Brendan Squire has joined AEON Law, a nationally recognized intellectual property boutique, as a patent attorney.
Author: Krista Gaedtke
Streamlining the next generation of Illinois-branded websites
When the Website Management Center of Expertise collaborated with the College of Law, the College of Media and the School of Social Work to solve the challenges on each unit’s websites, the result was three new websites and a roadmap for building more.
Launched just one year ago from the grassroots efforts of the Website Implementation Guidelines Group, the Web CoE was established as part of the universitywide Operational Excellence initiative. With a mission to streamline dedicated resources and centralize expertise, the Web CoE now serves as a vital resource for helping units campuswide create and manage secure, accessible and Illinois-branded websites.
How does it work?
At the heart of the Web CoE is its Website Management Consulting Service, designed to serve any group on campus—regardless of their levels of web experience. Groups can submit a ticket to start the consultation process, whether they’ve inherited an outdated website or are building one from scratch. The consulting team meets with the group to understand their specific goals, audience, technical capacity and needs. Based on this consultation, the team provides expert recommendations and, when appropriate, full-service migration support. Visit the Website Management Consulting Service webpage to learn more about the details of the process.
One of the biggest draws of working with the Web CoE is that it guarantees the final product will meet the university’s standards for accessibility, privacy, security and branding.
Previous Website Implementation Guidelines Group co-leader and current program director for the Website Management Center of Expertise, Cordelia Geiken shared more about why the Web CoE was identified as a part of the Operational Excellence initiative.
“People have been making websites at U of I since Mosaic in 1993, but it’s been all over the place. Our goal is to make things more streamlined, and to enable people to get the help they need in order to be accessible, secure and also branded…. Illinois branding is still pretty new. People are really excited about it and want to improve the user experience on their sites. If you’re on a University of Illinois site, you should know you’re on one.”
Early adopters
This spring, the Web CoE completed full website implementation engagements with its first three early adopters: the College of Law, the College of Media and the School of Social Work. These projects were not only impactful for the individual units, but also valuable learning experiences for the Web CoE itself. The Web CoE engaged in a full website migration for each early adopter.
Geiken said that the early adopters each had a unique situation that the Web CoE had to work through. “All of campus will benefit from the unique situations those units faced,” Geiken said.
The College of Law
Krista Gaedtke, senior director of strategic marketing and communications for the College of Law was always looking for ways to stay connected with what was happening with website design at a campus level. The College of Law had been needing a refresh for a while, and so when talks about the Website Management Center of Expertise reached Gaedtke, she immediately submitted a ticket requesting available resources.
“Our previous site was not in terrible shape – it was nicely designed, well-structured, responsive and accessible, but it was decidedly not ‘on brand.’ There were also a few features that we were using on our previous site that didn’t provide the level of customization or flexibility that we needed, so finding viable alternative solutions was also a priority for the migration,” said Gaedtke.
According to Gaedtke, WordPress had been meeting their needs sufficiently, and so they opted to migrate their old WordPress site onto another WordPress site, focusing on minor re-structuring instead of changing the host.
“The end result is a website that is now fully compliant with Illinois brand guidelines and accessibility standards and takes advantage of many of the design features and components available within the Illinois web theme,” Gaedtke said.
In addition, Gaedtke noted that they were able to complete the website migration at no cost to the College of Law.
“Having gone through the process for a full-service website redesign project within the past ten years, I am well aware of the significant cost savings we were able to achieve with this partnership,” Gaedtke said. “I think we can easily say that we saved the College of Law at least $50,000 on this project, if not more.”
Gaedtke also mentioned several other benefits to partnering with the Web CoE, including regular access to the developers who were building the tools, the ability to offer feedback at will, see adjustments being made in real-time and suggest future developments.
Geiken said that the Web CoE worked with the College of Law for a full migration, and the College of Law then opted to perform their own future regular maintenance. However, as an official user of the Illinois Web theme, the College of Law will now have first access to all new product releases on the Illinois Web theme and tech support whenever needed.
“There was a point person for the project on both the Web CoE team and on our team. Dena Strong was assigned as our Web CoE liaison for the project; her background is user experience design, but she had to wear many different hats throughout our project, and she was an absolute rockstar. We met on a bi-weekly basis,” Gaedtke said.
Dena Strong, the Web CoE liaison for the project, is a senior information design specialist at Technology Services.
Gaedtke explained that the Web CoE drove the overall management of the project, prioritized action items, migrated all the content over to a development site, worked with them to make it look how they wanted; they performed troubleshooting and also advised on how to utilize certain tools.
On the other hand, Gaedtke’s team worked on making sure all the content was accurate and up-to-date, structured as they wanted it to be, and designed consistently across pages. As the site was on the College of Law’s server, they were also responsible for ensuring that they were aligned to the College of Law’s privacy and security best practices.
“There were certainly some growing pains along the way… simply because this was the first time that either of our teams were engaged in this type of project,” said Gaedtke. “We are really pleased with the end result.”
The College of Media
Without a web developer on staff, Holly Rushakoff, director of communications for the College of Media, was seeking assistance to update the college’s site when she was connected with Cordelia Geiken.
Media’s previous website was on Drupal and was a redesign that had been completed in 2019. According to Rushakoff, the web design of their page had impactful landing pages, but the other pages were simple with limited design and functionality options. Rushakoff also explained that the photos had to be a certain width or else it would break the flow of the page. These limitations were addressed with the Web CoE.
“The new website has accessibility enhancements and an incredible selection of design and layout options, from buttons to call-to-action blocks to clickable cards, plus photo slideshows, pull-quotes, and many header styles—and of course Illinois orange and blue templates to choose from. These design features enable us to make our stories much more visually dynamic and pull readers through the story or a landing page in a more engaging way, with multiple entry points,” Rushakoff said.
Working on the site was a year-long process, with many working meetings between Rushakoff and her Web CoE liaison, Liz Shallenberger, user experience design specialist at Technology Services.
“The Web CoE team offered a wide range of expertise in web, graphic and user experience design, information architecture, accessibility and more. There were no questions they couldn’t answer! It was incredibly helpful and reassuring to have guidance from the Website Management Center of Expertise team throughout the entire process,” Rushakoff said.
Throughout the engagement, the College of Media was responsible for tasks such as auditing and organizing their content, tracking accessibility reviews, redesigning past stories with the new story template, updating short URLs and testing the development site for any issues before launch.
“I had an excellent experience working with the team from the Website Management Center of Expertise! Although it was a lot of extra work, it was primarily a joyful process because we could see the exciting transformation as we worked on the development site and chipped away at our milestones,” Rushakoff said.
The final product is a new Illinois-branded, accessible and secure website hosted on the Tech Services server, with people from the College of Media ready to perform site maintenance.
The School of Social Work
Over the years, the School of Social Work has had many conversations with units on campus about their lack of internal web support. Without internal staff dedicated to web support, they had been working with an external vendor.
“We started with well-designed, accessible, highly customized site that was expensive to maintain. Through migration [with the Web CoE], we transitioned to a clean, fresh design with significantly improved content organization. The new site aligns with our brand, enhances user experience and will hopefully be much easier to maintain in the long run,” said Becky Ponder, director of communications for the School of Social Work.
The previous site was a vended site hosted on WordPress with extensive customization.
“We had to do custom scripting in order to export their site out from their old environment to their current one. They don’t have staff to maintain their site, so we came up with a solution to address that, working with field consultants at Tech Services. We were able to hire a part-time field consultant to do maintenance for them,” Geiken said.
According to Ponder, the Website CoE managed more of the technical aspects of the site, while the School of Social work’s team focused on content, design preferences and identifying functional needs.
Social Work partnered up with Web CoE liaison and lead consultant for the project Huaqi Zhang, user experience design specialist at Technology Services.
“It was a true partnership, with both teams working diligently to ensure the site met our goals,” Ponder said.
The result was a full migration to a fresh site with dedicated web maintenance support from Tech Services. Receiving overall website support from campus has resulted in significant cost savings for the School of Social Work.
“One of the biggest takeaways from this migration is how complex website transitions can be, even with a great support team. Every website has unique needs, and ensuring all integrations function properly takes time and patience. It was a learning experience for everyone involved! While it was a complex transition, we’re grateful to have the new site launched and are very happy with it,” Ponder said.
Tailored help for everyone
The Web CoE has created a list of campus web resources for anyone at the university. This list of resources will be ever-evolving, updated with resources to support groups with all web-related concerns.
“Not everybody needs someone else to set up or maintain their sites. So we wanted to provide some resources for those who do have staff who can do all this for them. This is where collaboration comes in, and this is what this resources page and what our group is all about. We are trying to create a place for people to collaborate, to use whatever resources they have to join in the efforts to unify and protect our websites. So far, it has produced a much better product across the board,” Geiken said. Following the work on the three early adopter’s websites, the Web CoE will be reflecting and refining the program processes while engaging with the College of Applied Health Sciences on a website migration. The Web CoE will be ready to work with more units in the later summer of 2025. If you’re interested in learning more or working with the Web CoE, submit a ticket to start a conversation or to get on the list.
Visit the Website Management Center of Expertise website to learn more about the group or the Website Management Consulting Service to learn more about the program.
The Big Ten Law Schools present Rule of Law in 2025
The Big Ten law schools have coordinated a series of virtual panel discussions that examine the Rule of Law in 2025 after an unprecedented series of executive orders, legal interpretations, and administrative actions by the Trump administration over the last several months. Distinguished panelists will present a broad range of perspectives and nuanced views on the rule of law during a period of constitutional, legal, and governmental recalibration.
Panels will take place on Wednesdays, 4:00 – 5:00 pm (CST) from March 26 to May 28, 2025. Attendees may join virtually: https://law.unl.edu/ruleoflaw/
March 26 | The Ohio State University Moritz School of Law
Rule of Law and Separation of Powers, Part I: Executive Authority and Compliance with Court Orders
Panelists: Danielle Jefferis, Schmid Professor for Excellence in Research, University of Nebraska College of Law; Brandon Johnson, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Nebraska College of Law; Peter Shane, Professor of Law Emeritus, Moritz College of Law; Ilan Wurman, Julius E. Davis Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School; Steve Huefner, C. William O’Neill Professor in Law and Judicial Administration, Moritz College of Law (moderator).
April 2 | Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
Rule of Law and Separation of Powers, Part II: Executive Authority and the Administrative State
Panelists: Monica Haymond, Assistant Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law; John O. McGinnis, George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law; Daniel B. Rodriguez, Harold Washington Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law; James B. Speta, Elizabeth Froehling Horner Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law; Hari M. Osofsky, Dean and Myra and James Bradwell Professor of Law, Professor of Environmental Law and Culture (Courtesy), Northwestern Pritzker School of Law (moderator).
April 9 | Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Rearticulation of Sex and Gender
Panelists: Valena Beety, McKinney Professor of Law, Indiana University Maurer School of Law; Katie Eyer, Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School; Marc Spindelman, Isadore and Ida Topper Professor of Law, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law; Deborah Widiss, John F. “Jack” Kimberling Chair and Professor of Law, Indiana University Maurer School of Law; Christiana Ochoa, Dean and Herman B Wells Professor of Law, Indiana University Maurer School of Law (moderator)
April 16 | Rutgers Law School
International Law and U.S. Threats to Sovereignty
Panelists: Karima Bennoune, Lewis M. Simes Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School; Jean-Marc Coicaud, Distinguished Professor of Law and Global Affairs, Rutgers Law School; Adil Haque, Professor of Law and Judge Jon O. Newman Scholar, Rutgers Law School; Brian Lepard, Harold W. Conroy Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Nebraska College of Law; Sarah Dadush, Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School (moderator)
April 23 | University of Minnesota Law School
Rule of Law and Separation of Powers, Part III: Executive Authority to Enforce the Laws
April 30 | University of Nebraska College of Law and Penn State Dickinson Law
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging as part of the First Amendment and Academic Freedom
Panelists: Erik Girvan, Bernard B. Kliks Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, University of Oregon School of Law; Stacy Hawkins, Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School; John O. McGinnis, George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law, Northwestern; University Pritzker School of Law; Danielle Conway, Dean and Donald J. Farage Professor of Law, Penn State Dickinson Law (moderator) and Richard Moberly, Dean and Richard C. & Catherine S. Schmoker Professor of Law, University of Nebraska College of Law (moderator).
May 7 | University of Wisconsin Law School
Citizenship and Immigration
May 14 | University of Oregon School of Law
What is the “Rule of Law”?
May 21 | University of Illinois College of Law
The States’ Role in Protecting the Rule of Law
May 28 | UCLA School of Law
Judicial and Presidential Dismantling of Administrative Capacity
Michael Fredendall ‘21
Michael Fredendall has joined the Illinois Educational Association as Associate General Counsel where he will advocate on behalf of teacher’s unions throughout the state.
Miguel Zaldivar (LLM ’88), Hogan Lovells CEO, to deliver 2025 Convocation address
The University of Illinois College of Law is pleased to announce that Miguel Zaldivar (LLM ’88) will deliver the convocation address to the Class of 2025. The College of Law Convocation Ceremony will take place Saturday, May 17, at 4:30 p.m. in the Great Hall of Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
Miguel Zaldivar is a partner and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Hogan Lovells, responsible for the firm’s overall global direction and strategic leadership. He became CEO in July 2020 and is one of only a handful of Latino leaders of any major global law firm.
Under Miguel’s leadership, Hogan Lovells has achieved record financial results. In 2025, the firm achieved nearly US$3 billion in global revenue, charting steady growth year-on-year. In recent years, Hogan Lovells has also strengthened its investments in top-tier legal talent, sector leadership, and critical advancements in AI.
As a practicing lawyer, Miguel is widely recognized as a leading lawyer in complex international cross-border transactions and has facilitated multi-billion dollar investments and transactions totaling in excess of US$75 billion across the world. Successful negotiation and execution of deals in highly-regulated markets continues to be a core practice for the firm and a key driver of growth
Miguel taught the “Project Development and Finance in Latin America” course at the University of Miami School of Law from 2003 to 2010, was a professor of law at Universidad Católica in Venezuela from 1991 to 1993 and has been a frequent lecturer at legal seminars.
Miguel is committed to the firm’s philanthropic activities, including leading on the firm’s work with not-for-profit charity Santa Marta Group, which is focused on eradicating human trafficking and modern-day slavery. Under Miguel’s leadership, Hogan Lovells also joined forced with the international charity WaterAid in a three-year partnership to support water, sanitation, and hygiene projects across the world.
He is passionate about collaboration, actively listening to clients’ needs, and mentoring lawyers to build enduring relationships. Pro bono work, community engagement, and fostering an inclusive workplace culture where all lawyers can thrive are among Miguel’s top priorities. He has championed efforts to support the development and advancement of the firm’s lawyers from all backgrounds.
Before becoming CEO, he served as Regional Chief Executive for the Asia, Pacific Middle East region. He had been a member of the Global Board of Directors, served as Co-leader of the Infrastructure, Energy, Resources and Projects practice area and co-founded Hogan Lovells’ Latin American Practice.
Miguel earned his LLM at the University of Illinois College of Law and his JD at University of Miami School of Law.
For more information about Convocation for the Class of 2025, please visit our website.
Let’s Kill All the Lawyers: The Friday Night Massacre of Judge Advocates General
In a co-authored blog post for Justia Verdict, Professors Lesley Wexler and Tony Ghiotto explore the significance of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s firing of Judge Advocates General in late February. Were these firings truly unprecedented? What consequences may arise from these firings, whether within military legal practice or how the military fights wars and complies with international law? Do they contribute to an ongoing existential threat to democracy and defense?
American Health Law Association Names Julia Sun Inaugural Student Writing Competition Winner
The American Health Law Association (AHLA) is pleased to announce Julia Sun, a second-year law student at the University of Illinois College of Law, as the recipient of its inaugural Student Writing Competition Award. This new recognition program celebrates emerging talent and fresh perspectives in health law scholarship.
The Student Writing Competition represents AHLA’s commitment to fostering excellence in health law education and supporting the next generation of health care legal professionals. The award includes a $500 prize and featured publication of the winning paper on AHLA’s digital platforms.
“Julia’s work exemplifies the innovative thinking and rigorous analysis we aim to cultivate within the health law community,” says Asha B. Scielzo, AHLA President. “Her unique background in human biology and regulatory affairs brings valuable interdisciplinary insights to complex health care legal challenges.”
Sun brings distinctive expertise to health law through her previous experience in pharmaceutical and medical device industry regulatory matters. Her winning paper was selected through a blind review process by a distinguished panel of AHLA member judges, who evaluated submissions based on their analysis of timely health law, policy, and compliance issues.
A graduate of UC San Diego with a bachelor’s degree in human biology, Sun’s research interests focus on the intersection of law, science, and innovation, particularly in navigating complex regulatory frameworks within the health care sector. She is currently pursuing her J.D. at the University of Illinois College of Law, Class of 2026.
The competition, which drew submissions from ABA-accredited law schools nationwide, required professor nominations and evaluated papers based on their examination of current health law issues, analytical depth, and balanced presentation of legal and policy considerations.
AHLA will feature Sun’s winning paper on its website and promote her scholarship through its social media channels, providing visibility to her work among the Association’s 12,000 members representing the entire spectrum of the health care industry.
For more information about the AHLA Student Writing Competition and future opportunities, please contact awards@americanhealthlaw.org.
Wexler invited to affiliate with National Institute of Military Justice as a Fellow
In recognition of her excellence and distinction as a leader in the field of military law, Professor Lesley Wexler has been invited to affiliate with the National Institute of Military Justice (NIMJ) as a Fellow. NIMJ was founded in 1991, and is the only American non-profit institute dedicated to the study of improvement of the military justice system. Wexler joins fellow College of Law professor and military veteran Tony Ghiotto in her affiliation with NIMJ.
Fernando Diaz ’16
Fernando Diaz has joined Gunster’s Real Property practice as of counsel at its Fort Lauderdale office. Experienced in transactions, compliance, and litigation, Diaz brings a 360-degree perspective in helping clients mitigate and resolve environmental risks and disputes. With his specialty in the complex environmental issues that arise in transactions, Diaz advises clients on risk allocation, environmental due diligence, provisions in purchase, sale and financing agreements, and environmental insurance. He also helps clients with annexations, site plans, comprehensive plan amendments, rezonings and large-scale master plan approvals.
Hurd delivers Alistair Macleod Distinguished Lecture in Philosophy at Queen’s University
Heidi M. Hurd gave the prestigious Alistair Macleod Distinguished Lecture in Philosophy at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, in late February 2025. Entitled “The Immorality of Mercy,” Professor Hurd’s talk to a packed auditorium of faculty and graduate students in law and the humanities challenged the claim that mercy is compatible with justice.