Leadership Message

Dear Colleagues,  

As this semester comes to a close and we prepare to celebrate our graduates, we face foundational governmental challenges to our legal system and higher education that directly affect Northwestern, our Law School, its academic programs, and members of our community. Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, like our University and others across the country, opposes this “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” and reaffirms the “essential freedom to determine, on academic grounds, whom to admit and what is taught, how, and by whom.” Law is central to addressing these challenges, and we have a responsibility as a law school and lawyers to support the rule of law, our legal system, and legal education.   

On Tuesday, April 22, we convened law deans from six continents to discuss how we could collaborate on non-partisan rule of law initiatives. We have more than 130 law schools involved, and will work together to develop partnerships in research, teaching, programming, and public education that build synergistically on other rule of law efforts. Our Law School also partnered this semester with Big Ten law schools on a Rule of Law in 2025 Series.    

I want to acknowledge the fear and uncertainty that many in our community are experiencing, particularly those who are most vulnerable. Leadership matters, and we are grateful to the many members of our community who have supported those impacted. Our amazing Law School team helped all students and alumni who had a federal job offer revoked obtain new employment and continues to help those affected by government freezes and layoffs. Our team also developed resources on immigration and for our international community. We continue our essential efforts to create an environment that supports and welcomes every member of our community as we develop new programs to foster the robust interchange of ideas and constructive dialogue across difference.      

We are proud at Northwestern Pritzker Law to prepare future lawyers, judges, and legal professionals who serve society. Lawyers take an oath to uphold our Constitution, with its important protections for due process, judicial independence, legal representation, and freedom of expression, and we take that oath seriously. Those protections undergird our U.S. legal system, as well as the academic freedom crucial to our outstanding faculty’s groundbreaking research that improves law and helps address societal challenges. They allow for our faculty’s innovative teaching and academic programs that prepare our students to serve as lawyers, including the vital training that clinical legal education has provided to thousands of our students over 55 years.    

I look forward to our important work together. And at this moment of deep challenge, it is especially important that we celebrate our amazing graduates who will go forward to make a difference as lawyers and legal professionals. We are all so proud of them and they give me hope for the future.   

Warmly, 
Hari Osofsky