Jane Harris Aiken, J.D., professor of law, was installed as the inaugural William M. Van Cleve Professor in a ceremony Jan. 27 in Anheuser-Busch Hall.
“We are grateful to have the opportunity to establish a professorship in the School of Law to honor Bill Van Cleve,” Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton said. “Bill is one of our most distinguished alumni, and his accomplishments in the le-ga profession and in service to his community are an enduring legacy.
“The professorship in his name is a signal honor for its first holder and an ever-present reminder of the wonderful contributions of Bill Van Cleve.”
Aiken is the director of the Civil Justice Clinic, in which students act under supervision as lawyers in cases involving a wide array of legal issues that include domestic violence against women and children, predatory lending, homelessness and women’s policy work in Nepal.
She also serves as the academic director of the Interdisciplinary Children and Youth Project and is on the Editorial Board of the Clinical Law Review.
This past summer, Aiken spent time in Ethiopia as a State Department senior specialist, working with Ethiopian lawyers and activists on women’s issues. She was a Treiman Scholar during the 2002-03 academic year and a Fulbright Senior Scholar at Tribhuvan Law Campus in Kathmandu, Nepal, in fall 2001.
In 2000 and 2001, Aiken was a Carnegie Scholar in the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
A nationally recognized expert in the rules of evidence, Aiken has published numerous articles, including “Leveling the Playing Field: Federal Rules of Evidence 412 and 415.”
Aiken earned a bachelor’s degree from Hollins College in 1977; a juris doctoris from New York University in 1983; and a master of laws in advocacy from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1985.
She spent the next few years teaching at Arizona State University’s School of Law, where she founded an HIV Legal Clinic to provide free services to people with AIDS. Aiken then taught at the University of South Carolina School of Law before joining the Washington University School of Law as a visiting professor in 1997.
The following year, Aiken became a full-time member of the law school’s faculty.
“Jane’s installation as the Van Cleve professor recognizes her outstanding scholarship in evidence, legal education, domestic violence and AIDS-related issues, and her outstanding teaching and community service,” said Joel Seligman, J.D., dean of the School of Law and the Ethan A.H. Shepley University Professor. “The emphasis on community service makes this professorship unique among those created at the School of Law to date.”
The new law school professorship was created through gifts made in Van Cleve’s memory, with the most significant support coming from the Emerson Charitable Trust to honor the former director of Emerson.
Van Cleve served the University in many ways. A life trustee and former chairman of the Board of Trustees, he led the University during a critical period of transition and chaired the search committee for its 14th chancellor — Mark S. Wrighton.
During his tenure as a trustee, Van Cleve served on the Executive Committee for 18 years and on the Nominating and Medical Finance committees. His work spanned all of the board’s 15 standing committees.
A 1953 graduate of the School of Law, Van Cleve also focused his time and talents on that school. He was the founding chair of its national council and a member of the advisory board from its inception.
He played a key role in the school’s “Building for a New Century” campaign, serving as executive vice chair of the cabinet and financially supporting the construction of Anheuser-Busch Hall.
In addition to his outstanding service to the University, Van Cleve was active in many other organizations and institutions, including serving as a commissioner of the St. Louis Science Center, a trustee of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, president of the Parents as Teachers National Center and a chair and officer of St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Van Cleve died Feb. 28, 2003.
This is the second professorship at the University that bears the Van Cleve name. John R. Bowen, Ph.D., is the Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts & Sciences, named for Van Cleve and his wife, alumna Georgia Hess Dunbar. Bowen is a professor of anthropology and chair of the Program in Social Thought and Analysis, both in Arts & Sciences.
Comments and respectful dialogue are encouraged, but content will be moderated. Please, no personal attacks, obscenity or profanity, selling of commercial products, or endorsements of political candidates or positions. We reserve the right to remove any inappropriate comments. We also cannot address individual medical concerns or provide medical advice in this forum.