Loyola Lawyer Fall13_Layout 1 12/19/13 9:11 AM Page 21
The College of Law Bids Farewell to Three Outstanding Faculty Retirees RENOWNED PROFESSORS KLEBBA, VETTER, AND WHIPPLE RETIRE IN 2013. by Christine Fontana Wegmann, J.D. ‘97, and Natasha Ann Lacoste, J.D. ‘11
Loyola University College of Law wishes farewell to three of its outstanding faculty members, James Marshall Klebba, Bernard Keith Vetter, and P. Michael Whipple, who all retired in the spring of this year. Each has made exceptional contributions throughout their years of dedication to the College of Law and will be wholeheartedly missed by the Loyola community. JAMES MARSHALL KLEBBA: GLOBAL SCHOLAR James Marshall Klebba, a Victor H. Schiro Distinguished Professor of Law and professor emeritus of law, graduated cum laude with a B.A. in political science from St. John’s University in 1964 and attained his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1967. Prior to his employment at Loyola College of Law in 1973, he was in private practice with the firm of Dorsey and Whitney in Minneapolis and gained experience as an arbitrator. While at Loyola, Klebba taught in the areas of civil procedure, evidence, federal courts, and comparative judicial systems. He has been a visiting law professor at the universities of Minnesota, Missouri, and Kansas. Klebba has also lectured extensively in Eastern Europe and in Russia in conjunction with his monumental accomplishment of establishing and becoming the director of Loyola’s Summer Legal Studies Program in Moscow and Budapest in 1993, and he worked with Professor Keith Vetter on Loyola’s first summer foreign program in Mexico in 1989. In 2010, Klebba negotiated an agreement that expanded Loyola’s Moscow program from a one-way study abroad program into an exchange arrangement bringing law students from Moscow State University to Loyola during the summer. In the fall semester of 2004, Klebba was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Belgrade, the oldest and largest university in Serbia. He lectured on introduction to the law of the United States, comparative civil procedure, and American legal education. Klebba is also the former chair of the Association of American Law Schools’ Section on Civil Procedure. Klebba has served the law school previously as associate dean, interim dean, and dean and enjoyed both alumni relations and fundraising. He is proud of his role in establishing the GauthierSt. Martin Eminent Scholar Chair, the College of Law’s first and only endowed chair. Klebba coordinated getting together $1.2 million in private contributions and the competitive process of receiving the $800,000 State of Louisiana Board of Regents match.
James Marshall Klebba “Professor Klebba is an institution,” says Dean María Pabón López of the College of Law. “He is driven, hard-working, and he’s amazing at obtaining scholarships for us. He is a well-regarded former dean, and everywhere you go with him, people stop to talk to him; he has this gravitas about him. His founding of the College of Law’s summer program in Russia is phenomenal. It’s been great having him in the building as a former dean I can consult. He has been very welcoming to me.” Other faculty at the College of Law are fond of Klebba, as well. “Jim has always had the best interest of Loyola at heart,” says Kathryn Venturatos Lorio, J.D. ’73, Leon Sarpy Professor of Law. “Serving as dean for so many years, he exemplified true dedication to this institution.” www.law.loyno.edu
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