IIT Chicago-Kent Names Maureen R. Aidasani Director of Experiential Learning

Maureen R. Aidasani has been named director of experiential learning at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. Professor Aidasani, who joined the law school faculty on July 1, will coordinate the upper-year legal writing curriculum and the Praxis Program. In her new position, Professor Aidasani will also work closely with Professor Elizabeth De Armond, who oversees the law school's Legal Research and Writing Program. In addition, she will coordinate with IIT Chicago-Kent's skills initiatives such as its clinical and advocacy programs.

Professor Aidasani graduated cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to law school, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from Syracuse University with a bachelor's degree in policy studies. She also earned a Master of Public Administration degree from Syracuse's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

During law school, Professor Aidasani served as a law fellow in the first-year legal writing program and a senior writing fellow in the law school's writing center. She has had additional education experience as a high school classroom teacher and in the nonprofit sector.

Prior to joining the IIT Chicago-Kent faculty, Professor Aidasani served as a senior counsel in the Chicago office of the national public accounting firm Grant Thornton LLP. She has also worked as a litigation associate at Winston & Strawn LLP. Between 2011 and 2014, Professor Aidasani also served as an adjunct professor of legal writing at Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

IIT Chicago-Kent's new Praxis Program is designed for students who are interested in fully embracing a practice- or experience-based course of study. In addition to completing a required number of credits in experiential or skills-based course work, students in the program will learn to think and talk about their education in new ways, explore issues of law practice management, and learn how to build and market their own portfolios. With the Praxis Program, the law school responds to calls from the legal community for new graduates who are thoroughly trained in both the skills and the art of legal practice.

IIT Chicago-Kent was the first law school in the United States with a three-year legal writing requirement. Its curriculum has served as a model for numerous other institutions. The law school's emphasis on legal research and writing reflects its commitment to training its graduates to be leaders in the profession by giving them the skills they will need to analyze and solve complex problems.

IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, also known as Illinois Tech, a private, technology-focused, research university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, science, architecture, business, design, human sciences, applied technology, and law.