Changing of the Guard
It has been a great honor and a joy—most
of the time, anyway—to have served the Law School
as interim dean during the last year. My goal for this year
was to keep the Law School on the steady upward trajectory
that Deans Barron, Friedenthal, and Young set into motion.
I am pleased to say I think we did that and perhaps a bit
more. What successes we had this year, however, were due
to the efforts of many people—the faculty, the staff,
students, generous alumni, the University president, and
his leadership team—who together compose the GW Law
School community. I am deeply indebted to all of these people
for their unfailing kindness, consideration, and support
of the Law School and to me throughout this year.
It is difficult to capture an entire year
in a few sentences, but some moments and facts do stand
out. In August we admitted the strongest entering class
of students in the school’s history. Early in the
fall a record 12 percent of our 2005 graduates secured judicial
clerkships, most of them highly competitive federal or state
supreme court clerkships. We also added a new full-time
pro bono coordinator to our Career Development Office to
assist our students and graduates to pursue internships
and careers with the many public interest groups based in
Washington and elsewhere. By March we had completed our
full-time faculty hiring with the addition of two women
and two men who are all credits to our increasingly diverse
and accomplished faculty.
We also closed in on the completion of
ourambitious renovation and expansion of the entire Law
School physical plant. In the summer of 2004 we replaced
obsolete elevators in Burns, and renovated and reconfigured
library space on Two Stockton and Two Burns. This summer
we are nearing completion of the renovation of Four Stockton
and finalizing plans for the renovation and addition of
20,000 square feet in Lisner Hall, which we will occupy
in the summer of 2006 after the business school moves to
its new building adjacent to Funger Hall at the end of this
year.
For me, the most welcome development of
this last year has been the outpouring of alumni support
for all aspects of the Law School’s programs.
When
he assumes his post in August, I am confident that
Dean Lawrence will have enormous success building
upon the strong foundation laid down by his predecessors
during the last two decades, and that he will guide
GW Law to new levels of excellence.
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During this last year our loyal alumni
and friends provided more support to the Law School than
in any other year in its 140-year history. Highlights included:
a seven-figure gift from Jim and Ted Pedas to fund a new
chair in intellectual property and technology; a seven-figure
gift from James Humphreys to fund a new chair in complex
litigation and the new Center for the Study of Complex Litigation;
a seven-figure bequest from Fred Stevenson to support faculty
research; a seven-figure cy pres award from a class action
brought by Philip Friedman against a local cable company
to be used as a permanent endowment to support our local
community clinics; and a quarter of a million dollars in
gifts from the Law School Board of Advisors and others to
name the faculty conference center for former Dean Michael
K. Young.
The biggest surprise of all came at graduation
in May, however, when the Class of 2005 made the first graduating
class gift in the history of the Law School. More than half
of the class contributed more than $10,000 to the Law School,
which was matched four-for-one by anonymous alumni for a
total of more than $50,000 to support the Law School Loan
Forgiveness Program, which assists graduates who choose
to work in lower salaried public interest positions.
The month of May brought another major
announcement—the appointment of Frederick M. Lawrence,
professor of law and law alumni scholar at the Boston University
School of Law, as GW Law School’s next permanent dean.
His appointment followed an extensive and lengthy national
search led by professor Roger Schechter and the Faculty
Dean Search Committee. Faculty members, alumni, and senior
staff members spent countless volunteer hours interviewing,
researching, and evaluating dozens of candidates in order
to find just the right person.
Dean Lawrence is an outstanding choice
to lead GW Law in the coming years. He is an internationally
known scholar and an extraordinary teacher, and he has been
a respected leader at Boston University School of Law. He
has the energy, vision, and experience to reach out to our
large and supportive alumni community and to work well with
our dedicated staff. For his part, Dean Lawrence recently
said, “I am delighted at the prospect both of becoming
dean of The George Washington University Law School and
of joining the faculty of the school. I am honored to be
joining the George Washington community, and I look forward
to helping the Law School reach even greater heights in
the years ahead.”
When he assumes his post in August, I
am confident that Dean Lawrence will have enormous success
building upon the strong foundation laid down by his predecessors
during the last two decades, and that he will guide GW Law
to new levels of excellence. At his invitation, I look forward
to working at his side as senior associate dean for academic
affairs.
None of the successes of the past year,
or the past 20 years, would have been possible without the
dedication and generosity of GW Law School alumni. As interim
dean, I was delighted to meet with and personally thank
many donors who financially support the mission and programs
of the Law School. I appreciate the confidence all of them
have expressed in this institution through their giving
and look forward to their enthusiastic support in the future.
Roger H. Trangsrud
Interim Dean and Professor of Law; Oswald Symister Colclough
Research Professor of Law
