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Dear Law School Community,
Earlier this year, Dean Darby Dickerson appointed the Task Force to Consider Renaming the Law School (“Task Force”). The Law School’s official name is UIC John Marshall Law School. The Law School’s official name traces to its founding, in 1899, as The John Marshall Law School. John Marshall was the fourth Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
The Law School's official name, until August 2025, is controlled by a Premises Covenant in the Asset Transfer Agreement between the University of Illinois Board of Trustees and The John Marshall Law School. In addition, another Premises Covenant requires UIC to refer to Law School’s campus as the John Marshall Campus until August 2025. Hence, the Task Force is considering whether to recommend accelerating the renaming of the Law School before 2025.
Among the Task Force’s chief duties is to gather input from the Law School's students, faculty, staff, and alumni regarding the official name. To that end, the Task Force will host four online meetings this month for purposes of providing students, faculty, staff, and alumni an opportunity to provide input to the Task Force and hear the perspectives, opinions and observations of their peers.
The Task Force will host an online meeting for:
All meetings will be recorded. The Task Force is also exploring additional avenues for interested faculty, staff, students, and alumni to submit their observations and opinions directly to the Task Force.
To date, the Task Force has reviewed numerous documents from interested parties, both for and against an accelerated renaming of the Law School. On one hand, scores of students, and observers around the nation, feel that Justice Marshall’s views about race, his reported role as a slave lord, and various positions he took as a justice in cases involving race or slaves, run strikingly contrary to the Law School’s commitment to racial equality and notions of equal justice. Many observers argue that continued use of the John Marshall name offends and prevents racial minorities, particularly African Americans, from escaping the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, thereby undermining the Law School’s goal of becoming a more diverse and inclusive institution centered on expectations of high academic achievement. On the other hand, some alumni and observers note that the decision to name our Law School after Justice Marshall was undertaken to honor his immense contributions to Constitutional Law, recognition as one of the founding architects of the practice of judicial review, and his notoriety as one of our nation’s greatest chief justices. They contend that the Law School should continue to honor his legacy and point to our Law School’s long history as a school of opportunity. Simply put, there is no shortage of competing observations and perspectives.
The Task Force welcomes your input on this important topic and hope you can attend one of your designated meetings.
Respectfully,
Sam Jones (Co-Chair, Task Force)
Associate Dean & Professor of Law
John R. Lee ('73) (Co-Chair, Task Force)
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