Faculty News | DEV-College of Law | Illinois

Sherkow cited extensively in blog post on drug labels

Chris Davies — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 16:30:33 +0000

In an analysis of a brief expected to be filed in the fall, the Patently-O blog cites the work of Professor Jacob Sherkow extensively in examining the ‘label-plus’ theory of inducement. This framework establishes that a generic drug’s label by itself cannot violate patent protections because of a congressionally authorized regulatory scheme. Sherkow’s work, in particular, helps illuminate the distinction between regulatory and factual speech in the particulars of the case at issue.

Read the full blog online.

Sherkow presents at ATRIP Congress in Copenhagen

Chris Davies — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 16:21:31 +0000

In June, Professor Jacob Sherkow traveled to Denmark to present his work, “Patent Eligibility, Secure Computing, and Genomic Data Sharing,” at the ATRIP Congress at the University of Copenhagen. His presentation took place on Monday, June 23, as part of the Intellectual Property & Justice: Balancing Frameworks in Patent Law portion of the conference.

Learn more about the event on the ATRIP Congress website.

New paper from Kaplan examines SECURE 2.0

Chris Davies — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 15:54:46 +0000

The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 included six major changes pertaining to current plan participants in retirement plans. In a new article published in The Elder Law Journal, Professor Richard Kaplan examines and analyzes each of those changes and how they address some of the deficiencies in the present tax-subsidized matrix of employer-provided retirement savings plans.

Read the full article on SSRN.

Amar and Mazzone revisit core principles of Federalism

Chris Davies — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 15:46:57 +0000

In response to protests in Los Angeles and the subsequent responses by local and federal officials, Professors Vikram Amar and Jason Mazzone put their constitutional law expertise to work to take another look at the principles of federalism and why they matter. “To conclude states must agree with the President before any kind of federalized military forces could be used would be to place the safety of federal personnel and federal property at the mercy of state government. As American history suggests, that could be a very dangerous scenario,” they write.

Read the full article on Justia Verdict.

Finkin compares the Trump administration and German National Socialists in Justia article

Chris Davies — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 18:16:27 +0000

In an article adapted from a lecture given in London, Professor Matthew Finkin lays out a case comparing the actions of the Trump administration today to those of the German National Socialist party in the 1930s. The unprecedented actions of the current United States president have been foreshadowed by the early actions of the Third Reich, he explains. “What ensued there resonates here,” Finkin states.

Read his full article comparing the two states on Justia Verdict.

Sherkow quoted in article on polygenic testing startups

Chris Davies — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 18:10:09 +0000

Polygenic testing startups offer consumers the chance of a “superbaby” by screening for genetic disorders and allowing parents to select certain embryos for fertilization; however, the ethics and the science of this practice are very controversial. Speaking to The San Francisco Standard, Professor Jacob Sherkow added his expertise on the issue. “[These companies] claim to have a proprietary algorithm, which, in reality, is a total black box,” he said. “If they are not completely accurate, consumers may make adverse health choices on the basis of misinformation.”

Read the full article from The San Francisco Standard.

News-Gazette quotes Aronson and Mazzone on student visa restrictions

Chris Davies — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 15:49:41 +0000

The Trump administrations stated plans to “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students” would have an immense impact on the University of Illinois, as the school hosted more than 6,000 individuals from China last year. In a wide-ranging examination of faculty opinions on how damaging this policy may be, the News-Gazette spoke to law professors Lauren Aronson and Jason Mazzone. “I take all threats from this administration seriously,” Aronson, director of the Immigration Law Clinic, said.

Read the full article on the News-Gazette’s website.

Kaplan presents research at Harvard Law and University of Cambridge

Krista Gaedtke — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 19:09:51 +0000

Professor Richard Kaplan presented Modernizing Medicare for Extended Healthspans at the Conference on Law, Healthcare, and the Aging Brain and Body, Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center on June 9, 2025. This paper considered how the Medicare program is likely to be affected by the latest developments in medical science pertaining to the aging brain and body. It then used these developments to consider what Medicare should look like if it were designed from scratch today.

Kaplan is also scheduled to present The Fundamental Fragility of Tax Reform: Lessons for Legislators After Forty Years at the Conference on Legal Perspectives on the Development and Enactment of Tax Policy, University of Cambridge (U.K.) Centre for Tax Law, on July 8, 2025. This paper examines the development of major tax reform in the United States by focusing on the monumental Tax Reform Act of 1986, addressing the economic, legal, and political forces that led to its enactment. It then analyzes what has happened to that law’s achievements since that time.

Illinois Law faculty, students, and alumni present at LSA meeting

Chris Davies — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 18:04:05 +0000

Law and Society Association Annual Meeting

The Law and Society Association Annual Meeting took place in Chicago, Illinois, on May 22–25, 2025, and featured a number of College of Law faculty and JSD students as presenters. Illinois Law professors presenting included Kenworthey Bilz, Bob Lawless, Jennifer Robbennolt, and Verity Winship; affiliated faculty presenting included Jose Atiles and Anna Marshall; and JSD students presenting included Thallyta Cavoli, Elsa Zawedde, and Qiaoyuan Zhi. Among others at the conference affiliated with Illinois were Vanessa Villanueva Collao, JSD ’24; Catherine Grosso, visiting assistant professor from 2005-’08; Dara Purvis, visiting assistant professor from 2010-’13; and So Young Park, JD ’21. The 2025 meeting explored questions central to control and compassion related to the human body, ranging from reproductive justice and LGBTQ equality to disability rights and the death penalty.

Robbennolt presents research at DePaul

Chris Davies — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 14:34:51 +0000

Professor Jennifer Robbennolt was a featured presenter at the 31st Annual Clifford Symposium on Tort Law and Social Policy at DePaul. The symposium focused on the influence of key social science insights on civil justice, including key questions raised by social science scholarship, such as the work of the late Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize winner in Economics.