University of Illinois | College of Law | E-Newsletter

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FROM THE DESK OF DEAN BRUCE P. SMITH

News from the University of Illinois College of Law

Greetings from Champaign-Urbana!

The JD Class of 2013

This fall, the College of Law welcomed its 228-member Class of 2013 – the most academically talented in the College's history, with a median LSAT score of 167 (96th percentile) and a median GPA of 3.8. Hailing from 31 states, four foreign countries, and 112 undergraduate institutions, the class includes CEOs, poets, varsity athletes, distinguished military veterans, Girl Scout Gold Award recipients, Eagle Scouts, professional musicians, and Teach for America volunteers – as well as a staggering number of Phi Beta Kappa honorees. Admission to the Class of 2013 was the most selective in the College’s history, with nearly 4,800 applicants – reflecting a 37 percent increase from the past admissions cycle.

The Class of 2013

13 New Faculty Members in Three Years

Benefited from an unprecedented commitment from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one of the world’s top research universities, the College has added 13 faculty members over the past three years, bringing the College’s faculty complement to its highest level in history. With over a dozen faculty members holding advanced degrees in fields other than law – in economics, engineering, history, medicine, philosophy, and psychology – the College of Law is a leader in interdisciplinary legal scholarship. With national leaders in corporate law, intellectual property, and labor and employment law, among other fields, the Illinois faculty consistently rank in the top 20 in studies of overall scholarly impact.

Investiture of Kurt T. Lash as the Alumni Distinguished Professor of Law

One of the nation’s leading scholars of constitutional law, Professor Kurt T. Lash is honored as the newest recipient of the Alumni Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, where he is co-directing the Program in Constitutional Theory, History, and Law.

A graduate of Yale Law School, Professor Lash served as law clerk to the Honorable Robert R. Beezer of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He joins us from Loyola Law School Los Angeles, where he served as the James P. Bradley Chair of Constitutional Law.

Professor Lash focuses his scholarship on constitutional law, theory, and history, and his work has appeared in some of the top law reviews in the United States, including the Stanford Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Northwestern Law Review, and Texas Law Review. His recent book, The Lost History of the Ninth Amendment, was published in 2009 by Oxford University Press. Notably, his research was cited by the United States Supreme Court in McDonald v. Chicago (2010), which addressed the conflict between gun restrictions in Chicago and the Second Amendment.

Professor Tom Ulen Commemoration

The College of Law will host a Law and Economics Conference on November 19-20, 2010 honoring the pioneering contributions of Professor Thomas S. Ulen to the field of law and economics. The format will include moderated roundtable discussions on law and economics and empirical legal studies. Organized by Professors Nuno Garoupa and Bob Lawless on behalf of the newly formed Illinois Program in Law, Behavior, and Social Science, the conference will honor Professor Ulen's achievements, service, and immense contributions to law and economics as a scholarly discipline.

Conferences and Lectures

In conjunction with the Federal Judicial Center, the College of Law hosted and co-sponsored a conference entitled Theoretical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Law, Lawyering, and Judging in September 2010. Thirty-seven federal bankruptcy judges from across the country participated in the conference, which featured seminar-style academic workshops conducted by the College’s faculty, including three preeminent bankruptcy experts: Ralph Brubaker (the conference’s organizer), Bob Lawless, and Charles Tabb.

The College also hosted the Third Annual Junior Faculty Federal Courts Workshop in October, 2010 in Chicago, attended by junior scholars from 31 institutions. Coordinated by Professor Jamelle Sharpe, the event paired junior and senior scholars in the field of federal courts in a workshop setting to discuss works-in-progress. Participating senior scholars included Richard Freer (Emory School of Law), Jim Pfander (Northwestern Law School), and Louise Weinberg (University of Texas School of Law).

In spring 2011, the College of Law will inaugurate its new program on Constitutional Theory, History, and Law with a conference on Professor Jack Balkin’s forthcoming book, entitled Living Originalism. The conference will feature presentations from a diverse group of eminent scholars from multiple disciplines. The program, co-directed by Professors Kurt Lash and Lawrence Solum, also sponsors the Constitutional Law Colloquium, which hosts a variety of constitutional law scholars during the fall term, including Richard Fallon (Harvard Law School), James Lindgren (Northwestern Law School), and Michael Curtis (Wake Forest University School of Law).

Lecturers Bollinger, Kelly, and Wizner This fall, the College also hosted a trio of endowed lectures featuring distinguished speakers: Ambassador Craig Kelly, the former U.S. Ambassador to Chile, delivered the DLA Piper Lecture on the Role of Government and the Law; the David C. Baum Lecture on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties featured President Lee C. Bollinger of Columbia University; and Professor Stephen Wizner of Yale Law School presented the Van Arsdell Memorial Lecture on Litigation and the Legal Profession. Professors Frederick Schauer (University of Virginia) and Geoffrey R. Stone (University of Chicago) will complete the College’s 2010-11 endowed lecture series.

Expanded Curriculum

This year, in an effort to enrich the curriculum and expose students to new practice areas, the College added a number of new courses, including Law Practice Management, Oil and Gas Law, Venture Capital, and Insurance Coverage Litigation. Supported by a $180,000 grant from the state of Illinois, the College of Law also established the Family Advocacy Clinic, which expands and improves the representation of parents in juvenile abuse and neglect cases in downstate Illinois.

Alumni Impact

Alumni from the University of Illinois College of Law continue to serve with great distinction in the legal profession. Fred H. Bartlit, Jr., ’60, widely regarded as one of America’s leading trial lawyers, was named chief counsel for the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill; and retired U.S. District Judge Wayne R. Andersen, ’70, joined the Deepwater Horizon Joint Investigation Board.

Gift to Support Faculty Research

The College has also been the grateful beneficiary of remarkable generosity - support that Len Lewicki is especially critical in these trying economic times. Leonard Lewicki, '73, provided a deferred gift commitment of more than $700,000 to establish a faculty scholars fund, which will provide research funding to allow those who are finishing ground-breaking projects to focus intensively on their research.