Endowed Chairs
The donor of an endowed chair at Notre Dame becomes part of
a teaching tradition nurtured carefully through the years.
But while academic chairs are in a very real sense built on
the past, their main thrust is forward and their implicit
goal is to influence the future. The holder of an endowed
professorship will touch the lives of thousands of students,
students of uncommon talent who have come to a University
which is committed to finding a place for value in a world
of fact. And because those appointed to endowed professorships
will have exhibited the highest level of scholarly achievement,
their influence on their colleagues, and their contribution
to the ongoing dialogue of their disciplines should be noteworthy.
Apart from skill at teaching and resourcefulness in research
and scholarship, the University also looks for another quality
in its named professorships: a sense of pro bono publico,
of the common good. Notre Dame is particularly interested
in men and women who can turn their scholarship to the service
of mankind.
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The
Robert and Frances Biolchini Chair in Law
The Biolchini Family Chair in Law The Biolchini Family Chair
in Law was the gift of Robert and Frances Biolchini, a 1962
Notre Dame alumnus and his wife. A graduate of George Washington
University Law School, Robert Biolchini is a partner with
the firm of Stuart, Biolchini, Turner, & Givray in Tulsa,
Oklahoma. In addition, he is the President & Chief Executive
Officer of PennWell Corporation, the Chairman of Valley National
Bank in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a director of Bank of the Lakes in
Oklahoma and a director of the Bank of Jackson Hole in Wyoming.
He also serves as a director of Lumen Energy Corporation and
Chairman of Ameritrust Holding Company. He was a member of
the Advisory Council of the Notre Dame Law School from 1982
until 2001, when he became a Trustee of the University of
Notre Dame.
Frances Biolchini, a graduate of Trinity College, is active
in several Tulsa community organizations, including the Girl
Scouts, the Thomas Gilcrease Museum, Catholic Charities and
a number of other civic and charitable projects. Both Robert
and Frances are keenly interested in the missionary work of
the Catholic Church. They have six children, five of whom
are Notre Dame graduates.
John Mitchell Finnis,
the Biolchini Family Professor of Law, joined the faculty
of both the Notre Dame Law School and the Notre Dame London
Law Center in 1995. He shares a joint appointment with Oxford
University, where he received his doctorate in philosophy
as a Rhodes Scholar.
Professor Finnis' research on the foundations of moral philosophy
blends the study of constitutional and criminal law with the
classical traditions of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine and Aquinas.
Considered the leading Catholic legal philosopher, Professor
Finnis has also explored in his writings the morality of social
issues, including abortion and euthanasia. His scholarship
defining the inherent human rights that supersede human laws
has resulted in a number of internationally regarded books,
including Moral Absolutes: Tradition, Revision and Truth;
Nuclear Deterrence, Morality and Realism; and Natural Law
and Natural Rights; and since taking up his chair at Notre
Dame he has written and published a major study, Aquinas:
Moral, Political and Legal Theory.
Professor Finnis has served as a governor of the Linacre
Center for Health Care Ethics in London and as a member of
the Pontifical Council De Iustitia et Pace. He was elected
a fellow of the British Academy in 1990 and was appointed
a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life in 2001. A native
of Australia, he has held appointments at Adelaide University
in South Australia, the University of California at Berkeley,
the University of Malawi and Boston College.
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Judge James J. Clynes, Jr. Visiting
Chair in the Ethics of Litigation Within the Judicial Process
The Judge James J. Clynes, Jr. Visiting Chair in the Ethics
of Litigation Within the Judicial Process in the Notre Dame
Law School results from the generosity of the distinguished
jurist and Notre Dame alumnus whose name the chair carries.
This signal benefaction reflects Judge Clynes' considered
and strong interest in promoting teaching and lecturing directly
related to the ethics of litigation within the judicial process
at the Notre Dame Law school.
Judge James J. Clynes, Jr., of Ithaca, New York, graduated
cum laude from Notre Dame in 1945 with a degree in economics.
He then attended law school at Cornell University, earning
his J.D. in 1948. He was admitted to the New York Bar in 1948,
the Federal Court and U.S. Tax Court in 1951 and the U.S.
Supreme Court in 1957. A retired partner with Harris, Beach
& Wilcox, he was the City Judge from 1969 to 1989. Before
serving on the bench, he served as a city attorney and city
prosecutor.
Judge Clynes has been active in the Federation of Bar Associations
and the Character and Fitness Committees of the Sixth Judicial
District and he is a fellow in the American College of Probate
Counsel. He served for twenty years as vice chairman of the
board of the Tompkins County Trust Company, a New York state
banking institution, and has served on the Board of Directors
of that corporation for thirty years. He also served as counsel
to the bank and has worked in the counsel's office for forty
years.
The Judge James J. Clynes, Jr. Visiting Chair in the Ethics
of Litigation Within the Judicial Process seeks to attract
honored members of the judiciary at both the trial and appellate
levels, esteemed law professors, and prominent members of
the bar to teach and conduct public lectures relative to the
ethics of litigation within the judicial process.
Because of the generosity of Judge Clynes, the Notre Dame
Law School has been able to attract four remarkable and
distinguished
visitors. The Honorable John T. Noonan, Jr., who was appointed
to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
in 1985, served as the inaugural Clynes Visiting Chair. In
the fall of 2001 Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia came
to the Law School to lecture to, and interact with, students
and faculty. In the fall of 2002, Supreme Court Chief Justice
William
H. Rehnquist held the Clynes Visiting Chair. From Monday,
September 26, 2005 until Friday, October 7, 2005, Judge Antônio
Augusto Cançadao Trindade held the Chair.
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The Joseph
A. Matson Chair in Law
The Joseph A. Matson Dean of the Law School was endowed through
the estate gift of Sylvia F. Matson of Bolivar, New York.
It was named for her son, Joseph A. Matson, a 1942 Notre Dame
alumnus who died two years after graduation in an Air Force
training flight accident. Sylvia, who was 99 at the time of
her death in 1985, was the widow of Albert Matson, a Bolivar
attorney specializing in the oil and gas business.
Patricia A. O'Hara,
the Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law, was named
the ninth dean of the Notre Dame Law School in 1999. She earned
her bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Santa Clara University
in 1971 and her law degree from Notre Dame in 1974, graduating
first in her class. Admitted to the California Bar in 1974,
she practiced corporate law with the San Francisco law firm
of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison for several years before
returning to the University.
A specialist in business law, including agency and partnership,
corporations and securities regulation, Dean O'Hara joined
the Notre Dame Law School faculty in 1981 as an associate
professor of law and achieved the rank of professor in 1990.
She was chosen as the Distinguished Professor of the Year
by law school students in 1986.
Prior to her appointment as Dean of the Law School, Dean
O'Hara served as the University's Vice President for Student
Affairs from 1990-1999. In 1997 she received the Howard J.
Kenna, C.S.C., Award for outstanding service to Notre Dame
and the Congregation of Holy Cross.
Previously held by Dean Emeritus David
T. Link (1988-1999).
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The John
N. Matthews Chair in Law
The John N. Matthews Chair in Law was established in 1967
by Notre Dame Trustee Donald J. Matthews in memory of his
father, John N. Matthews. The late Captain John N. Matthews
was a ship's master who in 1929 founded his own marine cargo
firm in New York City the Universal Terminal & Stevedoring
Corp. from which he retired in 1957.
Donald J. Matthews, a 1955 graduate of Notre Dame, is chairman
and chief executive officer of Capital Markets Access Ltd.,
an insurance holding company headquartered in Bermuda. He
was elected to the Notre Dame Board of Trustees in 1971 after
having served on the Advisory Council for the College of Engineering.
A yachtsman like his father, he sailed on the Weatherly, which
successfully defended the America's Cup in 1962.
John Copeland Nagle, the John
N. Matthews Professor of Law since 2005, joined the Notre
Dame Law School faculty in 1998. A graduate of University of Michigan Law School, Professor Nagle is in the world of legal scholarship, where he has made a mark for himself in at least three different areas: environmental law, election law, and statutory interpretation.
Prior to joining the Notre Dame faculty, Professor Nagle was an associate professor at the Seton Hall University School of Law from 1994 through 1998. He also worked in the United States Department of Justice, first as an attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel where he advised other executive branch agencies on a variety of constitutional and statutory issues, and later as a trial attorney conducting environmental litigation. Professor Nagle served as a law clerk to Judge Deanell Reece Tacha of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, and he was a scientific assistant in the Energy and Environmental Systems Division of Argonne National Laboratory.
Previously held by Professor Emeritus Alan Gunn until his retirement in 2005.
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John
P. Murphy Foundation Chair in Law
During the 1998-99 fiscal year, the John P. Murphy Foundation
of Cleveland, Ohio made a commitment and initial gift to endow
three faculty chairs in the Notre Dame Law School. These chairs
will be awarded to scholars whose teaching and research emphasizes
moral and ethical values in law.
The Murphy Foundation was established by the late John P.
Murphy, the former chairman of the board of Higbee Company
of Cleveland, Ohio. A native of Westboro, Massachusetts and
a 1912 graduate of the University, John practiced law in Minneapolis
and in Montana before the outbreak of World War I, when he
joined the Army Air Corps. After the war, he practiced in
Cleveland, eventually becoming president of the Higbee Company.
In 1928, Murphy was elected president of the Notre Dame Alumni
Association and from 1933 until his death in 1969, he served
as a Notre Dame Trustee. For his dedication and exemplary
service, the University presented him with an honorary doctor
of law degree in 1952. In addition to the John P. Murphy Foundation
Grant for Law School Chairs, the Murphy Foundation has also
significantly expanded the collections and services available
in the Kresge Law Library.
A member of the Notre Dame Law School faculty since 1995,
M. Cathleen Kaveny
was named the John P. Murphy Professor of Law in 2001. A scholar
who focuses on the relationship between law and morality,
she earned her A.B. summa cum laude from Princeton University
in 1984, and holds four graduate degrees from Yale University,
including her M.A. (1986), M.Phil (1990), J.D. (1990) and
Ph.D. (1991). A member of the Massachusetts Bar since 1993,
Professor Kaveny clerked for the Honorable John T. Noonan
Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and
worked as an associate at the Boston law firm of Ropes &
Gray in its health-law group. She also served as the Royden
B. Davis Visiting Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies at
Georgetown University during the spring of 1998.
Professor Kaveny has published over 35 scholarly articles
on issues lying at the intersection of law, morality, and
religion, in journals such as The Hastings Center Report,
Theological Studies, and the Wake Forest Law Review. She has
served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Law and Religion,
The Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics and the American
Journal of Jurisprudence. Particular topics she has addressed
include the function of religious discourse in the public
square, the role of law as a moral teacher in a pluralistic
society, and the impoverishment of the commodified notion
of time that dominates legal practice and the contemporary
business world. Much of her scholarship has focused on questions
in health care ethics, such as assisted suicide, cloning,
and managed care. She lectures frequently about these topics
both nationally and internationally. Her current projects
include one book on complicity with evil, and another on the
relationship between justice and mercy.
Professor Kaveny also participates in the vigorous and ongoing
conversation about the relationship of Catholicism and intellectual
life. She serves on the steering committee of the Catholic
Common Ground Initiative founded by the late Cardinal Bernardin,
and is also a member of the advisory board for the University's
Erasmus Institute, which was established in 1997 to focus
on reinvigorating the role of Catholic intellectual traditions
in contemporary scholarship.
In addition to teaching contracts to first-year law students,
Professor Kaveny also teaches interdisciplinary classes in
both the law school and the theology department, where she
holds a joint appointment. She is best known for her interdisciplinary
course entitled "Ethics and Law at the End of Life."
The class, which she has offered at both the graduate and
undergraduate levels, explores the questions of assisted suicide
and euthanasia from the perspectives of theology, philosophy,
public policy, and law.
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The William
J. and Dorothy I. O'Neill Chair in Law
The William J. and Dorothy I. O'Neill Chair in Law was a
gift from William O'Neill, a 1928 Notre Dame graduate, and
his wife, Dorothy. This is the University's second endowed
chair position made possible by William and Dorothy O'Neill;
they previously established the William J. and Dorothy I.
O'Neill Chair in Economics. William O'Neill, a native of Cleveland,
Ohio, founded Leaseway Transportation, one of the largest
companies serving motor vehicle transportation. He was also
a trustee and the first lay president of the Gilmour Academy
in Gates Mills, Ohio. Dorothy was also a Cleveland native,
and graduated from Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods College in Terre
Haute, Indiana, with a bachelor's degree in music.
The William J. and Dorothy I. O'Neill Professor of Law since
1985, G. Robert Blakey
is a nationally recognized authority on organized crime and
anti-racketeering legislation on the federal and state levels,
including electronic surveillance. He received bachelor's
and law degrees from Notre Dame and then served as a special
attorney with the U.S. Justice Department. He joined the University's
law faculty in 1964. From 1969 to 1974, he served as chief
counsel on the U.S. Senate Subcommittee that drafted the Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO), Title VII of the
1970 Organized Crime Control Act. He was a consultant to the
Subcommittee when it processed Title III on wiretapping of
the Safe Streets Act of 1968. He also served as chief counsel
and staff director to the congressional committee that investigated
the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. Before he returned to the Notre Dame Law
School faculty in 1980, Professor Blakey taught at the Cornell
Law School, where he was a professor of law and director of
the Cornell Institute on Organized Crime.
Professor Blakey is a member of the bar of the U.S. Supreme
Court, where he has argued a number of appeals. He also participates
in writing briefs and making arguments in federal appeals
courts and district courts in a variety of areas. Professor
Blakey is the author of many books, including The Development
Of The Law of Gambling 1776-1976, Racket Bureaus: Investigation
and Prosecution of Organized Crime, and The Plot to Kill The
President, as well as numerous law review articles. He was
the Reporter for the ABA Project on Minimum Standards for
Electronic Surveillance in 1968, and was a presidential appointee
to the National Wiretap Commission in 1976. He was given the
Award of Merit by the National Academy of Forensic Sciences
in 1979 for his work in bringing to public attention the value
of science in law enforcement, the Appreciation Award in 1985
by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for his work in helping
design major organized crime investigations and prosecutions,
and the 1989 Notre Dame Law School Faculty Member of the Year
Award. He was also named one of the 100 most influential lawyers
in the United States by The National Law Journal in 1985,
1988 and 1991. He was the 1995 recipient of the Trial Lawyers
for Public Justice Achievement Award for his work in pro bono
representation of the indigent, and the 1996 Black Law Students
Association's Charles Crutchfield Professional Excellence
Award. Professor Blakey is a member of the American Law Institute.
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The Paul
J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corp. Chair in Legal Ethics
The Paul J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corporation Chair in Legal
Ethics was created with a gift from the Fort Howard Corporation,
a diversified manufacturer of paper and paper-related products
in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The chair is named for its former
chairman and chief executive officer, Paul Schierl, who holds
a 1957 bachelor's degree and a 1961 law degree from Notre
Dame. Joining the company in 1964 as general counsel and holding
its leadership since 1974, Paul led the management group that,
with the Morgan Stanley Group, Inc., took the company private
in 1988. Paul retired from the Fort Howard Corporation in
1990 and currently serves as president of the Cornerstone
Foundation of Northeastern Wisconsin, Inc. The Fort Howard
Corporation has also endowed a library collection at Notre
Dame in western European history.
Paul has been a member of Notre Dame's Law School Advisory
Council since 1981 and is also a member of the advisory councils
for the Salvation Army, Wisconsin Policy Research, and the
Green Bay Packers. He is co-founder and past president of
the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation and a former member
of the Saint Mary's College Board of Regents. He and his wife,
Carol, reside in DePere, Wisconsin. He has five children,
all of whom are Notre Dame or Saint Mary's graduates.
Robert E. Rodes, Jr.,
a Notre Dame Law School faculty member since 1956, was named
the Paul J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corporation Chair in Legal
Ethics in 2000. Professor Rodes teaches legal ethics, administrative
law, legal history and jurisprudence, with a particular interest
in the latter two subjects and in church-state relations.
During his tenure at the University, he spent the 1960-61
and 1969-70 academic years conducting research at Oxford and
in 1970-71 served as the director of the Notre Dame London
Law Centre. He is the author of six books, The Legal Enterprise,
Law and Liberation, Pilgrim Law, and a massive three-volume
study of the legal history of church-state relations in England.
He has also co-authored Premises and Conclusions: Symbolic
Logic for Legal Analysis with Howard Pospesel from the University
of Miami.
Before joining the faculty at the Notre Dame Law School,
Professor Rodes taught for two years at Rutgers Law School
and worked for two years in the legal department of Liberty
Mutual Insurance Company. During the summers of 1955 and 1956,
he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Alfred Clapp, senior
judge of the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior
Court. Professor Rodes earned his bachelor's degree from Brown
University in 1947 and, after serving for two years as an
ensign in the U.S. Navy, earned his law degree from Harvard
Law School in 1952.
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Robert
and Marion Short Chair in Law
The Robert and Marion Short Chair in Law was a gift from
the late Robert E. Short and his wife, Marion, of Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Bob received his bachelor's degree from the College
of Saint Thomas and earned his law degree from Georgetown
University. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II,
from 1942 to 1946. Enlisting as an ensign, he resigned with
the rank of commander.
After practicing law for several years, he bought an interest
in a small truck line and proceeded to build it into a major
freight carrier known as Admiral Merchants Motor Freight.
He later expanded into real estate and the hotel business.
Bob's business ventures brought him some attention, but he
was mostly known for his love of sports and politics. At one
time, he was the owner of basketball's Los Angeles Lakers
and baseball's Washington Senators. Entering politics in 1946,
he ran unsuccessfully for Congress. He also served as treasurer
of the Democratic National Committee during Hubert Humphrey's
presidential campaign but was best known for the fiery, losing
battle he waged for a U.S. Senate seat in 1978.
Bob was a longtime supporter of Notre Dame and served as
a member of the Law School Advisory Council from 1974 until
his death in 1982. Following his death, Marion succeeded her
husband as president and chief executive officer of the Short
business concerns. For nine years she served on the board
of trustees of the University of Saint Thomas. The Shorts
have seven children, five of whom have earned a total of 10
Notre Dame degrees. Their son, Brian, is currently a member
of the University's Law School Advisory Council.
Mary Ellen O'Connell joined
the faculty as the Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law
in 2005. Prior to joining the Notre Dame faculty, Professor
O’Connell
was the William B. Saxbe Designated
Professor of Law at the Moritz College of Law
of Ohio State University. She earned her B.A.
in History, with
highest honors, from Northwestern University in 1980. She
was awarded
a Marshall Scholarship for study in Britain. She received
an MSc. in International Relations from the London School
of Economics in 1981, and an LL.B., with first class honors,
from Cambridge University in 1982. She earned her J.D. from
Columbia University in 1985, where she was a Stone Scholar
and book review editor for the Columbia Journal of Transnational
Law. After graduation, she practiced with Covington & Burling
in Washington, D.C. She then taught at Indiana University
School of Law, Bloomington; at The Bologna Center of The
Johns Hopkins University, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced
International Studies, Bologna, Italy; and the George C.
Marshall European Center for Security Studies, Garmisch-Partenkirchen,
Germany; and the University of Cincinnati College of Law.
The author of three casebooks, four edited collections,
and more than sixty articles and book chapters, Professor
O’Connell has been active in the Academic Council on
the United Nations System, the American Society of International
Law, the German Society of International Law, the International
Institute for Humanitarian Law, the International Law Association,
and the Council on Foreign Relations.
She teaches contracts as well as a number of courses in
the area of international law. Professor O’Connell’s
primary research focuses on international legal regulation
of the use of force and conflict and dispute resolution,
especially peaceful resolution of disputes prior to an escalation
to armed conflict.
In conjunction with research on these issues, she continues
to examine the processes by which international law is made,
applied, and enforced and is particularly interested in the
enforcement of international law and the question of whether
it is time for a classical revival in international law.
Previously held by Steven D. Smith (1998-2002)
and by Professor Emeritus Thomas L. Shaffer
until his retirement in 1997.
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