Newly Appointed Associate Deans to UIC Law
UIC Law is pleased to welcome three faculty members to the leadership team for AY 2023-24. Professors Sonia Green, Kim Ricardo and Steven Schwinn have been appointed to Associate Dean positions at the law school. Read more about each professor and their plans for their prospective roles below!
Dean Sonia Bychkov Green Heading link
Sonia Bychkov Green has been named UIC Law’s first Associate Dean for Part-Time Programs. In this role, Dean Green will lead the newly revamped part-time program for evening students and will develop and support pre-law and pathway programs for undergraduates. UIC Law’s new evening program draws upon our expertise in developing robust online work and is the only part-time program in Chicago to require in-person attendance only two evenings a week.
UIC Law is also the only law school in Chicago to have an Associate Dean focused exclusively on part-time programs. In her new role, Dean Green hopes to build a robust evening program that caters to the needs of students, and to build a culture of community in the part-time evening program. Dean Green has been teaching at UIC Law for over twenty years and has won numerous teaching awards.
About Dean Green
Sonia Bychkov Green is an Associate Professor of Law and Associate Dean of Part-Time Programs. Dean Green joined the faculty in 2001 and currently teaches Civil Procedure I and II, Torts, and a seminar she developed on assisted reproductive technologies and the law.
Dean Green is passionate about helping students find success in law school. She works closely with students in the part-time evening program and helps to design courses for that program. As a mother of four sons, Dean Green is always eager to mentor and advise students and to help students find a work-life balance. Dean Green is a Fellow of the UIC Honors College and develops summer and other pipeline programs for undergraduates, including the newly launched R.A.I.S.E. program.
Dean Green emigrated from the former USSR as a child and speaks fluent Russian. She received her AB (’90), MA (’90), and JD (’93) from the University of Chicago and studied at the Hague Academy of International Law. Prior to joining the faculty of UIC Law, Dean Green taught at Chicago Kent College of Law and Loyola Law School. Before moving to academia, Professor Green practiced in insurance and commercial litigation at two Chicago law firms.
At UIC Law, Dean Green has served as Director of the Expert Learning Program and the Summer Pre-Law Program, and Associate Director of the Lawyering Skills Program. Her research focuses on better access to assisted reproductive technologies, and how the law can improve rates of vaccination. Dean Green is a frequent speaker and commentator on these topics, as well as on the legal and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
Teaching is at the core of what Dean Green loves most about being part of the faculty. She has won numerous teaching awards, including the Lex Ancilla Justitiae Award from the 2022 graduating class, and the UIC-wide Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Dean Kim Ricardo Heading link
As Associate Dean of Experiential Education, Kim Ricardo is in charge of making sure that all the experiential education programs at the law school—Externships, Clinics, Trial Advocacy and Dispute Resolution, Moot Court, the Lawyering Skills Program, and the Writing Resource Center—provide excellent student learning experiences that will directly prepare our graduates for the practice of law. The ABA requires that our students receive a minimum number of credit hours in experiential education, but the law school’s graduation requirements exceed that ABA rule.
“During my time as the ADEE, I would like to bring more recognition to our outstanding experiential education programs through more engagement, both within the community that surrounds the law school and nationally. The LS and Trial Ad programs already enjoy Top 25 status in the USNWR specialty rankings and I would like to see our Clinics and Externship Programs also break into the Top 25.” – Dean Ricardo
About Dean Ricardo
Kim D. Ricardo is Professor of Law, Associate Dean of Experiential Education, and Director of the Lawyering Skills Program at UIC Law. She is a graduate of University of California at Berkeley, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, William S. Richardson School of Law, and Georgetown University Law Center. She joined the UIC Law faculty in 2008 and has also been Visiting Professor at Seattle Law, UNLV, and DePaul.
In 2022, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Argentina hosted by the Ambrosio Lucas Gioja Institute of Legal and Social Research at the University of Buenos Aires, Faculty of Law. At UIC, she teaches Criminal Law & Procedure, Lawyering Skills, and seminar courses on race, gender, and class. Ricardo’s scholarly writing considers redress and reparations law, policy, and social movements in the United States and her recent article considers abortion law and policy from an international comparative perspective.
Before becoming a lawyer, Ricardo was an actor and performing artist in both theatre and film. She is also a published author; her poetry appears in Maganda Magazine and in the 2001 Underground Railroad calendar. In 2012, her piece “Truth Commission” was shown at the School of the Art Institute’s Sullivan Gallery as part of the exhibit “Opening the Black Box: The Charge is Torture.” She now enjoys various social dance activities, including salsa, bachata, and tango. She has also served on the creative team for Tango Entre Mujeres, an all-women’s dance company in Buenos Aires.
Dean Steven Schwinn Heading link
As Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development, Steven Schwinn looks forward to supporting our talented and creative faculty in their important, exciting, and wide-ranging scholarly efforts. Dean Schwinn hopes to build on our robust history of innovative scholarly projects that advance our respective areas of the law, serve our various communities, and, most importantly, make us better teachers for our students. He also hopes to bring new ideas and resources to promote a community of active and engaged scholarship in line with our social-justice mission and our singular identity as Chicago’s only public law school.
About Dean Schwinn
Steven D. Schwinn teaches constitutional law, comparative constitutional law, human rights, and a specially designed legal writing class on civil rights. Steve is founding editor-in-chief of the American Constitution Society Supreme Court Review and founding co-editor of the Constitutional Law Prof Blog. He is a longtime member of the American Constitution Society Chicago Lawyers Chapter Board of Advisers. Steve regularly works with high-school teachers and students on civics education, and he regularly speaks on issues related to constitutional law and public policy. Steve’s writings have appeared in a variety of law reviews and other specialized periodicals, popular press publications, and online publications. He regularly writes for the American Bar Association’s Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases and is a frequent commenter on issues related to constitutional law and human rights.
Professor Schwinn teaches Constitutional Law, First Amendment, Comparative Constitutional Law and Human Rights, and Lawyering Skills I: Civil Rights at UIC Law. He is co-director of the International Human Rights Clinic and served as the Edward T. and Noble W. Lee Chair in Constitutional Law for the 2015-2016 school year.
Professor Schwinn earned his B.A. from Michigan State University and his J.D. from the American University Washington College of Law. He previously taught at the University of Maryland School of Law and George Washington University Law School. He practiced full time in the Office of the General Counsel at the Peace Corps.