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
2020-2021
| Supervising Faculty | Student | Project Topic |
| Barsa, Michael | Flynn, Palden | State Citizen Suit Provisions |
| Bedi, Sheila | Tollner, Terah | "We Keep Us Safe": Movement-Led Proposals for Community Investment and Defunding the Chicago Police Department |
| Delaney, Erin | Mantegani, Joseph | Tribal Courts in Federalist Systems |
| Francis, Clinton | Irfan, Sumair | Ushering a Legal and Financial Creature of the Past into the 21st Century: A Critique and Reimagining of the Capital Structure System in the TMT Sector and Beyond |
| Francis, Clinton | Blosser, Natalie | Toward a More Efficient and Empirically Based System for Allocating Risk, Return and Control Among Capital Providers in Chapter 11 |
| Jacobi, Tonja | Maguire, Addie | The Differences in Policies and Purposes Between Administrative Searches of Probationers and Parolees |
| Jacobi, Tonja | Mascia, Eryn | Language, Power, and Prison Litigation |
| Jacobi, Tonja | Oka, Misty-Ann | Unwarranted: No-Knock Warrants After the Death of Breonna Taylor |
| Jacobi, Tonja | Louthen, Elliot | Inevitable Discovery |
| Kang, Michael | Dodsworth, Harry | The Negative and Positive Purcell Principle |
| Koppelman, Andrew | Kabe, Benjamin | The Process of Self-Government: Addressing the Tension Between Brandeisian Free Speech and Federalism |
| Lupo, James | Turner, Cole | The Law According to Baldwin: Race and Queer Identity in Cultural Responses to Inequality |
| McGinnis, John | Barrett, James | Evidence of Specific Original Methods of Constitutional Interpretation |
| McGinnis, John | Henry, Daniel | Canons of Statutory Interpretation and Administrative Scope of Authority |
| Pfander, James | Barnaby, Natalie | Virginia State Sovereign Immunity in the Post-Revolutionary Period |
| Rubinowitz, Leonard | Fintel, Kate | TBD |
| Schwartz, David | Learned, Glen | The Streamers Dilemma - DMCA Copyright Strikes on ld content |
| Schwartz, David | Rogers, Jules | Patentability of AI-Produced Inventions |
| Shapiro, David | Sopko, Adam | Judicial Perceptions of Risk in Policing (working title) |
| Shoked, Nadav | Stage, David | City Income Taxes & Wealthy Inequality |
| Shoked, Nadav | Le, Amy | The Law of Grants |
| Sorensen, Juliet | Heim, Meredith | Amicus Brief to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for the Case of Manuela and Family v. El Salvador |