Two new professors began working at the OCU School of Law this year.
Jeremy Telman, associate professor of law, and Maria Kolar, assistant professor of law, began teaching at OCU’s law school this semester.
Jim Roth, dean of the School of Law, said both professors were hired through the Association of American Law Schools, an organization that allows universities to seek prospective law professors and lawyers interested in teaching. He said a committee of selected faculty chooses candidates for interviews, then presents options to the entire faculty for consideration. The faculty then recommend candidates to the dean, who then presents his choices to OCU President Martha Burger.
“They had areas of expertise in the subject matters that we needed coverage on. Professor Kolar is an expert in criminal law matters, and Professor Telman is an expert in civil procedure and contracts and many other subject matters. And so, they were really both well-qualified in general, but also very specifically to the subjects that we needed them to cover,” Roth said.
Roth said the professors were also chosen for their previous teaching experiences. He said he has heard of them as conscientious professors and is grateful for their efforts to create comfortable learning environments.
Telman taught at Valparaiso University Law School for 16 years and occasionally served as associate dean for faculty development. He has taught law at Brown University, served as a clerk on a Miami circuit for the U.S. Court of Appeals, and practiced law for Sidley Austin LLP in New York. He also edits the ContractsProf blog, the official blog of the AALS Section on Contracts, his university biography states.
Kolar taught at the University of Oklahoma College of Law for five years before joining OCU. She has served as a clerk for a Chicago circuit for the U.S. Court of Appeals, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, and the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. She also worked, most recently, in the Homicide Direct Appeals Division of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System.
Telman is teaching four sections of contracts this semester, he said. The subject deals with the fundamentals of common law. It is a year-long course, which Telman attributed to its complexity. The course is taught to first-year law students.
“It is far and away my favorite course to teach. There’s nothing like teaching first year students in their first semester. They’re really jazzed to be there. They’re stimulated by the subject matter,” Telman said. “Law school sort of takes it out of you. By the time you’re a third year, you’re ready to get out and practice law. So, I like to get them when they’re new.”
Telman said he feels welcome at OCU and is impressed with the workings of the School of Law. He said teaching is performative, and he joked that he usually understands the material by the fourth time he teaches it.
Connor Colclazier-Curtis, first-year law graduate, said she has found Telman’s contracts class approachable and interesting, especially due to his conversational tone. She said Telman takes the students through cases and breakdowns of contracts step-by-step, which she finds refreshing. She said Telman interjects levity into his teachings and includes poems for students to read as breaks from case readings.
“He does one thing in particular that I think all of us students appreciate, and he writes limericks. It’s so unique, but he writes limericks about cases we cover in class. So, we will discuss the case, and then after we’ve gone through all the details, he reveals his limerick that he’s written. And it usually is a very clever play on words that kind of helps you remember what the case was about and what happened,” Curtis said.
Curtis said she enjoys the investigative nature of diving into the details of documents. She said when she started law school, she expected to find criminal law more interesting, but due to Telman’s class she could now see herself going into civil law.
She said she and her classmates also enjoy reading Telman’s blog and following his social media posts.
“I think it kind of plays into his approachability, because some of these law professors can seem very intimidating,” she said. “When you see someone’s more casual interactions online and what they post and their thoughts that they share online, it just makes them seem a little more human and a little less scary.”
Kolar said she came to OCU because she has always wanted to teach criminal law. She is teaching two sections of Criminal Procedure this semester, she said, which focuses on the Fourth and Fifth Constitutional amendments and subjects such as Miranda rights. She said her class focuses on analyzing governing rules established in Supreme Court cases.
Kolar said they have discussed the execution of search warrants and how permissive the law is, to create a distinction for students about what is legally permissible but can, practically, lead to violence. She said she aims to help students understand things analytically so they can develop a personal, lawyerly perspective.
“The criminal law is all heavy stuff, or much of it is. We have fun in class, and sometimes we have fun just by comparing the perspective of the different justices. It’s definitely an area where judicial philosophy and differences of what different members of the court see as their role have made a huge difference,” she said. “Fundamentally, we try to approach the cases not emotionally, but analytically, to figure out what the rules are and why they are the way they are.”
Kolar is grateful for her previous teaching experiences, she said, since it helps with room management and making sure she communicates with every student in her classes, including the ones using Zoom to learn remotely. She said her course is content-driven because it is heavily bar-tested material, but she finds the use of humor important in her teaching.
“I try to give them tricks for how to remember some case names and stuff like that, but, yeah, I do try to use humor because, in general, I think it makes class more fun, and that’s important. I think it can help students remember something; they might remember a silly or cheesy little memory trick that you give them. And especially this year, it helps students connect with you as a person,” Kolar said.
Jacob Fanning, third-year law graduate, said criminal procedure is his favorite class this semester. He said Kolar is excellent at presenting the toughest topics in an exciting and engaging way, and her communication skills create a balance between theory and application, which he appreciates.
“I think you can tell a good professor in when, coming in to class, you can come in somewhat confused, and if you can leave the class having a little bit of the veil of confusion lift off your eyes a little bit. She does that very well,” he said. “It seems like after every class I feel like I genuinely have learned and understood the topic that we were discussing for that day.”
Fanning said Kolar works to engage every possible student in her classroom and accommodates those learning remotely.
“Oklahoma City University’s School of Law is just very fortunate to have Professor Kolar as a new faculty member this fall. She certainly fits right in to what we consider the OCU law family because not only does she have a deep understanding of the law, but she is able to teach it in a manner that is easy to understand, and has an eye towards the genuine care for the students that she has in her classroom,” Fanning said.
