Professor Robin Fretwell Wilson has co-edited a new book, International Survey of Family Law 2024, covering topics including marriage equality, gender equality, LGBT rights, and abortion regulations around the U.S., among other topics. This edition continues the celebration of the International Society of Family Law’s (ISFL) fiftieth anniversary. It is published by Intersentia.
A federal judge is nearing a decision on an antitrust settlement between the NCAA and college athletes, and contracts signed by athletes might actually strengthen their case for collective bargaining rights. In an article examining the arguments of both sides, ESPN quoted Professor Michael LeRoy, who said, “It’s employment on its face. There’s no masking it.”
This episode is all about advocacy and what that means for law students and lawyers. We turn the spotlight on the Kimball R. and Karen Gatsis Anderson Center for Advocacy and Professionalism and learn about the classes and competitions they offer to help Illinois Law students become the best advocates possible. Guests include Professor Tony Ghiotto, director of the Anderson Center, and third-year students Yev Kozak and Nicole Marcinkus.
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If you have comments or suggestions for the podcast, please contact podcast@law.illinois.edu.
The University of Illinois College of Law is pleased to announce that Miguel Zaldivar (LLM ’88) will deliver the convocation address to the Class of 2025. The College of Law Convocation Ceremony will take place Saturday, May 17, at 4:30 p.m. in the Great Hall of Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
Miguel Zaldivar is a partner and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Hogan Lovells, responsible for the firm’s overall global direction and strategic leadership. He became CEO in July 2020 and is one of only a handful of Latino leaders of any major global law firm.
Under Miguel’s leadership, Hogan Lovells has achieved record financial results. In 2025, the firm achieved nearly US$3 billion in global revenue, charting steady growth year-on-year. In recent years, Hogan Lovells has also strengthened its investments in top-tier legal talent, sector leadership, and critical advancements in AI.
As a practicing lawyer, Miguel is widely recognized as a leading lawyer in complex international cross-border transactions and has facilitated multi-billion dollar investments and transactions totaling in excess of US$75 billion across the world. Successful negotiation and execution of deals in highly-regulated markets continues to be a core practice for the firm and a key driver of growth
Miguel taught the “Project Development and Finance in Latin America” course at the University of Miami School of Law from 2003 to 2010, was a professor of law at Universidad Católica in Venezuela from 1991 to 1993 and has been a frequent lecturer at legal seminars.
Miguel is committed to the firm’s philanthropic activities, including leading on the firm’s work with not-for-profit charity Santa Marta Group, which is focused on eradicating human trafficking and modern-day slavery. Under Miguel’s leadership, Hogan Lovells also joined forced with the international charity WaterAid in a three-year partnership to support water, sanitation, and hygiene projects across the world.
He is passionate about collaboration, actively listening to clients’ needs, and mentoring lawyers to build enduring relationships. Pro bono work, community engagement, and fostering an inclusive workplace culture where all lawyers can thrive are among Miguel’s top priorities. He has championed efforts to support the development and advancement of the firm’s lawyers from all backgrounds.
Before becoming CEO, he served as Regional Chief Executive for the Asia, Pacific Middle East region. He had been a member of the Global Board of Directors, served as Co-leader of the Infrastructure, Energy, Resources and Projects practice area and co-founded Hogan Lovells’ Latin American Practice.
Miguel earned his LLM at the University of Illinois College of Law and his JD at University of Miami School of Law.
For more information about Convocation for the Class of 2025, please visit our website.
In a co-authored blog post for Justia Verdict, Professors Lesley Wexler and Tony Ghiotto explore the significance of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s firing of Judge Advocates General in late February. Were these firings truly unprecedented? What consequences may arise from these firings, whether within military legal practice or how the military fights wars and complies with international law? Do they contribute to an ongoing existential threat to democracy and defense?
The American Health Law Association (AHLA) is pleased to announce Julia Sun, a second-year law student at the University of Illinois College of Law, as the recipient of its inaugural Student Writing Competition Award. This new recognition program celebrates emerging talent and fresh perspectives in health law scholarship.
The Student Writing Competition represents AHLA’s commitment to fostering excellence in health law education and supporting the next generation of health care legal professionals. The award includes a $500 prize and featured publication of the winning paper on AHLA’s digital platforms.
“Julia’s work exemplifies the innovative thinking and rigorous analysis we aim to cultivate within the health law community,” says Asha B. Scielzo, AHLA President. “Her unique background in human biology and regulatory affairs brings valuable interdisciplinary insights to complex health care legal challenges.”
Sun brings distinctive expertise to health law through her previous experience in pharmaceutical and medical device industry regulatory matters. Her winning paper was selected through a blind review process by a distinguished panel of AHLA member judges, who evaluated submissions based on their analysis of timely health law, policy, and compliance issues.
A graduate of UC San Diego with a bachelor’s degree in human biology, Sun’s research interests focus on the intersection of law, science, and innovation, particularly in navigating complex regulatory frameworks within the health care sector. She is currently pursuing her J.D. at the University of Illinois College of Law, Class of 2026.
The competition, which drew submissions from ABA-accredited law schools nationwide, required professor nominations and evaluated papers based on their examination of current health law issues, analytical depth, and balanced presentation of legal and policy considerations.
AHLA will feature Sun’s winning paper on its website and promote her scholarship through its social media channels, providing visibility to her work among the Association’s 12,000 members representing the entire spectrum of the health care industry.
For more information about the AHLA Student Writing Competition and future opportunities, please contact awards@americanhealthlaw.org.
Maybe you’ve heard this one before: an employee fails a urine test despite never having used drugs, only to discover the culprit was a poppyseed muffin. As this story unfolded over a half-hour episode of Seinfeld, the comedy of errors was easy to laugh at, but when a similar case was brought to the Veterans Legal Clinic it was no laughing matter.
As a result of his failed urinalysis, the veteran received a general rather than an honorable discharge and came to the Clinic seeking a discharge upgrade. Discharges that are not honorable can have many effects on veterans, including preventing them from accessing some veteran resources and making future employment more difficult to obtain; in addition, having an honorable discharge can be a matter of pride for veterans, recognizing their service to country. Students in the Clinic eagerly took on the case, excited by the chance to help and to tackle an interesting challenge.
Several groups of students worked on this case for the Veterans Legal Clinic, including Wyatt Decker ‘24, Briley McVey ’24, Matthew Schwartz ’24, and Ian Waggoner ‘24. According to Clinic Director Yulanda Curtis, students logged more than 115 hours working on the case and it took more than a year to hear back from the government after filing a brief. In the end, however, the clinicians prevailed and earned their client a discharge upgrade.
“There aren’t many lawyers who assist veterans with discharge upgrades…. The most recent data I have shows only about a third of veterans successfully secure a character of discharge upgrade from our client’s branch of service, so when we win these cases it feels like we took on Goliath and won,” Curtis said. “Additionally, our client just wanted someone to believe him and I think we were the first people to take him seriously.”
Immediately after his urine test came back positive, the veteran submitted hair follicles to reputable labs for secondary testing and both labs reported negative results for all drugs. However, when the veteran presented those tests to his commanding officer, they were not considered. Clinic students, however, did not dismiss the veteran’s claims of innocence and worked diligently to support him.
“A lot of the routine cases you get can be pretty formulaic…not that every case is the same, but you’ve got the same sort of motions that you’re drafting or submitting to the court arguing the same sort of preliminary hearings. But this one was a lot, you had to delve into the science of it,” Waggoner said.
In addition to skillful fact investigation that uncovered character references and grocery receipts for the offending muffins, students collaborated with professionals across campus. Research librarians helped find materials supporting the validity of hair follicle tests over urinalysis, which proved an important aspect of the case. This research, combined with a memorandum from the Department of Defense, issued shortly after their client was discharged, warning servicemembers to avoid consuming poppy seeds, created a strong case that overcame the odds against obtaining a discharge upgrade.
Because of the delays in the case, however, the students who had put in so much hard work ended their semester in the clinic and graduated without a resolution in the case.
“Having to just walk away was definitely a little frustrating, especially because he was a very involved client in the best way possible. He was easy to reach, and he trusted us,” Schwartz said.
Though their professional careers have taken them in different directions and areas of the law that may not require them to think about urinalysis, Schwartz and Waggoner felt “ecstatic” to receive news of their client’s success in upgrading his discharge early in 2025. The positive outcome also reinforced their belief in the value of clinics.
“Law school helps teach a lot and train you, but it doesn’t always feel as practical,” Schwartz said.
“You talk about the black letter law, but you will never get a class that teaches you how to respond to a client,” Waggoner added. “It’s invaluable. I think everyone should be required to do a clinic or some sort of like, practical class.”
In recognition of her excellence and distinction as a leader in the field of military law, Professor Lesley Wexler has been invited to affiliate with the National Institute of Military Justice (NIMJ) as a Fellow. NIMJ was founded in 1991, and is the only American non-profit institute dedicated to the study of improvement of the military justice system. Wexler joins fellow College of Law professor and military veteran Tony Ghiotto in her affiliation with NIMJ.
Heidi M. Hurd gave the prestigious Alistair Macleod Distinguished Lecture in Philosophy at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, in late February 2025. Entitled “The Immorality of Mercy,” Professor Hurd’s talk to a packed auditorium of faculty and graduate students in law and the humanities challenged the claim that mercy is compatible with justice.
If 23andMe goes bankrupt, what happens to their millions of customers’ personal and genetic data?
Sara Gerke, Melissa B. Jacoby, and I. Glenn Cohen explore this issue in a new article published on March 2 in the New England Journal of Medicine, titled “Bankruptcy, Genetic Information, and Privacy — Selling Personal Information.”
The data are not protected by HIPAA, the authors note. The U.S. has no comprehensive federal privacy laws (and handful of overlapping, conflicting state laws.) Sure, Congress could pass consumer protection laws, but “it has been difficult to get large-scale privacy reform through Congress.”
Indeed, as the authors note, 23andMe’s privacy statement “reserves the company’s right to transfer customers’ personal information in the event of a company sale or bankruptcy.”
Basically, Gerke, Jacoby, and Cohen argue, little is stopping this data (potentially 14 million consumers’ worth) from being sold to the highest bidder.
Conclusion: “We believe it’s time to reconsider how [genetic information] data are regulated.”
Sara Gerke is an associate professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Law. Melissa B. Jacoby is a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I. Glenn Cohen is a Harvard Law professor and faculty director of the Petrie-Flom Center for health law policy, biotechnology, and bioethics at Harvard Law School.