Professor Kathryn Kennedy Retires After 28-Years at the Law School
A 28-Year Legacy Heading link
UIC Law is happy to celebrate the retirement and amazing contributions made by our Director for the Center for Tax Law & Employee Benefits and Professor of Law Kathryn Kennedy.
Professor Kennedy joined the law school as a full-time faculty member after years of private practice. She had practiced with the law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery in Chicago and was an actuary with the actuarial consulting firm of Towers Perrin.
Professor Kennedy became a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries in 1976, two years after her graduation from Drake University, and graduated from Northwestern University School of Law summa cum laude and Order of the Coif. Due to her combined legal and actuarial background, Professor Kennedy offered the law school a unique perspective in the area of employee benefits law. In 1998, she led the school’s efforts to offer an LLM in Employee Benefits, the only one in the nation of its kind at the time. In 2005, the school expanded its offerings with a MS in Employee Benefits for non-attorney professionals. In 2006, Professor Kennedy published a textbook, entitled Employee Benefits Law: Qualification and ERISA Requirements, which was updated by a second edition in 2012 and a third edition in 2017. She also has published a textbook, entitled An Introduction to Employee Benefits Law, in 2020 and authored the Bloomberg BNA Portfolios on IRAs and SEPs and SIMPLEs.
Professor Kennedy was recognized as 2009 American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA) Educator of the Year. She is a member of the Fellow of The American College of Employee Benefits Counsel (ACEBC) and has served on its Board of Governors. She presently serves on three of the ACEBC committees.
Professor Kennedy has chaired the Center for Tax Law & Employee Benefits at the law school since 2001, and beginning in the fall of 2012, the Center offered three LLM degrees – Tax Law, Employee Benefits, and Estate Planning – and two MS degrees – Tax Law and Employee Benefits. She served on the IRS’s Advisory Council for Tax Exempt/Government Entities (known as the ACT) from 2009-2012 and on the U.S. Department of Labor’s ERISA Advisory Council from 2005-2008. Professor Kennedy also is an active member of the Advisory Boards of Practicing Law Company and Drake University’s National Advisory Council for the Actuarial Science Program. She has testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on several occasions and has proposed legislation in the area of executive deferred compensation plans. Additionally, Professor Kennedy served as Chair and Vice Chair of the Employee Benefits Committee of the ABA Section of Taxation, after serving as Chair of the Distributions Subcommittee.
Professor Kennedy formerly served as Associate Dean for Advanced Studies & Research from 2007 through 2017 and most recently served as the primary faculty advisor for The UIC Law Review. She also served as co-chair of the Dean Search Committee and chaired of the Ad Hoc ABA Site Inspection Preparation Committee.
In March of 2024, Professor Kennedy was named Tax Portfolio Author of the Year by Bloomberg Industry Group.
Congratulations on your retirement and thank you for your 28 years of service at the law school!