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Associate Dean Byrnes Selected to the Fulbright Specialist Roster

June 24, 2013

Byrnes Fulbright

The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FFSB), the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES), has selected Thomas Jefferson School of Law Associate Dean William Byrnes for the Fulbright Specialist Roster for the five year term of 2013-2018 for the areas of comparative law and for taxation. 

“I am honored that the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and the State Department Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs found my record of publication and teaching and impact on international education strong enough to select me from its applicant pool,” said Dean Byrnes. “I really owe it to the academic recommendations provided Fulbright by Professor Richard Winchester, Dean Rudy Hasl, my former Dean, John Makdisi, and my South African supervisor, Professor Alwyn DeKoker.  These recommendations play a significant role for the Review Committee in its decision making process.”

“I think that my selection for this five year term, and Professor Winchester’s selection two years past as a Fulbright Scholar to Tunisia, provides testament that our national peers perceive Thomas Jefferson School of Law as an institution of high quality.  I knew that I would be competing with candidates from large universities, but felt that it was worth the effort because of my particular impact on distance education the past 18 years and my international comparative background.

“Professor Winchester was the catalyst alerting me to the Fulbright opportunity.  The rigorous Fulbright competitive process requires several levels of vetting of candidates’ academic publishing record, teaching experiences, and impact on international education.  To make it through the first round, a candidate must receive positive recommendations from the Fulbright Specialist Review Committee.  The second round includes the Committee determining by consensus who are best qualified to be Fulbright Specialists.  The Fulbright Specialist Program Council then vets the Committee’s names against exclusion lists for government funds and exchanges.  Finally, the names are forwarded to the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board for the final selection process for its specialist list.

“My goal for this opportunity is to spend time this coming academic year fleshing out some ideas regarding contextual comparative law learning that includes a social linguistic component that Professor Tiefenbrun will find familiar from her work, such as on Semiotics.  I don’t know where this line of thought will lead, but at least it’s a distraction from deciphering tax regulations.”

Congratulations to Dean Byrnes from everyone at TJSL!

More on Dean Byrnes: William Byrnes is the Associate Dean for Graduate & Distance Education Programs. He pioneered online legal education in 1995, thereafter creating the first online LL.M. offered by an ABA accredited law school. He is a key founding member of the Work Group for Distance Education in Legal Education that in 2013 published “Distance Learning in Legal Education: A Summary of Delivery Models, Regulatory Issues and Recommended Practices”. He has lectured courses in more than 30 countries.

Dean Byrnes has achieved authoritative prominence with 24 books, 73 book supplements, 22 book chapters, approximately 1,000 published articles, and 2 paid-subscription newsletters (e.g. Tax Facts Intelligence). His publishers include Lexis-Nexis, Wolters Kluwer, Thomson-Reuters, and National Underwriters. He is admitted to the National Press Club for the tax & insurance industry beat.