in Teaching (determined by student vote). Before entering academia, Fleischer practiced as an estate planner at Shaw Pittman LLP and as a litigator at the Institute for Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based public interest group, which piqued her interest in charitable giving.  

About Professor of Law Jean Ramirez

Professor Jean Ramirez teaches in the areas of trial advocacy, evidence, criminal law, criminal litigation and juvenile law. She has served as deputy public defender for the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office and has spent sabbatical leaves with the Family Protection Unit at the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office and the International Legal Foundation (ILF), helping to develop a criminal defense clinic in the West Bank. Ramirez has been named a 1997-1998 Herzog Endowed Scholar, received the Woman of Impact Award in 2009 and the Thorsnes Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2014.

About Professor of Law Mary Jo Wiggins

Professor Mary Jo Wiggins writes and teaches in the areas of remedies, property, bankruptcy, debtor-creditor law and legal theory. She was recognized as the University Professor 2016-2017, the Herzog Endowed Scholar 1997-1998, the Class of 1975 Endowed Professor 2009-2010, and she was awarded the Thorsnes Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2020.

About the University of San Diego School of Law

Each year, USD educates approximately 800 Juris Doctor and graduate law students from throughout the United States and around the world.  The law school is best known for its offerings in the areas of business and corporate law, constitutional law, intellectual property, international and comparative law, public interest law and taxation.

USD School of Law is one of the 84 law schools elected to the Order of the Coif, a national honor society for law school graduates.  The law school’s faculty is a strong group of outstanding scholars and teachers with national and international reputations and currently ranks 36th nationally among U.S. law faculties in scholarly impact and 22nd nationally in past-year faculty downloads on the Social Sciences Research

Network (SSRN). The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. Founded in 1954, the law school is part of the University of San Diego, a private, independent, Roman Catholic university chartered in 1949.