Aug. 17, 2004

Trangsrud Named Interim Dean

Roger H. Trangsrud, senior associate dean for academic affairs and the Oswald Symister Colclough Research Professor of Law, was named interim dean of the GW Law School, effective June 1. The 22-year veteran of the Law School follows Dean Michael K. Young, who left GW to become president of the University of Utah.

“The Law School is in experienced hands with Dean Trangsrud,” said President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg. “His two decades of service with us will be invaluable in keeping the school moving forward as one of the nation’s premier institutes of legal education.”

A search committee comprising faculty members Roger Schechter (chair), Peter Raven-Hansen (vice chair), Cheryl Block, Karen Brown, Todd Peterson, Ralph Steinhardt, Robert Tuttle and GW Vice President and General Counsel Dennis Blumer was formed to find a candidate to replace Young. Alumni and student advisory committees will assist the search committee in its mission.

The University also announced the appointments of Peter Raven-Hansen, Glen Earl Weston Research Professor of Law, as senior associate dean for academic affairs, and Ira C. “Chip” Lupu, F. Elwood and Eleanor Davis Professor of Law, as associate dean for faculty development.

Raven-Hansen teaches national security law, civil procedure, evidence and a variety of public law courses including administrative law and the law of the presidency.
Lupu — a nationally recognized scholar in constitutional law, with an emphasis on the religion clauses of the First Amendment — joined the Law School faculty in 1990.

Raven-Hansen replaces Trangsrud in the academic affairs post, while Lupu replaces Richard J. Pierce Jr., Lyle T. Alverson Professor of Law, who returned to the classroom full time after serving in the position since its creation in 2002.

Lupu and GW Professor of Law Robert Tuttle were named among America’s leading experts to whom DC policymakers look to the most in shaping the nation’s major policy debates by the National Journal. The publication cited Lupu and Tuttle for their contribution to church-state issues in general, and specifically to the debate over President George W. Bush’s faith-based initiative.

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