By JoEllen Lind, Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Professor of Law
Political “junkies” know that twenty-six of America’s presidents were attorneys. Before the current field of candidates was winnowed down, a lopsided majority of those running were also law graduates, and if the Democrats carry the election, we are guaranteed to have an attorney in office—either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. These statistics illuminate the close connection between the legal profession and political service, moreover service that is intimately tied to national, state, and regional policy decisions. I often tell students that, inevitably, many of them will become state or national legislators, federal and state judges, maybe even members of the US Supreme Court—a position, by the way, that Chief Justice Taft far preferred to his role as president. These realities obviously place a charge on law schools to provide a superb education and one that is steeped in questions of values and the social good, not just doctrine. But beyond these points there is a more subtle and long-term role that the great law schools of the United States can play—it is to facilitate the national conversation about tough questions like the War in Iraq, health care, and immigration—to be provide safe and open fora for reasoned discussion and information that can help make our democracy more real than hypothetical.
One way for an institution to pursue this aim is to marshal its resources—intellectual, spatial, and financial—to proactively sponsor events that shape the civic dialog on the pressing questions of the say. Our law school is aggressively pursuing this goal and you can make a difference in our success. We have long sponsored endowed lecture series, such as Monsanto, Seegers, and Tabor, which bring renowned scholars to our campus to speak on current topics. These events have been invaluable and their participants read like the legal equivalent to the Baseball Hall of Fame. But, at this point, we want to go to the next level and bring not just speakers, but whole groups together, to explore topics that will shape the quality of life in your future. There are two unique events upcoming that will put the law school in the forefront of the national conversation. One is global—in all senses of the word—and the other more modest. Both can impact the thinking and action of key players shaping matters that make a difference on the ground to the actual life experience of real people.
On March 28, Professor Alan White, a new member of our faculty and one of the national experts on consumer lending, will be sponsoring a conference on foreclosure defense. This connects very clearly to the widespread consequences of subprime lending, but it focuses its energies on the specific question of the legal strategies for helping Indiana homeowners faced with the disaster of foreclosure. This event is co-sponsored by Indiana Legal Services and we expect 100 participants from all sectors of Indiana law practice and the economy who are attempting to clean up this mess to attend.
In a different vein, we are hosting a major conference of national and international significance from April 3 to 4 on “Law, Poverty, and Inequality.” This conference has been organized by Professor Penny Andrews, a well-known expert in human rights and international law. It brings scholars and activists together from all over the world and examines topics affecting the increasing gap between rich and poor occurring across the globe. Our school will be the gathering place, the focal point, for opinion makers and change agents whose ideas, attitudes, and work can affect our joint future. The conference will explore issues of poverty in the US and in the global south from a myriad of perspectives. Professor Andrews has asked for student volunteers to shadow and assist these participants and I hope you will respond.
You can expect Valparaiso to continue in these activities and we welcome your ideas and suggestions. As a law school committed to a values-based legal education, we want to make sure that our voice—your voice—will affect the national conversation about what matters. Stay tuned! There are exciting times ahead and you can be in the forefront.
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