News about College of Law students
The Rickert Awards are the most prestigious awards conferred upon students at the University of Illinois College of Law and recognize excellence in student achievement. The Rickert Awards Program was established in the fall of 1976 and was named in memory of Joseph W. Rickert, a distinguished lawyer who practiced law in southern Illinois for […]
Trying to navigate the morass of state-level abortion laws in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade is “a hot mess,” according to Professor Robin Fretwell Wilson. To help individuals understand the laws where they reside, Wilson and a team of students led by Sara Peal ’25 created a website feature a […]
Akanksha Balekai, class of 2026, has been selected as a 2025 Next Generation Leader by the American Constitution Society. Thirty-one students from law schools around the United States were selected to be part of the 2025 cohort. The selected students were those who demonstrate strong legal skills, a commitment to public service, and a track […]
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 […]
Maybe you’ve heard this one before: an employee fails a urine test despite never having used drugs, only to discover the culprit was a poppyseed muffin. As this story unfolded over a half-hour episode of Seinfeld, the comedy of errors was easy to laugh at, but when a similar case was brought to the Veterans […]
The American College of Bankruptcy has selected Joshua Livingston ’25 as the Seventh Circuit Distinguished Bankruptcy Law Student for 2025. Distinguished Bankruptcy Law Students are selected annually for each Circuit based on their academic excellence, professional accomplishments in bankruptcy or restructuring-related courses, passion for restructuring and insolvency, and commitment to public service and pro bono […]
Judge Thomas Kirsch of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently completed a multi-day visit at the College of Law, as the inaugural Jurist in Residence. The newly launched program aims to deepen the College’s connections to the bench, inspire students to pursue judicial clerkships, and provide them with the opportunity […]
This episode features Abass Sesay, an LLM student from Sierra Leone and founder of the nonprofit, Campaign for Social Justice and Human Rights. We discussed his work promoting climate change action, youth empowerment, and justice, as well as attending the United Nations’ Summit of the Future in and IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings. Listen […]
Founder and director of the Veterans Legal Clinic, Yulanda Curtis, joins the podcast to discuss her passion for providing civil legal services to the veteran community. In the second half of this episode, 3L student Luke Hemmerla, a current member of the Missouri Army National Guard, joins to discuss his work as a clinician and […]
Sitting in front of an audience at the University of Illinois-Springfield, Sara Jane Peal, a 3L student, had no idea what to expect. Alongside Professor Robin Fretwell Wilson, Peal was on stage to discuss their research on reproductive health and reproductive rights in the different states as part of the Institute of Government and Public […]