A Letter From Dean Anita K. Krug

Dear Alumni,

I’M HAPPY TO REPORT that 2023 has been a strong year for Chicago-Kent College of Law. Just in the last six months, faculty members have been cited by the United States Supreme Court, received a research grant from the American Philosophical Association, received this year’s Best Book Award from the International Studies Association’s International Law Section, and celebrated recent convictions of war criminals that they helped secure at the United Nations’ International Criminal Tribunal, among other achievements.

The 2022–2023 academic year also brought an important milestone. It was the 40th year of Chicago-Kent’s Trial Advocacy Program. Former Judge Warren D. Wolfson launched the program in 1982—and at his side from the very beginning is former Judge David Erickson, who has directed the program since Wolfson departed Chicago-Kent in 2009.

The amount of care and effort these two individuals have put into building this top-ranked program cannot be overstated. Students in the program learn how to prepare and argue a case from beginning to end, gather evidence, and question witnesses. Excellence is expected, and Professor Erickson rigorously coaches students to be their best. They practice hard, and they win.

On a regular basis I hear from alumni who tell me that Professors Wolfson and Erickson have given them so much more than advocacy skills. I’ve heard stories of late-night coaching sessions and nervous tears. I’ve also heard stories of life-changing job offers and career-defining mentoring. In the background of every one of those stories is Professor Wolfson or Professor Erickson, telling our students that they can do it. That encouragement doesn’t stop at graduation, either. Alumni often reach out for mentoring years later and always find the comfort and guidance they need in Professor Erickson’s seemingly endless supply of unconditional support.

Our Trial Advocacy Program doesn’t just give students the tools they need to survive in the legal realm; it also gives them confidence to shine, and that is why the program is consistently ranked as one of the best trial advocacy programs in the country. That’s also why our trophy case at the Conviser Law Center is bursting at the seams, so to speak, and why our alumni are excelling in their fields.

I would like to introduce you to four of those remarkable trial advocacy alumni, each of whom is featured in this issue of Chicago-Kent Magazine. First, you’ll meet Judge John Lyke Jr. ’94 of the Cook Country Criminal Division. In his 30 years working in criminal law in Cook County, he has been involved in every component of the courtroom. He uses his knowledge and experience to oversee a respectful, empathetic court that regards upholding the United States Constitution as the highest priority.

Next, you can read about H. Patrick Morris ’83, a member of our very first trial advocacy team. Over his 40-year career, Morris has built a reputation as one of the city’s top litigators, representing clients from the Chicago Tribune to ExxonMobile to television personality Dr. Phil. When prospective clients need someone to argue their case in court, Morris is the one they call. He’s proud to say he learned the basics at Chicago-Kent.

Sulema Medrano ’09 is a leader in more ways than one. She sorts through some of the most complex insurance cases by day, and mentors young lawyers by night. She has served on the Chicago Board of Education and the Hispanic National Bar Association. Wherever she goes, she opens doors for the next generation of Latina lawyers, building pipelines to better futures.

Lastly, Bryce Hensley ’17 may be only a few years out of law school, but he has already made big waves in the legal world. A new star in personal injury, he’s secured settlements for victims of both the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting and the Willowbrook, Illinois, ethylene oxide emissions case.

Trial advocacy alumni never leave Chicago-Kent for good, as they return to coach, judge, or mentor the next generation. That they choose to do so is testament to the quality of the program. Our students aren’t merely participating in the program; rather, they’re joining a family 40 years in the making, the members of which include some of the brightest advocates in the business.

The Trial Advocacy Program is only one of the reasons I am so proud to serve as dean of this remarkable law school. Thank you so much for your support of this school and the Trial Advocacy Program. Here’s to another 40 years of excellence.

Anita K. Krug Dean and Professor

Features

6 Justice After Crime

1 2 Where It All Starts

H. Patrick Morris ’83 went from barely making Chicago-Kent’s first trial advocacy team to star litigator, and is helping others do the same.

After Tragedy

Bryce Hensley ’17 has always wanted to help people. His work in mass torts has him helping people on a larger scale than even he thought was possible.

CHICAGO-KENT MAGAZINE

Dean and Professor of Law ANITA K. KRUG

Associate Vice President for Major and Planned Gifts SUSAN M. LEWERS

Senior Director of Constituent Engagement JOSEPH VOLIN

Produced by the Illinois Institute of Technology Office of Marketing and Communications

Content Director ANDREW WYDER

Editor KAYLA MOLANDER

Senior Graphic Designer SCOTT BENBROOK

Photography JAMIE CEASER

Chicago-Kent Magazine is

Sections

2 Student/Faculty News

3 Faculty/Law School News

4 Features

14 Opinion

15 Class Notes/In Memoriam

On

the Cover

Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr. ’94 spent more than 20 years as an advocate, as both a prosecutor and as a defense attorney, before becoming a judge. Now, he runs his own courtroom in the Cook County Criminal Division.

HONORS, AWARDS, AND FELLOWSHIPS

Devin Ross ’23 is the winner of Chicago-Kent’s third annual A More Perfect Union racial justice writing competition for her paper titled, “Don’t Stop Me Now: An Analysis of Low-Level, Pretextual Traffic Stops and a Case for Banning Them.”

Rebecca Chmielewski ’23 was awarded the 2023 Sandra P. Zemm Prize in Labor and Employment Law. During her time at Chicago-Kent, Chmielewski served as secretary and president of the Labor and Employment Law Society. She also worked in the C-K Law Group’s Plaintiff’s Employment Law Clinic. Chmielewski joined The Prinz Law Firm after graduation, where she clerked during her 2L summer.

The paper examines low-level traffic stops, which are those that are conducted for non-moving violations, such as a broken taillight or an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror.

FACULTY AND LAW SCHOOL NEWS offers resources for students in need. Among other things, the Brave on Campus program is a Safe Space program where people who have questions about gender and sexuality can go to discuss those issues. Chicago-Kent has a long history of standing against discrimination. More than 20 years ago, Chicago-Kent joined 30 other law schools in supporting FAIR v. Rumsfeld, a suit challenging the Solomon Amendment, which forced law schools to welcome military recruiters, regardless of whether they discriminated against LGBTQ+ individuals. Today Chicago-Kent celebrates its LGBTQ+ students, faculty, and staff members. The LGBTQ+ community is always welcome at Chicago-Kent.

Chicago-Kent’s Public Interest Center held the 2023 Public Interest Awards on April 19.

Franko Simatović, two convicted war criminals who

Chicago-Kent Assistant Professor Adam Weber ’99 prosecuted during his 10 years working as a trial attorney at the Office of the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at the U.N. in The Hague, Netherlands.

Mary Kate Nowak ’24 received the 2023 Donald W. Banner Diversity Fellowship, which was “created to strengthen diversity and inclusion in intellectual property law,” according to Banner Witcoff, the Chicago-based law firm sponsoring the award. The fellowship provides $5,000 for law school tuition or expenses. Recipients also participate in the firm’s summer associate program. The fellowship is named for the firm’s founding partner.

Grace Quigley ’24 is the winner of the 2023 Mary Rose Strubbe Writing Prize for her paper titled, “‘I Want to Talk to the Manager’: Labor Law in the Automated Workplace.” The paper examines how to regulate the usage of computer-driven decision-making in the workplace, particularly when computers are used to manage people. Quigley found that automated management of workers can be a slippery slope without proper safeguards.

Militza Pagán ’17, with the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, was presented with the 2023 Honorable Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Public Interest Award, which is given to an alum who has made an outstanding contribution to the practice of law or judiciary, public service or government, business or commerce, or the media.

The 2023 Vivien C. Gross Pro Bono and Public Interest Leadership Award, renamed for the late professor who built the framework for the Public Interest Program, was given to Nicole Jansma ’23

The 2023 Ronald W. Staudt Public Interest Partner Award, which recognizes organizations that make outstanding contributions to public interest law while providing opportunities for Chicago-Kent students to gain meaningful experience in public interest practice, was awarded to the Children’s Legal Center.

“Though the Movement for Black Lives is many years old as an organization, and the events of 2020 are rapidly going into the rearview mirror, questions about policing and how law enforcement is to ideally work aren’t actually going away,” says Chicago-Kent Associate Professor Raff Donelson

Donelson, along with scholars at Pennsylvania State University, was awarded a grant of $5,000 from the American Philosophical Association to fund their Policing, Policy, and Philosophy Initiative. According to Donelson, this is one of the first projects that is dedicated to policing that the APA has funded.

“Traditionally, philosophers write a lot about crime,” says Donelson. “Why we commit crimes, why crimes are bad, and which things are criminalized and the like, but policing is relatively new for philosophers to talk about.”

Chicago-Kent Professor Nicole Buonocore Porter says that we all could use a little work-life balance, and that our policies should support that pursuit. Her new book, The Workplace Reimagined: Accommodating Our Bodies and Our Lives (Cambridge University Press 2023), examines simple policy changes that could help create more humane workplaces.

When Porter, who is also director of Chicago-Kent’s Martin H. Malin Institute of Law and the Workplace, first started conducting her research, she was studying the needs of workers who are caregivers and those living with disabilities.

The ICTY is a special court that was established in the wake of the Yugoslav Wars, an armed conflict that resulted in the breakup of the former Yugoslavia into six modern nations: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and North Macedonia. The conflict took place from 1991–2001 and is noted for being particularly brutal.

“The greatest feeling is that there’s been a sense of justice delivered to entire nations, to an enormous number of victims devastated by the events in the former Yugoslavia,” says Weber, who is also associate dean of international programs at Chicago-Kent.

Chicago-Kent continues to work to be a welcoming environment for members of the LGBTQ+ community, and offers them a number of resources. The LGBTQ+ student group on campus is the Lambdas. The Greek letter, λ, or lambda, has long stood as a symbol for LGBTQ+ liberation. In addition, Chicago-Kent

“I started seeing all these similarities between those two groups of people in that they both have difficulty meeting some of their employers’ rules and policies,” Porter says.

On May 31, 2023, United Nations appeals judges significantly expanded the convictions of Jovica Stanišić and

In a case involving the Jack Daniel’s whiskey company and an adult-themed dog toy, United States Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan quoted an article written by Chicago-Kent Distinguished Professor of Law Graeme B. Dinwoodie.

“The particular article was written 15 years ago now,” Dinwoodie says. “You sometimes think that no one reads your law review articles except maybe your family. So it is nice when you have a sense that the courts—the clerks, at least, and maybe the justices—have read your work as well. It’s affirming.”