HR0856 93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0856 LRB093 21728 KEF 50196 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives wish to congratulate Nina S. Appel, Dean of Loyola University Chicago School of Law, on being the longest serving woman law school dean in United States history; and

WHEREAS, Nina Appel is a 1959 Columbia Law School graduate and was a Stone Scholar at Columbia; and

WHEREAS, Nina Appel joined Loyola University Chicago's law faculty in 1973, and served as associate dean from 1976 to 1983; during that time, she taught in the areas of torts, products liability, administrative law, and evidence; in 1983, she was named Loyola's ninth Law School dean; and

WHEREAS, Among her accomplishments are founding the law school's nationally ranked Institute for Health Law in 1984, co-founding Loyola's ChildLaw Center in 1993, and establishing the Elder Law Initiative in 2000; and

WHEREAS, In 2003, Dean Appel was presented the fourth-ever Distinguished Columbian in Teaching Award, which was presented in Washington, D.C., in recognition of her 30-year career at Loyola; she was honored during the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) for her contributions to legal education and scholarship and received her award from fellow Columbia law alumna Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; and

WHEREAS, The American Bar Association named Dean Appel as the 2003 recipient of the prestigious Robert J. Kutak Award, which is presented annually by the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar to an individual who meets the highest standards of professional responsibility and demonstrates substantial achievement toward increased understanding between legal education and the active of practice law; and

WHEREAS, In addition, she was named one of the 10 highly influential women leaders, in the "20th Century Hall of Fame," by Today's Chicago Woman; and

WHEREAS, During her career, she has served on a number of professional committees, including: Executive Council of the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar; Co-chair of the Cook County Public Guardian Oversight Committee; member of the Chicago Bar Foundation Life Fellows' representative, the Civil Justice Reform Act Advisory Committee, and the Illinois State Bar Association's Education Committee; she served four consecutive terms on the Illinois Compensation Review Board; served on the Special Commission for the Administration of Justice in Cook County; served on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Bar Foundation; served as Board member and Director of the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education; and on the Special Committee to Study Merit Selection of Judges for the Illinois State Bar Association; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we congratulate Dean Nina S. Appel on her retirement after many years of dedicated service; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Nina S. Appel as a token of our respect and esteem.