Legal News

A Law Prof With More Than Exams on Her Mind

By Ashby Jones

Some words we would use to describe law professors we know: brilliant, arrogant, cherubic, opinionated, patient, lazy, dedicated, cynical, passionate, avuncular, elfin, awkward, hilarious and toad-like.

At the very bottom of the list, were we to keep listing adjectives, would be charitable. It’s not, of course, that some law professors don’t give broadly of their time and money. We’re sure many do. But we just don’t come across many tales of law professors organizing bake sales or canned-food drives for the communities in which they live. We tend to think that if a law professor is driven to affect change, she or he does it through speeches, academic writing, perhaps — yes — a little proselytizing to his or her students.

Enter Suja Thomas, a law prof at the University of Illinois. Thomas and her husband recently started a blog to encourage themselves and others to give away more money to charities.

In an email, Thomas explained that from the date of the blog’s launching — Nov. 23 — through Dec. 24, she and her husband will match donations of up to $100 from new donors to five charities for up to a total of $50,000. The charities (click here for a list), mostly promote ending hunger and poverty in the developing world. To date, Thomas claims to have raised about $5500 of the $50,000 that she and her husband, Scott Bahr, plan to raise.

Explains Thomas on her blog:

This blog is being launched to motivate ourselves and others to give away more money to charitable causes. We were in South Africa a few years ago, and we regularly saw people, including children, who just wanted food and clean water – nothing else. The pic is of a woman and a child in the community where we were. There are literally millions of people throughout the world who do not have these basic necessities of life, and lots of people face other problems, including not being able to find a job or shelter. With this blog, we are writing about how we can, on a daily basis, live our lives in such a way to enable us to give more. In living this way thus far, we have felt much more fulfilled from giving than we did from consuming.

Lest you think that Thomas is just some academic seeking fame because her articles aren’t getting published, think again. She’s a Seventh Amendment expert and has written a handful of controversial but well-received articles in recent years on whether certain common legal moves — like motions for summary judgment and dismissal — are constitutional. Click here and here for abstracts.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 14, 2009 (boomark / email).