Amazing Alumna:

Clare (Kraegel ’72, ’75 M.A.L.S.) Nuechterlein ’79 J.D., College of Arts and Sciences

Current life role: Professor, Valparaiso University School of Law

In June 2005, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels appointed Clare Nuechterlein one of five people to serve on Indiana’s Ethics Commission. Nuechterlein has a four-year term and also is chair of this prestigious commission, which decides if ethics violations have occurred among state employees, and recommends or imposes appropriate sanctions.

“I was honored and humbled and willing to serve,” Nuechterlein says. “My personal philosophy is that lawyers occupy a privileged place in American society, and with that privilege comes the obligation to serve and give back. I try to instill that in my Valpo Law students, too.”

Doing the homework

Earning both a B.A. and a J.D. from Valpo, Nuechterlein began her legal career as city attorney in Goshen, Ind., and later was an attorney adviser with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. From 1989 to 2000, she served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento and litigated federal law enforcement cases in the federal trial courts and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

As an assistant professor of law at Valpo, Nuechterlein is typically the one handing out homework. But now she finds herself studying, learning Indiana’s substantial new ethics code. The commission has jurisdiction over all 38,000 administrative and executive agency employees. The five appointees (who are bi-partisan) are supported by a full-time executive director and three staffers and work closely with the inspector general and his staff of investigators.

The work of the commission includes education (all state employees and special state appointees must take mandatory ethics training, and each agency has its own ethics officer); issuing advisory opinions to head off potential problems before they occur; and enforcement through adjudicative hearings of persons charged by the inspector general. 

Building public trust

“I believe the commission important, because in a democracy, the public trust must be maintained so that people will not become cynical and distrustful of those elected and appointed to govern the electorate,” Nuechterlein says.