LAW

Major accomplishments over the last several years:

• The construction of Lawrence W. Inlow Hall in 2001, a state-of-the art facility for legal education.
• The law school’s legal writing program is ranked 11th in the nation.
• The majority of judges serving in the State of Indiana (133) are graduates of our law school.
• Since the program’s inception in 1993, students in our school’s Pro Bono Program have contributed 70,382 pro bono hours in central Indiana, working with attorneys and non-profit organizations.
• Our law school’s Program in International Human Rights Law has facilitated 120 intern placements with human rights organizations in more than 50 countries.

Teaching and Learning

• On July 1, 2007, Gary R. Roberts became the dean of the IU School of Law-Indianapolis.  He had previously served as deputy dean at Tulane University School of Law, where he had been on the faculty for 24 years.

• The law school launched a new program in Egypt, offering the International and Comparative Law track of its LL.M. program at two law schools, Alexandria University and Cairo University, as part of a USAID initiative to help Egypt modernize its economy and legal system.  The law school received a three-year, $6.7 million grant to operate the program in Egypt, making the school the first U.S. law school to offer a graduate law degree program in the Middle East. 

• On October 24, the IU School of Law-Indianapolis hosted oral arguments of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces as part of the court’s Project Outreach.  It was the first time the court had visited a law school in Indiana. IU Law alumnus, Lieutenant Commander Eric Eversole, ’98, JAGC U.S. Navy, was counsel for the appellant.  Third-year law student Christopher Eckhardt was permitted to participate as student amicus curiae, under the supervision of Professor Joel Schumm, ’98. 

• The law school’s William S. and Christine S. Hall Center for Law and Health is a partner in the Consortium for Health Policy, Law and Bioethics at IUPUI that was granted Signature Center status with the campus.  The program is a joint venture between the schools of law, medicine and public and environmental affairs.

Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity

• Professors Cynthia Adams and Deborah McGregor published a book, The International Lawyer’s Guide to Legal Analysis and Communication in the United States.

• Professor Andrew Klein spent the Fall 2007 semester as a visiting fellow at Clare Hall College at the University of Cambridge, where he was also a visiting scholar in the Faculty of Law. 

• Professor James Dimitri’s article, “Writing Engaging, Realistic, and Balanced Appellate Advocacy Problems,” was published as the lead article in the Winter 2008 edition of Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing.

• Professor Karen Bravo’s article, “Smoke, Mirrors and the Joker in the Pack: On Transitioning to Democracy and the Rule of Law in Post-Soviet Armenia,” was published as the lead article in the Houston Journal of International Law.

• Professor Eric Dannenmaier published a book chapter, Promoting Public Access in International Environmental Law: Implementing the Almaty Guidelines, in the Oxford Yearbook of International Environmental Law.

• Professor Jim Nehf's article on online shopping and Internet privacy was featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education on September 28, 2007.  The article, "Shopping for Privacy on the Internet," originally appeared in the Journal of Consumer Affairs.

Civic Engagement

• On September 14, the law school hosted a conference on “Relations Between Congress and the Federal Courts,” that featured United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito as the keynote speaker.  The conference, which attracted an audience of more than 150 attorneys and judges, was co-sponsored by the Indiana State Bar Association. 

• Representative Brian C. Bosma '84 appointed Professor Jeff Grove to the Indiana Lobby Registration Commission. The Commission, established by the 1992 Indiana General Assembly, is charged with the responsibility of registering lobbyists and monitoring their activity.

• Two IU-Indianapolis law students, Keri Gresk and Lun Kham, working with Professor Linda Kelly Hill in the law school’s new Immigration Law Clinic, won an asylum case on behalf of a Burmese applicant.

• Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard named Professor María Pabón López to the State Board of Law Examiners, effective December 1, 2007. The Board is responsible for the admission of attorneys, the certification of legal interns, and the formation and renewal of professional corporations, limited liability companies, and limited liability partnerships for the legal profession in Indiana. She is the only academic in the 10-member board.

• Students from the law school’s Program in International Human Rights Law (PIHRL) submitted "Shadow Reports" and made oral human rights presentations to United Nations Committees.  In 2008, the following reports and presentations were made by the group:  UN Human Rights Committee— Violation of Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples of Panama (New York) (2008)); UN Race Committee—Discrimination Against Muslims, Arabs, South Asians Post 9-11 (Geneva) (Report to be supplemented in 2008); and UN Race Committee—Race Discrimination Before, During & After Hurricane Katrina (Geneva) (2008).

• Jonna Kane MacDougall, Assistant Dean for Advancement, was one of two inaugural recipients of the IUPUI Nan Bohan Community Engagement Award for her work with Outrun the Sun, Inc., a nonprofit organization she co-founded to raise awareness of the risk factors of sun exposure and to raise funds for melanoma education and research. Since its inception, the organization has raised more than a quarter of a million dollars in support of its mission.

• Professor Tom Wilson was quoted in the Wall Street Journal on June 10 in an article about contractual, regulatory, and common law bases for terminating a lease.  He also served as a consultant to the Los Angeles Times for an August 11 editorial on the rising number of foreclosures on subprime mortgage loans.

• Professor Antony Page was interviewed by BBC Radio on May 13 about the mergers and acquisitions environment.  He was also quoted in the Wall Street Journal on May 12 and the Guardian (London) in April.

Diversity

• The law school and Professor Maria Pabon Lopez received the Indiana State Bar Association’s 2007 Rabb Emison Diversity Awards, sponsored by the ISBA Diversity Committee.  Professor Lopez won the individual award for “demonstrated commitment to promoting diversity and/or equality in the legal profession.”  The IU School of Law-Indianapolis received the award “in recognition of the significant contribution made in advancing opportunities for minority lawyers in legal employment and the legal profession.”

External Awards and Appointments

• Professor Gerard Magliocca will hold the Fulbright-Dow Distinguished Chair at the Roosevelt Center for American Studies in the Netherlands in the fall of 2008. His research interests focus on constitutional law, legal history and intellectual property.
• IU School of Law-Indianapolis’ legal writing program, known as Legal Analysis, Research and Communications (LARC), was ranked 11th in the nation by U.S. News & World Report in 2008. Ruth Anne Robbins, incoming President of the Legal Writing Institute, praised the program, calling it “one of the best” and a “model of excellence.” U.S. News & World Report added legal writing programs to its annual rankings of special law school programs in 2005.
• Professor and Dean Emeritus Norman Lefstein has been appointed as reporter for the National Right to Counsel Committee, organized by The Constitution Project and the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Washington, D.C.  The honorary co-chairs of the committee are former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale and William Sessions, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Professor Lefstein will be responsible, in association with a consulting firm, for preparing a national report about the state of defense services for the poor in criminal prosecutions and juvenile delinquency cases, as well as formulating recommendations for improvements. 
• Angela M. Espada, associate dean for student services, was selected by her alma mater, the University of Indianapolis, as a Distinguished Alumni Award recipient. She has also been selected as an American Council on Education Fellow for 2008-2009.
• At the 2008 Association of American Law Schools conference in New York City, Professor Lloyd T. (Tom) Wilson was elected Chair-Elect of the AALS Section on Real Estate Transactions.