Alumni & Advancement

Dean's Letter

 

Twice each year, Dean Jay Conison provides a comprehensive law school update in the form of a letter to alumni and friends. [ Download PDF version ]

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30 March 2008

Dear Alumni and Friends:

What Tony LaRussa said about baseball can just as well be said about the law school: “There’s a lot of stuff goes on.” This you know from my previous letters.

Over time, a “lot of stuff” can accumulate and amount to remarkable progress. That is the case here. In the following, I would like to give you a sampling of the remarkable progress that has taken place, some of it over a long time, some of it very quickly.

Heritage Hall

In the past decade the Valparaiso University School of Law has emerged as a vibrant and enormously successful center for legal education. As my letters reflect (and this letter is no exception), our impact is felt not only locally and nationally, but around the world. This progress results from the dedication of our faculty, staff, alumni, students, and friends. It is based on enormous energy and commitment, a respect for what is best in our traditions, and a keen sense of what is needed to serve students and society.

The School of Law is the people who make up the community. It is not the buildings that house them. A good building does not make a good school, and conversely. Yet good buildings are crucial to the ability to serve students and society, and crucial to the ability to continue thriving as a successful and influential center for legal and leadership education.

For many years, one of our building challenges has been the fact that the clinics—a major strength in our program of education—are housed in Heritage Hall. Heritage Hall, the last remaining building from the 19th century Valparaiso University, is a lovely structure. But as lovely as it is, it remains in the end an 1875 building. Because of age and structural limitations, it cannot fully support the high quality clinical programs we provide and the additional ones we wish to provide.

For many years we have sought to find a way to preserve the history and traditions embodied in that building, while remaking it as the modern, functional, and adaptable home that our clinical programs deserve. We at last have that opportunity.

A very good friend has made a gift of $4 million to the School of Law. This $4 million gift is the largest in the history of the law school and one of the largest gifts in the history of the entire university.

The gift will help fund not just a re-built Heritage Hall, but a larger clinical and skills complex that will triple the available space. The complex will be adaptable, permitting the addition of new clinics as needs and opportunities arise. It will provide a first-class teaching courtroom. It will provide still more rooms for teaching a wide array of skills.

The clinical and skills complex will provide other benefits for the School of Law community.  It will be designed as two connected buildings, with the clinical portion closely resembling Heritage Hall as originally constructed and the skills portion in a compatible style. We cannot preserve an old structure such as Heritage Hall intact, but we can preserve its look and feel and portions of its façade. It will thus—as we do with our programs—build on our traditions while adapting them to modern needs.

. . . And Wesemann Hall

Planning for the Heritage Hall—Clinical and Skills Complex project has been guided by the need to adapt older facilities to rapidly evolving programs, and by our commitment to serving students and other constituencies in the best ways possible. We have similar challenges and a similar commitment in Wesemann Hall. True, Wesemann Hall is a 1986 building, and so “only” 22 years old. But the fact remains that is a facility built for 1986 legal education programs, while we are providing a 2008 legal education and educational services. Legal education and law schools are far more complex than they were just 22 years ago.

To take one example, we have today a remarkably rich schedule of lectures, speakers, public programs, conferences, and special events throughout the year—and we have this on top of a rich curriculum of classes running throughout the day. Yet our set of classrooms was designed for a law school with a smaller, less complex curriculum and a minimal schedule of speakers and events.  This limitation will be alleviated in part by the new teaching rooms to be constructed in the Heritage Hall—Clinical and Skills complex. But only in part. And, as we provide still more programs and services to students, alumni, and other constituencies, we will continue to deal with the constraints of what fundamentally remains a 1986 classroom configuration.

To take another example, 22 years ago our admissions office consisted of one admissions officer, a part-time secretary, and a few file drawers. Today, in the intensely competitive world of law schools, our admissions operation requires four full-time professionals, a financial aid counselor, many student and part-time workers, a complex file and computer system, a large mail operation, ongoing programs and extensive support from other parts of the law school, such as career planning, communications, and web design. After 22 years, we were finally able to create an admissions suite on the first floor of Wesemann Hall so that we could conduct our admissions operation in the most efficient and effective way and—most important—be as close as possible to students.

And we have similar challenges from complexity in many other areas—Career Planning (today we serve a student body pursuing jobs around the country—see the information on page 6), Advancement (think of the many communications and services we provide to alumni today—in 1986 there were no letters to alumni—and see page 7 for our plans for future communication), and student organizations and student activities (you have read about the ever growing student activities in many prior letters). There is an enormous amount of activity and service to try to house in a building designed for much simpler times.

A completely new building would be nice, but is not realistic. Nor is it necessary. We believe we can continue the plan we have been following for the past several years, which is to adapt Wesemann Hall to these evolving needs and uses. This summer, we hope to complete what one might call “Phase I” of the process of adaptation, which involves reconfiguring the existing finished space so as to make it better suited for current and reasonably anticipated needs and uses. This summer, the work will involve removing some open stacks on the lower level of the library and creating in their place a reading room for quiet research and study. There is great student demand for space of this kind. The summer’s work will also include removing some open stacks on the second floor of the library to allow an expansion of the faculty office corridor. This will enable us to accommodate the new faculty we have already hired and the faculty we are prepared to hire in the next few years.

Those of you who have not seen Wesemann Hall in the last few years will quickly notice the changes. I believe you will agree that we have creatively and cost-effectively adapted a 1986 building to the functions of a vibrant 2008 law school.

The Faculty

Four of our faculty have had high impact, and been much in the public eye—and the news—in recent months.

Professor Rebecca Huss is one of the nation’s leading experts on animal law, and has written extensively on the legal status of animals and their value in people’s lives. Because of her expertise, she was asked by the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia to serve as a special master for 48 pit bulls seized from former football player Michael Vick. Rebecca’s assignment was to oversee the disposition of the dogs, either through placement or through euthanasia. After three months of intensive work, she successfully placed all of the dogs. Her work attracted immense public and media interest, ranging from the New York Times to People Magazine to XM radio. She is now speaking extensively about her work on the case.

Professor Alan White is one of the leading experts in subprime lending. Not surprisingly, Alan has been greatly in demand as a speaker at conferences (e.g., “Race Discrimination In The Pricing Of Subprime Mortgages,” this summer at Washington University), as an advisor to the Federal Reserve Board (member, Consumer Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors), and as a named contributor to the Consumer Law & Policy Blog (pbcit.typepad.com/clpblog ). He also organized a conference at the law school, “Defending Foreclosures, Saving Homes,” which was so popular it was oversubscribed.

Professor Michael Straubel, a leading expert on sports law and the director of the Sports Law Clinic, made international news by heading a legal team that prevailed in arbitration with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). This marked the first time that an athlete had ever prevailed in a proceeding brought by USADA. The sprinter, LaTasha Jenkins, was cleared of charges of using performance-enhancing drugs because the test procedures relied on failed to comply with standards established by the World Anti-Doping Authority.

Professor Linda Whittonhas been named an Academic Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estates Counsel. Linda has spent the past several years working as Reporter for the drafting of the new Uniform Power of Attorney Act and is now spending a great deal of time speaking to state organizations and legislatures as they consider adoption of the uniform act

Nearly all of our faculty are working on books or articles, or have recently published one (or more). Here is just a small sampling. Professor Bernard Trujillo has recently signed a contract with the University of Arizona Press to co-author a book, Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, and U.S. Immigration Law. The book will be designed for use in both graduate and undergraduate classes. Professor Penelope Andrews signed an agreement with Vandeplas Publishing Company for a co-edited book, Comparative Constitutionalism And Rights: Global Perspectives, for which she will also be a contributing author. Rebecca Huss is a co-editor of Animal Law in the Courts, to be published by Thompson-West. Rosalie Levinson and Ivan Bodensteiner are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their widely used treatise, Civil Rights Legislation and Litigation. Rosalie, by the way, was honored as a recipient of the Athena Award, a national award program to recognize women who assist and support other women in developing their careers.

Other recent faculty activities (and there are many) include Ivan Bodensteiner’s article, “The Implications of Psychological Research Related to Unconscious Discrimination and Implicit Bias in Proving Intentional Discrimination,” to be published in the Missouri Law Review; Derrick Carter’s article, “Famous Criminal Appeals During the 2005-06 Term of the United States Supreme Court,” was published in the Capital Law Review; and Susan Stuart’s article, “Citizen Teacher: Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don’t,” was published in the University of Cincinnati Law Review.

An important development is that an increasing amount of the scholarly work product of our faculty is appearing on line. As I mentioned in my last letter, the School of Law publishes an on-line journal, Valparaiso University School of Law Legal Studies. To access articles in the journal, you can go to www.ssrn.com/link/Valparaiso-U-LEG.html. To subscribe, please contact Associate Dean for Faculty Development JoEllen Lind.

Another vehicle for scholarly exchange is blogging. I noted above the blogging activity of Alan White, but he is not the only one. Professor Jeremy Telman is a contributing editor of the AALS Section on Contracts blog, which can be found at lawprofessors.typepad.com/contractsprof_blog .

The Students

It isn’t just the faculty who are engaged in important dialogue about legal, political, and socio-economic issues. So are the students. An excellent example is the recent invitation to three of our students to deliver papers at an academic conference. The Institute of African Studies in the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, and the Harriman Institute, are sponsoring an international conference,  “Odd Bedfellows: Sierra Leonean Diamonds and Ukrainian Arms.”  The proposals of three Valparaiso law students have been accepted, and the students will be flown to New York City to present their papers at the conference. Pierce Lehr (’10) will speak on “From Darkness to Light: The Resurgence of Peace in West Africa,” and David Wright (’09) and Marcus Flinders (’10) will speak on "’The Flag Means More Than Death’:  Applying Lessons From The Hitler Youth To The Reintegration Of Sierra Leone’s Child Armies.”

Students are also deeply engaged in community and public service activities through the many student organizations. A few examples include the March voter registration drive conducted by the Valpo Law Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians; the Women Law Student Association/Black Law Student Association Charity Auction, which raised money to sponsor two children from the Children’s Trust Fund in Zimbabwe and collected personal and health supplies to help other children; the work of Phi Alpha Delta in the local community organizations, the Family House the Caring Place; and the Student Bar Association’s canned immunity program, which collected goods for the food pantry at the Spring Valley Shelter.

Every January, the Career Planning Center collects employment data on prior year graduates to submit to the ABA and the National Association for Law Placement.  This information is crucially important to students and to law schools. It helps measure the success of students in pursuing employment and of the school in helping students pursue employment. It is also of great interest to prospective students who are choosing law schools. 

For the class of 2007, the full-time employment rate (including those in full-time graduate programs) is 93.3%, a significant increase in the 87.5% rate for the class of 2006. The distribution of jobs is 47% in law firms, 23% in government, 20% in business, and the remainder in non-profit organizations, judicial clerkships, or advanced legal studies.

Not surprisingly, the largest concentration of graduates is in Indiana and Illinois. The next most popular states for graduates are Texas, Colorado, Michigan, Wisconsin, New York, Missouri, and California.

Although it is too early to have much data about employment in the class of 2008, I will just note that we already know of three who have positions in Washington, D.C. Joseph St. Peter will be with the Honors Program in the Department of Transportation; Reid Hooper will be with the Securities and Exchange Commission; and Rickey Glover will be with Blank Rome, LLP.

Alumni and Communications

In recent months, we have increased the number of regional events for our alumni. In November, we held a reception in D.C. to honor Craig Morford (’84), who was then Acting Deputy Attorney General of the United States. At the end of November, we held events in Phoenix and Las Vegas. In March, we held events in Milwaukee and Madison. Events are scheduled this spring for Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, and Oakbrook, IL. Still more are planned for the fall.

We continue to make improvements to our web site and have turned our attention to the alumni-related areas of the site. One project that is in progress is a searchable alumni database. We are working with the university on this project and hope to have it available by early summer.

We are also restructuring our alumni magazine to move most of its content online. For about eight years, the Valpo Lawyer has been a vehicle for communicating with alumni, and sharing news and stories about alumni, and has served us well. But the new communications staff in the law school, along with new web technologies, allow us to be more nimble in sharing stories with you. What you will see in the coming months is a smaller alumni magazine that, although self-contained, will also lead you to the web for more news and more stories. In this regard, we would very much like to know what kinds of stories and news you would like to see. We would also like to have your ideas for stories. The editor of our print and web-based alumni magazine is Associate Director of Marketing Communications Beth Zambone. Please share your ideas and suggestions with her.

For the past several years, we have been developing a greater sense of community among our alumni—at both the national and local levels—through a variety of means. At the local level, in some places, we have created local councils—boards that meet with me twice a year (in that place) so that the members can stay informed and to be available to help the law school serve students and alumni, or otherwise advance the law school. We currently have local councils in the D.C. metropolitan area (including Maryland and Virginia), Fort Wayne, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Twin Cities, Chicago Loop, Chicago West Suburban, and Phoenix (including alumni from Tucson and Las Vegas). If you are interested in participating on one of our councils, please let me know.

In some other places where we do not have a council, we have set up listservs, so that we can keep alumni informed about developments at the school and so that alumni can communicate with each other. Currently, we have listservs for Pittsburgh, Detroit, Lansing (MI), Wisconsin, and Texas. If you would like to be added to any of these listservs, please contact me or Assistant Director of Advancement Francie Thomas Or, if you live elsewhere and would like to see a listserv established for your locale, please let me know.

Transitions

Bruce Berner (’67) has served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for the past six years—a period twice the time a faculty member typically serves in that position. (Moreover, Bruce had previously served as Associate Dean in the late 80’s and early 90’s.) He has decided that it is time to return to full time teaching and scholarship and so he will step down from the Associate Deanship June 30.

As Associate Dean, Bruce has been enormously effective in expanding and strengthening our curriculum, recruiting talented new full-time faculty, diversifying our adjunct faculty, improving our academic counseling, supporting the scholarly work of the faculty, and forging a strong partnership between the law school and university. We will all miss him as Associate Dean.

Replacing him in the position of Associate Dean for Academic Affairs will be Mark Adams. Mark brings substantial administrative experience. He has been Director of International Programs, and has built our successful LL.M. for International Lawyers Program and our new Summer Program in Chile and Argentina. As Chair of the Admissions Committee, he has led the development of successful recruiting and admissions strategies that have both academically strengthened and diversified incoming classes.

Leaving at the end of this academic year will be Associate Professor James Loebl. Jim joined the faculty in 2004 and quickly established himself as a talented and popular professor. Graduating classes have chosen him as class sponsor for the past three years. For personal and family reasons he is leaving us to join the business faculty of the University of Wisconsin—Green Bay.

Joining us as Assistant Professor of Law and Coordinator of the Legal Writing Program will be Peter Blum. Peter is currently a legal writing instructor at the Howard University School of Law and before that worked as a legal aid attorney in New York City. He is a graduate of Brooklyn Law School. Also joining us as visiting faculty in the legal writing program are Bruce Ching, currently a legal writing instructor at Northern Kentucky University Law School and a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Law, and Michael Murray, who currently teaches legal writing at Illinois and is a graduate of the Columbia Law School. 

Conclusion

It isn’t mere puffery to say that the Valparaiso University School of Law is one of the most exciting places in legal education today. The energy, the ideas, the commitment are extraordinary. This is a community where everyone—faculty, staff, alumni, students—believes the school can make a difference and where we do not just have good ideas, but implement them.

There is much more in the pipeline. I look forward to writing to you about further developments and further progress in the fall.

 

            Very truly yours,

 

 

            Jay Conison
            Dean and Professor