Areas of Teaching ExpertiseContracts
Contractual Drafting
Secured Transactions
Legal Analysis, Writing, and Research II
Professional Responsibility
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Negotiations and Counseling
Mediation Skills
AI and the Law
Jay loves his wonderful family of Owen, Karen, Allie, Sami, Kenzie, Rome and Little Rome (and his Great Dane, Cypress, miniature dachshund, Dobby, and five cats, Luna, Brooklyn, Toby, Cinder, and Toulouse), who gives meaning to all he does and reminds him of his real place in the world. While loving his family and perennially contemplating his purpose, Jay is currently an Associate Professor of Law at Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas. Before becoming an Associate Professor, Jay was a Clinical Teaching Fellow with the Mediation Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law for three years, where he also taught mediation skills as an adjunct professor six years prior to his fellowship. While Jay taught as an adjunct at the University of Baltimore, Jay was also an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland School of Law.
While serving as an adjunct, Jay directed and managed the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Division at the Maryland Appellate Court, starting there as a mediator-staff attorney, where he worked as a full-time mediator on civil appellate matters. With the help of his staff, Jay managed the operations of the ADR Division while also conducting appellate mediations, personally mediating over 300 civil appellate cases, including contract, tort, estate, guardianship, foreclosure, real property, and domestic disputes and conflicts. Prior to being promoted to Director, Jay was a Staff Attorney-Mediator at the ADR Division. Jay came to the Court from private practice where he specialized in Family Law mediations for English and Spanish-speaking clients and counseled clients on securities regulatory matters. Prior to coming to the Court, and since 1998 while practicing as an attorney, Jay had been a mediator for various circuit courts, specializing in child access and domestic/financial property cases. Prior to the ADR Division, Jay conducted mediations in over 400 cases, which included the cases in the circuit courts and private contract and business partnerships.
Before the Appellate Court’s ADR Division, Jay practiced as a mediator part-time and full-time as an attorney and manager with several state and private securities organizations. Jay altered industry oversight practice for certified financial planners when he joined the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board) in bringing their headquarters from Colorado to District of Columbia, and managing the Office of Professional Review as Director until being promoted to Government Affairs Counsel, as its lobbyist in D.C. As Special Counsel for Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) before CFP Board, Jay assisted the enforcement and auditing departments within FINRA regulating broker-dealers. As an Assistant Director for the Securities Bureau of D.C.’s Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking before FINRA, Jay established the Division of Examinations to enforce D.C.’s securities laws, regulations, and rules, and conduct investigations, audits, and inspections of broker-dealers, investment advisers, and their employees. Jay started his legal career as a staff attorney at the Securities Division in the Office of the Attorney General for Maryland.
In the past, Jay chaired the Maryland State Bar Association’s ADR Section Council and several committees under the Council. Currently, Jay is a Maryland Bar Fellow with the Maryland Bar Foundation. While working as Director of the ADR Division, Jay assisted several Maryland Judiciary-wide ADR Committees and served on the Judiciary’s Work Group on the Standards of Conduct for Mediators. Jay received his B.A. in English from the State University of New York College at Fredonia in 1992 where he was President of the Student Government Association, Vice President of the Black Student Union, and a founding member of Latinos Unidos. Later, he earned a J.D. from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law in 1996 where he was also President of the Student Bar Association and a founding member of the Federalist Society. While in law school, he participated in the Juvenile Justice Clinic.
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