Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
Yet another academic year has come to a close at IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
I am proud of the achievements of the Class of 2025 and of how well our law school’s mission of accessible and rigorous legal education and our implementation of the IU 2030 strategic goals help our students to realize their dreams as they and our law school contribute to making a measurable positive impact in Indiana, the nation and the world.
Permit me to provide some highlights about the recently graduated Class of 2025, which contributed more than 3,500 hours of pro bono work to the community while earning their degrees.
One graduate was chosen by a national organization to take part in a prestigious leadership training program. And this class gained additional practical work experience through externships at the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Indiana Supreme Court, Cummins, Eli Lilly and Co., Pierce Aerospace, IU Health, the NCAA, the ACLU, more than 50 state and local government agencies, and multiple non-
profit organizations.
Our law school plays a pivotal role in meeting Indiana’s legal needs.
Since our law school’s founding in the late 1800s, we have been proud of the fact that IU McKinney trains a majority of Indiana’s lawyers by educating more J.D. students than any other institution in the state and doing so at the lowest cost.
Sixty-six percent of IU McKinney graduates (8,657) live and work here in Indiana. Of the 466 people who sat for the Indiana Bar Exam in July 2024, a total of 214 (or 46%) were IU McKinney graduates. And 90% of the working graduates of the Class of 2024 live and work in the state of Indiana.
But we are not merely supplying lawyers. We are training practice-ready legal professionals.
The IU McKinney School of Law’s laser focus on student success and opportunity, transformative research and creativity, and service to our state and beyond, creates opportunities for students to gain real-world experience while serving the needs of our society and fulfilling our profession’s great mission. Let me share just a few examples with you:
Students in the Health and Human Rights Clinic and Professor Fran Quigley, J.D. ’87, are actively working to make life better for tenants in Indiana’s largest city.
Professor Quigley and the clinic students collaborated with a coalition of service providers, legal advocates, and faith-based organizations on a report that showed that some township trustees in Marion County are failing the city’s most vulnerable residents. Township trustees have funds they can use to help people facing eviction, but those funds are sometimes not distributed. The goal is to initiate positive change in the township trustee system related to emergency funding.
According to Professor Quigley: “For many struggling people in our community, our eviction court clinic clients very much included, the township trustee assistance program is their best chance at avoiding eviction and homelessness. “I am very proud that our students observed the real struggles of their clinic clients and decided to apply their research and writing skills to the problem of trustees too often not providing the help needed. The report our students drafted has attracted the attention of lawmakers, media, and the trustees themselves, and is already making a positive change in our community and trustees’ practices.”
Under the leadership of Professor Joel Schumm, J.D. ’98, IU McKinney’s Rural Justice Initiative (RJI) received a record number of applications from students eager to participate.
To date, 45 of our students have taken part in the program that sends law students to spend the summer in one of Indiana’s rural counties working with judges, prosecutors, or public defenders. During summer 2025, eight students will work with judges in rural counties across Indiana. The need for attorneys in small communities across the state is great, and several IU McKinney alumni who took part in the program are now living and working as attorneys in rural parts of Indiana.
Professor Schumm noted that, in its seventh year, the RJI’s reputation and reach continues to grow: “Our record number of applicants included students in both the full-time and hybrid programs with a deep interest in and connections to rural communities around the state.” He expressed confidence that many will decide to practice law and become community leaders in rural counties.
IU McKinney’s Re-Entry Assistance and Community Help Clinic has made a significant impact both in our student’s learning and in the lives of formerly incarcerated people.
Our students, led by Professor Lahny Silva, work with the Re-Entry and Community Help (REACH) court in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. McKinney students provide one-on-one assistance to newly released federal probationers who are at high risk for recidivism, helping them to obtain employment and safe and affordable housing, and to acquire a driver’s license, among other needs.
Since IU McKinney joined the REACH court’s efforts in 2016, the recidivism rate has fallen by 21 percent. To date, approximately 100 students have taken part in the clinic and, since 2019, the outreach has helped more than 5,000 people.
Professor Silva explained that “The Reentry Clinic makes an enormous impact on the law students and the Indianapolis community. Law students learn not only advocacy and practical skills, but also the human aspect of legal practice. The community, in turn, receives much needed legal assistance in a variety of areas including driver’s license reinstatement, expungement, and divorce to mention a few. It’s a win-win for everyone.”
Through the leadership and service of our students, faculty, staff, and alumni, IU McKinney helps to make our state, our nation, and our world a better place for all.•
__________
Karen E. Bravo is the dean and Gerald L. Bepko professor of law at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.