News Archive
Professor Lahny R. Silva Elected to American Law Institute
09/26/2023
IU McKinney Professor Lahny R. Silva has been elected to the American Law Institute.
Professor Silva joined the Robert H. McKinney School of Law faculty in 2011. She utilizes her expertise in criminal law to positively impact those who have experienced incarceration. She has been part of REACH, the Re-Entry and Community Help Legal Assistance Program, since 2015.
This program, administered by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, is a collaboration of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Indiana Federal Community Defenders, the Indianapolis Bar Association and IU McKinney. Through this voluntary program, individuals who were formerly incarcerated take part in monthly hearings designed to help with substance abuse problems, repairing family relationships, employment, and setting and achieving short-term goals.
Professor Silva also helped found the student group SCRAP, Second Chance Re-entry Assistance Program, and the annual Re-Entry Fair. Both the student group and the fair work with previously incarcerated individuals to help them get drivers licenses, create resumes, find safe and affordable housing, food assistance, and employment assistance. She was honored for this work in spring 2023 with the IUPUI Chancellor’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Civil Engagement. She also was named a Chancellor’s Professor in recognition of her work.
Professor Silva previously was the William H. Hastie Fellow at the University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison, which is where she received her Master of Laws degree. This prestigious fellowship is designed for aspiring scholars who are preparing for a career teaching law.
The American Law Institute is an independent organization that produces scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and otherwise improve the law. ALI is made up of lawyers, judges, and law professors who draft, discuss, revise, and publish Restatements of the Law, model statutes, and principles of law that are influential in the courts and legislatures, as well as in legal scholarship and education.
IU McKinney faculty who are members of ALI include Jeffrey O. Cooper; Jennifer Drobac; Nicholas L. Georgakopoulos; Gerard Magliocca; Michael J. Pitts; Florence Wagman Roisman; Joel Schumm, J.D. ‘98; Frank Sullivan, Jr.; and James P. White. ALI members who are professors and deans emeriti of the law school include Thomas B. Allington, George E. Edwards, Jeffrey W. Grove, W. William Hodes, Andrew R. Klein, and Gary R. Roberts.
