Ballard, Megan J.

Megan J. Ballard Associate Professor mballard@lawschool.gonzaga.edu (509) 313-3752 B.A., Lewis and Clark College, 1984 M.A., Ibero-American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1987 J.D., University of Wisconsin Law School, cum laude, 1994 LL.M., University of Wisconsin Law School, 1999, Law and Globalization Fellow

Biographical Information

• Former Associate with Perkins Coie, Seattle, and Special Counsel with Foley & Lardner, Madison, Wisconsin
• Law clerk for Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson, now Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court
• Practice included general litigation, litigation of trust, estate and community property matters, estate planning and charitable foundation work
• Adjunct, University of Wisconsin Law School, 1999-2000
• Associate Professor, Washburn University School of Law, 2000-04
• Member of the executive committee of the AALS Property Law section
• Book Editor, ABA Real Property Books and Media Publication Committee
• Current scholarship focuses on subsidized housing and the privatization of social services
• Pro bono work and community service has included membership on the board of directors of nonprofit organization assisting homeless and low-income families in Topeka; political asylum representation in Seattle; Cambodian Court Training Project in Phnom Penh; and low-income tenant representation in Spokane

Teaching Areas

• Property
• Trusts & Wills
• Comparative Law
• Animal Law

Publications

• Washington's Expanded Domestic Partnership Act, Real Prob. Prob. & Trust, Winter 2007-2008, at 7 (Washington Bar Association)
• The Shortsightedness of Blind Trust, Kansas Law Review, Volume 56 (Fall 2007)
• Legal Protections for Home Dwellers: Caulking the Cracks to Preserve Occupancy, 56 Syracuse L. Rev. 277 (2006)
• Profiting from Poverty: The Competition Between For-Profit and Nonprofit Developers for Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, 55 Hastings L. J. 211 (2003)
• The Clash Between Local Courts and Global Economics: The Politics of Judicial Reform in Brazil, 17 Berkeley J. of International L. 230 (1999)

Presentations

• Washington's Domestic Partnership Act, Spokane Estate Planning Council, January 13, 2009
• Washington's New Domestic Partnership Act: Estate Planning for Domestic Partners, Macs & Tax CLE, sponsored by Gonzaga University School of Law, Priest Lake, ID, September 27, 2008
• Estate Planning with Companion Animals, at the Doing Well By Doing Good In Animal Law Cases CLE, sponsored by Gonzaga University School of Law, Spokane, WA, September 26, 2008
• The Spokane City Council voted to adopt a zoning ordinance that Prof. Ballard drafted and shepherded through the legislative process, allowing honeybees to be kept in the city, September 24, 2007
• Prof. Ballard attended the ABA Section on Real Property, Trust & Estate Law's 2007 Fall Leadership Meeting, Oct. 19-21, in her capacity as a Book Editor for the Real Property Media/Books Committee

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