News

Anjli Parrin Weighs In on Deportation Plan in NYT

laurencarter — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 14:45:29 +0000

Anjli Parrin Weighs In on Deportation Plan in NYT laurencarter Thu, 06/11/2026 - 09:45 Women Who Fled Iran Are to Be Deported to Central African Republic, Lawyers Say Megha Rajagopalan Hamed Aleaziz New York Times

The migrants have no ties to the country, and it is unclear where they will live or whether they could ultimately be sent back to Iran. The U.S. government has documented significant human rights abuses in the Central African Republic, including unlawful killings, torture and arbitrary arrest and detention.

“It’s one of the hardest places in the world to live, and the idea that it would be considered a safe third country is absurd,” said Anjli Parrin, director of the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School.

The existence of a deportation deal with the Central African Republic was earlier reported by Reuters.

Ms. Parrin, who has worked extensively in the country, said it has no functioning health care system and that fears of violence are constant despite a tentative peace agreement between armed groups and the state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/world/africa/deportations-central-african-re… June 11, 2026

Anjli Parrin

Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, Director of the Global Human Rights Clinic

Immigration Faculty News Off Off

Conner Robinson, ’23, Appointed a US Supreme Court Fellow for 2026-27 Term

markcohen — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 14:08:31 +0000

Conner Robinson, ’23, Appointed a US Supreme Court Fellow for 2026-27 Term markcohen Wed, 06/10/2026 - 09:08

Conner Robinson, ’23, has been appointed a US Supreme Court Fellow for the 2026-27 Term.

The Supreme Court Fellows Commission selects four highly talented individuals to work each year for one of four federal judiciary bodies—the US Supreme Court, the Administrative Office of the US Courts, the Federal Judicial Center, and the US Sentencing Commission.

Robinson has been designated as the Fellow for the US Supreme Court, where he will serve in the Office of the Counselor to the Chief Justice. The fellowship starts in September and lasts for one year.

Robinson is currently serving as a clerk for Judge Julie A. Robinson of the US District Court for the District of Kansas. He was previously in private practice.

Before graduating from the Law School with Pro Bono Honors in 2023, Robinson earned a BA in political science from Kansas State University.

The other three 2026-27 Fellows are: Micayla Bitz (who is assigned to the US Sentencing Commission), Connor Frayly (who is assigned to the Administrative Office of the US Courts), and Owen B. Smitherman (who is assigned to the Federal Judicial Center).

Law School Holds 28th Annual Diploma and Hooding Ceremony

ncoloma — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 18:30:26 +0000

Law School Holds 28th Annual Diploma and Hooding Ceremony ncoloma Tue, 06/09/2026 - 13:30

The Law School held its 28^th Annual Diploma and Hooding Ceremony at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel on Saturday, June 6, welcoming 283 graduates to the ranks of its alumni. A total of 204 JD students, 75 LLM students, 3 MLS students, and 1 JSD student were awarded degrees, at the event, which followed the University of Chicago Convocation.

Dean Adam Chilton, the Howard G. Krane Professor of Law, delivered the ceremony’s introductory remarks, his first as dean. The other speakers were David S. Tatel, ’66, a retired judge of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, and Lior Strahilevitz, the Sidley Austin Professor of Law.

Dean Chilton

“For three years, you have lived in an environment where people care deeply about ideas. Where assumptions are challenged. Where claims are tested. Where difficult questions are welcomed rather than avoided,” Chilton told the graduates. “I hope you will not view that as merely a three-year detour on your way to a career. I hope you will continue to read broadly, learn constantly, and remain open to the possibility that there are still things left to discover.”

The Law School honored Tatel with its 2026 Distinguished Alumnus Award, recognizing his exceptional 30-year judicial career, his dedication to civil rights, and his advocacy for access and inclusion for people with disabilities. In his recent memoir, Vision, the retired judge wrote candidly about his blindness, judging, family, the discipline of listening, and about his guide dog, Vixen, who accompanied him for the day’s festivities.

In his remarks, Tatel reflected fondly on his time at the Law School and the “superb education” he received—to which he said he attributed much of his professional success and satisfaction. He mentioned some of “the very best teachers” he had the opportunity to learn from, including legendary professors Walter Blum and Harry Kalven, whose portraits hang in the Law School’s classroom corridor today.

“Your gifted and devoted professors taught you the same core skills and ideals that mine did,” said Tatel. “Thanks to them, and of course to your own hard work, you now have the tools to become superb lawyers. … The challenge you now face, just as I did way back then, is how to have not just a successful career, but a meaningful one as well.”

Tatel spoke about finding his cause in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, inspired by the lawyers who brought the civil rights struggles “from the streets to the courts,” and by the judges who courageously upheld their oath to enforce the Constitution’s guarantee of equality under the law.

Judge Tatel

“Two powerful statutes, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965—both enacted while I was studying here at Chicago—have shaped and lent meaning to my entire career,” he recalled.

Tatel also shared examples of Law School alumni who “turned traditional paths in the law into deeply consequential ones.”

He spoke about Alexander Polikoff, ’53, a securities lawyer who launched the famous Gautreaux litigation, a case that shattered Chicago’s long-standing practice of concentrating nearly all public housing in Black neighborhoods.

He spoke about Michael McConnell, ’79, now a law professor at Stanford, who gave up a lifetime appointment as a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (a role he held from 2003 to 2009) to pursue his passion for legal scholarship, which has made a real-world impact on modern understandings of the First Amendment.

Lastly, he spoke about Kelsi Brown Corkran, ’05, one of his former law clerks. Corkran, Tatel said, was devoted to defending the Constitution and the rule of law and argued several US Supreme Court cases that tackled deeply doctrinal issues.

Tatel concluded with the following words of advice to the graduates: “As you begin your lives in the law, pay attention to the world around you. Never lose sight of the many challenges our nation still faces. Embrace the defects in our less-than-perfect union as opportunities to make our world a better place. Attach yourselves to institutions whose missions you care about. And find mentors and role models like Alex Polikoff, Michael McConnell, and Kelsi Corkran. They will inspire you and help you in ways you can’t possibly anticipate.”

Professor Strahilevitz

Strahilevitz, an accomplished scholar of property and land use, privacy, intellectual property, technology, and contracts, delivered the faculty address.

In his remarks, Strahilevitz shared the stories of former students he greatly admired. “I promise we didn’t coordinate thematically in advance,” he quipped, in reference to Judge Tatel’s similarly structured address.

Strahilevitz told graduates about a student who—upon learning that the very first Black federal district court judge in the United States, the late Judge James Parsons, was a graduate of the Law School—led a team of Black Law Student Association classmates to launch the Law School’s now ongoing tradition of the Parson’s Legacy Dinner.

“It’s hard to get anyone excited about a February event in Chicago, but during the Parsons Legacy Dinner, Hyde Park might just be the warmest spot on earth,” he said.

Strahilevitz next reflected on a student, Jay, whose tragic terminal cancer diagnosis did not stop him from continuing his legal studies—for the simple reason that he enjoyed learning the law and adored being with his law school friends… until the very end.

“I’ve always been profoundly moved by the choices that Jay made,” shared Strahilevtiz. “Jay taught us that the learning you’ve done, the work you’ve put in, isn’t just a means to an end. There is an intrinsic value to it, and special meaning in doing that hard thinking alongside the people sitting near you, who so recently were strangers and have quickly become your close friends.”

Finally, Strahilevitz spoke about a student who came to the Law School as a “passionate defender of voting rights.” Her career took her on a winding path that went from government to the private sector, then to government again—where she ultimately served in vital roles that helped shape policy that affects millions of people’s lives.

“While being true to herself, she managed the kind of career pivot so many of you will have to make when circumstances outside your control upend your meticulous planning,” said Strahilevitz, adding that the example of this student demonstrates that public service is not a "now or never" proposition.

Four members of the faculty hooded the graduates: Douglas Baird, the Harry A. Bigelow Distinguished Service Professor of Law; Genevieve Lakier, Professor of Law and the Herbert and Marjorie Fried Teaching Scholar; Alison LaCroix, the Robert Newton Reid Professor of Law, who delivered the University of Chicago’s Class of 2026 Faculty Convocation address; and Tom Ginsburg, the Leo Spitz Distinguished Service Professor of International Law and Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar.

Read the Speeches From the 2026 Ceremony

David Tatel, ’66: “Pay Attention to the World Around You”

Lior Strahilevitz: “The Learning You’ve Done Isn’t Just a Means to an End... There’s an Intrinsic Value to It”

See More Photos From the 2026 Ceremony and Festivities

Go to slideshow

Scenes from the Law School's 28th Annual Diploma and Hooding Ceremony

ncoloma — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 17:16:20 +0000

Scenes from the Law School's 28th Annual Diploma and Hooding Ceremony ncoloma Tue, 06/09/2026 - 12:16

Graduates make their way into the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel.

A total of 204 JD students, 75 LLM students, 3 MLS students, and 1 JSD student were awarded degrees, at the event.

Dean Adam Chilton welcomes the graduates and guests.

The class of 2026 ceremony marked Dean Chilton's first Diploma and Hooding Ceremony as dean.

David S. Tatel, '66, a retired judge of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, recieved the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Here he stands with his wife Edie and his guide dog Vixen.

Vixen joins the celebration with her graduation cap.

Judge Tatel delivers his address to the graduates.

Graduates take in the words of encouragement and advice shared by Judge Tatel.

Lior Strahilevitz, the Sidley Austin Professor of Law, delivers the faculty address.

Graduates cheer on their classmates as the hooding ceremony begins.

Alison LaCroix, the Robert Newton Reid Professor of Law (dressed in red), was one of the faculty members who hooded the graduates..

An LLM graduate proudly returns to his seat with his diploma.

The ceremony celebrated a total of 283 students in the class of 2026.

Graduates emerge from the chapel after the ceremony.

A celebratory embrace with Dean of Students Brandi Welch (right).

Excitement fills the air outside the chapel.

Graduates linger outside with their families.

More graduates emerge from the chapel, eager to greet their families.

Time for family photos...

...and family hugs.

Graduates make their way to the Law School building after the ceremony in the chapel.

At the Law School the celebration continued with a lunch reception.

Graduates snap a photo with Alison Siegler, the Lillian E. Kraemer Clinical Professor in Public Interest Law.

More photos and smiles inside the Green Lounge.

Congratulations to the Class of 2026!

On Saturday, June 6, the Law School held its 28th Annual Diploma and Hooding Ceremony, welcoming a total of 283 new graduates from the Class of 2026 into UChicago Law's alumni community.

Read a full recap of the day here.

Photos by Lloyd DeGrane

Adriana Robertson Appointed to SEC Investor Advisory Committee

markcohen — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:24:52 +0000

Adriana Robertson Appointed to SEC Investor Advisory Committee markcohen Mon, 06/08/2026 - 14:24

The Securities and Exchange Commission has named Adriana Z. Robertson as one of four new members of its Investor Advisory Committee.

Robertson, the Donald N. Pritzker Professor of Business Law, focuses her research at the intersection of law and finance, including securities law, capital markets regulation, and corporate finance. Her academic work has been published in leading law reviews and peer-reviewed finance journals, and has been featured in major media outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and Bloomberg.

Before joining the Law School, Adriana held the Honourable Justice Frank Iacobucci Chair in Capital Markets Regulation at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, with a joint appointment in the Finance area at the Rotman School of Management. Roberston holds a BA from the University of Toronto (Trinity College), where she was awarded the Lorne T. Morgan Gold Medal in Economics, a PhD in Finance from the Yale School of Management, and a JD from Yale Law School.

The three other newly appointed members of the SEC Investor Advisory Committee are: Patrick Daugherty, a partner at of Foley & Lardner, John Liu, former managing director at Accenture and co-founder of Agile Partners; and Sheldon L. Ray Jr., former senior vice president of investments at Raymond James & Associates.

'Pay Attention to the World Around You'

ncoloma — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 17:57:04 +0000

'Pay Attention to the World Around You' ncoloma Mon, 06/08/2026 - 12:57

Members of the Class of 2026, families, faculty, and friends:

Thank you, Dean Chilton, for that lovely introduction and for the honor of speaking at your very first commencement as dean. And thank you, Professor Strahilevitz, for sending such impressive law clerks my way.

To the Class of 2026: I well remember when I proudly sat in the pews where you sit today. With me was my wife, Edie. We’d been married just ten months, and it felt like we had our whole lives ahead of us. And we really did. Edie and I have now been married for more than sixty years. We have four children, eight grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. Through it all, we somehow managed to build, maintain, and sometimes rebuild meaningful careers.

I attribute much of my professional success and satisfaction to the superb education I received at this fine law school. I learned from the very best teachers—Walter Blum, Harry Kalven, Soia Mentschikoff, Norval Morris, and many more. You may not know those names, but you walk right past their portraits every day on your way to class. These fine teachers taught me to think like a lawyer, to write like a lawyer, and to love the law. And the teaching didn’t stop on graduation day. Decades after I left the Midway, another of my favorite teachers, Bernie Meltzer, kept grading my papers. He sent me letters, and I mean actual letters through the mail, commenting on opinions I wrote as a judge. Twice, Professor Meltzer even insisted that his former student had gotten it wrong.

Of course, a lot has changed around here in sixty years. We didn’t have computers, much less AI. There were only five women in my entire class, and the place was virtually all white. Hyde Park was dreary, with little to do. Worried that we weren’t having enough fun, the Dean of Students talked our Property professor, Allison Dunham, into letting us have parties at the house he owned at 60^th and Kimbark and rented out to a bunch of law students. The parties were a real blast, especially because the Dean supplied not only a keg, but also a band called—and I kid you not—Mogen David and the Grapes of Wrath.

I’m gratified to know, however, that some things have not changed. Your gifted and devoted professors taught you the same core skills and ideals that mine did. Thanks to them, and of course to your own hard work, you now have the tools to become superb lawyers. Whether you practice or teach, whether you work in government or the private sector, you have everything it takes to lead successful careers in the law. The challenge you now face, just as I did way back then, is how to have not just a successful career, but a meaningful one as well. Every generation before you has faced the same challenge, some finding more success than others.

Thomas Jefferson gave us just the guidance we need. In a 1792 letter to Britain’s first envoy to the United States, Jefferson wrote: “A nation as a society forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.” In other words, the way to live a meaningful life, a life of consequence, is to take personal responsibility for your society and everyone living within it.

Lawyers can fulfill that responsibility in many ways. We can serve clients, teach students, work for government, help organizations thrive—or even create new ones. And in each of those roles, we can serve valuable causes bigger than ourselves.

I found my cause in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. I was deeply moved by the courageous Americans who sat in at lunch counters, braved Freedom Rides, and stood up to segregationists like Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connor in Birmingham and Sheriff Jim Clark in Selma. At the Lincoln Memorial I heard Martin Luther King declare that he had a dream. I admired the devoted lawyers, both in the Justice Department and in private practice, who traveled South to bring the civil rights struggle from the streets into the courts. And I was profoundly inspired by the many courageous federal judges who rose above their segregated roots and, even at great risk to themselves and their families, honored their oath to enforce the Constitution’s guarantee of equality under law. Two powerful statutes, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965—both enacted while I was studying here at Chicago—have shaped and lent meaning to my entire career.

[The next few sentences were not in my prepared text because I added them after the Supreme Court's Tuesday night decision in Allen v. Milligan. The 1965 Voting Rights Act was our nation’s most effective civil rights law. It was the Voting Rights Act that completed the work of ending Jim Crow. It was the Voting Rights Act that brought millions of Black voters into the democratic process and ensured that they have a voice. In Allen, however, the Court completed the work it began in Shelby County v. Holder, and continued through Louisiana v. Callais: contrary to the Fifteenth Amendment and its own precedent, the Court has now rendered that great statute virtually unenforceable. As a result, Alabama will hold its next election under a map that the district court found was expressly drawn to discriminate against Black voters. But this is not the occasion to mourn the demise of the Act—there will be time for that. Today we’re here to celebrate the Class of 2026, so I return to my prepared text.]

The law offers you many fulfilling paths. You may become an associate or partner in a law firm, a prosecutor or public defender, a professor, politician, or even a judge. I’d like to tell you how three of our fellow U of C graduates turned traditional paths in the law into deeply consequential ones.

Start with Alexander Polikoff, Class of 1953. Polikoff began his career in a major Chicago law firm where he specialized in securities law. He loved that work, and he was great at it. Yet he devoted decades of his career to a single mission: It was Alex Polikoff the securities lawyer who launched the famous Gautreaux litigation, a case that shattered Chicago’s long-standing practice of concentrating nearly all public housing in Black neighborhoods. Gautreaux produced real, measurable change: housing built throughout the region, thousands of families relocating to safer neighborhoods, and impressive gains in employment, education, and quality of life.

I first met Alex when I was a very young associate at Sidley. One day, a partner asked me to prepare an amicus brief in a school desegregation case for a firm client, the Chicago Urban League. Polikoff represented the plaintiffs, families fighting to desegregate their schools. His office shelves were crammed with volumes on securities law, but there he was, a partner in a major law firm, working pro bono on one of America’s most important civil rights issues. “Wow,” I thought, “that’s the kind of lawyer I want to be when I grow up.”

Michael McConnell, Class of 1979, took a different path. After clerking for both Judge Skelly Wright on my court and Justice William Brennan, and teaching here at Chicago, McConnell served with distinction on the Tenth Circuit. Then he did something perhaps unexpected. He gave up his lifetime appointment on the court to lead Stanford’s Constitutional Law Center, revealing that his first commitment has always been scholarship—scholarship whose impact extends well beyond the halls of academia. McConnell’s book The President Who Would Not Be King has permeated the national debate over the separation of powers. His widely cited articles on the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses have contributed to a modern understanding of the First Amendment that takes seriously the Founders’ twin ideals of prohibiting government establishment of religion while robustly protecting its free exercise.

Then came Kelsi Brown Corkran, Class of 2005. Kelsi was one of my law clerks, going on to clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She served on the Justice Department’s Civil Appellate staff, chaired a major law firm’s Supreme Court practice, and is now a public interest litigator at Georgetown’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. Kelsi’s life mission is to defend the Constitution and the rule of law. She has argued Supreme Court cases concerning birthright citizenship, homelessness, and asylum. She has helped defeat Supreme Court review in cases seeking to narrow protections for prisoners, workers, and immigration detainees. These are not abstract doctrinal issues. Every case involves real Davids up against real Goliaths. My constitutional law professor, Phil Kurland, taught me that the role of the courts, and therefore of lawyers, is to “protect the individual against the Leviathan of government, and to protect minorities against oppression by majorities.” That is exactly what Kelsi Corkran does every day.

Imagine these three lawyers sitting right where you sit today. Although they excelled at very different callings, they all have one very important thing in common. They all deployed the formidable skills they learned here at Chicago in our nation’s now 250-year effort to give meaning to one of the most important sentences in American—and, indeed, human—history: “that all men are created equal” and “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” That is what they were doing. And you can do that too.

As you begin your lives in the law, pay attention to the world around you. Never lose sight of the many challenges our nation still faces. Embrace the defects in our less-than-perfect union as opportunities to make our world a better place. Attach yourselves to institutions whose missions you care about. And find mentors and role models like Alex Polikoff, Michael McConnell, and Kelsi Corkran. They will inspire you and help you in ways you can’t possibly anticipate.

Then, do it for the next generation. Your first opportunity to mentor younger lawyers will come sooner than you think. So, pay it forward as much and as often as you can. And always remember Thomas Jefferson’s admonition that we are all personally responsible for the society in which we live. Fortunately, we lawyers, and that now includes each of you, have a toolkit uniquely honed for precisely that responsibility. Use it well.

Congratulations.

'The Learning You’ve Done Isn’t Just a Means to an End... There’s an Intrinsic Value to It'

ncoloma — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 17:41:13 +0000

'The Learning You’ve Done Isn’t Just a Means to an End... There’s an Intrinsic Value to It' ncoloma Mon, 06/08/2026 - 12:41

Thanks so much Adam. What an honor it is to follow Judge David Tatel. David is a mensch whose name will loom large when historians teach future generations about the history of American civil rights law, administrative law, education law, voting rights, and constitutional law. Families, if you happen to be looking for an apt gift for any newly minted lawyers you might know, I heartily recommend David’s terrific autobiography, Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice. Thank you, David, for your love of the Law School, your wisdom, integrity, and vision.

Now I promise we didn’t coordinate thematically in advance. But, like David, I want to tell you the stories of students who came through the Law School before you arrived. He chose to tell you about four such students, Alex, Michael, Kelsi and . . . David Tatel. I had the pleasure of teaching Kelsi, though the other three distinguished alumni he mentioned came through a bit before my time. So I’ll likewise tell you about four other students I have taught, starting with Andre.

I helped convince Andre to matriculate at Chicago and taught him in a couple of classes. One day, Andre came into my office and told me he had learned that the very first Black federal district court judge in the United States was a graduate of this law school, yet there was nothing at the Law School that commemorated this trailblazing alumnus. Over the next few months, Andre developed an audacious plan to celebrate the late Judge James Parsons’ legacy with a banquet dinner honoring a prominent African American jurist. He led a team of BLSA classmates who raised the money, invited a prominent judge, and secured the enthusiastic participation of Judge Parson’s descendants, faculty and alumni. I was there at the first Parsons Legacy dinner and many that followed. Numerous students in this chapel attended the seventh, eighth, and ninth Parsons dinners. It’s hard to get anyone excited about a February event in Chicago, but during the Parsons Legacy Dinner, Hyde Park might just be the warmest spot on earth.

There’s an important coda to this story. In recent years several of our other student organizations have seen the success of the Parsons Legacy Dinner and decided that they’d like to come together to a celebrate a prominent member of their own communities. So in the past few years, we are grateful that students in this chapel have helped launch LLSA’s Elisa Fernandez Banquet, APALSA’s Patsy Takemoto Mink Banquet, and JLSA’s annual Shabbat Dinner and Abner Mikva Distinguished Service Award. I was delighted to attend each of those events this year and to see so many of you there. It was lovely to see Muslim students at the Shabbat dinner, and Latino students at the Mink dinner, and white students at the Parsons Dinner; these events were simultaneously affirming and inclusive. Yet we probably wouldn’t have any of these festivities were it not for one student who was floored by a thoughtless oversight and put in the work to build an institution that has not merely endured . . . it has multiplied.

Chicago’s Rubenstein Scholarship program is even older than the Parsons Legacy Dinner. And for the past sixteen years Ann Perry and I have had the privilege of running it. That is a long enough time, so I’ve requested to step down as the program’s director next month. As my swan song I’d like to tell a story about Lisa, a very promising college senior who was admitted to law schools that some people regard as fancier than ours. She chose Chicago in large part because the full-tuition Rubenstein Scholarship came with a twenty-thousand dollar stipend. The extra money would be a difference maker. Not for her life, but for her dad’s. Lisa’s dad became a farmworker starting at age 12 and had bounced around the fringes of the labor market, working at a Lowe’s today or a Verizon store tomorrow. Lisa used the stipend to help keep her dad financially afloat. Lisa’s parents are divorced, and her dad wasn’t always there for her during her childhood, but family is family.

In the years since matriculating Lisa has gone on to become a wildly successful attorney. She was also ahead of her time. For so many years your parents and older relatives took care of your needs and protected you. Then a time will come when that person who took care of you needs you to be their guardian angel, by bathing them or making decisions for them or supporting them financially. For Lisa that transition came in her twenties, for me it came when I was fifty. I held my father’s hand, forgave him, and watched him drift away. And that day when parents in the audience really need a hand from the energetic folks wearing maroon or black robes today will arrive sooner than any of us would prefer. Parents: Asking your children for help may be one of the most disorienting things you will ever have to do. But as someone who has seen their spirit and determination up close, I can’t imagine these kids are going to let you down. And in the meantime, let us appreciate that for most parents, days like today are part of a precious golden window. You’re still independent and your child is self-sufficient.

Speaking of “precious,” I had the pleasure of teaching Jay as a first-year student. Jay was a Kirkland & Ellis Scholar, a member of the Law Review, and won the Beale Prize as the best writer in his Bigelow section. He had a remarkably quick sense of humor. Now, with Andre and Lisa, I’ve received their permission to talk about them today, and I’ve gladly changed one of their names at their request. I’m a privacy scholar, and these stories belonged to them until they told me otherwise. But I haven’t emailed Jay to ask his permission. You see, by the end of his first year of law school, Jay wasn’t feeling like himself. After a medical workup, Jay had to wrap his head around the worst possible news, delivered by his oncologists: Jay had an incurable form of cancer, and mere months to live.

As the shocking news of Jay’s illness raced through the Law School, everyone who knew Jay had the immediate impulse to help. What could we do to support someone who had touched so many lives in such a short amount of time? When our Dean of Students posed that question to Jay, he had one answer: He said organize a day of service with charitable organizations in Hyde Park and Woodlawn. If you want to help me deal with my diagnosis, help others in need. One hundred members of our community hastily answered Jay’s call.

If you were in Jay’s shoes, you’re 25, with no hope of a cure, how would you spend your remaining time on earth? If he’d wanted to go to Paris or Machu Picchu or attend a Super Bowl, everyone would have pitched in to make his wish a reality. But I’ve always been profoundly moved by the choices that Jay made. Jay decided to spend his final days on Earth as a 2L. He went to class; he outlined; he studied for his tests. He even did his Law Review cite checks. Conscientiously, I’m told. Whenever anyone asked why he was still studying hard and attending every class he could, Jay gave the same answer: because he enjoyed learning the law, and he absolutely adored being a law student with his friends. . . . Jay taught us that the learning you’ve done, the work you’ve put in, isn’t just a means to an end. There is an intrinsic value to it, and special meaning in doing that hard thinking alongside the people sitting near you, who so recently were strangers and have quickly become your close friends.

It’s 2026, so I feel compelled to share Hannah’s story. Hannah came to the Law School as a passionate defender of voting rights. She spent three years here learning everything she could about election law, and she landed her dream job: a Department of Justice Honors position in the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section. Then, soon after she started at DOJ, a presidential election produced an outcome she wasn’t expecting. She called me up to ask for advice, and two things stood out to her as she contemplated the possibility that she might have to quit this job she had worked so hard to get. First, she couldn’t stomach the cases she’d now be asked to work on. And second, she’d spend the first four years of her career as a government lawyer not developing the skills she wanted to learn. So she resigned and took a private sector job.

Four years later, a new election produced a new President, and Hannah was able to serve in vital leadership roles in the next administration. Not in the area of voting rights, but in other policy domains that affect the lives of millions of people. She and I even got to work together on important legislation while she was serving in the White House. While being true to herself, she managed the kind of career pivot so many of you will have to make when circumstances outside your control upend your meticulous planning. Hannah underscores that public service is not a “now or never” proposition.

Listen, as someone who has sometimes been unable to purchase stamps from the Hyde Park post office, I understand that incompetent or even misanthropic government workers exist. But in the past year, the US Justice Department and Health and Human Services and the National Science Foundation have lost so many Hannahs. Irreplaceable experience, dedication, and expertise have walked out the door. As I see it, this mass departure is not a purging of the deep state. It’s an exodus of talent bemoaned by some of the most capable alumni I’ve taught in my 24 years here, be they liberal, conservative, or apolitical. The people resigning are, overwhelmingly, folks who made the government work better and upheld the rule of law. We are losing people who woke up every morning eager to put heads of drug cartels and sex traffickers behind bars, now deciding they can no longer work for a Justice Department that initiates pretextual prosecutions against the President’s critics. Lawyers and doctors and scientists with critical portfolios are quitting their career civil service jobs rather than continuing their association with a government whose agents shot and killed an intensive care nurse and a poet in Minneapolis. I have to hope that, like Hannah, some of these liberal and conservative and apolitical people who have left government will have second acts as public servants. And I pray that they’ll be joined by capable, civic-minded lawyers who are sitting under this soaring ceiling today. If we are fortunate enough to see those things happen, then the rest of us will have to be patient with them, recognizing that rebuilding institutions takes so much longer than tearing them down.

In conclusion, I want to talk briefly about what’s going to happen in a few minutes, as one-by-one, you and your classmates will be transformed from students into alumni. If today marks the end of your involvement with the Law School, I wish you well. But whether you are a JD, MLS, JSD, or LLM student, I hope you will instead show up here in five years, and ten, and fifteen. At your reunions, it will be good for your soul to catch up with the friends you’ve made during your Hyde Park days, some of whom you’ll have lost touch with once work and family life got so busy. Over cocktails you should reminisce about this difficult yet still magical time in your lives. But I hope you’ll also take the time to introduce yourself to alumni in the classes ahead of yours and behind yours too. By that point in your lives, you will no longer be awkwardly trying to “network” your way into a job. You’ll just be engaging in curious and friendly behavior. You know, like normal people do.

I’ve taught more than 3,600 UChicago students and I have only told you about four of them. I’ve purposefully omitted stories about the students graduating today, though as the entire audience knows there are epic tales about how each of them got here. Please cut me some slack on this. If I delivered the unabridged version of this speech you’d all be proud members of the class of 2027 by the time I finished. So instead you’ll have to share the vivid stories about your own lives that regrettably landed on my cutting room floor, plus the much juicier stories that professors aren’t privy to, at your reunions, beginning in 2031. It’s tragic that none of you will ever get to meet Jay, yet reunions are your best shot at meeting Andre, Lisa, Hannah, and so many other inspiring people who have heard the majestic blast of Rockefeller Chapel’s organ and stared up at its gorgeous stained glass windows, wondering when the faculty speaker will finally stop talking so the hooding of graduates can begin.

You needn’t wonder any longer. To our students’ families and loved ones, thank you for being with us for this celebration and supporting our amazing graduates. And to the class of 2026 … Congratulations!

Hajin Kim Receives American Law and Economics Review Best (Empirical) Paper Prize

markcohen — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:53:28 +0000

Hajin Kim Receives American Law and Economics Review Best (Empirical) Paper Prize markcohen Mon, 06/08/2026 - 11:53

Assistant Professor of Law Hajin Kim recently received the 2026 Best (Empirical) Paper Prize from the American Law and Economics Review for her 2025 article, “Does ESG Crowd In or Out Public Support for Regulation?,” written with Joshua Macey of Yale Law School and Kristen Underhill of Cornell Law School. The award recognizes the best empirical paper published in the journal during the preceding year.

The article addresses a question that has become increasingly important as corporations take on more visible roles in addressing social and environmental challenges: Do voluntary corporate efforts reduce public demand for government regulation, or do they increase support for regulatory action?

Previous research had produced conflicting answers. Some scholars suggested that when companies voluntarily address issues such as emissions reductions or plastic waste, the public may view regulation as less necessary. Others argued that such actions can signal the seriousness of a problem and demonstrate that compliance costs are manageable, potentially increasing support for regulation.

Kim and her co-authors theorized that these competing effects would largely offset one another. To test that prediction, they conducted two preregistered randomized controlled studies involving more than 2,800 participants. Drawing on real-world corporate communications about voluntary social and environmental commitments, the researchers found no economically significant effects on public support for regulation in either direction. Their findings help reconcile a body of prior scholarship that had reached divergent conclusions and challenge assumptions that voluntary corporate action reliably shapes public attitudes toward government regulation.

Kim, an expert in empirical legal studies and law and economics, joined the Law School faculty in 2020. Her research examines how legal institutions, markets, and organizations influence individual and collective decision-making.

The award was presented at on May 15 at the annual meeting of the American Law and Economics Association, which was held at the University of Chicago.

Daniel Prince, '04, Joins USC Board of Trustees

ekinczewski — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 14:57:34 +0000

Daniel Prince, '04, Joins USC Board of Trustees ekinczewski Mon, 06/08/2026 - 09:57 USC Board of Trustees welcomes new members Robert Bishop and Daniel Prince Chinyere Cindy Amobi USC Today

The USC Board of Trustees on Wednesday welcomed veteran investment manager Robert Bishop of Impala Asset Management and trial attorney Daniel Prince of Paul Hastings law firm as new members of its prestigious ranks.

“Robert Bishop and Daniel Prince will bring tremendous expertise and perspective to the board,” USC President Beong-Soo Kim said. “Aside from their impressive backgrounds in finance and law, they are deeply committed to working alongside me to strengthen the Trojan Family and advance USC’s academic mission. We couldn’t be more excited to have them in these new roles.”

“On behalf of the Board of Trustees, we are delighted to welcome Bob Bishop and Daniel Prince to the board,” USC Board of Trustees Chair Suzanne Nora Johnson said. “They significantly expand the local and national philanthropic networks and resources that will ensure USC can continue to compete, innovate and lead with excellence and distinction in the future.”

Bishop, who founded Impala Asset Management in 2004 and turned the company into a family office in 2022, brings more than two decades of investment and asset management leadership to his new role, and he hopes to help the university plan financially and strategically for a bright future.

“USC has a very strong board, and I believe in President Beong-Soo Kim’s vision and the direction he wants to move the school towards,” Bishop said. “I’d like to help the university in whatever way I can.”

Prince — a double Trojan who received his bachelor’s degree from USC in 2000 and his master’s degree in 2002 — joins the board after serving as president of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors for the past two years.

https://today.usc.edu/usc-board-of-trustees-welcomes-two-new-members/ June 3, 2026 Alumni News Off Off

Sarah Joss, '01, Nominated for Massachusetts Superior Court

ekinczewski — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 14:55:19 +0000

Sarah Joss, '01, Nominated for Massachusetts Superior Court ekinczewski Mon, 06/08/2026 - 09:55 Governor Healey Nominates Judge Sarah Joss to Superior Court Mass.Gov

Today, Governor Maura Healey nominated Associate Justice of the District Court Sarah Joss to serve as an Associate Justice of the Superior Court. The nomination will now be considered by the Governor’s Council for confirmation.

“I am confident that Judge Joss will continue to serve with distinction, bringing decades of legal experience and expertise from the District Court, the Massachusetts Probation Service and the Attorney General’s Office to the Superior Court,” said Governor Maura Healey. “I know she will continue to uphold the law with fairness, integrity and sound judgment.”

https://www.mass.gov/news/governor-healey-nominates-judge-sarah-joss-to-superio… June 3, 2026 Alumni News Off Off