The Indiana University Maurer School of Law Academy of Law will welcome four new members into its Academy of Law Alumni Fellows this spring with the inductions of Linda Fariss, Agnes Peters, Earl Singleton, and James Strain.
Induction into the ALAF is the highest honor the Law School can bestow upon an alumnus. This year’s ceremony will take place April 11 in the Indiana Memorial Union in Bloomington.
“Linda, Agnes, Earl, and James have made extraordinary contributions to their local communities, the legal profession, and the Law School,” said Indiana Law Dean Christiana Ochoa. “Their stories are remarkable testaments to the impact our alumni have around the world and we couldn’t be more proud to honor them this spring.”
Linda Fariss ’88 received her B.S. and M.L.S. from Indiana University, where she was a member of Beta Phi Mu. She received her J.D. magna cum laude from the Law School, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif. During her 40 years at the Law School, the Jerome Hall Law Library experienced remarkable growth, both in the collections and among the staff. Fariss was instrumental in promoting all areas of growth, especially in expanding the services offered by the library. Directly responsible for all public service areas of the Law Library, Fariss was active in Law School and university committees. She also served as human resources officer for the Law Library and liaison to the Law School for all personnel matters. Along with Keith Buckley, Fariss taught Legal Bibliography and Law Library Administration through the IU School of Library and Information Science. Fariss was named interim director of the library upon the retirement of Professor Colleen Pauwels in June 2011 and appointed director in 2012. She retired on December 31, 2016.
Agnes Peters ’78 originally set out to be an actress or singer when she enrolled in IU’s Radio and Television program as an undergraduate at Indiana University. She quickly gained recognition in Bloomington, earning the inaugural Jack Sheehan Award for Creativity. A Fulbright Scholarship took her to Poland, where Peters directed her first feature film. After finding it challenging to break through as a performer in Los Angeles, Peters returned to Bloomington, where she graduated from Law School as one of the top students in the Class of 1978. With her law degree in hand, Peters returned to Los Angeles, where she found breaking into entertainment law to be just as—if not more—challenging as succeeding as a performer. Peters credits the late Willard Carr, a 1950 Indiana Law alumnus and 1999 ALAF inductee, with helping her join the Los Angeles legal community. Peters’ determination and Carr’s guidance eventually helped her break into the movie industry, serving as a corporate attorney for two entertainment studios, including the theatrical release department of Columbia Pictures.
Earl Singleton is a 1986 graduate of the Law School. Prior to his legal education, Professor Singleton held a variety of administrative positions at the university level. Before returning to Indiana Law as a clinical professor, Singleton practiced privately, specializing in litigation. In 1989 he joined the Indiana Law community as supervising attorney of the Community Legal Clinic and in 1991 was appointed the director of Legal Services. Until his retirement at the end of the 2017-18 academic year, Singleton supervised and evaluated the performance of the legal interns and administered the operation of the Community Legal Clinic. Through the clinic, Singleton helped third-year students sharpen and develop skills while representing clients under the Indiana Student Practice Rule. In this professional setting, he guided students through the processes of client interviewing and counseling, fact investigation, drafting, negotiating, trial techniques, and preparing for and conducting trials and administrative hearings.
James Strain ’69 primarily practiced in the areas of securities law, mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance at TaftLaw. Before joining Taft in 1996, Strain was chairperson of the business department of Barnes & Thornburg, where he had been a partner for 20 years. Prior to joining Barnes & Thornburg in 1973, Strain had been law clerk to the late U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice William H. Rehnquist, and before that to Judge John S. Hastings, then-Senior Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Between his clerkships, he was an associate with Cahill, Gordon & Reindel in New York City. Strain was one of the architects of the Indiana Business Corporation Law and successfully defended its Control Shares Acquisition Chapter before the United States Supreme Court in CTS Corporation v. Dynamics Corporation of America. He was recognized in the top tier of leading corporate/M&A lawyers in Indiana in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business from 2003-2019. Best Lawyers of America®, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession, named Jim as the “Indianapolis Securities / Capital Markets Law Lawyer of the Year” for 2015 and the “Indianapolis Corporate Governance Law Lawyer of the Year” for 2012. He has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America® for more than 35 years. In 2014, Jim was recognized by the Indiana Lawyer as a Distinguished Barrister.