{"id":593,"date":"2025-12-15T21:05:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T21:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/?p=593"},"modified":"2025-12-15T21:05:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T21:05:22","slug":"from-courtroom-to-classroom-professor-hilary-buttricks-journey-in-teaching-business-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/2025\/12\/15\/from-courtroom-to-classroom-professor-hilary-buttricks-journey-in-teaching-business-law\/","title":{"rendered":"From Courtroom to Classroom: Professor Hilary Buttrick\u2019s Journey in Teaching Business Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For Professor Hilary Buttrick<\/a>, the path to teaching business law wasn\u2019t a straight line \u2013 it was a slow realization that the things she loved most had been pointing her toward the classroom all along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an English major at DePauw University, she loved writing and worked as a peer tutor at the university\u2019s writing center. But as graduation neared, she didn\u2019t yet have a name for the career she was meant to pursue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomeone suggested I look into law school,\u201d the associate professor of business law recalled. \u201cNo one in my family had ever gone to law school, so I didn\u2019t really know what it would be like. But it seemed like a way to leverage my strengths in writing and the skills I learned through studying at a liberal arts college.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Law did exactly that. It took her to Indiana University McKinney School of Law, then to a successful career in business litigation at Ice Miller. She loved the intellectual rigor, but she also felt pulled toward something more people centered. \u201cLaw is all about arguments, and it can be very contentious\u201d she said. \u201cBut at its core, it\u2019s about service. Clients come to you in vulnerable moments, and your job is to help them navigate uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That understanding of service \u2013 meeting others where they are \u2013 became the thread that ultimately brought her to the Lacy School of Business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen an opening came up to teach at Butler, right here in my backyard, I thought I was the luckiest girl in the world,\u201d the New Harmony native said. \u201cThe energy of working with young professionals in the classroom is by far the best part of my workday.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those early days weren\u2019t without nerves, though. Moving from courtroom to the classroom required a new kind of advocacy \u2013 one that wasn\u2019t about winning an argument but helping students learn how to build one. She quickly found her stride by leaning into what had drawn her to law in the first place: curiosity, creativity, and the willingness to see a problem from all angles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes there isn\u2019t one clear right answer,\u201d she explained. \u201cMy goal is to help students craft the best possible argument, even for a side they don\u2019t personally agree with. It\u2019s about creativity, problem solving, and service.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past decade, Professor Buttrick has watched LSB transform \u2013 growing in size, expanding its experiential learning opportunities, and pushing students to think in bigger, more interdisciplinary ways. That evolution is part of what pulled her back to LSB after a period away. \u201cI missed my colleagues, the students, the quality of the work, and the intellectual engagement,\u201d she said. \u201cLSB is a special place where students are inquisitive, respectful, and motivated \u2013 and that energy is contagious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Associate Dean of Academics, Professor Buttrick\u2019s work also includes helping students through some of their most overwhelming moments. It\u2019s meaningful to her in a way that echoes her roots in litigation. \u201cSometimes students come to me with what seems like an insurmountable problem,\u201d she said. \u201cMy role is to help them untangle it so they can thrive. Helping students develop strategies to succeed is deeply satisfying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the classroom, she brings real-world cases to life through hypotheticals, scenarios, and playful debates \u2013 inviting students to test ideas and learn by doing. The impact is real. Several students, who never considered law until taking her course, went on to apply to law school and attributed that decision to her guidance. Those moments stay with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really believe in the potential of our students to do great things,\u201d she said. \u201cPreparing students to ask questions, think critically, and make well-reasoned decisions is why I teach. Watching their progress and growth over their time at Butler makes me really hopeful about the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside her work at LSB, Professor Buttrick stays grounded by spending time with her husband, two kids, two dogs, and two cats. She enjoys reading, hiking, traveling, and trying new recipes in search of the perfect chocolate chip cookie. \u201cBeing with my family and nurturing curiosity are what keep me energized,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For students exploring the intersection of business and law, the professor offers simple but hard-won advice: \u201cAsk questions. One of the greatest traps is thinking you have it all figured out and being entrenched in one perspective. Be willing to hear other ideas and change your mind \u2013 it\u2019s how you grow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Professor Hilary Buttrick, the path to teaching business law wasn\u2019t a straight line \u2013 it was a slow realization that the things she loved most had been pointing her toward the classroom all along.<\/p>\n

As an English major at DePauw University, she gravitated toward analyzing arguments, challenging assumptions, and helping classmates think through tough questions. But as graduation neared, she didn\u2019t yet have a name for the career she was meant to pursue.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone suggested I look into law school,\u201d the associate professor of business law recalled. \u201cNo one in my family had ever gone, and I didn\u2019t really know what it would be like. But it seemed like a way to leverage my strengths in critical thinking and argumentation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2812,"featured_media":622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"coauthors":[38],"class_list":["post-593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-insights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2812"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":628,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593\/revisions\/628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}