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/