Hoffmann Wins Leon H. Wallace Teaching Award
Professor Joseph Hoffmann's nomination for this year's Leon H. Wallace Teaching Award
came with a glowing recommendation from his criminal law students.
"Professor Hoffmann is a challenging and engaging teacher who epitomizes the meaning of intellectual inquiry," read Dean Lauren Robel during Henderson's introduction. "He challenges students to get past the surface and the big name of a case and dig deep."
The Wallace Award, which represents the very highest standards of teaching at Indiana Law, was established in 1986 to honor the memory of Leon Wallace, JD'33, an accomplished attorney and scholar who served Indiana Law as dean and professor for more than 30 years.
Hoffmann's humble passion for his work showed in his acceptance of the recognition. "I owe thanks to the Law School for giving me the opportunity to work in a career where pretty much every day I get up and look forward to going to work," he said. "There are so many people here who are great teachers. This is a law school that values, respects, and even demands great teaching. Please know, those of you that are students: you are in a very special place because of the people here who care about teaching."
Hoffmann, the Harry Pratter Professor of Law, has earned much recognition for his outstanding teaching including the Ira Batman and John Hastings Faculty Fellowships, the University-wide Outstanding Young Faculty Award, and the Law School's Gavel Award.
A nationally recognized authority on the death penalty and a widely-published scholar on habeas corpus and federal criminal law, Hoffmann teaches criminal law and procedure, the law and society of Japan, death penalty law, and the psychology of criminal law. He was a Fulbright professor in 1996 at the University of Tokyo and is a former law clerk of U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist. He was recently featured in a PBS series about the Supreme Court.