University of Illinois | College of Law

Alumni | Students | Faculty | Events & Programs | Giving

From the desk of
Dean Bruce P. Smith:

Dear Alumni,

As the first frost descends on Champaign-Urbana, I write to share some exciting news from the University of Illinois College of Law.

In August, the College of Law welcomed its 232-member Class of 2012 - the most academically talented in the College's history, with a median LSAT score of 166 (94th percentile) and a median GPA of 3.8. Hailing from 33 states, four foreign countries, and 121 undergraduate institutions, the class includes CEOs and opera singers, poets and archaeologists, war heroes and varsity athletes, Girl Scout gold award recipients and Eagle Scouts, professional musicians and Teach for America volunteers - as well as a staggering number of Phi Beta Kappa honorees. We have also welcomed 82 LL.M. students from 14 nations, including Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Mexico, and Russia.

Matt Finkin	The College's distinguished faculty members continue to publish scholarship of great influence, placing the College in the Top 20 among U.S. law schools in studies of scholarly impact. Two members of the faculty (Matt Finkin and Fred Hoxie) secured admission this fall to the Center for Advanced Study, joining Leon Dash, Wayne LaFave, and Michael Moore as members of the campus's most prestigious academic society. The College has added eight new tenure-track faculty members to its ranks over the past two years, with expertise in fields such as antitrust, criminal law, and federal courts. And the faculty is expected to grow by 15 percent over the next half decade, strengthened by an unprecedented commitment from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Fred Hoxie

Intellectual life at the College has been incredibly vibrant. This summer, the College's Center on Law and Globalization co-sponsored a conference in The Hague. Organized by Assistant Dean Charlotte Ku and colleagues at the American Bar Foundation, the conference featured the Dutch Foreign Minister, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, and the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

William Cohen

This fall, overflow crowds at the College heard from four brilliant speakers: Secretary William Cohen (former U.S. Secretary of Defense, pictured at right) who delivered the DLA Piper Lecture; Neil Katyal (Principal Deputy Solicitor General) who delivered the David Baum Lecture on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties; Steve Molo (Class of 1982 and recent co-founder of MoloLamken) who delivered the Van Arsdell Lecture; and Professor Peter Schuck (Yale Law School) who delivered the Ann Baum Elder Law Lecture.

Smith and the Colombos

The College has also been the grateful beneficiary of remarkable generosity - support that is especially critical in these trying economic times. June Michael of St. Louis, Missouri, provided a deferred gift of $1.3 million to create the John D. Colombo Professorship in Law, and a group of need-based scholarships. Read more about June's contribution. Lynn Murray (Class of 1985) and her husband Daniel have provided a generous estate gift and a $100,000 pledge to support the Lynn Murray Faculty Scholar Award, which will be granted to an outstanding mid-career scholar at the College. Read more about Lynn and Daniel's contribution. And Tim Hoffman (Class of 1965) provided $65,000 to fund the College's inaugural cohort of Public Interest Law Fellows - recent graduates who work for one year on behalf of the indigent and underserved. Read about Tim's contribution.

To build on these successes and to achieve our ambitious goals for the future, the College needs your support. In the months and years to come, I plan to reach out to every one of the College's 10,000+ alumni across the state, the nation, and the world. I intend to express the College's ambitions, challenges, and opportunities to every graduate of the College, whether they are law firm partners and associates, in-house counsel, public interest lawyers, government lawyers, law teachers, politicians, CEOs, CFOs, venture capitalists, money managers, doctors, real estate agents, or family farmers. Please consider giving something meaningful back to the College, including your time, ideas, and financial support. Together, we can ensure an exceptionally bright future for the College of Law.

Best regards,