May 2006 - June 2006
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,
We have arrived at the end of another academic year and students who have completed their rites of passage from the academy to the workplace are looking forward to the arrival of parents and friends for Saturday's Convocation. The library is full of students who are resisting the temptations of Spring to cram for the last exams of the year, and faculty members are scrambling to finish their grading and to prepare for the annual scholarly retreat that celebrates their shared passion for probing scholarly break-throughs. The summer beckons, and I am looking forward to a wonderful mix of work and play. Over the Memorial Day weekend, I'll be joining European alumni in Berlin for their annual reunion (please come!--it's a wonderful group of very successful alumni from all over Europe!). In June I am going to be joined by my sprightly father to lead 30 University of Illinois alumni from a wide variety of disciplines on an Illinois Alumni Association trip to the Northern Lake District of Italy. And around the edges of writing an article on the nature of mercy, I am looking forward to whitewater rafting the Green River in Utah and doing some summer backpacking with my family in the mountains of California and Wyoming.
But before I bid you all a happy and rejuvenating summer, let me tell you about some year-end successes and achievements that have brought the College, and all of us by association, great credit. This month in the news:
- The College Inaugurates a Student-Alumni Network
- Professors John Colombo, Andrew Leipold, David Hyman, Richard Ross, Cynthia Williams, and Janis Johnston Earn Faculty Honors
- Illinois Ranks #1 in Improved Student Quality According to a New Study
- Illinois Faculty Rank #7 (Again!) in Scholarly Productivity and Impact
- Professor Cynthea Geerdes is Appointed the New Assistant Dean for Clinical Education
- Adjunct Professors Greg Adamski and Karen Conti launch "Legally Speaking" on WGN Radio 720
- Adjunct Professor James F. Holderman is Named Chief Judge for U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- 1L Student Amara Enyia Publishes a Diary on Volunteer Legal Aid Work in New Orleans
- The Elegant Fourth Annual Spring Gala was a Fun-Filled Celebration of a Great Year
- The 2006 Class Gift Campaign Breaks the Record for Student Participation
- Wanted! Alumni Volunteers are Needed to Boost Annual Giving Participation
- Alumni Leaders Set a 21% Annual Fund Participation Goal This Year
- College of Law Faculty and Alumni Gather for a Memorial Day Reunion in Berlin
The College Inaugurates a Student-Alumni Network
As I travel the country and talk with alumni, I commonly hear a note of frustration about the fact that Illinois has not had a well-established alumni network that connects law alumni to one another and to newly graduating students. And as our students seek avenues into practice in America's many great cities, it is apparent that we need a means by which to connect them to alumni in those cities who know the local culture and can tutor students about how best to pursue careers within the area. The Office of Career Services is thus working to create a network of alumni who are willing to provide career advice and regional information to students who are seeking pathways from the classrooms of the College of Law to offices within rewarding areas of practice. If you have a few minutes for an email exchange or telephone conversation with a student, we would be gratified if you would join the network. Your advice could change the course of a student's life and open doors to opportunities that would be otherwise unavailable. So please make a gift of your time and join the alumni network. For information about the Illinois Law Student-Alumni network, please contact Career Services at 217-333-2961.
Professors John Colombo, Andrew Leipold, David Hyman, Richard Ross, Cynthia Williams, and Janis Johnston Earn Faculty Honors
The end of the academic year always brings a flurry of wonderful awards, and this month we are celebrating a number of achievements by colleagues who have won impressive distinctions for their dedicated teaching and path-breaking scholarship.
First, I am delighted to tell you that Professor John Colombo has been nominated to the Albert E. Jenner, Jr. Professorship in Law. His induction to the College's endowed professoriate is a fitting tribute to his national stature amongst tax scholars and policy-makers and properly celebrates the theoretical innovation and field-changing impact of his scholarship on tax-exempt organizations. We congratulate Professor Colombo on the very significant visibility of his scholarly work (as evidenced by his invitation to testify before the full House Ways and Means Committee in Washington last year and by selection as the 2005 recipient of the Carroll P. Hurd Award for Excellence in Faculty Scholarship) and this prestigious recognition of that work.
Second, no one could better deserve the prestigious three-year John E. Cribbet Excellence in Teaching Award than Professor Andrew Leipold. Quite remarkably, over the past 14 years, Professor Leipold has won 10 teaching awards, including eight of the College's annual Outstanding Teacher of the Year Awards, the Campus Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Teaching, and the Award for Distinguished Teaching at Duke Law School when he visited there for a semester. It is only fitting that we honor his remarkable talents as a teacher by awarding him his eleventh and most distinguished teaching award.
Just as he has come to define excellence in teaching, so Professor Andy Leipold has distinguished himself as a scholar of great insight and careful analysis, winning this year the Carroll P. Hurd Award for Excellence in Faculty Scholarship for his superb article, Why Are Federal Judges so Acquittal Prone? (83 Wash. U. L. Q. (2005)). The Hurd Award represents the College's "best article of the year award," and is given annually to a faculty member whose work epitomizes the ideals of legal scholarship.
It is also a pleasure to tell you that Professor David Hyman's book, entitled Improving Healthcare: A Dose of Competition, won this year's Wayne R. LaFave Excellence in Faculty Scholarship Award. This annual award is given to the faculty member who has published the most important or most highly regarded book within the past year. Embodying the final report of the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice joint investigation, as well as supplemental materials and a searching introduction and executive summary, David's book comprehensively describes the state of the markets for health care financing and delivery.
Fourth, it is also my pleasure to tell you that Professor Richard Ross has been appointed the next Thomas M. Mengler Faculty Scholar. This two-year research appointment reflects Richard's distinguished standing amongst legal historians within the academy and pays a compliment to his current intensive pursuit of a book project on the intellectual history of legal communications in early modern England and early America.
I am further delighted to announce that Professor Cynthia Williams has been appointed the next Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Faculty Scholar. During her two year tenure as the Jones Faculty Scholar, she will complete a series of articles on the corporate social relationship that began with her highly-regarded Davis Law Review article of 2002 and that represents an extension of the work on securities law and corporate law that has won her very substantial national acclaim.
Finally, please join me in congratulating Professor Janis Johnston for receiving the Ross and Helen Workman Law Research Grant, which is a distinguished summer research award given in support of important scholarly research. Having recently completed a demanding term as the President of the American Association of Law Libraries, Janis is returning to scholarly projects about law library management and legal information policy in a world of increased digitalization.
Congratulations to my very talented colleagues for these achievements and our collective thanks to them for bringing such luster to the College!
Illinois Ranks #1 in Improved Student Quality According to a New Study
Leiter's Law School Reports has published the new 2006 Rankings of Law Schools by Student Quality, which ranks the Top 40 schools by the 75th percentile LSAT (the top quarter) for the class that entered in the fall of 2005. Illinois ranked #20 in this survey, moving up 13 places from 2005. Based on the Leiter rankings, Law Librarian Blog identified the law schools that made the biggest improvements between 2005 and 2006 and ranked the University of Illinois College of Law #1 in the nation by this criterion. In the last year, our Student Quality ranking improved from #33 to #20--a gain that surpassed by a sizable margin the gains made by other celebrated schools!
Illinois Faculty Rank #7 (Again!) in Scholarly Productivity and Impact
College of Law faculty members continue to excel in productivity and downloads on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). In the May 7 edition of Leiter's Law School Reports, Illinois faculty rank #7 in overall productivity in the last 12 months, based on the most downloads per paper, with an average of 77 downloads per paper and 59 total papers submitted. In terms of total downloads of all papers, Illinois ranks #9 in the nation with 17,991 total downloads.
Top 10 law schools in terms of total downloads per submitted paper in the last 12 months:
1. Texas (117 downloads per paper; 64 papers)
2. George Washington (115 downloads per paper; 63 papers)
3. Columbia (107 downloads per paper; 49 papers)
4. Yale (93 downloads per paper; 68 papers)
5. Chicago (84 downloads per paper; 73 papers)
6. UCLA (81 downloads per paper, 76 papers)
7. ILLINOIS (77 downloads per paper, 59 papers)
8. Harvard (75 downloads per paper; 100 papers)
9. Georgetown (73 downloads per paper; 48 papers)
10. George Mason (72 downloads per paper; 49 papers)
Professor Larry Ribstein moves into Top 10 in SSRN downloaded submissions
Among individual downloaded authors in the last 12 months on SSRN, Professor Larry Ribstein, the Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Chair in Law, moved up to #7 in the nation with 6,188 downloads. Last week, Professor Ribstein's article "Are Partners Fiduciaries?" Illinois Law Review (2005), was selected by The Corporate Practice Commentator annual poll of corporate and securities law teachers as one of the best 10 corporate and securities articles published in 2005.
Professor Cynthea Geerdes is Appointed the New Assistant Dean for Clinical Education
Professor Cynthea Geerdes has accepted a newly created two-year administrative position as Assistant Dean for Clinical Education. This experimental administrative position, which is modeled after the rotating Associate Deanship, will provide Professor Geerdes with the authority and funding necessary to achieve the innovative expansion in our clinical offerings.
Professor Geerdes is the founder and Director of the Transactions and Community Economic Development Clinic that focuses on issues of economic justice. The Clinic not only represents individual consumers in financial matters but also promotes asset accumulation among the working poor by, for example, seeking positive alternatives to high-cost financing. The Clinic also assists clients in starting and growing their small businesses and not-for-profit tax-exempt corporations. In addition, Professor Geerdes serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the American Bar Association's Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development Law and is a member of the Campus Advisory Committee of the East St. Louis Action Research Project, a multi-disciplinary service learning project of the University of Illinois.
Professor Geerdes assumes leadership of the College's clinics from Professor Nina Tarr, who has stepped down from the role of Director of Clinical Education after a decade of service to the College. After a sabbatical leave, Professor Tarr will return to assume the typical responsibilities for teaching and scholarship that are those of her tenured colleagues. We are grateful to Professor Tarr for the energy and creativity that she brought to the initial creation of the College's Civil Practice Clinic more than 10 years ago, and we congratulate her for the ways in which she contributed to the growth and development of our experiential curriculum over the past decade.
Adjunct Professors Greg Adamski and Karen Conti launch "Legally Speaking" on WGN Radio 720
Adjunct College of Law Professors Greg Adamski and Karen Conti broadcast the debut of their new legal talk show, "Legally Speaking" on WGN Radio 720, the top-ranked radio station in Chicago. "Legally Speaking" will air weekly on Saturdays at 3:00 p.m. in the months to come. Professors Adamski and Conti are partners in the litigation firm Adamski & Conti in Chicago and have taught a variety of courses at the College of Law, including acclaimed classes on death penalty litigation.
"Legally Speaking" features local and national news stories, interviews with attorneys and judges, and call-in questions from listeners. Professors Adamski and Conti plan to utilize University of Illinois College of Law faculty frequently on this new program, so for those of you in the Chicago area, tune in!
Adjunct Professor James F. Holderman is Named Chief Judge for U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
Judge James F. Holderman, an alumnus of the College of Law and a popular adjunct professor of Advanced Trial Advocacy: Intellectual Property, was named Chief Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, replacing Chief Judge Charles P. Kocoras. Judge Holderman, 59, is to serve a seven-year term as Chief Judge, in which capacity he will be responsible for administering a court with a budget of nearly $27.7 million and a staff of about 450 people.
Judge Holderman earned an undergraduate degree in Agriculture Science from the University of Illinois in 1968 and his Law Degree from the College of Law in 1971. He went on to clerk for the Chief Judge of the Northern District of Iowa before serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Chicago from 1972 to 1978. He then joined Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal until he was tapped by President Reagan in 1985 to serve on the U.S. District Court.
1L Student Amara Enyia Publishes a Diary on Volunteer Legal Aid Work in New Orleans
First-year student Amara Enyia wrote a diary, "Hope Prevails Amid Ruins: 'Big Easy' Struggles to Climb to its Feet," to record her experiences as a volunteer legal aid worker in New Orleans during Spring Break. Amara, who served as Managing Editor of the Daily Illini as an undergraduate student, spent an intensive week in New Orleans' lower Ninth Ward, an area that was demolished by Hurricane Katrina. Her account of the gripping life stories in which she briefly participated for the week was published in the April 10 edition of the Daily Illini and was featured in The Palestra Daily, a virtual national college newspaper, as one of the Top 10 college newspaper stories in the United States.
The Elegant Fourth Annual Spring Gala was a Fun-Filled Celebration of a Great Year
Were you there? What an evening! The Gala was a parade of elegant women in long sparkling dresses and men in handsome square-cut tuxedos from all walks of College life. There were many students from all years of study; there were faculty and administrators and staff; there were campus leaders; and there were alumni who traveled from cities around the nation and three who flew from as far away as Japan, Germany, and Pakistan! Over the course of the evening we honored faculty, staff, students, and alumni for their numerous achievements and we were treated to a thoughtful after-dinner address by newly-appointed Provost Linda Katehi. Throughout the evening, photos and video footage ran on huge background video screens that captured events of the year, student activities, and classroom exchanges, so even if you weren't at the Gala in person, there is a very good chance that you made a virtual appearance in images that reached to the elevated ceiling of the beautiful ballroom at the Champaign Country Club. Next year's Gala is on April 20. Mark your calendars!
The 2006 Class Gift Campaign Breaks the Record for Student Participation
Congratulations and a hearty thanks to members of the Class of 2006 for the generosity they demonstrated during the recently concluded class pledge drive. The Class of 2006 Gift Committee achieved new heights, leading the JD class to a 63% participation rate and the LLM class to a 108% participation rate (one visiting professor and two exchange students joined the LLM program!). Last year, the JD Class of 2005 achieved 60% participation and the LLM class achieved 103% participation. The Class of 2004 launched the first Class Gift Campaign at the College of Law, challenging successive classes to outdo its inaugural 41% participation rate.
The Class of 2006 Gift Campaign organizers Kari Klasen and Thomas Mikrut recruited Co-Chairs Kenneth Halcom and Helen Hester and committee members Reena Jashnani, Edward Lin, Geetanjli Malhotra, Jacqueline McLaughlin, Lauren Nachinson, Susanna Stone and Ming-Yin Wu. An impressive 134 members of the JD class of 2006 and 39 of the LLM class of 2006 pledged to support the Law School Annual Fund, the Loan Repayment Assistance Program and/or the Black Law Student Association Alumni Scholarship Fund. Typically, students pledge gifts over three years with the first pledge payment due in January of 2007.
The aim of each Class Gift Campaign is to achieve a high donor participation rate. The total dollars raised by the Class of 2006 will be tallied once the pledges have been processed by the University of Illinois Foundation, but as some measure of the significance of these class campaigns, the Classes of 2004 and 2005 raised a combined total of $102,307 in pledges. Now that the College of Law receives only 12% of its funding from the State of Illinois, it is less of a state-supported school and more of a state-assisted school, and initiatives like this are crucial to ensuring that it cultivates the kind of long-term alumni support that sustains its competitiveness.
Wanted! Alumni Volunteers are Needed to Boost Annual Giving Participation
Law School Annual Fund Co-Chairs Lynn Murray '85 and Greg Read '67 and current College Class Representatives are writing their fellow section mates about the critical importance of annual giving to the future success and reputation of their alma mater.
Class Representatives (by section) signed up to date are:
Tom Gardner '69 (Section A), Joseph Robinson '69 (Section B),
Michael Kreloff '71 (Section B),
Sally Larson Sargent '75 (Section C),
Steve Heller '80 (Section A),
Lawrence Mason '89 (Section B), David Novick '89 (Section C),
Ralph (Buddy) Arnheim '92 (Section A), Daniel Winters '92 (Section C),
Jennifer Ellin '94 (Section A), Ann Barron '94 (Section C) ,
Douglas Albritton '95 (Section A), Nancy Lane '95 (Section C),
Pamela Dicarlantonio '96 (Section A),
Richard Miller '97 (Section A), Mark Cavanaugh '97 (Section B),
Tom Baker '98 (Section A), Ngozi Okorafor-Johns '98 (Section C),
Jeffrey Waldhoff '00 (all class),
Adam Chaddock '01 (Section B), Kathleen Barry '01 (Section C),
James Pinkstaff '02 (Section B),
Jay Schleppenbach '03 (Section A), Peter Prommer '03 (Section B), Pedro Cervantes '03 (Section C),
Cynthia Stencil '04 (Section B), Carrie Herschman '04 (Section C),
Jonathon Schwartz '05 (Section A), Stephanie Reinhart '05 (Section C)
We are still recruiting for class sections that do not have Class Representatives. If you are a donor to the Law School Annual Fund and would be willing to help us reach our goal by writing to your fellow section mates, please contact Marianne Downey at downey1@law.uiuc.edu or call 217-244-6765.
Alumni Leaders Set a 21% Annual Fund Participation Goal This Year
Annual Fund Co-Chairs Greg Read and Lynn Murray have set a three-year goal of reaching 30% alumni participation in the Law School Annual Fund. This participation rate will position the College among the law schools with the top participation rates in the Big Ten (though still under the rates of top-20 private law schools with which the College must compete to retain top-tier status). This year's goal is to reach 21% alumni participation by June 30, 2006. As of the end of March 2006, College alumni achieved 17.3% participation, and we are very hopeful that the tremendous efforts of our alumni leaders will result in greater participation in the remaining two months of the annual fund campaign. Check out where your class ranks in the Alumni Participation Class Competition at www.law.uiuc.edu/alumni/giving/lawfund.asp. The top 10 participating classes to date are:
1. 1956 @ 41% 2. 1944 & 1965 @ 33%
3. 1951 @ 30%
4. 1955 & 1968 @ 28%
5. 1939 & 1958 @ 27%
6. 1948 @ 26%
7. 1976 @ 25%
8. 1947, 1969, 1977 & 1981 @ 24%
9. 1963, 1974 & 1975 @ 23%
10. 1967, 1973 & 1980 @ 22%
Our goal calls for 318 additional alumni to contribute to the Fund by June 30, 2006. You can move your class ahead in the competition and help the Annual Fund Alumni Committee meet their ambitious goal by making your gift to the Law School Annual Fund today at www.law.uiuc.edu/igive/index.asp or by contacting Marianne Downey at downey1@law.uiuc.edu (217-244-6765).
College of Law Faculty and Alumni Gather for a Memorial Day Reunion in Berlin
The annual European Alumni Reunion is scheduled for May 26-28 in Berlin, Germany, and you shouldn't think that you have to live in Europe to attend! This event is always a highlight of the summer for our internationally-located alumni and for American alumni, faculty, and staff who are passing through Europe en route to vacation destinations or places of foreign study. This year's wonderful weekend will feature a guided walking tour of Berlin, dinner at the famed beer-garden "Zollpackhof," a general assembly meeting of all Illinois alumni with a guest lecture by multi-lingual College of Law Professor Jacqueline Ross, the traditional Asparagus Dinner at the historic brewery of Krongut Bornstedt (Crown Estate Bornstedt), and a guided tour of the "Reichstag." For more information, contact Sherry Cibelli in the Office of Graduate and International Studies at 217-333-6066 or scibelli@uiuc.edu.
I'll look forward to writing again in September with news of next year's ambitious plans and new initiatives. In the meantime, congratulations to our graduating students as they leave behind their College days and take on the responsibilities of their new profession. Best of luck to returning students as they complete exams and head into a summer of rewarding work and rejuvenating play. Thanks to faculty and staff for the months of hard work that went into realizing this year's great achievements. And best wishes to alumni, friends, and campus leaders for a summer that affords opportunities for travel and relaxation.
Sincerely,
Heidi M. Hurd
Calendar of College of Law Events
May 2006
May 12 6:00-8:00 pm, Pedersen Pavilion: Class of 2006 Graduation Open House.
May 13 12:30-2:00 pm, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts: Class of 2006 College of Law Convocation, Speaker: The Honorable Wayne Andersen '70, Judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
May 14 10:30 am, Assembly Hall: University of Illinois Commencement, Speaker Thomas Siebel, Founder & Former Chairman/CEO, Siebel Systems, Inc.
May 26-28: European Alumni Association Reunion - Berlin, Germany. For more information contact Sherry Cibelli at 217-244-1476 or scibelli@law.uiuc.edu.
