Professor Tran’s research focuses on regulatory structures that promote innovation and sustainable development. She is a frequent speaker on environmental/ energy, patent, administrative, and property law issues. Professor Tran has recently accepted offers of publication from the U.C. Davis Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology (invited contribution), George Washington Law Review, and Harvard Environmental Law Review. She has also agreed to co-author a collection of articles on “Intellectual Property, Innovation, and the Environment” with Peter Menell for Edward Elgar Publishing.  She won the national Burton Award for Distinguished Legal Writing in 2009 and was nominated for SMU’s Outstanding Faculty Award, a university-wide award given each year to a junior, tenure-track faculty member for excellence in teaching, curricular development, and scholarship, in 2011.

Before law school, Professor Tran worked as a civil and environmental engineer in private practice in California and as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guinea, West Africa. She later worked for the Energy Group of Jones Day, Washington, D.C., while studying for her law degree as an evening student at Georgetown University Law Center. While at Georgetown, Professor Tran was a founding member and executive articles editor of the Georgetown Global Critical Race Perspectives Journal. Professor Tran also served as a Senior Writing Fellow, as a Global Law Fellow, as a legal extern at Resources for the Future, and as a legal intern in the Environmental Division of the Institute for Public Representation Clinic at Georgetown. She graduated magna cum laude and was inducted into the Order of the Coif.

After graduating from law school, Professor Tran worked again for Jones Day and was selected to be a Fellow in the Georgetown Law Scholars Program. She then began serving as a clerk to the Honorable Timothy Belcher Dyk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Primary Articles

Intellectual Property, Innovation, and the Environment (Edward Elgar, forthcoming 2012-2013) (co-author Peter Menell).

Policy Tailors and the Rookie Regulator, U.C. DAVIS LAW REVIEW (forthcoming 2012).

Patent Powers, 25 HARVARD JOURNAL OF LAW AND TECHNOLOGY (forthcoming 2012) (invited contribution).

• Featured on PatentlyO, the leading intellectual property blog.

Administrative Law, Patents, and Distorted Rules, 80 GEORGE WASHINGTON LAW REVIEW (forthcoming 2012).

Expediting Innovation, 36 HARVARD ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW (forthcoming 2012).

• Featured on four blogs: (1) Written Description: Reviewing Recent Scholarship on Patent Law, IP Theory, and Innovation; (2) Sustainable Marks: A Law Blog about Trademarks, Patents, and Advertising-from a Green Perspective; (3) Green Patent Blog: Covering Intellectual Property Issues in Clean Technology; and (4) CleanTechies: A Leading Online Cleantech Destination, Green Career Site & Environmental Business Network on Clean Technology

Why Have Developers Been Powerless to Develop Ocean Power?, 4 TEXAS JOURNAL OF OIL, GAS, AND ENERGY LAW 195 (2009) (Work published when author not on law faculty).
              
Rebuilding Our Power Without Procedural Safeguards: A Federal Response to the 2005 Hurricanes that Outlasted the 'Emergency', 32 HARVARD ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW 217 (2008) (Work published when author not on law faculty).

• Selected for Burton Award for Distinguished Legal Writing, Law School Category.

Updated Hurricane Models: A New Opportunity to Insure Against Climate Change, 14 BOSTON UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LAW 73 (2008). (Work published when author not on law faculty).      
 
Experienced Intellectual Property Mediators: Increasingly Attractive in Times of Patent Unpredictability, Note, 13 HARVARD NEGOTIATION LAW REVIEW 313. (Work published when author not on law faculty).

• Featured on the IP ADR blog on June 30, 2008.

Speeches/Presentations

“Patent Powers,” SMU Junior Faculty Forum, SMU Dedman School of Law (November 2011)
 
“Patent Powers,” SMU Science & Technology Junior Faculty Forum, SMU Dedman School of Law (November 2011)
 
“Analyzing the Intersection between Administrative Law and Patent Law,” George Mason School of Law (November 2011)
 
“Changing Times: Changing Demands,” SMU Law School (September 2011) (introductory remarks preceding lecture by the Honorable Judge Richard Linn of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit)
 
“Trends in Intellectual Property Law,” Panelist, SMU Law School (September 2011)
 
“Expediting Innovation” and “The Role of the Patent Office,” Vermont Law School Colloquium on Environmental Scholarship (September 2011)
 
“America Invents Act: Should You Forget Everything You Knew About Patent Law?,” Panelist, SMU Law School (September 2011)
 
“Prioritizing Innovation,” Southeastern Association of Law Schools “The Law of Disaster: A Panel Discussion Focused on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice” (July 2011)

“U.S. Environmental Regulation on the Seas,” Presentation to Vietnamese Ministry of Justice Officials, SMU Dedman School of Law (March 2011)

“Overview of U.S. Maritime Energy Regulation,” Presentation to Vietnamese Ministry of Justice Officials, SMU Dedman School of Law (March 2011)

“Expediting Innovation: The Quest for a New Sputnik Moment,” SMU Junior Faculty Forum, SMU Dedman School of Law (February 2011)

“Administrative and Institutional Concerns in Patent Law,” Commentator, University of San Diego Patent Law Conference (January 2012)

“Administrative Law and the Patent System after Patent Reform,” University of Texas School of Law, Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal, Patent Law Symposium (February 2012)
 
“Policy Tailors and the Rookie Regulator," University of Wisconsin Law School, Global Law Faculty Speaker Series (March 2012)

“The Patent System’s Role in Promoting Renewable Energy Development,” University of Wisconsin Law School, Wisconsin International Law Review, Renewable Energy Symposium (March 2012)
 
“The Patent System’s Role in Promoting Renewable Energy Development,” Georgetown University Law Center, Georgetown International Environmental Law Review, Renewable Energy Symposium (April 2012)

"Overview of the America Invents Act," Moderator, SMU Dedman School of Law, Symposium on Emerging Intellectual Property Series (April 2012)
 
“Administrative Law and the Patent System,” Southeastern Association of Law Schools, “Special Relationships: Specialized Agencies and the Courts” (July 2012)
 
“The Patent System’s Role in Promoting Renewable Energy Development,” Southeastern Association of Law Schools, “Adapting to Climate Change” (July 2012)
 
“Administrative Law and the Patent System,” George Washington Law School, Intellectual Property Speaker Series (Fall 2012)
 
“Administrative Law and the Patent System,” Georgetown University Law Center, Fellows Workshop (Fall 2012)
 

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Service and Activities

Written Description Blog: Reviewing Recent Scholarship on Patent Law, IP Theory, and Innovation, Contributor
 
Institute for Energy Law, Advisory Board Representative
 
SMU Science and Technology Law Review, Faculty Advisor
 
SMU Diversity Issues Committee, Member
 
SMU Judicial Clerkship Committee, Member
 
SMU Faculty Secretary (Fall 2011)
 
The Honorable Barbara M.G. Lynn American Inn of Court, Organizational Committee, Member

Other

Special Event Nov. 9. 2011