From the First Female Law School Grad to Today's Justice Warriors

THE MAGAZINE OF NORTHWESTERN PRITZKER SCHOOL OF LAW VOLUME IX NUMBER 1 SPRING 2020 150 Years of Women From the first female law school grad to today’s justice warriors 10 150 Years of Women Celebrating Northwestern Law’s trailblazing women, from the first female graduate to the barrier-breaking faculty to those who fought for justice until the end. FEATURES 26 “A Brilliant Leader” Saying good-bye to David S. Ruder, dean of Northwestern University School of Law from 1977 to 1985 and former chairman of the SEC. 22 Where Tech Crosses Paths 18 with the Law Establishing a Foothold in Northwestern’s schools of engi- Silicon Valley neering and law join forces to refine and preserve the rule of law The San Francisco Immersion Program, a partnership between worldwide. the Law School and Kellogg, provides hands-on experience in the epicenter of tech. Cover: Dawn Clark Netsch, the first female faculty member at Northwestern Law, in a mid-1960s faculty photo. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR We want to hear from you! Send a letter to the editor: [email protected] Dear Reporter, Thanks for Vol. VIII no. 2, Justice Stevens on the cover and remembered inside, with an excerpt from his fine memoir The Making of a Justice (2019) published two months before his death. His Five Chiefs is also worthy. It’s been said that a man who wears a bow tie is a joker. On the strength of my grandfa- Justice Roberts and Justice ther, of my brilliant Torts pro- Kagan called him independent. fessor, and of Justice Stevens, Justice Kagan said he was it may be true. The Making of a fiercely independent. Justice is full of jokes, many dry, She also called him a model some wry. of collegiality (which another of I was a few feet from him at my brilliant professors — whom a law school reception when I had the pleasure of hearing DEPARTMENTS he muttered to another of my before the Court in Harris vs. brilliant professors: “I never had McRae, 448 U.S. 297, 1980 — the Latin for the judging.” always deliberately pronounced 2 The only time The Making of a “colleague-iality”). That shows Noteworthy Justice shocked me was a mani- in both Five Chiefs and The fest set-up. The title itself is a Making of a Justice. 30 joke; how can it cover his entire In 2005, Gerald Ford said, Clinic News life and not merely the years “I am prepared to allow history’s 46 1920–1975? But he was famous judgment of my term in office 36 for saying learning on the job to rest (if necessary, exclu- Giving was essential to judging. sively) on my nomination thirty Speaking as a Liberal, I’m years ago of Justice John Paul 38 sorry you called him the leader Stevens to the U.S. Supreme Faculty Focus of the Court’s liberal wing. I’d court…. He has served with be glad to claim him. But he dignity, intellect, and without himself always said he was a partisan political concerns.” 46 34 Alumni Notes conservative; as time went on, R.I.P. he said, the court, not he, had Sincerely, shifted. At his death both Chief John Hertz (JD ’81) NORTHWESTERN LAW ASSOCIATE DEAN, MARKETING AND CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS UPDATE YOUR ADDRESS REPORTER STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS Randy Belice, Eileen Molony, Jake [email protected] Melissa Kaeser Spring 2020 Giles Netter, Owen Stidman law.alumni.northwestern.edu Volume IX, Number 1 312.503.7609 DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC The editors thank the faculty, staff, COMMUNICATIONS Northwestern Pritzker School of Law students, and alumni of Northwestern Rachel Bertsche Office of Alumni Relations and DEAN AND JUDD AND MARY MORRIS Pritzker School of Law for their coop- Development LEIGHTON PROFESSOR OF LAW eration in this publication. ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, VISUAL 375 East Chicago Avenue Kimberly Yuracko COMMUNICATION Opinions expressed in the Chicago, Illinois 60611 Mary Kate Strittmatter EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALUMNI AND Northwestern Law Reporter do DONOR RELATIONS AND CAMPAIGN not necessarily reflect the views of Copyright ©2020. Northwestern OPERATIONS COMMUNICATIONS EDITOR Northwestern Pritzker School of Law Pritzker School of Law. All rights Darnell Hines Shanice Harris or Northwestern University. reserved. 4-20/1M NOTEWORTHY American history and culture. as director of the Bluhm Legal Noteworthy A group of generous and dedi- Clinic. The coming year will cated alumni came together require even greater efforts at to establish the African hiring research faculty, with a American History and Culture particular focus on increasing Endowed Scholarship. the diversity of our faculty. Have fundraising efforts This issue of the Reporter helped address the budget includes a feature on challenges you identified 150 years of women at when you first stepped into Northwestern. As dean, one this role? of your priorities has been Q&A with Over a quarter of the Law supporting women in the School’s funding comes from profession. Can you tell us donations, so philanthropy is about some developments in Dean Yuracko very much an essential compo- this area? nent of our operating budget. Last fall we announced an The Law School Fund, which exciting partnership with As the Northwestern Law Reporter was going is the annual giving program Diversity Lab, an incubator that sustains our operating that develops and tests solu- to press, circumstances at the Law School, and budget, had a record-breaking tions for boosting diversity in the world, changed dramatically due to the year last year. This enabled us and inclusion in our profes- to balance the budget faster sion. We are the exclusive law COVID-19 pandemic. Illinois, like many other than we projected, and I want school partner to Diversity states, was under a stay-at-home order, and to thank our alumni and Lab’s Move the Needle Fund. friends for their generosity. Along with five law firms, Northwestern Law classes had shifted to remote All gifts — a small donation more than two dozen general learning. “These are challenging and uncertain to the Law School Fund or a counsels, and a cohort of com- major gift establishing a new munity leaders, we will work times,” said Kimberly A. Yuracko, Dean and endowed scholarship — are on new approaches to diver- Judd and Mary Morris Leighton Professor of meaningful and important. sity, and then help incubate those ideas in the law firms Law. “Though the situation is changing rapidly What are the key fundrais- to serve as a model for the the only thing I know for certain is that we ing priorities for the remain- legal industry. I am optimistic der of the campaign and that together we can have will get through these times strong and intact beyond? an impact. as a community.” Earlier in the semester, she One of my main priorities continues to be faculty discussed the Law School’s fundraising success. hiring, and this requires resources in terms of research funds, and This is the final year of the to me is the show of support professorships and Law School’s Motion to Lead from so many members of our chairs. This year saw campaign. What do you see community. Our original goal an increased focus on as the greatest accomplish- was 10,000 unique donors and recruiting, and I am ments of the campaign? we have far surpassed that. I thrilled to announce that Our fundraising campaign has am also very pleased with the Paul Gowder, a tenured fac- been an astounding success, increase in available scholar- ulty member at Iowa Law raising over $253 million to ships. Donors established 44 School, has accepted a posi- date from more than 12,000 new scholarships that help us tion to join us in fall 2020, donors. These gifts, and recruit the brightest and most and Robin Walker Sterling, donors, bolster the Law School qualified students, regardless associate professor and by supporting scholarships, of their financial circum- the Ronald V. Yegge faculty, programs, the Bluhm stances. And for the first time, Clinical Director at the Legal Clinic, and much more. a scholarship was created spe- University of Denver Sturm What is most remarkable cifically to celebrate African College of Law, will join us 2 | NORTHWESTERN LAW REPORTER NOTEWORTHY confinement. “Solitary con- National Prison Project. A Broken System finement does one thing: it “Solitary confinement is an breaks a man’s will to live and issue that demands the atten- he ends up deteriorating. He’s tion and action of the public Law Review Symposium never the same person again,” at large,” NULR Symposium Graves said during a congres- Editor Emily McCormick said Shines Light on Solitary sional hearing. “I lived under in a press release. “We sin- the rules of the system that cerely hope this event can be a Confinement is literally driving men out of springboard for change.” their minds.” At the end of his keynote, The Symposium’s other Durbin shared his plans on Imagine being stuck in a six- — so objectively horrifying, so panelists included Albert introducing legislation that by-eight foot cell for 23 hours intrinsically cruel, how did we Woodfox, solitary survi- will reduce the use of solitary a day. No human contact. end up with a prison system vor and author of Solitary; confinement in immigrant No light. Filth everywhere. that may subject more of our Leann Bertsch, direc- detention facilities operated That’s the picture many of the own citizens to it than any tor of the North Dakota by Immigration and Customs panelists painted during the 2019 Northwestern University Law Review Symposium, “Rethinking Solitary Confinement.” The all-day event, held on November 8 in Thorne Auditorium, brought together scholars, lawmakers, correc- tional administration and survi- vors to discuss the legality of the practice, the effects of solitary confinement on individuals, and strategies for change.

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