From the Director
A belated happy new year! The last many months have been busy, and we are eager to present our latest newsletter filled with exciting highlights from the Stewart Center on the Global Legal Profession.
Wishing you all the very best for the spring 2025 semester,
Jayanth Krishnan
Milt and Judi Stewart Professor of Law, and
Director, Milt and Judi Stewart Center on the Global Legal Profession
Welcoming Dean Kevin Johnson
During the spring 2025 semester, Professor Kevin Johnson, who was Dean of UC-Davis Law School from 2008-2024, is serving as the Stewart Center Distinguished Visiting Scholar. Prof. Johnson is an internationally recognized researcher on immigration law, and his many accomplishments can be found here. Welcome Kevin – we are excited to host you!
The Stewart Center Fellows Class of 2025
The Center is in the process of selecting our 2025 summer class of Stewart Fellows. With this year’s cohort, we will have sent more than 275 students who have served as Fellows since the program was established in 2010. As in years past, the students will travel to 14 different countries ranging from Colombia to Thailand. More to come on this year’s class in the next few months, and we wish to express our immense gratitude to our primary benefactors, Milt and Judi Stewart as well as to the rest of our supportive donors and internship employers.
Lawyers as Agents for Change Symposium
In January 2025, the Center, in partnership with the Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, hosted a global conference at the Law School, which focused on how lawyers in different parts of the world are standing up for the rule of law. Experts spoke about the legal and political landscapes in the U.S., Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe, and the role lawyers are playing in each of these regions. The IJGLS will be publishing the papers from this important conference later this calendar year.
Research from the Center
The Center has recently released a significant paper entitled "The Cost of the Vexatious Lawyer: Who Bears Responsibility?" (forthcoming in the Florida State University Law Review), which examines whether the law should assign financial responsibility to an organization that employs a lawyer who engages in frivolous, unprofessional, and tormenting conduct. In addition, Prof. Krishnan delivered a series of lectures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in November on the state of immigration law in the U.S. and globally – post the election of Donald Trump – and was part of a panel on the state of democracy in the Global South a month earlier also at Wisconsin.
Important Funding Received and Conferences Held
The Center secured a range of outside funding this year, leading to a set of seminars on cross-border legal transactions and international legal education. Thanks to the generous support from the Institute for Advanced Study, the Center partnered with the prestigious Mexican law firm, Basham, Ringe y Correra, to host a conference in Mexico City entitled “Global Lawyering in a Global Context” in October.
During that same trip, the Center team worked with the IU Mexico Gateway where the director, Dean Christiana Ochoa, and several members of the IU faculty participated in an “Explore IU” seminar, which showcased Maurer’s research as well the work of other partner units across campus.
And, some months earlier (June 2024), thanks to the gracious support of IU’s Office of Vice President for International Affairs, the Center held another conference in Mexico City that focused on law, climate change, and the implications for public policy in a comparative and global context. The Center partnered with key universities in the city, as well as leading scholars, lawyers, and policy officials in making this seminar a fabulous success.
Our Additional Work in Latin America
The Center has been working with a new set of colleagues in Bogotá, Colombia, in order to open up internship opportunities for our students and to form new collaborative partnerships with key universities in the region. We have established important connections with law firms in Bogotá that include Holland & Knight, Strategy Co., and OGE Energy, where we plan to send students over the course of the next two summers. And we connected with three prestigious universities: Universidad del Rosario, Universidad del Externado, and Universidad de los Andes, where we are looking forward to welcoming students and faculty beginning in the fall.
Hosting Professor Deepa Das Acevedo
In January, the Center hosted Professor Deepa Das Acevedo from Emory Law School. Professor Das Acevedo gave a fascinating lecture on her latest book, The Battle for Sabarimala: Religion, Law, and Gender in Contemporary India. She also then had an opportunity to meet a number of students after her lecture and discuss with them her career as one of the leading legal anthropologists of India.
Pro Bono Work Recognized by AALS
The Association of American Law Schools recognized the work of the Center and its director for the pro bono work that has been done in various areas of domestic immigration law and comparative law in the Global South for the 2024 calendar year. The announcement was made as part of a beautiful ceremony celebrating Maurer’s leadership in providing a range of pro bono legal services during the fall semester.
Thank you for your interest
We hope you have a great and productive rest of your spring semester,
Jayanth Krishnan and Lucero Guillen