Class of 2026 Recognizes Professor Eric Kades as Outstanding Teacher
These are the kinds of interruptions that teachers like. On the morning of April 22, Professor Eric Kades was about to start his Property Law Class when the door opened and several students walked in unannounced.
Their mission: present Professor Kades with the 1L Professor of the Year Award.
The award recognizes a faculty member’s outstanding work with first-year students both inside and outside of the classroom.
Kades is the Thomas Jefferson Professor of Law, and his areas of specialization include tax policy, corporations, economic analysis of law, economics of corporate structure, land use and zoning, property law, and real estate transactions.
This award is Kades’s seventh teaching honor, and his second as 1L Professor of the Year (he was the inaugural 1L winner in 2018). He has also been awarded the Walter L. Williams, Jr., Memorial Teaching Award, the Alumni Fellowship Award for Outstanding Teaching, and the McGlothlin Teaching Award.
When he won the McGlothlin Award in 2020, the selection committee praised Kades for continuing “to innovate, always looking for new, evidence-based methods for educating his students.” The committee also observed that faculty colleagues frequently seek him out for advice on teaching, which he generously gives. He was also described as “a wonderful teacher” and a “marvelous recipient of the McGlothlin Teaching Award.” He was also praised for being “particularly innovative in the classroom and very supportive of students outside of the classroom.”