This is the first episode in a new series called Access to Justice, which explores the growing gap of access to legal resources in different areas of the United States.

Legal deserts – defined by the American Bar Association as a county with fewer than one lawyer per 1000 people – are spreading across rural areas of the country. Indiana is facing a statewide attorney shortage and has seen rural legal deserts increase significantly in recent years. In 2024, the Indiana Supreme Court convened the Commission on Indiana’s Legal Future to address the state’s growing attorney shortage.

Associate Editor Mary Bandstra sits down with Judge Melissa May from the Court of Appeals of Indiana to discuss the legal desert issue and Judge May’s work as a member of the Commission’s Incentivizing Rural Practice working group.

Research & Sources:

Hon, Melissa S. May & Michael Moore, Indiana Legal Deserts: Where We Are, How We Got Here, and What We Can Do, Res Gestae Vol. 67 No. 4 Nov 2023. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.inbar.org/resource/resmgr/pdfs/November_2023_RG.pdf

Alexa Shrake, High Court Approves Recommendations to Address Attorney Shortage, Inside Indiana Business, October 4, 2024. https://www.insideindianabusiness.com/articles/high-court-approves-recommendations-from-commission-on-indianas-legal-future

Commission on Indiana’s Legal Future (includes links to interim report): https://www.in.gov/courts/admin/legal-future/

Resources for Hoosiers seeking legal assistance:

Indiana Legal Help: https://indianalegalhelp.org/

Indiana Legal Services: https://www.indianalegalservices.org/

In this episode, Rachel Still and Isabella Lund sit down with Aisha Davis, Senior Policy Counsel at the ACLU of Illinois. Aisha shares her journey as a first-generation lawyer, detailing how her lived experiences and time in law school shaped her path to public interest law. We explore her critical insights on addressing systemic injustices affecting Black and LGBTQ+ communities, the interplay of policy and law, and the challenges of advocating for intersectional issues like police brutality and trans erasure. Aisha also discusses her dissertation on the connections between U.S. segregation and Romanian policies, highlighting how global systems learn from each other. Finally, she offers advice for aspiring changemakers and a thought-provoking vision of what true liberation could mean.

Research & Sources:  

https://www.policeforum.org/buildingpublictrust

https://eji.org/issues/policing-in-america/

https://www.hrc.org/resources/understanding-the-transgender-community

https://www.chicagopolice.org/policy-review/interaction-with-transgender-intersex-and-gender-nonconforming-tign-individuals-policy-draft/

Resources: 

https://www.hrc.org/resources/understanding-the-transgender-community

https://www.aclu.org/issues/lgbtq-rights/transgender-rights

https://www.aclu.org/police-practices

This week Davey and Chris sit down with Will Boling and Emily Proud to discuss payment in college athletics and its collateral effects. Will Boling is a sports radio host on 104.5 the Zone in Nashville, TN as well as a play-by-play announcer for professional and collegiate track, women’s college basketball and college baseball. While attending the University of Tennessee, Will was a distance runner with the track team. Emily Proud is a sports reporter for the CBS Sports network. She covers college football, men's and women's college basketball as well as the NWSL and the WNBA. While attending Belmont University Emily was a member of the women’s soccer team. Davey and Chris were lucky to sit down and discuss their time as athletes in non-revenue programs as well as their reporting on the monumental shift in the college sports landscape that is Name Image and Likeness revenue.

Research & Sources:  

National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston 141 S.Ct. 2141, 594 U.S. 69, 210 L.Ed.2d 314 (2021)

O'Bannon v. National Collegiate Athletic Association 802 F.3d 1049 (2015), cert. denied, 137 S. Ct. 277 (2016)

Johnson v. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, No. 22-1223 (3d Cir. 2024)

In this episode, we explore how the Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) is transforming lives behind bars through access to higher education. What makes this program unique? How does it provide incarcerated individuals with the tools to achieve academic success and personal growth? We’ll discuss NPEP’s mission, its challenges, and the incredible stories of students whose lives have been changed with the director of the program, Professor Jennifer Lackey. Along the way, we’ll dive into the broader implications of education in prisons—can it reduce recidivism and foster true rehabilitation? Join us as we examine how NPEP is redefining second chances and what it means to bring the power of education to incarcerated students.

Jennifer Lackey is the Wayne and Elizabeth Jones Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Law (courtesy) at Northwestern University, Founding Director of the Northwestern Prison Education Program, and Senior Research Associate at the African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science at the University of Johannesburg.

Lackey’s research is primarily in social epistemology with a current focus on epistemic issues within the American criminal legal system. She is the author of over 60 articles and three books, including her recent Criminal Testimonial Injustice, which won the 2024 North American Society for Social Philosophy Book Award. She is also the editor of five volumes and editor-in-chief of two journals in philosophy, Philosophical Studies and Episteme. Lackey is the winner of the 2024 Humanitas Award, 2023 Horace Mann Medal, and the Lebowitz Prize for Philosophical Achievement and Contribution. She was elected President of the American Philosophical Association’s Central Division from 2021–2022, was recently named the 2025 holder of the Spinoza Chair at the University of Amsterdam, and has received grants and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Research & Sources:

https://sites.northwestern.edu/jal788/

https://sites.northwestern.edu/npep/

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2020/02/northwestern-prison-education-program-receives-1-million-mellon-grant/

https://magazine.northwestern.edu/features/prison-education-unlocks-potential/

https://sites.northwestern.edu/npep/why-prison-education/

https://www.wbez.org/shows/reset/meet-the-educator-bringing-liberal-arts-to-illinois-prisoners/6906021f-30ca-45ec-8aad-a2747b3942a7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5IhWJhgI9Y&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

Resources:

https://sites.northwestern.edu/npep/

n this episode, Neha Alety sits down with Hannah Sweeney, associate attorney at Pavich Law Group and former Loyola Chicago School of Law graduate. Hannah shares her experiences as a female litigator in a male-dominated field. We begin our discussion with her career path and background and her experiences in law school. She then discusses the gender-based challenges she’s faced in her career and how she’s navigated the male-dominated area of litigation. Though challenging, Ms. Sweeney also talks about how being a woman in law has given her a unique approach to her practice. Lastly, she gives some advice to future female attorneys on what she wished she had known before entering the field of law.

Research & Sources:

Maureen Mulligan, Continuing Our Conversations on Gender Equity, American Bar Association, April 7, 2021, https://www.americanbar.org/groups/diversity/women/publications/perspectives/2021/april/continuing-our-conversations-gender-equity/

Sarah Thomas, Creating Space at the Table: Succeeding as a Felae in the Still Male-Dominated Field of Law, ABA Journal, June 29, 2023, https://www.abajournal.com/voice/article/lowering-the-ladder-succeeding-as-a-female-in-the-still-male-dominated-field-of-law

International Women’s Day: What Does the Legal Profession Look Like for Women in 2021?, Law Careers, March 8, 2021, https://www.lawcareers.net/Explore/Features/08032021-International-Womens-Day-what-does-the-legal-profession-look-like-for

Jaline S. Fenwick, See Her; Hear Her: The Historical Evolution of Women in Law and Advocacy for the Path Ahead, American Bar Association, November 15, 2023, https://www.americanbar.org/groups/business_law/resources/business-law-today/2023-november/see-her-hear-her-historical-evolution-women-in-law/

Resources:

ABA Women in the Profession

Includes online toolkits and literature

Please enjoy this recording of an event held on campus on November 21!

"Three years of Taliban rule in Afghanistan has led to the “striking” erasure of women from public life. Join Najia Mahmodi and Juliet Sorensen for a conversation on gender persecution in Afghanistan today and the path forward."

We often hear the term “law of the land,” where a legal framework is based on common or civil law. But what laws apply once we venture off dry land and out to sea? That’s where maritime law (or admiralty law) comes into play. Sometimes called the Law of the Sea, maritime law consists of laws, conventions, and treaties governing business, crime, and international disputes on open waters. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is considered the constitution of the ocean; it provides a foundation for international cooperation and collaboration in protecting marine life, establishing trade routes, preventing trafficking and crime, ensuring fair and reasonable sovereignty of the use and protection of coastal waters, and more. This episode is a brief introduction into the history of UNCLOS, the U.S.’s influence on the enforcement of UNCLOS, and current issues in in maritime law. In future episodes, we’ll dive deeper into modern maritime issues affecting global trade, the environment, and national security.

Research & Sources:

Youtube.com, The A, B, and Seas of UNCLOS: What is UNCLOS,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore, .

Youtube.com, “President Obama Speaks to West Point Graduates,” The Obama White House, May 28, 2014, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG_hX_XM4Ks>.

Youtube.com, “The Science of UNCLOS,” Fisheries and Oceans Canada. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCttmsixQpc/

U.S. Navy Jag Corps, “The Convention on the Law of the Sea,” Navy Jag Corps website, https://www.jag.navy.mil/national-security/law-of-the-sea/.

Center for Preventive Action, “Territorial Disputes in the South China Sea,” Council on Foreign Relations, Global Conflict Tracker, September 17, 2024, https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/territorial-disputes-south-china-sea.

Resources:

United Nations, “United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 Overview and full text,” Ocean & Law of the Seas, Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, last updated June 24, 2024, https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/convention_overview_convention.htm.

International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, https://www.itlos.org/en/main/the-tribunal/the-tribunal/.

Congressional Research Service, “United Nations: Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS): Living Resources Provisions,” Summary No. R47744, Updated July 15, 2024, https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47744.

Distinguished Professor in Residence Dean Strang sits down with Associate Editor Katie Dorsey to discuss the 1924 Leopold and Loeb trial, Clarence Darrow’s career, and how this “Trial of the Century” created a lasting legacy that is still relevant 100 years later.

Research & Sources:

To learn more about the Leopold and Loeb crimes and trial, check out The Leopold and Loeb Files: An Intimate Look at One of America's Most Infamous Crimes by Nina Barrett, https://www.bookendsandbeginnings.com/book/9781572842403

A 21st-Century Reconsideration of Leopold and Loeb: Clarence Darrow, Adolescent Development, and the Criminal Legal System Today, Video recording of live event: https://www.newberry.org/calendar/leopold-and-loeb

Worse than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror by Dean Strang, https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/5608.htm

Resources:

People of the State of Illinois vs. Nathan F. Leopold, Jr. and Richard Loeb (1924) transcripts: https://archives.newberry.org/repositories/2/archival_objects/19625

Author Nina Barrett (The Leopold and Loeb Files) and Associate Editor Katie Dorsey tell the story of the Leopold and Loeb murder and trial, which changed the field of criminal defense in America with ramifications that echo even today and the circumstances that make this horrifying crime still shocking and relevant a century later.

Research & Sources:  

 

To learn more about the Leopold and Loeb crimes and trial, check out The Leopold and Loeb Files: An Intimate Look at One of America's Most Infamous Crimes by Nina Barrett, https://www.bookendsandbeginnings.com/book/9781572842403

A 21st-Century Reconsideration of Leopold and Loeb: Clarence Darrow, Adolescent Development, and the Criminal Legal System Today, Video recording of live event: https://www.newberry.org/calendar/leopold-and-loeb

  

Resources: 

People of the State of Illinois vs. Nathan F. Leopold, Jr. and Richard Loeb (1924) transcripts: https://archives.newberry.org/repositories/2/archival_objects/19625

Visit Nina Barrett’s bookstore, Bookends and Beginnings, in Evanston, Illinois. https://www.bookendsandbeginnings.com/

Until the supreme court case Alton v NCAA in 2021, collegiate athletes could not monetize their athletic ability while in college. This episode explores the history and creation of the NCAA, the regulatory body of college sports. It will cover the early issues the NCAA faced. It then turns to the advent of amateurism and the term “student-athlete” the legal framework the NCAA used to protect itself from wages and workmen’s compensation claims by athletes. Then the episode will finish with a discussion of the current NIL landscape of college athletics post the Alston decision in 2021.

Research & Sources:

Judgments

National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston, 594 U.S. ____ (2021)

O'Bannon v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, 802 F.3d 1049 (2015)

Waldrep v. Texas Employers Insurance Association, 21 S.W.3d 602 (2000)

State Compensation Ins. Fund. V Industrial Com’n., 314 P.2d 288 (1957)

Books

Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting College Athletes by Walter Byers (1995)

The Cartel: Inside the Rise and Imminent Fall of the NCAA by Taylor Branch (2011)

Online Sources

NCAA Punishes Missouri in Blatant Academic Fraud Case

Kent Waldrep, Athlete Whose Injury Led to Advocacy, Dies at 67

The NCAA coined the term ‘student-athlete’ in the 1950s. Its time might be up.

Congressmen propose bill that would legally protect NCAA

IN THE KINGDOM OF THE SOLITARY MAN

Explosion: 1951 scandals threaten college hoops

History of NCAA

Antitrust Standards of Review: The Per Se, Rule of Reason, and Quick Look Tests

NCAA antitrust settlement effort challenged by lawyer from Ed O'Bannon case

COLLEGES ADOPT THE 'SANITY CODE' TO GOVERN SPORTS; N.C.A.A. Bans Scholarships in Which Athletic Ability Is the Major Factor

Resources:

Schooled: The Price of College Sports

What is NIL in college sports? How do athlete deals work?

Check out the prior NIL episodes by former editors, which came out right after the Alston decision.