New scholarship honors late professor Michael J. Zimmer
The late Michael J. Zimmer, professor of law, led a life of integrity. A prolific scholar, beloved mentor, and loyal friend to many, Zimmer believed in and fought for a more equal world. He was a renowned expert on employment discrimination law, labor and employment law, and constitutional law. Nearly eight years after his death, students across the country continue to benefit from his keen intellect, on display in a leading employment discrimination casebook and a casebook on international and comparative employment law, in addition to the many articles he authored on these pressing issues and others.
“He devoted his career to legal and public policy questions about fairness, social justice, and closing the gap between law and justice,” says his wife, Margaret Moses, Mary Ann G. McMorrow Professor of Law and director of the International Law and Practice program.
In memory of her husband and in honor of his academic and personal passions, Moses has established the Michael J. Zimmer Scholarship. The scholarship will support first-generation college graduates with financial need, with preference going to DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) students.
“I think this scholarship represents Mike’s legacy. He worked so hard to try to make things more equal for more people.”
“Mike was a first-generation college graduate, and he was very focused on issues of inequality,” Moses says. “My children and I thought those [scholarship specifications] were appropriate.”
Moses recognizes that it can be difficult for DACA students to secure funding for education, and she hopes this scholarship helps ease some of that financial burden.
To maximize support and make an immediate impact, Moses created two scholarship funds: one spendable and one endowment. The first scholarship will be awarded for the 2023–24 academic year.
Zimmer excelled in a variety of professional roles: editor in chief of the Marquette Law Review, clerk for the Honorable Thomas Fairchild of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and professor and associate dean at Seton Hall Law School. During his seven years as a full-time faculty member at Loyola, Zimmer mentored and inspired countless law students.
Zimmer believed that law graduates were tasked with an important responsibility. In the spring of 2015, a few months before he died, he explained this concept to a gathering of Marquette University Law School students, who had invited their esteemed alumnus to speak at a dinner.
He said: “Look for work that interests you—that advances your values—and is work that needs to be done to make the world a better place.”
This new scholarship is a tribute to Zimmer’s unfailing certainty that legal professionals can, and should, improve the world.
“I think this scholarship represents Mike’s legacy,” Moses says. “He worked so hard to try to make things more equal for more people.” –Kelsey Schagemann (July 2023)
To contribute to the Michael J. Zimmer Scholarship, please visit LUC.edu/law/zimmerscholarship.
