Jaclyn A. Cherry
Assistant Professor of Law
Professor Jaclyn Cherry's teaching and publications focus on Nonprofit and Tax Exempt Law. She was elected to the membership of The American Law Institute (ALI), the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and otherwise improve the law in January 2012. Professor Cherry became an Editor of the American Law Institute (ALI), Principles of the Law of Nonprofit Organizations, June 2011, and the 2d edition of her text Understanding Nonprofit and Tax Exempt Organizations, LexisNexis, was published May 2012. The 3rd edition of her casebook Tax Exempt Organizations: Cases and Materials, LexisNexis, will be published in 2014.
Professor Cherry established the Nonprofit Organizations Clinic at the University of South Carolina School of Law in January 2009. Through this clinic, third year law students provide free legal services to approximately 20 nonprofit organizations throughout the state on a wide variety of issues each year. These efforts have allowed Professor Cherry to work with community groups and leaders to advance systemic change. Her article "Charitable Organizations and Commercial Activity: A New Era," 5 J. Bus. Entrepreneurship & L. 345 (2012) discusses hybrid organizations as alternative structures for nonprofits. As a founding partner of the South Carolina Volunteer Lawyers Association (along with the USC Pro Bono Program, SC Arts Commission and the SC Bar Association Pro Bono Program), the Nonprofit Organizations Clinic also provides pro bono legal services to nonprofit arts organizations throughout South Carolina.
Most recently, Professor Cherry, along with several prominent attorneys, created the Small Business Capstone course, providing third year, second semester law students with intense study and a practical skills focus in the area of transactional law. Emphasis in the course is on lawyering for start-up businesses and entrepreneurial ventures.
Professor Cherry was a Visiting Professor at the University of San Diego School of Law during the summer of 2003 teaching a Nonprofit Tax Exempt Organizations course to J.D. and L.L.M. students. She served as Assistant Director of Clinical Legal Education, Director of Economic & Community Development Law Clinic and Clinical Professor of Law for over 10 years at Duquesne University School of Law.
She has served as General Counsel to Allegheny Conference on Community Development and Bethlehem Haven of Pittsburgh, as an Attorney-Senior Compliance Officer for Mellon Mortgage Company, a judicial law clerk in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas and as an Attorney with Mistick, Sittig & Weiss, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Lawyers Abstract Company/ agent of Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company.
Professor Cherry received her J.D. degree from Duquesne University School of Law and her B.A. degree from Seton Hill University (magna cum laude).
Courses Taught
- Nonprofit Organizations (LAWS 717)
- Nonprofit Organizations Clinic (LAWS 716)
- Small Business Organization Capstone Course (LAWS 561)
Room 131
USC School of Law
701 Main Street
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
v 803-777-3394
cherryja@law.sc.edu