FACULTY/ LAW SCHOOL NEWS AWA RDS
Chicago-Kent Professor Emeritus Martin H. Malin was appointed as chair of the Federal Labor Relations Authority’s Federal Service Impasses Panel by President Joseph R. Biden. The panel’s members resolve impasses in collective bargaining between federal agencies and unions that represent the agencies’ employees. Malin, who recently retired as director of Chicago-Kent’s Institute for Law and the Workplace, was previously appointed to the Federal Service Impasses Panel under former President Barack Obama in 2009. He was reappointed in 2014 and served until 2017. —Jamie Loo
Reinforcing the ideal of “equal justice for all,” the Chicago-Kent College of Law’s 2021 Public Interest Awards ceremony celebrated the achievements of dozens of Chicago-Kent students, recognized a long-standing relationship with a Chicago nonprofit, and honored two alumni who have dedicated their careers to helping those in need. The April 26 event’s premier honor, the Ronald W. Staudt Public Interest Partner Award, went to Legal Aid Chicago for the nonprofit’s outstanding contributions to public interest law and its willingness to give Chicago-Kent students experience in the field. Ali Ammoura ’12 and Stephanie Ridella Vittands ’14 received Honorable Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Public Interest Law Awards; and Alexandra Rogers ’21 and Tyler Sprague ’21, co-founders of Chicago-Kent’s Racial Equity and Advocacy Alliance, were honored for outstanding pro bono and community service leadership. 4
CHICAGO-KENT MAGAZINE
Chicago-Kent Research and Instructional Services Librarian Mandy Lee received the national American Association of Law Libraries’ 2021 Minority Leadership Development Award for her “significant work supporting diversity and inclusion in the workplace and profession,” according to an AALL statement. Lee became chair of the AALL’s Asian American Law Librarians Caucus, where she created two new committees, a social committee and a community service committee. The latter committee hosted a “bystander intervention training” for all AALL members, focused on anti-Asian hate incidents. Lee has gone out of her way to introduce Chicago-Kent students and visiting scholars from foreign countries to Chicago, hosting three Thanksgiving dinners in two years. Jean Wenger, the director of the Chicago-Kent Law Library, was awarded the 2021 Agnes and Harvey Reid Award for Outstanding Contribution to Law Librarianship by the Chicago Association of Law Libraries in May. The organization consists of approximately 200 law librarians who work within Chicago-area law schools, law firms, corporations, courts, and other government entities; the Reid Award is its highest annual honor, given to a single librarian who shows remarkable dedication to the profession. Clinical Professor Jonathan Decatorsmith has been appointed as the Chicago-Kent’s clinical education director, putting him in charge of the C-K Law Group and its 11 individual practices. Decatorsmith, who has been interim director since Clinical Professor Richard Gonzalez stepped down in September 2020, has run the tax practice of the C-K Law Group since he was hired by founder Gary Laser in 2000.
Thomas Crocker, the N. Heyward Clarkson Jr. Professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, won the 2020 Chicago-Kent College of Law Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize for his book, Overcoming Necessity: Emergency, Constraint, and the Meanings of American Constitutionalism, published by Yale University Press in July 2020. The book explored the conflict between liberty and “necessity” in times of national emergency, specifically when a United States president’s rhetoric works to erode constitutional protections.
Chicago-Kent Professor Adrian Walters was awarded Illinois Institute of Technology’s 2021 Michael J. Graff Teaching and Advising Innovation Award in April. The award, meant to encourage teaching practices “designed to improve student learning and success,” is handed out annually to a professor who displays notable innovation. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Walters researched and familiarized himself with various instructional technologies and online teaching techniques, and shared his experiences with fellow faculty, as well as the college’s Tech Team members.
