Education

• LL.M University of Wisconsin Law School, 1999, Law and Globalization Fellow
• J.D. University of Wisconsin Law School, 1994, cum laude
• M.A. Ibero-American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1987
• B.A. Lewis and Clark College, 1984

Biography

Prior to teaching, Professor Ballard served as a law clerk for Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson, now Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. She also was an Associate with Perkins Coie, Seattle, and Special Counsel with Foley & Lardner, Madison, Wisconsin. Professor Ballard’s practice included general litigation, litigation of trust, estate and community property matters, estate planning and charitable foundation work. Professor Ballard taught courses as an Adjunct at the University of Wisconsin Law School before becoming an Associate Professor at Washburn University School of Law, from 2000 to 2004. She joined the Gonzaga faculty in 2004.

Professor Ballard has been an active member of the AALS Property Law section, developing and running its listserv since 2001. She also served as a Book Editor for the ABA Real Property Books and Media Publication Committee from 2005 to 2009. Within the Gonzaga community, Professor Ballard has worked to strengthen the Twinning Agreement between the Oregon and Colombian Provinces, spending July 2009 at Javeriana University in Cali, Colombia, studying Spanish and Colombian culture.

Professor Ballard’s scholarship focuses on legal protections for home, both domestically and internationally. During her 2010-11 sabbatical, she received a Fulbright grant to study the country of Georgia’s steps to comply with international legal norms regarding post-conflict restitution of homes and property. She also traveled to Bogota, Colombia, with a grant from the Gonzaga University Research Council to investigate measures to protect the rights of people forcibly evicted from their homes and land.

Professor Ballard’s pro bono work and community service has included membership on the board of directors of a nonprofit organization assisting homeless and low-income families in Topeka; political asylum representation in Seattle; work with judges through the Cambodian Court Training Project in Phnom Penh; low-income tenant representation in Spokane; distributing food at Spokane’s Second Harvest food bank; and training shelter dogs at the SpokAnimal humane society.

Publications

• Pre-Planning for Post-conflict Property Remedies: A Case Study from Georgia, 43 George Washington International Law Review 43 (2011).
• Estate Planning for Clients with Pets, Real Property, Probate and Trust, Winter 2010-11 (Washington Bar Association). Reprinted with permission, Oregon State Bar Association, Animal Law Section website, March 28, 2011, and reprinted with permission, Life Begins, Washington State Bar Association Senior Lawyer’s Section newsletter, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Spring 2011)
• Post Conflict Property Restitution: Flawed Legal and Theoretical Foundations, 28 Berkeley Journal of International Law 462 (2010)
• Washington’s Expanded Domestic Partnership Act, Real Prop. Prob. & Trust, Winter 2007-2008, at 7 (Washington Bar Association)
• The Shortsightedness of Blind Trusts, 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

• Post-Conflict Property Remedies and the Relaxation of Legal Norms, The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, October 27, 2011
• Pre-Planning for Post-conflict Property Restitution:  Lessons from Georgia and Colombia, Wittenberg University, October 28, 2011.
• The History of Animal Law in the United States, at Javeriana University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Cali, Colombia, April 11, 2011
• Pre-Planning for Post-conflict Property Remedies:  A Case Study from Georgia, Association for Law, Property, and Society annual meeting, Georgetown Law School, Washington, D.C., March 4, 2011, and Javeriana University, Bogotaá, Colombia, May 2, 2011
• The Legal Framework and Purposes of Common Law Trusts, at the Georgian Institute for Public Affairs, School of Law and Politics, Tbilisi, Georgia, December 14, 2010; at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia, December 16, 2010; and at Javeriana University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Cali, Colombia, April 12, 2011
• Post-Conflict Property Restitution in Georgia: Political Pragmatism or Humanitarianism?, at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University American Studies Center, December 3, 2010, and at the Center for Social Sciences, December 7, 2010
• The Ivory Tower and the Legal Community: A New Paradigm for Access, panelist speaker at the Washington State Access to Justice Conference, Wenatchee, WA June 5, 2010
• Creating and Using a Student Ratings Instrument, workshop presented at Salmon P. Chase College of Law Northern Kentucky University, October 30, 2009
• Estate Planning for Clients with Pets, Macs & Tax CLE, sponsored by Gonzaga University School of Law, Priest Lake, ID, September 26, 2009
• 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

Teaching Areas

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