Category: News

The University of Illinois College of Law is pleased to welcome 10 new faculty members to our roster this fall.   

Joining as an assistant professor of law and Richard W. & Marie L. Corman Scholar, Chan Tov McNamarah comes to Illinois from Cornell Law School, where they were a visiting assistant professor. A scholar of antidiscrimination theory and constitutional law, McNamarah studies the nature of discrimination, the purposes of its legal regulation, and the structure of legal arguments used to justify status-based inequality. Their work has been published in several top journals, selected for presentation at leading conferences, and twice been honored by the Dukeminier Awards for best legal scholarship on gender and sexual orientation. Before entering academia, McNamarah worked as a litigation associate in the New York and Sao Paulo offices of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, focusing on white collar defense and government investigations. 

Also joining the faculty as an assistant professor of law and Richard W. & Marie L. Corman Scholar, Thomas Rousse will use his nontraditional background—including an MSc. in Games Analysis and Design at IT University of Copenhagen, where he produced and designed the award-winning arcade game LAZA KNITEZ!! as part of the Glitchnap studio, as well as work as a games critic and journalist—in teaching and writing about intellectual property, contracts, and the law of creative industries, focusing on video games and new media. Rousse also brings experience in intellectual property litigation and intellectual property strategy and land use disputes. 

Fermín Méndez joins Illinois Law as a clinical professor of law and director of our new Innovation & Entrepreneurship Clinic. An expert on corporate law and securities law, Méndez previously directed the Community Economic Development Clinic at Albany Law School and co-taught the Entrepreneurship Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School. Méndez earned his JD from the University of Michigan Law School and  AB from Harvard University. He also wrestled for Harvard’s D1 Varsity Wrestling Team and works to increase equitable access to the sport for women, girls, and communities of color. 

Heather Beard joins the University of Illinois College of Law as a teaching assistant professor in the legal writing program. She is a double Illini, earning both her BA and JD with honors from the University prior to more than 20 years in federal appellate practice. In her role as senior attorney in the Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation Branch of the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Beard briefed and argued labor law cases before the U.S. Courts of Appeals and advised on Supreme Court litigation.  

Joining the Kimball R. and Karen Gatsis Anderson Center for Advocacy and Professionalism as assistant director is Kelsey Myers. She comes to Illinois Law from North Carolina, where she worked as a trial attorney and gained experience with Chief Justice Beasley of the North Carolina Supreme Court, working in civil litigation focusing on construction defects and medical malpractice, and defending in criminal defense. As a lecturer, Myers will be teaching courses in foundational and advanced trial advocacy and coaching our competitive trial teams. 

Alicia Uribe-McGuire joins the College of Law as a lecturer. She will be teaching as part of our legal studies minor and serving as an advisor to our undergraduate students. Her research interests focus on American political institutions, with a particular emphasis on the United States Judiciary and the intersection between the judiciary and other political actors or bodies. 

Zachary Boyce and Steve Richardson both join the Law Library as teaching assistant professors. Boyce will teach the first-year Legal Research course as well as Advanced Legal Research. His research interests primarily lie at the intersection between Legal History, Book History, and Print Culture, with a particular focus on the materiality and social construction of legal authority. Richardson is a reference librarian and will be teaching Legal Research. He has previously worked in the non-profit sector practicing in the field of immigration law. 

In addition to these full-time faculty members, the College also extends a warm welcome to the following visiting faculty. 

Jason Bent is a visiting professor who currently serves as professor of law and director of the Martin H. Malin Institute for Law and the Workplace at Chicago-Kent School of Law. At Illinois, Bent will teach Civil Procedure and brings experience in employment discrimination law and worker safety regulation. Prior to teaching, he served as judicial clerk to Judge Cornelia Kennedy at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and Judge Joan B. Gottschall at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and was a litigator in private practice in Chicago. 

Brendan Gilligan joins the College of Law as the Stanton Fellow at the First Amendment Clinic and a visiting lecturer. Previously, Gilligan was a legal fellow at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where he worked on digital speech, surveillance, and transparency issues. He also represented individuals charged with federal criminal offenses as a Deputy Federal Public Defender in the Central District of California.  

On behalf of everyone at the College of Law, we are proud to have these individuals join our faculty and extend a warm welcome to our campus.