Seven new full-time faculty members started at the University of Dayton School of Law for the Fall 2025 semester.
The new professors add to the School of Law’s well-rounded faculty by bringing a variety of experiences and skills to their teaching and scholarship.
“This is such a fantastic group of people and I’m excited to see the positive impact they will have on our students and the UDSL community,” says Interim Dean Christopher Roederer. “For us, this is one of the largest cohorts of faculty to start at one time, so they will really have the opportunity to grow together through the years and help each other while helping our students.”
The new faculty arrived as the School of Law achieved its highest-ever ranking in the U.S. News & World Report law school rankings. UDSL also ranked in the top two among Ohio law schools in employment in full-time bar pass-required and J.D. advantage positions for the Class of 2024, and tied for second among Ohio law schools in first-time taker bar passage rate on the July 2024 bar exam.
“We are proud of the success of our students and alumni, but what really makes this an attractive place to teach is the sense of community we have built here among our faculty, staff and students,” Roederer says.
Learn more about each new faculty member by reading their profile or visiting their online bio.
Professor Gerrard Burch joins the faculty following seven years of service in the Appellate Division of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.
During his tenure, he authored approximately one hundred briefs before the Illinois Appellate Court, covering a wide range of complex legal issues including constitutional law, evidence, criminal law, and criminal procedure. His appellate work spanned the full spectrum of criminal litigation—from direct appeals to post-conviction and other collateral proceedings.
In addition to his public service, Professor Burch spent time as a bar exam tutor with Minority Legal Resources, where he specialized in helping students master core doctrinal subjects such as evidence, criminal law, criminal procedure, and constitutional law.
Professor Yuanyuan (Kate) Ren joins the faculty from Elon University School of Law, where she served as an adjunct professor. Prior to that, she was a Scholar-in-Residence in the Government Department at Hamilton College (2022-2023) and a Hauser Postdoctoral Global Fellow at New York University School of Law (2020- 2022).
Ren’s teaching and research interests include public international law, international trade law, international dispute resolution, torts, intellectual property, and polar law. She earned her Doctor of Juridical Sciences (S.J.D.) from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 2021 and received her Ph.D. in International Law from Fudan University Law School in 2012.
Professor Dan Schoeni joins the faculty following 21 years on active duty with the U.S. Air Force, where he specialized in government procurement law. Prior to the military, he clerked for Justice Jerry Larson of the Iowa Supreme Court. He also has a Ph.D. in Public Procurement Law from the University of Nottingham.
Dan has been an adjunct professor since 2016, first at King’s College London and now at George Washington University.
Dan will be teaching first-year Contracts I and II and will serve as the NCR Distinguished Professor of Law and Technology, directing the law school’s Program in Law and Technology (PILT).
Professor Allison Silvain joins the faculty having previously taught as a Visiting Assistant Professor at UDSL since the Fall of 2022, teaching Appellate Practice and Procedure, Legal Profession I and II, and the Leadership Honors Program Legacy course.
After graduating from University of Baltimore School of Law, she practiced Federal and State litigation focusing on environmental products liability, toxic tort, and insurance defense, primarily in Maryland and Washington D.C. Her pro bono legal work focused on special education cases through the Maryland Disability Law Center, assisting parents advocating for their children's needs in public schools.
In addition to her litigation practice, she has taught Legal Writing, Torts, and Computer Applications in the Legal Environment at the University of Maryland Global Campus for 20 years.
Professor Mike VanderHeijden joins the faculty having been a librarian and Lecturer of Legal Research at Yale Law School where he taught specialized legal research courses focused on environmental law, corporate law, and judicial history and participated in first-year legal research instruction.
His service activities center on access to information, a core value of librarianship. He worked with the United Nation’s Research4Life project delivering webinars on accessing legal resources for librarians and legal professionals in low- and middle-income countries. While at Yale, he served as co-Administrator for Law Archive, a free, global, online archive of working papers, preprints, and fully published papers focusing on legal scholarship. Professor VanderHeijden has written about 18th-Century federal regulations, and on issues in law library administration.
Professor VanderHeijden will serve as the director of the Zimmerman Law Library. He looks forward to continuing Professor Susan Elliott’s efforts to make the library a welcoming space for collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Professor Laura Vlieg joins the faculty having previously worked in legal education at various law schools over the past decade, holding positions as a Lecturer & Law Librarian at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, as a Student Services Librarian & Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Nevada Las Vegas William S. Boyd School of Law, and as a Law Library Fellow at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers Law School.
Before entering academia, Professor Vlieg practiced law in the Washington DC area, representing aerospace companies, individual employees, and trade associations in compliance and licensure matters before federal agencies.
Professor Aaron Walayat joins the faculty having previously clerked for the Hon. Joseph T. Deters of the Supreme Court of Ohio and for the Hon. William S. Stickman IV of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
While practicing civil litigation and creditors’ rights in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Professor Walayat taught courses on state constitutional law and legal philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and Washington & Jefferson College.