Kevin Bennardo
Clinical Professor of Law
Biography
Kevin Bennardo joined the UNC School of Law faculty in 2016 and was awarded the Frederick B. McCall Award for Teaching Excellence by the Class of 2023. At Carolina Law, he teaches Trusts & Estates and courses in the Research, Reasoning, Writing, and Advocacy program. Bennardo is also the author of over twenty-five published articles in legal academic journals and one book. His scholarship has been cited by federal courts of appeals, state supreme courts, and lower courts.
In 2017, the President of Palau appointed Bennardo to be one of five Non-Resident Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Palau. In this role, Justice Bennardo hears cases on the country’s appellate court of last resort on an as-needed basis.
Before joining the UNC School of Law faculty, Bennardo held faculty positions at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center, and the University of Richmond School of Law. At those schools, he taught courses in legal communication and analysis, criminal sentencing, and inheritance law. In 2016, the graduating students at IU-McKinney voted Bennardo the most outstanding professor who had been with the law school for three years or fewer.
Before entering academia, Bennardo worked as a staff attorney for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, as court counsel to the Supreme Court of the Republic of Palau, and as a law clerk to the Honorable Milton I. Shadur of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He also practiced intellectual property litigation with the firm of Sidley Austin LLP in Chicago. Bennardo is a graduate of The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law.
Education
- J.D. (summa cum laude), Ohio State University (2007)
- B.A. (magna cum laude), Miami University (2003)
Selected Publications
Crimes Against Probate (with M. Glover), 75 FLA. L. REV. 357 (2023).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
The Law According to She-Hulk, 2022 U. ILL. L. REV. ONLINE 70 (2022). Reprint in THE LAW IN GRAPHIC NARRATIVES (Law and Visual Jurisprudence series, Springer) (2024).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress | Document Link
Unleashing Pets from Dead-Hand Control (with K. Y. Emerson), 22 NEV. L.J. 349 (2021).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | Hein | BEPress
Citation Stickiness
(K. Bennardo and A. Chew), 20 J. APP. PRAC. & PROCESS 61 (2019).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
THINKING AND WRITING ABOUT LAW (Carolina Academic Press, 2020).
K213 .B46 2020
Abandoning Predictions, 16 LEGAL COMM. & RHETORIC 39 (2019).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
The Location of Holographic Wills (with M. Glover), 97 N.C. L. REV. 1625 (2019).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
The Madness of Insane Delusions, 60 ARIZ. L. REV. 601 (2018).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
The Third Precedent, 25 GEO. MASON L. REV. 148 (2017).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress
The Rights and Liberties of the Palau Constitution, 12 ASIAN-PAC. L. & POL'Y J. 1 (2011).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | SSRN | Hein | BEPress