News Archive

From the time she left law school to join the U.S. Department of Justice, Linda Pence, ’74, has built a successful career.

Pence is best known for the investigation, prosecution and defense of corporations and individuals in white collar criminal matters. She has also handled a variety of complex civil and regulatory matters, and, among many professional accolades, she has been recognized by her peers as one of the best lawyers in America and as one of Indiana’s “Super Lawyers.”

While Pence has an impressive reputation, her father did too. Woodrow W. Pence—also known as Woody—served as Chief United States Probation Officer for the Southern District of Indiana for many years. Although he was not a lawyer, his work within the judicial system inspired him to encourage his children to go to law school—which they did. His son, Michael B. Pence, '79, is an IU McKinney Law alum, too.

In 1978, the elder Pence also joined the law school—as the school’s first permanent career placement director.

“After working in the strict, formal protocol of the federal courts, he loved the less formal environment working with law students.  I still have McKinney graduates who tell me how he helped them find their first job,” Pence says. “Everyone knew my dad. He could call up anyone at any law firm and schedule interviews for students.”

When he died unexpectedly in 1982 at age 63, he left behind many friends at the law school. The late Professor Lawrence A. Jegen, III was a pallbearer at his funeral and Chancellor Emeritus Gerald L. Bepko, who was then dean of the law school, told the Pence family that a scholarship in his honor would be established.

Pence recalls sitting down with her brother Michael and their late mother, Patsy M. Pence Stephenson, to create guidelines for the scholarship. Both Linda and Michael Pence had worked their way through law school—Michael on a loading dock, and Linda as a welfare caseworker and then law clerk—and were keenly aware of financial challenges facing many students. “We didn’t want the scholarship to go to wealthy students,” she says. “They didn’t need help.”  “We just wanted to make sure students who needed help would be eligible.”

That scholarship—the Woodrow W. Pence Memorial Scholarship—continues to support law students based on “financial need combined with academic achievement and evident leadership qualities.”

Pence, who serves as a member of the IU McKinney Board of Visitors, continues to donate to the scholarship fund and has made provisions in her will for that support to continue after her death.  She says she has “complete trust” in the law school’s commitment to her planned giving arrangements.

“My whole life has been tied up in the law school for both personal and professional reasons. My parents gave me my life, but the law school gave me my purpose,” Pence says. “I give freely and will continue to do so.”