Newsletter: Vol. 1, Issue 1, February 2014
Krishnan appointed CGLP director
IU Maurer School of Law Dean Austen L. Parrish has named Professor Jayanth Krishnan as director of the IU Maurer School of Law Center on the Global Legal Profession. An active participant in the Center's growth since its founding in 2009, Krishnan is an expert on lawyers in emerging markets, law and globalization, and legal education, with a special emphasis on how these areas intersect in India.
In his new role, Krishnan will work to link the Center's global scholarship and outreach with other Indiana University initiatives. "Jay's research, fundraising for student scholarships through the Milton Stewart Fellows Program, and his active role in forming partnerships with academic institutions, law firms, and NGOs around the globe make him the ideal person to direct the next phase of the Center's growth and collaboration," said Parrish.
Professor William Henderson, the Center's founding director, will continue to develop domestic programs that complement the Center's enhanced global emphasis. Henderson noted that Krishnan is "a great institutional colleague, and I am very glad to be handing the reins to him."
"Following in Bill Henderson's footsteps is a daunting task," said Krishnan. "Bill has been a pioneer and instrumental in raising the profile of the Center and the Law School through his groundbreaking work on the legal profession and trends in law firms and the business of lawyering."
Krishnan joined the Maurer faculty in 2009. He is a Charles L. Whistler Faculty Fellow, director of the school's India law program, and co-director of the Law School's Center for Law, Society, and Culture.
Center initiatives to focus on three key areas
Krishnan noted that the vision for the Center will be to deepen its focus on three key areas: research, student opportunities, and global partnerships. "We have amazing faculty, students, and staff at the Center who have been involved in these efforts since we began in 2009. I'm excited to coordinate our work in these three specific areas as we move forward," he said.
Research
Since its inception, the Center has engaged in breakthrough research on important topics affecting the profession. Here are some recent highlights:
- Henderson has completed an article for the International Journal of Law & Economics on the changes in large law firms, and a forthcoming Michigan Law Review essay on Stephen Harper's The Lawyer Bubble and Richard Susskind's Tomorrow's Lawyers;
- Professor Christiana Ochoa has received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to study the role of law and lawyers in development-programming; and
- Krishnan is completing a three-year, Ford Foundation-funded study that examines the rights of the poor and the lower judiciary in India. His research will be published in the Harvard Human Rights Journal.
Student Opportunities
The Center will continue to expand opportunities for Indiana Law students to gain hands-on experience in the global legal profession. Since 2010, the Center has administered the Milton Stewart Fellowship Program, which provides 1L and 2L students legal internship opportunities in different markets around the globe. Thanks to generous philanthropic donations, including from Milton R. Stewart, JD'71, and his wife Judi, the Center has funded over 40 students who have worked in law firms, non-governmental organizations, and government agencies in Brazil, China, India, Japan, and Korea. The Center is in the process of evaluating applications for its next class of 2014 Stewart Fellows.
In addition, the Center works closely with Indiana Law's Office of International Programs in helping to place students in study abroad exchanges. Options for foreign study include programs in France, Spain, Poland, Germany, Brazil, India, Ireland, New Zealand, and China. This year, the deadline to study abroad during the 2014-2015 academic year is February 7. Click here for further information.
Global Partnerships
One of the Maurer School of Law's strategies centers on building global partnerships through interdisciplinary collaborations, both within Indiana University and around the world. The Center's faculty has been involved with various professional organizations, international development agencies, and educational institutions of excellence around the world, including: FGV Law School (São Paulo); Jindal Global Law School (Haryana, India); National Taiwan University; ESADE Law School (Barcelona); Sungkyunkwan University (Seoul); Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China); and the Peking University School of Transnational Law (STL) (Shenzhen, China).
Some recent activities by Center colleagues include:
- Professor Kenneth Dau-Schmidt, a renowned labor law scholar, has taught employment law, antitrust law, and comparative law at STL since 2010.
- Professor Ethan Michelson, an expert on the Chinese legal profession, has received funding from and done extensive work for the World Bank, National Institutes of Health, Fulbright Program, and Ford Foundation.
- Indiana University Bloomington Provost and Executive Vice President Lauren Robel is working closely with legal educators from Asia, Africa, and Latin America on the changing nature of the legal profession. Robel is the former dean of the Maurer School of Law and recently completed a term as president of the Association of American Law Schools.