Villanova Law Welcomes New Faculty and Community Members for 2026-27 Academic Year

Cristina Tilley teaches torts, media law and conflicts of law. Her scholarship challenges established narratives about the role of law in fostering a just and sustainable American community. Across a range of pressing issues, including media freedom, artificial intelligence and police accountability, she has explored the power of tort law to drive organic conversations about justice among peers and neighbors and has argued that normative questions about equality should be recentered from the judiciary to the jury. Before joining Villanova, she previously served as the Claire Ferguson-Carlson Fellow at the University of Iowa College of Law and was a fellow at Princeton University's Program in Law and Normative Thinking.

Joan Arnold was previously chair of the tax and benefits practice group at Troutman Pepper Locke, and retired from active practice after more than 30 years with the firm. While there, she specialized in international tax matters, with a focus on cross-border M&A in the private equity industry. Arnold has held leadership positions in many tax organizations, including serving as chair of the tax section of the ABA, president of the American College of Tax Counsel, vice president and member of the executive committee of the USA branch of the International Fiscal Association and a long-time chair of the Philadelphia Tax Conference.

Jack Boeglin studies the federal courts and the legal implications of Artificial Intelligence. His scholarship has been published (or is forthcoming) in the Michigan Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Villanova Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Yale Law Journal and Yale Journal of Law & Technology. Prior to joining Villanova, Boeglin was a Sharswood Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

Adam Kanji previously served as counsel at Comcast Business, where he advised on and negotiated a wide range of commercial agreements. In that role, he worked with stakeholders across the legal department and the broader business. Kanji also practiced as an associate at McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP, where he handled insurance defense and mass tort litigation, including depositions, summary judgment motions and settlement negotiations involving asbestos, premises liability and professional malpractice matters. He also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Joseph A. Turula, presiding judge of the civil division of the New Jersey Superior Court. Kanji has taught at the law school level since 2020. He previously taught negotiation and mediation at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey School of Law, Camden and has served as an adjunct professor at Villanova Law since 2024.

Sara Lynch trains future lawyers through hands-on legal practice that emphasizes ethical, reflective and zealous advocacy in Villanova’s Health Law Clinic. Prior to joining the Law School, Lynch directed the Housing Advocacy Clinic (HAC) at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey School of Law, Camden. HAC student interns provide legal services to help tenants remain in their homes, support safe and sustainable housing and build tenant power. Before entering clinical teaching, Lynch served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Timothy J. Savage of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She also served as a staff attorney with the Community Disability Advocacy Project at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia.

Bruce Grohsgal is the Helen S. Balick Professor in Business Bankruptcy Law at Widener University Delaware Law School, where he teaches bankruptcy and other commercial law courses and serves as director of the Delaware Institute of Corporate and Business Law. At Delaware Law School, he received the Douglas Ray Faculty Scholarship Award in 2018 and 2022 and the Outstanding Faculty Award in 2017 and 2025. Grohsgal joined the Delaware Law School faculty from Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones in Wilmington, Delaware, where he practiced business bankruptcy law, representing Chapter 11 debtors, trustees and creditors' committees.

Susan King teaches legal writing. She received an AB from Bryn Mawr College, a JD from Temple Law School and an MLS from Rutgers University. King began her academic career as a reference librarian at Rutgers Law School. She then taught in the legal methods department at Widener University Delaware Law School. She has also taught in the LLM program at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, the undergraduate law program at Drexel University and the legal research & writing program at Temple University Beasley School of Law. Prior to her academic career, King worked as a litigation associate at Pepper Hamilton & Scheetz, specializing in complex tort litigation.

Irina Manta specializes in intellectual property, torts, the internet, privacy, artificial intelligence, property, national security and immigration. She has a particular interest in the intersection of law and the social sciences, especially psychology and economics. Manta has published and has forthcoming work in the New York University Law Review, Texas Law Review and Vanderbilt Law Review, among others. She is also a co-author of a textbook on criminal law issues in intellectual property and blogs for The Volokh Conspiracy. In 2014, she received the Lawrence A. Stessin Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Publications from Hofstra University. 

Matthew Shapiro is a professor of law at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey School of Law, Camden, where he also co-directs the Rutgers Institute for Law and Philosophy. A proceduralist and legal theorist, Shapiro writes about civil procedure and related aspects of private and public law, drawing on legal and political theory to examine how the state uses procedural law to shape the resolution of private disputes in light of important public values such as democracy, dignity, equality and the rule of law. Shapiro has been repeatedly honored for his scholarship, including with a Rutgers University Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence.

Mehrnoosh Aryanpour is an energy lawyer and legal scholar whose work focuses on economic sanctions, energy security, energy justice, international trade and climate governance. Her scholarship examines how sanctions regulations and Office of Foreign Assets Control licensing policies affect energy transitions, particularly in sanctioned, fragile and conflict-affected energy markets. Prior to joining Villanova, she practiced law in the United States, France, Iran and Afghanistan.

Paul Szynol specializes in media, art, entertainment and technology transactions. For two decades, he has focused his legal practice on intellectual property matters. He has worked with award-winning filmmakers, tech startups and multinational companies. As an academic, he is especially interested in copyright law and the First Amendment. He frequently lectures on film and law at venues including SXSW and the Sundance Institute, and he has written about law, art and culture for academic journals and mainstream media outlets.

Julia Stern is a reference librarian and legal research instructor who teaches law students fundamental skills for research and legal practice and works closely with faculty on course development and scholarship. Stern earned a JD from the University of Cincinnati and a master's degree in library and information science from the University of Arizona. Before joining Villanova, Stern worked as a legal research and instruction librarian at Suffolk University Law School. She also served as an AmeriCorps VISTA with the Native American Development Corporation, an Indigenous nonprofit organization in Montana, and as a legal fellow with the Ohio Innocence Project.

Lily Haddad is an immigration attorney whose work focuses on advocating for immigrants' rights and keeping families together by representing asylum-seekers and providing removal defense. Haddad is the clinical fellow with the Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services (CARES), where she co-teaches the clinic seminar and supervises student advocates representing asylum-seekers and noncitizens. Prior to joining Villanova, Haddad specialized in detained removal defense and federal litigation at Palladino, Isbell & Casazza LLC, where she represented individuals in immigration detention in bond, asylum and cancellation of removal hearings, as well as in federal district courts across the country.