University of Utah

andré douglas pond cummings is a Professor of Law at the West Virginia University College of Law where he teaches Business Organizations, Securities Regulation, Civil Procedure, Sports Law, and Entertainment Law.  Prior to joining the West Virginia University College of Law faculty, Professor cummings worked as a judicial law clerk for Associate Chief Justice Christine M. Durham of the Utah Supreme Court and for Chief Judge Joseph W. Hatchett of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.  In addition, he worked at the Chicago, IL based law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, focusing his practice on complex business transactions including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and securities offerings of publicly traded corporations.  Simultaneously, cummings represented clients in the sports and entertainment industries, including athletes in the National Football League, record labels, and a variety of authors, including Hollywood screenwriters and novelists.  cummings has written extensively on issues regarding investor protection, racial justice, and affirmative action, publishing in the Indiana Law Review, Nebraska Law Review, Fordham Journal of Corporate Law, Harvard BlackLetter Law Review, Santa Clara Law Review, Louisville Law Review, Marquette Sports Law Review, and Thurgood Marshall Law Review amongst others.  cummings is currently completing work on a book entitled Reversing Field: Examining Commercialization, Labor, Gender, and Race in 21^st Century Sports Law (West Virginia University Press) (with Anne Marie Lofaso).  Dr. Cornel West has recently stated that cummings’ scholarly “reputation goes far beyond West Virginia, to the nation, and is heard in every corner of the globe, wrestling with legacies of legal thinking on one hand and popular culture on the other.”  cummings has been recognized as Professor of the Year on three occasions since 2004, including the University Distinguished Professor Award by the West Virginia University Foundation.  cummings holds a J.D. from Howard University School of Law where he graduated cum laude and with high distinction.  He will be a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Utah (Fall 2009) and at the University of Iowa (Spring 2010).