Hiram H. Lesar Distinguished Lecture Series

2025 Hiram H. Lesar Distinguished Lecture

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi

Life in Public Service & Governance: Peoria to Washington D.C.

Monday, January 27th, 2025

5:30 p.m. Reception in the Formal Lounge

Lecture 6:00 p.m.

Lesar Law Building, Courtroom

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi was elected to Congress in 2016 and is now in his fourth term representing Illinois’ 8th District, which includes Chicago’s west and northwest suburbs as well as the 41st ward of the city. He serves as Ranking Member of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, making him the first South Asian American in history to lead a Congressional Committee. He also serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability as a member of the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs. The Congressman is a Vice-Chair of the Equality Caucus and Co-Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) Immigration Task Force. In addition, he is the founder and Chairman of the bipartisan Congressional Caucus to End the Youth Vaping Epidemic and the bipartisan Solar Caucus.

Representative Krishnamoorthi is the child of immigrants and was raised in Peoria, Illinois. He attended public schools in Peoria and was a valedictorian of his high school class. Scholarships and student loans allowed him to graduate summa cum laude from Princeton University with a degree in mechanical engineering and a certificate from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. He then graduated with honors from Harvard Law School and clerked for a federal judge before practicing law in Chicago.

Representative Krishnamoorthi pursued public service while practicing law and was appointed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan as a Special Assistant Attorney General to help start the state’s Public Integrity Unit created to root out corruption in Illinois. As a member of the Illinois Housing Development Authority, the Congressman chaired the Audit Committee, helping to provide thousands of low and moderate-income families across the state with affordable housing. Congressman Krishnamoorthi also served as Illinois Deputy Treasurer, where he oversaw the state's technology venture capital fund and helped make programs such as the state's unclaimed property program leaner and more efficient.
After his time in the Illinois Treasurer’s Office, Representative Krishnamoorthi returned to the private sector, serving as president of research-oriented small businesses developing technology in the national security and renewable energy industries. Representative Krishnamoorthi also served as the Vice-Chair of the Illinois Innovation Council and co-founded InSPIRE, a non-profit that provides inner-city students and veterans with training in solar technology.

The Congressman resides with his wife Priya, a physician, and 3 children in Schaumburg, Illinois.

2023 Hiram H. Lesar Distinguished Lecture

Jill Wine-Banks

Title: Breaking Barriers For Equality, But Still Dancing Backwards in High Heels: How Women’s Success Benefits All

Wednesday, October 4, 2023

5:00 p.m. Reception in the Formal Lounge

Lecture 5:30 p.m.

Lesar Law Building, Auditorium

Jill Wine-Banks is currently an MSNBC Legal Analyst, appearing regularly on primetime and daytime shows.

Ms. Wine-Banks began her career as the first woman to serve as an organized crime prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. After just over four years, her trial capabilities and win record led to her selection as one of the three Assistant Watergate Special Prosecutors, where she was again the only woman, in the obstruction of justice trial against President Nixon’s top aides. She was also a major player in the Watergate tapes hearing, cross-examining Rose Mary Woods, President Nixon’s secretary, about the 18 ½ minute gap in a key White House recording.

After the Watergate case, she entered private practice in D.C., before being named General Counsel of the U.S. Army by President Carter. After the Pentagon, she returned to Chicago, as a partner at Jenner and Block, before being appointed as Illinois’ first Solicitor General and then promoted to Deputy Attorney General (again the first female in that role).

A national search then led to her appointment as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the American Bar Association, the largest professional association in America. She was the first woman in that role, too. This experience led to her decision to begin a corporate career at Motorola and later Maytag.

She has a B.S. in Communications from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law in New York City, and an Honorary Doctor of Law from Hood College.

2022 Hiram H. Lesar Distinguished Lecture

Jan Schlichtmann

Environmental Lawyer & Author

Confessions of an Environmental Warrior

What I learned from the Civil Action Odyssey on Behalf of the Woburn Families.  

Thursday, November 17, 2022

5:00 p.m. Reception in the Formal Lounge

Lecture 6:00 p.m.

Lesar Law Building, Auditorium

Mr. Schlichtmann is renowned for his pioneering work in the Woburn water contamination case  that for the first time brought together leading experts in science, medicine, and engineering and used a novel multi-disciplinary approach to unravel the complex interaction between industrial activities and public health. His groundbreaking work has been the subject of several legal and scientific journals and books, national and international television and radio shows, press reports, and magazine stories including "60 Minutes" and "Nova".

The Woburn odyssey was chronicled in the national bestseller, "A Civil Action" which became a major motion picture starring John Travolta as Mr. Schlichtmann.

Jerry Hawkins

David A. Clarke School of Law Executive Director of Dallas Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (DTRHT)

TRUTH AND TRANSFORMATION IN SOUTHERN ILLINOIS, SOUTH AFRICA, CHICAG AND DALLAS: NARRATIVE CHANGE WORK AS A FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE.

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

5:00 p.m. 

Jerry Hawkins is the Executive Director of Dallas Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (DTRHT), part of a national 14-place initiative by The W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Dallas TRHT's mission is to create a radically inclusive city by addressing race and racism through narrative change, relationship building, and equitable policies and practices. Jerry is also a co-founder of The Imagining Freedom Institute (The IF Institute), a national research-based leadership group that helps organizations and institutions understand the historical context to contemporary issues of place, race and racism. Jerry was formerly the Project Director of Bachman Lake Together for The Dallas Foundation and Zero To Five Funders Collaborative, an early childhood collective impact initiative in Dallas, and Director of Children's Services at the Wilkinson Center in East Dallas/Southeast Dallas.

Jerry is a current 2020-21 Presidential Leadership Scholar, a recent Leadership Arts Institute Fellow with the Business Council for the Arts, a Dallas County Historical Commission Member, and sits on the City of Dallas' City Plan Commission (CPC) Comprehensive Land Use Committee, Dallas ISD’s Trustee-appointed Racial Equity Advisory Council and The Education Trust/ERS Resource Equity Working Group for Dallas ISD, and the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas/PolicyLink/National Fund for Workforce Solutions 'Pathways to Work' Workforce Equity Advisory Council. Jerry also serves on the boards of Leadership ISD, Deep Vellum Books, AccessH2O and Young Leaders, Strong City. Jerry has been awarded PBS/KERA's American Graduate Champion in 2017, an Outstanding Child Advocate at CHILDREN AT RISK’s Texas Academy Awards of Child Advocacy in 2020, and was selected as one of the “Dallas 500 Most Powerful Business Leaders in North Texas” in 2021 and 2022 by D CEO/D Magazine. Jerry’s first editorial offering, A People’s History of Dallas, will be published in 2023 by Deep Vellum Books. While living in Chicago, Jerry worked for Chicago Urban League and Chicago Public Schools. Jerry and his three children, aged 20, 18 and 13, live in Dallas, TX.

JOHN C. BRITTAIN

Olie W. Rauh Professor of Law
University of the District of Columbia
David A. Clarke School of Law

RACIAL AWAKING, RECKONING AND MINDFULNESS IN 2020 

Wednesday, February 10th, 2021

5:00 p.m.

This will be a Virtual Lecture

Professor Brittain received his BA (’66) and his JD (’69) from Howard University. John C. Brittain joined the faculty of the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law in 2009 where he served as Acting Dean from 2018 to 2019. Prior to joining UDC Law, he served as Dean of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University in Houston, Emeritus Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law where he served for twenty-two years, and a Chief Counsel and Senior Deputy Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, D.C. Professor Brittain writes and litigates on issues in civil and human rights, especially in education law. Professor Brittain was one of the original counsel team in Sheff v. O’Neill, the landmark school desegregation case decided by the Connecticut Supreme Court in 1996. He has been president of the National Lawyers’ Guild, a member of the Executive Committee and the Board of the ACLU, and legal counsel to the NAACP at the local level and national office of the General Counsel.

YONG-SHIK (STEVE) LEE

HIRAM H. LESAR DISTINGUISHED VISITING PROFESSOR

LAW AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES: A NEXUS WITH CIVIL RIGHTS

Several decades have passed since the civil rights movement began. The movement achieved historic success owing to the efforts of so many who dedicated their lives to the call of justice and equality. This remarkable success has led to a more fair society that accords the legal protection of equal rights among different races, genders, and ethnic groups. Despite this important achievement, we still have a long way to fulfilling the full promise of the civil rights movement, which at its core lies the protection and promotion of equity and dignity of all people. For example, growing economic disparities that exist along racial lines and across the country pull us away from the ideals of the civil rights movement. Structural economic problems in the United States, such as chronic employment issues persisting in many regions and deepening economic polarization across the country, have exacerbated inequalities and social problems that divide the country. A fundamental change of paradigm is required to meet this challenge. These economic problems can no longer be overcome solely by individual efforts and self-reliance. The governments, including the federal, state, and local, must address them by facilitating economic development in our communities, in cooperation with the private sector, as has been successfully implemented elsewhere. Successful economic development that vitalizes economically depressed regions and bridges the economic gaps among us must be achieved before we can meet the objectives of the civil rights movement.

Thursday, April 2 at 5:00 p.m.

Lesar Law Building, Auditorium

Reception immediately following lecture in the Formal Lounge

Professor Lee is a scholar in law and development and an international trade lawyer. He is currently Director and Professorial Fellow of the Law and Development Institute and Hiram H. Lesar Distinguished Visiting Professor in Law, Southern Illinois University School of Law. He has also taught and conducted academic research at other leading universities throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, including New York University, Emory University, Tulane University, the University of Sydney, and the University of Manchester. He graduated in economics with academic distinction from the University of California at Berkeley and received law degrees from the University of Cambridge (B.A., M.A., Ph.D). He is licensed to practice law in multiple jurisdictions, including United States (Attorney at Law: California, North Carolina) and United Kingdom (Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales).

Author of Reclaiming Development in the World Trading System (Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed. 2016), Safeguard Measures in World Trade: The Legal Analysis (Edward Elgar, 3rd ed. 2014), Microtrade: A New System of International Trade with Volunteerism Towards Poverty Elimination (co-authored, Routledge, 2013), and Law and Development: Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2019), Professor Lee has published over ninety academic articles, books, chapters, and shorter notes with leading publishers in North America, Europe, and Asia, in the areas of international economic law, law and development, development economics, comparative law, and international commercial arbitration. He has pioneered academic research on safeguard measures (emergency import restraint measures) under the World Trade Organization (WTO) system and developed the concept of “microtrade,” a new system of international trade designed to alleviate populations of the least-developed countries of extreme poverty. He has also developed the “general theory of law and development” which sets the disciplinary parameters of law and development and analyzes the causal mechanisms by which law impacts development. He is currently an associate editor of the Journal of World Trade and the founding editor-in-chief of the Law and Development Review. He has developed academic courses and programs, including the law and development specialization for Master of Laws (LLM) and Juris Master (JM) Programs and the Certificate / Diploma in Law and Development Program.

Professor Lee has participated in a number of bilateral and multilateral negotiations on international trade and investment at international forums such as the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law. He has appeared before WTO dispute settlement panels and the WTO Appellate Body as a government counsel, and advised national governments, international law firms, and consulting companies on international trade and development projects and major international commercial arbitration cases. He has frequently spoken on issues of international economic law, law and development, and the WTO at prominent forums including Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and the World Bank.

Juan Carlos Linares, MBA, J.D., LL.M.

Executive Director of LUCHA
Chair of the Illinois Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
Northeastern Illinois University's El Centro Campus Advisory Council
Lecturer of Law at the University of Chicago Law School.  

"HOUSING AS A HUMAN RIGHT"

Tuesday, October 30, 5:00 p.m.

Lesar Law Building, Auditorium

Reception immediately following lecture in the Formal Lounge

Watch Linares Lesar Lecture here

Juan Carlos Linares builds community and advances housing as a human right.  He is the Executive Director of LUCHA, a Chicago-based affordable housing development agency which offers housing counseling, foreclosure prevention and legal assistance to over 8,000 clients annually in the Midwest.  Started as an organizing body of Puerto Ricans and other low-income families fighting displacement from their neighborhoods, LUCHA owns and operates 198 affordable housing units in Chicago’s Humboldt Park, Logan Square and West Town neighborhoods.  LUCHA also recently built the first multi-family “Passive House” building in Illinois and completed a first-of-its-kind Health Action Plan for its Tierra Linda housing development along Chicago’s 606 Trail. 

Juan Carlos currently serves as Chair of the Illinois Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which has most recently published reports on the issues of Hate Crimes, Environmental Justice and Voting Rights in Illinois.  He has a mayoral appointment to the Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund Board, and serves on the Boards of Urban Theater Company and The Woodstock Institute.  He also serves on Northeastern Illinois University's El Centro Campus Advisory Council and is a Lecturer of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. 

Juan Carlos holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a JD from DePaul University and an LL.M. in International Business Law from The John Marshall Law School.  His BA in Sociology and Spanish is from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  For his work, Juan Carlos has been awarded the Friends of the Parks Lakefront Protection Award and the “Top Lawyer under 40 National Award” from the Hispanic National Bar Association among other recognitions, and he has participated in Fellowships with the Aspen Institute, The Chicago Community Trust and Leadership Greater Chicago, among others. 

Juan Carlos’ parents immigrated from Peru (mother) and Guatemala (father) to achieve the American Dream in Chicago, and later settled in the west Cook County suburb of Bellwood where they raised their family.  As human rights attorneys, Juan Carlos and his wife Monica have visited social justice institutions in 38 countries, and along with their two children reside on Chicago’s south side.

Erwin Chemerinsky

"The Supreme Court and Civil Rights on the 60th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education and the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964"

Thursday, March 27, 5 - 6 p.m.

Lesar Law Building, Auditorium

Erwin Chemerinsky is the founding Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, and Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law, at the University of California, Irvine School of Law.

The Hiram H. Lesar Distinguished Lecture Series was established to honor founding Dean Hiram H. Lesar, whose many personal and professional concerns included an interest in civil rights. It is therefore fitting that, on the 40th anniversary of the law school he helped create, we take time to consider the legacies of two of the most fundamental civil rights events in our country’s history. 

Before assuming his current position in 2008, Chemerinsky was a professor at Duke Law School, University of Southern California Law School, and DePaul College of Law. His areas of expertise are constitutional law, federal practice, civil rights and civil liberties, and appellate litigation. He is the author of eight books, including the forthcoming The Case Against the Supreme Court (Viking 2014), and over 200 law review articles. He regularly argues appellate cases, including in the United States Supreme Court, and also serves as a commentator on legal issues for national media.

He was ranked #1 in the National Jurist’s recent list of the “Most Influential People in Legal Education.” 

Advocates for the Innocent: Gordon (Randy) Steidel, death row exoneree; Michale Callahan, retired Illinois State Police lieutenant; John Hanlon, Legal Director of the Illinois Innocence Project. Listen to WSIU radio interview

Sophie Lagueny, Chief of Party for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) in Haiti, Reporting from Ground Level in Haiti

Christopher Nugent, Senior Counsel with the Community Services Team of Holland & Knight, LLP, Washington, D.C. Highlighting the work that he & his firm are doing to assist Iraqi allies who are in peril for helping American soldiers.

Eleanor Holmes Norton, Congresswoman for the District of Columbia on the latest efforts to give the citizens of the District of Columbia a voting member of Congress

Hans Blix, Chairman of International Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction, “Disarming Iraq: A firsthand account of the events leading up to the 2003 war”

Honorable Priscilla Owen, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, “What Does the Future Hold For Our Court Systems?”

Roger Cossack, ESPN Legal Analyst “The Role of the Media in High Profile Trials”

Cheryl Brown Henderson and John Stokes, plaintiffs in Brown v Board of Education “Separate But Equal: The Plaintiffs’ Perspective on the Landmark United States Supreme Court Case, Brown v Board of Education”

Justice Thomas L. Kilbride, Illinois Supreme Court Justice “Justice: A View from the Storefront Law Office to the Illinois Supreme Court”

L. Douglas Wilder, Former Governor of Virginia “Civil Rights in America: One Lawyer’s Perspective”

Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, Former Executive Director of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial “Speak Truth to Power”

Nadine Strossen, ACLU President “Hate Speech on Campus”

Stephen Bright, Director, Southern Center for Human Rights “A Privilege to Serve”

Morris Dees, Co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center and Klanwatch “A Passion for Justice”

Professor Sandra H. Johnson, St. Louis University School of Law “Physician Assisted Suicide: A Debate and Discussion”

Professor Stephen H. Legomsky, Washington University School of Law “E Pluribus Unum: Casual Slogan or Enduring Value?”

Professor Geoffrey Hazard, Jr., University of Pennsylvania“Morals, Ethics and Law”

Professor Susan F. French, University of California School of Law, Los Angeles “Under the Umbrella? Or Under the Thumb? Of the Homeowners Association: Pleasures and Pitfalls of Living in Common Interest Communities”