Professor Ann M. Lousin of The John Marshall Law School in Chicago was once again honored by the Illinois State Historical Society for her writings on public issues in Illinois. This is the eighth consecutive year the ISHS has honored Lousin.
This year, Lousin received a Certificate of Excellence for three articles she wrote as part of her ongoing column featured in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. The first column, “Three questions determined Illinois’ fate for statehood,” discussed the three main hurdles Illinois faced in 1818 before it could become a state.
The second column, “Illinois 1818, President Monroe and a boast,” focused on what it must have felt like to be an Illinoisan right after the territory was officially deemed a state.
The third and final column was “Illinois statehood started out in a tavern,” which discussed the drafting of the Illinois Constitution. Lousin was a research assistant at the 1969–1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention. She also served as staff assistant to the Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, including a term as Parliamentarian of the House.
According to the ISHS, “Professor Lousin’s ‘Law and Public Issues’ columns for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin offered readers a well-written overview of the entangled political, social and economic issues involving Illinois statehood. Although the author broke no new ground in her research, she was able to make a potentially dry subject entertaining and subject of interest to readers likely unfamiliar with this key chapter in the story of Illinois. Careful to emphasize the larger issues involved in statehood—slavery and the questions of territorial boundaries as they related to Lake Michigan—Lousin gave us a most welcome series of articles tied to the Bicentennial.”
In previous years, she received awards for her writing on a variety of topics, including Illinois constitutional amendments and the Fort Dearborn Massacre.
Lousin has served on several nonprofit boards and governmental commissions, including a term as chairman of the Illinois State Civil Service Commission. She has been a leader in other legal organizations, including service as chair of the Board of Governors of the Armenian Bar Association from 1995 to 1998. She also lectures and consults on the Illinois Constitution, general public law issues and commercial law in the U.S. and abroad. In 2009, she was elected a member of the American Law Institute.
In 2016, the Armenian Bar Association named its inaugural legal scholar award “The Ann M. Lousin Scholar of Law Award,” in her honor.
Lousin joined the John Marshall faculty in 1975. She primarily teaches Sales Transactions and Illinois Constitutional Law. Lousin received her bachelor’s degree from Grinnell College and her law degree from The University of Chicago. Between college and law school, she studied political science at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.
