After a 36-year career at the University of Illinois College of Law, Swanlund Endowed Chair and Professor Matthew Finkin officially retired and was granted emeritus status in the fall of 2024. A prolific and highly respected labor law scholar, Finkin has been honored at several significant events in recent months.
In June, a session on comparative labor law during the Annual Meeting of the Labor and Employment Relations Association celebrated Finkin's career, books, and contributions to Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal. Fellow scholars in the field called Finkin "the top comparative labor law scholar in the last 50 years," and said, "Matt has done more than anyone to raise our eyes from the drama of the birth of labor relations in the U.S."
Finkin's retirement also motivated the organization of a high-profile event right here at the University of Illinois, in celebration of his contributions to the important topics of freedom of speech and academic freedom. The Campus Speech and Academic Freedom Roundtable took place on Friday, January 24, 2025, and featured world-renowned scholars and public intellectuals who engaged with the contentious questions raised by recent high-profile incidents of unpopular speech on American college campuses.
The current Dean of the UC-Berkeley School of Law, Erwin Chemerinsky, and Finkin himself, addressed the ways in which the First Amendment and university commitments to academic freedom relate in cases involving controversial faculty speech. The past Dean and Sterling Professor of Law at Yale Law School, Robert Post, addressed the defensibility and wisdom of the now-common practice by universities, colleges, and departments to take public positions on matters of contemporary dispute. And Illinois' Michael S. Moore, the Charles R. Walgreen Jr. University Chair, and Heidi M. Hurd, the past Dean and Ross and Helen Workman Chair in Law, teamed up to address the legitimate responses available to university administrators who are faced with blameworthy student speech. Attended by College of Law faculty, students, and alumni, the four lectures prompted lively conversations throughout the day and served as a fitting tribute to Professor Finkin.