UK Rosenberg College of Law Welcomes New Faculty

University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law is pleased to announce seven new faculty. We are excited to welcome this impressive group to our law school as they become part of the distinguished, world-class faculty at the UK Rosenberg College of Law.

Laken Albrink, Assistant Clinical Professor of Legal Research and Writing

Albrink is a first-generation college graduate and UK Rosenberg College of Law alumna. She brings experience in higher education, state government, and private practice. Albrink comes to our law school from Morehead State University, her undergraduate alma mater, where she served as Legal Studies Program Coordinator, Assistant Professor of Legal Studies, Student Conduct Hearing Officer, and Law Clinic Coordinator. Prior to joining Morehead State University, Albrink served as Executive Advisor for the Commonwealth of Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services and Special Attorney for the Kentucky Attorney General Office of Child Abuse & Exploitation Prevention.

Albrink’s scholarship focuses on trauma-informed legal advocacy and elevating first-generation student success. In Albrink’s published article Cultivating Justice for Survivors of Sexual Assault in America’s Agriculture Industry, 6 Ky. J. Equine, Agric. & Nat. Resources L. 347(2014), she discusses the increased vulnerability of women working in the agriculture industry to become victims of sexual assault, especially those who are undocumented immigrants, and the lack of criminal convictions against farm supervisors and other perpetrators leading to a culture that keeps the victims fearful and silent.

Albrink obtained her Juris Doctor in 2015 from the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law. Continue reading>

Tiffany D. Atkins, Assistant Professor of Law

Atkins previously served as an associate professor of law at Elon University School of Law, where she taught first-year legal writing, upper-level writing courses, as well as doctrinal subjects -- Race and the Law and Family Law. Prior to joining Elon Law, Atkins was a staff attorney with Legal Aid of North Carolina, where she litigated family law, public housing law, unemployment, and educational justice cases. Atkins' scholarship centers around race, equity, and human rights; more specifically, she is interested in how law, culture, and systems impact the ability of Black people, people of color, and members of marginalized groups, to exist freely and fully in society. Her first full-length article, #FORTHECULTURE: Generation Z and the Future of Legal Education, examined this within the context of law school classrooms, and her latest article, These Brutal Indignities: The Case for Crimes Against Humanity in Black America, looks at the structure of domestic and international law, recognizing them as barriers to the full protection of Black human rights. 

Prior to joining the permanent faculty at Elon Law, Atkins completed at two-year fellowship at Elon in 2018 and was a visiting assistant professor at Wake Forest Law School in 2019. Atkins received her law degree from Elon University School of Law and her Bachelor of Arts from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Atkins was also the 2011 recipient of the prestigious David Gergen Award for Leadership and Professionalism. Continue reading>

Shavonnie Carthens, Assistant Professor of Law

Carthens will teach Health Care Law, Public Health Law and Equity, and Civil Procedure for UK Rosenberg College of Law. Her scholarly interests examine issues of environmental justice and health equity, with a focus on the ways in which the law can be a tool for improving access to healthy living environments. She also researches and writes at the intersection of legal literacy, race, and the First Amendment.

Carthens has consistently served others in her local and professional communities. She is an active member of the Legal Writing Institute, where she sits on the organization’s Pro Bono and Community Outreach Committee, as well as on the board for The Second Draft, a peer-reviewed publication dedicated to sharing ideas related to teaching legal research and writing. She also serves on the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, Parenthood & Child Caregiver Study Advisory Council. Continue reading>

Ilana Friedman, Assistant Professor of Law

Friedman received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin, a J.D. from the Saint

Louis University School of Law, and an M.A. (awarded with distinction) from Saint Louis University. She brings expertise in civil rights and criminal defense litigation to questions at the intersection of law and society.

In her research, Friedman studies the occupation of American policing and analyzes legal professionals' discretionary decision-making practices. Her dissertation, "The Rarity of Police Prosecution: Prosecutors, the Law, and Police Misconduct," draws on in-depth interviews with civilians and legal professionals working in the domain of police suspect investigations and prosecutions to better understand the legal processes alongside the organizational structures involved with the investigation and prosecution of police misconduct. Continue reading>

D'lorah Hughes, Director of Clinics and Externships/Associate Professor of Law

Hughes joined the UK Rosenberg College of Law in June 2022 as Director of Legal Clinics and Externships and Associate Clinical Professor of Law. Hughes comes to us from the University of California, Irvine School of Law where she was Director of Externships and Adjunct Professor of Law. Hughes was formerly the Director of Clinical Education at Wayne State Law School and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas School of Law where she directed and taught in the Criminal Clinics of the Arkansas Legal Clinic. Hughes is a graduate of Duke University School of Law. Continue reading>

Alexandra Jean Sipes, Assistant Clinical Professor of Legal Research and Writing

Sipes served as a senior associate attorney with NOVA Business Law Group in the commercial litigation

practice in Fairfax, Virginia. She is a graduate of George Mason University School of Law, where she has also served as an adjunct professor for the first-year legal research, writing, and analysis program as well as a coach for the trial advocacy association. While in law school, she served as a research editor on the Civil Rights Law Journal and competed in the American Association of Justice Student Advocacy Competition where her team won the D.C. Regional and went on to place second in the national competition. Upon graduation, Sipes was awarded the Virginia Trial Lawyers’ Association Student Advocacy Award.

After law school, Sipes served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Daniel S. Fiore II at the Arlington County Circuit Court. Prior to joining NOVA Business Law Group, she worked in private practice in Northern Virginia where she litigated a diverse case load, including catastrophic personal injury, automobile accidents, professional liability, employment disputes, premises liability, and construction and commercial disputes. Continue reading>

Raquel K. Wilson, Assistant Professor of Law

Wilson, a New York native, graduated magna cum laude from Rice University, with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. After receiving a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School, Wilson served as law clerk to the Honorable Robert L. Hinkle, at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida from 1996 to 1998. After her federal court clerkship, Wilson remained in Florida to practice law as an associate attorney for the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund from 1998 to 1999. Wilson then served 10 years as an Assistant Federal Public Defender, first in the Southern District of Texas and then in the Western District of North Carolina.

For 13 years, Wilson provided legal and policy advice to the United States Sentencing Commission, first as Deputy General Counsel, and for the last six years as director of the Commission's Office of Education and Sentencing Practice. Continue reading>