News for alumni and friends of Indiana Law
August 2020
In this issue:
- From the Dean
- Distinguished Service Award winners named
- Virtual Moot Court judges needed
- Law School faculty to present on panel as part of 19th amendment 100th anniversary events
- Law School offering virtual CLE events
- Faculty news
- Buy a brick, commemorate your commitment
- Class notes
From the Dean
Greetings from Bloomington, where the second week of the semester is well under way. Our students, faculty, and staff have pulled together to provide an academic experience that’s as close as possible to normal in light of current circumstances. About half of our upper-division classes are being taught online, and our first-year curriculum is being delivered sequentially, with torts, civil procedure, and contracts in successive four-week blocks. Approximately 80% of our 1L class chose in-person instruction. All students in Bloomington were tested as classes started, and the university has now begun mitigation and prevalence testing.
Despite the pandemic, our Office of Admissions recruited a large class with outstanding credentials. The class of 2023 comprises 179 students, with a median LSAT of 162 and an undergraduate GPA of 3.78. The class comes from 95 undergraduate institutions in 32 states, and women make up 46% of the class.
Our faculty have planned a number of interesting and thought-provoking lectures and events this semester, including a panel this Friday as part of the university’s commemoration of the centennial of the 19th Amendment (see article below). The Law School is also joining all the other Big 10 law schools in a lecture series on race, equality and the law. Please check our new website for updates on these and other upcoming lectures — all of them easily accessible via Zoom — throughout the semester.
As I mentioned in the last edition of ergo, the Law School just concluded its Bicentennial capital campaign, with more than $62 million in gifts and pledges, well ahead of our $60 million goal. All of us at Indiana Law are more than grateful for your support. There is still time to contribute to our brick campaign; the article below explains how you can participate.
We hope that you and your families are well, and we hope to be able to see you again in person soon.
Best,
Austen Parrish
Dean and James H. Rudy Professor of Law
Distinguished Service Award winners named
Four alumni have been chosen to receive the Law School’s Distinguished Service Award (above from left): Abhishek (Jay) Chaudhary, ’09, director, Division of Mental Health and Addictions, Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, Indianapolis; Sonia Miller-Van Oort, ’97, Sapientia Law Group PLLC, Minneapolis; Lisa A. Powell, ’84, partner, Fisher Broyles, Houston; and Alonzo Weems, ’95, vice president and deputy general counsel, Eli Lilly & Company, Indianapolis.
The Distinguished Service Award was established in 1997 to recognize graduates of the Law School who have distinguished themselves in service to their communities and the school in ways far exceeding traditional business, professional, and civic duties. Through their hard work, passion, and accomplishments, these alumni define Indiana Law's ideals for community service and serve as accomplished role models for our school and the greater community. This year’s honorees will be recognized at the school’s virtual alumni summit on Friday, September 25.
The virtual alumni summit—which includes the school’s Alumni Board, Board of Visitors, Young Alumni Steering Committee, and BLSA, Latino, and LGBT Alumni Advisory Boards—will also feature a State of the School update from Dean Parrish; a networking panel with alumni and 1L students as part of the Legal Profession course.
Virtual Moot Court judges needed
If you’ve wanted to judge the annual Sherman Minton Moot Court Competition but found it difficult to come to Bloomington to do so, this year could provide you with the perfect solution. Because of the pandemic, the entire competition this year is taking place virtually, so you will have many opportunities to judge via Zoom from the comfort of your home or office. Rounds begin on September 30 and end the first week in November. To sign up, visit https://calendly.com/sherman-minton. For more information about the competition, visit the judge information page.
Law School faculty to present on panel as part of 19th amendment 100th anniversary events
Three members of the Law School’s faculty will present a virtual panel on Friday, August 28 from noon–1:00 p.m. titled “Power: Women's Political Participation in the U.S. and Around the World.”
The panel explores how the 19th Amendment is part of a larger—and still ongoing—struggle to ensure women can be full participants in the political process. The panelists will place the 19th Amendment in the context of earlier and later efforts to expand suffrage, including the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965; discuss the modern American landscape and the obstacles still faced by women seeking elected office; and describe how other countries have successfully used alternative voting methods and gender quotas to expand representation by women.
The panel will be moderated by Professor of Law Deborah Widiss, Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Affairs and the Ira C. Batman Faculty Fellow. Panelists include Professor of Law Luis Fuentes-Rohwer, the Class of 1950 Herman B Wells Endowed Professor; Susan Williams, the Walter W. Foskett Professor of Law; Director, Center for Constitutional Democracy; and Marjorie Hershey, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science in The College. The Department of Political Science is co-presenter. The panel will be live-streamed on the IU Arts & Humanities Council’s Facebook page.
This panel is part of a series of events presented by the Office of the Provost commemorating the 19th Amendment. Details about the series can be found at go.iu.edu/19A.
Law School offering virtual CLE events
The Maurer School of Law is making Indiana continuing legal education credit available online for almost all of its lectures and colloquia this semester, including:
- The panel on the 19th Amendment co-hosted by the Law School (see above).
- The Constitution Day Lecture: William Eskridge, Jr., Yale Law School, “Indiana and Marriage Equality,” Friday, September 18, noon. Register here.
- The Ralph Fuchs Lecture: Mary Wood, Oregon Law School, “‘On the Eve of Destruction’: Courts Confronting the Climate Emergency,” Friday, October 23, noon. Register here.
- The Stewart Lecture in Labor and Employment Law: Catherine Fisk, Barbara Nachtrieb Armstong Professor of Law, Berkeley Law (date TBA).
- The Jerome Hall Lecture: Kevin Johnson, Dean and Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o Studies, UC Davis School of Law (date TBA).
- The Center for Intellectual Property Research fall IP Colloquium also offers a series of CLE events centered on the theme of international IP.
Each talk will be held on Thursdays from 1:05-3:05 p.m. Eastern time beginning on August 27. For information and to reserve a Zoom login, visit the Law School’s events calendar. Two hours’ Indiana CLE credit is available or is pending for each lecture. Questions can be directed to eventlaw@indiana.edu.
In addition, a lecture co-organized by the CIPR, Eli Lilly & Company, and Roche Diagnostics will explore the Bayh-Dole Act. “Pharmaceutical Innovations: Patents and Politics of COVID-19,” explores the role of this Act in ensuring development of, and access to, new treatments and diagnostics relating to COVID-19. The discussion will take place on Thursday, September 10 from noon–1:30 p.m.; 1 ½ hours of Indiana CLE credit are available. RSVP to Gloria Kottlowski (kottlowski_gloria_j@lilly.com).
Faculty news
Prof. Sarah Jane Hughes was appointed by the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers to the committee that recommends recipients of the college’s Grant Gilmore Award. The award—named for the co-reporter for the original Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code—is given in recognition of superior writing in the field of commercial finance law.
Prof. Leandra Lederman presented “The Fraud Triangle and Tax Evasion” at the University of Florida Levin College of Law Critical Tax Conference on May 28, 2020.
On June 24, Prof. William Henderson spoke in a webinar on “Rethinking the Future of Legal Teams as Business Accelerations” hosted by Above the Law and Axiom.
Prof. Norman Hedges co-hosted (with Notre Dame University) a three-part IP Clinicians Workshop Series In July and August.
On July 7 and August 11, Profs. Jeannine Bell and Kevin Brown participated in panel discussions focused on policing and global solidarities as part of the collaborative series from IU College of Arts and Sciences and IU Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society, “Confronting Racism: Conversations on Systemic Racism and Protest.”
On July 14, Dean Austen Parrish spoke on the “Effective Use of Research Assistants” in an Association of American Law Schools webinar. On July 16, he discussed “Law School Logistics in the COVID-19 World” as part of a webinar panel hosted by the University of Utah SJ Quinney College of Law.
Prof. Donna Nagy joined Business Scholarship on its podcast to discuss her essay, “Chiarella v. United States and its Indelible Impact on Insider Trading Law” on July 16, in which she provided an oral history of the first insider trading criminal prosecution in the United States.
On July 23, Prof. Deborah Widiss presented “Labor and Employment Supreme Court Update” to members of the Indianapolis Bar Association.
On July 29, Dean Parrish and Prof. Mark Janis participated in the panel discussion, “Practice Management During the COVID Era,” sponsored by the S. Jay Plager Intellectual Property American Inn of Court.
Profs. Kevin Brown, Gina-Gail Fletcher, David Gamage, Leandra Lederman, Jody Madeira, Donna Nagy, and Carwina Weng participated in webinars, panels, training sessions, and roundtable discussions at the 2020 Southeastern Association of Law Schools Conference from July 30 – August 5.
On August 1, Prof. Kevin Brown participated in the panel discussion series, “Practice if Caste in the USA,” hosted by Ambedkar King Study Circle.
Prof. Jody Madeira co-presented in the webinar, “Fertility Informed Consent in the Digital Era,” hosted by Cooper Surgical on August 7. She also presented “The Fallout of Fertility Fraud,” the concluding lecture of the IU Center for Law, Society & Culture Summer Research Roundtable Series.
Prof. Joseph Tomain spoke on “Criminal Defamation and Free Speech in the Digital Age” in an August 10th webinar co-sponsored by University Merdeka Malang and the American Institute for Indonesian Studies.
Prof. David Gamage co-drafted the California Extreme Wealth Tax Bill.
Read In the media for faculty quotes and op-eds in state and national media.
Buy a brick, commemorate your commitment
The Law School has extended through December 31 its campaign to attract additional pledges to our Partners in Excellence program.
Partners in Excellence — donors who pledge at least $2,500 per year for five years to the Law School’s Dean’s Incentive Fund or Fund for Excellence — will be honored with a commemorative brick on the back patio of the Law School. The brick will be installed upon receipt of the first pledge (one brick per pledge). Existing Partners in Excellence will receive a brick when they renew their pledge.
Your commitment as a Partner in Excellence is especially important because it gives the dean flexibility to support the school’s key initiatives, including our five law journals, more than 30 student organizations, pro bono programs and clinics, student scholarships, faculty research, the Jerome Hall Law Library, financial assistance for travel to students’ job interviews, and unexpected needs that arise throughout the year.
More than 60 alumni and friends have already signed up. Join them! To reserve your brick, contact Stephanie Coffey, director of annual giving, at stcoffey@indiana.edu.
Class notes
Keep up with your classmates and submit your own news at our class notes page.