Illinois LawCast

The first year of law school is a unique experience. Though some students may have the option to enroll in pre-law minor, there is no requirement for any specific curriculum to be admitted to law school, which makes the first year a foundational year that can be challenging, surprising, and inspiring in a short period of time. For this episode, we gathered a few talented and intelligent members of the Illinois Law Class of 2028 to discuss their 1L year as it comes to an end. Guests in this episode are Blessing Agyare, Liam Davis, and Darius Johnson, who discussed why they chose to study law at Illinois, what surprised them about their first year, what they'll take with them as they go forward, and more.If you'd like to know more about student life at Illinois Law, please check out our website. If you are considering applying, our application is always free—no codes required.

In this special bonus episode, Professor Jason Mazzone joins the podcast to discuss the case of Trump v. Barbara, argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 1, 2026. Mazzone is the Albert E. Jenner, Jr. Professor of Law at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Director of the Illinois Program in Constitutional Theory, History, and Law. An expert on issues of constitutional structure and institutional design, with a particular focus on relationships between structural arrangements and individual rights, his groundbreaking work on the Constitution of the United States has appeared in dozens of prominent legal journals. He regularly advises, on a pro bono basis, litigants in cases before the Supreme Court of the United States and in other courts.The case of Trump v. Barbara centers on Executive Order No. 14,160, issued January 20, 2025, titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” which declared that individuals born in the United States are not U.S. citizens at birth if their parents lack sufficient legal status. The order was issued on the alleged basis that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause does not confer birthright citizenship on such children because they are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States in the constitutional sense. In this episode, Professor Mazzone explains the background of the case, what his impressions are from the arguments, and why he believes the Executive Order will be invalidated by a large majority.Read Professor Mazzone in the New York Times.

This episode examines the College of Law's Jurist in Residence program. Started in 2025, the program brings a member of the judicial branch to campus to teach a class, work with faculty, and be a resource to students. The program, one of only two such initiatives in Illinois, aims to deepen the College’s connections to the bench, inspire students to pursue judicial clerkships, and provide them with the opportunity to learn from leading legal minds. Dean Jamelle Sharpe is the first guest on the episode, and he joined to share a little background on the program and some of his personal experience with the College of Law's 2026 Jurist in Residence. The second guest on the episode is Judge Candace Jackson-Awikumi, who spent time on campus in March as the latest Jurist in Residence. She spoke about her background, how she came to the bench, and what she enjoyed about her time at Illinois Law.About Judge Candace Jackson-AwikumiJudge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit by President Joseph R. Biden in July 2021. She is the first former public defender to sit on that court, which reviews decisions made by federal courts in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. A native of Norfolk, Virginia, Judge Jackson-Akiwumi received her A.B., with honors, from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was a Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal. She began her legal career as a law clerk to Judge David H. Coar of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and Judge Roger L. Gregory of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She then practiced law at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and spent a decade as an attorney with the Federal Defender Program for the Northern District of Illinois, Inc., before joining the Washington, D.C., litigation firm Zuckerman Spaeder LLP. Judge Jackson-Akiwumi previously served on the boards of the Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, the Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater Chicago, and the Princeton Club of Chicago. During her time as a federal public defender, she taught at national seminars and Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. She also served as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in Israel and Namibia, a Princeton-in-Asia fellow in Thailand, and an American Inns of Court Temple Bar Scholar in England.

One of Illinois Law's areas of strength is environmental law. We routinely offer core courses such as environmental law, administrative law, and natural resources, as well as advanced environmental electives, such as climate change and sustainable development. Where we go the extra mile, literally, is in innovative environmental courses that offer hands-on teaching.In this episode, Professor Heidi Hurd explains her class, Costa Rica: A Case Study in Environmentally Sustainable Economic Development, a January intersession course that takes students to Costa Rica to learn from politicians and environmentalists and experience the natural world up close. Professor Hurd goes through the history of the class, her favorite memories, and why she feels this course is so important to Illinois Law's environmental law offerings.Also joining the podcast are Josh Rosen, a third-year student, and Sophia Abedi, a second-year student, both of whom traveled with Hurd to Costa Rica this past January. They share their experiences and how the course resonated with them in the present and will continue to make a difference in their careers.For more information about Illinois Law's commitment to environmental law, please visit our website. For more about the Costa Rica course, see the specific course listing.

A 2014 College of Law graduate, Lisa Kpor currently serves as Litigation Counsel for United Airlines, where she provides guidance numerous matters related to disputes and litigation. 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 here: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7412387049418338304/.

Learning the law isn't solely the province of graduate students. The University of Illinois offers undergraduates the chance to enroll in the Legal Studies minor for those interested in pursuing a JD after graduating or those who would just like to broaden their understanding of the law within their field. The Legal Studies minor is a novel program because of its tracks, where students can choose to focus on law & politics, law & cultures, or law & economics of food security and sustainability. In this episode, Professors Jennie Pahre, director of undergraduate studies, and Meghan Brinson, associate director of undergraduate studies and academic advisor for undergraduate studies, share their expertise on the Legal Studies minor, why they enjoy working with undergrads, and ideas for the future of the program.Professor Jennifer Pahre joined the College of Law in 2001. She oversaw the Legal Externship Program for 15 years before became the director of undergraduate studies. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and JD degree from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles. Professor Pahre is admitted to the state bars of California, Michigan, and Illinois and has practiced law in all three states as well as several district courts. She served on the Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee of the American Bar Association and she has served as the president of the East Central Illinois Women Attorneys Association.Professor Meghan Brinson earned her JD at University of North Carolina School of Law, and holds a Master of Arts in English Studies from Georgetown University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Arizona State University. She has experience teaching undergraduate composition, business writing, and creative writing, including as a Piper International Writing Fellow at the National University of Singapore and with Park University’s program on Marine Corp Air Station Cherry Point. Professor Brinson is a poet and nonfiction essayist with three published chapbooks and several journal publications.

In this episode, we speak with Kelly Salefski, who was named Assistant Dean of Academic Administration and Dean of Students in June. She shared a great deal about what the College of Law is doing to help students achieve their goals, as well as her plans to improve our services and how her background helps her to do great things for our students.Few individuals are as dedicated to Illinois as Salefski. 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, Salefski 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. 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.

In this episode we speak with our two newest full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty, Eric Baudry and Sarah Lawsky. They shared about themselves, their research, and what they are looking forward to as members of the College of Law faculty.About Eric Baudry:Eric Baudry is an assistant professor of law at the University of Illinois, where he teaches and writes about tax law, poverty, and redistribution. He is especially interested in the experiences of low-income taxpayers as subjects of and actors within the institution of the United States tax system. His scholarship has appeared in the Columbia Journal of Tax Law.Following law school, Baudry clerked on the Eastern District of Michigan and the Ninth Circuit, provided wage theft and tax representation for low-wage workers as a Skadden Fellow at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, and spent two years as a Faculty Fellow at the University of Michigan law school.About Sarah Lawsky:Sarah B. Lawsky, the L.B. Lall and Sumitra Devi Lall Professor of Law, studies tax law, computational law, and the intersection of the two. Her recent work focuses on the formalization of tax law. Professor Lawsky’s research arguing for using a particular nonstandard logic to formalize tax law is the conceptual foundation for the domain-specific programming language Catala, which is the project of a team of computer scientists and lawyers.Before joining the University of Illinois, Professor Lawsky taught at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, UC Irvine School of Law, and George Washington University Law School. Before entering academia, she worked as a tax lawyer for large law firms.For more information, visit the personal website of Professor Lawsky: https://www.sarahlawsky.org/

A 2008 graduate of the College of Law, Josh Whitman joins the podcast to discuss decision to pursue a law degree, his time as a student, and how he navigated his way back to Illinois and the role of athletic director. He expands on some of the challenges he faces as one of the University's highest profile employees and how he strives to be successful and fights complacency.About Josh Whitman:Josh Whitman was hired as University of Illinois Director of Athletics on February 17, 2016. In his 10th year, Whitman has elevated Fighting Illini Athletics to a place among the nation's elite programs. In 2024-25, Illinois earned a No. 31 final ranking in the Learfield Directors’ Cup, the program’s highest finish in the last 10 years, and the Illini football, men’s basketball, and women’s basketball programs all were ranked in the Top 25 at the same time. Also in 2024-25, women’s track and field recorded a pair of top-10 national finishes, volleyball returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021, men’s golf won its seventh NCAA Regional championship, wrestling placed 10th nationally, and men’s gymnastics finished sixth. In all, 16 Illini programs participated in postseason competition. Individually, wrestler Lucas Byrd claimed the national championship at 133 lbs.In total during Whitman’s tenure, Illinois teams have made 110 NCAA postseason appearances, finishing in the top 16 nationally 31 times, and nine student-athletes have captured 11 individual national championships. Illinois has also captured a total of 16 Big Ten titles under Whitman. Under his leadership, Illinois is amid eight consecutive fiscal years of recording more than $30 million in new gift commitments. In September, Whitman announced the largest donation in the history of the athletics program when Larry Gies contributed $100 million for the naming rights of Gies Memorial Stadium.Whitman played four years of football at Illinois and earned two Illinois degrees: graduating with Bronze Tablet honors in 2001 while earning a bachelor’s degree in finance, and graduating summa cum laude from the College of Law in 2008. Whitman is married to Hope, and they have two children. The Whitmans are active in several Champaign-Urbana community organizations.

We kick off season two with an engrossing conversation with Professor Robert Lawless about his new book, Debt's Grip: Risk and Consumer Bankruptcy. The book explores financial precarity in the United States and utilizes original data from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, including the words of bankruptcy filers themselves to shed light on their situations. Professor Lawless shared insight into how he began his work on this project, how the book came about, and how the research has helped him as a teacher at Illinois Law. For more information about Debt's Grip, including ways to purchase the book, please visit the publisher's website: https://www.ucpress.edu/books/debts-grip/paper

Bobby Mannis and Vindy Murthy, 2025 graduates, join the podcast to discuss their artificial intelligence-powered learning tool, NomosLearning. They share some background on how their education at Illinois inspired the building of this tool and how they came together to create a tool that all Illinois students can use. NomosLearning harnesses the power of AI to supplement reading for students, creating issue spotters and case briefs to guide their studies. The co-founders also share some of their vision for the future of NomosLearning and their careers. To learn more, visit https://www.nomoslearning.com/. Disclaimer: this podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an endorsement or approval by the College of Law. Please contact Nomos Learning for answers to questions regarding its content.

Studying the law at the University of Illinois doesn't always mean being in Illinois. In this episode, third-year student Rama Hamad shares her experience studying abroad in Madrid, Spain, and how the chance to study internationally has helped her on her path to being an outstanding lawyer. In the second half of the episode, Rebecca Ray, assistant director for Graduate and International Studies, fills in some of the specifics about the study abroad program and how it works for Illinois Law students.If you are interested in studying abroad, you can contact Rebecca Ray and the graduate and international programs office at [email protected].

This episode is all about advocacy and what that means for law students and lawyers. We turn the spotlight on the Kimball R. and Karen Gatsis Anderson Center for Advocacy and Professionalism and learn about the classes and competitions they offer to help Illinois Law students become the best advocates possible. Guests include Professor Tony Ghiotto, director of the Anderson Center, and third-year students Yev Kozak and Nicole Marcinkus.

Juan Thomas has found great success in the legal world and in politics since graduating from Illinois Law in 1996, and now he is taking the time to give back by teaching The History of the African-American Lawyer in the United States. We talked about his path to the law and why he is passionate about sharing Black history with a new generation of students.

The Supreme Court unanimously agreed the law banning TikTok from the United States was constitutional and should go into effect as written; however, on January 20th, President Donald Trump instructed the Attorney General not to enforce the law for 75 days. So, what is going on and what is the legal basis for any of it? Professor Lena Shapiro, who also leads our First Amendment Clinic Director, joined us for a bonus episode of the podcast to examine the details behind this case.

In this episode, Assistant Director of Athletics, Strategic Initiatives Kamron Cox joins to talk about his journey through the law to the University of Illinois Athletics Department. When he was hired for his role with the Fighting Illini, Kam was the first specialist in name, image, and likeness law among Power 5 schools. He shared how he has traversed the changing landscape of college athletics to help the Illini find success on many different fields, and how he uses that knowledge in the classroom as an adjunct professor at the College of Law.

In this episode, our newest faculty members, Bill Watson and Sara Gerke, sit down to discuss their path to Illinois Law, their specialties, and how they are enjoying their time at the College of Law thus far.

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.

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 how his military background has helped him in this role.More information about the Veterans Legal Clinic can be found online: https://law.illinois.edu/academics/clinics-experiential-learning/veterans-legal-clinic/If you would like to contact the Clinic to see if their services might be right for you, the number to call is (217) 244-9494 or you may email [email protected].

In this episode we speak with Jolynn Caroline, who was recently named the College of Law's senior director for inclusive excellence, career planning and professional development. We discussed her lifelong connections to the University of Illinois, her work in the careers office at the College of Law, and her goals working in inclusive excellence.

This episode explores a couple of work experiences open to current students and recent graduates. Guests for this discussion are Sarah Shamsi, a rising 3L student who spent her summer externing as a law clerk with the City of Chicago, and Alex Bailey, a 2023 graduate who has been a judicial law clerk in the Southern District of Indiana for the past year. Both guests had great stories and reasons why they are grateful to have had these experiences.If you have any questions or comments, please email us at [email protected].

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