The Indiana University Maurer School of Law is proud to welcome Andrew Hammond to the faculty beginning in January 2023.

Hammond is currently an associate professor of law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he writes and teaches in the areas of administrative law, civil procedure, and poverty law.

“Andrew is an outstanding young scholar and teacher and we’re excited to welcome him for the spring semester,” said Indiana Law Dean Christiana Ochoa. “He’s doing important work in civil procedure and administrative law, and his focus on poverty aligns with many of our developing programs. We are excited to add Andrew and our other new and visiting faculty to our already outstanding group of scholars and teachers.”

It was the strong reputation of the faculty that attracted Hammond to Bloomington.

“I’ve long admired the scholarly culture at the Maurer School of Law,” he said. “The faculty is known nationwide as an intellectual and collegial group with a history of interdisciplinary work that extends beyond Indiana and the nation.”

Before joining the University of Florida, Hammond was a lecturer in the College and the Law School at the University of Chicago. Prior to entering academia, he clerked for then-Chief Judge Diane P. Wood of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Judge Robert M. Dow of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He then went on to practice as a legal aid attorney at the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law in Chicago, first as a Skadden Fellow and later Of Counsel.

At Florida, Hammond has been a prolific scholar, with articles either published or forthcoming in the California Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, and the Northwestern University Law Review, among others. He said he’s eager to begin sharing his research with his new colleagues.

“The faculty at Maurer is so strong across the board,” Hammond said. “(They) have renowned scholars working in my chosen fields of civil procedure and public law and in several adjacent areas of interest. It’s incredibly appealing to have the opportunity to work with the Maurer faculty.”

Aneil Kovvali, a corporate law and governance professor, joined the Law School in fall 2022 from the University of Chicago School of Law.

In addition to Hammond and Kovvali, the Law School welcomed three highly regarded visiting professors this year: Kellye Testy, Cynthia Williams, and Zhuhao (Henry) Wang.

Testy, who was in residence for spring 2022, is the president and chief executive officer of the Law School Admissions Council. A 1991 graduate of the Maurer School of Law, Testy is a prolific scholar, outstanding teacher, and experienced administrator. She focuses her research and scholarship on contracts, corporate governance, business entities, leadership, and access to justice. She is known throughout academic and legal communities for her dedication to the rule of law and its commitment to justice and equality, and served as dean of the University of Washington School of Law from 2009-17.

Williams joined York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School (Toronto) in 2013 as the Osler Chair in Business Law, a position she also held from 2007 to 2009. Before moving to Osgoode, she was a member of the faculty at the University of Illinois College of Law and, prior to that practiced law at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City. Her book, The Embedded Firm: Corporate Governance, Labor, And Finance Capitalism, co-edited with Osgoode Professor Peer Zumbansen, was published in 2011 by Cambridge University Press and was featured at the Society for Socio-Economics Annual Conference in 2012 at MIT. Her groundbreaking work explores how finance, securities, and corporate law are essential to addressing the most pressing social and environmental problems of our time. Her recent articles have appeared, for example, in the Texas Law Review, the Cornell International Law Journal, and the Journal of Corporate Law. Williams is visiting the Maurer School of Law through the end of the fall 2022 semester.

Wang is visiting from the China University of Political Science and Law, where he serves as an associate professor. A 2011 graduate of Indiana Law, Wang’s research focuses on evidence and proof, exploring evidence law outside the jury context and common law traditions, and rethinking evidentiary rules for important non-jury proceedings like bench trials, arbitration and administrative proceedings. His scholarship has been published with or is forthcoming in the Vanderbilt Law Review, UC Irvine Law Review, and International Journal of Evidence and Proof, among other journals. While teaching, Professor Wang serves as Councilor and Associate Executive Director of the International Association of Evidence Science.

Pro Bono Awards were presented to three Indiana Law students and a local attorney Wednesday (October 26) in a jointly sponsored ceremony hosted by the Law School, its Access to Justice Fellows, and Faegre Drinker.

“Becoming a lawyer is not just a privilege, it’s also a responsibility,” said Dean Christiana Ochoa. “And that special responsibility of being a lawyer includes serving our communities in whatever ways we’re able to. The students we recognize today have gone above and beyond in their service, and we as a school and as a local community are so grateful for their efforts.”

Indiana Law students completed nearly 6,500 hours of pro bono service over the 2021-22 academic year. The school has an aspirational goal for every student to perform at least 20 hours of pro bono service every year.

This year’s awards class recognize the students from each class who performed the most pro bono hours during the 2021-22 academic year.

Class awards

Mady Lacefield, Class of 2023: Mady completed 111 hours of pro bono work with the Protective Order Project (POP), Lawyers Without Borders, and the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office. Throughout her time with POP, she has worked with numerous clients who have expressed that, without POP’s help, they would not have known how to get the help they needed or been able to afford legal assistance.

Zion Miller, Class of 2024: Zion completed 152 hours of pro bono service, and is an associate for the Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality and is currently competing in the Sherman Minton Moot Court competition. Last year Miller participated in Outreach for Legal Literacy and coached Indiana University’s undergraduate mock trial program. This year, he is the head coach for the undergraduate mock trial program.

Ahmed Enani, SJD/LLM: Ahmed joined the SJD program at Maurer School of Law in 2019, and has been volunteering with the Incarcerated Individuals Legal Assistance Project (ILAP) and POP ever since. He performed 51 hours of pro bono service last year.

Community Award

Asher Waite-Jones. Asher has dedicated his professional career to supporting people impacted by racialized mass incarceration. Asher is a Staff Attorney in the Bloomington Office of Indiana Legal Services (ILS). At ILS, Asher runs the Expungement Help Desk, working alongside Maurer students to represent hundreds of low-income Hoosiers impacted by the criminal legal system. Asher and his students represent clients in expungements, motions to vacate court debt, and other matters related to collateral consequences of legal system involvement. Prior to ILS, Asher worked as a Staff Attorney and Clinical Supervisor at the East Bay Community Law Center in Berkeley, CA, working alongside clients impacted by carceral state debt, fines, and fees. Outside of work, Asher is on the Board of Directors and a regular volunteer at Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, a local food pantry and advocacy organization in Bloomington.

Also recognized for their contributions to public service were Senior Lecturer in Law Seth Lahn, clinic coordinator Ginnie Phero, and 2022 graduate Asa Gelber. Gelber, an assistant public defender with the Cook County (Ill.) Public Defender’s Office, amassed more than 1,000 hours of pro bono service alone in 2021-22, driving weekly to Chicago to volunteer.

Ochoa also thanked Access to Justice Fellows Andrew Parra and Beka Schwartz for their assistance organizing the program and ceremony.

You can handle the truth.

Or at least that’s what Chuck Salter and the News Literacy Project hope. In a world where fake news, disinformation, propaganda, and misinformation are more prevalent than ever, the 2003 Indiana Law alumnus and the nonprofit organization he leads are doing all they can to help citizens determine the credibility of news and other information they’re receiving.

“We’re based on the idea that information—we live in the most complex information landscape in human history—is also easily manipulated,” said Salter. “People are just not equipped to deal with this much information and to detect when they’re being bamboozled.”

Enter the News Literacy Project. The nonpartisan group has been working for almost 15 years with educators across the country, helping teachers  equip the next generation of voters with news literacy skills that are essential to being full participants in our democracy. But now the organization is expanding its efforts with broader outreach to the general public with a podcast, e-learning opportunities including free webinars, an app, and other tools. That includes a new civic platform launching this fall called RumorGuard, a site that goes beyond traditional fact-checking by not only rounding up debunked rumors, but also teaching users how to apply news literacy skills to other claims so they can resist misinformation and identify credible news for themselves.

As the country prepares for contentious midterm elections in November, Salter believes the mission of the NLP is more important now than ever. The organization is running PSAs and free training sessions for the public so they can learn to identify red flags that often accompany misinformation, and curating information from credible organizations so that people aren’t confused about how and where to vote.

Salter credits his legal education at the Maurer School of Law with allowing him to help others and strengthen our democracy in the process.

“We’re at the point where we live in different information ecosystems,” Salter said. “We work in red states and blue states, but I don’t believe in that. You have people in every state who are susceptible to hearing—and spreading—false information. We’re very careful to approach people and tell them we’re not here to tell you what to think. We’re here to help them learn how to think about the news they are consuming.”

Salter pointed to several studies that show a range of problems facing Americans when it comes to discerning what is true and what is not—from sharing disinformation to the inability to discern between editorial content, opinion pieces, or advertisements. While much of that misleading content revolves around politics, the NLP intentionally steers away from political issues.

“Take an upcoming election, for example,” Salter said. “Our focus is on helping citizens identify misinformation about the election itself, not fact-checking the candidates or taking sides. We’re focused on the misinformation that someone might get that tells people they can vote on a Wednesday when in fact the election is on Tuesday. Or what kind of identification you might need to vote. We’re leading people to the facts so they can vote and vote responsibly. We want to preserve democracy, not influence it.”

Two decades ago, though, Salter was more interested in becoming an international corporate attorney.

He’d been interested in law and politics from an early age (he majored in international relations and German at Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna University) but earned a spot in the Teach for America program after earning his undergraduate degree. Salter was assigned to a California school for three years, giving him the opportunity to see the power of education in action.

“That experience really did change my life and help me focus on issues of opportunity and equality, things that, until then, had never really crossed my mind,” he said. “After Teach for America, I still wanted to attend law school, but my focus had completely changed. I’d become really interested in and passionate about things like law and democracy, where people get their rights, where they can speak up.”

The Maurer School of Law, with its Center for Constitutional Democracy, was a perfect fit. And even though he’d grown up all over the world in a military family, Salter was considered an Indiana resident once his father left the service and took a job with Eli Lilly.

“It was the best choice I ever made,” Salter said. “I loved my time at IU. I spent any time I had in my 2L and 3L years focusing on constitutional law. Professor David Williams was very much a mentor to me. A few times he even created seminars just for us so we could continue learning more about constitutional democracies around the world.”

Salter even spent a semester assisting with research for one of Williams’ books.

After earning his JD in 2003, Salter went on to nonprofit management (he spent a year at IUPUI’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs as part of the Law School’s joint degree program), then served as a superintendent of schools in northwest Indiana. From there he made it back to Indianapolis before accepting a job with a California nonprofit. From there he joined the NLP, first as its chief operating officer, then president and COO, and finally as its chief executive officer.

While Salter may not be practicing law—he is still a member of the Indiana Bar—he said he uses his legal education every day.

“What I’ve found is that law school is probably the most useful education I’ve ever had,” he said. “Early on, whether it should have or not, the fact that I had a JD in my bio gave me instant credibility. The most important thing I learned in law school is how to analyze and frame a situation. In all of my work, it’s about stakeholders and constituencies and finding consensus. Breaking problems down to their bare issues, and the ability to frame it all came from law school. It taught me a new way to think that I still use to this day.”

Now he’s teaching others new ways to think, ways that hopefully allow citizens across the country to better vet the quality of news they’re consuming.

“It’s a ground game,” Salter said of the NLP’s strategy. “It’s face-to-face, boots-on-the-ground, one district at a time. We’re working with state-level education departments now so they can take it across their curriculums.”

Convincing older Americans creates a bigger challenge, but it’s one the NLP isn’t backing away from. It may be hard to reach those who have already fallen deep into misinformation and conspiracy theories, but there are many adults who are in the middle – concerned about the quality of information they’re consuming but unsure what they can do about it.

“With adults, we’re clear-eyed,” Salter said. “We have  more work to do to reach older generations than  students, so we’re adapting a lot of our resources and tools for older adults into shorter, more easily consumed content. We’re not going to censor or end disinformation. The only way to deal with it is to educate them about it.”

The case files of the late Judge Michael S. Kanne have been donated to the Indiana University Maurer School of Law’s Jerome Hall Law Library.

Kanne, a 1968 graduate of the Law School, served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1987 up until his death in June 2022. Prior to his elevation to the Seventh Circuit, Judge Kanne served on the bench of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Indiana.

Judge Kanne’s files span the entirety of his service on the Seventh Circuit, and contain papers regarding opinions, concurrences, and dissents authored and joined by the judge.

Jerome Hall Law Library Director Susan deMaine said the earliest of Kanne’s files will be available to researchers as soon as they are processed by librarians, while the remaining files will be made available on June 16, 2047, exactly 25 years after Judge Kanne’s passing.

The files have been graciously donated by Kanne’s widow, Judith.

“We are grateful to the Kanne family for their donation of Judge Kanne’s files to the Law Library,” deMaine said. “Judge Kanne was a well-liked and respected jurist with a five-decade legacy in the legal profession, and we’re proud to be the home of his extensive collection of documents.”

Judge Kanne was a devoted alumnus of the Law School, serving on its Board of Visitors and as a former president of its Alumni Association.

“He was a devoted husband and father, a respected judge, a proud Hoosier and a patriotic public servant,” Seventh Circuit Chief Judge Diane Sykes said in a statement at the time of Judge Kanne’s death. “He leaves tremendous legal and human legacies and will be greatly missed.”

The Law Library’s manuscript collection also holds the papers of two other Seventh Circuit judges: Judge David Hamilton and the late Judge Wilbur Pell. Judge Hamilton’s papers remain sealed at this time as he is actively serving on the bench. Judge Pell’s papers are open to researchers.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Christiana Ochoa has been has been named dean of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, effective Nov. 1, 2022. She is the school’s first-ever Latine dean and one of just eight Latine women ever to serve as the dean of a U.S. law school.

“Professor Christiana Ochoa is a remarkable leader and internationally recognized researcher and scholar with a history of outstanding service to Indiana University,” said IU President Pamela Whitten. “She led the creation of innovative academic programs and immersive experiences for our students, including the Law and Technology Program and Rural Justice Initiative. Her breadth of knowledge and experience is an asset to the Maurer School of Law, and we are thrilled that she will be serving as its dean.”

Ochoa became interim dean of the school in July after serving the law school as executive associate dean and associate dean for research and faculty affairs. She is the Class of 1950 Herman B Wells Endowed Professor at the Maurer School of Law.

IU Bloomington Provost and Executive Vice President Rahul Shrivastav made the announcement Thursday, Oct. 13.

“Through her many exceptional years of leadership—at IU, Maurer, and internationally—Professor Christiana Ochoa has modeled the kind of legal practice, scholarship, and advocacy we want our students to know is possible in the legal profession,” Shrivastav said. “Christy’s collegiality, vision, and commitment to students and peers is inspiring. I could not be more pleased to welcome her into this new role.”

In addition to her administrative roles at the law school, Ochoa served as associate vice provost for faculty and academic affairs for the IU Bloomington campus, as founding academic director of the IU Mexico Gateway, and as a founding and current associate director of IU’s Center for Documentary Research and Practice. Her research delves into the ways economic activity impacts human and ecological well-being through the lens of international and comparative law with a focus on business and human rights, law and development, international finance, and foreign direct investment.

Ochoa brings her field work to her classroom teaching in the areas of contracts, international law, international business transactions, human rights, and law & development. Her scholarship in these areas has been published and is forthcoming in the Minnesota Law Review, Yale Journal of International Law, Harvard International Law Journal, Virginia Journal of International Law, Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law, Duke Journal of International & Comparative Law, and Human Rights Quarterly, among others. Her work has also been published internationally, including in Germany, Colombia, and Korea. Her first documentary film, “Otra Cosa No Hay” (2014), received film festival acclaim and has been viewed by audiences around the world.

“The Maurer School of Law has a long history of local, national, and international leadership on the most pressing legal and social issues,” Ochoa said. “Our students, alumni, faculty, and staff share the vision that we must continue to contribute invaluable service to the legal profession and society at large, while always striving to ensure that the diversity of the legal profession positively reflects that of the nation. I am deeply honored to be asked to serve as the next dean of this outstanding law school.”

Ochoa has been widely recognized for her research, teaching, and service. Individually, and as part of research teams, she has won competitive funding from sources including the Mellon Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education. In 2015, she was a co-PI for a prestigious Sawyer Seminar on Documentary Media and Historical Transformations.

Ochoa earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she was honored with a Harvard Human Rights Fellowship, Reginald F. Lewis Traveling Fellowship, Irving R. Kaufman Public Interest Fellowship, and Deborah K. Hauger Memorial Fellowship. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in history and American culture from University of Michigan.

Among other innovations, the Maurer school recently added a Family Office Program, the first program in the nation dedicated to training professionals for the rapidly expanding family office services industry; a Rural Justice Initiative, a collaborative program with the Indiana Supreme Court that provides funded student positions to assist trial court judges in rural Indiana counties; and an emerging Law and Technology Program, designed to harness existing strengths within the law school focused on AI, robotics, cybersecurity, big data, legal operations, and other technology-related innovations.

The Maurer School of Law is one of the oldest and most respected public law schools in the Midwest. A charter member of the Association of American Law Schools, the Maurer School is accredited by the American Bar Association and part of the Big 10 Academic Alliance. Each year, residential student enrollment is over 500 students, including around 160-190 students in each new entering J.D. class and 30 or more graduate degree students in L.L.M., M.C.L., Ph.D., and S.J.D. degree programs. The Maurer School is a collaborative partner with the O’Neil School’s Bachelor of Science in Law and Public Policy, with the Hamilton Lugar School’s Bachelor of Arts in International Law and Institutions, and with the Luddy School and the Kelley School in the collaborative Master of Science degree in Cybersecurity Risk Management. The Maurer School distinguishes itself from other peers with its distinct global outlook, its deep commitment to public service and the local community, and its outstanding faculty and staff committed to student success and advancing knowledge through sophisticated interdisciplinary research.

Maurer graduates have included the first African American woman to serve on any state supreme court, the first Japanese American admitted to the bar in the U.S., the first woman chief justice of Wisconsin, and the first woman chief justice of Indiana. Its alumni include US Supreme Court Justice Sherman Minton, U.S. Representative Lee Hamilton, and U.S. Senator Birch Bayh.

On the third day of Foreign Service orientation as a U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service special agent candidate, Collin Walsh couldn’t walk.

The 2013 Maurer School of Law alumnus had been experiencing mild symptoms, like skin sensitivity in his legs, over the previous week, but didn’t make anything of it.

In that first week of DSS training, Walsh went from mild symptoms to near complete immobility. Seemingly overnight, the former NCAA All-American middle-distance runner couldn’t move.

He’d worked tirelessly to get there, first as a political science student at Southern Connecticut State University—where he earned a prestigious White House internship with President George W. Bush—then as a law student in Bloomington, then back to Connecticut as a police officer before embarking on the rigorous process of joining the State Department’s law enforcement division.

So when doctors diagnosed him with a rare form of Multiple Sclerosis in 2016, Walsh felt like everything he’d worked for suddenly disappeared.

“When I became ill, I essentially lost my dream,” he said. “I had to resign from the Foreign Service, which was emotionally very difficult to do. But I had to do it when I lost the required medical clearance.”

Walsh is six years in to a remarkable rehabilitation and recovery after initially being paralyzed from the chest down. And while Multiple Sclerosis may have slowed him physically, it’s only strengthened his resolve to be a federal servant—and to, quite unexpectedly, become a national advocate for the strength and resilience of the disability community.

His drive and passion have earned notice. In late July, Walsh was recognized as a 2022 Careers & The disABLED magazine “National Employee the Year.”  He is one of only three employees throughout the entire federal government to earn the honor, and the State Department’s sole honoree.

Before we get to that, however, we have to go back to the mid-00s, when Walsh was a student at SCSU. Intrigued by policy and the politics that drive them, Walsh pursued a degree in political science, eventually earning his internship with President Bush.

“From that point forward, I could only think about getting to Washington, D.C. and joining the federal government,” he said. “After studying political science, and with ambitions to pursue a career in federal law enforcement, law school seemed like the next step.” He spent two years as a financial analyst before sending out applications for law school.

Walsh knew practically nothing about Indiana, let alone its law school in Bloomington, but he wanted a new environment and a change of pace, and when he heard about Maurer’s international opportunities, he knew he’d found his home for the next three years.

Among the many opportunities students have at the Law School, international exchange programs can be some of the most enticing. After all, who wouldn’t enjoy the prospect of spending a semester in Dublin, Madrid, or Milan? In addition to the exchange programs, the Law School had recently launched the Stewart Global Fellows program. Thanks to the generosity of Milt ’71, and Judi Stewart, student leaders were beginning to have fully funded international summer work opportunities.

India was—and is—one such opportunity. Knowing that, Walsh became the first Indiana Law exchange student with the Jindal Global Law School near New Delhi.

“If I didn’t know anything about Indiana, imagine what I knew about India,” he said.

“I went to India very much as the ‘All-American guy,’ so when I first got there, I couldn’t yet appreciate its beauty. I was constantly on Expedia looking for flights home. But by the third week, I began to love the culture.”

The culture wasn’t the only thing he fell in love with.

Walsh met his future wife, Amika, then an Indian law student at the same university, during that semester exchange. Meeting her prompted Walsh to explore options for staying in India, and as luck—or fate—would have it, the Law School’s Stewart Fellowship program had an opening for him. Walsh worked at a Mumbai corporation and a New Delhi international law firm before returning to Bloomington to finish law school.

After earning his JD in the spring of 2013, Walsh delayed taking the bar exam. He won the State Department’s prestigious Critical Language Scholarship, which sent him to Bangladesh for two months. Next, he joined the Connecticut Police Academy. To no one’s surprise, he finished first in his 2014 class. He got in his car right after giving his graduating class’s commencement speech, drove through the night to Washington, D.C., and passed his Foreign Service oral assessment on no sleep.

Though the interview went well, Walsh’s phone didn’t ring immediately. And it didn’t for another two years.

When it did, in April 2016, Walsh was ecstatic. Years of work had finally paid off.

And then, “his greatest honor met his worst nightmare,” wrote Rachel Schindel Gombis, an Office Director in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, in her nomination letter for Walsh’s “National Employee of the Year” award.

On his third day of orientation, those week-long symptoms that had persisted became paralyzing—literally. For a man who used to blaze through lap after lap of the collegiate distance medley relay, not being able to move his legs was a shock.

“I put my entire life and soul into this goal of getting into the Foreign Service—it’s the whole reason I became a police officer and went to law school,” Walsh said. “With my physical functionality suddenly gone, I feel like I lost almost everything else. All I had was Amika.”

The news only got worse.

“The very best doctors who specialize in MS unanimously offered no hope,” he said. “They told me I was only going to get worse, that I’d never recover.”

Amika had other ideas.

“She said that if the American doctors we’d been seeing couldn’t find a path forward, we’d go to India and recruit a new medical team,” Walsh said. “Out of fear, everyone pleaded with us not to go. But what did we have to lose?”

Amika’s grandfather became his primary doctor in India. A radical change in diet, the addition of nutritional supplements, and extensive physical therapy started to yield improvements in Walsh’s mobility.

“We stayed in India for a year,” he said. “After three months, I was taking small steps. After four, I was going up stairs.”

Today Walsh walks with the assistance of elbow-supported walking sticks and uses a wheelchair to cover longer distances. Through sheer determination and will, he has turned his medical prognosis into a source of inspiration to continue improving with every step.

When he was diagnosed with MS, Walsh lost the medical clearance needed to continue working in the role he wanted. “Losing my medical ‘worldwide availability’ was fatal to my Foreign Service career,” he said.

But he made it his mission to get back.

In 2020, he won the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship, earning him full funding for a master’s degree at the Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service and, at its completion, an appointment as a Foreign Service Officer.  It seemed his determination was bringing him full circle.

“Winning the Pickering Fellowship was phase one of what I call my vindication,” Walsh said. “Finally, I was back on a pathway to becoming a diplomat. But it all hinged on winning back the medical clearance I tragically lost. It was a difficult process—I got rejected three times along the way—but the State Department was excellent in helping me find a way forward.”

In addition to his responsibilities as a fellow and full-time graduate student, Walsh has served full-time in the Department’s Civil Service as a Foreign Affairs Officer, a position he’s held since 2018.

“I’m now scheduled to rejoin the Foreign Service in 2023,” he said.

The mobility issues Walsh faces give him important insight into accessibility issues. He provides substantial input into improving access for the disabled in his 24-floor building.

“At first I wanted to make the building accessible to me,” he said. “I thought the doors should open for me. But as I was walking around, I saw other employees using wheelchairs, others who face difficulty moving around, so I thought, why not make this a wholesale effort?”

Walsh credits U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken for his pioneering leadership and his home bureau, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS), with helping to make those changes happen.

“I lobbied for a comprehensive response from DS leadership,” Walsh said, “and to my delight, they agreed.”

Walsh’s entire building in Arlington, VA received an accessibility overhaul: Improvements were made to elevators, restrooms, doors, offices, and more to make them easier for everyone to use.

“To get something like that done in the federal government that quickly is incredible,” he said.

As workplaces further develop their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, Walsh hopes to add another letter to the DEI paradigm.

“Rightfully, we hear the acronym DEI frequently these days. Here at the State Department, we have DEIA—diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility,” he said. “The paradigm has expanded to include that critical ‘A’ piece now.”

Schindel Gombis credited Walsh with inspiring change in a place where it is often slow to come.

“On behalf of the disability community, (he) strives to highlight their unique abilities as indispensable benefits,” she said.

From Connecticut to Bloomington to India and Washington, D.C., Walsh’s road to success has been anything but easy. He credits the Law School’s Jay Krishnan and Lesley Davis with inspiring him along the way.

“The combination of Professor Krishnan, Dean Davis, and Milt and Judi Stewart—the four of them together—their vision and dedication to increasing and broadening the student experience internationally changed my life,” he said. “They motivated me to become a better person and to dedicate myself to improving American prosperity and security as a United States diplomat.”

Collin Walsh: Soon-to-be Foreign Service Officer, Indiana Law alumnus, Pickering Fellow, N.C.A.A. All-American athlete, disability advocate, and now, a national employee of the year.

And Amika? You’ll never believe where she is.

She’s finishing her third year in Bloomington at the Maurer School of Law.

“It’s taken so many different turns,” Walsh said of his journey, “but to be honest I’ve been steadfast in my commitment to get where I’m going. I wouldn’t have charted this path exactly how it happened, and there were no guarantees I would’ve ended up here. But I feel ecstatic and vindicated. I know absolutely that I found my perfect career and lifestyle, and am grateful for my huge team of supporters for helping me to achieve each of my dreams.”

Four members of the Indiana Law community were honored Friday (September 23) with Distinguished Service Awards. Javier Becerra ’17; Shontrai Irving ’03; Laura Walda ’09; and Mark Wright ’89, received their respective awards during a moving ceremony in front of a standing-room only crowd in the DeLaney Moot Court Room, though circumstances prevented Walda and Wright from attending in person.

“These awards are especially meaningful and timely to all of us at the Law School because of our commitment to instilling public service in our students,” said Interim Dean Christiana Ochoa. “Every one of our students commits to an aspirational goal of 60 hours of pro bono service during their three years of law school, so it’s incredibly gratifying to recognize alumni who set such a great example for our students after they enter the legal profession.”

The Distinguished Service Award was established in 1997 to recognize alumni who have distinguished themselves in service to their communities and the Law School in ways far exceeding traditional business, professional, and civic duties.

Through their hard work, passion, and accomplishments, these alumni define Indiana Law’s ideals for community service and serve as accomplished role models for our Law School and the greater community. This year’s event was held with the majority of the Law School’s 1L class in attendance, giving them an opportunity to hear first-hand the importance of community service after they graduate.

“We are honored to recognize Javier, Shontrai, Laura, and Mark for the example they have set for their communities, the Law School, and all of our students,” Ochoa said.

The 2022 Distinguished Service Award winners are:

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  Javier Becerra is senior corporate counsel at Global Payments, a Fortune 500 Fintech company. He served as managing editor of the Indiana Law Journal of Law and Social Equality, held multiple leadership roles while a student, and received the school’s Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award. He was recognized in Atlanta Magazine’s Top 500 Most Powerful Leaders in Atlanta in both 2021 and 2022. He is an active member of his community and professional organizations, including the Board of Directors for the Georgia Hispanic Bar Association, the Atlanta Echelon Young Professionals Chapter (President), and Lambda Sigma Upsilon Latino Fraternity, Inc. (past national director of expansion).

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  Shontrai Irving is a clinical associate professor of business law at Purdue University Northwest, Irving has also worked as a public defender at the Lake County Juvenile Center, where he represents children’s interests. Irving serves on the Law School’s Black Law Students Association Alumni Advisory Board, and has received a number of awards, including the prestigious Sagamore of the Wabash award, presented earlier this summer by Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb. Irving is a single adoptive parent, advocating on behalf of foster children for nearly 20 years. During that time he’s opened his home to more than 60 children.

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  Laura Walda is a shareholder at Lowndes Drosdick Doster Kantor & Reed in Orlando, Fla., where she focuses on commercial real estate. She has been an active member of the Law School’s Alumni Board for nine years, and has been recognized as a Best Lawyer in America (2022 and 2023), a “Florida Rising Star” 2016-19 by Florida Super Lawyers, and as a member of the Orlando Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” Class of 2021. Walda is active in her local community of Winter Park, Fla. She was a Governor’s Fellow with the Governor of the State of Indiana in i2004-5 and was recognized with the Ninth Judicial Circuit Pro Bono Merit Award.

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  Mark Wright is a partner at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath in Indianapolis, where he’s been involved with some of Indianapolis’ most recognizable projects, including the Emmis Broadcasting Corporate Headquarters, Lucas Oil Stadium, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, and the JW Marriott Convention Center Hotel. Wright has been a tremendous advocate for the Law School, serving as a firm solicitor, class agent, and admissions recruiter. He served for more than a decade on the school’s Alumni Board, including past president. Wright has received a number of honors including recognition as a Best Lawyer-Real Estate Law, 2021-23 and by Martindale-Hubbell as a “Top Ranked Lawyer in Real Estate.”

Professor Victor D. Quintanilla, Val Nolan Faculty Fellow, and co-director of the Law School’s Center for Law, Society & Culture, has been designated as an affiliated scholar with the American Bar Foundation, the organization announced this week.

The affiliation, which formally began on September 1, will last for three years and allow Quintanilla to serve as a mentor to ABF doctoral fellows and take part in ABF initiatives.

Quintanilla was one of seven law professors selected from across the country for a 2021-22 ABF/JPB Foundation Access to Justice Scholars Program, which promotes the next generation of scholars leading the field of access to civil justice. The program brings together cohorts of faculty scholars from across the nation to support research, provide mentorship and build intellectual relationships to improve access to justice and combat poverty.

“It has been a great honor and pleasure to have you as part of the ABF research community in your role as an ABF/JPB Foundation Access to Justice Scholar,” said Bryant Garth, interim executive director and research professor with the ABF. “(We) were impressed by your research and your participation in our ABF access to justice research events and gatherings, and thus, we would like to extend this invitation to stay connected to the ABF. As I hope you know, I’ve been a fan of your research for some time.”

Quintanilla, also an affiliated professor at Indiana University’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, has used the Access to Justice Scholar Program to continue his essential work on access to justice, as evidenced most recently by his research on virtual proceedings, which garnered support from Pew Charitable Trusts. This research centers on the use of online technologies (e.g., Zoom) in civil justice proceedings, including evictions, debt collection, small claims, and family law proceedings, and how these online technologies create new opportunities to enhance access to justice while at the same time frustrating equity and fairness because of the digital divide. This research involves a collaboration with the Indiana Supreme Court and the Indiana Coalition for Court Access.

His research investigates civil justice design, access to justice, and legal education by drawing on theory and methods within the field of social psychology, including experiments conducted with judges, lawyers, law students, and members of the public. He currently serves as the PI of a research line that harnesses psychological methods to examine the experiences of unrepresented persons in court proceedings. Quintanilla examines how unrepresented persons, particularly racial/ethnic minorities and members of disadvantaged groups, experience the civil justice system. Quintanilla has written several recent articles about people-centered civil justice design, the social construction of pro se status, and conducted studies measuring legal needs and the public’s experience of civil justice. He designs and evaluates structural and psychological interventions to enhance access to justice for unrepresented persons within the civil justice system.

A Maurer School of Law faculty member has been recognized for his contributions to reviewing interdisciplinary research for the Journal of Institutional Economics.

Professor Dan Cole, Robert H. McKinney Professor of Law and a senior fellow with the Ostrom Workshop, was named one of three “Reviewers of the Year” by the journal on Wednesday (Sept. 7). The announcement was made during the annual World Interdisciplinary Network for Institutional Research (WINIR) Conference. The award, which comes with a £400 prize, recognizes outstanding reviewers for the journal.

Cole shares the 2022 award with Katarzyna Bentkowska, of the Warsaw School of Economics, and Ennio Piano, of Middle Tennessee State University.

“In honor of their invaluable service, the editors of the Journal of Institutional Economics have decided to award a Reviewer of the Year Prize to outstanding reviewers,” according to the WINIR website.

Cole, an internationally recognized environmental law and economics scholar, joined the Indiana Law faculty in 2011. Most of his writings are at the intersection of the law, economics, and politics of property, natural resources law, land use, and environmental protection. He has also written extensively about Poland and Polish law. Cole is the author of seven books and more than forty articles. His works have published in England, France, Italy, and China, as well as the United States.

Indiana University has strong ties to WINIR—the organization awards annually the Elinor Ostrom Prize, recognizing the late Nobel laureate and longtime IU faculty member.