November 2021
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Another semester draws to a close, and students return next week from Thanksgiving break to prepare for final exams. Despite a few inconveniences brought about by the pandemic, most of the semester's activities took place in person, and the number of COVID cases at the Law School remained low.
As you'll read in this issue, our community remained active during the final weeks of the semester. Our Moot Court competition reached its exciting conclusion, and we honored students who contributed the most to our pro bono programs. We also continued our podcast series, One More Cold Call, with a total of 10 alumni interviews scheduled by the end of 2021.
During this holiday season, I am especially grateful for your support, both financially and as volunteers. If you haven't made your gift to the Law School this year, please be sure to do so. A convenient link is included just above this message.
The Law School is seeking a director of career services. Information and a link to the job description are provided below. Please consider forwarding the job description to people in your network. And watch your mailboxes for the December print edition of ergo, which will arrive shortly after Christmas.
Best wishes to you and your family for a happy holiday season and a safe and prosperous New Year.
Austen Parrish
Dean and James H. Rudy Professor of Law
The Law School's annual Sherman Minton Moot Court Competition resumed in person, culminating in final rounds on November 8. This year's case, Keeton Pine v. United States, was a criminal appeal exploring how modern trends in criminal justice create novel Sixth Amendment questions.
Three Indiana Supreme Court justices—all of them Law School alumni—served as this year's distinguished panel of judges: Chief Justice Loretta H. Rush, '83, Justice Geoffrey G. Slaughter, '89, and Justice Christopher M. Goff, '96. Elizabeth Berg, Hannah Pitcher, Megan Riley, and Carrie Speer were this year's finalists; Berg and Pitcher were named champions. Eighty-eight second-year students competed this year.
Congratulations to Chief Justice Seila Ibrulj and the entire 2021–22 executive advocacy board for hosting a fabulous competition, with thanks to Prof. Seth Lahn and the many others who helped make this year’s competition a success.
The Law School's Access to Justice Program honored students for their pro bono efforts on October 27 in a Zoom ceremony. These students received Pro Bono Publico awards:
Kyle Dugger, '15, a public defender in Monroe County, was presented with the Community Award for his outstanding contribution to public service and dedication to the Bloomington community. Dugger and Dustin House, '20, an attorney with Indiana Legal Services in Lafayette, participated in a moderated discussion about the right to counsel and the importance of pro bono work.
Many thanks to our 2021–22 pro bono fellows Maggie Bott and Ingrid Radulescu, who oversaw the program and the ceremony.
Nine Indiana Law faculty and alumni have received Leadership in Law awards from The Indiana Lawyer: Kathleen Anderson, '92, Prof. Amy Applegate, Tavonna Harris Askew, '01, Robert H. Ebbs, '89, Karen E. Richards, '79, and Chief Justice Loretta H. Rush, '83 received Distinguished Barrister awards (at least 20 years in the professsion). Jacob A. German, '14, Michael M. Morris, '11, and Christopher L. Tucker, '11, were presented with Up-and-Coming Lawyer awards (10 or fewer years).
Leadership in Law honors the state's standout lawyers, who are chosen by an anonymous panel from submitted nominations. This year's winners were recognized at a breakfast in Indianapolis on November 9.
Season 1 of the Law School's alumni podcast, One More Cold Call, continues, with three interviews this month and three more set for December:
Jamal Sowell, '17, has served most recently as the Florida Secretary of Commerce (the CEO of Enterprise Florida, Inc.), the state's principal economic development organization. He is also a US Marine, a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Jamal talks about the influence of the law and the military on his career.
Hon. Clarine Nardi Riddle, '74, counsel with Kasowitz, Benson & Torres in Washington, DC, has served as a trial court judge in Connecticut, as chief of staff to Senator Joseph Lieberman, and as the state's only female attorney general. She is also a founder of No Labels, a bi-partisan organization aimed at moving America from old-politics point-scoring to new-politics problem-solving. Clarine shares insights from her wide-ranging career.
Keith, '84, and Joe, '17, Hedinger are president and vice president of Hedinger Beverage Distributing Company and the Dad's Root Beer Company in Jasper, Ind., which also makes Dr. Wells, Bubble-Up, and Suncrest soft drinks. The family has been in the soft-drink business for over 65 years, and this father-son team talk about how the law has helped them build on their company's success.
You can access the podcasts via SoundCloud.
The Jerome Hall Law Library has joined with the Ruth Lilly Law Library of the IU McKinney School of Law on a project to digitize the print collections of the Indiana Code, from inception to the present, and make it freely available, according to Susan deMaine, director of the Jerome Hall Law Library.
"The print collections of IU’s two law libraries are far more complete than anything available online," deMaine explained. "Currently, there is no free online public access to the Indiana Code predating the 2009 Code available via the Indiana General Assembly’s website, and paid access—HeinOnline, Westlaw, and Lexis—offers no codes between 1921 and 1990."
This project was launched in 2019 at the Ruth Lilly Law Library, in cooperation with IUPUI’s Center for Digital Scholarship, by deMaine and Benjamin Keele, ’08. Since becoming director of the Jerome Hall Law Library in 2020, deMaine has planned for the Law School to join the project, helping it become a reality.
At this time, the project is focused on completing the work of scanning and processing 1971 to the present and creating a public-facing interface. This interface will allow users to navigate to a particular year of the code and then to a title, article, chapter, and section.
DeMaine added that existing digital files from the Indiana Legislative Services Agency have greatly aided the effort, providing content back to 2001 without the necessity of scanning. The LSA has also given the necessary permissions to provide free access to the Code. In addition, the Libraries have received copyright permission from Thomson Reuters, which printed the Code on behalf of the state from 1976 to 2001, and claims rights in the section headings, tables, and indexes.
Although the recent purchase of a preservation-quality book scanner enables safe and fast scanning, deMaine said that the project is still expected to take several years. Updates will be provided in forthcoming issues of ergo.
Prof. I. India Thusi and Prof. Asaf Lubin have announced the forthcoming publication of monographs in their respective areas of expertise. Thusi's book, Policing Bodies, will be published by Stanford University Press on December 21. It is an ethnographic and historical examination of the policing of sex workers in Johannseburg.
Lubin has signed a contract with Oxford University Press for the publication of The International Law of Intelligence: The World of Spycraft and the Law of Nations. Author-meets-reader events will be scheduled following publication of each book.
Thusi and Lubin joined the Law School faculty in 2021 and 2020, respectively, Thusi from Widener University Delaware Law School and Lubin from Harvard University.
The Conservation Law Center, which provides legal counsel without charge to conservation organizations throughout the world, has secured a grant from the Duke Energy Foundation to establish paid internships for up to two Law School students next year. In addition, the CLC has hired Megan Freveletti, '22, as a graduate fellow attorney after she graduates. Freveletti will be the inaugural Nancy C. Ralston Conservation Fellow. With this addition, all four of CLC's four full-time attorneys are and will be Maurer School of Law alumni.
The Center has also announced the creation of another new position: the Constance and Terry Marbach Conservation Attorney. The Marbachs have been conservation vanguards for decades, with a long history funding the conservation of important natural areas for wildlife habitat, water quality, and biological diversity in Indiana and across the country. Details on this position will be announced later.
Law School students participating in the Conservation Law Clinic have the opportunity to serve as interns in the Conservation Law Center. Christian Freitag, '97, clinical associate professor of law, is president and executive director of the Center.
Dean Parrish has appointed Anne Newton McFadden as assistant dean for student services and dean of students. She had been serving in that role on an interim basis since May.
McFadden oversees both the Leonard D. Fromm Office for Student Affairs and the Career Services Office (CSO). Under her leadership, the school has seen dramatic increases in student engagement and student satisfaction as measured by the national Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE). In addition, the at-graduation employment rate reached a 10-year high with the class of 2021. McFadden co-teaches the first-year Legal Profession I course, which enables CSO programming to be integrated into the curriculum. She has also moved the school's externship and clerkship programs into CSO and harnessed technology to make all application processes easier.
In 2019 McFadden received the school's Leonard D. Fromm Public Interest Faculty Award, and the graduating classes in both 2020 and 2021 presented her with the Gavel Award.
Prof. and IU Bloomington Interim Provost John S. Applegate was profiled recently in the People of IU.
Prof. Asaf Lubin has been invited to join the inaugural cohort of the Datasphere Initiative, where he will continue to explore issues at the intersection of Internet jurisdiction, data governance, and domestic and international frameworks for liability for cyber harms.
Prof. Marshall Leaffer was honored on November 18 at a reception commemorating his retirement. He will be profiled in the summer 2022 issue of ergo.
Dean Parrish participated in a webinar celebrating the 110th anniversary of Southwestern University in Los Angeles, where he previously served as vice dean and interim dean. Also present was former Dean Bryant Garth, who was also dean of the Maurer School of Law from 1986–90.
Profs. Susan deMaine and Margaret Kiel-Morse participated on panels at the annual meeting of the Mid-America Association of Law Libraries, and Prof. Ashley Ames Ahlbrand spoke on "Looking Back to Look Forward: Reflective Practices for the Law Librarian."
Profs. David Gamage continues to receive extensive media coverage for his expertise on tax law, most recently on the constitutionality of the proposed billionaire's tax.
Prof. Leandra Lederman continues to convene the popular Tax Policy Colloquium, along with her YouTube series, Break into Tax, which she co-hosts with Prof. Allison Christians.
Prof. I. India Thusi was invited to discuss her forthcoming paper, "Girls, Assaulted," at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.
Read Faculty in the media for faculty quotes and op-eds in state and national news.
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