1/24/07

Chief Justice Roberts to Visit Law School as Trienens Visiting Scholar

Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr., will visit Northwestern University School of Law on February 1 and 2 as this year's Howard J. Trienens Visiting Judicial Scholar.

During his visit, Roberts will teach and spend time with law faculty and students. He will also deliver a lecture to the Northwestern Law community.

Nominated by President George W. Bush, Roberts became chief justice of the United States in September 2005. Before that, he served as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2003 to 2005).

He practiced law in Washington , D.C. (1986 to 1989 and 1993 to 2003). He served as principal deputy solicitor general at the U.S. Department of Justice (1989 to 1993), as associate counsel to President Ronald Reagan (1982 to 1986) and as a special assistant to the Attorney General of the United States (1981 to 1982).

After receiving a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College (1976) and a J.D. from Harvard Law School (1979), Roberts served as a law clerk for Judge Henry J. Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1979 to 1980) and as a law clerk for then-Justice William H. Rehnquist of the Supreme Court of the United States during the 1980 term.

Past Howard J. Trienens speakers include Rehnquist, and Supreme Court Associate Justices Antonin Scalia, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O’Connor, and Anthony M. Kennedy.

The Howard J. Trienens Visiting Scholar Program was established at the School of Law in 1989 by partners of Sidley Austin to honor Howard Trienens’ service to the firm and Northwestern.

Trienens, a partner at Sidley Austin since 1956, has been a member of the Northwestern University board of trustees since 1967 and chairman of the board from 1986 to 1995. He received two degrees from Northwestern, a bachelor’s degree in 1945 and a J.D. in 1949, and was editor in chief of the Illinois Law Review. After graduating he taught a course in criminal law at the School of Law and was clerk to Fred M. Vinson, a former chief justice of the United States.