Professor Robert Lawless was awarded the 2026 Wayne R. LaFave Award for Scholarly Excellence for his book “Debt’s Grip: Risk and Consumer Bankruptcy” (University of California Press, 2025), co-authored with Deborah Thorne and Pamela Foohey. This award was established in 2002 by Michael Moore, the Charles R. Walgreen, Jr. Chair, and Heidi Hurd, the Ross and Helen Workman Chair in Law. The award was established in honor of Professor Wayne LaFave, whose remarkable scholarly legacy in criminal law and procedure is best honored through the recognition of work that is of matching ambition and importance.

Professor Sarah Lawsky spoke on a panel about law school hiring during an AALS Candidates Workshop on August 6, 2026. Her talk was specifically about “Trends in Entry Level Hiring.” The workshop provided faculty candidates an opportunity to hear from a panel of law school professors and administrators with experience in faculty hiring, discuss interview questions, and solicit advice in small groups.

What does the future of nuclear safety look like, and what might still be done to reduce the risk of nuclear disaster, given the demise of NRC independence following the Supreme Court decision in Trump v. Slaughter? An op-ed from Professor Arden Rowell and co-author Jud Mathews published in The Regulatory Review attempts to answer these questions.

The Office of the Provost and Illinois International announced Colleen Murphy’s appointment as vice provost for global engagement earlier this month. In this role, effective as of August 16, 2026, she will serve as the university’s senior international officer, overseeing Illinois International and campuswide initiatives that promote global learning, discovery, and engagement.

An article co-authored by Professors Jennifer Robbennolt, Verity Winship, and alumna Jessica Bregant ’09, originally published in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, has been selected for the 2025 Best Scholarly Article Award by the AALS ADR Section. The Section annually selects an article that makes a significant contribution to the field of dispute resolution and reflects excellent scholarly analysis and writing. “Settlementality” provides an overview and analysis of how the general public views civil litigation and settlement.

A new data-driven dashboard produced by the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign uses predictive modeling to pinpoint U.S. counties that have unusually high or low numbers of police use of lethal force incidents relative to national benchmarks.

Sara Gerke is among five professors at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign that have been named 2026-2027 University Scholars in recognition of their achievements in teaching, scholarship and service. The program honors faculty excellence and provides $15,000 to each scholar for three years to enhance their academic careers. That money may be used for travel, equipment, research assistants, books or other purposes.

Professor Arden Rowell, in conjunction with researchers from the University of Illinois Grainger College of Engineering, recently published an article in Nuclear News proposing an interdisciplinary framework for modernizing one of the foundational principles of radiation protection. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recently released a proposed rule that would remove the long-standing As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) principle from its radiation protection regulations while retaining existing dose limits and opening the proposal for public comment, making their article, “Don’t Scrap ALARA—Modernize It,” especially timely.

In an new essay on Health Affairs, Professor Jacob Sherkow writes that the U.S. Supreme Court made the correct decision in Hikma Pharmaceuticals v. Amarin Pharma, giving generic drug manufacturers important protection against patent suits based on labeling approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This decision will “help preserve patient access to lower-cost medicines,” he writes; however, it also shifts pressure onto FDA, which does not interpret patent claims or decide whether future prescribing will infringe.

In late June, Professor Suja Thomas was a featured speaker at the National Employment Lawyers Association conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. The theme of the conference was “Leading with Vision. Rooted in Justice.” and Professor Thomas spoke in one of the final sessions, covering “The Year in Review: Significant Developments in Employment Law.” Along with two other speakers, Thomas reviewed employment cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court during its 2025–2026 term, as well as significant appellate court, legislative, and state law developments, and the emerging issues reshaping plaintiffs’ employment law practice.