Access Restricted to Northwestern Law CommunitySummer Letter 2002
A Letter from Dean Van Zandt:
"Welcome Back to Northwestern Law"
August 2002
Dear Students:
I hope you are enjoying your summer. We've had a busy and productive summer and are looking forward to welcoming the incoming class as well as all returning students.
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Our "summer" began as we ended
the academic year on a very high note inspired by the graduation address
by Dale Bumpers (left), a 1951 graduate of Northwestern Law, who was
governor of Arkansas for four years before serving as a U.S. senator
for 24 years. William J. Kunkle Jr., a 1969 graduate and partner in
the Chicago firm Cahill, Christian, and Kunkle, spoke on behalf of the
Alumni Association, continuing the tradition of a Northwestern Law alum
welcoming a graduating class that includes one of his or her children.
Bill's daughter Kathy Kunkle, was a member of the class of 2002. |
| As I do each summer, I write to bring you up to date on the changes that have occurred and the developments that await you on your return. We are increasingly active on a year-round basis, working to enhance the Northwestern Law Difference, and implementing our Strategic Plan to "build the great law school for the changing world." | |
| Several building renovations have taken place this summer. The newly renovated Strawn Hall (right) now seats 85 (formerly 103) and includes power stations at each seat, a center aisle, a smart podium (computer, DVD, VCR, Public Address System), computer projector ADA hearing assist system as well as all new furniture, carpeting, and wall finishes. We have also made some lighting improvements. These updates were based on input from students, staff, and faculty. |  |
| New networked ports have also been installed in the front of LM108-Wigmore, LM317-Hoyne, LM117-Lowden, LM310-Hurd, and Mc371-McChesney Hall, and new DVD drives have been installed to computers in R140, R150, and R339. | |
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The courtyard (left) also received a well-deserved makeover. Concrete walkways were replaced with blue-stone pavers. We also put in some new furniture - several wooden benches have been installed at the north end. And several other landscaping improvements will be phased in over the next few years. |
| This summer we also unexpectedly acquired office space on the 5th floor of the Rubloff building. After consulting with the executive boards, we have decided to move the law reviews into this new space and out of the sub-par space in Lake Shore Center. The space is a large square area with private offices on the sides and a large work space in the middle with many individual carrels. Its windows look out over the library atrium. The move is going to cause some dislocation for the reviews in the very short-term, but the space is far superior and will bring the law review staffs much closer to the heart of the Law School. Finally, the Atrium will also have a new look when you return. After consulting with several student leaders, we have ordered new furniture that will include more tables and workspaces to facilitate group work and discussion. I am excited about other developments at the Law School, which began last spring and which we will continue to develop this year. For instance, in spring 2002, students, working with Associate Dean Don Rebstock, and Professors Len Rubinowitz and Cindy Wilson, developed our new Public Service Strategy. No matter what career path you choose, a significant amount of your time as a professional should be dedicated to giving back to the community. Already our students spend a day giving back to the community during orientation, and we are currently working to create a culture in which all students will engage in community service before graduation, through a combination fo legal or non-law related services. You'll hear more about this initiative as the year progresses. |
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| This year, like last year, classes do not begin until the day after Labor Day, September 3 (see the academic calendar). While the Northwestern Wildcats do not begin their home season until September 7 against Texas Christian University, those of you who are gluttons for punishment can watch the Cubs in a Labor Day doubleheader against Milwaukee (Student Affairs may have extra tickets.)
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Orientation for the incoming students, which has been planned by students led by co-chairs Seamus Ryan and David Sayyed working with the Student Affairs team, begins the week of August 26. Professor Lawrence Marshall, (left) legal director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions, will speak on Tuesday, August 27, at approximately 12:45 p.m. in Thorne Auditorium. You are, of course, welcome to attend. Each year Larry litigates cases, delivers testimony, and speaks to numerous public and academic groups about wrongful convictions and the death penalty. |
We look forward to welcoming you back soon. Please enjoy all that you are doing and return ready to go for an exciting year.
Sincerely,
Links to key developments:
We continue to actively recruit new faculty as we seek to carry out our strategic initiative to develop and retain an internationally renowned research and teaching faculty. Thanks to the members of the Faculty Appointments Committee (co-chaired by Steve Presser and Steve Calabresi) and to all the students and faculty, we have had significant success in attracting the following new research scholars:
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Charles Taylor (left), who joined the faculty in January 2002 as a Board of Trustees Professor of Law and Philosophy with a joint appointment at the Law School and the Philosophy Department of Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, will teach at the Law School for the first time in winter quarter 2003. He will teach Ethical Theory and the Law. Charles' interests include the role of law in political theory, history of philosophy, truth, theism, interpretation, the human sciences, liberalism, pluralism, and difference. He received his PhD from Oxford University and has taught at McGill University in Montreal since 1961. |
| John O. McGinnis (right), who visited Northwestern Law from Cardozo Law School this past spring, will permanently join the faculty this fall. He earned his BA and JD from Harvard University and his MA from Oxford University. He then clerked for Hon. Kenneth W. Starr, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. From 1987 to 1991, John was deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice. He recently was appointed to the advisory committee on NAFTA and labor standards. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative also has added him to the roster of Americans who can be appointed as panelists to resolve World Trade Organization disputes. John will teach International Trade this fall and a section of Constitutional Law in the spring. |  |
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Kimberly Yuracko (left) has joined the Northwestern Law faculty
after serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor for the 2001-02 academic
year. Her primary research interest is in contemporary feminist theory.
Kim received her PhD in political science and law degree from Stanford
University and previously taught at University of California-Irvine.
She clerked for Hon. Stanely Marcus, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh
Circuit, from 1999 to 2000. She will teach Family Law and Employment
Law in the fall and a section of Property in the spring. Her book Perfectionism
and Contemporary Feminist Values is currently being published by
Indiana University Press. |
| Claire Priest (right), a graduate of Yale Law School, served as articles editor of the Yale Law Journal and was the John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics from 1995 to 1999. She also is earning her PhD in history from Yale. She spent this past year clerking for Hon. Jon O. Newman, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Claire won the John M. Olin prize for best paper on law, economics, and public policy and the Joseph Parker Prize for best paper on legal history in 1997-98. She served as the Samuel I. Golieb Fellow in Legal History at New York University School of Law in 2000-01. Claire's research interests include contracts, commercial law, bankruptcy, legal history, torts, antitrust, property, trusts and estates and family law. She will teach Law and Industrialization of the United States this fall and a section of Property in the spring. |  |
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Gordon S. Wood (left), one of the country's leading historians of Colonial America will also permanently join the faculty, but not until fall 2003. He will be the Board of Trustees Professor of Law and History. Currently the Alva O. Way University Professor of History at Brown University, Wood won the Pulitzer Prize for his book The Radicalism of the American Revolution. He also was awarded the Bancroft and John H. Dunning prizes and a National Book Award nomination for The Creation of the American Republic. He received his PhD from Harvard University and previously taught at the College of William and Mary, Cambridge University, Harvard University and the University of Michigan. |
| David L. Cameron (right), a 1986 Northwestern Law graduate, first joined our faculty as a visitor in spring of 2002. This year, he will serve as associate director of the new Tax Program and will teach Advanced Property Taxation and Entity Taxation in the fall and Advanced Property Taxation another section of Entity Taxation in the spring. David clerked for Hon. Edward F. Hennessey, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. He has written many articles on land use and tax issues. David was voted 1995 Teacher of the Year at Willamette University College of Law, where he taught courses in taxation, real estate finance, and property. |  |
Visiting Faculty
As always, our research faculty will be enriched by a number of visiting faculty and scholars. This coming year, six visitors will join us from other universities:
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Daniel
R. Fischel (left), the Lee and Brena Freeman Professor of Law and
Business and former dean at the University of Chicago Law School, will
be the Jack N. Pritzker Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law for
the 2002-03 academic year. Dan was a member of the Northwestern Law
faculty from 1981-84, and we are pleased to have him back. His interests
include securities, commodities, corporation law, regulation of financial
markets, and the application of the economics of corporate finance to
problems in these areas. He will teach Corporate Governance this fall
and a section of Business Associations in the spring. Dan is also co-president
of Lexecon Inc. and founded its securities practice in 1981. |
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Robert J. Peroni (right), the Robert Kramer Research Professor of
Law at George Washington University Law School, joins the faculty as
the visiting J. Landis Martin Professor of Law and Business for the
2002-03 academic year. Bob is a 1976 graduate of Northwestern Law and
will teach in the new Tax Program. His research and teaching interests
are in the areas of federal and international taxation, law and economics,
international trade, and professional responsibility and ethics. He
will teach Basic Federal Income Taxation and International Taxation
in the fall and Advanced International Taxation in the spring. |
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Emerson H. Tiller (left), Associate Professor of Business, Technology
and the Law at the University of Texas Graduate School of Business,
will visit Northwestern Law for the 2002 fall semester. He is the co-director
of the Center for Business, Technology and Law at UT, and his research
has primarily focused on the role of political forces in regulatory
and judicial decision-making. Emerson has published numerous papers
in law and economic journals and has won the Olin Foundation Fellowship
at Yale Law School and a Bradley Foundation grant for his work. He will
teach a section of Contracts this fall. |
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| Visiting
Scholars |
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| Chaim Gans
(right), associate professor of law and director of the Israeli Minerva
Center for Human Rights at Tel Aviv University, will visit during the
month of September. Chaim received his LLB from Hebrew University, BA
and MA from Tel Aviv University, and PhD in Philosophy from University
College, Oxford. He teaches legal, moral, and political philosophy and
has written two books, including Philosophical Anarchism and Political
Disobedience (1992) and Liberalism and Cultural Nationalism (forthcoming
2002). |
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Nancy King (left), professor of law at Vanderbilt University, will visit the Northwestern Law during the month of October. After earning her JD from the University of Michigan, Nancy clerked for Hon. Douglass W. Hillman, Chief Judge of U.S. District Court for Western Michigan and then Hon. Michael F. Cavanagh, Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. Nancy is co-author of two leading treatises on criminal procedure and the leading criminal procedure casebook, as well as several articles. A frequent contributor to conferences on jury research, her work focuses on juries and on the post-investigative features of the criminal process including plea bargaining, trials, evidence, sentencing, double jeopardy, and post-conviction review. | |
| Richard McAdams
(right), professor of law at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
will visit during the month of November. After graduating from the University
of Virginia Law School and before joining the law firm of Morgan, Lewis
& Bockius in Philadelphia, Richard clerked for Hon. Harrison L. Winter
of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. In 1990, he left
practice for a faculty position at Chicago-Kent, and in 1997 accepted
a position as full professor at Boston University. He has written numerous
articles on law and economics, social norms, and criminal law. |
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| Edward K. Cheng will join us as this year's Searle Fellow. Edward earned his BS in Electrical Engineering from Princeton, and MS in Information Systems from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He earned his JD from Harvard Law School. This past year, Edward has been clerking for Hon. Stephen F. Williams, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Ilya Somin will join us as this year's John M. Olin Fellow in Law. Ilya earned his BA from Amherst College, MA in Political Science from Harvard University, and JD from Yale Law School. He served as an editor for Yale Law Journal and Yale Journal on Regulation. This past year, Ilya has been clerking for Hon. Jerry E. Smith, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. |
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| Visiting Assistant Professors In addition to these visitors from other schools, we will also have four visiting assistant professors joining us this year. Our Visiting Assistant Professor (VAP) Program gives excellent young scholars who are just beginning their academic careers an opportunity to begin their research and teaching at Northwestern Law before taking a permanent positions somewhere. Kimberly Yuracko, who participated in the program last year, has permanently joined our faculty this year. Joseph Miller, who also was a VAP last year, has taken a position as assistant professor of law at Lewis & Clark College in Oregon. |
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| Ronen Avraham (right) earned his LLM and SJD from the University of Michigan Law School, his MA in finance from Bar Ian University School of Business Administration, Israel and LLB from Bar Ian University School of Law. He focuses primary on economic analysis of torts, property, and contracts; distribution in the law; and behavioral economics and the law. He will teach Insurance Law this fall. |  |
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Heidi Kitrosser (left), a graduate of the University of California - Los Angeles and Yale Law School, focuses primarily on constitutional law, administrative law, telecommunications law, civil procedure, and criminal law. She clerked for Hon. Judith Rogers, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for the 1999-2000 term. She will teach a section of Civil Procedure this fall and a course on the First Amendment this spring. | |
| John P. Kelsh, a 1996 graduate of Northwestern Law, will teach Securities Regulation in the spring. He clerked for Hon. David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for the 1996-97 term and Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court during the 1997-98 term. John joined Sidley Austin Brown & Wood's Chicago office in 1998 where he has worked as an associate in the corporate and securities group. | ||
| Richard Lavoie, (right) who received his JD with honors from Cornell and his LLM in Taxation from New York University while practicing tax law with a major law firm in New York, will teach Tax Ethics, Bankruptcy Tax, and Tax Procedure in the new Tax Program. In addition to his extensive transactional tax experience, he has taught law at the JD and LLM levels on a full-time basis for the past four years and has published several academic articles and a BNA Tax Management Portfolio. | 
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| Aletha M. Claussen Schulz, a JD and PhD graduate from the University of Nebraska, focuses primarily on applied social psychology, particularly how social psychological research can contribute to the understanding of legal problems and lead to innovative solutions in the justice system. Aletha is the first VAP to participate in our joint post-doctoral program with Kellogg's Management and Organizations Department and the Dispute Resolution Center. She will teach a joint section of Negotiations for Law and Kellogg students in the spring. | ||
Communication and Legal Reasoning Program
| The Communication and Legal Reasoning Program (CLR) will have a few different faces for the 2002-03 school year. Elizabeth Inglehart will be taking the year off to stay home with a new baby. | |
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However, Christina
Heyde (right) will be returning to the faculty after two years of
maternity leave. Christina is a four-year veteran of the CLR faculty,
where she is a clinical associate professor. Before coming to teach
at Northwestern, Christina was a litigation associate at Jenner & Block,
where she published an article and a handbook for practicing attorneys
on sanctions under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Christina received her AB in psychology from Harvard University and
her JD from Northwestern; she is currently working on a master's degree
in education and social policy. |
| As many of you may have heard, we have
a larger than usual entering class. To maintain our commitment to small
CLR sections where students have many opportunities for one-on-one contact
with their professors, Jonathan
Gordon (below) will join the CLR faculty as a visiting clinical
professor. |
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| Since 1989, Jonathan has
been a full-time member of the faculty at Case Western Reserve University
School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio. A graduate of Columbia College and
Columbia University School of Law, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable
Solomon Oliver, Jr. of the Northern District of Ohio. He then spent
a year in private practice in Cleveland, before joining the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission as a Trial Attorney. In the three
years he spent at the EEOC, Jonathan litigated class actions and individual
cases alleging employment discrimination based on race, religion, national
origin, sex, sexual harassment, and retaliation. In addition his legal
practice, Jonathan has consulted on legal writing in both corporate
and law firm settings. |
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| The primary goals of
CLR are to give our students a strong foundation in legal analysis
and to introduce them to many of the communication skills they will
be called upon to use in their jobs, both before and after graduation.
In the coming year we plan to continue our focus on cooperative and collaborative learning but may experiment with the implementation. We also are exploring several innovative teaching methods, particularly for teaching research and citation. Finally, we are attempting to open up an ongoing dialogue with second and third year students to fine tune our program to insure our students are prepared for challenges they will encounter in the working world, regardless of whether they go into legal practice, business, public interest work, government, or something else. Faculty Departures An excellent school must always work hard to keep its best faculty. The academic market for the best scholars is very competitive today. I am sorry to report that professors Henry Smith and Annelise Riles have left Northwestern. Henry joins the faculty at Yale Law School while Annelise has joined the Cornell law faculty. Paul Robinson will also be leaving to join the University of Pennsylvania Law School faculty this spring. Christina Gabriel Kanelos and Angela Daker have left the Bluhm Legal Clinic. Christina's husband accepted a faculty position at Stanford in the humanities department and she has been named the director of a domestic violence project in Palo Alto, California. Angela has joined the law firm of White & Case in Miami, Florida. While we will surely miss them all, we wish them the best of luck in their new endeavors. |
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| Faculty Awards
and Recognition One highlight of any academic year is the appointment of faculty members
to endowed chairs. These important positions help us attract and retain
faculty who will set Northwestern apart by influencing leading public
policy and academic issues. I am pleased to announce that Professors
Robert Bennett, Shari Diamond, and Dorothy Roberts have been appointed
to endowed chair positions. |
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Robert Bennett (left), former dean of the Law School (1985-95) and scholar in the field of constitutional law, has been appointed the Nathaniel L. Nathanson Professor of Law. His book Talking It Through: Puzzles of American Democracy will be published this fall by Cornell University Press. Following the 2000 presidential election, Bob was called on time and time again to provide constitutional interpretation and expert commentary about the legal issues of the contested vote. Bob joined the law school faculty in 1969 and served as dean from 1985 to 1995. Victor Rosenblum, who previously held the Nathaniel L. Nathanson chair, will now hold it under the emeritus title although he remains a full-time active member of the Law School faculty. |
| Shari Diamond
(right), the foremost empirical researcher on the jury process and legal
decision-making, has been named the Howard J. Trienens Professor of Law.
Shari, who has a JD from the University of Chicago and a PhD in social
psychology from Northwestern, is also a senior research fellow at the
American Bar Foundation. She is currently conducting a pathbreaking research
project that addresses a variety of questions about jury behavior during
actual jury deliberations in the Arizona state courts. |
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Dorothy Roberts (left), who joined the Law School in 1998 with a joint appointment as a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, has been named the Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law. Dorothy, a frequent speaker and prolific scholar on issues related to race, gender and the law, also is the recent recipient of a Fulbright Award to study and teach in Trinidad for the 2002-03 academic year. Dorothy served as a law clerk for Hon. Constance Baker Motley, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York during the 1980-81. In her book, Shattered Bonds: the Color of Child Welfare, which was published in November 2001, Dorothy argues that the child welfare discourse is marked by an abysmal failure to grasp the racial harm inflicted by the child welfare system. |
| At some point
during the academic year, we will have a ceremony to recognize and honor
these distinguished faculty members. |
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We continue to revise and expand our curriculum
to meet the needs of the changing world. With the help of excellent
adjunct faculty and visiting professors in addition to our residential
faculty, we are able to offer as broad and diverse a curriculum as substantially
larger law schools. |
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| Lawyer as Problem Solver
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In an effort to help our students develop excellent communication and problem-solving skills, this past year we introduced Lawyer as Problem Solver, a mandatory all-day conference for first-year law students. Organized by Professor Lynn Cohn, the conference stresses the importance of communication, creativity, and collaboration - skills critical to success in the changing worlds of law and business. Exercises in the two tracks of the conference curriculum covered conflict management, team building, negotiation, creative problem solving, interviewing, counseling, ethics and written communication skills. We look forward to making the conference an annual event. We also believe that the program would be valuable to many firms with young associates, and so we are planning to offer the program as an executive and professional education course.
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| Tax Program Northwestern's Tax Program will enroll its first class of students this fall. We anticipate that the first class will include 23 full-time and 11 part-time LLM students. Eight joint JD/LLM in Taxation students are also enrolled in the program this year. The joint program allows students to spend an extra semester at the Law School to earn an LLM in Taxation. The joint program is open to both Northwestern students and those from other ABA-accredited law schools. If you are interested in the joint program click here. Each student will complete 12 LLM in Taxation courses in order to obtain the degree. Approximately five associates from major Chicago law firms will also be taking courses on a non-degree basis each semester. |
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| In addition to Director Professor Philip Postlewaite, who will teach Partnership Taxation, the faculty includes Charlotte Crane, teaching Corporate Taxation, and Robert Peroni, who is teaching International Taxation. David Cameron, associate director of the program, will teach Property Taxation, and Rich Lavoie will teach Tax Ethics, Bankruptcy Tax, and Tax Procedure. |
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| Joint Law and Journalism Program
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| One of our strategic goals is to create partnerships with other professional schools within the University, as we have done with the Kellogg School of Management. We are, therefore, moving forward with an experimental joint-degree program with the Medill School of Journalism. Open to non-lawyer journalist, the aim of the program is to improve reporting about the law. Participants would be awarded the existing Medill MSJ degree and a new law degree called a Masters of Studies in Law, or MSL. As part of their curricular program, students would complete an ambitious reporting project about the law. We expect to begin admitting a limited number of students to begin the program in summer 2003. Colloquium Series Two new courses will be offered this year as part of the new Colloquium Series. Students and faculty will have the opportunity to hear leading outside scholars specializing in either Constitutional Theory or Law and Economics discuss their cutting-edge research. This fall the course will focus on Constitutional Theory. In spring the colloquium shifts focus to Law and Economics. Each semester faculty and students will attend six colloquia workshops at which a leading scholar presents a paper growing out of his or her research. Any interested Northwestern Law student may attend the presentations, and up to 15 students will enroll each semester in a three-credit seminar that is taught in conjunction with the colloquium. Professors Andrew Koppelman and Steven Calabresi have organized the speakers for the Constitutional Law Colloquium and Professors David Dana and Robert Sitkoff have planned the Law and Economics schedule. To view a schedule of presenters click here. |
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| The Student Affairs team has been busy this summer planning Orientation 2002, which will take place the week of August 26-30. The week is packed with activities to introduce the newest JD, JD/MBA, LLM, LLM/Kellogg, and LLM in Tax students to the Law School community and Chicago. |
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| Students will begin the week with community service projects and end the week with a cruise on the Spirit of Chicago and a Cubs doubleheader at Wrigley Field. This year's orientation sponsors are Baker & McKenzie; Kirkland & Ellis; Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw; Piper Rudnick. Each year student organizations work with the SBA and the Student Affairs team to plan week-long programs that cover a variety of legal, social, political, and academic topics. From Public Interest Law Week in the fall to Diversity Week in the spring, students are working on a year-round basis to enrich the Law School's collaborative learning environment. Both local and national firms have sponsored these programs or sent representatives to participate in panel discussions. This gives Northwestern Law graduates and other legal professionals an opportunity to visit the Law School and interact with students. The relationships that develop from these interactions are important to both the Law School and the sponsoring firms. I am therefore pleased to introduce Kalli Hilbrenner (below), who has joined the Law School as Director of Firm and Corporate Relations. |
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| In this new position, Kalli will be developing and enhancing our marketing relationships, sponsorships, and partnerships with law firms and corporations. She will serve as the liaison to students seeking sponsorships for various programs and events and for other Law School activities such as Student Orientation and Executive Education Programs. She will also be working with our communications group on a number of projects. |  |
The Student Affairs team is also preparing to staff two new part-time positions, an academic counselor and public service coordinator. The academic counselor will counsel students on academic and curricular issues. The public service coordinator will develop, assist, and support the implementation of our new Public Service Strategy. Also, Student Affairs will continue to develop the successful pilot programs offered last year - Lawyer as Problem Solver and the Leadership Retreat. Please note that the end of spring semester will allow for more time to plan exam scheduling and graduation activities. The softball game, dinner dance, pictures, and last lecture will be scheduled during Convocation Week, May 13-17.
I also want to take this opportunity to remind all incoming and returning students to take some time to review the Honor Code rules and regulations. The Honor Code is an important part of the cooperative learning environment and supportive culture at Northwestern Law. The Honor Code history and other documents are also now available online. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact someone in Student Affairs.
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| Our international program continues to grow. In June, 26 students from 15 different countries joined us to begin studying in the year-long Graduate Program in Law and Business (LLM/Kellogg). They will earn a LLM from the Law School and a certificate in business administration from the Kellogg School of Management. In addition, we expect to enroll a record number of international students in our general LLM program this fall, with more than 70 students from 25 countries. |  |
| Many of our international students have worked for some of the most prestigious law firms, corporations, and government offices in Asia, Europe, and Latin America, including White & Case, Linklaters & Alliance, Banco Itau in Sao Paulo, HSBC Guyerzeller Bank AG in Zurich, Toshiba Corporation, and the Thailand Stock Exchange. I encourage those of you who are interested in international law or business to consider spending a semester abroad in one of our exchange programs. We currently maintain exchange relationships with law schools in Amsterdam and Brussels, where the courses are conducted in English; in Australia; in Israel, where students must be fluent in Hebrew; and in Argentina where students must be fluent in Spanish. To learn about other international opportunities click here. |
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Our International Team Projects course also continues to grow. In Spring 2002 students traveled to Chile, Malawi and South Africa. If you are interested in ITP, consider becoming a Team Leader. Identify a country that interests you and that you believe will generate interest among other law students. Find a faculty member with experience and/or interest in your chosen country to supervise the course. Course proposals are due in early fall, so start thinking now about where you want to go and what you would like to study. |
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We continue to improve and upgrade our computing capabilities. Our strategy in this area is to have all students use notebooks and to upgrade our internal resources to facilitate computer use both inside and outside the classroom. The core of this is our Notebook Program. All incoming students are required to own a laptop computer. We strongly advise you to purchase a computer through our Notebook Program with Dell Computer. For more information, contact the Law School Information Technology Department. |
| You can now download the Northwestern Law screen-saver and wallpaper from the IT web site. Norton AntiVirus Software is also available for distribution via CD; contact IT. And as I mentioned earlier, the Honor Code history and documents are now online. Also, visit the newly redesigned curriculum site and learn about all the curricular and cocurricular opportunities at Northwestern Law. The Pritzker Legal Research Center is now a member of the Center for Research Libraries. Through the web-based Interlibrary Loan service, you now have access to a collection of more than 3.5 million scholarly research materials. Click here to view their online brochures for important collections such as law or American history. In addition, you can now request articles and books from other libraries around the world through the FirstSearch databases, including WorldCat, a database of more than 48 million cataloged items. The databases include a wide range of periodical indexes, abstracts, and full-text services in economics, world affairs, social science, and the humanities. The Library's collection of historic U.S. Supreme Court records and briefs also grew this year with the addition of an extensive collection of 19th century materials. |
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You may notice a few new faces in the Library. After eight years at the law library, Steve Miller has moved to Ada, Ohio, to become the Head of Public Services and Assistant Professor of Law at Ohio Northern Law Library. However,Kathryn Hensiak (left) and Jim McMasters (right), two talented librarians, have joined the library as Research and Instructional Services Librarians. |  |
| Kathryn most recently was a reference librarian at Marquette University Law School and Jim was a reference librarian at Loyola Chicago Law Library. After earning his B.A. and J.D degrees from Northwestern, Jim practiced law for several years in Chicago as an associate with Bell, Boyd & Lloyd. He then taught legal writing at Northwestern Law for five years, during which time he was frequently rated as the best legal writing instructor at the law school according to student course evaluations. This year Jim earned his degree in library science, and we're pleased to once again welcome him back to the law school. | ||
Admissions and Financial
Aid
The Law School experienced a significant increase in applications and enrolled
students this year. From 4,083 JD applicants last year to 4,436 this year,
a 10 percent jump, and from 217 enrolled JD students last year to 240 this
year. Our various LLM programs have also grown.
| Our Admitted
Students Weekend, where we describe the benefits and opportunities
of attending Northwestern Law, is achieving its objective of encouraging
admitted students to choose Northwestern over our competitors. This year
we achieved a record attendance and more than half of those attending
the weekend chose to enroll in the JD program. In addition to the hard work of everyone in our Admissions Office, many of you deserve credit for our continued improvement in attracting the students we want. During their campus visits, the incoming students' interactions with many of you played an important role in their decisions to attend Northwestern Law. |
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Our message about the importance of work experience is also making an impact. This year 80 percent of JD applicants had at least one year of work experience and 87 percent of the entering JD class of 2005 have at least one year; more than 60 percent have two or more years. Today's classes also represent more geographic diversity than those of a few years ago. Two-thirds of first-year JD students this fall come from outside the Midwest, making for perhaps the most regionally diverse first-year class at any law school. The central university administration has been implementing a comprehensive study to improve and streamline student financial services, and several improvements resulted this past year. We expect more financial aid efficiencies for students in the near future, and a number of new, web-based services will be offered during the coming year. Also, although the Chicago campus financial aid office continues to provide all existing services to law students, Don Rebstock, Sarah Rewerts, and Johann Lee in our Admissions Office continue to serve as on-site financial aid counselors. I am also pleased to introduce Jill Lafferty, (below) who has joined the Admissions team as the assistant director of Admissions and Financial Aid, following her seven-month tenure as an Admissions Interviewer. |
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Over the course of this past admissions cycle, Jill conducted over 400 evaluative interviews and provided invaluable feedback to the Admissions Committee. In her new role, Jill will be recruiting applicants at national forums and law fairs, evaluating candidates to the JD program, assisting with the coordination of the Alumni Interviewing Program, and continuing in her role as an interviewer. |
| Center
for Career Strategy and Advancement The Center for Career Strategy and Advancement mission is twofold. First, to generate opportunities for all clients, including JD students, LLM students, Northwestern Law alumni, employers that currently recruit on campus, and prospective employers. Second, and equally important, to help our students prepare for the opportunities when they do arise. The legal profession has not been immune to the effects of the past year's economic downturn, and it has impacted the placement patterns at all of the nation's top schools, including Northwestern. The Center for Career Strategy and Advancement team has worked diligently to equip students and alums with the knowledge and tools for managing a job search process in both strong and challenging economic cycles. We continue to focus on our overall strategy to admit and educate students who will be more attractive to employers in all types of economic environments. With strong interpersonal skills, substantial work experience, and excellent academic ability, our graduates will be better prepared for the multi-job careers ahead of them. We also continue to visit employers, including hiring
partners and recruiting coordinators, around the country to market the
Law School and our students. And we are giving students the tools to
conduct an aggressive independent job search, in parallel with the on
campus interviewing process, which will take place September 5-27. To
see the fall 2002 recruiting schedule click
here. |
| Another one of our goals is to place more students in judicial clerkships. The benefits of clerkships are exceptional and we strongly encourage all students to consider a post-graduate clerkship. The experience gained by working with a federal or state judge is foundational for any career path-whether in transactional work, litigation, business, or public interest-and will broaden career opportunities. |
| Twenty-seven Northwestern graduates will serve as law clerks for the 2002 term, and already 25 students in the class of 2003 have secured clerkships. This year, the Faculty Clerkship Committee, chaired by Professor Albert Yoon, will work with Rachel Sands to lead our clerkship efforts.
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Northwestern Law's nationally ranked clinical program is one of the most diverse in the country. Our comprehensive program, which includes simulation-based curriculum, live-client representation and legal reform, and professional externships, continues to set us apart from other law schools. In the unique Program on Advocacy and Professionalism, part of the Fred Bartlit Center for Trial Strategy, students learn about professional competency and ethical responsibility of lawyers. They practice the skills of pretrial investigation, interviewing, counseling, discovery, and motion practice. They also learn how to examine witnesses, introduce evidence, present and challenge expert witness testimony, deliver opening statements and closing arguments, and select juries. Professors Steven Lubet and Robert P. Burns, nationally renowned legal ethics experts, lead a team of experienced practitioners and judges that make up the program's adjunct faculty. Led by Professor Lynn Cohn, the Program on Negotiations and Mediations at Northwestern is designed to teach students effective negotiation and mediation theory and skills through a series of courses and workshops. Law students collaborate with Kellogg students, attorneys in the Chicago area, and law students from other schools in actual negotiation proceedings. Working in teams or one-on-one, students cover a wide range of situations, including the purchase of real estate and the settlement of lawsuits, neighborhood disputes, campus disputes, personal services contracts, intra-family disputes, and labor disputes. Students can also become certified by the Center for Conflict Resolution (CCR) and may conduct actual mediations on behalf of CCR. Students also have an opportunity to represent clients and are involved in the study and reform of laws and legal institutions through our four Bluhm Legal Clinic Centers.
Some noteworthy activity this summer in the Bluhm Legal Clinic included:
And finally through the third component of our clinical program students have an opportunity to gain on-the-job training while earning class credit. In our externship program, they work 10-15 hours per week under the close supervision of lawyers, judges, entrepreneurs, corporate counsels, government officials, and public interest professionals and also attend a seminar class once a week where they complete readings about their field, keep a journal, or write a paper linking their practice experience to theoretical questions.
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Conferences and Speakers to Enrich the Community
Once again this year our community will be enriched by a number of conferences and lecture series organized under faculty leadership.
| Danielle Allen, (right) professor of classics at the University of Chicago, will deliver the 2003 Julius Rosenthal Foundation Lecture Series March 4-6 at the Law School. The lecture series has assumed a preeminent position among distinguished lecture programs in the legal world, and publication of the lectures has made a notable contribution to legal literature and scholarship for more than 70 years. |
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| And, Stephen L. Carter, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale University, has agreed to give the 2004 Rosenthal Lectures. His recent novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park, was reviewed by the New York Times this past spring. |
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Development and Alumni Relations
Alumni support through volunteering continues to flourish. Northwestern is currently the only major law school that seeks to interview every applicant; this year some 400 alumni interviewed more than 2,600 applicants. Also, this past spring, the Julius H. and Arlyn Miner Moot Court competitions boasted a record 150 alumni who volunteered their time and experience to serve as judges.
The Law Alumni Association is also working closely with the Center for Career Strategy and Advancement to develop great opportunities for students to meet, network with, and learn from our talented and successful alumni. They are currently working to develop more online-networking resources, as well as to bring more alumni back to campus for your benefit.
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I am pleased to announce that Annina Fabbioli (right) has been officially promoted to Assistant Dean for Development and Alumni Relations. Annina first joined the Law School in March 1999 as director of development. Since Jon Stern's departure last year, she has served as interim assistant dean. |  |
| During that time she has provided tremendous leadership and support for the Northwestern Law Capital Campaign. She is currently busy preparing the development team for the end of the campaign, which wraps up in August 2003. | ||
I am also pleased to announce that Shay Owens (right) has joined us as Director of Alumni Relations, succeeding Nicole Elston, who accepted a position as Director of Major Gifts for St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas. Shay joined Northwestern University's Central Department of Alumni Relations in February 2001. As Assistant Director for Young Alumni and Clubs, she has done an outstanding job of volunteer management for many regional clubs and NUBAA (NU Black Alumni Association), while developing Young Alumni chapters and standards around the country. |
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We are also pleased to welcome Deirdre Norman (left) to the Law School's Alumni Relations Office as Assistant Director. Dee Dee comes to us from The Madeira School in Virginia, where she served as the Headmistress' Chief of Staff for the past two years. |
| In October, we will welcome hundreds of our alumni returning to campus for class reunions on October 25 and 26. Reunion 2002 will provide a variety of activities designed to reconnect our graduates with one another and with the Law School. Three years ago, we began a new tradition of hosting these individual class parties in and around the Law School; the courtyard will be tented for the cocktail party and dancing after dinner. As always, we invite you to participate in reunion activities, including lunch with the outstanding faculty and students of the Bluhm Legal Clinic and the pre-game tailgate party for the Wildcats homecoming game against Purdue. |  |
