New Dean's Distinguished Fellow Announced

MildredRobinson

Continuing Villanova Law’s commitment to bringing renowned leaders in the legal profession to campus, Mildred W. Robinson, the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Charitable Foundation Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Virginia, will join the Law School’s Dean’s Distinguished Fellows program beginning in the fall 2021 semester.

Professor Robinson joins other Villanova Law Dean’s Distinguished Fellows: The Honorable Joel Slomsky, Senior United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; Jonathan Klick, PhD, Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania; and Kellye Testy, President of Law School Admission Council. Professor Robinson, a renowned tax law expert, will teach a course on Issues in State and Local Taxes and Finance in the spring 2022 semester.

“I am honored to have Professor Robinson join Villanova Law as a Dean’s Distinguished Fellow,” said Mark C Alexander, The Arthur J. Kania Dean of Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. “She has been an esteemed and groundbreaking professor in the tax law field for decades, and I am thrilled to welcome her to our law school community. I know she will make a lasting impact on our students, faculty and staff.”

Professor Robinson retired in 2020 from the University of Virginia School of Law where she taught federal income tax, state and local tax, and trusts and estates for almost 35 years. She was UVA Law’s first African American female tenured professor. Prior to UVA, Professor Robinson taught at Florida State University for 12 years. 

Professor Robinson has served on the Law School Admission Council Board of Trustees and she was a member of the inaugural Board of Directors for Law Access, Inc. (currently The Access Group). She was a Commissioner from Virginia to the National Conference on Uniform State Laws from 1990-94 and was a member of the Board of Visitors for the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University from 1993-96. She served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law Schools from 2000-2003 and continues to serve as a member of that organization’s Resource Corps. She is a member of the American Law Institute.

Professor Robinson holds a JD from Howard University School of Law, an LLM from Harvard Law School and a BA from Fisk University.