Chelsi Hayden Associate Clinical Professor of Law and Director of Legal Research and Writing Program
Professor Chelsi Hayden joined the law faculty in 2017. She is directing and teaching in the Legal Research and Writing program and teaching advanced legal writing courses. Her research focuses on Evidence, Legal Methods, Legal Writing, and Learning Theories. In addition, she often writes for the Kansas bar.
Prior to coming to Nebraska Law, Professor Hayden was a Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Kansas, where she taught predominately litigation focused classes—Evidence, Lawyering Skills, Advanced Legal Writing, and legal-skills simulation workshops.
In addition to her academic pursuits, Professor Hayden served, or continues to serve, on the Federal Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel, the Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity, the Kansas Land Trust, the Kansans Advancing Women Political Action Committee, and the Willow Domestic Violence Center. Professor Hayden continues with representation in court, most often in an amicus curia.
Before entering academia, Professor Hayden served as chambers counsel to Judge Carlos Murguia of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas and was an associate in business litigation for Shook, Hardy & Bacon in Kansas City, Missouri. She has extensive experience in civil and criminal law, litigating in both state and federal courts.
Professor Hayden received bachelors of art degrees in Sociology and Criminology from the University of Kansas. She graduated Order of the Coif from the University of Kansas School of Law.
Elsbeth Magilton Director of Externships, ADJUNCT LAW PROFESSOR, and Executive Director of Space, Cyber, and Telecom Law
Elsbeth Magilton is an attorney and educator serving as the Director of Externships and the Executive Director of the Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law programs at the University of Nebraska College of Law. She formerly served as the Executive Director of the Nebraska Governance and Technology Center, an interdisciplinary research center combining law, engineering, business, and journalism. Elsbeth speaks internationally on space law and representation in technology. She is a passionate academic leader with a background in building connections across industries and facilitating practical and experiential learning.
She has appeared at SXSW in 2021 and has been quoted in The Atlantic, The Verge, and a host of other regional publications. Elsbeth is a member of the American Society of International Law and served as the Co-Chair (2020-2021) for the Space Law Interest Group. She is part of the U.S. State Department Speaker’s Program under the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Under that program she most recently visited the Digital Learning Hub and Women In Digital Empowerment groups in Luxembourg, discussing tech workforce development. She also facilitated a roundtable discussion for the UzSpace agency and the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent on Uzbekistan’s commercial and governmental space interests, and a lecture series for the New Zealand and Australian Space Council on behalf of the U.S. Consulate in Auckland, New Zealand.
In 2022 Elsbeth was named a “NExt Pioneer” fellow with the Nebraska Tech Collaborative – a workforce initiative examining tech talent retention in the Midwest. She is also a member of the Legal Expert Pool for the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats. Magilton sits on the editorial board for the U.S. Air Force Academy Eisenhower Center for Space and Defense Studies Journal. In September 2018 Elsbeth and Matt Schaefer received a major NASA Space Law pilot-program grant to create a nationwide network of students, faculty, and practitioners interested in space law and policy.
Elsbeth is the board president for Girls Code Lincoln, a nonprofit organization striving to ignite passion for technology and leadership in 4th-9th grade students of underrepresented genders by hosting multi-week technology clubs. Elsbeth was the host of monthly Girls Code Lincoln Podcast, interviewing and profiling underrepresented people in technology each month throughout 2021-2022. She also sits on the Advisory Board for the Branched Oak Observatory, an outdoor and indoor (open-roof) sky park supported by science education professionals and astronomy enthusiasts. The observatory’s goal is simple: to share the wonders of the night sky with Eastern Nebraska. Elsbeth is also a Lincoln Public Schools volunteer and a Girl Scout Troop Co-Leader. She would almost always rather be outside or making art and building robots with kids.
Elsbeth received her B.A., cum laude, from Doane University in 2008 in graphic design. After starting her career in web development, Elsbeth shifted into technology policy during law school. She earned her J.D. from the University of Nebraska College of Law and received a concentration in Cyberlaw. During law school Elsbeth also attended the William and Mary College of Law, working with the Center for Legal and Court Technology.
In 2021 Elsbeth was nominated for two Inspire Lincoln Awards in the Education and Large Business Categories. Run by the Lincoln Journal Star these community awards recognize women leaders and the impact they are making in the community
Personally, Elsbeth enjoys being a mother of two, reading, and hanging out with her chickens. She is married to a concert and event chef who has fed musicians and athletes around the country.
Michelle Paxton Lecturer, Director of the Children's Justice Clinic and the Children's Justice Attorney Education Program
Michelle Paxton joined the College of Law in April, 2017 to create and lead the newest clinical program, the Children’s Justice Clinic. Ms. Paxton has served as the Director of Legal Training at University of Nebraska’s Center on Children, Families and the Law (CCFL). She develops curriculum and trains child welfare workers, probation officers, and mental health professionals on all aspects of juvenile court process and procedure in Nebraska. Ms. Paxton also receives Guardian ad Litem appointments from the Lancaster County Juvenile Court. Through her work at CCFL, she came to realize that effective advocacy in juvenile court requires both an understanding of the law and appreciation of the complex dynamics of children, families, and stakeholders comprising the child welfare system. Ms. Paxton initiated the University of Nebraska College of Law and CCFL’s partnership to create a new clinical program wherein law students develop the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively advocate for young children utilizing the training, support, and consultation from experts at CCFL.
Michelle Paxton received her J.D. from the University of Nebraska College of Law, where she served as Executive Editor for the Law Review. Ms. Paxton has served as a Deputy County Attorney in Douglas and Lancaster Counties, specializing in juvenile law, domestic violence, and general criminal prosecution. She has presented comprehensively on all aspects regarding juvenile court including the Indian Child Welfare Act, Termination of Parental Rights, Expert Witness Testimony in Juvenile Court, and Observing Development in Young Children.
Watch to see how Professor Paxton is giving children a voice in court.
Kevin Ruser Richard and Margaret Larson Professor of Law and M.S. Hevelone Professor of Law
Professor Ruser joined the Law College faculty in June, 1985, as a supervising attorney in the Civil Clinical Law Program. He received a B.A. from UNL in 1975, with an English major and a history minor. Professor Ruser attended UNL College of Law and received his J.D. in 1979. He worked for Western Nebraska Legal Services from 1979-1985; the first two years were spent in the Grand Island branch office, and the last four years were spent in the Scottsbluff office, where he was managing attorney. Professor Ruser is the Director of Clinical Programs at the College of Law and teaches in the Civil Clinic and the Immigration Clinic. He also co-administers the Litigation Skills Program of Concentrated Study. He is a member of the Nebraska State Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Clinical Section of the Association of American Law Schools, and the Clinical Legal Educators Association. He is currently Co-Chair of the District Court Forms Subcommittee of the Nebraska Supreme Court Self-Represented Litigants Committee, a member of the Nebraska Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission, a member of the Nebraska Supreme Court’s Civil Justice Reform Committee, and a member of the Advisory Council of the Office of Public Guardian.
Ruser has worked abroad on law reform and legal education reform projects. In the fall of 2015, he worked with the Iliria University Law faculty in Pristina, Kosovo to help them design an experiential learning course on arbitration. From 2012 to 2015, he was involved in a project in which he evaluated and made recommendations for curricular changes in the Masters Level clinical programs at the University of Pristina Law Faculty and Iliria University Law Faculty in Pristina, Kosovo. From 2000 to 2005, he was involved with law and legal education reform efforts in several countries of the former Yugoslavia, most notably Montenegro and Serbia. From 2010 to 2012, he was, along with Professor Steven Schmidt, principal investigator of a USAID-funded grant to help teach oral advocacy techniques to faculty at the law school of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. These skills are needed by Mexican law students and practitioners to enable them to function effectively in Mexico's new oral adversarial system, which was created by recent constitutional reforms in Mexico.
Ruser's research interests lie primarily in the area of “crimmigration” – the intersection of immigration and criminal law. In August, 2012, he published an article in The Habeas, which is the monthly newsletter of the Nebraska Criminal Defense Attorney’s Association, reviewing and analyzing recent decisions by the Nebraska Supreme Court in the area of post-conviction “crimmigration” cases. Also in 2012, he made substantial updates to The Nebraska Criminal Practitioner’s Guide to Representing Non-Citizens in State Court Proceedings, which he first published in 2008. The Guide's purpose is to background criminal law practitioners in immigration law, in order to enable them to effectively advise their non-citizen clients of possible immigration consequences to criminal proceedings in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Padilla v. Kentucky holding that non-citizens have a 6th Amendment right to be advised by their defense counsel of immigration consequences in criminal cases. Ruser developed a 4-hour seminar on "crimmigration" issues and presented this seminar in each of Nebraska's 12 district court judicial districts in 2011 and 2012.
In 2011, Greg McLawsen, Julia McLawsen and Ruser co-authored an article entitled Demonstrating Psychological Hardship: A Statistical Study of Psychological Evaluations in Hardship Waivers of Inadmissibility. The article, which was published in the January 1, 2011 issue of Bender's Immigration Bulletin, reviewed decisions of the Administrative Appeals Office (AA0) to see how helpful it is for non-citizens to submit psychological evaluations with their applications for hardship waivers to certain grounds of inadmissibility. Ruser has written other practice-related manuals and guides, the most recent of which are in the following areas: Chapter 7 consumer bankruptcy (2012); powers of attorney, guardianships and conservatorships (2015); and landlord/tenant law (2014).
Ryan Sullivan Robert J. Kutak Distinguished Professor of Law
Professor Sullivan joined the Law College faculty in August, 2013, as a supervising attorney in the Civil Clinical Law Program. He received his B.A. from Colorado State University-Pueblo while completing his enlistment in the U.S. Army, majoring in business administration. Thereafter he attended California University of Pennsylvania where he obtained his Master’s in Health Sciences. After a career in the fitness industry, he enrolled at UNL College of Law where he served as an editor of the Nebraska Law Review, the Chair of the Moot Court Board, and a member of the National Trial Team. Following graduation, Professor Sullivan joined the law firm of Kinsey, Rowe, Becker and Kistler where he practiced in the area of general civil litigation.
As the Director of the Civil Clinic, Professor Sullivan supervises student attorneys providing legal services to veterans and underserved populations in the areas of tenant rights, debt collection defense, criminal record rehabilitation, estate planning, family law, and other civil matters. Professor Sullivan also manages the Advance Directive Clinic (ADC) Project, wherein Civil Clinic students provide basic estate planning services to senior citizens in rural and semi-rural Communities around the State of Nebraska. Professor Sullivan also supervises several outreach projects within the Civil Clinic, including the Clean Slate Project, the Veterans Advocacy Project, the Tenants’ Rights Project and the Family Law Project.
He is a member of the Nebraska State Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Clinical Section of the Association of American Law Schools, and the Clinical Legal Education Association.
A Nebraska native, Professor Sullivan is an avid Husker fan, and enjoys cycling, woodworking and furniture restoration.