News 7 - College of Law

Sherkow quoted in Bloomberg Law on various patent lawsuits

Professor Jake Sherkow gives remarks during his investiture ceremony.

Professor Jake Sherkow spoke to Bloomberg Law on several occasions in February, regarding patent lawsuits that are making their way through the courts.

One of the lawsuits, filed by Novo Nordisk A/S against Hims & Hers Health Inc., takes aim at the practice of drug compounding and highlights the ambiguity between the FDA’s compounding framework and US patent law. Sherkow said that the lawsuit demonstrates that compounding pharmacies and direct-to-consumer telehealth platforms have grown from “minuscule operations” into “real players” that brand-name drugmakers now view as worth targeting in patent litigation. Read more from Sherkow on this case at bloomberglaw.com.

Another lawsuit, filed by BioNTech SE against Moderna Inc., claims patent infringement involving mRNA vaccine technology.

“This is typical of cutting-edge technology as it matures,” Sherkow said. “The original patents—and patent disputes—are often about using the technology more broadly, with one or few early entrants suing manufacturers. As the technology develops—and that first generation of patents gets older—we see more, albeit narrower, patenting focusing on specific products, and a great number of patent holders suing (and cross-suing) other manufacturers.” Read more from Sherkow on this case at bloomberglaw.com.

Illinois LawCast: Jurist in Residence Judge Candace Jackson-Awikumi

Illinois LawCast art with portrait of Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi

This episode examines the College of Law’s Jurist in Residence program. Started in 2025, the program brings a member of the judicial branch to campus to teach a class, work with faculty, and be a resource to students. The program, one of only two such initiatives in Illinois, aims to deepen the College’s connections to the bench, inspire students to pursue judicial clerkships, and provide them with the opportunity to learn from leading legal minds.

Dean Jamelle Sharpe is the first guest on the episode, and he joined to share a little background on the program and some of his personal experience with the College of Law’s 2026 Jurist in Residence. The second guest on the episode is Judge Candace Jackson-Awikumi, who spent time on campus in March as the latest Jurist in Residence. She spoke about her background, how she came to the bench, and what she enjoyed about her time at Illinois Law.

About Judge Candace Jackson-Awikumi

Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit by President Joseph R. Biden in July 2021. She is the first former public defender to sit on that court, which reviews decisions made by federal courts in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. A native of Norfolk, Virginia, Judge Jackson-Akiwumi received her A.B., with honors, from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was a Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal. She began her legal career as a law clerk to Judge David H. Coar of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and Judge Roger L. Gregory of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She then practiced law at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and spent a decade as an attorney with the Federal Defender Program for the Northern District of Illinois, Inc., before joining the Washington, D.C., litigation firm Zuckerman Spaeder LLP. Judge Jackson-Akiwumi previously served on the boards of the Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, the Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater Chicago, and the Princeton Club of Chicago. During her time as a federal public defender, she taught at national seminars and Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. She also served as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in Israel and Namibia, a Princeton-in-Asia fellow in Thailand, and an American Inns of Court Temple Bar Scholar in England.

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If you have comments or suggestions for the podcast, please contact podcast@law.illinois.edu.

Yan Liu ’94 to deliver 2026 convocation address

The College of Law is honored to announce that Yan Liu ’94 will deliver the convocation address to the Class of 2026. The College of Law Convocation Ceremony will take place Saturday, May 16, at 1:00 p.m. in the Great Hall of Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

Liu is General Counsel and Director of the Legal Department of the International Monetary Fund. In her role, she serves as an advisor to the IMF’s Executive Board, management, staff, and country membership on all legal aspects of IMF operations and functions. Liu was promoted to General Counsel in October 2024, becoming only the second female to serve in that role in the 80-year history of IMF.

Since 1999 Liu has been with the IMF, in that time leading the Legal Department’s work on a range of issues, such as reforming IMF policies on lending; strengthening central banking and financial sector legal frameworks; leading work on corporate and household insolvency, and public debt management; and contributing to the development of international standards for financial regulation. She is an expert in sovereign debt, setting the Fund’s IMF policies in this field and supporting the Common Framework and the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable. Liu has published extensively in areas such as private debt, sovereign debt restructuring, and good governance.

Liu received her Juris Doctor from Illinois in 1994, and a master’s degree from the University of Chicago. Prior to joining the IMF, she practiced corporate and securities law in the United States.

For more information about the convocation ceremony, please visit our website.

6 faculty present research and provide commentary at St. Louis University Colloquium on Law, Behavioral Science, and Social Science

Professors Jennifer Robbennolt, Kenworthey Bilz, Arden Rowell, Verity Winship, and Bob Lawless pose for a group photo during a colloquium at St. Louis University.

The College of Law was well-represented at the recent St. Louis University Colloquium on Law, Behavioral Science, and Social Science. Professor Jennifer Robbennolt presented a work-in-progress called “’The Rule of Law’ Silo” that is co-authored by Professors Verity Winship and Colleen Murphy. The paper presents the results of a survey to understand what people understand the phrase “the rule of law” to mean.

Professor Arden Rowell presented a paper called “Why Behavior?” The paper develops a model to systematize how different scholarly traditions approach the question of why law & behavior matters.

Professor Bob Lawless and recent graduate Emily Woo ’25 presented a paper that they co-authored with Jennifer Robbennolt and Angela Koo ’25, entitled “Who Gets the Last Word? Interruptions and Floor Control on the Supreme Court.” The paper, forthcoming in the University of Illinois Law Review, began as Emily and Angela’s class project for Empirical Methods. Using data scraped from transcripts of Supreme Court oral arguments, the paper reinforces past findings about gendered patterns of interruptions between the justices and also builds a more complex story by focusing on which justices retain floor control after being interrupted.

Finally, Professors Kenworthey Bilz, Lesley Wexler, and Verity Winship were commentators for papers at the colloquium.

Research from Muhawe JSD ’23 instrumental in Apple settlement

The incoming class listens intently during Dean Jamelle Sharpe's remarks at Orientation

Lopez v. Apple Inc., brought about due to the intrusive recording of private conversations by Apple’s Siri voice assistant, concluded in late 2025 with a landmark $95 million settlement. The research of Christopher Muhawe JSD ’23 proved to be vital to the determination; his article with Masooda Bashir was a cornerstone of the legal strategy from the plaintiffs that swayed the court.

Science quotes Rowell on nuclear energy rule changes

The federal government’s moves to reform the rules surrounding nuclear energy plants might have had the effect of streamlining the process of bringing new reactors online and, thus, creating more nuclear energy for the United States’ power grid. Federal agencies making changes behind closed doors, without input from experts, has chilled scientists, however. Moving quickly and creating uncertainty, Professor Arden Rowell tells Science, could backfire and slow progress.

Read the full article from Science.

Brubaker and Lawless add commentary to ABI post on Texas Two-Step bankruptcies

Professors Ralph Brubaker and Robert Lawless were both featured in the commentary featured on the American Bankruptcy Institute’s blog, Rochelle’s Daily Wire. Their commentary discussed the most recent decision in the ongoing controversy over the propriety and legitimacy of so-called “Texas Two-Step” mass-tort bankruptcies. The decision, from the Fourth Circuit, continues to stoke opinion and Lawless writes that it sets up “a Supreme Court decision in the coming years.”

Read their commentary in Rochelle’s Daily Wire.

SCOTUS must invalidate birthright citizenship order, Mazzone and Amar write

President Donald Trump issued an executive order that would end birthright citizenship as commonly understood. More than a year later, the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on the case, and Professors Jason Mazzone and Vikram Amar believe the order should be invalidated. Writing at Justia Verdict, the professors argue, again, that the order violates the first sentence of Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment, and it also flouts the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act.

Read their full article on Justia Verdict.

Good Morning America quotes Leipold on Justice Dept. cases

The Justice Department’s efforts to return indictments against six members of Congress were turned down by a grand jury in what Professor Andrew Leipold called a “rare” denial. Good Morning America spoke to Leipold for their investigation of the cases, with Leipold commenting, “The most obvious answer is that the government is being aggressive in prosecuting federal crimes, and grand juries are simply not in agreement.”

Read the full article from Good Morning America.

Sherkow publishes perspective in NEJM

Drug labels required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are meant to help ensure safe and effective use of prescription drugs; however, recent court decisions have problematically treated those labels as key evidence in patent infringement cases, with drug companies engaging in what Professor Jacob Sherkow calls “patent gamesmanship” that could potentially limit access to affordable generic drugs. In his latest scholarship, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Sherkow and his co-authors urge the Supreme Court to address this trend.

Read the article in The New England Journal of Medicine.