Mitchell Hamline School of Law professor Sharon Sandeen has been elected as a member of the American Law Institute.
Founded in 1923, ALI was created by a committee of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars as a way to improve the law and its administration. Today, the group has nearly 3,000 members and is considered the country’s leading independent organization producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and improve the law.
Professor Sharon Sandeen
Sandeen, director of Mitchell Hamline’s Intellectual Property Institute, is an internationally recognized expert in trade secret law and co-wrote the first casebook on trade secret law in the United States.
“I am excited to join ALI because of its important and long-standing work in the area of trade secret law,” Sandeen said. “I hope to contribute to ALI’s further study of trade secret related issues, including employee loyalty, invention ownership, and non-compete agreements.”
Sandeen began her full-time teaching career in 2002 at Hamline University School of Law, one of Mitchell Hamline’s predecessor schools. Before becoming a professor, Sandeen practiced law for more than 15 years in Sacramento, Calif., first as a general business and IP litigator and later as an intellectual property specialist.
Mitchell Hamline law professor Michael Steenson, a member of ALI himself, nominated Sandeen for membership in the group.
“Professor Sandeen is an outstanding legal scholar who will be a significant contributor to the work of the American Law Institute,” Steenson said. “She is highly deserving of this honor.”
In addition to Steenson and Sandeen, there are a number of members of the Mitchell Hamline community who belong to ALI. They include:
- Mark C. Gordon, President and Dean of Mitchell Hamline School of Law
- Ann Graham, Mitchell Hamline adjunct professor
- Douglas R. Heidenreich ’61, Mitchell Hamline Emeritus Professor of Law
- Eric S. Janus, Professor of Law
- Kenneth F. Kirwin, Emeritus Professor of Law
- Dan Kleinberger, Emeritus Professor of Law
- Christina L. Kunz, Emerita Professor of Law
- J. David Prince, Emeritus Professor of Law
- Thuy Vo, Assistant General Counsel, mergers and acquisitions at ADM, former Mitchell Hamline Professor of Law