“The College of Law is humbled to have such a diverse and impressive group of employer partners,” Jamelle Sharpe, dean of the College of Law, said. “We are especially pleased to have so many employers included on the Honor Roll this year. It’s a testament to the quality of our graduates and their ability to add value on day one.”

First created in 2014, the Honor Roll has been updated annually since. This year’s group includes many long-time honorees, as well as a large number of new employers. 

“We appreciate the chance to be of service to so many great legal providers,” noted Greg Miarecki, the College’s executive assistant dean for Career Planning and Professional Development.  “We are excited to continue working with our Honor Roll employers and all of our employer partners in this dynamic and challenging recruiting environment.”

In 2025, the College of Law introduced the first annual Employer Honor Roll luncheon, which welcomed more than 100 attendees from over 50 different employers.  Employer Honor Roll members listed below will receive their awards at the next Honor Roll luncheon, currently slated for the fall of 2026.

DIAMOND

Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Sidley Austin LLP

PLATINUM

Benesch
Chapman and Cutler LLP
Circuit Court of Cook County
Del Galdo Law Group, LLC
Heyl Royster
Husch Blackwell LLP
Jenner & Block LLP
Jones Day
Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender
Litchfield Cavo LLP
McDermott Will & Schulte
McGuireWoods
Meyer Capel
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Office of the Cook County Public Guardian
Office of the Illinois Attorney General
Reed Smith LLP
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP
University of Illinois – Office of University Counsel
Wilson Elser
Winston Taylor

GOLD

Champaign County State’s Attorney’s Office
Dickinson Wright PLLC
Donohue Brown Smyth LLC
Foley & Lardner LLP
Foran Glennon Palandech Ponzi & Rudloff PC
Greenberg Traurig, LLP
Ice Miller LLP
Internal Revenue Service
Jackson Lewis PC
Office of the State Appellate Defender
Polsinelli
Quarles & Brady LLP
U.S. Army JAG Corps
United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois
United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois
Vedder
WilliamsMcCarthy LLP

SILVER

Akerman LLP
ArentFox Schiff LLP
Barnes & Thornburg LLP
Beermann LLP
Champaign County Public Defender’s Office
City of Chicago Department of Law
Crowell & Moring
DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office
Dykema
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
Fish & Richardson P.C.
Fox Rothschild LLP
Grant Austin, LLC
Hall Prangle LLC
Illinois Appellate Court, First District
Illinois Appellate Court, Fourth District Research Department
Jackson LLP
Johnson & Bell, Ltd.
K&L Gates LLP
King & Spalding
Latham & Watkins LLP
Levenfeld Pearlstein, LLC
Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP
Macon County Public Defender’s Office
Maron Marvel Bradley Anderson & Tardy LLC
Mayer Brown
McAndrews, Held & Malloy, Ltd.
McGuire Law, P.C.
Morgan & Morgan, P.A.
National Labor Relations Board
Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP
Nyhan, Bambrick, Kinzie, & Lowry
Patzik, Frank & Samotny Ltd.
Peoria County State’s Attorney’s Office
Ropes & Gray LLP
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Squire Patton Boggs
Swanson, Martin & Bell, LLP
Thomas Mamer, LLP
Thompson Coburn LLP
Troutman Pepper Locke
United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of Illinois
Venable LLP
Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP

The complete list of Honor Roll employers, along with the methodology for selecting employers, can be found at www.law.illinois.edu/careers/employer-honor-roll.

Liu is General Counsel and Director of the Legal Department of the International Monetary Fund. In her role, she serves as an advisor to the IMF’s Executive Board, management, staff, and country membership on all legal aspects of IMF operations and functions. Liu was promoted to General Counsel in October 2024, becoming only the second female to serve in that role in the 80-year history of IMF.

Since 1999 Liu has been with the IMF, in that time leading the Legal Department’s work on a range of issues, such as reforming IMF policies on lending; strengthening central banking and financial sector legal frameworks; leading work on corporate and household insolvency, and public debt management; and contributing to the development of international standards for financial regulation. She is an expert in sovereign debt, setting the Fund’s IMF policies in this field and supporting the Common Framework and the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable. Liu has published extensively in areas such as private debt, sovereign debt restructuring, and good governance.

Liu received her Juris Doctor from Illinois in 1994, and a master’s degree from the University of Chicago. Prior to joining the IMF, she practiced corporate and securities law in the United States.

For more information about the convocation ceremony, please visit our website.

Read more about Muhawe’s work.

Born and raised in Virginia, Lisa knew from a young age that she wanted to be a lawyer, and chose Illinois Law for its reputation, diversity, and connection to the Chicago legal world. After graduating, Lisa worked as a Litigation and Entertainment Associate at Holland & Knight in Chicago for nearly nine years. Her experience there included a broad array of corporate legal matters as well as the opportunity to represent Grammy Award-winning musicians, best-selling authors, Academy Award-nominated filmmakers, and others in matters such as contract negotiations.

Lisa has received several awards for her contributions to the legal profession, as well as for her service work. Mentoring, in particular, is a passion for Lisa, and in addition to her robust practice she maintains a number of mentees through organizations like the Posse Foundation.

In our conversation, we discussed her background and her journey to law school, her memories of her time at Illinois, and how she has came to her current position with United Airlines. We also dove into her passion for mentoring, and why giving back is such an important part of her practice and her life. Finally, we discussed her newest method of giving back, the Monday Mentoring Moment Newsletter, which she recently launched to help share her wisdom with more individuals.

If you are interested in subscribing to her newsletter, you can find it on LinkedIn.

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If you have comments or suggestions for the podcast, please contact podcast@law.illinois.edu.

Among the many outstanding facts about his life, Downey may be the only person who chose to attend law school rather than play in the NBA. He never played a game for the San Francisco Warriors, who drafted him in 1963, but he did graduate from the College of Law in 1966, and his law degree remained a point of pride throughout his life according to his wife, Jane Hays ’79. 

“Dave was truly one of a kind,” Hays said. “He was proud of his law degree from Illinois, and forever grateful for the education, friendship, patience, and forbearance of his professors and classmates.”

Coming from humble beginnings did not stop Downey from dreaming big. He made it to college on a basketball scholarship and worked part time to help make ends meet. He kept his job selling insurance as a law student, but despite employment was unable to pay for the needs of his growing family and buy all the books he needed. Though this frustrated some professors, his prodigious memory and the aid of study groups helped earn admittance to the Illinois bar.

Downey chose not to pursue a legal career, opting instead to continue with Mass Mutual and using his degree to advocate for the insurance industry in Washington, D.C., and helping organize the Advanced Association of Life Underwriters.

“He told people, self-effacingly, that he didn’t think of himself as a ‘real lawyer,’” Hays said. “Nevertheless, he knew his law degree and bar admission were vitally important to his successful career in advanced life insurance.”

Outside of professional life, Downey was committed to serving the community. He served on the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, the University of Illinois Foundation Board, the University of Illinois Athletic Board, and the Illinois Board of Higher Education, among other endeavors. He and Hays have also provided generous philanthropic support to almost every academic unit on campus, most recently endowing the Phyllis M. Wise Endowed Professor in Medicine and Innovation at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine.

For his professional and philanthropic efforts, Downey received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Law in 1984. His blazer may not hang in the rafters of the Law Building the way his jersey hangs in State Farm Center, but he will not be forgotten. The College of Law sends its condolences to all of Downey’s family and friends.

Watch the video of their debate online.

Few individuals are as dedicated to Illinois as Kelly. A double Illini, graduating with an undergraduate degree in integrative biology in 2002 and JD in 2005, she began her career at the College of Law right after taking the bar exam, serving initially as Assistant Director of Academic and Student Administration. Over the past twenty years, Kelly has continued her work with students, leading to her most recent position as Senior Director of Academic Administration and Student Records.

Known to students for her work in academic counseling and an always friendly presence in the Law Building, Kelly will be able to increase her interaction with students as the leader of the student services team. She has a strong commitment to helping make Illinois more than just a place to earn a degree and is eager to foster success in the student body in her new role.

“I am committed to supporting every student’s academic, professional, and personal growth,” she said. “Our student services team will be engaged with the vibrant student community to help foster belonging, leadership, and connection across diverse backgrounds and interests. Students won’t just study law here—they’ll find their people and their path.”

Evident by her tenure at the College of Law, Kelly has deep affection for the University of Illinois and the surrounding community, where she has proudly raised her family. We are very fortunate to have her as our new Dean of Students and look forward to seeing the great things Dean Salefski will help our students accomplish.

The Law and Society Association Annual Meeting took place in Chicago, Illinois, on May 22–25, 2025, and featured a number of College of Law faculty and JSD students as presenters. Illinois Law professors presenting included Kenworthey Bilz, Bob Lawless, Jennifer Robbennolt, and Verity Winship; affiliated faculty presenting included Jose Atiles and Anna Marshall; and JSD students presenting included Thallyta Cavoli, Elsa Zawedde, and Qiaoyuan Zhi. Among others at the conference affiliated with Illinois were Vanessa Villanueva Collao, JSD ’24; Catherine Grosso, visiting assistant professor from 2005-’08; Dara Purvis, visiting assistant professor from 2010-’13; and So Young Park, JD ’21. The 2025 meeting explored questions central to control and compassion related to the human body, ranging from reproductive justice and LGBTQ equality to disability rights and the death penalty.

“We are excited to welcome a record-breaking number of employers to our Honor Roll this year,” noted Greg Miarecki, the College’s Executive Assistant Dean for Career Planning and Professional Development. “And we are especially gratified to have longtime Honor Roll members from across the profession enhancing their standings this year – this reflects strong and continuing demand for our outstanding graduates,” Miarecki added. 

Diamond
Heyl Royster
Jones Day
Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Platinum
Barnes & Thornburg LLP
Chapman and Cutler LLP
Circuit Court of Cook County
Husch Blackwell LLP
Jackson Lewis P.C.
Jenner & Block LLP
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Land of Lincoln Legal Aid
McDermott Will & Emery
McGuireWoods LLP
Meyer Capel
Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP
Office of Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service
Reed Smith LLP
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
The Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender
Thompson Coburn LLP
Troutman Pepper Locke LLP
United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois
Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker LLP
Winston & Strawn LLP

Gold
Cook County Public Guardian
Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office
Deloitte Tax LLP
Donohue Brown Mathewson & Smyth LLC
Dykema
Greenberg Traurig
Illinois Office of the State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor
Mayer Brown LLP
Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP
Office of the State Appellate Defender
Polsinelli
Quarles & Brady LLP
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP
United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois
University of Illinois – Office of University Counsel
Vedder Price P.C.

Silver
Ancel Glink, P.C.
Beermann LLP  
Benesch
Brennan Burtker LLC
Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella, P.C.
Del Galdo Law Group, LLC
Dickinson Wright PLLC
DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
Fidelity National Financial, Inc.
Fish & Richardson P.C.
Fox Rothschild LLP
Hall Prangle & Schoonveld, LLC
Ice Miller LLP
Johnson & Bell, Ltd.
K&L Gates LLP
Latham & Watkins LLP
Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP
LG Electronics
Littler Mendelson P.C.
Maron Marvel Bradley Anderson & Tardy LLC
National Labor Relations Board
Nyhan, Bambrick, Kinzie & Lowry
Office of the Illinois Attorney General
Peoria County State’s Attorney’s Office
Rakoczy Molino Mazzochi Siwik LLP
Swanson, Martin & Bell, LLP
U.S. Army JAG Corps
United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana
Venable LLP

The complete list of Honor Roll employers, along with the methodology for selecting employers, can be found at www.law.illinois.edu/careers/employer-honor-roll.

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