AALS has launched a series that will highlight a different member school and focus on a recent program or accomplishment in order to showcase the rich variety of approaches to legal education that makes up the American legal academy. A list of past highlights is available below.

Member School Highlight – University of Illinois Chicago School of Law

Location: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 1899
Joined AALS: 1979
Dean: Nicky Boothe

The University of Illinois Chicago School of Law (UIC Law) is Chicago’s only public law school. Committed to access and opportunity, UIC Law offers a unique interdisciplinary environment for its students to study and earn their law degree. UIC Law is dedicated to making a difference in the lives of its students by equipping them with the skills to further social justice, impact their communities, and step into their next academic or professional achievement.

UIC Law is proudly recognized as a diverse, innovative institution promoting excellence in all legal education aspects. UIC Law delivers academic and practical instruction through its full-time and practicing adjunct faculty, benefiting JD candidates. Also, UIC Law encourages all of its 314 JD students to gain legal experience by taking advantage of legal clinic opportunities, externships, and the resources and expertise of Career Services and the Office of Professionalism & Career Strategy.

The Lucy Sprague Public Service Award on the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law (UIC Law) Donor Wall.

UIC Law announced the creation of the first fully endowed professorship at the law school. Lucy Sprague was a second-year law student studying public interest in 1996 when she was senselessly murdered in her apartment. To continue Lucy’s legacy, her mother, Mrs. Lee Sprague, her siblings Zander and Cynthia, and their children created the Lucy Sprague Professorship in Public Interest, a three-year termed opportunity set to begin during the 2024-2025 academic year through 2027.

The Spragues are the first donors to fully endow a professorship at UIC Law. The goal of the professorship is to continue advancements in public service and to ensure that education and research around public interest are readily available.

“Public service has been a cornerstone of UIC Law’s tradition since its inception,” said UIC Law Dean Nicky Boothe. “As a student, Lucy Sprague evidenced a deep commitment to public service and planned to use her law degree reflective of that commitment. Although her life was tragically cut short before she could realize her dreams of public service, the Lucy Sprague Professorship will firmly establish her legacy while supporting the public interest work of the law school. The entire UIC Law community will benefit from this endowed professorship through research, teaching and innovative programming that will advance the vital work of public interest law.”