As the Virtual ABA Midyear Meeting approaches, we at the ABF are looking forward to your presence at two exciting Fellows events. We invite all Fellows to register now for the ABF Fellows 65th Annual Awards Banquet as well as the Fellows CLE Research Seminar, which will feature new research findings and is highlighted below. Don't miss your chance to connect with peers, researchers, and academics alike! This issue also includes Fellows and Faculty news items and a special Fellows Spotlight.

ABF Researchers in the News

New Study Co-Authored by ABF Research Professor Shari Seidman Diamond Examines the Decline of Jury Trials A new study co-authored by ABF Research Professor Shari Seidman Diamond explains the decline in jury trials and examines factors that can slow down or reverse their disappearance. The study finds that while judges and lawyers agree that jury trials are fairer than other alternatives, jury trials have been suppressed by a variety of laws related to sentencing. Administered by The American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on the American Jury, the study surveyed 1,460 lawyers and judges from 2016 to 2019 on the importance of jury trials in the judicial process. The article, titled “Reasons for the Disappearing Jury Trial: Perspectives from Attorneys and Judges,” was co-authored by Diamond, also a Northwestern University law professor, and Jessica M. Salerno, an associate professor of psychology at Arizona State University. Read more here.

ABF Research Professor John Hagan Publishes "International Law and American Criminology: Lessons of Racist Torture and Reparations from Geneva to Chicago" ABF Research Professor John Hagan has published a new article titled "International Law and American Criminology: Lessons of Racist Torture and Reparations from Geneva to Chicago" in the journal International Criminology. The article examines the development of international criminal law post-World War II. Hagan outlines the role of the United States in establishing international criminal law during the Nuremberg Trials, as well as its stagnancy in developing further laws in the decades that followed. He also examines more recent international efforts to hold the U.S. accountable for crimes in Iraq and Chicago. Read more here.

Fellows in the News

Below are highlights from our Fellows news segment, Fellows in the News. You can view many more on our website here. Please send Fellows in the News submissions to fellows@abfn.org.

ABF Receives Generous Donation from Sourcebooks in Honor of Late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg To honor the work and legacy of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sourcebooks, Inc. has made a generous donation to the American Bar Foundation. Sourcebooks, Inc. is an independent book publisher and is one of the twenty largest publishers in the United States; It is also the largest woman-owned publisher in North America. In September, Sourcebooks announced that they would donate half of the profits from sales of the 2021 Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg Wall Calendar to causes that the late Justice supported. A portion of these proceeds went to the ABF. The 12-month wall calendar includes original art and the most moving and memorable quotes from Ginsburg’s groundbreaking career. Read more here.

Professor Susan Bandes, Illinois Fellow, Publishes "The Death Penalty and the Misleading Concept of 'Closure'" Professor Susan Bandes, Illinois Fellow and Emeritus Centennial Distinguished Professor of Law at DePaul University, has published an article entitled "The Death Penalty and the Misleading Concept of 'Closure'" for The Crime Report. The article asserts that the argument for the importance of providing "closure" to the families of murder victims is unfairly used to justify the death sentence. Bandes also notes a lack of evidence in supporting a relationship between capital punishment and such closure. Read more here.

Nancy Andrade, Illinois Fellow, Appointed Commissioner for the Chicago Commission on Human Relations Nancy Andrade, Illinois Fellow and former Senior Presidential Advisor at the American Bar Association, has been appointed Commissioner of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations (CCHR) by Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot. Ms. Andrade's responsibilities will include enforcing the Chicago Human Rights Ordinance and the Chicago Fair Housing Ordinance. She was previously appointed to the City of Chicago's Board of Ethics by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel as well as the Illinois Department of Public Health's Disability Advisory Board. Read more here.

Fellows Event Spotlight Register Now: ABF Fellows CLE at the 2021 Virtual ABA Midyear Meeting

Join us virtually on Friday, February 19, 2021 at 8am PST/10am CT/11am EST for a free ABF Fellows CLE held in conjunction with the 2021 Virtual ABA Midyear Meeting. The panelists, listed above, will discuss the relationship between gruesome photographs, conviction rates, and race in the courtroom. The seminar will also feature the results of two experiments on the topic conducted by ABF Research Professor and panelist Janice Nadler. Special thanks to our co-sponsors: the ABA Criminal Justice Section, ABA Litigation Section, and ABA Young Lawyers Division. To attend, please register here for the complimentary 2021 Virtual ABA Midyear Meeting.

Fellow Spotlight Lauren Robel is the Val Nolan Professor of Law, Provost, and Executive Vice President of Indiana University Bloomington and a Board Member of the ABF. She became a Fellow in October 2003.

Provost Lauren Robel Illinois Visionary Fellow Q: What does being a Fellow mean to you?  A: Being a Fellow provides the opportunity to support cutting-edge research on the most important legal topics we are grappling with as a country. No other institution fills the role of the ABF for in-depth, long-term, high-quality empirical research on the effects of law and legal institutions. Q: Where were you born and raised?  A: Ha! A question I have grappled with my entire life. I was born on a Strategic Air Command base in Nebraska, and raised in that third-culture, peripatetic world of yearly moves. Nothing could have been a better upbringing for my current job, where listening and trying to understand and support the many cultures of different academic disciplines is at the center of what I do.   Q: Why did you decide to pursue a career in law and academia? A: Our family was transferred from France to Montgomery, Alabama in the middle of the 1960’s. That move gave me a front-row seat to the drama of the civil-rights movement, and showed me the power, for good and evil, of law and lawyers. I was transfixed by federal judge Frank Johnson’s involvement in every part of life in the state, from the schools to the prisons to the voting districts, and the courage he showed in exercising that power in the face of well-known threats to his life. I was just as inspired by the activists who pushed the boundaries of racial apartheid and successfully forced the hand of the political authorities.    Q: If you hadn’t pursued a career in law and academia, what would you have done?  A: My Plan B if I hadn’t liked law school was to finish a PhD in English. But I loved law from the beginning. It was all I loved about language, but with the added benefit of putting language to use in support of justice.    Q: What do you do in your free time? A: Free time?    Q: Anything else you'd like to share with us?  A: All lawyers should support the ABF. It is a palpable way to make legal institutions and the law better.   Read more Fellows Spotlights here.

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