ASU Law welcomes six new faculty members for the 2025-2026 academic year

The Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University is proud to announce the appointment of six new faculty members, whose areas of interest and practice range from civil rights, corporate law, torts, health law and legal method and writing.

This new group of faculty will join the growing ranks of prestigious faculty at ASU Law during the 2025-2026 academic year, officially starting on August 16.

Elissa Gentry

Elissa Gentry joins ASU Law as a scholar specializing in health law, torts, and law and economics, with a focus on legal responses to risk and uncertainty in health care. Her research examines pharmaceutical regulation, medical malpractice and the challenges of informed consent amid uncertain medical outcomes. She brings an interdisciplinary perspective, integrating legal analysis with empirical methods to better understand how law influences health care decision-making and policy.

Gentry will teach law and economics and a private health law course in the coming year; in the future, she will also teach torts. Her scholarship has explored complex issues such as the legal implications of emerging occupational risks, the valuation of health risks and the intersection of law and patient autonomy. Some of her more notable publications include Disrupting the Risk Ratchet, forthcoming in the Oregon Law Review, Disregarding Uncertainty, Marginalizing Patients published in the 2023 issue of the Indiana Law Review and Damned Causation published in the 2022 issue of the Arizona State Law Journal.

She was drawn to ASU Law for its strong health law program and commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship. Gentry values a participatory teaching style that encourages students to critically engage with material and challenge assumptions. 

Gentry is particularly passionate about her ongoing research into fertility treatment and precision medicine, areas she sees as emblematic of the broader uncertainties and regulatory challenges in contemporary health care. Through her work, she aims to inform policy debates and legal frameworks that better support patient autonomy and public health.

Overall, she is committed to fostering a collaborative and thoughtful learning environment that prepares students to navigate the complexities of law and health care.

Christopher Heo

Christopher Heo joins ASU Law to teach legal method and writing in the Fall and legal advocacy in the Spring, bringing with him a strong foundation in legal writing, ethics and professional responsibility. As an ASU Law alum, Heo contributes his own positive experience as a student as a key reason for returning to ASU Law in a faculty role.

“I jumped at the chance to pay forward my positive experience at ASU Law to the next generation of lawyers and law students,” he said.

Heo plans to draw on his real-world experience to help students build the foundational skills they’ll need throughout their legal careers.

Before joining ASU Law, Heo practiced civil litigation and insurance defense for several years, eventually becoming a partner at a national firm. Most recently, he served as bar counsel at the State Bar of Arizona, representing the State Bar in attorney discipline matters. 

Heo was named to Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch for 2024 and 2025 and recognized as a Super Lawyers Rising Star in 2024. He also served as president of the Arizona Asian American Bar Association for the 2024-25 term and is a graduate of the State Bar of Arizona’s Bar Leadership Institute.

David Lopez

David Lopez is returning to his roots in Phoenix and Arizona State University, where he earned his undergraduate degree, to join the faculty at ASU Law. 

He’s a nationally recognized civil rights attorney and scholar, bringing decades of experience in labor and employment law, immigration, civil rights and social movement lawyering. He’s taught courses including civil procedure, critical race theory and algorithms, social justice, employment law and frontiers of labor and employment law. 

Lopez’s career has been defined by his dedication to advancing justice and championing equality. He served as the general counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) from 2010 to 2016, nominated twice by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate, becoming the longest-serving individual in this role. 

Lopez joins ASU Law from Rutgers Law School, where he served as co-dean from 2018-2021 and as a University Professor. He also worked as a partner at Outten & Golden in Washington, D.C., focusing on employment law and civil rights litigation. He sits on several boards, including the National Women’s Law Center and Towards Justice.

Lopez is excited to return “home” and create academic spaces that connect student experiences with legal education and real-world impact. Beyond his academic and legal achievements, Lopez is deeply committed to mentoring students and young lawyers to help them develop as empathetic and ethical professionals.

“I believe in creating new spaces for students to draw on their experiences and voice to understand and examine critically legal doctrine, how it shapes society, and to imagine original tools to address evolving legal issues and challenges,” he said.

He has previously taught as a visiting professor at Yale, Harvard and NYU Law Schools.

His research explores the intersection of labor and immigration law, algorithmic justice and the evolving role of lawyers in civil rights movements. Some of his recent scholarship includes The Quest for Algorithmic Justice in the Workplace, published in the 2025 Seton Hall Journal of Legislation and Public Policy [I regard the Rutgers Forward as more significant but more dated] and “The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Magna Carta of Human Rights,” [publication?] He’s also contributed to works on human trafficking, employment discrimination and artificial intelligence. 

Tara Mospan

Tara Mospan is transitioning into a faculty role after six years as associate director of the Ross-Blakley Law Library at ASU Law, where she taught advanced legal research and worked closely with students and faculty across disciplines. 

As an ASU Law alum, Mospan said she was drawn to the opportunity to engage more deeply with students and contribute to the college’s top-ranked legal writing program.

“I feel incredibly fortunate to begin this new role in a place that feels like home, and I look forward to contributing to a community that values inclusion and intellectual curiosity,” she said.

She will teach legal method and writing in the Fall and legal advocacy in the Spring, with plans to offer upper-level writing and research courses in the future. Her areas of expertise include legal research instruction, instructional design and research methodologies.

Mospan’s teaching style is student-centered and inclusive, shaped by her background in education, including service as a Teach for America corps member. Her academic interests include improving legal research education through evidence-based strategies and expanding access to justice.

She is co-author of Trusting Tribal Courts: More Lawyers is Not Always the Answer, published in the Law Journal for Social Justice at ASU. The article challenges common assumptions about the effectiveness of Tribal courts.

Tracy Ortega

Tracy Ortega joins ASU Law as director of the Civil Litigation Clinic, where she’ll guide students through real-world legal work while helping community members with critical civil issues. A longtime civil litigator, Ortega has focused on family law and children’s issues both in private practice and with the Family Law Clinic at Penn State Dickinson Law, and more recently, landlord-tenant, criminal and consumer protection cases.

She was drawn to ASU Law’s strong student focus and commitment to ethical, hands-on learning.

“It is important to me to be with a school that is student-centered and has a focus on ethical practice and professional responsibility,” she said. “ASU Law holds its faculty to a high standard in educating future lawyers. I quickly realized this was the best place for me to grow and make an impact. The faculty is impressive and prioritizes their students.”

Ortega brings an open-door approach to teaching and mentoring, aiming to build students’ confidence and skills through support and accessibility.

“My goal is to help students build confidence to practice law by supporting them and being accessible,” she said. “It is an opportunity for me to share my knowledge, experience, and passion for law.”

She’s especially passionate about medical-legal partnerships from her previous work at University of Kansas School of Law and hopes to expand into that area at ASU Law. For her, clinical education is an opportunity to assist students while also serving individuals who may not otherwise have access to legal support.

Gregory H. Shill

Greg Shill joins the faculty at ASU Law as a scholar of corporate law and local government. His research uses legal and economic analysis to examine governance structures in firms and transportation systems.

At ASU, he will teach contracts, corporate law, and securities regulation. His approach to business law demystifies transactional practice and treats contracts as negotiated systems of private governance. He views legal education as a way to equip students with tools to analyze and shape institutions in both the private and public sectors.

Shill’s recent scholarship explores how law translates into policy. In The Social Costs (and Benefits) of Dual-Class Stock, published in the Alabama Law Review, he examines the social implications of concentrated ownership structures in an era of expanding corporate constitutional rights. In Beyond Congestion Pricing, he argues for a stronger municipal role in transportation policy. He also recently published a co-authored empirical study on older driver safety. His theoretical work includes Should Law Subsidize Driving?, published in the NYU Law Review.

Shill’s academic work is complemented by active public engagement. He co-hosts Densely Speaking: Conversations about Cities, Economics and Law, a podcast about the law and economics of cities, and occasionally contributes opinion pieces to The Atlantic and other publications. Before joining ASU, he taught at the University of Iowa. He has also been a Visiting Professor at Washington University in St. Louis and a fellow at the Harvard Law School Program on Corporate Governance. Prior to academia, he practiced at major law firms in New York and London.

Shill brings to ASU a commitment to rigorous scholarship, public impact, and institutional innovation, and he looks forward to engaging with students and contributing to the ASU Law community on issues shaping the future of law and society.

Written by Crystal Jimenez