January 26: Byron Boston

CEO and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Dynex Capital, a leading Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) with more than $5 billion in managed assets

February 9: Michele Coleman Mayes

Member of the Board of Directors of Gogo, Inc. and former vice president, general counsel and secretary for the New York Public Library (2012–24)

February 16: Eric F. Grossman

Morgan Stanley’s Chief Legal Officer and Chief Administrative Officer and a member of the firm’s operating and management committees

February 23: Michael J. Sharp and Sarah Pfuhl

Michael J. Sharp is the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Jefferies Financial Group Inc., parent company of Jefferies Group LLC.

Sarah Pfuhl is the Global General Counsel, Litigation, Regulatory Enforcement and Investigations at HSBC Holdings PLC.

March 2: Leo Strine

Of Counsel in the Corporate Department at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and former Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court

March 4: Bob Hoyt

(3-4:50 p.m.)

Group Chief Legal Officer of HSBC Holdings PLC and former General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor to Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr.

March 16: Edward Rock

Martin Lipton Professor of Law at NYU Law, Director of NYU’s Institute for Corporate Governance & Finance and Reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law of Corporate Governance

March 30: John J. Cannon III

Global Co-Chair of A&O Shearman’s Compensation, Pensions, Employment & Governance group and Adviser to the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law of Corporate Governance project

Third-year JD student Jennifer Shim was one of seven students across the University of Arizona to receive the 2025 Graduate Centennial Achievement Award. The award is one of the highest honors for a UA student and was created to recognize outstanding achievement and contributions by graduate students and to provide financial assistance and recognition to encourage these students to complete their graduate studies.

Jennifer is currently a note editor for the Arizona Law Review and an Arizona Law Ambassador. A first-generation Korean American from New York City, she earned her Master of Arts degree in international peace and security from King’s College London and her Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude in international criminal justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Jennifer has been consistently acknowledged for her leadership and service and has been recognized with honors such as the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association SAIL Scholarship, the Arizona Asian American Bar Association Thomas Tang Scholarship and the Arizona Women Lawyers Association Scholarship.

Balancing her academic, professional and family life, Jennifer currently works as a graduate program coordinator at the U of A while raising her energetic toddler, Carter, with the support of her husband — an active-duty Air Force service member formerly stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson and now serving at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. Drawing inspiration from her mother’s perseverance and her own family’s sacrifices, Jennifer is committed to using the law as a catalyst for justice, equity and opportunity.

After graduation, Jennifer will clerk for Hon. John Hinderaker at the U.S. District Court in Tucson, followed by a clerkship for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She will then return to private practice at Ballard Spahr LLP in Phoenix, where she was a summer associate in 2025.

Professor Keith Richotte’s latest book, “The Worst Trickster Story Ever Told: Native America, the Supreme Court, and the U.S. Constitution,” was cited in a recent U.S. Supreme Court dissent by Justice Neil Gorsuch, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas. 

In the dissent from a certiorari denial, Gorsuch called for the court to revisit U.S. v. Kagama (1886), a landmark case underpinning Congress’s broad authority over Indian affairs. In the case before the court, Veneno v. U.S., the petitioner, a member of the Jicarilla Apache Nation, challenged his conviction for crimes committed against another tribe member on tribal land.

Echoing themes from Prof. Richotte’s work, Gorsuch criticized the plenary power doctrine’s constitutional basis and its origins in “archaic prejudices,” urging greater respect for tribal sovereignty and treaty obligations.

For her work expanding access to civil legal services, Innovation for Justice (i4J) Director Stacy Rupprecht Jane (’02) was recently named a recipient of the 18th Annual Rebuilding Justice Award from the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS).

Each year, IAALS honors five individuals representing each of the organization’s five core values: question the status quo, let data guide the way, center the people, find common ground, and set our sights on tomorrow.

Prof. Rupprecht Jane is being recognized for Centering the People by expanding access to civil legal services and elevating the voices of those too often unheard.

IAALS is an independent research organization promoting innovation to make the civil justice system more just. IAALS will celebrate the achievements of Prof. Rupprecht Jane and the other awardees during its annual Rebuilding Justice event in April 2026.

The University of Arizona will be closed campus-wide starting Wednesday, December 24 through Friday, January 2, and will reopen on Monday, January 5, 2026.

If you would like to make a year-end philanthropic contribution, here are some tips to ensure your gift is counted in 2025. These are meant to serve as a helpful guide—this isn’t legal advice, and individual situations may vary.

Gifts by check: Checks should be made payable to the Law College Association and mailed to: 

The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law

Attn: Alumni & Development Office

PO Box 210176 

Tucson, AZ 85721

Checks will be processed and receipted according to the postmark date on the envelope. Please allow extra time for USPS delays. To receive a charitable gift deduction in 2025, your envelope must be postmarked by December 31, 2025.

Gifts by credit card: Credit card gifts will be receipted on the date the charge hits (posts to) your credit card account. This means to receive a 2025 charitable gift deduction, the charges must be made with sufficient time before December 31, 2025, to allow the donation to post by December 31, 2025. You can make a gift securely at either https://givetoarizonalaw.org/ or https://give.uafoundation.org/law.

Gifts of stock: Stock gifts will be processed and receipted on the date the stocks are transferred into our account. To receive a 2025 charitable gift deduction, stock gifts must be received in the LCA’s brokerage account by December 29, 2025. If you are planning a stock gift, please call 520-626-9223 by December 19 so that we can prepare for your gift.

To make a gift by wire transfer, qualified charitable distribution from an IRA, through your estate plan, or by another method, please contact Director of Alumni & Development Shannon Walker at 520-626-9223 or sawalker@arizona.edu.