Faculty News 35 - College of Law

Hunter receives 2022 Alumni Award from iSchool

On July 7, 2023, the iSchool at the University of Illinois announced the recipients of their 2022 Alumni Awards.

Pia Hunter (MSLIS ’14) is the recipient of the Leadership Award, which is given to an alum who has graduated in the past ten years and shown leadership in the field.

Since earning her MSLIS, Hunter has completed her JD degree and emerged as a leader in law librarianship. She currently serves as teaching associate professor and associate director for research and instruction with the Albert E. Jenner, Jr. Memorial Law Library at the University of Illinois College of Law. Throughout her career, Hunter has advocated for fair use in higher education and open access to scholarly publishing. In 2013, she led the initiative to create Fair Use Week, an annual celebration that highlights the fair use doctrine and its significance to artists, students, faculty, librarians, journalists, and all users of copyrighted content. In 2018, the Harvard University Library and the Association of Research Libraries presented her with the first annual Fair Use Week Founders Award in honor of her achievement in the creation of Fair Use Week and her role as a scholar and leader in the promotion of fair use. Hunter gives generously of her time to the iSchool, frequently appearing as a guest speaker for classes and student events.

Congratulations, Professor Hunter!

Rowell speaks to Stateline about lack of worker protections related to wildfire smoke

Professor Arden Rowell recently spoke to Stateline about the lack of federal regulations to protect outdoor workers from wildfire smoke. Rowell, who has studied respiratory safety regulations, said that only three states — California, Oregon and Washington, which is in the process of finalizing its rules — have developed their own enforceable standards on worker safety and wildfire smoke.

“The guarantee of worker protections that so many of us presume we have seems like it’s falling down here,” Rowell said. “As we see more fires, we’re going to see more risks. Does every single state then need to fill this gap?”

Read the full article at stateline.org.

Leipold discusses end of cash bail in Illinois on WLS AM radio show

Cash bail is set to end in Illinois on September 18th, and Professor Andrew Leipold joined WLS AM radio to discuss what the new law means, the measures judges will take to ensure that dangerous offenders remain behind bars, and how cash bail ending will benefit residents of Illinois.

Listen to the interview at wlsam.com.

Mazzone speaks to Army Times about a court ruling that could overturn federal control of the National Guard

Should states or the federal government have control over the National Guard? A recent ruling from the 5th Circuit has set up a battle over this question and made the matter more complicated than before. Army Times spoke to Professor Jason Mazzone, who was cited in the 5th Circuit opinion, to help clarify some of the issues at stake. He also gave an interview to Veterans Radio on the same topic.

Mazzone speaks to ABC News (Springfield) about the end of affirmative action and how it will impact universities

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision to overturn affirmative action earlier this summer, Professor Jason Mazzone speculated that it would be harder for universities to achieve diversity goals, especially for schools that are more selective in their admissions process.

“If those schools became less selective in their admissions, then they wouldn’t have a problem bringing in larger numbers of students from a wider set of backgrounds,” Mazzone said.

Read the full article at newschannel20.com.

Washington Post quotes Brubaker on Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy case

Fall view of Illini Union from north of Green Street.

The proposed bankruptcy plan for Purdue Pharma, which would allocate billions of dollars to help ease the nation’s opioid crisis but shield the Sackler family from future lawsuits, has been placed on hold by the Supreme Court. Speaking to The Washington Post, Professor Ralph Brubaker, an expert in bankruptcy law, called the case one of the most important bankruptcy cases to ever come before the Court “from both a practical and a fundamental-justice perspective.” Appellate courts have long been divided on whether those who haven’t declared bankruptcy, such as the individuals in the Sackler family, can be “released” from potential lawsuits through a bankruptcy reorganization, setting up a potentially precedent-setting opinion from the Supreme Court.

Read the full Washington Post article.

Manhattan Bankruptcy Court cites Brubaker in Holiday Inn decision

An open book at the College of Law library

In his decision this week, Judge Philip Bentley of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan ruled a bankrupt Holiday Inn in downtown Manhattan can’t use chapter 11 to maintain its low-rate mortgage without paying penalty interest linked to its default. The case arose after the owner failed to make payments on its loan after the hotel closed during the pandemic; lenders began charging default interest in response, leading the owner to file for bankruptcy in order to avoid a seizure. The decision cited two articles by Professor Ralph Brubaker from Bankruptcy Law Letter: “Default Rates of Interest and Cure of a Defaulted Debt in a Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization (Part I): Entz-White’s Overlooked Choice of Law Dimension” (December 2016, Vol. 36, Issue 12) and “Default Rates of Interest and Cure of a Defaulted Debt in a Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization (Part II): Entz-White and the ‘Penalty Rate’ Amendments” (January 2017, Vol. 37, Issue 1). Writing about the decision, the Wall Street Journal quoted Brubaker, who explained that this ruling could increase the costs for companies that were hoping to reinstate their cheap debt.

Read the Wall Street Journal article quoting Brubaker.

Read Judge Philip Bentley’s ruling.

Read “Default Rates of Interest and Cure of a Defaulted Debt in a Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization (Part I): Entz-White’s Overlooked Choice of Law Dimension.”

Read “Default Rates of Interest and Cure of a Defaulted Debt in a Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization (Part II): Entz-White and the ‘Penalty Rate’ Amendments.”

J. Sharpe named new dean of College of Law

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Following a national search, Jamelle Sharpe has been selected as the 14th dean of the College of Law, effective Aug. 16, 2023, pending University of Illinois Board of Trustees approval. Sharpe’s title will be dean of the College of Law designate and Guy Raymond Jones Faculty Scholar until board approval.

Sharpe, who joined the College of Law faculty in 2008, brings more than a decade of administrative leadership to the role, having served as associate dean and senior associate dean for academic affairs in the College. Sharpe has served as a Provost Fellow and as a fellow in the Committee on Institutional Cooperation’s Academic Leadership Program. In 2018, the provost selected him to chair the Urbana-Champaign campus’ Consensual Relationship Policy Review Task Force. He has served on the University’s Diversity Realized at Illinois through Visioning Excellence (DRIVE) Committee since 2013, serving as its chair during the 2021-2022 academic year.

“I congratulate Professor Sharpe on his appointment. After a highly competitive, national search, Professor Sharpe emerged as the clear choice to lead the College of Law. I commend the search committee and Provost leadership for selecting a candidate who is a highly regarded scholar, has a strong understanding of the college and is uniquely qualified to advance its strategic priorities and initiatives. Professor Sharpe has demonstrated experience as a collaborative leader and has proven he can systematically and programmatically execute a vision, and I look forward to working with him,” said Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost John Coleman.

A nationally recognized expert on federal administrative law and the federal judiciary, Sharpe’s research focuses on the constitutional and statutory divisions of policymaking authority between courts and administrative agencies. He is frequently called on to provide analysis and commentary for media outlets on a variety of issues, including judicial politics, separation of powers and immigration law.

Before joining the College of Law faculty, Sharpe served as a Bigelow Teaching Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School. Prior to that, he clerked for the Honorable Gerald Bard Tjoflat of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and was a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York.

Sharpe earned his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was managing editor of the Yale Journal of International Law. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English and American Literature from New York University, where he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

“Fifteen years ago, I made the College my professional home because of its culture of intellectual rigor, inclusion, and public engagement. Today, I am honored to serve as its next dean,” said Professor Sharpe.

He continued: “During my candidacy, I shared my optimism for strengthening the College’s well-earned reputation for legal research and teaching excellence. I have every confidence we can attract highly motivated and accomplished students from all over the country and the world. We will commit to their success in numerous ways, such as expanding online course offerings, mental wellness education and support, and opportunities for study in Chicago and other major legal markets. We have the motivation and means to recruit the brightest and most influential legal minds to our faculty. In addition, I know that we can build on what makes the Illinois Law community so special: the abiding comradery among its alums, students, faculty, administrators, and staff.

“I’m very excited about the College’s future, and I have no doubt that we will continue to excel in pursuit of our institutional mission.”

Editor’s note: For more information, contact Stephanie Henry, communications associate for the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, 217-333-5010, publicaffairs@illinois.edu.