BC Law Professor Alfred C. Yen will receive the 2016-2017 Professor Chris Kando Iijima Teacher and Mentor Award. Established by the Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty (CAPALF), it honors the life and achievements of Chris Iijima, who was a CAPALF member and a beloved and distinguished teacher and scholar at the NYU School of Law, Western New England School of Law, and the University of Hawai’i Richardson School of Law.
The award recognizes an outstanding law teacher, who, in the course of his or her career, has achieved excellence in the areas of public service and teaching, with some consideration of scholarship. It is particularly aimed at law teachers who have provided support, encouragement, and mentoring to colleagues, students, and aspiring legal educators.
Yen helped found CAPALF, and the first, fifth, and tenth conferences were held at BC Law.
“We were extremely impressed with the impact Fred has had on the many colleagues, legal educators, and students he has mentored and supported, as well as by the strong level of support from his colleagues in nominating him for this award,” said Rebecca K. Lee, associate professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law and a member of the CAPALF Board. “He has made many contributions to public service, teaching, and scholarship, including his service in co-founding and supporting CAPALF, and we are pleased to recognize his valuable work.” The award will be presented at this year’s joint CAPALF/NEPOC Conference, which will be held at Brooklyn Law School from June 2-3, 2017.
Yen is the Associate Dean of Faculty and a Professor of Law at Boston College Law School, Law School Fund Scholar, and Director of the Emerging Enterprises and Business Law Program. He is a nationally known scholar who has published numerous articles about copyright law, the Internet, Asian-American legal issues, and law teaching. His recent works include “The Challenges of Following Good Advice About Copyright and the First Amendment” in the Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property and “Private Ordering and Notice Failure in the Context of Termination” in the Boston University Law Review. The third edition of his casebook on copyright (co-authored with BC Law Professor Joseph Liu) entitled Copyright: Essential Cases and Materials, was published by West Publishing in 2016.
In addition to his leadership with CAPALF, Yen has held many positions of leadership within legal education and the broader practicing bar. He recently served as chair of the AALS Professional Development Committee and completed a term on the Board of Editors for the Journal of Legal Education and the Board of Governors for the Society of American Law Teachers. In 2001, the American Law Institute elected him to membership in the institute. Additionally, Professor Yen has served as chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Art Law and its Section on Minority Groups. In 1992, he wrote and filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court on behalf of 12 copyright scholars in the case of Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music Publishing Co. He also joined another group of copyright scholars to file an amicus brief in the case of A&M Records. Inc. v. Napster, Inc. during the summer of 2000.
Professor Yen is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School. Before joining the faculty in 1987, he practiced law in Los Angeles for four years at the firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter, and Hampton.