News
Dean Welcomes Students Back to Law School
September 03, 2002
A Letter from Dean Van Zandt:
"Welcome Back to Northwestern Law"
August 2002
Dear Students:
I hope you are enjoying your summer. We've had a busy and productive summer and are looking forward to welcoming the incoming class as well as all returning students.
Our "summer" began as we ended the academic year on a very high note inspired by the graduation address by Dale Bumpers (left), a 1951 graduate of Northwestern Law, who was governor of Arkansas for four years before serving as a U.S. senator for 24 years. William J. Kunkle Jr., a 1969 graduate and partner in the Chicago firm Cahill, Christian, and Kunkle, spoke on behalf of the Alumni Association, continuing the tradition of a Northwestern Law alum welcoming a graduating class that includes one of his or her children. Bill's daughter Kathy Kunkle, was a member of the class of 2002.
As I do each summer, I write to bring you up to date on the changes that have occurred and the developments that await you on your return. We are increasingly active on a year-round basis, working to enhance the Northwestern Law Difference, and implementing our Strategic Plan to "build the great law school for the changing world."
Several building renovations have taken place this summer. The newly renovated Strawn Hall (right) now seats 85 (formerly 103) and includes power stations at each seat, a center aisle, a smart podium (computer, DVD, VCR, Public Address System), computer projector ADA hearing assist system as well as all new furniture, carpeting, and wall finishes. We have also made some lighting improvements. These updates were based on input from students, staff, and faculty.
New networked ports have also been installed in the front of LM108-Wigmore, LM317-Hoyne, LM117-Lowden, LM310-Hurd, and Mc371-McChesney Hall, and new DVD drives have been installed to computers in R140, R150, and R339.
The courtyard (left) also received a well-deserved makeover. Concrete walkways were replaced with blue-stone pavers. We also put in some new furniture - several wooden benches have been installed at the north end. And several other landscaping improvements will be phased in over the next few years.
This summer we also unexpectedly acquired office space on the 5th floor of the Rubloff building. After consulting with the executive boards, we have decided to move the law reviews into this new space and out of the sub-par space in Lake Shore Center. The space is a large square area with private offices on the sides and a large work space in the middle with many individual carrels. Its windows look out over the library atrium. The move is going to cause some dislocation for the reviews in the very short-term, but the space is far superior and will bring the law review staffs much closer to the heart of the Law School.
Finally, the Atrium will also have a new look when you return. After consulting with several student leaders, we have ordered new furniture that will include more tables and workspaces to facilitate group work and discussion.
I am excited about other developments at the Law School, which began last spring and which we will continue to develop this year. For instance, in spring 2002, students, working with Associate Dean Don Rebstock, and Professors Len Rubinowitz and Cindy Wilson, developed our new Public Service Strategy. No matter what career path you choose, a significant amount of your time as a professional should be dedicated to giving back to the community. Already our students spend a day giving back to the community during orientation, and we are currently working to create a culture in which all students will engage in community service before graduation, through a combination fo legal or non-law related services. You'll hear more about this initiative as the year progresses.
This year, like last year, classes do not begin until the day after Labor Day, September 3 (see the academic calendar). While the Northwestern Wildcats do not begin their home season until September 7 against Texas Christian University, those of you who are gluttons for punishment can watch the Cubs in a Labor Day doubleheader against Milwaukee (Student Affairs may have extra tickets.)
Orientation for the incoming students, which has been planned by students led by co-chairs Seamus Ryan and David Sayyed working with the Student Affairs team, begins the week of August 26. Professor Lawrence Marshall, legal director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions, will speak on Tuesday, August 27, at approximately 12:45 p.m. in Thorne Auditorium. You are, of course, welcome to attend. Each year Larry litigates cases, delivers testimony, and speaks to numerous public and academic groups about wrongful convictions and the death penalty.
We look forward to welcoming you back soon. Please enjoy all that you are doing and return ready to go for an exciting year.
Sincerely,
We continue to actively recruit new faculty as we seek to carry out our strategic initiative to develop and retain an internationally renowned research and teaching faculty. Thanks to the members of the Faculty Appointments Committee (co-chaired by Steve Presser and Steve Calabresi) and to all the students and faculty, we have had significant success in attracting the following new research scholars:
Charles Taylor, who joined the faculty in January 2002 as a Board of Trustees Professor of Law and Philosophy with a joint appointment at the Law School and the Philosophy Department of Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, will teach at the Law School for the first time in winter quarter 2003. He will teach Ethical Theory and the Law. Charles' interests include the role of law in political theory, history of philosophy, truth, theism, interpretation, the human sciences, liberalism, pluralism, and difference. He received his PhD from Oxford University and has taught at McGill University in Montreal since 1961.
John O. McGinnis, who visited Northwestern Law from Cardozo Law School this past spring, will permanently join the faculty this fall. He earned his BA and JD from Harvard University and his MA from Oxford University. He then clerked for Hon. Kenneth W. Starr, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. From 1987 to 1991, John was deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice. He recently was appointed to the advisory committee on NAFTA and labor standards. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative also has added him to the roster of Americans who can be appointed as panelists to resolve World Trade Organization disputes. John will teach International Trade this fall and a section of Constitutional Law in the spring.
Kimberly Yuracko has joined the Northwestern Law faculty after serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor for the 2001-02 academic year. Her primary research interest is in contemporary feminist theory. Kim received her PhD in political science and law degree from Stanford University and previously taught at University of California-Irvine. She clerked for Hon. Stanely Marcus, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, from 1999 to 2000. She will teach Family Law and Employment Law in the fall and a section of Property in the spring. Her book Perfectionism and Contemporary Feminist Values is currently being published by Indiana University Press.
Claire Priest, a graduate of Yale Law School, served as articles editor of the Yale Law Journal and was the John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics from 1995 to 1999. She also is earning her PhD in history from Yale. She spent this past year clerking for Hon. Jon O. Newman, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Claire won the John M. Olin prize for best paper on law, economics, and public policy and the Joseph Parker Prize for best paper on legal history in 1997-98. She served as the Samuel I. Golieb Fellow in Legal History at New York University School of Law in 2000-01. Claire's research interests include contracts, commercial law, bankruptcy, legal history, torts, antitrust, property, trusts and estates and family law. She will teach Law and Industrialization of the United States this fall and a section of Property in the spring.
Gordon S. Wood, one of the country's leading historians of Colonial America will also permanently join the faculty, but not until fall 2003. He will be the Board of Trustees Professor of Law and History. Currently the Alva O. Way University Professor of History at Brown University, Wood won the Pulitzer Prize for his book The Radicalism of the American Revolution. He also was awarded the Bancroft and John H. Dunning prizes and a National Book Award nomination for The Creation of the American Republic. He received his PhD from Harvard University and previously taught at the College of William and Mary, Cambridge University, Harvard University and the University of Michigan.
David L. Cameron, a 1986 Northwestern Law graduate, first joined our faculty as a visitor in spring of 2002. This year, he will serve as associate director of the new Tax Program and will teach Advanced Property Taxation and Entity Taxation in the fall and Advanced Property Taxation another section of Entity Taxation in the spring. David clerked for Hon. Edward F. Hennessey, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. He has written many articles on land use and tax issues. David was voted 1995 Teacher of the Year at Willamette University College of Law, where he taught courses in taxation, real estate finance, and property.
Visiting Faculty
As always, our research faculty will be enriched by a number of visiting faculty and scholars. This coming year, six visitors will join us from other universities:
Daniel R. Fischel , the Lee and Brena Freeman Professor of Law and Business and former dean at the University of Chicago Law School, will be the Jack N. Pritzker Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law for the 2002-03 academic year. Dan was a member of the Northwestern Law faculty from 1981-84, and we are pleased to have him back. His interests include securities, commodities, corporation law, regulation of financial markets, and the application of the economics of corporate finance to problems in these areas. He will teach Corporate Governance this fall and a section of Business Associations in the spring. Dan is also co-president of Lexecon Inc. and founded its securities practice in 1981.
Robert J. Peroni, the Robert Kramer Research Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School, joins the faculty as the visiting J. Landis Martin Professor of Law and Business for the 2002-03 academic year. Bob is a 1976 graduate of Northwestern Law and will teach in the new Tax Program. His research and teaching interests are in the areas of federal and international taxation, law and economics, international trade, and professional responsibility and ethics. He will teach Basic Federal Income Taxation and International Taxation in the fall and Advanced International Taxation in the spring.
Emerson H. Tiller, Associate Professor of Business, Technology and the Law at the University of Texas Graduate School of Business, will visit Northwestern Law for the 2002 fall semester. He is the co-director of the Center for Business, Technology and Law at UT, and his research has primarily focused on the role of political forces in regulatory and judicial decision-making. Emerson has published numerous papers in law and economic journals and has won the Olin Foundation Fellowship at Yale Law School and a Bradley Foundation grant for his work. He will teach a section of Contracts this fall.
Visiting Scholars
Chaim Gans (right), associate professor of law and director of the Israeli Minerva Center for Human Rights at Tel Aviv University, will visit during the month of September. Chaim received his LLB from Hebrew University, BA and MA from Tel Aviv University, and PhD in Philosophy from University College, Oxford. He teaches legal, moral, and political philosophy and has written two books, including Philosophical Anarchism and Political Disobedience (1992) and Liberalism and Cultural Nationalism (forthcoming 2002).
Nancy King (left), professor of law at Vanderbilt University, will visit the Northwestern Law during the month of October. After earning her JD from the University of Michigan, Nancy clerked for Hon. Douglass W. Hillman, Chief Judge of U.S. District Court for Western Michigan and then Hon. Michael F. Cavanagh, Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. Nancy is co-author of two leading treatises on criminal procedure and the leading criminal procedure casebook, as well as several articles. A frequent contributor to conferences on jury research, her work focuses on juries and on the post-investigative features of the criminal process including plea bargaining, trials, evidence, sentencing, double jeopardy, and post-conviction review.
Richard McAdams (right), professor of law at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will visit during the month of November. After graduating from the University of Virginia Law School and before joining the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Philadelphia, Richard clerked for Hon. Harrison L. Winter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. In 1990, he left practice for a faculty position at Chicago-Kent, and in 1997 accepted a position as full professor at Boston University. He has written numerous articles on law and economics, social norms, and criminal law.
Edward K. Cheng will join us as this year's Searle Fellow. Edward earned his BS in Electrical Engineering from Princeton, and MS in Information Systems from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He earned his JD from Harvard Law School. This past year, Edward has been clerking for Hon. Stephen F. Williams, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Ilya Somin will join us as this year's John M. Olin Fellow in Law. Ilya earned his BA from Amherst College, MA in Political Science from Harvard University, and JD from Yale Law School. He served as an editor for Yale Law Journal and Yale Journal on Regulation. This past year, Ilya has been clerking for Hon. Jerry E. Smith, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Visiting Assistant Professors
In addition to these visitors from other schools, we will also have four visiting assistant professors joining us this year. Our Visiting Assistant Professor (VAP) Program gives excellent young scholars who are just beginning their academic careers an opportunity to begin their research and teaching at Northwestern Law before taking a permanent positions somewhere. Kimberly Yuracko, who participated in the program last year, has permanently joined our faculty this year. Joseph Miller, who also was a VAP last year, has taken a position as assistant professor of law at Lewis & Clark College in Oregon.
Ronen Avraham (right) earned his LLM and SJD from the University of Michigan Law School, his MA in finance from Bar Ian University School of Business Administration, Israel and LLB from Bar Ian University School of Law. He focuses primary on economic analysis of torts, property, and contracts; distribution in the law; and behavioral economics and the law. He will teach Insurance Law this fall.
Heidi Kitrosser, a graduate of the University of California - Los Angeles and Yale Law School, focuses primarily on constitutional law, administrative law, telecommunications law, civil procedure, and criminal law. She clerked for Hon. Judith Rogers, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for the 1999-2000 term. She will teach a section of Civil Procedure this fall and a course on the First Amendment this spring.
John P. Kelsh, a 1996 graduate of Northwestern Law, will teach Securities Regulation in the spring. He clerked for Hon. David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for the 1996-97 term and Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court during the 1997-98 term. John joined Sidley Austin Brown & Wood's Chicago office in 1998 where he has worked as an associate in the corporate and securities group.
Richard Lavoie, who received his JD with honors from Cornell and his LLM in Taxation from New York University while practicing tax law with a major law firm in New York, will teach Tax Ethics, Bankruptcy Tax, and Tax Procedure in the new Tax Program. In addition to his extensive transactional tax experience, he has taught law at the JD and LLM levels on a full-time basis for the past four years and has published several academic articles and a BNA Tax Management Portfolio.
Aletha M. Claussen Schulz, a JD and PhD graduate from the University of Nebraska, focuses primarily on applied social psychology, particularly how social psychological research can contribute to the understanding of legal problems and lead to innovative solutions in the justice system. Aletha is the first VAP to participate in our joint post-doctoral program with Kellogg's Management and Organizations Department and the Dispute Resolution Center. She will teach a joint section of Negotiations for Law and Kellogg students in the spring.
Communication and Legal Reasoning Program
The Communication and Legal Reasoning Program (CLR) will have a few different faces for the 2002-03 school year. Elizabeth Inglehart will be taking the year off to stay home with a new baby.
However, Christina Heyde will be returning to the faculty after two years of maternity leave. Christina is a four-year veteran of the CLR faculty, where she is a clinical associate professor. Before coming to teach at Northwestern, Christina was a litigation associate at Jenner & Block, where she published an article and a handbook for practicing attorneys on sanctions under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Christina received her AB in psychology from Harvard University and her JD from Northwestern; she is currently working on a master's degree in education and social policy.
As many of you may have heard, we have a larger than usual entering class. To maintain our commitment to small CLR sections where students have many opportunities for one-on-one contact with their professors, Jonathan Gordon will join the CLR faculty as a visiting clinical professor.
Since 1989, Jonathan has been a full-time member of the faculty at Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio. A graduate of Columbia College and Columbia University School of Law, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Solomon Oliver, Jr. of the Northern District of Ohio. He then spent a year in private practice in Cleveland, before joining the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as a Trial Attorney. In the three years he spent at the EEOC, Jonathan litigated class actions and individual cases alleging employment discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, sex, sexual harassment, and retaliation. In addition his legal practice, Jonathan has consulted on legal writing in both corporate and law firm settings.
The primary goals of CLR are to give our students a strong foundation in legal analysis and to introduce them to many of the communication skills they will be called upon to use in their jobs, both before and after graduation.
In the coming year we plan to continue our focus on cooperative and collaborative learning but may experiment with the implementation. We also are exploring several innovative teaching methods, particularly for teaching research and citation. Finally, we are attempting to open up an ongoing dialogue with second and third year students to fine tune our program to insure our students are prepared for challenges they will encounter in the working world, regardless of whether they go into legal practice, business, public interest work, government, or something else.
Faculty Departures
An excellent school must always work hard to keep its best faculty. The academic market for the best scholars is very competitive today. I am sorry to report that professors Henry Smith and Annelise Riles have left Northwestern. Henry joins the faculty at Yale Law School while Annelise has joined the Cornell law faculty. Paul Robinson will also be leaving to join the University of Pennsylvania Law School faculty this spring. Christina Gabriel Kanelos and Angela Daker have left the Bluhm Legal Clinic. Christina's husband accepted a faculty position at Stanford in the humanities department and she has been named the director of a domestic violence project in Palo Alto, California. Angela has joined the law firm of White & Case in Miami, Florida. While we will surely miss them all, we wish them the best of luck in their new endeavors.
Faculty Awards and Recognition
One highlight of any academic year is the appointment of faculty members to endowed chairs. These important positions help us attract and retain faculty who will set Northwestern apart by influencing leading public policy and academic issues. I am pleased to announce that Professors Robert Bennett, Shari Diamond, and Dorothy Roberts have been appointed to endowed chair positions.
Robert Bennett, former dean of the Law School (1985-95) and scholar in the field of constitutional law, has been appointed the Nathaniel L. Nathanson Professor of Law. His book Talking It Through: Puzzles of American Democracy will be published this fall by Cornell University Press. Following the 2000 presidential election, Bob was called on time and time again to provide constitutional interpretation and expert commentary about the legal issues of the contested vote. Bob joined the law school faculty in 1969 and served as dean from 1985 to 1995. Victor Rosenblum, who previously held the Nathaniel L. Nathanson chair, will now hold it under the emeritus title although he remains a full-time active member of the Law School faculty.
Shari Diamond, the foremost empirical researcher on the jury process and legal decision-making, has been named the Howard J. Trienens Professor of Law. Shari, who has a JD from the University of Chicago and a PhD in social psychology from Northwestern, is also a senior research fellow at the American Bar Foundation. She is currently conducting a pathbreaking research project that addresses a variety of questions about jury behavior during actual jury deliberations in the Arizona state courts.
Dorothy Roberts, who joined the Law School in 1998 with a joint appointment as a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, has been named the Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law. Dorothy, a frequent speaker and prolific scholar on issues related to race, gender and the law, also is the recent recipient of a Fulbright Award to study and teach in Trinidad for the 2002-03 academic year. Dorothy served as a law clerk for Hon. Constance Baker Motley, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York during the 1980-81. In her book, Shattered Bonds: the Color of Child Welfare, which was published in November 2001, Dorothy argues that the child welfare discourse is marked by an abysmal failure to grasp the racial harm inflicted by the child welfare system.
At some point during the academic year, we will have a ceremony to recognize and honor these distinguished faculty members.
We continue to revise and expand our curriculum to meet the needs of the changing world. With the help of excellent adjunct faculty and visiting professors in addition to our residential faculty, we are able to offer as broad and diverse a curriculum as substantially larger law schools.
Lawyer as Problem Solver
In an effort to help our students develop excellent communication and problem-solving skills, this past year we introduced Lawyer as Problem Solver, a mandatory all-day conference for first-year law students. Organized by Professor Lynn Cohn, the conference stresses the importance of communication, creativity, and collaboration - skills critical to success in the changing worlds of law and business. Exercises in the two tracks of the conference curriculum covered conflict management, team building, negotiation, creative problem solving, interviewing, counseling, ethics and written communication skills. We look forward to making the conference an annual event. We also believe that the program would be valuable to many firms with young associates, and so we are planning to offer the program as an executive and professional education course.
Tax Program
Northwestern's Tax Program will enroll its first class of students this fall. We anticipate that the first class will include 23 full-time and 11 part-time LLM students. Eight joint JD/LLM in Taxation students are also enrolled in the program this year. The joint program allows students to spend an extra semester at the Law School to earn an LLM in Taxation. The joint program is open to both Northwestern students and those from other ABA-accredited law schools. If you are interested in the joint program click here. Each student will complete 12 LLM in Taxation courses in order to obtain the degree. Approximately five associates from major Chicago law firms will also be taking courses on a non-degree basis each semester.
In addition to Director Professor Philip Postlewaite, who will teach Partnership Taxation, the faculty includes Charlotte Crane, teaching Corporate Taxation, and Robert Peroni, who is teaching International Taxation. David Cameron, associate director of the program, will teach Property Taxation, and Rich Lavoie will teach Tax Ethics, Bankruptcy Tax, and Tax Procedure.
Joint Law and Journalism Program
One of our strategic goals is to create partnerships with other professional schools within the University, as we have done with the Kellogg School of Management. We are, therefore, moving forward with an experimental joint-degree program with the Medill School of Journalism. Open to non-lawyer journalist, the aim of the program is to improve reporting about the law. Participants would be awarded the existing Medill MSJ degree and a new law degree called a Masters of Studies in Law, or MSL. As part of their curricular program, students would complete an ambitious reporting project about the law. We expect to begin admitting a limited number of students to begin the program in summer 2003.
Colloquium Series
Two new courses will be offered this year as part of the new Colloquium Series. Students and faculty will have the opportunity to hear leading outside scholars specializing in either Constitutional Theory or Law and Economics discuss their cutting-edge research. This fall the course will focus on Constitutional Theory. In spring the colloquium shifts focus to Law and Economics. Each semester faculty and students will attend six colloquia workshops at which a leading scholar presents a paper growing out of his or her research. Any interested Northwestern Law student may attend the presentations, and up to
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