September 2004
Dean Heidi M. Hurd
David C. Baum Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy
Co-Director of the Program in Law and Philosophy
Telephone (217) 333-9857
hhurd@law.uiuc.edu
Dear Students, Faculty, Staff, Alumni, Campus Administrators, and Friends,
I love the start of a school year: the nervous excitement of newly-arrived students; the comfortable swagger of returning students; the butterflies in the stomach that beset faculty and students alike on the first day of class; the busy (sometimes frenetic) hum of administrative offices; the dozens of meetings devoted to brainstorming about fresh initiatives and new ideas; and the first of the year's monthly opportunities for me to tell you about the projects pursued by those within the College of Law's remarkable community. In what is the first of this academic year's monthly newsletters, I want to tell you about:
• the new J.D. Class
of 2007 and the new LL.M. Class of 2005;
• the hiring season at the College of Law;
• the happy comings and sad goings of faculty and staff;
• the College's new Sports Law Program pioneered by Professor Steve Ross;
• the Fall "Firms on Film" movie and discussion series hosted
by Professor Larry Ribstein;
• the long-term expansion and short-term refurbishment of the College's
physical spaces.
The J.D. Class of 2007 and the LL.M. Class of 2005
When judged by the numbers, the J.D. Class of 2007 is the most academically accomplished and diverse class in the College's history. With a median LSAT score of 163 and a median GPA of 3.42 (up from 162 and 3.37 for last year's entering class), this class arrives with numbers that put it in the nation's 90th percentile. Twenty-two of its students have advanced degrees, including three with Ph.D.s, in fields that range from sociology and philosophy to physics, aerospace engineering, and chemistry. A record 36% of the class is from outside of Illinois, including five international students, and its members represent 28 different states, with 23 students hailing from California and 11 from Michigan. The class is comprised of 67% men and 33% women--a ratio that reflects the ratio of applications that we received from men and women but that represents a surprising, but we believe anomalous, shift away from the much greater gender equality to which the College is generally accustomed. However, 39% of the members of the entering J.D. class are minority students, a record high for the College, ensuring that the College continues to have the most diverse J.D. program in Illinois and within the Big Ten.
The richness of experience reflected in the J.D. class is enhanced by that of our entering LL.M. class, whose members hail from 14 different countries and collectively speak more than 13 different languages. LL.M. class members represent six countries in Asia, three in Europe, four in Latin America and one in the Middle East. The majority of our foreign students are in public practice, but a number come from corporate practice or from the legal academy. It is a very great pleasure to welcome the J.D. Class of 2007 and the LL.M. Class of 2005 to the hallways and classrooms of the College of Law.
Hiring Season at the College of Law
The busy Fall job season is upon us, and we look forward to seeing many of our alumni return to campus to interview members of the classes of 2005 and 2006. If your office is not already coming to campus or participating in our Resume Submission Program, please contact us at career@law.uiuc.edu, and we will be delighted to put you in touch with students who are sure to do our profession proud. But hurry because our students are in high demand! Just one example of this is the extraordinary year we have had in the clerkship market for the Class of 2004. Twenty-five members of the Class of 2004 have obtained judicial clerkships, which is the second-highest number of clerkships for a class in College of Law history.
The Happy Comings and Sad Goings of College Faculty and Staff
As we celebrate the arrival of many new students, so we celebrate the arrival of numerous new faculty and staff members. But we regret, as well, the impending retirement/departure of two of our most cherished community members. Let me start with this bad news.
Elaine Shoben, the Edward W. Cleary Professor of Law, has announced that she will retire at the end of this academic year after 30 years of teaching at the University of Illinois College of Law. She and her husband, Ed Shoben, will be moving to Las Vegas, Nevada (near which they have long had a vacation home), where she has accepted a position on the faculty of the School of Law and her husband has assumed the position of Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. The first woman to be invested into an endowed professorship at the College of Law, Elaine has brought years of luster to the College through her writings on remedies and employment discrimination. She has published numerous law review articles and book chapters in the areas of employment discrimination and the legal application of quantitative methods, including her chestnut article in the Harvard Law Review on the use of statistical evidence in employment discrimination cases which has been widely cited by scholars and courts, including the United States Supreme Court. The co-author of a casebook on remedies and two treatises and one handbook on employment law, Elaine just completed the third edition of Employment Discrimination: Cases and Materials (West Publishing Co., 1990, 2nd ed. 1995). While we shall long be proud of Elaine's membership in the College's distinguished emeritus faculty, we shall miss her laughter in the College's hallways and her inspiration in the College's classrooms.
Lois Casaleggi, the Assistant Dean of Career Services, has recently announced that she has decided to accept the position of Director of Career Services at the University of Chicago Law School, effective October 1. Lois's move to the big city will allow her to be close to family and friends and will enable her to focus her energies on the very extensive clerkship program for which the University of Chicago Law School has long been famous. We are greatly indebted to Lois for the work that she and her dedicated colleagues have done over the past year to build on the very successful career counseling and matching program that Assistant Dean Virginia Vermillion developed before leaving Career Services to develop the new position of Assistant Dean of Academic Administration and Student Affairs. We are also extremely fortunate that the Career Services Office boasts an enduring breadth and depth of staff expertise and resources that will enable it to sustain its ambitious services throughout the impending transition. While Virginia Vermillion leads our search for the new office head and lends her years of experience to those working in the Career Services Office, our students can be assured that they will receive very dedicated career assistance from Associate Directors Stacey Tutt, who specializes in public service/government positions and clerkships, and Elissa Libman, who specializes in private law employment. We wish Lois much happiness as she joins family in Chicago, and we thank, in advance, Stacey and Elissa, and their very committed office assistants, Marcia Swope and Eric Tate, who will undoubtedly work long hours in the weeks to come to ensure that our students receive the same services that have won the College's Career Services Office a 100% employment rate in the past.
And now for the good news. In addition to the arrival of the six new tenured/tenure track faculty members who were hired last year and about whom I so bragged in last year's monthly emails--Ralph Brubaker, Lee Anne Fennell, David Hyman, Patrick Keenan, Jackie Ross, and Richard Ross--we welcome to the community this Fall two wonderfully enriching visiting faculty members.
Visiting Professor Peter Alces is the Rita Anne Rollins Professor of Law at the College of William and Mary School of Law where he has taught since 1990. Peter began his law teaching career at the University of Alabama School of Law, and has visited at Washington & Lee, the University of Texas, and Washington University in St. Louis. He earned his B.A., summa cum laude, in English, from Lafayette College, and his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Illinois College of Law. He began his legal career as an Associate with (then) Sidley & Austin in Chicago before leaving the practice for the academy so he could spend more time with his daughter, Kelli, who is currently a third-year student at the College of Law. Peter has written influential articles on commercial law, bankruptcy, products liability, and contract theory topics and has also published several commercial law and bankruptcy treatises and law school casebooks.
Visiting Professor Thomas Gallanis is a Professor of Law, Professor of History, and the Director of the Center for Law and History at Washington and Lee University. He holds degrees from Yale University (B.A. summa cum laude with Distinction in History), the University of Chicago (J.D., Bradley Fellow in Legal History), and Cambridge University (LL.M. in comparative law and legal history with First Class Honours and a Ph.D. in English legal history). At Cambridge, Tom was awarded the Hamson Prize in Comparative Law, the Wright and Hughes prizes for academic excellence, and the Mansergh Prize for best historical essay. His article on "The Rise of Modern Evidence Law," 84 Iowa Law Review 499 (1999), was awarded the Selden Society's David Yale Prize. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Legal History and has been a Mellon Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. Tom teaches and writes in trusts and estates, property, estate and gift taxation, elder law, and English and European legal history, and has served as a special reporter to the Joint Editorial Board for Uniform Trust and Estate Acts.
We also welcome this fall a remarkable group of international visiting scholars who will be in residence at the College and whose intellectual camaraderie is sure to be invigorating for both faculty and students. I shall simply list them here, but in the months to come I shall provide more extensive profiles of each of them.
Germany
Verena Käbisch, Ph.D. Candidate, Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU), Munich, Germany.
Japan
Junko Semmatsu, Judge, Osaka District Court, Osaka, Japan. Degree in Law, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.
Korea
Joon-Sung Koh, Research Fellow and Director, Trade & Investment Studies Team, Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade (KIET). Adjunct Professor, Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea. J.D., Korea University.
Youngkee Lee, Special Investigation Department, Cyber Crime and Intellectual Property, Cheongju District Public Prosecutor's Office, Korea. J.D., Korea University Judicial Research Training Institute.
Mongolia
Nyamosor Tuya, Chair, Mongolian National Committee of the Council on Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific. B.A., International Relations, Moscow Institute of Int'l Relations; Master of Democratic Studies, University of Leeds; Master of International Public Policy, Johns Hopkins University.
Russia
Vladimir Luzin, Professor of Law and Civic Education, Lobachevsky State University, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. Law Degree and PhD, Moscow State University. Fulbright Scholar at the College of Law, teaching Comparative Human Rights.
Finally, the College is very pleased to announce the appointment of Karen Bidner as the Visiting Director of Special Events. Karen comes to the College of Law after serving as Legislative Assistant and Director of Constituent Services to Congressman Terry Bruce and Staff Assistant to Senator Alan Dixon in Washington, D.C. After obtaining her B.A. in Communications from Purdue University, Karen worked as a Food Service Coordinator with the American Dairy Association here in Illinois. Karen will be responsible for coordinating and overseeing all special events at the College of Law and all alumni events around the country. Please join me in welcoming Karen and in expressing appreciation for the efforts of Special Event Coordinators Sally Cook and Carrie May-Borich, who will continue to work their special magic to ensure that the many functions that take place at the College are well-planned and well-executed.
The Early Seeds of a New Program in Sports Law and Public Policy
Professor Steve Ross, who has spent a significant amount of his long Illinois career teaching, writing, and participating in public interest litigation with regard to sports law, is working to develop a new Program in Sports Law and Public Policy. During the 2003-04 academic year, Professor Ross collaborated with members of the Sports Management Program in the College of Applied Life Studies to organize a very successful lecture series on topics in sports law. A former member of the Athletic Advisory Board when Ron Guenther was hired as the University's Athletic Director, Professor Ross has worked with the athletic staff for several years on projects designed to integrate coaches into the academic mission of the campus. In the coming year, Professor Ross will be working with faculty, coaches, campus administrators, and alumni to explore ways to expand curricular offerings in public interest advocacy concerning sports policy; to organize cutting-edge topical conferences; to create visiting opportunities for scholars and members of the sports industry, to provide pro bono representation of student-athletes, and to create a research and policy web site.
"Firms on Film:" A Fall Movie and Discussion Series
Have you seen the remake of Manchurian Candidate, in which the villain is a big corporation instead of Communist China? Do you think that big corporations are nasty, sinister and evil? Then, according to the College's own Professor Larry Ribstein, you have been . . . .HIJACKED BY HOLLYWOOD! This Fall, Professor Ribstein promises, as he puts it, to "reorient your brain" with a series of films and discussions entitled "Firms on Film." Beginning Tuesday, September 7, at 7:00 in the Auditorium: Erin Brockovich. In the discussion that follows, Professor Ribstein will explain how you have been manipulated and misled by clever cinematic techniques. Pizza will be served. If you want to be fully prepared for this stimulating experience, read Professor Ribstein's (self-described!) brilliant article, "Firms on Film," at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=563181. Other movies in the series are scheduled at the same time and place, September 21, October 5 and 19, and November 9 and 16. Among the films under consideration: Hudsucker Proxy, Glengarry Glen Ross, Solid Gold Cadillac, Executive Suite, Quiz Show, and Wall Street.
Rejuvenation of Classroom, Office, Library and Public Areas
As the University moves into a very ambitious new fundraising campaign, the College of Law is taking the early steps toward developing plans for a substantial building addition and a very major remodeling effort. While the building was significantly upgraded and altered 10 years ago, we have long since outgrown its added space. If we are going to continue to provide faculty and students with a learning environment that matches their needs and ambitions, we know that our building is going to have to grow and change in the years to come. But while we hope that architects from the Boston firm of Tsoi/Kobus Associates will soon return to campus to share with us the feasibility study that we commissioned from them last spring, we also know that it will be years before we break any new ground. In the meantime, therefore, we are going to pursue a series of remodeling projects that will allow us to use the space we have in the most efficient manner possible. And we are going to refurbish classrooms, offices, public areas and the library and replace now-faded furniture so as to give the school a fresher look and greater "livability." I apologize to faculty, staff, and students for the disruption that this short-term refurbishment is going to cause. We tried desperately to launch many of these projects during the past summer, but hiring freezes, uncertain budgetary circumstances, and reduced O&M staffing thwarted our attempts to do this work when it would have been least disruptive. I can only say that we will try very hard to minimize the inconvenience. I hope and believe that the gains will be worth the pains, and I beg your indulgence with painters, carpenters, electricians, and movers as they work to revitalize our collective home away from home.
I urge you all to attend
the public events in September that are listed on the Calendar of Events attached
below, most especially the forthcoming Investiture of Professor Richard Kaplan
as the Peer and Sarah Pedersen Professor of Law which is sure to be a celebration
of the academy at its best.
Welcome back to school, and all the best for a wonderful new academic year!
Heidi M. Hurd
Dean, College of Law
David C. Baum Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy
Co-Director of the Program in Law and Philosophy
Calendar of College of Law Events
September 2004
September 7, 7:00-9:30 pm, Max L. Rowe Auditorium: Business Film Series - Erin Brockovich, sponsored by Professor Ribstein
September 8, 4:00-5:00 pm, Max L. Rowe Auditorium: Investiture of Professor Richard Kaplan as the Peer and Sarah Pedersen Professor of Law; reception to follow in the Pedersen Pavilion
September 13, 1:00-2:00 pm, Room B: "Call Backs: You Wanted It, You Got It. Now What?," sponsored by Career Services
September 14, 6:00-8:00 pm, Courtroom: Stage-Fright Workshop (Part I), sponsored by Professor Gunsalus and Michelle Stephens
September 15, 12:00-1:00 pm, Room C: "Disciplining of Women Soldiers in the Israeli Military" presented by the Jewish Law Students and the Military Law Society
September 20, 1:15-2:00 pm, Room B: "Maximizing Your Opportunities at Receptions," sponsored by Career Services
September 21, 1:00-2:00 pm, Room B: "Offer & Acceptance," sponsored by Career Services
September 21, 6:00-8:00 pm, Courtroom: Stage-Fright Workshop (Part II), sponsored by Professor Gunsalus and Michelle Stephens
September 23, 3:00-4:00 pm, Room B: "Navigating the Out of State Job Search," sponsored by Career Services
September 28, 12:30-1:50 pm, Max L. Rowe Auditorium: Dinesh D'Souza (the Robert and Karen Rishwain Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution), sponsored by the Federalist Society
September 30, 3:00-4:00 pm, Room D: "Successful Cover Letters," sponsored by Career Services
