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Judge Wilkinson to Address Law School as Trienens Visiting Scholar

October 05, 2004

Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4 th Circuit, will be visiting Northwestern University School of Law on October 5 and 6 as this year's Howard J. Trienens Visiting Judicial Scholar.

As part of his visit, Wilkinson will deliver a lecture at 12:15 on Tuesday, October 5, titled “Building a Legal Culture of Affection.” The speech will take place in Rubloff 140 at the School of Law, 357 E. Chicago Ave., and is free and open to the public.

Wilkinson was appointed to the 4th Circuit by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. He served as the court's chief judge from 1996 to 2003. Prior to his appointment to the bench, he taught law at his alma mater, the University of Virginia .

In 1970 Wilkinson ran as the Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia . He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. from 1972-73, and also previously served as the deputy assistant attorney general for the civil rights division of the Department of Justice.

Earlier this year, he received the Thomas Jefferson Medal in Law from the University of Virginia for his contributions to the legal field. The award, co-sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, is the highest outside honor bestowed by the university.

Wilkinson has authored several books including “Harry Byrd and the Changing Face of Virginia Politics,” “Serving Justice: A Supreme Court Clerk's View,” “From Brown to Bakke: The Supreme Court and School Integration,” and “One Nation Indivisible: How Ethnic Separatism Threatens America .”

The Howard J. Trienens Visiting Scholar Program was established at Northwestern University School of Law in 1989 by partners of Sidley and Austin to honor Trienens' service to the firm and Northwestern. Trienens joined the firm in 1949 as an associate and became a partner in 1956. He headed Sidley and Austin 's Executive Committee from 1977 to 1993.

Distinguished jurists who have lectured as part of the Trienens Visiting Scholar Program include U.S. Supreme Court Justices William H. Renquist, Antonin Scalia, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony M. Kennedy.

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