News 29 - College of Law

Thomas discusses Trump trials and juries with Illinois News Bureau

“I hope all of the criminal Trump trials highlight the importance of juries,” Professor Suja Thomas told the Illinois News Bureau in a recent interview. She spoke at length on what impact former President Donald Trump’s trials may have on the public perception of jury duty. Though there has been a decline in jury trials due to plea bargains in criminal cases and private arbitration or dismissals in civil cases, Thomas emphasized the crucial role of jury trials in checking governmental power and ensuring fair justice, noting systemic biases favoring the wealthy in the current criminal justice system.

Read the full interview on the Illinois News Bureau site.

Winship authors post on suits against private companies brought by shareholders

Professor Verity Winship teaches a class.

In a new blog post published on the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, Professor Verity Winship examines a “blindspot in the law and its analysis”: suits brought by investors against the company in which they own shares. Reviewing literature on “unicorn” companies, private companies valued over $1 billion, Winship discovered a few interesting and unique aspects of shareholder suits against these groups. She found such cases are rare and predominantly based on state-law claims, and their rarity may be due to procedural limitations, investment structures, and the absence of market prices, necessitating a new approach to align regulatory frameworks with the realities of modern private companies.

Supreme Court cites Amar in securities fraud case

By a 6-3 decision in the case of SEC v. Jarkesy, the Supreme Court ruled defendants are entitled to a jury trial under the Seventh Amendment in cases of federal agencies seeking civil penalties for alleged fraud. The decision, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, places new limits on the ability of federal agencies to charge a person or company with a violation. In the opinion for the majority, Chief Justice Roberts cites Professor Vikram Amar’s scholarship, which criticized earlier cases in which the Court allowed certain disputes to be resolved before administrative agencies without the safeguards that juries provide.

Read the full opinion in the case of SEC v. Jarksey.

Murphy receives grant under BRIDGE strategic partnership initiative

The BRIDGE Alliance, a partnership between the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and University of Birmingham, recently commemorated its 10-year anniversary by announcing an investment to establish strategic research partnerships with the Global South, focusing on global health, sustainability, and education access and equity. In addition, the BRIDGE Seed Fund, some $200,000 of annual funding, continues to kick-start research projects between the two universities. Professor Colleen Murphy and colleagues at Birmingham are the beneficiaries of the BRIDGE Seed Fund, for their proposed collaborative project “Establishing and Inaugurating Transitional Justice and Human Rights Network.” The project involves a workshop focused on the intersection of human rights law and transitional justice as well as a visit in the spring of 2025 to discuss future collaborations.

Sherkow is quoted in Nature Biotechnology about prime editing and patents

Illinois Law professor and IP expert Jacob Sherkow spoke to Nature Biotechnology about the recent Tome Biosciences acquisition of Replace Therapeutics to enhance their gene editing capabilities. The article discusses the surge of prime editing deals in biotechnology as companies seek to secure patent rights and avoid intellectual property conflicts. The industry is seeing mergers and partnerships driven by the need for access to patented technologies. Sherkow highlighted the importance of IP rights in these deals, stating, “It is an absolute gobsmacking sum of money. And that is something that is worth thinking about as to whether or not that is a lesson for others in the field.”

Read the full article at nature.com.

Murphy to deliver keynote at TU Delft Share Fair: Design for Justice

Professor Colleen Murphy will deliver the keynote address at the Delft Design for Values Institute event Share Fair: Design for Justice. The event is intended to share knowledge, networks, perspectives, and insights on the subject of Design and Justice. The conference takes place on June 4, 2024 at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

Learn more.

Lawless and Robbennolt: Purdue Pharma, Bankruptcy, and Procedural Justice

Professors Bob Lawless and Jennifer Robbennolt co-authored a blog post for Psychology Today, titled “Purdue Pharma, Bankruptcy, and Procedural Justice.” In the post, they discuss how the Sackler family sought a release in the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy case that would protect them from facing opioid lawsuits, despite not having declared bankruptcy themselves. Many claimants were opposed to a settlement plan and wanted to face the Sacklers in court. The authors argue that psychologists should explore concerns for procedural justice when tort cases are resolved through bankruptcy.

Read the full post.

Thomas quoted by WSJ: In Win for Workers, Supreme Court Opens Door to More Discrimination Claims

The Supreme Court issued a decision in Muldrow v. City of St. Louis on April 17, 2024, ruling in favor of a female police sergeant who said she was unlawfully transferred from the intelligence division to a less prestigious patrol position because she is a woman. The case had previously been dismissed by a federal appeals court; the Supreme Court said that “while an employee must show more than trifling harm from an employer’s discriminatory action, the appeals court had raised the bar too high.” While the decision is seen as a win for workers, employment discrimination expert and professor Suja Thomas worries that workers still face many hurdles getting discrimination claims before juries. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal about the decision, she said, “Unfortunately, there are lots of other ways courts are dismissing these cases.”

Read the full story.

First Amendment Clinic seeks Stanton Fellow for 2024-2025 academic year

The First Amendment Clinic is hiring a Fellow for the 2024-2025 academic year. This is a one-year position, with an anticipated start date between June 15, 2024, and August 19, 2024, with the possibility of renewal for a second year depending on performance and funding.

The University of Illinois College of Law launched the First Amendment Clinic in 2023 with the support of the Stanton Foundation. The Clinic works to defend and advance the rights of free speech, press, assembly and petition through litigation and advocacy, while providing law students with practice and real-world experience to become leaders on First Amendment issues.

The Clinic takes on a wide array of matters including defending individuals exercising their right to dissenting political speech, advancing litigation on behalf of journalists to gain access to vital information, pursuing claims arising out of retaliation for First Amendment-protected speech, and advocating for the rights of citizens to openly critique government entities and officials. The Clinic represents individuals and organizations across the Midwest whose viewpoints span the political spectrum.

Learn more about the position and apply by June 7.

College of Law honors J. Ross and Sherkow with 2024 awards for scholarly excellence

Professor Jacqueline E. Ross was awarded the 2024 Wayne R. LaFave Award for Scholarly Excellence for her book “Making Sense of Youth Crime: A Comparison of Police Intelligence in the United States and France,” (Cambridge University Press, 2023) co-authored with Thierry Delpeuch of the French National Centre for Scientific Research. This award was established in 2002 by Michael Moore, the Charles R. Walgreen, Jr. Chair, and Heidi Hurd, the Ross and Helen Workman Chair in Law. The award was established in honor of Professor Wayne LaFave, whose remarkable scholarly legacy in criminal law and procedure is best honored through the recognition of work that is of matching ambition and importance.

Professor Jacob S. Sherkow was awarded the 2024 Carroll P. Hurd Award for Scholarly Excellence for his article “The Antibody Patent Paradox,” Yale Law Journal (2023), co-authored with Mark Lemley of Stanford Law School. The Carroll P. Hurd Award for Scholarly Excellence was established in 2002, also by Michael Moore and Heidi Hurd, in honor of Carroll Parsons Hurd, whose work as a political theorist and lawyer elevated theoretical curiosity and intellectual rigor above all other virtues.