William Henderson, a professor in the IU Maurer School of Law, has been named the most influential person in legal education by the National Jurist.
This is his second year atop the list, which appeared in the February 2016 edition of the National Jurist.
Henderson is “a staunch believer in the need for change in the way tomorrow’s lawyers are shaped in today’s classroom,” according to an IU press release.
However, according to the release, Henderson believes today’s legal education faces serious problems, such as the way in which professionals’ work is judged.
Yet Henderson said in the release he is impressed by efforts law schools are making to address the crisis.
“The National Jurist’s ranking confirms what we in the legal education circle have known for years: that Bill Henderson is one of, if not the most, influential voices in the county when it comes to explaining and understanding changes occurring in large law firms and the legal profession,” Austen L. Parrish, dean of the Maurer School of Law, said in the release. “We are fortunate to have Bill here in Bloomington, where his insight and expertise have been invaluable.”
Henderson began teaching at the Maurer School of Law in 2003 after a visiting appointment at Chicago-Kent College of Law and a judicial clerkship for Judge Richard Cudahy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
In 2009, Henderson, along with other IU professors, instituted a four-credit-hour course, B614: The Legal Profession. The course concerns the ethics and economics of practicing law and seeks to immerse students in the kinds of situations they’ll encounter often as professionals.
Henderson teaches various business law courses, including corporations, business planning, project management and the law firm as business organization.
From 2009 to 2014, he served as the director of Indiana Law’s Center on the Global Legal Profession. Much of Henderson’s research and scholastic work is centered on legal education and legal analysis.
His work has been published in national publications including the American Lawyer, the Wall Street Journal, ABA Journal and the National Law Journal.
Henderson is a research associate with the Law School Survey of Student Engagement, or LSSSE, and a principal in Lawyer Metrics, a consulting group which helps find promising lawyers for other firms through evidence-based methods.
Taylor Telford
