James A. Rahl/Owen L. Coon Senior Research Program
The James A. Rahl/Owen L. Coon Senior Research Program gives third-year Northwestern Law students the opportunity to work closely with our renowned faculty exploring answers to challenging questions of doctrine and policy. Due to the generosity of the Owen L. Coon Foundation and other donors, there is a fund to support empirical research expenses of projects. Students are placed with supervising professors, experts in their field, to conduct research on the most pertinent current and historical legal issues.
Senior Research Rules (pdf)
Current Projects
2018-2019
| Supervising Faculty | Student | Project Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Bedi, Sheila | Benjamin, Theo | Criminological Impact of Cannabis Offenses in Illinois |
| Bedi, Sheila | Janzen, Kiera | State Bail Variation and Reform Across the U.S. |
| Biehl, Julie | Duff, Robert | Statutory Analysis of Illinois Expungement and Sealing Laws and Evaluation of the Implementation of New Statutory Scheme |
| Biehl, Julie | Englund, Emma | Challenges to Juvenile Sex Offender Registration Statutes |
| Burns, Robert | Lopez, Leah | Law, Fragmentation and Difference: How the Multiplicity of Voices in Legal Jurisprudence Influences Judicial Decisionmaking |
| Calabresi, Steven | Deal, Joshua | An Analysis of Executive Power in Colonial America |
| Diamond, Shari | Page, Andrew | Authority and Persuasion on the Grand Jury |
| DiCola, Peter | Hahn, Sujung | The Role of AI in U.S. Copyright for the Music Industry |
| DiCola, Peter | Svedman, Megan | Putting the Art in Artificial: AI & the Creation of Visual Artwork |
| Fiebig, Andre | Erlain, William | Property Rights to Consumer Data and Impact on Mergers and Acquisitions |
| Friedman, Ezra | Webber, Andrew | Fuzzy Thinking: Liability for Concussion Injuries in an era of Weakening Civil Immunity |
| Gandert, Daniel | Pashos, Anthony | Hail Mary: Federal Regulation of College Sports & Justice for Student Athletes |
| Gandert, Daniel | Schmidt, Ryan | Professional Sports Gambling in a Post-PASPA World |
| Horwich, Allan | Gong, Yixue | The Link Between State Derivative Suits & Fed. Sec. Class Actions |
| Horwich, Allan | Wang, Zhuo | Loss Causation in Private Damages Actions |
| Kugler, Matthew | Hurley, Meredith | Privacy Law in the Evolving Energy Industry |
| Lindgren, James | Harris, Kimberly | The Prevalence and Significance of Godparents in 21st Century America |
| Lindgren, James | Harris, Kimberly | Contemporary Treatment of Incorporation by Relationship in Estate Planning Documents |
| Loeb, Nancy | DeAmico, Kathleen | The Environmental Impact of Lithium-Ion Batteries and How to Face Them |
| Loeb, Nancy | Jones, Jared | Traversing the Barriers to Electric Vehicle Adoption in the United States |
| Lupo, James | Messinger, Kathleen | Fake News and the Regulation of Truth |
| Lupo, James | Monjar, Anne | Law as Literature: The Transcendentalist Movement in 19th Century Jurisprudence |
| McGinnis, John | Erickson, Matthew | A New Test for Compelling Interests |
| McGinnis, John | Lalani, Khadija | Decentralizing Financial Risk |
| Peery, Destiny | Taylor, Kyla | Where Are the Black Lawyers? |
| Pfander, James | McBride, Meredith | Federal-State Court Parity as Empirical Question |
| Pfander, James | Wentzel, Jacob | The Common Law Origins of Ex parte Young |
| Redish, Martin | Day, Edward | Class Action Standing & Article III’s Case-or-Controversy Requirement |
| Redish, Martin | Pereyra, Julio | The First Amendment and Political Fraud |
| Redish, Martin | Pope, Lauren | The Converse Erie Doctrine |
| Redish, Martin | Stimple, Kelsey | Rethinking the Dormant Commerce Clause |
| Rountree, Meredith | Smith, Kelyn | 15 Years Later: Sentencing in the aftermath of U.S. v. Booker |
| Rubinowitz, Leonard | Katz, Mendy | William Robert Ming: The Contributions and Challenges of a Civil Rights Lawyer |
| Rubinowitz, Leonard | Melcer, Moshe | A Chronological Analysis chronological analysis of Hills v. Gautreaux |
| Scheffer, David | Elder, Allison | Disseminating International Detention Standards through International Criminal Tribunals |
| Schwartz, David | Ellenberger, Michael | Moving Targets: Patentability Standards Before the USPTO |
| Schwartz, David | Giroud, Xaviere | Design Patent Trolls and NPE's |
| Schwartz, David | Sample, Ryan | Legal Issues in Biosimilar Regulation, Particularly Settlements |
| Shoked, Nadav | Mamon, Miles | Legal Issues in Real Estate Development |
| Shoked, Nadav | Rosenthal, Justin | Designing Economic Development Packages: How Did We Get to Amazon HQ2 and What May be Next |
| Speta, James | Ogren, Alexander | Snap Removal & the Supreme Court's Role in the District Courts |
| Tenenbaum, J. Samuel | Tzivas, Amanda | Preemptively Dealing with Fraud: Proactiveness Over Reactiveness |
| Yuracko, Kimberly | Reay, Mason | The Northwestern Difference |