Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law Welcomes Three New Faculty Members

Mark C. Alexander, The Arthur J. Kania Dean of the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, has appointed three new faculty beginning in the 2019-20 academic year. Jason Iuliano, Assistant Professor of Law, Melvin J. Kelley, Assistant Professor of Law and Komal Vaidya, Director of the Clinic for Law and Entrepreneurship and Assistant Professor of Law, will begin their tenures during the fall 2019 semester.

“I am thrilled to welcome Jason Iuliano, Melvin Kelley and Komal Vaidya to the Villanova Law community,” said Dean Alexander. “They are all dynamic teacher-scholars who I know will bring their varied expertise to educate and share with our students, as well as enhance our already remarkable faculty.”

Jason Iuliano, Assistant Professor of Law, is a PhD candidate in Politics at Princeton University. He previously earned a JD from Harvard Law School, where he was a co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Business Law Review, and a BA in Economics from Villanova University. Most recently, Iuliano was a Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Yale Law School. His research interests are in bankruptcy and consumer protection, with a particular emphasis on student loan debt. He has published more than a dozen articles in journals such as the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, and Michigan Law Review. This year, Iuliano will teach Bankruptcy, Contracts and Consumer Protection.

Melvin J. Kelley, Assistant Professor of Law, comes to Villanova from Northeastern University School of Law where he was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law and the first Elizabeth Ann Zitrin Fellow with the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project. Prior to Northeastern, Kelley held industry positions with the Connecticut Fair Housing Center and the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut. Kelley’s research seeks to harness the insights of a new intellectual movement known as Empirical Methods and Critical Race Theory (e-CRT) to re-envision the contributions of founding critical race scholars. He hopes his work will not only provide more comprehensive accounts of the political and legal impediments to equal opportunity that continue to impact historically marginalized populations, but also help establish a roadmap for societal reformation. Kelley earned a JD from Columbia Law School and a BA in Political Science, Economics and Africana Studies from College of the Holy Cross. Beginning this upcoming semester, he will teach courses in Property, Critical Legal Theory, and Fair Housing.

Komal Vaidya, Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Clinic for Law and Entrepreneurship, joins Villanova Law with both clinic and teaching experience from the University of Baltimore School of Law where she most recently was the Acting Director and Clinical Teaching Fellow of the Community Development Clinic. She also held teaching positions at the University of Denver College of Law where she was a Visiting Assistant Professor of the Practice and the University of Illinois College of Law where she was an Equal Justice Works Illinois Foreclosure Fellow in the Community Preservation Clinic. She also has legal experience working as a consultant for 9to5 Colorado and as a Staff Attorney for Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing. Vaidya is a graduate of the University of Miami School of Law and she earned a BS in International Studies and Psychology from the University of Illinois. At Villanova Law, she will be charged with running the Clinic for Law and Entrepreneurship, one of the law school’s six in-house law firms.

These appointments are the latest in support of Villanova Law’s continued effort to bring leading scholars and teachers to not only benefit law students, but the legal community as a whole.

“At a time when many law schools are not hiring, Villanova Law has welcomed seven new faculty members in the past three years, and three new faculty this year alone,” added Dean Alexander. “We are committed to hiring the best educators in legal education to ensure our students receive a top-notch broad-based legal education.”