Ed Larson, Tom Stipanowich, And Ahmed Taha Win Pepperdine University Faculty Awards

Congratulations to my friends and colleagues Ed Larson, Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law and University Professor, Tom Stipanowich, William H. Webster Chair in Dispute Resolution and Professor of Law, and Ahmed Taha, Professor of Law, on receiving Pepperdine University Faculty Awards. 

Ed Larson won the Stephen D. Davis Award for Scholarly Achievement: 

This award will honor the contributions of Pepperdine faculty members who are strengthening our scholarly contributions, and elevating our research reputation. Examples of such accomplishment include research publications of high impact, scholarly books, major musical and artistic products/exhibitions, mentoring of Pepperdine students resulting in scholarly accomplishment, receiving national or international award or recognition for work directly related to their scholarship, and leadership in securing major research grants from external agencies.

Ed Larson
Recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in History and numerous other awards for writing and teaching, Larson is the author or co-author of fourteen books and over one hundred published articles. His 2015 book, The Return of George Washington: Uniting the States, 1783-1789, was a New York Times Bestseller and resulted in Larson being invited to deliver the 2016 Supreme Court Historical Society lecture in Washington, give the annual Gaines Lecture at Mount Vernon, and serve as a featured presenter for the Library of Congress's Madison Council event. His other books, which have been translated into over twenty languages, include An Empire of Ice: Scott Shackleton, and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science; A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign; and the Pulitzer Prize winning Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion. Larson's articles have appeared in such varied publications as Nature, Atlantic Monthly, Science, Scientific American, Time, Wall Street Journal, American History, The Guardian, and dozens of law reviews. His latest book, American Inheritance, was published by W.W. Norton in 2023.

Tom Stipanowich and Ahmed Taha won the Howard A. White Award for Teaching Excellence: 

The Howard A. White Award for Teaching Excellence recognizes outstanding teachers who embody Pepperdine University's commitment to excellence. The award honors teachers who inspire, stimulate, challenge, and motivate their students; teachers who develop in students the ability to think critically and creatively about the world; teachers who instill in their students a lifelong love of learning.

Tom Stipanowich
"Professor Stipanowich opened the aperture of my mind to how mediation and arbitration can benefit people's lives versus going to court."

Professor Stipanowich is the William H. Webster Chair in Dispute Resolution and Professor of Law at Caruso Law, as well as Professor of Law at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, where he teaches courses in negotiation theory and practice, mediation, arbitration practice and advocacy, international commercial arbitration and international dispute resolution. He has also taught contracts, commercial law, remedies, Anglo-American legal history and property. He is a leading scholar, speaker and trainer on conflict resolution topics as well as an experienced arbitrator and mediator.

Professor Stipanowich was co-author, with Professors Ian Macneil and Richard Speidel, of the groundbreaking five-volume treatise Federal Arbitration Law: Agreements, Awards & Remedies Under the Federal Arbitration Act, cited by the United States Supreme Court and many other federal and state courts, and named Best New Legal Book by the Association of American Publishers. He also co-authored Resolving Disputes: Theory, Law and Practice (3rd ed. 2016), a law school course book supplemented by many practical exercises. He is the author of many other much-cited publications on arbitration and dispute resolution, and has twice won the CPR Institute's First Prize for Professional Articles (1987 and 2009) - most recently for Arbitration: The "New Litigation." In 2008, he received the D'Alemberte/Raven Award, the highest honor accorded by the ABA Section on Dispute Resolution, for contributions to the field. In the fall of 2010 he was Scholar-in-Residence at the Park Lane (London) office of WilmerHale, which specializes in international commercial arbitration. In the fall of 2014 he was the New Zealand Law Foundation's International Dispute Resolution Visiting Scholar, and in the summer of 2015 was a visiting professor at Heidelberg University's Institute of Private Law. In 2016 he was awarded the CPR Institute's James F. Henry Award for "outstanding achievement by individuals for distinguished, sustained contributions to the field of dispute resolution," and in 2017 was given the honorific title of Distinguished Law Professor by National Law University, Delhi, the third person and the first non-Indian to be so honored by that institution.

Ahmed Taha
"Phenomenal professor - he took one of the hardest courses and taught it in a format that was conducive to all learners."

Professor Taha's research focuses primarily on consumer and investor protection law. This research reflects both his training in law and in economics in which he holds a PhD. His research has been discussed in national media outlets, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. 

Prior to joining the Pepperdine faculty, Professor Taha was a professor at Wake Forest Law School, an attorney in the Antitrust Division of the U. S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., a litigation associate with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, California, and a corporate finance analyst at McKinsey and Company in New York. Professor Taha teaches Civil Procedure, Corporations, and Accounting and Finance for Lawyers.