Professor Jessica Webb Receives Diane E. Ambler ’78 Faculty Curricular Innovation Award

Jessica Webb, Associate Professor of Legal Writing, has received the 2019 Villanova Law Diane E. Ambler '78 Faculty Curricular Innovation Award. The Ambler Faculty Curricular Innovation Award is presented annually to full-time faculty members who have distinguished themselves through the creation and implementation of positive curricular or pedagogical change or development.

Webb was recognized for this year’s award because of her innovative work in developing and teaching “Litigation/Appellate Advocacy and the Theodore L. Reimel Competition,” which integrates a course in the Duane Morris LLP Legal Writing Program with the Law School’s annual Theodore L. Reimel Moot Court Competition.  Since it was developed four years ago, the Appellate Advocacy course has become highly favored among Villanova Law students. In addition, the Reimel Competition has now been integrated with a legal writing and advocacy course.  In the course, students work under conditions that are reflective of many of the realities of legal practice, but with the guidance and structure of an academic course taught by a full-time professor.

“Jessica has taken what easily could have been a rather conventional skills course and, with her hard work and creativity, has turned it into an extraordinary learning experience for our students,” remarked Todd Aagaard, Professor of Law and a member of this year’s award selection committee.  “The committee was impressed by the variety and depth of the innovations our colleague has brought to her teaching.”

Diane E. Ambler ’78 is a senior partner at K&L Gates LLP and the immediate past chair of the Board of Consultors at the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. She has been ranked as one of the top lawyers in her field by Chambers USA and Best Lawyers of America, has been listed in Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers and has earned a membership in the prestigious American Law Institute. She has been a pioneer in the area of mutual funds governance and is a highly experienced practitioner in financial institution regulation under the federal securities laws.