The School of Law has established faculty chairs in recognition of the scholarship and achievements of professors Leila Nadya Sadat, J.D., and Frances H. Foster, J.D.
Sadat will be installed Sept. 7 as the Henry H. Oberschelp Professor of Law, and Foster will be installed as the Edward T. Foote II Professor of Law Feb. 17.
“The two professorships recognize Leila’s and Frances’ outstanding scholarship, teaching and professional service,” said Joel Seligman, J.D., dean of the School of Law and the Ethan A.H. Shepley University Professor. “I am delighted that the new professorships honor both a distinguished alumnus, Henry Oberschelp, and one of the school’s most successful and beloved deans, Tad Foote.”
Sadat, who joined the School of Law in 1992, is a leading authority on international and comparative law, human rights law and the International Criminal Court. A widely published expert on the prosecution of Nazi war criminals and their Vichy collaborators, Sadat is the author of numerous articles on international and comparative law subjects, as well as the book The International Criminal Court and the Transformation of International Law.
Sadat serves as vice president of the International Law Association and the International Association of Criminal Law. She was recently invited to participate in an International Bar Association project to train Iraqi lawyers, judges and prosecutors in human rights.
She previously served on the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom, which reviews reports of violations of religious freedom and makes policy recommendations to the president, the secretary of state and Congress.
Foster, who joined the law faculty in 1988, is a leading expert in trusts and estates and in the legal systems of socialist and former socialist countries. She is a member of the board of directors and the executive committee of the American Society of Comparative Law and an associate member of the International Academy of Comparative Law.
Foster has written extensively on U.S. and Chinese inheritance reforms and produced the first comprehensive Western analysis of China’s trust law. She has also written on freedom of the press issues in post-Soviet Russia, China and Hong Kong.
In addition, she has examined approaches to the restitution of expropriated property in post-socialist countries and possible lessons for Cuba.
Oberschelp was a prominent St. Louis attorney. The chair was made possible through a bequest from his daughter, Vera Oberschelp Howes, a University alumna.
Admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1898, Oberschelp was in general practice until age 81.
In 1941, he successfully represented the Crystal City Glass Workers’ Union in its suit before the U.S. Supreme Court, Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. v. National Labor Relations Board. He also was a vice president and director of the Laclede Trust Co. and vice president and general counsel of the North St. Louis Trust Co.
Foote was dean of the School of Law from 1973-1980. He strengthened and increased the faculty, expanded efforts to recruit talented students and launched the Clinical Education Program.
Prior to joining the law school, Foote served the University as vice chancellor, general counsel and secretary to the Board of Trustees. He also was the special adviser to then-Chancellor William H. Danforth and the board.
Foote served as president of the University of Miami from 1981-2001 and as chancellor there from 2001-03.