Northwestern Pritzker Law Faculty Member Elected to American Law Institute

Two Alumni Also Elected as New Members

Erin F. Delaney, Professor of Law at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Political Science, has been elected as a new member of the American Law Institute (ALI), the leading independent U.S. organization producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and otherwise improve the law.

 The newly elected membership of ALI consists of 47 highly respected law professionals, including distinguished judges, lawyers, and law professors from around the globe.

“Congratulations to Professor Erin F. Delaney on this well-deserved recognition of her impressive contributions,” says Dean Hari Osofsky. “She is a brilliant scholar who makes an important difference through her constitutional and comparative law insights, teaching, and leadership. We are excited for her work with the American Law Institute.”

Delaney joined the Northwestern Pritzker Law faculty in 2012. Her scholarship explores constitutionalism in comparative perspective, focusing on federalism and judicial design. She was named the 2022 Federal Scholar in Residence at Eurac Research’s Institute for Comparative Federalism in Bolzano, Italy, and held the Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in the Theory and Practice of Constitutionalism and Federalism at McGill University. She has also held research fellowships at Edinburgh University and the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Prior to her position at Northwestern Pritzker Law, Professor Delaney was an Academic Fellow at Columbia Law School and served as a law clerk to Associate Justice David H. Souter of the Supreme Court of the United States and to Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She received her JD, magna cum laude, from NYU School of Law, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the NYU Law Review. She earned a PhD from Cambridge University; her dissertation was awarded the Walter Bagehot Prize from the United Kingdom Political Studies Association for the best dissertation in government and public administration. She graduated with an AB in Government, magna cum laude, from Harvard College.

“I am honored to join such an impressive group of scholars and practitioners,” said Delaney. “I look forward to contributing to the important work of the Institute.”

Delaney joins a long list of current Northwestern Pritzker Law faculty who are a part of the American Law Institute. Other members include: Ronald J. Allen, Zachary Clopton, Paul Gowder, Emily Kadens, Bruce A. Markell, Ajay K. Mehrotra, Jide Nzelibe, James E. Pfander, Martin H. Redish, Daniel B. Rodriguez, Deborah Tuerkheimer, and Robin Walker Sterling.

Two Northwestern Pritzker Law alumni, Kate Shaw (JD ‘06), Professor of Law at University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law, and Andrew Z. Soshnick  (BA ’85, MA ’85, JD ’88), partner at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, were also elected to the ALI. Kate Shaw is a constitutional law scholar who has also taught courses in administrative law and legislation and a seminar on the Supreme Court. Her academic work focuses on executive power, the law of democracy, the Supreme Court, and reproductive rights and justice. She previously worked in the Obama White House Counsel’s Office and served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and the Honorable Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Andrew Soshnick is a partner at Faegre Baker Daniels, where his litigation practice focuses on representing individuals in complex matrimonial financial matters. He is an ardent supporter Northwestern University, having contributed to fund multiple endowments, including the endowment for the Soshnick Colloquium on Law and Economics. The Soshnick family also established an endowment in 2019 that supports Law School faculty in areas of law and economics, as well as an endowment in 2010 that offers law students simulation-based learning experiences in the area of complex matrimonial law. Mr. Soshnick is a member of the Northwestern Prtizker Law Board.