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Leonard Hudson, who completed a judicial externship with Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, was named the third recipient of The Marie Adornetto Monahan Endowed Judicial Extern Scholarship.
The scholarship fund, named in memory of Marie Adornetto Monahan, a John Marshall Law School professor who died of cancer in 2004, was established by her husband, Peter, and their children, Matthew and Joseph. It allows John Marshall students to have the opportunity to work as Externs of Distinction. Monahan was director of the Judicial Externship Program, part of John Marshall's nationally-recognized Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution. The award covers tuition for law school credit related to the externship.
Hudson, who graduated May 20, completed the spring 2007 externship in the chambers of Justice Burke doing research and reviewing briefs on a variety of cases. It was the second externship for Hudson who assisted Illinois Appellate Court Justice Themis Karnezis (J.D. '70) during the spring 2006 semester.
"The externships were the gems of my law school experience," he says.
The Judicial Externship Program gives students the opportunity to work with Illinois' circuit, appellate or Supreme Court judges federal district judges. They assist the judges in the resolution of disputes. Each student works in a capacity similar to a judicial law clerk and is monitored and evaluated by Susann MacLachlan, associate director of the center, as well as by the participating judges. The student is exposed to dispute resolution techniques, legal problem solving, legal research and writing, professional responsibility and the legal process through assignments given by the judge during the semester-long externship. Illinois Appellate Court Justice Michael Gallagher teaches the classroom component of the program.
Hudson had several careers before coming to law school. While earning his philosophy degree from Illinois State University, he focused on an analysis of language. After graduating, Hudson accepted a position as a steamship agent on the Great Lakes. He acted as a business agent for foreign entities doing commerce in the major ports of Detroit, Mich., and Toledo and Cleveland, Ohio.
He worked at that job for several years before returning to the Chicago area. He accepted a job at the University of Chicago's Sleep Research Lab taking responsibility for the lab's technology. "The research we were doing there always was turning a corner," he says.
Although Hudson had the opportunity to complete a master's degree in computer science at the University of Chicago, he chose law school.
Hudson was a member of the 2006-2007 editorial board of The John Marshall Law Review. He was a member of John Marshall's Wilhelm C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Competition team, which competed in Vienna, Austria, reaching to the top 16 teams from the 173 that competed. Hudson was presented a Best Oralist honorable mention at the competition.
Hudson has accepted a position with Reed Smith Sachnoff & Weaver in the firm's Chicago office.
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke confers with Leonard Hudson at the Supreme Court offices in Chicago.
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