Ph.D. Candidate Profiles

Jenné B. Ayers

Jenné B. Ayers is a Ph.D. in Law candidate at Yale. She is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School. Her research focuses on the laws, political institutions, and administrative agencies regulating local economies. This research draws upon local government law, constitutional law, the history of political thought, and empirical legal studies.

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Beau J. Baumann

Beau Baumann is a Ph.D. in Law candidate at Yale. His research is focused at the intersection of administrative law and legislation. His scholarship describes how institutional developments in Congress and ideas about congressional decline have affected administrative law doctrine. His work has been published in the Georgetown Law Journal, the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Pace Law Review, and the online editions of the Notre Dame and University of Pennsylvania Law Reviews. His research at Yale is focused on the rise of the “congressional bureaucracy” and how congressional bureaucrats influenced the Progressive Era and the New Deal.

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Dwayne Betts

Reginald Dwayne Betts is a Ph.D. in Law candidate at Yale. His major research interests are administrative law, criminal law, empirical legal studies, and law and literature. He holds a B.A. from the University of Maryland and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Prior to law school, Dwayne was a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies and a Soros Justice Fellow. In addition, he served by appointment of former President Barack Obama as a practitioner member of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

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Lauren Libby

Lauren Libby is a Ph.D. candidate in Yale Law School’s doctorate degree program. Her research focuses on the intersection of tax, constitutional law, and American legal history. Prior to joining Yale’s Ph.D. in Law program, Lauren practiced as an attorney at Covington & Burling LLP, advising corporate and individual clients on federal and international tax issues. Lauren has also testified before the United States Congress and the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Lauren’s work has appeared in Politico, as well as tax trade publications.

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Portia Pedro

Portia Pedro is a Ph.D. in Law candidate at Yale. Portia's work systematizes the study of civil procedure. She analyzes the ways that judges use decisionmaking processes to navigate the tensions between law and equity, standards and rules, and rule of law versus individualized justice. Portia holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in International Development Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. During law school, she served as Treasurer and Vice President of the Harvard Law Review. Prior to her doctoral studies, Portia served as a clerk to the Honorable Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr., of the Third Circuit. As a member of the New York State Bar, she practiced at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP as a litigation associate in New York, and as a John J. Gibbons Fellow in Public Interest and Constitutional Law at Gibbons P.C. in Newark, New Jersey.

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Adam Posluns

Adam Posluns is a Ph.D. in Law candidate at Yale and a Resident Fellow of the Information Society Project. His research interests include surveillance and digital privacy, online speech and misinformation, and constitutional and legal theory. Adam completed his LL.M. at Harvard Law School as a Fulbright Scholar. He holds a J.D. from the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, where he was a Human Rights Fellow and a senior editor of the Law Review. He also has an M.A. from the University of Chicago, with a focus on moral and political theory, and a B.A. from McGill University. After law school, he worked as a litigator in Toronto and served as a judicial clerk.

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Angel E. Sanchez

Angel E. Sanchez is a Ph.D. in Law candidate at Yale. Angel’s research explores the tensions between democracy, citizenship, and the U.S. criminal legal system. He focuses on how legal frameworks and institutions affect system-impacted individuals, particularly in areas such as voting rights restoration, access to higher education, and socio-economic inclusion. His work is deeply rooted in democratic values and seeks to advance interventions that protect the dignity and equal citizenship of individuals affected by the criminal legal system, especially those from marginalized communities.

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Amanda Shanor

Amanda Shanor is a Ph.D. in Law candidate at Yale. Her research focuses on constitutional and administrative law, speech and association, and their intersection with the behavioral sciences. A graduate of Yale Law School and Yale College, Amanda served as a law clerk to the Honorable Cornelia T.L. Pillard and the Honorable Judith W. Rogers of the D.C. Circuit and the Honorable Robert W. Sweet of the Southern District of New York.

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