Category: Class Notes

Michael Kreloff announced his retirement from the practice of law as of December 31, 2024. Known as “one of the top ten Illinois Election Lawyers (because there are only seven),” he will continue to advise local and national candidates of the Democratic Party.

This past October, Richard Starnes retired from the State of Missouri after serving as an Assistant Attorney General for 23 years. A member of the Attorney General’s Office’s Criminal Appeals Unit, Richard represented the state in hundreds of cases before the Missouri Court of Appeals, Missouri Supreme Court, and U.S. Supreme Court. Richard now serves as Legal Counsel for the Cole County Juvenile Officer in Jefferson City, Missouri, and pastors a small church at the Lake of the Ozarks.

William “Bill” Matheson Ahlenius passed away on December 18, 2024. Bill was a double Illini and a proud veteran of the U.S. Navy. He served as an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy and ultimately achieved the rank of Commander. Bill spent the majority of his career at the Peoria, Illinois, firm of Swain, Johnson, and Gard, making partner and becoming a well-respected pillar of the Peoria legal community. Bill’s granddaughter, Blair Engerman, followed in his footsteps and graduated from the College of Law in 2020.

David Murray, retired partner of Ward Murray Pace and Johnson of Sterling, Illinois, was awarded the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award by the FAA for 50 years of safe flying without an accident or violation of an FAA regulation.

Tom Stipanowich, William H. Webster Chair in Dispute Resolution and Professor at Pepperdine’s Caruso School of Law, recently received Pepperdine’s Howard A White Award for Excellence in Teaching. Stipanowich, a nationally known scholar on arbitration and mediation law and practice, was also named to the California Dispute Resolution Hall of Fame by the California Lawyers Association.