Alumni Panel: Advancing the Common Good—Voices from Law, Public Service, and Policy
What does it mean to work for the common good, and what happens when that obligation collides with the demands of your profession?
This panel brings together four DePauw alumni who have built careers at the intersection of law, public service, and policy to explore one of the most enduring questions in ethical and civic life. Judge J.P. Hanlon, Keira Amstutz, Nicole Hallett, and James Bell have each navigated the tensions between institutional roles and broader responsibilities, between advocacy for individuals and obligations to a community. Moderated by fellow DePauw alumna Molly Madden, the conversation will move from first principles (i.e., what the common good actually is) to the harder questions: Can you be very good at your job and still work against the common good? Is that sometimes by design? And why does any of this matter right now?
Join us for an afternoon of candid, substantive dialogue with practitioners who have been inside the systems that shape public life, and have thought carefully about what those systems owe to the rest of us. A question-and-answer session with the audience will follow the panel discussion.
Panelists
- J.P. Hanlon ’92, U.S. District Court Judge, Southern District of Indiana
- Keira Amstutz ’91, former Chief Counsel and Director of Policy, City of Indianapolis; former CEO, Indiana Humanities
- Nicole Hallett ’03, Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Immigrants Rights Clinic, University of Chicago
- James Bell ’96, Partner, Hoover Hull Turner
- Moderator: Molly Madden ’18, Associate Attorney, Faegre Drinker