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Northwestern Law will welcome two distinguished young scholars as permanent members of our research faculty this summer. Tonja Jacobi, a PhD student at Stanford University studying political science, and Jide Nzelibe, the Bigelow Teaching Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School, will join the law faculty as assistant professors.

Jacobi is currently working on her dissertation about the judiciary’s strategic interactions with the elected branches in the American political system. Jacobi earned an MA in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. She also holds a bachelor’s degree and a law degree from Australian National University, where she earned First Class Honors. Jacobi is a member of the Bar in Australia as well as the American Political Science Association. Her areas of interest include game theory and the law, international law, jurisprudence, and American politics. She will be teaching Constitutional Law next year.

Nzelibe has taught first-year courses in legal research and writing and is currently teaching a seminar on foreign relations law at the University of Chicago. He graduated from Yale Law School and also holds an MPA in international relations from Princeton University, where he was awarded a fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and a pre-doctoral fellowship from the Ford Foundation. In 1994, Nzelibe served as an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Windhoek, Namibia. Later, he interned for the Nigerian Civil Liberties Organization in Lagos, Nigeria. Nzelibe is currently on the board of directors at the Center for Law Enforcement Education of Nigeria. From 1998 to 1999, he clerked for the Honorable Stephen F. Williams, U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit. Nzelibe’s research interests include international trade, public and private international law, contracts, civil procedure, legislation, and conflict of laws.

In addition, Uzoamaka Nzelibe will join the law faculty as a clinical assistant professor. She will work with the Bluhm Legal Clinic’s Children and Family Justice Center on immigration practices. Currently, she is a contract attorney at Bank One. She earned her JD degree at New York University and her bachelor’s degree at Northwestern.

The Law School will also welcome three visiting faculty members:

Matthew Sag will join Northwestern Law as a visiting assistant professor for 2004-2006. Sag, who earned his LLB with honors from Australian National University, is currently practicing intellectual property law in the Palo Alto office of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP. Sag has formerly clerked for Justice Paul Finn of the Federal Court of Australia. He is currently working on a case study of the effect of the creation of the federal circut on patent law as well as a study of the contractual limitations on fair use.

Kenworthey Bilz joins the Northwestern Law faculty as a visiting assistant professor for the 2004-2005 academic year. Kenworthey recently completed her PhD in social psychology from Princeton University. She has previously clerked for Hon. Frank Easterbrook, 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, and was a summer associate for Mayer, Brown & Platt. Her research interests focus on how social psychological processes can inform the study of law. Specifically, she is interested in how legal institutions, rules, and practices affect perceptions of legitimacy and morality, which in turn affect behavior. She draws most of her examples from the area of criminal law.

Albert Alschuler, Julius Kreeger Professor of Law and Criminology at the University of Chicago, will also join the Law School as the Pritzker Visitor in Spring 2005. Alschuler specializes in criminal justice and has written on topics including plea bargaining, sentencing reform, privacy, search and seizure, civil procedure, jury selection, confessions, and courtroom conduct. He is currently teaching courses on American Legal Theory, Criminal Procedure, and Federal Criminal Law. Alschuler graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was case editor for the Harvard Law Review. He has also previously clerked for Justice Walter V. Schaefer of the Illinois Supreme Court and was a special assistant to the assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division of the U.S. Justice Department.

Lawrence Lokken joins us from the University of Florida Levin College of Law as a Tax Podium Visitor for the 2004-2005 academic year. Lokken is the Hugh Culverhouse Eminent Scholar in Taxation. He has published articles on issues of international taxation, federal taxation of income, partnership tax, and taxation of private business firms. Lokken received his law degree magna cum laude from the University of Minnesota.

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