Newark, NJ – June 15, 2018 - Seton Hall Law is growing its faculty again, bringing on Professors Michael Bradford Coenen, Brian Murray, Heather Payne, and Richard Winchester starting on July 1. These hires, which are both entry level and lateral, will not only diversify Seton Hall Law’s academic offerings but also expand its scholarly footprint.

Professor Michael Coenen, formerly on the faculty of the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University, comes to Seton Hall with a strong national reputation as a Constitutional Law scholar.  He joins the faculty as a full professor with tenure, and has published in the Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, and Minnesota Law Review. 

Prior to his service at LSU, Professor Coenen was a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. He holds an A.B. in Music from Princeton University, where he graduated summa cum laude, and a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was an Articles Editor for the Yale Law Journal.  After graduating from law school, he clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Professor Brian Murray is currently at the University of Pennsylvania Law School where he is a Research Fellow at the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice. He will teach primarily in the Criminal Law area. His scholarship has been published in the University of Richmond Law Review, Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Harvard Law and Policy Review, Southern Methodist University Law Review, and Fordham Law Review.

Professor Murray has a wealth of legal practice experience, having served as an Assistant Public Defender at the Chester County Public Defender’s Office in Pennsylvania and a staff attorney at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia. Professor Murray was an Abraham L. Freedman Fellow at Temple University, Beasley School of Law, where he also earned an L.L.M. 

He received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Notre Dame Law School, where he served as the Executive Articles Editor of the Notre Dame Law Review. He earned his B.A., summa cum laude, from Villanova University.

Professor Heather Payne comes to Seton Hall Law from the University of North Carolina School’s Center for Climate, Energy, and Economics.  She joins Seton Hall Law to teach and do research in the areas of Energy and Environmental Law.  Her articles have been published in the Idaho Law Review, Pace Law Review, University of San Francisco Law Review, Environmental Law, and William and Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review.

Prior to her service at UNC, Professor Payne clerked for Judge Martha Geer on the North Carolina Court of Appeals. She also worked with The Southern Environmental Law Center, The Nature Conservancy, Sears Holdings Corporation, and Honeywell International. Professor Payne holds a BChE in Chemical Engineering where she graduated with High Honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a J.D. from University of North Carolina School of Law, where she graduated with High Honors and served as a member of the North Carolina Law Review and Symposium Editor for Environmental Law Project.

Professor Richard Winchester is visiting for the 2018-19 at Seton Hall Law School from his home institution of Thomas Jefferson School of Law, where he is a Professor of Law. He will be teaching Business Associations and Tax Law. His articles have been published in Tax Notes, the Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal, and the Stanford Law & Policy Review, among others.

Professor Winchester is recognized in tax circles, having been elected into the National Academy of Social Insurance in 2010 and spending most of 2012 in Tunisia as a Fulbright Scholar teaching Financing International Trade at the University of Carthage.

Prior to joining academia, Professor Winchester was a corporate tax planner, and spent most of his time in practice as an international tax attorney, culminating with a stint in the national tax office of PricewaterhouseCoopers. He also has experience in multi-state taxation and structured finance at law firms.  Professor Winchester earned his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law & Policy Review. Upon graduation, he clerked for Chief Justice Robert N.C. Nix, Jr., of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He holds a B.A. from Princeton University in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Seton Hall Law’s faculty comprises scholars and practitioners who prepare graduates for to meet the emerging substantive and practice challenges of the legal marketplace.