Faculty News 27 - College of Law

Finkin testifies before Vermont legislature and is quoted by Massachusetts Supreme Court

Professor Matthew Finkin’s scholarly expertise was recently in demand in the Northeast. On Wednesday, March 20, Professor Finkin testified before a committee of the Vermont Legislature concerning a proposal to amend the state’s constitution to add a worker rights provision. The proposal would follow Illinois in enshrining the right of collective bargaining into the state’s constitution. After his testimony, the committee voted unanimously to recommend the proposal for inclusion into the state constitution.

On March 14, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts held that the academic profession’s understanding of the meaning of academic freedom and the “economic security” of tenure had to be considered in deciding the allowability of a university’s change in salary policy for tenured faculty. The Court’s decision resisted on the analysis of an amicus brief on behalf of a nationwide group of tenured faculty submitted by Professor Finkin. The Court expressly rejected contrary precedent in New York, citing Finkin’s published criticism of the New York decision.

Mazzone pens op-ed on Trump for the News-Gazette

Former President Donald Trump’s bid for a second term is generating a lot of constitutional questions, which is keeping Professor Jason Mazzone busy. Writing at the News-Gazette, Mazzone explores the question of whether a state has the power to exclude a candidate from the ballot because of the insurrection act. He examines what the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. Anderson and where his understanding of the Constitution differs from the justices.

Read his full opinion piece on the News-Gazette website.

Law360 quotes Brubaker on mass tort claims and nondebtor parties

The sun rises over the Illini Union. The Illini Union, which was dedicated in 1941, serves students and the campus in many ways, including housing the Illini Union Hotel, a credit union, a convenience store, information services, CITES (Campus IT) instructional facility, quick-service restaurants, a bowling alley and arcade, student performance spaces, and office space for Registered Student Organizations, student government, Student Legal Services, Student Tenant Union, LGBT Resource Center, and Union administration.

A recent $2.5 billion bankruptcy settlement between the Boy Scouts of America and childhood sexual abuse survivors seemed to put a close to an awful chapter in the victims lives, until the settlement was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court due to concerns over the legality of mandatory releases of claims against nondebtor third parties. Writing about the settlement, Law360 highlights broader debates about the fairness of handling mass-tort claims in bankruptcy courts, where settlements may favor one side over the other and quotes Professor Ralph Brubaker, and expert in this area. The article explores the history of such releases, their impact on mass-tort litigation, and ongoing legal disputes over their validity.

Read the full article from Law360.

Mazzone quoted in multiple outlets on Trump’s ballot case in Illinois

Cook County Judge Tracie Porter’s decision to remove Former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot made Illinois one of three states barring him from the ballot. Similar to cases in other states, Trump’s lawyers argued that the insurrection clause doesn’t apply to the president, and the Trump campaign criticized Porter’s decision. Professor Jason Mazzone, a constitutional theory expert, shared his expertise on the topic with Courthouse News and Crain’s Chicago Business, noting prior to their decision that the U.S. Supreme Court might overturn such rulings.

Read the Courthouse News article and the Crain’s Chicago Business article online.

Quadrangle profiles Illinois Scholars at Risk program

Quadrangle, the magazine of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, profiled the Illinois Scholars at Risk program in its Spring 2024 issue. The profile highlights the work done by the program, chaired by Professor Colleen Murphy. The program offers assistance to scholars who face danger at home, and the Illinois group has brought seven scholars to campus from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Guatemala, Lebanon, and Ukraine. “It is incredibly rewarding to see colleges and departments from across campus support colleagues from across the globe facing acute risks and to hear from scholars about the difference the program has made in their lives,” Murphy said.

Read the full profile in the Spring 2024 issue.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court cites Brubaker in decision denying dismissal of asbestos case

Fall view of Illini Union from north of Green Street.

The United States Bankruptcy Court Western District of North Carolina recently denied a motion to dismiss the bankruptcy of companies implicated in asbestos liability cases, citing and quoting from several articles by Professor Ralph Brubaker. The case involves Texas Two-Step mass-tort bankruptcy, a topic in which Brubaker has researched and published extensively. The decision cites to and quotes from “On the Nature of Federal Bankruptcy Jurisdiction: A General Statutory and Constitutional Theory,” from the William & Mary Legal Review; “Explaining Katz’s New Bankruptcy Exception to State Sovereign Immunity: The Bankruptcy Power as a Federal Forum Power,” from the American Bankruptcy Institute Legal Review; and “The Texas Two-Step and Mandatory Non-Opt-Out Settlement Powers,” in the Harvard Law School Bankruptcy Roundtable.

Read the decision online.

Amar, Mazzone, and Shapiro author article on Disney’s speech-retaliation case

In early 2024, a federal district court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Disney Corporation against Florida officials for alleged retaliation against Disney’s opposition to certain Florida laws and policies by altering the board that regulates the land where Disney World is located. Professors Vikram Amar, Jason Mazzone, and Lena Shapiro collaborated in an article for Justia Verdict examining the complex constitutional issues raised by this decision. “If government is trying to retaliate against you because of your past speech, doesn’t that violate your First Amendment rights regardless of whether the retaliation takes the form of speech regulation itself?” the professors wrote.

Brubaker receives Lawrence P. King Award from Commercial Law League of America

Professor Ralph Brubaker has received the Lawrence P. King Award for Excellence in the Field of Bankruptcy by the Commercial Law League of America. Below is the text of the press release announcing the award.

Commercial Law League of America Announces 2024 Lawrence P. King Award Recipient

Rolling Meadows, IL, February 29, 2024 – The Commercial Law League of America (CLLA) and its Bankruptcy Section are pleased to announce that they will present the Lawrence P. King Award to Ralph Brubaker at the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ) in Seattle, WA on September 19, 2024.

The King Award: Each year, the Executive Council of the Commercial Law League’s Bankruptcy Section presents the Lawrence P. King Award to recognize a lawyer, judge, teacher, or legislator who exemplifies the best in scholarship, advocacy, judicial administration, or legislative activities in the field of bankruptcy. The award is designed to recognize the lifetime achievements of Professor King, which include contributing to the practice of bankruptcy law through teaching, by working to elevate the profession and through bankruptcy-related legislative activities.

This year’s recipient — Ralph Brubaker — is the James H.M. Sprayregen Professor of Law at the University of Illinois, where he teaches courses in bankruptcy, bankruptcy procedure, corporate reorganizations, federal courts, conflict of laws (private international law), contracts, and restitution. Professor Brubaker has three degrees from the University of Illinois, including his J.D. summa cum laude and an M.B.A., and he received Bronze Tablet distinction (highest honors) and C.P.A. certification as an undergraduate. He clerked for Judge James K. Logan of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, and he practiced in the bankruptcy and corporate reorganization group with the law firm Squire, Sanders & Dempsey (now Squire Patton Boggs) in Cleveland, Ohio. Professor Brubaker was a member of the faculty at the Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia from 1995 until 2004, when he returned to his alma mater.

Professor Brubaker is the Editor-in-Chief and a contributing author for West’s Bankruptcy Law Letter, he is co-author of a bankruptcy casebook, and he has written dozens of journal articles and essays. He is particularly expert in the complex jurisdictional and procedural facets of federal bankruptcy proceedings. Professor Brubaker has been an editorial advisor for the American Bankruptcy Law Journal, the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review, and the Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal. He is a member of the American Law Institute, a Conferee of the National Bankruptcy Conference, and a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, for which he has been the Scholar-in-Residence.

Professor Brubaker has served on the executive committee of the board of directors of the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), and he was a member of the advisory committee on business enterprise sales for the ABI’s 2014 Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11.

New paper from Sherkow available for download

The famous system of breaking down legal analyses into ordered subparts, Issue-Rule-Analysis-Conclusion, needs an updated focus on the last part, according to Professor Jacob Sherkow. In his new paper, available for download on SSRN, he argues that lawyers need to be experts in conclusions, writing “good conclusions – clear, reasonable, workable, plausible, probable conclusions – are the product of a variety of skills one hopes law students develop during their studies, including case synthesis as tested by the IRAC method and its siblings.”

Read his full defense of conclusions on SSRN.

Mazzone organizes conference at Harvard Law School on SCOTUS history and tradition

On February 17–18, 2024, the College of Law’s Program in Constitutional Theory, History and Law co-sponsored a conference at Harvard Law School on the Supreme Court’s uses of “history and tradition” in determining the existence and scope of constitutional rights. The conference, organized by Program Director Professor Jason Mazzone and Richmond Law Professor Kurt Lash, brought together leading constitutional scholars to present papers that will soon be published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. Judge Kevin C. Newsom of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit was the keynote speaker, and in his remarks he offered a vigorous criticism of invocations of tradition in interpreting the Constitution. The New York Times has reported on the conference and on the challenges that Judge Newsom’s keynote raised.