June 20, 2008
State Bar to honor two law school faculty members
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The Illinois State Bar Association will honor two SIU School of Law faculty members at its annual meeting next week.
Associate professor Alice M. Noble-Allgire is one of three recipients of the organization’s Board of Governors Awards. Professor W. Eugene Basanta, co-director of the law school’s Center for Health Law and Policy, will receive the ISBA Austin Fleming Award, the highest honor given to newsletter editors.
The organization’s annual meeting is Thursday, June 26, through Saturday, June 28, in St. Louis. The awards luncheon is Friday, June 27.
Noble-Allgire, who is approved for promotion to professor in August, is a past chair of the organization’s Committee on Minority and Women Participation, and headed an effort that resulted in “formation of a task force to improve diversity in the community,” according to the ISBA Bar News. ISBA past president Irene F. Bahr nominated Allgire as “a catalyst and leader” in the organization’s diversity efforts.
A former award-winning journalist, Noble-Allgire earned her law degree from the SIU School of Law in 1990. The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin chose her in 2006 as one of the “10 Best Law Professors in Illinois”.
Basanta is in his 20th year as editor of Health Care Lawyer -- the organization’s newsletter of the Health Care Law Section -- producing 75 issues totaling 916 pages “of timely substantive information on important developments in the practice,” according to the ISBA.
Nancy K. McKenna of Skokie, associate general counsel of Rush North Shore Medical Center, told the ISBA that Basanta’s “academic experience has brought a scholarly level of expertise and a valuable perspective to the newsletter.”
A member of the law school’s faculty since 1980, Basanta became a professor in 1992. Named in December 2005 as the law school’s inaugural Southern Illinois Healthcare Professor of Law, Basanta is also a professor in the SIU School of Medicine’s Department of Medical Humanities. Basanta earned his law degree from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1975, and a master’s of law degree from Temple University School of Law in 1980.
In addition, Fourth Circuit Judge Ronald D. Spears, a 1977 graduate of the SIU School of Law, is also receiving a Board of Governors’ Award from the ISBA. A retired Illinois National Guard lieutenant colonel, Spears headed efforts in providing legal assistance to members of the guard and reserve called to active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the ISBA.