www.law.uga.edu

Alexander W. Scherr

Associate Professor and Director of Civil Clinics

B.A., Yale University
J.D., University of Michigan

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Courses

Civil Clinic
Public Interest Practicum
Dispute Resolution

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Biographical Information

Alexander W. Scherr joined the University of Georgia School of Law faculty in 1996 as the first director of civil clinics. He created the Civil Externship program and helped to establish the Family Violence Clinic. In addition, he teaches and manages the Public Interest Practicum. Scherr provides clinical instruction in these programs, and also teaches Dispute Resolution and Evidence and co-teaches in the Etowah Practicum and the Land Use Clinic.

Scherr also serves as program coordinator for the Cousins Public Interest Fellowship. He initiated and helped to design the law school's Mediation Practicum, designed to provide students with certification as court-related mediators.

His recent scholarship includes "Daubert and Danger: The 'Fit' of Expert Predictions in Civil Commitments" in the Hastings Law Review and "Lawyers and Decisions: A Model of Practical Judgment" in the Villanova Law Review. Scherr also edits Georgia Law of Evidence (5th ed., 1999), a text originally created by the late UGA professor Thomas Green.

Scherr earned a B.A. cum laude from Yale University and a J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan. He spent two years in private practice in Vermont, then 11 years at Vermont Legal Aid, where he directed both its general program and the Mental Health Law Project. He practiced actively in state and federal appellate courts, in both individual and class action suits, and advocated in both legislative and administrative fora. Scherr also practiced as a mediator in family, small claims and community disputes and participated actively in the Vermont Mediators Association and in various government commissions and committees on dispute resolution.

Scherr has served as an active member of the executive committee of the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education. He has also served on the board of the Clinical Legal Education Association serving as President in 2005. He also serves on the Board of the Society of American Law Teachers. Scherr serves as a consultant for clinical programs nationally and as a drafter of the Multistate Performance Test for the National Conference of Bar Examiners.

Scherr participates actively in local, state, regional and national education programs. He helped design portions of the Georgia Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism's nationally-recognized pilot mentoring program. He has presented continuing education programs for both practitioners and judges on topics including domestic violence law, mental health law and negotiation. He regularly presents at national and regional clinical legal education conferences, and serves as a primary organizer of national training for new clinicians.

Scherr was selected as one of 10 UGA Lilly Teaching Fellows for 2000-02. The program recognizes excellence in teaching and provides funding to strengthen course work, program development and scholarship. In 1999, he was videotaped as one of 50 citizens nationwide to read and discuss their favorite poem for the Favorite Poems Project, developed by the poet laureate and archived in the Library of Congress.

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