A Letter From Dean Anita K. Krug

I am happy to report that Chicago-Kent College of Law is thriving. Enrollment numbers, student success, and faculty scholarship are all as strong as ever. Our faculty are publishing articles and books, while our students are continuing to succeed in moot court and trial advocacy competitions across the country. As the academic year comes to a close, our graduates are taking their first steps toward becoming leaders in the legal community.

As is the case every year, many of our 2023 graduates are choosing to dedicate their careers to public interest work. Chicago-Kent has always taken pride in being a place where students with a passion for closing the justice gap can gain the skills they need to create the positive change they want to see in the world. In order to provide a wider range of opportunities for our public interest-focused students, Chicago-Kent opened the Public Interest Center in fall 2022.

In this issue, you will learn how the Public Interest Center is building on Chicago-Kent’s history of supporting access to justice. The center has pulled together existing public interest programs, including the Self-Help Resource Center at the Richard J. Daley Center, and the Public Interest Awards. Staff members are also creating new opportunities for students to build a career based on service.

You will also learn about Rachel Brady ’10, whose work at a private civil rights firm in Chicago advocating for the wrongfully convicted brought her to the Illinois Supreme

Court to argue a case she ultimately won. Due to her advocacy, innocent people who are exonerated face fewer hurdles in rebuilding their lives after they are released from prison.

Militza Pagán ’17 is also creating lasting change for Chicago families. In her nonprofit work, she has helped the Chicago City Council pass laws protecting domestic workers’ rights. Pagán also works to further immigrant rights. She won a case against the Trump administration regarding a rule aimed at blocking immigrants from accessing social services.

Many of you may feel the impact of the work done by August Hieber ’19. Working for the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, Hieber is responsible for making Illinois courthouses inclusive and accessible for all. Hieber is working to elevate the voices of community members so that the courts can better ensure an experience that works for people of all backgrounds.

A J.D. degree confers a tremendous amount of power to an individual. The alumni you will read about in this magazine are excellent examples of how our graduates use that power to create lasting change that will be felt for generations. Thank you for your ongoing support of this remarkable law school and this university.

Anita K. Krug Dean and Professor

Chicago-Kent College of Law students Alyssa Yoshino ’23, Connor Larson ’23, and Keaton Smith ’23 finished in first place and won best brief in the Chicago regional of the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition. The group advanced to nationals, where they won best oral arguments in March 2023.

Alexis Endres ’24, Nic Zito ’23, Rana Salem ’23, and Jack Debacker ’24 won best closing argument at the 2022 National Civil Trial Competition in November 2022.

Justice Student Advocacy Competition after winning all 15 ballots in the regional competition in March 2023. Brittany Dushman ’24, Ben Sheinbein ’24, and Aaron Thompson ’24 finished as the champions of the 2023 virtual McGee Civil Rights Moot Court competition in March 2023.

Marisa Gelabert ’24, Helen Gustafson ’24, and Nell Riordan ’24 scored a secondplace finish in the Frank A. Schreck Gaming Law Moot Court Competition hosted by UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law in March 2023. Jay Castillo ’24 and Charlie Johnson ’24 made it to the quarterfinals of the competition. Johnson took home the award for best oralist.

Two Chicago-Kent College of Law teams finished as regional semifinalists in the American Bar Association Law Student Division National Appellate Advocacy Competition. Paul Ansani ’24 and Manuela Burek ’24 comprised one team, while Elizabeth Weber ’24 and Hannah Wiese ’24 made up the other.

Elizabeth “Lizzie” Horwitz ’23 and Kaitlyn Kloss ’23 started the season strong at the Hunton Andrews Kurth Moot Court National Championship at the University of Houston Law Center in January 2023. The Kurth Championship is an invitational, with only the top 16 teams from the prior year allowed to compete. Kloss earned second-best oralist.

Cole Gunter ’23, Jack DeBacker ’23, Paige Bareck ’24, Nic Zito ’23, and Emanuel “Manny” Centeno ’24 finished as semifinalists in the American Association for

Clarice Fisher ’24 and Evelyn Tarnovsky ’24 earned first place in the virtual UCLA School of Law Cybersecurity Moot Court Competition in March 2023.

Erin Gallagher ’24 and Kaitlyn Watkins ’24 finished as semifinalists in the University of Wisconsin Law Schools’ Evan A. Evans Constitutional Law Moot Court Competition.

Patent scholar and equity issues expert

Jordana Goodman will join the faculty at Chicago-Kent College of Law in fall 2023. Goodman is an expert on gender and race equity issues in STEM fields. Her research explores intellectual property ownership and diversity in terms of how attorneys are recognized for their work. She spent six years as a patent prosecutor after passing the United State Patent and Trademark Office’s patent bar. In that role, she wrote patent applications to develop portfolios for a variety of clients.

During her time as a practicing attorney, Goodman encountered many problems, such as “a lack of diverse client acquisition, high prices, lack of diversity of attorneys.” She turned to academia to “teach my students how to be more equitable attorneys.”

Goodman joins Chicago-Kent from Boston University School of Law where she works as a lecturer. She also acts as an innovator in residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Nicole Jansma ’23 was named a 2023 Law Student of the Year by National Jurist and preLaw magazines. The honor recognizes students “who have made outstanding contributions to their law schools and their communities” in 2022. While pursuing her concentration in public interest law, Jansma secured competitive internships in public defender offices across the country—first with the Federal Defender Services of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and then with the Illinois Office of the State Appellate Defender, the Federal Defender for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago, and the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. Her work was funded by a John Paul Stevens Public Interest Fellowship.

Jansma was the 2022 president of the Kent Justice Foundation, a Chicago-Kent College of Law student organization that