University of Illinois College of Law News

3L student Tyrone Thomas organizes food and clothing drive for homeless

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Third-year law student Tyrone Thomas collected food dishes and warm clothing from College of Law students, faculty, and staff during the November 19 Peer’s Pub social to distribute to men’s and women’s shelters in Champaign-Urbana. This is the second year that Mr. Thomas has collected food and monetary donations for the Times Center in Champaign, a men’s homeless shelter that feeds and houses more than 100 people every day. Thomas asked people to cook dishes, donate clothing or money. He then took all of the food and monetary donations to the Times Center, feeding more than 100 homeless men on a cold, rainy evening with 11 main courses and 10 side dishes. He also turned in $87 in cash, 18 cans and boxes of prepared food, and a staggering 425 items of men’s clothing. The College of Law community also donated women’s clothing that was delivered to A Woman’s Place, a shelter for homeless and abused women, and children’s clothing that the Women’s Law Society will use for their spring clothing drive for Ready, a local organization that collects clothing for school children. Thomas was interviewed by local radio and televisiton stations during Peer's Pub.

Chief Judge Holderman '71 in ABA Journal's Legal Rebels on changing jury duties

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:00:00 GMT

James F. Holderman '71, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois was interviewed in this week's ABA Journal "Legal Rebels" on the changing role of the jury and how courtroom tactics have changed. You can read the article here...

Federal Civil Rights Clinic students sworn in at US Federal Courthouse

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:00:00 GMT

On Wednesday, August 25 at the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Urbana, 12 College of Law students were formally sworn in by the Hon. David G. Bernthal ’76, United States Magistrate Judge, Central District of Illinois to participate in the Federal Civil Rights Clinic. Now in its second year, the Clinic will allow these students, working in pairs of two, to represent pro se litigants in federal civil rights trials in the United States Courthouse in Urbana. This year's student participants in the Clinic include: Christina Alabi, Krishna Desai, Pamela Domash, Michael Klinger, Krista Nelson, Joshua Nichols, Jason Patterson, Mike Paul, Austin Pedersen, Isabel Rosa, Eli White, and Jack Zulkey. Under faculty supervision, Illinois law students work with their clients to prepare and try a civil jury trial during the 2009-2010 academic year. The majority of cases involve an incarcerated individual alleging either excessive force or inadequate medical treatment. The students will be instructed and supervised by 2001 College of Law graduate and adjunct professor, Andrew Bequette, who is a shareholder in the Urbana law office of Beckett & Webber, P.C. The students will meet in a seminar class once per week in the fall semester and as needed at all other times, including the spring semester. The students are selected on the basis of spring tryouts and provisionally are admitted to the trial bar of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. The students receive course credit of two graded hours in the fall semester and two graded hours in the spring semester.

Professor Lawless Awarded 2009 Editor’s Prize from American Bankruptcy Law Journal

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Professor Robert Lawless was awarded the 2009 Editor’s Prize from the American Bankruptcy Law Journal for his co-authored article “Did Bankruptcy Law Fail? An Empirical Study of Consumer Debtors.” The article, which is based on the 2007 Consumer Bankruptcy Project and a thorough analysis of the first national, random sample of post-amendments bankruptcy filers, explores the real impact on bankruptcy filings since Congress made sweeping changes to the Bankruptcy Code three years ago, including the number of filings and the income levels of filers.

The Congressional reforms were intended to drive high-income filers away from the bankruptcy courts and to drive down the number of bankruptcy filings overall. Based on the data from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, the award-winning paper showed that the bankruptcy reform bill actually is driving away all debtors, regardless of financial circumstances, that debtors filing for bankruptcy have even greater debt loads than ever before, and that debtors are waiting longer and accumulating more debt, the “sweat box” effect, before filing for bankruptcy. The American Bankruptcy Law Journal is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes learned articles focusing on bankruptcy law and related subjects to an audience of bankruptcy judges, bankruptcy professionals, academics, legislators and other policymakers.

Professor Lawless is a nationally acclaimed expert in bankruptcy and corporate law. He has testified before Congress, and his work has been featured in media outlets such as CNN, CNBC, the New York Times, USA Today, the National Law Journal, the L.A. Times, the Financial Times, and Money magazine. He is one of seven regular contributors to the blog Credit Slips, a discussion on credit and bankruptcy. He also is a member of the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, a long-term empirical project studying persons who file bankruptcy.

Chicago Daily Law Bulletin: College of Law posts Bar Passage Rate of 97%

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:00:00 GMT

This story appeared in the October 23, 2009 edition of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin and is reprinted with the permission of the Law Bulletin Publishing Company.

Bar exam's pass rate best in 14 years

By Jerry Crimmins
Law Bulletin staff writer

The overall pass rate for the Illinois bar exam in July was 89 percent, the highest in 14 years. The pass rate for first-time test-takers was 92 percent, said Donald H. Funk, secretary-treasurer of the Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar. The number of people who took the exam in July was 2,710, down slightly from last year's 2,729 test-takers. Last year's pass rates were 88 percent overall and 92 percent for first-timers.

University of Chicago Law School returned to the top among the nine law schools in Illinois with the best pass rate for first-time test-takers — 99 percent.

Law schools typically pay the most attention to the pass rates for their first-time test-takers.

The University of Illinois College of Law was second with a 97 percent pass rate for first timers.

Chicago-Kent College of Law is in the top three with 96.05 percent.

At the University of Chicago, 75 first-time test-takers passed and one failed.

"Smart students, the best legal education in the world, and serious studying combine to make a winning formula," said Saul Levmore, the outgoing dean of the U of C law school. "We are very proud of our students and graduates.

"Ironically, even this spectacular pass rate hurts us in those silly U.S. News rankings,'' he said.

He said in other states that have "many unaccredited and virtually open-enrollment'' law schools, lower pass rates allow the successful schools a "degree-of-difficulty correction that swamps our fantastic results.''

The University of Illinois came in second with 120 first-time test-takers passing and only four failing, for a rounded-off pass rate of 97 percent.

U of I moved up to second place this year after finishing eighth last year.

"We are delighted by the success of our graduating class, which confirms the enormous talent and dedication of our students," said Bruce P. Smith, dean at the U of I College of Law. "We congratulate our recent graduates and look forward to the leading roles they will play as members of the practicing bar."

Because the pass-fail results of many of the schools are very close, a small difference can mean a lot on the scale.

From Chicago-Kent, 228 first-timers took the bar exam and nine failed, for a pass rate of 96 percent.

"We continue to be gratified by the stellar performance of our students on the bar examination,'' said Chicago-Kent's dean, Harold J. Krent. "I only wish our students faced a more accommodating job market.''

Northwestern University School of Law, which had the highest pass rate in the state last year, came in fourth this year with a pass rate for first-timers of 95.54 percent.

From Northwestern, 112 first-timers took the exam and 107 passed.

Loyola University Chicago School of Law came in fifth, with 94 percent of first-time test-takers passing.

From Loyola, 206 first-timers passed and 14 failed.

DePaul University College of Law, Southern Illinois University School of Law and The John Marshall Law School were closely grouped at six, seventh and eighth places.

From DePaul, 213 first-time test-takers passed and 15 failed for a pass rate of 93.4 percent.

From SIU, 63 first-timers passed and five failed, for a pass rate of 92.6 percent.

From John Marshall, 241 first-timers passed and 20 failed for a pass rate of 92.34 percent.

"I just think our students work very hard, and we are pleased with the results. We're higher than last year,'' said John Marshall's dean, John E. Corkery.

Northern Illinois University School of Law had the third-best pass rate for first-timers in 2008 — nearly 95 percent — but fell to ninth in 2009.

From NIU law, 71 first-timers took the exam. Of those, 57 passed and 14 failed for a pass rate of 80.3 percent.

"We are very proud of all our students who passed the Illinois bar and will continue our efforts to bring us closer to the 95 percent pass rate we achieved last year,'' said the dean, Jennifer L. Rosato, who took over only July 1.

1L Scott Wolf coordinates “Rock, Paper, Scissors” tournament, raising $30,000 to send kids to summer camp

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:00:00 GMT

First-year College of Law student Scott Wolf has used a simple game to raise big money for local youth living in poverty to summer camp. Scott’s student-run Illini Summer Opportunity Organization hosted the third-annual “Rock, Paper, Scissors” tournament, drawing nearly 2,000 University of Illinois students to the UI Quadrangle on Sunday, October 18 with all proceeds matched by Illinois alumni and utilized to send local underprivileged children to summer camp. The event netted $30,000, good to send 300 local children to summer camp.

The concept for the philanthropy is simple. Students pay a $ 10 entry fee (receiving a participant t-shirt and more than $30 in free food coupons from local restaurants) and square off in a “Rock, Paper, Scissors” showdown, with 64 students moving on to the final rounds to compete for great prizes, including a trip to Acapulco, a large-screen television, free bagels for a year, and an iPod Touch. Scott started this project as an undergraduate student at Illinois with a simple concept: Every participant will sponsor one local child to go to summer camp for a day. Each participant's donation will result in a one day summer camp scholarship for one of the nearly 10,000 children in Champaign County who are currently living below the federal poverty level. Over the past two years, this event has raised over $50,000 and helped hundreds of local families. Along the way, Illini Summer Opportunity has become the third-largest student-run philanthropy on campus, right behind the more-established Illini Pride and Relay for Life.

The event, held on the South Quadrangle, has attracted national media attention and has raised thousands of dollars to help children in the Champaign-Urbana community. You can read more about the organization at www.isooonline.org. Scott's work was featured in the Friday, Oct. 16 edition of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.

College of Law to co-sponsor “Originalism and the Jury” Symposium featuring Justice Antonin Scalia

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:00:00 GMT

The University of Illinois College of Law will serve as the co-sponsor along with the host institution, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, for the “Originalism and the Jury” Symposium, to be held Tuesday, November 17, 2009 in Columbus, Ohio. University of Illinois College of Law Professor Suja A. Thomas is one of the organizers of the Symposium, which will feature a keynote address from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and will feature scholars from across the country. Dean Bruce P. Smith will also be a participant in the conference, along with Paul D. Clement, former Solicitor General of the United States, Michael Dreeben, Deputy Solicitor General, Judge Nancy Gertner, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Alan Michaels, the Dean at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, and Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. You can read about the Originalism conference in the Summer, 2009 edition of All Rise, the Ohio State Moritz College of Law alumni magazine (flip to page 6). Registration and conference information is available on the Ohio State Law Journal site.

$1.3 million gift creates John D. Colombo Professorship in Law

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:02:00 GMT

Eleven private gifts totaling more than $23 million earmarked for University of Illinois programs at the Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield campuses were announced Friday, Oct. 2, 2009 at the U of I Foundation’s 74th Annual Meeting. Among the featured private donations is a deferred gift of $1.3 million from June Michael of St. Louis, Mo., to create the John D. Colombo Professorship in Law and provide need-based scholarships for students in the College of Law. June Michael worked for Bell Telephone, the FBI and Washington University at St. Louis, where she also attended school. The gift honors June Michael’s cousin, Professor Colombo, who teaches primarily in the tax field at the U of I College of Law.

The gift announcements were part of the three-day meeting conducted by the Foundation, an independent, nonprofit corporation that secures and administers private gifts for the University of Illinois. More than 500 alumni and friends of the University attended the Foundation Weekend events held on the Urbana-Champaign campus.

The gifts from alumni and friends, which will be included in the University’s ongoing $2.25 billion Brilliant Futures fundraising campaign, were highlighted at the U of I Foundation’s Business Meeting on October 2.

College of Law Dean Bruce Smith joins Professor John Colombo and his wife, Tina, in thanking June Michael for her $1.3 million gift establishing the John D. Colombo Professorship in Law at the UI Foundation Dinner October 2 in Urbana.

Alumnus Steven Molo '82 launches MoloLamken LLP in New York and Washington, D.C.

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:01:00 GMT

1982 College of Law graduate Steven F. Molo, who presented "Why Lawyering Matters" in front of a capacity crowd as the annual Van Arsdell Lecture at the College of Law earlier in September, announced on September 29 the creation of MoloLamken LLP, a litigation boutique with a national practice focused on complex, high-stakes civil litigation, white collar criminal defense, U.S. Supreme Court and appellate cases, and regulatory matters before administrative agencies.

Mr. Molo, who has been a partner at Shearman & Sterling in New York for the past five and a half years, is partnering with Jeffrey A. Lamken, who was the head of the Supreme Court and appellate practice for Baker Botts in Washington, D.C. and previously served as an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the U.S. Department of Justice. A loyal College of Law alumnus, Mr. Molo serves on the College's Board of Visitors and spearheaded the Class of '82 Scholars Fund gift campaign, providing student scholarship assistance.

Mr. Molo is leaving Shearman & Sterling in New York, where he was a partner in the litigation group. He was previously a partner with Winston & Strawn in Chicago for 18 years and served on that firm’s executive committee. Mr. Molo recently successfully defended former Reagan cabinet member David Stockman, who had been charged with securities fraud in New York following the bankruptcy of auto supplier Collins & Aikman; all charges were dismissed. Molo and Lamken also recently worked together to successfully reverse a $1.6 billion verdict against Morgan Stanley that a Florida jury had awarded to Coleman (Parent) Holdings, a company controlled by financier Ron Perelman.

With initial offices in New York and Washington, D.C., MoloLamken will represent both plaintiffs and defendants in trials, appeals, grand jury and regulatory defense, and internal investigations. With a focus on quality and experience, and an intention to remain small in size by today’s law firm standards, the firm’s strategic plan calls for measured growth over the next three to five years with the objective to build a team of 40 to 50 attorneys.

Market Conditions Ripe for National Litigation Boutique

Molo noted that despite the broader economic and legal industry downturn, market conditions are heightening the demand for agile and experienced litigation counsel. He believes the success of his and Lamken’s new venture will be enhanced by a growth in complex litigation due to the recession and the re-organization of the financial services industry, as well as continued growth in intellectual property and product liability litigation.

“Clients have validated the opportunities we see in the marketplace. They understand the logic of our philosophy of providing alternative fee arrangements that align our interests with their own and reward success,” explained Molo. “We’re excited about the response our new platform is generating already.”

Among the notable matters Mr. Molo has handled over the past five years at Shearman & Sterling are the successful defense of the former CFO of Symbol Technologies charged with 22 counts of securities and mail fraud based on alleged accounting irregularities. Five cooperating witnesses testified during a seven-week trial which resulted in a hung jury and a resolution involving no jail time for the client; The defense of BARBRI, the nation’s largest bar review provider, in antitrust class actions in New York and Los Angeles which were settled; The successful defense of Aon in a jury trial involving allegations by the former CEO of re-insurance broker Swett & Crawford, who claimed the company owed him in excess of $15 million in bonuses at the time of his departure; The successful defense of Morgan Stanley and Van Kampen in obtaining the dismissal of class action suits in Chicago and New York which challenged their methods of operating their mutual funds; The successful defense of Hub International, obtaining dismissal of consolidated civil antitrust class actions in New Jersey; and, significant victories in the Illinois Supreme Court in separate cases for UBS (striking as unconstitutional a portion of the Illinois Whistleblower Act in a municipal bond “yield burning” case) and a group of prominent banks (striking as unconstitutional certain limitations of the Illinois Interest Act).