Paula Holderman
The John Marshall Law School Board of Trustees named Paula Hudson Holderman, a 1979 graduate, to a seat on the board at its April meeting.
She will serve through May 2015 filling a vacancy created when Victor Henderson stepped down from the board.
Holderman is the chief attorney development officer at Winston & Strawn LLP. She has global responsibility for the firm’s professional development and all facets of education and training for the firm’s more than 900 attorneys. In June, she will begin serving as president of the Illinois State Bar Association.
“I and my fellow board members are delighted to have Paula Holderman join our team,” said Leonard Amari, president of the board. “Not only is she an alum who has an active connection to the law school, she also is well respected in the legal community. We look forward to her sharing her insights on changes in the legal profession and how the law school can stay current with those changes.”
After graduating from John Marshall, Holderman served as an assistant state’s attorney for Champaign County where she tried 25 jury trials. After 10 years in that position, she moved back to the Chicago area and became the director of clinical education and associate director of the Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution at John Marshall. Holderman then moved to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office as director of hiring, training and minority recruiting. She joined Winston & Strawn in 2002.
As an adjunct professor at John Marshall, Holderman has taught trial advocacy and been a member of John Marshall’s visiting delegation for its China Summer IP Program in Beijing, teaching an intellectual property course. She is the James C. Wood Distinguished Co-Lecturer in Intellectual Property at the University of Illinois College of Law.
Holderman’s efforts led to the establishment of the Illinois Law & Leadership Institute in 2011. The program for Chicago Public Schools high school students offers three weeks of introduction, exposure and instruction on skills for legal career success. In 2012, the program partnered with the Just the Beginning Foundation.
Holderman has been honored for her many initiatives and outstanding work. Most recently, she was named to the Today’s Chicago Woman list of “100 Women to Watch,” and was included on Chicago Lawyer magazine’s list of “15 Women Lawyers Making an Impact.” In 2011, she received the Women with Vision award from the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois and was named an “Advocate for Diversity” by the Diversity Scholarship Foundation.
