Nell Jessup Newton

Nell Jessup Newton is an American lawyer, who is a professor of law at Notre Dame Law School after having served as dean from 2009-2019. She is a nationally known expert on federal law relating to American Indians.[1][2]

Nell Jessup Newton
10th Dean of the Notre Dame Law School
Assumed office
July 1, 2019
Preceded byPatricia A. O'Hara
Succeeded byG. Marcus Cole
Personal details
BornSt. Louis, Missouri
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley, BA
University of California, Hastings College of the Law, JD

Early life

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Newton and her two brothers lived either with her mother or grandparents in rural Michigan and later St. Louis county.[3][4] She graduated from Brentwood High School in 1962, where she was named a National Merit Scholar.[5] Forced to finance her own college education, she worked her way through college. After attending George Washington University,[6] she earned her Bachelor of arts in an interdisciplinary humanities major with a focus on the ancient Greek language at the University of California, Berkeley in 1973.[3] In 1976, she earned her J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law (UC Hastings), where she was a member of the Order of the Coif and the Thurston Society and was managing editor of the Hastings Law Journal.[6]

Career

After Newton graduated from UC Hastings, in 1976, she began her academic career at Catholic University's Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C.,[3] where she became the first woman to be tenured and promoted to full professor. While at Catholic University she worked with the few other women law professors who were then teaching in Washington, D.C., to form the D.C. Women Law Professors Group, which grew in number and reach as more women entered the legal academy, eventually becoming the D.C./Maryland/Virginia/West Virginia/Western Pennsylvania Women Law Professors Group. In 1992, she joined the faculty at American University's Washington College of Law.

Newton moved into law school administration in 1998 when she was named the first woman dean of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. In 2000 she accepted the deanship at the University of Connecticut School of Law, again as the first woman dean.[7] At Connecticut, she raised the school's profile as a resource for local Indian tribes and state government.[1] While in Connecticut she was also nominated to be a James W. Cooper Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation, where she remains a Life Fellow. She also served on the Board of Overseers for the Bushnell Performing Arts Center (2003-2006) and the Board of the Connecticut Opera (2004-2006). In October 2006 she received the Distinguished Service Award from the University of Connecticut Law School Alumni Association for her service as dean.[8][9]

In 2006 she returned to her alma mater as the Chancellor, Dean, and William B. Lockhart Professor of Law at Hastings.[9] During that time, she was also appointed by the Yurok Tribe to serve as an associate justice of the Yurok Tribal Court.[10] After three years at UC Hastings, she stepped down to become the Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School. After ten years, Newton returned to the Notre Dame Law faculty.[11][12][13]

Newton has been active in legal education organizations, serving on the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar's Clinical and Skills Committee (2005-09) and on numerous committees for the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). She has chaired four AALS committees, including the Committee on Sections and the Annual Meeting (2009-10), the Executive Committee of the Law Dean's Section (2008), the Executive Committee of the Native American Rights Section (1997-98), and the Executive Committee of the Women in Legal Education Section (1996). She has also served on various committees for the Law School Admission Council. She was a member of the Board of Trustees for the NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education from 2006 to 2018 and served as chair from 2014-16.

Scholarship

Newton's scholarship focuses on American Indian law with an emphasis on tribal property and federal constitutional issues. She has published a number of articles on the legal issues affecting American Indian tribes and co-authored a textbook on the subject. Her law review articles have been reprinted in collections on race law, the law of reparations, and the philosophy of law. Since 1998 Newton has served as editor-in-chief of Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law, the only comprehensive academic treatise on Federal Indian law.[14] The original treatise was prepared under the direction of Felix S. Cohen in 1942, which is known as "the bible" of Indian law.[15]

Recognition

In 2014, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians recognized Newton for her work on The Handbook of Federal Indian Law.[16] In 2019, the State of Indiana awarded Newton the Sagamore of the Wabash, the state's highest honor, which is "given as a personal tribute to those who have rendered a distinguished service to the state or the governor."[17]

Selected publications
Books
  • Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law (Nell Jessup Newton, ed.) 2005, 2012 (LexisNexis)
  • Robert N. Clinton, Nell Jessup Newton, Monroe E. Price, American Indian Law: Cases and Materials, 3rd edn (Michie Press, 1991)
Journal articles
  • Nell Jessup Newton, Tribal Court Praxis: One Year in the Life of Twenty Tribal Courts, 22 Am. Ind. L. Rev. 285 (1998).
  • Nell Jessup Newton (1984). "Federal power over Indians: Its sources, scope, and limitations". University of Pennsylvania Law Review. 132: 195–288. JSTOR 3311816.

References
  1. Groark, Virginia (July 28, 2002). "A New Authority On Indian Law". New York Times. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  2. Lang, John (April 16, 1999). "Indians take offense at use of names". The Montana Standard. Montana, Butte. Scripps Howard News Service. p. 8. Retrieved January 5, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. DU Law dean soars after a humble start, Denver Post, May 30, 1999, page B-01
  4. "NELL JESSUP NEWTON'S TRIUMPH". Hartford Courant. January 9, 2006. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  5. "Brentwood High School Alumni Association Hall of Fame Inductees for 2016". Brentwood Alumni Association. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  6. "ND Law School names Newton as its new dean". The South Bend Tribune. Indiana, South Bend. April 1, 2009. p. B 3. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
  7. "Nell Jessup Newton first woman law dean". news.uconn.edu. May 30, 2000. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  8. "JAMES EARL JONES TO SPEAK AT ECSU". Hartford Courant. October 17, 2006. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  9. Gordon, Jane (January 8, 2006). "IN BRIEF; UConn Law Dean Accepts California Job". The New York Times.
  10. "2009–PRESENT: NELL JESSUP NEWTON". scholarship.law.nd.edu. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  11. Odendahl, Marilyn. "Notre Dame Law dean Newton leaves legacy of academic rigor, sustained support". The Indiana Lawyer.
  12. "Nell Jessup Newton to Step Down as Chancellor and Dean of UC Hastings Law". businesswire.com. March 31, 2009. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  13. "Dean Nell Jessup Newton to step down in 2019". The Law School. August 9, 2018. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  14. "Felix Cohen's 'Handbook of Federal Indian Law': Essential for all libraries". Maven.
  15. "BASIC INDIAN LAW RESEARCH TIPS--PART I: FEDERAL INDIAN LAW" (PDF).
  16. "Community Highlights". Pokagon Band of Potawatomi.
  17. "Notre Dame alumni honor Nell Jessup Newton". The Law School. University of Notre Dame. July 10, 2019. Archived from the original on January 5, 2020. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
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