Professor Joel Schumm Named Lawyer of the Year in Appellate Practice
09/02/2025
Professor Joel
Schumm, J.D. ’98, has been recognized as “Lawyer of the Year” in appellate practice in Indianapolis in the 2026 edition of Best Lawyers. He is the Carl M. Gray Professor of Law at IU McKinney, where he directs the law school’s judicial externship program and teaches in the Appellate Clinic.
A magna cum laude graduate of IU McKinney School of Law, where he served as an articles editor for the Indiana Law Review, Professor Schumm joined the faculty in the fall of 2001. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he spent the three years after graduation in judicial clerkships, first with the Honorable Theodore R. Boehm of the Indiana Supreme Court and then the Honorable Paul D. Mathias of the Indiana Court of Appeals.
Professor Schumm is actively involved with the bench, the bar, and the legal writing academic community. He is frequently quoted as an expert by newspaper, television, and radio media on topics related to criminal law, juvenile justice, and the Indiana judiciary. He serves as co-chair of the Indiana State Bar Association’s Written Publications Committee and writes a bi-monthly column for the state bar journal, Res Gestae.
Professor Schumm has served on the faculty of more than fifty continuing legal education seminars sponsored by bar associations, the Indiana Public Defender Council, and other organizations. He is also a frequent presenter at regional and national legal writing conferences throughout the United States. In 2012 Professor Schumm was selected by the Judicial Nominating Commission as one of five semi-finalists described by Chief Justice Dickson as “outstanding and extremely well-qualified” for a vacancy on the Indiana Court of Appeals.
He has represented more than 100 indigent clients on appeal, either individually or as part of the Appellate Clinic, which he created at the law school in 2008. Students working under his supervision have successfully briefed and argued cases in both the Indiana Court of Appeals and Indiana Supreme Court.
