SIU Simmons Law School Alumni Newsletter

Spring 2026

Dear Alumni and Friends, 

Last Friday marked the final day of classes for our spring semester. It was also the day we gathered to celebrate the upcoming retirement of our treasured colleague, Professor Sheila Simon. And it held special significance for me personally, as I completed my first academic year of service as Dean of Simmons Law School at Southern Illinois University. 

Over the course of this year, many people have asked me why I chose SIU as the place to launch my decanal career. My answer has always come easily, in large part because I thought carefully about this opportunity before deciding to return home to Illinois. A year in, those reasons are clearer than ever, and I am more certain that I made the right choice. The goings on of the past year reveal more than anything just how special Simmons Law School truly is. 

For more than fifty years, this law school has filled a vital need in our region. Our alumni go on to practice law and engage in critical public service across the state and beyond. Many have stayed to build their lives and careers locally, helping to address the shortage of lawyers in our small, rural communities — work that is as meaningful as any legal career can be. Others have carried an SIU law degree far beyond our borders and demonstrated that it provides a powerful foundation for a legal career just about anywhere. That breadth of impact, local and far-reaching at once, is something I think about often, and with great pride. 

 I am pleased to share some of the highlights from the spring semester and offer a sneak peak of what’s to come.

We continue to expand our clinical programs, which give students hands-on learning opportunities while delivering valuable legal services to our community. Our Civil Practice Clinic is growing, with the addition of a Clinical Fellow focused on building infrastructure and providing legal services and education to veterans in our region. We will also be offering a new Immigration clinical course in the fall semester, taught by Professor Buys. 

Though our primary mission is to educate future lawyers, our law school plays a critical role in contributing to the intellectual life of the broader community. This year we hosted Professor César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández who holds the Gregory Williams Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at Ohio State University as the 2026 Hiram H. Lesar Distinguished Lecturer.  Our 2026 Gene and Katy Simonds Lectureship in Democracy featured Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman whose talk on legal efforts to combat online child exploitation exposed our law school community to a critical issue of public interest.

And just last week, we launched the new Simmons Law School Scholars in Conversation series, which brings alumni and community members together with faculty for substantive dialogue on law and society. The series will highlight the research, ideas and expertise of academics from Simmons Law School and elsewhere, covering a wide range of legal topics that matter to our alumni, our region, and the broader community. Our inaugural event featured Professor Sheila Simon, whose decades of scholarship, public service, and dedication to this institution made her the perfect person to inaugurate this new tradition. A complete schedule of the 2026-2027 Scholars in Conversation, featuring speakers from within and outside of SIU, will be forthcoming later this summer. 

The faculty at Simmons Law School are engaged in research and scholarship that makes a real world impact. You can read more about their current projects, here. We are thrilled to have three new full-time law professors joining our ranks in the fall whose areas of expertise include intellectual property, health law, and agricultural law. Our cohort untenured faculty are strongly positioned to one day lead Simmons Law School.

Our students have earned recognition well beyond our campus. Our moot court teams have continued to compete and excel at the national level. The SIU Law Journal hosted its annual symposium, Strategic Partners, Legal Allies: Relations Between Poland and the U.S in a Shifting Global Order, that focused on how the war between Ukraine and Russia has impacted the constitutional, international, and security law frameworks of Poland and the United States. 

On April 8th, we held a recognition ceremony in the formal lounge honoring students from SIU Law Journal, Mock Trial, Student Bar Association, student organization leaders, and beyond. Third year law student Myla Croft received the 2026 SIU System Distinguished Student Service Award, with Reagan Honn receiving an honorable mention. At the national level, Sheraya Bernard was honored with the Ms. JD Limitless Award, a recognition that reflects both her individual excellence and the quality of students this institution attracts and develops.

On May 8th, Simmons Law School will graduate it's 50th class of students. We are honored that Senior U.S. District Court Judge J. Phil Gilbert will deliver the commencement address. Judge Gilbert has served the legal profession in nearly every capacity during his career: as a private attorney, a state and federal judge, and a leader in higher education. Throughout, he has brought to each role a deep commitment to justice and the public good. We are thrilled that SIU will also confer an honorary law degree to Judge J. Phil Gilbert. 

Our experiential work in Belleville continues to grow. In addition to our externship offerings and our summer pipeline programs, we are excited to offer an intensive criminal law trial advocacy immersion course in May, taught by Professor Page.

The Simmons Law School Belleville space will soon carry a new name in recognition of the extraordinary generosity of our alumni: the Judge Annette A. Eckert & Major General William Enyart Metro East Experiential Learning Annex will be officially unveiled at a reception on Wednesday, May 13, at 5:30 p.m. I hope many of you will join us.

This summer will be a busy one. The law school will once again host the Jackson and Williamson County Joint CLE program on May 15. Our first annual Golf Scramble takes place on Friday, May 30, at Apple Creek Golf Club in Makanda. This will offer a fun opportunity to support the Schafer Family Scholarship and Simmons Law Career Services while enjoying a day on the course with alumni and friends. We are also offering two camps, including the Crime Scene to Courtroom Camp for high school students interested in careers in law, and the Pipeline to Practice Camp, a residential program on the SIU campus offering undergraduate students an early look at law school and careers in law as well as practical advice on the admissions and application process. Several law school staff and faculty will head to Chicago on July 28 and 29 to support our bar exam takers and provide them with lunches during the two-day exam. And in August, we will welcome the Class of 2029 to their first year of law school.

Over the coming months, I will continue to work behind the scenes to help develop solutions to the legal desert problem plaguing many of our communities in Southern Illinois. I continue to make some time to engage in research and scholarly endeavors and have just completed an article forthcoming in the San Diego Law Review entitled Supreme Selection, which builds on the research from my book, Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court. I will be speaking at the ABA & AALS Dean’s Workshop in Chicago, and look forward to meeting with more alumni as I continue to learn about our community.  If we have not yet connected, please reach out. I would love to hear from you. 

I am proud of what we have accomplished together this year. I have spent much of my time listening and learning from our faculty, students, and staff, and from alumni like you. These conversations have informed the way I think about our future, and I am eager to keep building on this foundation in the year ahead. 

Thank you for your continued support of Simmons Law School. It is a privilege to lead this institution, and your investment — in time, in resources, and in the careers of our graduates — makes everything we do possible.

Kind regards,

Hannah Brenner Johnson

Dean & Hiram H. Lesar Professor of Law

Simmons Law School
Mail Code 6804
Southern Illinois University
1150 Douglas Drive
Carbondale, Illinois 62901
law@siu.edu