Directory of Decades

1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s
1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s
1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s

1870

  • October 5: The Georgetown Law Department of Georgetown University opens, founded by Georgetown University Medical School Professor Dr. Joseph M. Toner (AM’1867, PhD’1889), Judge William Merrick (H’1875), Richard T. Merrick (H’1873), Martin F. Morris (H’1877),and Charles P. James (H’1870).
  • The first entering class consists of 25 students. The class includes students from 13 US states and one student from Cuba.
  • Six faculty members, including Supreme Court Justice Samuel Miller (H’1872) teach law courses in the late afternoon, or evening.
  • Charles P. James (H’1870) is the first Vice-President of the law school (there is no dean).
  • All lectures are held in rented space at the American Colonization Society Building, site of the present East Wing of the National Gallery of Art. Tuition is $80 per year.

1872

  • The first 10 law students graduate from the Law School.

1874

  • Patrick F. Healy, S.J. (C’1850), President of Georgetown University, teaches a course at the Law School on Ethics and Their Relation to Positive Law.
  • George W. Paschal (H’1875) becomes the second Vice-President.

1875

  • Moot Court is established.

1876

  • Dean’s Office is established. The first Dean is founder Charles W. Hoffman.

1877

  • Yasimori Asada becomes the first Japanese student to enroll in the Law School.
  • Tuition is lowered to $75 per year.

1878

  • One-year LL.M. program is established. Eight students enroll.

1881

  • Tuition is cut again to $50.

1887

  • A law library is established.
  • Enrollment surpasses 100 for the first time.

1891

  • The Georgetown Law School moves to its own building at 506 E Street, N.W.
  • Martin F. Morris (H’1877) becomes dean.

1894

  • Georgetown defeats Columbia in widely reported three-round debate.

1896

  • Jeremiah Wilson (H’1883) is appointed dean.
  • Supreme Court Justice Henry Billings Brown publishes Cases on the Law of Admiralty, for the use in connection with his lectures at the law school.

1898

  • Simon R. Walkingstick, a Cherokee, is admitted as a special student.
  • Course work required for the LL.B. expanded from two to three years.

1899

  • Quizmasters are appointed.

1900

  • George E. Hamilton (C’1872, L’1874, AM’1882, H’1889, H’1922) is appointed dean.
  • Faculty increases to 12 members teaching 20 courses to 276 students.

1902

  • High school diploma or equivalent is required for admission.

1903

  • Chief Justice Harry Clabaugh (H’1903) of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia is appointed dean.

1905

  • Tuition reaches $100, but is still $50 less than Harvard, Columbia, Chicago and Yale.

1906

  • Law school resigns its membership in the American Association of Law Schools (AALS).

1907

  • Enrollment is 495, up 23% over Fall 1906.

1909

  • Pi Alpha Delta, the law school honorary society, is established.

1911

  • Law School Annex opens, expanding the 506 E. Street building around the corner.

1912

  • Enrollment surpasses the 1,000 mark.
  • Georgetown Law Journal publishes its first issue.

1914

  • George E. Hamilton (C’1872, L’1874, AM’1882, H’1889, H’1922) is again appointed dean.

1918

  • Worldwide 1918 flu pandemic closes the school from early October to early November. When classes resume, lost time is made up by teaching over the holiday break. The War Risk Insurance Board leases part of the law building.

1919

  • Hugh J. Fegan (C’1901, AM’1902, L’1907, PH.D’1916, H’1943) is appointed assistant dean and resident professor.
  • The first Registrar is appointed (Thomas Hurney, L’1911, LL.M’1912).

1920

  • Dennis Chavez (L’1920) receives his LL.B.; he will become the first Latino in the U.S. Senate in 1935.
  • Georgetown Law celebrates its Golden Jubilee. During the Jubilee, a new law library is dedicated. The student speaker at the library’s dedication, Joseph Cantrel (L’1922) coins the phrase that would later become the School’s motto: “Law is but a means, justice is the end.”

1921

  • A three-year day law program is established.
  • Charles A. Keigwin (H’1937) and Charles Tooke are hired as the first full-time faculty.

1922

  • Enrollment reaches 1,238.

1924

  • The Evening division is extended to four years.
  • 28 law school alumni who died in World War I are honored in Memorial Day Exercises held in the law library.
  • Georgetown Law is first accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA).

1925

  • Enrollment is down to 620, lowest in seventeen years.
  • AALS reaccredits the law school.

1928

  • Thomas Bradbury Chetwood, S.J.(H’1928) is appointed the first Regent.

1929

  • Fall enrollment drops to 487.

1931

  • The Bellarmine Scholarship is announced.
  • Francis E. Lucey, S.J. (PH.D’1932, L’1941, H’1949) is appointed regent.

1933

  • First course in taxation is offered.
  • The Hoya Law school edition starts publishing.

1934

  • Lyndon B. Johnson (H’1964) enrolls in the law school but leaves before the end of the first semester.
  • The S.J.D. program is established.

1936

  • A Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or equivalent is required for admission.
  • Summer school commences.
  • Five alumni are elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. John H. Bankhead (L’1893) of Alabama is in the U.S. Senate.
  • Albert T. Gonzales (L’1939) is the first blind student enrolled at the law school.
  • November: The first issue of Res Ipsa Loquitur is published, containing news of alumni and alumni events. Res Ipsa is the forerunner of today’s Georgetown Law Magazine.

1939

  • A row house is acquired to expand library by means of a second-floor passageway.

1941

  • Father Francis E. Lucey, S.J. (PH.D’1932, L’1941, H’1949) receives his LL.B. magna cum laude and publishes an attack on Justice Holmes and the legal realists.
  • Publication of Res Ipsa Loquitur is suspended.

1943

  • Tuition revenues plummet 32%.
  • The War Production Board leases the law school building.
  • Hugh J. Fegan (C’1901, AM’1902, L’1907, PH.D’1916, H’1943) is appointed dean.

1945

  • Marie L. Stoll is the first woman appointed registrar.

1948

  • The first African-American students are admitted to the law school. They were Winston A. Douglas, Elmer W. Henderson, William D. Martin and Lutrelle F. Parker.

1950

  • The Student Bar Association is established.
  • Georgetown wins the first National Moot Court Competition.

1951

  • Women are first admitted to Georgetown Law (Fall 1951): Renee Grosshandler Baum, Helen Marie Chambers, Patricia Anna Collier, Mary Gertrude Henseler, Katherine Rutherford, Agnes Anne Neill Williams, and Helen Elsie Steinbinder.
  • Res Ipsa Loquitur resumes publication, with both campus news and updates on alumni.

1952

  • Hortense E. Spinner and Florinell M. Washington (cousins) enroll as the first African American women law students; they did not attend.
  • Agnes Anne Neill Williams (L’1954) is the first winner of the Beaudry Cup Moot Court Competition for first year law students.
  • The American Criminal Law Quarterly is founded by law schools at Chicago, Indiana, Miami, Michigan, Georgetown, Columbia, Harvard and Yale.

1953

  • Ruth Marshall Paven (L’1953), is the first woman to graduate with an LLB (Bachelor of Laws) degree in June 1953. She was a transfer student from Harvard.
  • Renee Grosshandler Baum (L’1953) is first of original 7 women to graduate (October 1953).

1954

  • Paul R. Dean (L’1946, LL.M’1952, H’1969) is appointed dean of the law school and Frank J. Dugan (L’1938, LL.M’1939, H’1979) dean of the graduate school in the newly named Georgetown University Law Center.
  • Ann Schafer (L’1955) becomes the first woman Editor-in-Chief of the Georgetown Law Journal.
  • The Institute for Foreign and International Trade Law is established by Professor Heinrich Kronstein (SJD’1940, H’1967).
  • Air conditioning comes to the Law Center.
  • Rita Carboni from Italy, and Blanche Dodds Kovarik are the first 2 women to enroll in a postgraduate program at the Georgetown Law School.

1955

  • Helen E. Steinbinder, and Katherine Rutherford Keener are the first women in the evening division to receive a J.D., in February 1955.
  • Serena E. Davis and Mabel Dole Haden are the first African-American women graduate students.
  • The Institute for International & Foreign Trade Law is established (along with its counterpart in Frankfurt, Germany).

1956

  • Helen E. Steinbinder and Mabel Dole Haden become the first women to receive the LL.M. degree. Mabel Dole Haden is the first African American woman to earn the LL.M.
  • Yvonne Cravens is the first female student to win as part of the National Moot Court Team.

1957

  • Helen Steinbinder (L’1955, LL.M. ‘1956) is the first woman appointed to the full time faculty.
  • Marbeth Miller L’56 is the first woman selected to participate in Attorney General’s Honor Graduate Program.

1958

  • William H. Powell, S.J. (C’1929) is appointed the first chaplain at the Law Center. The Legal Aid Society is formed.

1959

  • The Institute of Nuclear Energy and Outer Space Law is established.

1960

  • The first E. Barrett Prettyman Fellows enroll.
  • The Law Students’ Wives Society is founded (also called Student Wives’ Club).

1961

  • Brian A. McGrath, S.J. (MA’1940, H’1975) succeeds Father Lucey as regent.
  • Kenneth Pye (L’1954, LL.M’1955, H’1978) and Richard Alan Gordon (C’1950, L’1953, LL.M’1961) are appointed associate and assistant deans.
  • Enrollment includes 28 women, 969 men.

1962

  • The Barristers’ Council is established.
  • Norma Holloway Johnson is first African-American woman to receive a J.D. (February 1962).
  • Mary Jean Gallagher and Grace Ann Powers Monaco are the first two women appointed to the newly formed Barristers’ Council.
  • Edna A. Hopkins and Barbara A. Walker are the first African-American women members of the sorority Kappa Beta Pi.
  • Dee Angel is the first woman delegate elected to the Student Bar Association (SBA).

1963

  • Blind grading of exams commences.
  • The James Brown Scott Society of International Law is founded.
  • Tuition tops $1,000.
  • Grace Ann Powers Monaco and Marilyn Sue Talcott are the first GULC woman students inducted in the National Jesuit Women’s Honor Society, Gamma Pi Epsilon.
  • Barbara Ward is the first woman to receive an Honorary degree from GULC.
  • Barbara A. Ringer is the first woman member of the adjunct faculty, teaching copyright law. She later became the first woman Register of Copyrights and played a significant role in developing the Copyright Act of 1976.

1964

  • The D.C. Bail Project is established at the Law Center.

1965

  • The Institutes for Criminal Law and Procedure and for Law, Human Rights and Procedure are established.

1966

  • The student newspaper Georgetown Law Weekly starts publication.
  • Pamela Kasa is the first woman running for SBA President.

1967

  • March 15: Law Center Executive Faculty votes to recommend to the university’s Board of Directors that the J.D. be conferred as the first law degree, in lieu of the LL.B.
  • April 19: Dean Paul R. Dean recommends to Georgetown President Fr. Gerard Campbell, S.J., that the J.D. be awarded in lieu of the LL.B., and that the change be made retroactive so that previous graduates would be eligible to receive it.
  • April 21: Change of degree from LL.B. to J.D. is approved by the Board of Directors. Graduates from previous years are allowed to petition the Law Center for a revised degree; all revised degrees have the date June 1967.
  • May 1: Degree change is reported in Georgetown Law Weekly.
  • June 5: At Commencement, the class of 1967 is the first to receive the J.D. degree.

1968

  • Students, faculty and staff assist local courts in the civil disturbances following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Ground is broken for McDonough Hall on New Jersey Ave., N.W. The leadership gift of $1 million from Bernard P. McDonough (L 1925) is the largest gift from an alumnus in the history of Georgetown up to that time.
  • Students join faculty committees for the first time, including the dean search committee.
  • The Law Students in Court is founded.

1969

  • Female enrollment at the Law Center exceeds 10% for the first time; women are first admitted to Georgetown’s undergraduate programs.
  • The Black Law Student Association, Law Center Chapter is founded.
  • Adrian Fisher (H’1977) is appointed dean.
  • The first issue of Law and Policy in International Business is published.
  • Sandra Rothenberg is the first female Prettyman Fellow.
  • Jo Gramling is the first woman Editor-in-Chief of the Georgetown Law Weekly.

1970

  • The Law Center postpones final exams in the aftermath of the Kent State shootings.
  • The La Raza National Law Student Association is formed.
  • Sylvia Bacon and Norma Holloway Johnson are the first women GULC graduates to be appointed judges of the Superior Court for the District of Columbia; Johnson is the first African-American woman appointed.
  • Adjunct Professor Barbara A. Bowman teaches the first Women & the Law course at GULC.

1971

  • McDonough Hall is formally dedicated with Chief Justice Warren Burger (H 1971) as the keynote speaker. On the same day, there is a counter-dedication outside the Law Center with speakers that included lawyers William Kunstler, Catherine Rohrback, and Arthur Kinoy, along with future DC mayor Marion Berry.
  • Barbara D. Underwood (L’1969) is the first female Georgetown Law graduate appointed clerk to a Supreme Court Justice, Justice Thurgood Marshall.
  • Florence Madden (L’1973) is the first female law student to be a finalist in the Leahy Cup Competition
  • The first women’s group, Women’s Rights Collective (WRC) forms at the Georgetown University Law Center
  • The Institute for Public Representation (IPR) is started.
  • The first issue of the American Criminal Law Review, with Georgetown Law student editors, is published (formerly the American Criminal Law Quarterly).
  • The Tax Lawyer begins publication at Georgetown.
  • Professor Addison Bowman founds the Criminal Justice Clinic, with students representing criminal defendants in D.C. and Maryland.

1972

  • The Criminal Justice and Appellate Litigation clinics are founded.
  • Anita Martin is the first woman African-American Associate Professor.
  • Jason Newman (L’65) starts the Street Law Clinic.

1973

  • The Georgetown Gilbert and Sullivan Society (GG&SS) is founded, the first and only law school theater group in the country.
  • The Juvenile Justice Clinic is established, with Professor Wallace Mlyniec as director.
  • Nancy Glassman (L’1975) is the first female student to be named Best Advocate in the Leahy Cup Moot court competition.

1974

  • A four-year Joint Degree program is started with the Georgetown School of Foreign Service for the JD/MSFS.
  • The Street Law High School and Corrections clinics are established.
  • The Administrative Advocacy Clinic is founded (later CALS).

1975

  • Tuition reaches $3,000.
  • Three-campus budgeting begins.
  • David J. McCarthy, Jr. (L’1960, LL.M’1962, H’1983) is appointed dean and the first Executive Vice-President for Law Center Affairs of the University.
  • Sister Mary Himens is GULC’s first woman chaplain.

1976

  • Julianna Zekan is the first woman SBA president is elected.
  • GG&SS Productions: Trial by Jury

1977

  • Lexis terminals are installed in the law library.
  • Res Ipsa Loquitur changes its format, returning to an alumni magazine format (rather than a newspaper or journal of public interest).
  • The Mary and Daniel Loughran Institute of Land Use and Development completes its work.
  • The Public Interest Law Project is formed to assist the Placement Office in collecting information on public-interest positions and sponsoring a program on that topic.
  • Along with the University President and the Law Center, a group of students institute the Centro de Inmigracion, a project designed to analyze and inform concerning developments in immigration law and related governmental policies
  • GG&SS Productions: HMS Pinafore
  • Honorary Degrees: Howard Boyd, Joseph Danzansky, Hon. William O. Douglas, Adrian Fisher, Fr. Theodore Hesburgh, Coretta Scott King
  • John Carroll Award: Frank J. Dugan, Hon. Paul E. Feiring, John E. Rooney
  • November 7: the David G. Bress Promenade is dedicated.

1978

  • The Equal Justice Foundation (EJF) Chapter is established at Georgetown.
  • GG&SS Productions: The Mikado, Trial by Jury
  • The Anne Blaine Harrison Institute for Public Law in established with an award of $150,000 by the new World Foundation to Rev. Timothy S. Healy, S.J.
  • The former D.C. Project: Community Legal Assistance is incorporated into the Anne Blaine Harrison Institute for Public Law.
  • The Asian American Law Students Association is formed – now known as Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA).
  • La Raza changes its name to La Alianza de Derecho.
  • Honorary Degrees: Kurt H. Biedenkopf, Daniel J. Boorstin, Joan Ganz Cooney, Patrick Hayes, A. Kenneth Pye, Hon. Elbert P. Tuttle, Rev. John Thomas Walker, Roy Wilkins.
  • Commencement address is given by Kenneth Pye, Chancellor of Duke University.
  • John Carroll Awards: Hon. John B. McManus, Jr.
  • Patrick Healy Award: Professor Samuel Dash.
  • Overcrowding in the law library’s space in McDonough leads to the start of planning for a new library building.

1979

  • Patricia King becomes the first African-American woman law professor at GULC to be awarded tenure.
  • Justice Harry A. Blackmun delivers the first annual Thomas A. Ryan Memorial lecture.
  • The Georgetown Jewish Law Students Association is formed.
  • GG&SS Productions: Ruddigore, Trial by Jury
  • Honorary Degrees: Richard R. Baxter, William J. Brennan, Jr., John A. Danaher, Frank J. Dugan, Walter E. Fauntroy, Jesse L. Jackson, Walter H. E. Jaeger, Sol Myron Linowitz, Esther Peterson
  • Walter Fauntroy is the commencement speaker.
  • The Law Center purchases most of the block adjacent to the Law Center, bounded by G Street, Second Street, Massachusetts Avenue, and New Jersey Avenue.
  • Judge Charles Fahy is awarded the President’s Medal by University President Timothy S. Healy, S.J.
  • October 16: The Barnabas F. Sears Library for Clinical Education is dedicated.
  • October 6: Mstislav Rostropovich, director of the National Symphony Orchestra, is awarded an honorary degree
  • John Carroll Awards: Paul J. McQuillan, Raymond D. O’Brien, and Thomas A. Clarke
  • The Law Center, Law Alumni Association, , in cooperation with the Department of Continuing Legal Education, inaugurate a series of law luncheons.

1980

  • The Georgetown Law student body is now 36% female, with 977 women and 1,717 men enrolled.
  • The first issue of the Georgetown Immigration Law Reporter is published.
  • Mary F. Edgar is the first woman editor of the Law and Policy in International Business Journal.
  • The Employment Discrimination Clinic is established as a sub-division of the Law Center’s Administrative Advocacy Clinic.
  • The Stuart Stiller Memorial Foundation helps create a new fellowship, the Stuart Stiller Fellow, in the GULC E. Barrett Prettyman Fellowship Program.
  • Law Center team wins the world Jessup Cup Competition, the largest moot court competition in the world.
  • GG&SS Productions: The Pirates of Penzance (with participation of alumni)
  • Honorary Degrees: Roger N. Baldwin, Hon. David L. Bazelon, John L. Loeb, Jr., Hon. Wade Hampton McCree, Jr., Soia Mentschikoff, Arturo Guillermo Ortega, Millard Ruud, Hon. Potter Stewart
  • David Bazelon gave the commencement speech.
  • John Carroll Awards: Sherman L. Cohn, Leonard R. Raish

1981

  • The Sex Discrimination Clinic established as a separate clinic.
  • Female enrollment at the Law Center exceeds 1,000 students for the first time, but accounts for only 37.2% of total enrollment.
  • Patricia A. Dean (L’1981) is named Deputy Clerk of the United States Supreme Court, the first woman to serve in that position.
  • Regina M. Pisa is the first woman editor of the Tax Lawyer.
  • A Seminar on Women’s Legal History is offered for the first time.
  • The Center for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) is launched by Philip Schrag “to manage cases including Social Security administrative hearings and consumer protection litigation on behalf of low-income consumers.” (GL, Fall/Winter 2009, p39)
  • John Wolff is awarded the Vicennial Medal recognizing his first 20 years of service.
  • Commencement address is given by Hon. Donald F. McHenry, former US Ambassador to the UN.
  • Honorary Degrees: Hon. Haim Cohn, Elizabeth Drew, Hon. Daniel L. Herrman, Hon Donald F. McHenry, William Pincus, Hon. Simone Veil, Hon. James Skelly Wright; James A. Michener was award Doctor of Humane Letters

1982

  • The Administrative Advocacy Clinic becomes the Center for Applied Legal Studies.
  • Honorary Degrees: Lisle C. Carter, Jr., Hon. Ronald Davies, H.L.A. Hart, Charles Horsky, Hon Amalya Kearse, Jiro Murase, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Isaac Bashevis Singer
  • The Commencement address is given by Lisle C. Carter, Jr., president of the University of the District of Columbia.
  • John Carroll Award: Rev. Royden B. Davis, Joseph E. McGuire

1983

  • Judith C. Areen is appointed the first woman Associate Dean.
  • Clinical instructors gain faculty status and eligibility for long-term contracts.
  • Robert Pitofsky is appointed Executive Vice-President and dean.
  • Small sections are established in the first year.
  • The Federalist Society is founded.
  • The Women’s Law and Policy Forum is established.
  • Kathleen M. Janetatos Smith L’84 is the first female editor of the American Criminal Law Review
  • Rebecca Maria Aragon L’84 is the first female editor of the Immigration Law Reporter
  • The commencement address is delivered by Hon. Elizabeth Hanford Dole, Secretary of Transportation.
  • Honorary Degrees: Hon. Elizabeth Hanford Dole, Paul Freund, Dr. Hanna H. Gray, Hon. A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Hon. Spottswood W. Robinson, III, Bernard G. Segal, Esq.; Doctor of Humane Letters was awarded to William J. Raspberry
  • John Carroll Award: Richard M. Coleman, Frank D. Winston, Hon. Roy L. Wonder

1984

  • Women in Law as a Second Career is formed.
  • Marna S. Tucker is the first woman elected president of the D.C. Bar.
  • Ilana Rovner is the first woman judge appointed to a Circuit Court.

1985

  • Tuition is $9,900.
  • The Legal Research and Writing Program is established.
  • Women’s Law and Policy Fellowship, a postgraduate fellowship on women’s issues is formed
  • The Domestic Violence Clinic is established “to represent victims of partner abuse in protection order cases.” (GL, Fall/Winter 2009, p39)
  • The Distinguished Visitor from Practice Chair is created; Thomas J. McGrew is the first occupant.
  • Ted Koppel delivers the commencement address.
  • Honorary Degrees: Ted Koppel, Dr. Kenneth B. Clark, Hon. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Edward Hirsch Levi, Hon. John Lewis Smith, Jr.
  • The Joseph and Madeline Sheehy Chair in Antitrust and Trade Regulation is established in the 1984-1985 academic year.
  • John Carroll Awards: J. Hampton Baumgartner, Jr.

1986

  • The Law Alumni Board meets for the first time.
  • The Black South African Lawyers Program commences.
  • First World of Choices Forum.
  • The Martin Ginsburg Chair in Taxation is created, through a gift from H. Ross Perot.
  • Commencement address is delivered by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
  • Honorary Degrees: H. Carl Moultrie I, Sandra Day O’Connor, Claude Denson Pepper, Elie Wiesel
  • The Law Library announces the Public Patron Program to establish reasonable fees for the use of the library by patrons who are not current students or faculty of the Law Center.

1987

  • The Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics begins publication.
  • The Public Interest Law Scholars program is started, with the first class of scholars chosen in fall 1988.
  • Commencement: Patricia Wald is the speaker.
  • Diane E. Kenty is the first female editor of the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics
  • Honorary Degrees: Marion Wright Edelman, Thomas Emerson, Hon. William Webster, Hon. Patricia Wald
  • Fall: GULC and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health begin a new Juris Doctor/Masters of Public Health joint degree program designed for individuals who wish to enter public service in areas where public health, the law and ethics converge.
  • Georgetown team wins Moot Court World Championship.
  • March 19: Groundbreaking for the new law library and the McDonough expansion.
  • John Carroll Awards: Patrick J. Head, Thomas F. Schlafly

1988

  • The Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) is established.
  • The Georgetown International Environmental Law Review begins publication.
  • The International Summer Program in Florence commences.
  • Georgetown Law professors meet members of Congress in the first Home Court charity basketball game. The first game raises $42,000 for Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.
  • Helen E. Steinbinder retires, becoming the first woman Professor Emeritus.
  • John Wolff is awarded the Charles Fahy Distinguished Adjunct Professor Award.
  • Commencement address by former Associate Justice Lewis F. Powell.
  • Honorary Degrees: Lewis F. Powell, Vincent J. Fuller, Dorothy W. Nelson, Ross Perot, Archibald Cox.
  • Vicki S. Veenker is the first female editor of the Journal of Law and Technology

1989

  • April 14: The Edward Bennett Williams Law Library is dedicated.
  • Judith C. Areen becomes the first female Georgetown Law professor appointed Executive Vice-President and dean of the Law Center.
  • The Law Center Archives is established as a separate archives from the Georgetown University Archives.
  • Senator George Mitchell is the keynote speaker at commencement.
  • Honorary Degrees: George Mitchell, James C McKay, Constance Baker Motley, Renata Adler.
  • Wendy Williams is appointed the first Associate Dean for Research.
  • GULC hosts the first annual Henry Kaiser Memorial Lecture.
  • The Equal Justice Foundation establishes an annual Robert Pitofsky Fellowship to fund a summer job in public interest law.
  • The ABA recognizes GULC’s Student Bar Association as the “Best Student Bar Association in the USA.”
  • Law Center Honors Bicentennial Winners: Frank J. Magill, Mary E. Lupo, Thomas F. Hogan, Norma H. Johnson, James A. Belson, William C. Pryor (reported in GL, Winter 1990, p2).
  • Jessica L. Stone is the first female editor of the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal
  • Maria Soledad Feliciano is the first female editor of the Georgetown International Law Journal

1990

  • Tuition tops $15,000.
  • The student body is 45% female.
  • Lane Kirkland delivers the first Henry Kaiser Memorial Lecture.
  • The Georgetown Outreach program is founded.
  • GULC LL.M. student Jan Wilson starts Caffe O’Law, a small espresso bar in McDonough Hall.
  • The Linda Hyatt Lauve Scholarship is established.
  • Roger M. Adelman and Hugh J. Beins are the recipients of the 1989-1990 Charles Fahy Distinguished Adjunct Professor Award.
  • Home Court raises $92,000.
  • A Ford Foundation grant to the law center will provide new fellowships in international law.
  • Georgetown Outreach, a new student organization, is established and aims to assist law students interested in volunteer work by placing them in appropriate community service agencies.
  • Damon J. Keith is the commencement speaker.
  • Honorary Degrees: Damon J. Keith, Sidney S. Sachs, Joseph L. Rauh Jr., Chinua Achebe, Miriam Naveira De Rodon
  • Bicentennial Medal Recipients: Joan B. Claybrook, Robert M. Hayes, Victor H. Kramer, Patricia L. Rengel
  • John Carroll Award (from the Georgetown University Alumni Association): John B. Mariano, John C. McNamara

1991

  • The First-year experimental curriculum is established.
  • Regina Jefferson is the first participant in the Graduate Teaching Program for Future Law Professors.
  • Charles Fahy Distinguished Adjunct Professor Awards (1990-1991): Martin S. Thaler, Earl M. Colson
  • Exxon establishes an annual Scholarship program to provide two GULC students with $5,000 scholarships and summer learning opportunity’s at Exxon’s headquarters.
  • January 15: Georgetown Law Alumni Networking Service makes its official debut, placing the names and legal specialties of more than 6,000 Georgetown attorneys just a phone call away.
  • Home Court raises $91,000.
  • The Law Center establishes the Graduate Teaching Program for Future Law Professors, designed to attract candidates who can bring underrepresented, minority perspectives to the development of legal scholarship.
  • The Behrend Scholarship is established to be award to a third-year GULC student beginning fall 1991.
  • Construction begins on the Gewirz Student Center.
  • John Carroll Award: Francis B. Brogan
  • The Law Center and the Department of Philosophy create a new Joint Degree Program involving three tracks: JD/master’s in bioethics, JD/master’s in general philosophy or ethical theory, and JD/PhD in general philosophy
  • Commencement address given by former World Bank President Barber B. Conable.
  • Honorary Degrees: Barber B. Conable, John Hope Franklin, Barbara A. Black, Thomas A. Reynolds, Emil Noel, and Robert F. Drinan, S.J. (special ceremony, not at commencement)
  • Vicennial Medals: Frank F. Flegal, Paul F. Rothstein, William T. Vukowich, Heathcote Woolsey Wales

1992

  • Board of Visitors is established for the Law Center; Thomas A. Reynolds, Jr. is the founding chair.
  • GULC holds the first Women’s Forum between graduates and current students.
  • Charles Fahy Distinguished Adjunct Professor Awards (1991-1992): Charles Gordon, Paul B. Larsen.
  • GULC announces a new certificate in employee benefits as part of the general Taxation or Labor Law LL.M, or as a standalone certificate.
  • GULC’s clinical program receives a “Service of Justice” award from the District of Columbia Legal Aid Society.
  • Home Court raises $92,000.
  • John Carroll Award: Rory F. Quirk
  • The Asian Law and Policy Studies Program is started.
  • Commencement speaker is Sharon Pratt Kelly, mayor of Washington, D.C.
  • Honorary Degrees: Sissela Bok, Julian A. Cook Jr., John C. Danforth, Carlos Fuentes, Sharon Pratt Kelly
  • Fall: Vicennial Medals – Judy Areen, Charles Gustafson, Thomas Krattenmaker, Steven A. Winkelman

1993

  • The Gewirz Student Center opens with apartments for 286 first-year law students, a fitness center and a child care center. The dedication occurred on April 17.
  • The Georgetown Journal on Fighting Poverty begins publication.
  • Margaret Carey is the first recipient of the Thurgood Marshall Medal of Justice.
  • GULC’s first successful childcare center, the Bernard S. and Sarah N. Gewirtz Childcare Center opens.
  • Charles Fahy Distinguished Adjunct Award (1992-1993): Kirby Howlett, Harold Heltzer
  • Home Court raises $109,000.
  • The first Thurgood Marshall Medal of Justice is given to Margary Casey by the Georgetown SBA.
  • John Carroll Award: John Gaberino
  • GG&SS puts on the Gilbert & Sullivan Spectacular as part of its 20th anniversary celebration.
  • Commencement speaker is Scholar Roger Wilkins.
  • Honorary Degrees: Joan B. Claybrook, James P. Grant, Hon. Richard A. Posner, Roger Wilkins

1994

  • The Federal Legislation Clinic is founded.
  • Tuition tops $20,000. It is still lower than tuition at 10 other law schools, including Columbia, NYU, Stanford, Pennsylvania, Yale and Duke.
  • Honorary Degrees: Patrick J. Leahy, Gabrielle K. McDonald, Janet Reno (April)
  • The Board of Directors approves a 40,000 square-foot extension to McDonough Hall for classrooms, seminar rooms, student activity space, and international law programs.
  • Professor Edith Weiss is the first woman elected President of the American Society of International Law for 1994-1996.
  • An annual Multi-Cultural Day is established.
  • The GULC alumni magazine Res Ipsa Loquitur changes its name to Georgetown Law.
  • The first Frank F. Flegal Award for Outstanding Contributions to Teaching is awarded to professors Steven Goldberg & Girardeau Spann.
  • GULC develops the Dean’s Forum Series, providing a group of students the opportunity to have lunch and interact on an informal basis with a distinguished graduate.
  • GG&SS Productions: Pippin
  • GULC starts Race Judicata, an annual 5K/3K run/walk to benefit EJF public interest fellowships.
  • March: Professor Wally Mlyniec is awarded the Stuart Stiller Memorial Foundation Award.
  • Georgetown Law Journal inaugurates Brownbag Lunch Speaker Series

1995

  • Charles Gustafson is named the first Associate Dean for International Programs.
  • Associate Dean Wallace Mlyniec (L’1970) expands responsibilities to include public and community service as well as clinical education.
  • GG&SS Productions: Pirates of Penzance, Sweeney Todd
  • GULC starts annual program, “Georgetown Reads,” matching law students with children from the North Capitol Street area for a hour of reading each week.
  • Tuition is over $21,000.
  • The Center for Applied Studies Clinic inaugurates the International Human Rights Project.
  • The Law Center clinical programs ranked first in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.
  • The Alternative Dispute Resolution Society (ADR) is founded.
  • Professor Laura Macklin is the first director of the Family Advocacy Clinic.
  • Community Law Day is started as an annual event, sponsored by the Street Law Clinic and established by Street Law Clinic Fellow Alexandra M. Ashbrook.
  • Lorna MacLeod wins the first Donald E. Schwartz Memorial Award, for her paper, “Protecting Game: Sales Practice Standards for Derivative Dealers.”
  • The first annual Java Hut Coffeehouse is held, an annual showcase of GULC talent in music, poetry and comedy.
  • March 1995: Law Center clinical programs ranked 1st in nation by U.S. News & World Report. GULC was ranked 13th, 2nd in tax law, 3rd in trial & appellate advocacy, 5th in international law, 9th in health law.
  • Summer 1995: GULC Summer program moves to Heidelberg, Germany.
  • Summer 1995: New legal internships abroad send 8 students to work overseas. The program is initiated and coordinated by Marilyn Tucker.
  • August 1995: Professor David Post, with Adjunct Professor John Podesta, David Johnson, CEO of Lexis Counsel Connect, Peggy Radin and Carey Heckman professors at Stanford, found the Cyberspace Law Institute (CLI) at GULC. It held its first conference in August 1995.
  • Fall 1995: The student group Alternative Dispute Resolution Society (ADR) is founded by evening law student (and 1st president) Peter Ban, with 150 members, and is the 2nd largest student group at GULC., and one of the first of its kind
  • October 1995: New chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is started at GULC by students Alan Levine and Peter Brill.
  • November 1995: Community Law Day is started as an annual event, sponsored by the Street Law Clinic and established by Street Law Clinic Fellow Alexandra M. Ashbrook.

1996

  • Juvenile Justice Clinic offers a new division: Family Opportunity.
  • Office of Public Interest and Community Service (OPICS) created.
  • Loan Repayment Assistance Project II (LRAP II) is initiated, for graduates of GULC.
  • Spring 1996 – Barbara C. Baumann, L’97 is the first student and woman awarded a clerkship during her spring semester 1996, as a “stagaire” (intern), at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg, as part of the Dean Acheson Legal Stage Program.
  • GG&SS productions: Rumors, Princess Ida, Schoolhouse Rock Live.
  • March 1996 – GULC is listed 12th, up from 13th last year in the 1996 annual ranking of the nation’s law school. It remained 1st in clinical training, 3rd in tax, 5th in health, and tied for 4th with 3 other schools in trial advocacy.
  • March 22, 1996 – Professor Patricia A. King is appointed the first Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law, Medicine, Ethics, and Public Policy.
  • May 1996 – Professor Edith Brown Weiss is named the Francis Cabell Brown Professor of International Law
  • March 1996 – At the 3rd Annual Public Interest Awards Reception, 15 awards were given to honor members of GULC’s public interest community: Sczerina Perot and Daniel Cramer won the 1996 Outstanding Public Interest Award; Dean Judith Areen received an award of Special Appreciation. Professor Jeffrey Bauman earned the Outstanding Faculty Award.  Professor Robert Drinan, S.J. won the 1st Robert F. Drinan, S.J. Alumni Public Service Award.
  • Professor Edith Brown Weiss is named the Francis Cabell Brown Professor of International Law.
  • Winter 1996 – Marilyn Tucker is named the first director of the Law Alumni Career Services.
  • Fall 1996 – Erin Fatica is selected as the first Jesuit Refugee Service/Georgetown Fellow.
  • The Law Center unveils a program called the Law Firm Challenge, a friendly competition among 5 area firms to increase alumni participation in the Law Annual Fund.
  • Winter 1996: Marilyn Tucker is named 1st director of Law Alumni Career Services.
  • January 1996: GULC institutes new incentive plan, Community Suggestion Program, by the Office of Financial Affairs, to solicit ideas on how to reduce cost, increase revenues and improve the quality of services at GULC.
  • First Annual Corporate Counsel Institute sponsored by the Continuing Legal Education Program.

1997

  • Fall 1997 – Entering class for JD program has more women than men, for the first time.
  • GG&SS productions: Ruddigore, Kiss Me Kate, Inherit the Wind.
  • 1997 Honorary Degrees: Corinne Clairborne Boggs, Bryan A. Stevenson, Strobe Talbot (LL.D. SFS)
  • Joan Claybrook is the first woman recipient of the Robert F. Drinan, S.J. Alumni Public Service Award.
  • Family Opportunity division of Juvenile Justice Clinic becomes its own clinical program.
  • GULC establishes Georgetown Law Center of the Americas “Law Casa,” a new center focusing on legal education and research issues in Latin America. Jaime Infante is the 1st director of Law Casa.
  • Sports & Entertainment Law Society, Student Intellectual Property Law Association and the Evening Students Association sponsor the first Annual Sports and Entertainment Panel Discussion.
  • New extension in McDonough building opens
  • GULC formerly opens the Office of Public Interest and Community Service (OPICS)
  • April 24, 1997 – Formal dedication of the McDonough building extension.
  • Jamie E. Metzl is the 1st recipient of the Deborah K. Hauger International Public Interest Fellowship.
  • Fall 1997 – Office of Career Services establishes new assistant director for judicial clerkships. Debra King is the first director.
  • GULC’s Barrister’s Council sponsors 1st Annual National White Collar Crime Mock Trial Competition.
  • December 1997 – Students allowed for the 1st time to use computers to type their exams, using the software Examinator.
  • The Family Opportunity Division of Juvenile Justice Clinic becomes its own clinical program.
  • The James M. Morita Chair in Asian Legal Studies is established, with James Feinerman named as its first holder.
  • GULC forms the Constitution Project, directed by Tim Kolly.
  • GULC’s German American Law Society (GALS) raises funds to establish the Bettina Pruckmayr Memorial Internship Program at the World Federalist Association. Bettina Pruckmayr. L’1994, was killed in an ATM holdup in Washington, D.C. in December 1995.
  • April 1997 – GULC restores Minority Clerkship Placement program which was changed in 1996. It is renamed the Diversity Clerkship Program.
  • April 1997 – Professor John Copacino, Director of the Criminal Justice Clinic, receives the GULC annual Frank Flegal Award for Outstanding Contributions to Teaching.
  • The International Summer Program returned to Florence; summer programs continued in Heidelberg.

1998

  • Sex Discrimination Clinic becomes two distinct clinics: Domestic Violence Clinic, directed by Deborah Epstein, and International Women’s Human Rights Clinic, directed by Susan Deller Ross.
  • 1998 G&S productions: The Mousetrap, H.M.S. Pinafore, Into the Woods.
  • 1998 Honorary Degrees: Katherine Graham (President’s Medal), Mark D. Gearan
  • Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law is proposed. The first Editor-in-chief is Kimberlee Ward.  It is the “‘first and only law journal in the country specifically addressing the intersection of gender and sexuality.’” GLW 10/05/98, pp. 1, 4
  • First Annual Gender, Sexuality and the Law Symposium held, sponsored by Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law.
  • Law Library Director Robert Oakley is the first administrator to receive the David J. McCarthy award.
  • February 1998 – GULC in partnership with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), establishes the first two-year post graduate public interest fellowship for GULC students only. The GULC/JRS Fellowship in Immigration Law will give JD graduates a chance to spend two years representing indigent immigrants.  The fellowship was a pilot program in 1996 establish by GU President Leo O’Donovan.
  • February 1998 – GULC jumps to #12 in US News & World Report annual survey of law schools, sharing the spot with Cornell and Northwestern. Tax and international law moved to 2nd place (up from 5th for tax).
  • February 23, 1998 – Patricia Mullahy Fugere L’84, Executive Director of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, Inc., was presented with the Jerrold Scoutt Prize from the D.C. Bar Foundation.
  • March 1998 – GULC honors its first African American graduates. Among those attending were Judge Norma Holloway Johnson, L’62, who was then overseeing the Independent counsel Kenneth Starr investigations, along with Harry T. Alexander and Winston A. Douglas.
  • March 1998 – G&S celebrates 25 years of theatrical productions.
  • Spring 1998 – GULC National Law Alumni Board creates Hoya To Lawya program to provide greater “opportunities for first-year Law Center students to interact with alumni practitioners.” Georgetown Law, Fall 1997 p. 56.
  • Spring 1998 – GU President Leo O’Donovan announces that GULC Dean Judith C. Areen will step down at the end of her term in 1999, touching off a firestorm of protests from faculty students and alumni. The faculty were outraged that they had not been consulted, as is the norm, and many felt that Dean Areen was forced to resign, due to disagreement over budgetary and managerial decisions.  Faculty and students (led by students Liane Nomura and Alex Stanton, both 2L) rallied around Dean Areen, starting a fierce campaign of protest and sit-ins, and the alumni and GULC alumni leaders withdrew and threatened to withdraw funds unless Dean Areen was reinstated for a third term.  President O’Donovan relented, and agreed to a third term.
  • April 1998 – Office of Student Affairs sponsors the first “Taste of GULC,” showcasing culinary talents of students, faculty and staff. A cookbook of the dishes is sold, proceeds going to the Bettina Pruckmayr Award.
  • April 1998 – GULC Art Task Force sponsors the first art contest to find the most talented artists at GULC.
  • April 1998 – Karin Scherner wins Beaudry Moot Court Competition.
  • April 1998 – GULC Alumnus Jason King L’1997 establishes “Turning the Page,” a non-profit organization dedicated to working for the benefit of Washington school children.
  • April 1998 – Gewirz Child Care Center is formally accredited by the National Academy of Early Childhood Programs and recognized for maintaining a high-quality early childhood program.
  • April 9, 1998 – Bill Lann Lee, the acting attorney general for Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice is the 1998 recipient of the Thurgood Marshall Medal of Justice.
  • May 15, 1998 – Women’s Forum hosts the first Annual Alumnae Awards, recognizing a small group of GULC alumnae who have made significant contributions to the law profession, the communities and GULC.
  • Summer 1998 – Two students, Chan Park and Charan Johl founded a center of D.C. branches of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association (APABA) and the Indian American Bar Association (IABA), offering a hotline for legal assistance and referrals to attorneys for pro bono help, called the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center.
  • Fall 1998 – There are currently 57 GULC alumni clerking in Federal and state courts, 25 of them women (44%). In the Fall semester 1998, 3 out of 4 GULC alumni clerking at the US Supreme Court are women (Caitlin Halligan L’95, Silvija Strikis L’95 and Celestine Richards L’91). Georgetown Law Magazine, Fall 1998 p p. 6-7.
  • Fall 1998 – For the 1st time, students in Legal Research and Writing (LRW) will receive letter grades, instead of honor/pass/fail.
  • September 1998 – Holly Eaton joins the OPICS staff as the new pro bono coordinator. OPICS staff is now all women: Barbara Moulton, director, Lauren Dubin, senior public interest advisor, executive assistant Kim Bradshaw, and government advisor and liaison Katya Lezin.
  • October 1998 – Leahy Moot Court Competition: Dan Moylan wins Best Oralist, Ed Wang wins Best Brief.
  • October 23, 1998 – Honorable George J. Mitchell, L’60, former Senate Majority Leader and Chairman of the Northern Ireland peace talks receives the 1998 Robert F. Drinan, S.J. Public Service Award.
  • November 1998 – OPICS starts “Friends of Young Immigrants” (FYI), drawing GULC students out to Arlington, Va., to help immigrant students navigate their way through the educational system.” the idea is from Nadine Yakoob, a 2L student. GLW 11/02/98, p. 5

1999

  • GULC Tuition: $25,704 full-time (ABA stats)
  • 1999 Honorary Degrees: Madeleine Korbel Albright (LL.D. SFS), Thomas F. Hogan, Eleanor Holmes Norton
  • 1999 – GG&SS productions: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Iolanthe, West Side Story
  • 1999 – Professor Barry Carter establishes PIBEL, Program on International Business and Economic Law, to “encourage theoretical and policy-oriented discussion, writing and teaching in international business, finance and trade.” GLW 10/23/00, p.4
  • GULC Professor David Cole is awarded (in 2000) the Best Non-Fiction Book for 1999 by the Boston Book Review and the Best Book on an Issue of National Policy for 1999 by the American Political Science Association (APSA) for his book No Equal Justice (New Press, 1999)
  • Georgetown Journal on Fighting Poverty changes its name to Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law & Policy, with volume 6.
  • GULC team wins the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition. The students are: Kara Thompson, Joy Hodge, W. David Hubbard, Nicole Williams and Kobe Flowers.
  • January 1999 – Students Jamie Hochman 1L, Laura Nagel, 1L and bill Lyons, 1L, organize a new student group, the Children’s Advocacy Organization, to address children’s issues in the legal system and focus on community service.
  • February 1999 – GULC inaugurated the first Faith and Justice Series Lecture, featuring Professor Martin Marty, the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. He spoke on “The Descript University: An Identity Worth Having a Crisis About.”
  • February 1999 – Precious Murchison, 1L, and Stuart Parker, 1L, are the winners of the 1999 Greenhalgh Mock Trial Competition.
  • March 1999 – Marking its 30th anniversary, LPIB sponsors a symposium entitled “Sub-Sahara Africa in the Global Economy: The Role of the State, Multi-Lateral Institutions and Law in Economic Development.”
  • March 1999 – GULC acquires the Tobishima property at the corner of 1st and F Streets, N.W., next to the Gewirz Center, to use as a parking lot until plans are finalized and approved for two new buildings. The new buildings, approved in 2000, will house the International Law Center, International Law Library, and a Health and Fitness Center, along with parking spaces underneath, and student and staff place.
  • March 1999 – US News & World Report ranks GULC 14th overall in its annual survey of law schools. The clinical program was ranked 1st, tax law ranked 4th, international law ranked 4th, and trial advocacy ranked 6th.
  • March 1, 1999 – Student Bar Association adopts a sexual assault/harassment resolution, in response to the growing concern about the serious nature of sexual assaults and harassments at GULC, and the lack of any policy at Georgetown regarding sexual harassment. The main campus at GU has such a policy, but GULC has not adopted it. By September 1999, the GULC administration indicates that there is a Law Center sexual assault policy, but it was too late to include it in the 1998-1999 Bulletin. Additionally, there is a Task Force on Sexual Harassment Policy, chaired by Student Affairs Director Katherine Hall. “Georgetown is a good environment for women and we want to keep it that way,” said Associate Dean Peter Byrne.
  • March 4, 1999 – GULC holds its first legal symposium to address issues concerning anti-gay peer harassment, sponsored by the newly formed Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law. The 1st Annual Wendy Webster Williams Award was also presented to Professor Wendy Williams, for her contributions to feminist scholarship and advocacy.
  • April 1999 – GULC team wins first prize at National Hispanic Moot Court Competition. Marco Paredes, 2L, with Paul Hemesath, 2l and Audrey Benison, 2L, formed the first place team at the 5th annual Hispanic National Bar Association Moot Court Competition. Hemesath also won the prize for best oralist.  This was the first time a team from GULC made it to the final.
  • April 1999 – Women in Law as a Second Career celebrates 15th Anniversary. Marilyn Tucker, of Career Services was given an award of gratitude.
  • April 1999 – Sister Helen Prejean is 1999 recipient of the Thurgood Marshall Medal of Justice.
  • Spring 1999: The new International Women’s Human Rights Clinic, directed by Susan Deller Ross, starts operating.
  • July 1999 – GULC students Steve War, 4E and Andre Regard, 4E placed 1st among 8 teams at the 1999 International Negotiation Competition in London. They are the first U.S. team to do so.
  • July 1999 – Edward Bennett Williams Law Library starts a two-year Librarian Resident program for minorities. Tracey Bridgeman is the first Librarian Resident.
  • August 1999 – The Institute of International Economic Law “was created with a mission primarily to encourage research on International Economic Law, defined broadly to include almost any subject involving law as it relates to economic activity crossing national borders.” The director is Professor John Jackson, and the Program Director is Ms. Benedicte A. Claes.
  • September 1999 – The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funds a $2.2 million grant for the creation of the Georgetown-Sloan Project on Business Institutions. Professor Lynn Stout is the first director of the project, and grew out of an article written by Stout and Margaret Blair, A Team Production Theory of Corporate Law,” published in the Virginia Law Review, March 1999.
  • October 1999 – GULC inaugurates the first Annual Supreme Court Institute. Founded by Professor Lazarus, who is the director of the Institute, and offers a moot court program, scholarly conferences, lectures, workshops and discussions.
  • October 1999 – Leahy Moot Court Competition winner: Jade Bristol Verity.
  • October 1999 – EJF fundraising: $50,000.
  • October 1999 – Gene Karpinski, Executive Director of U.S. Public Interest Research Group is awarded the 1999 Robert F. Drinan Public Service Award.
  • October 1999 – Juvenile Justice Clinic celebrates 25th anniversary.
  • Winter 1999 – Joan Claybrook L’73 won the 1999 Paul R. Dean Alumni Award.

2000

  • Fall 2000 – Out of 71 GULC Alumni who reported that they had a judicial clerkship for the academic year 2000-2001, 33 or 46.4% are women. (Clerkship database, Office of Career Services)
  • 2000 Honorary Degrees: Carolyn P. Chiechi, Colin L. Powell.
  • 2000 GG&SS productions: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Guys and Dolls, Mikado
  • Criminal Justice Clinic named D.C. Bar Assoc.’s Organization of the Year 2000
  • July 2000 – OPICS director Barbara Moulton L’89 is appointed the first assistant dean for Public Interest and Community Service.
  • January 2000 – ACLR ranks 12th in U.S., according to a recent study published in the Florida Law Review. The study ranked 100 journals “according to the prestige of contributing authors,” and “included faculty-selected and/or faculty-edited journals.” The ACLR is ranked the top criminal journal in the U.S.  “According to the study, the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal ranked 32nd, the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics followed closely at 36th and Law & Policy in International Business came in 41st.” GLW 01/24/00 p. 3
  • February 3, 2000 – GULC dedicates kosher kitchen in McDonough Hall.
  • February 3, 2000 – New Rabbi Mark Robbins starts at the Law Center as the official Rabbi.
  • March 2000 – Three current students and 1 former student are brought up on charges of Internet fraud by the SEC. The SEC filed and settled charges of Internet stock manipulation.  They were permanently barred from future violations of Section 10(b) of the Securities and Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5.  The students, Douglas Colt, Kenneth Terrell and Jason Wyckoff, all three 3L, and Adam Altman, L’99 and Colt’s mother Joanna Colt used  the FastTrades.com website (created by Douglas Colt) to manipulate stock prices.  They were not punished because they were unable to return the money of investors who were taken in.  GULC was looking into disciplinary proceedings against the four. GLW 03/20/00, pp. 1, 10
  • April 2000 – GULC ranked 14th in annual US News & World Report Survey of law schools. It ranked 1st in clinical education, 3rd in tax law and international law, 4th in trial advocacy, 7th in dispute resolution, 8th in environmental law, and 17th in intellectual property law.
  • April 2000 – Home Court 2000 raises a record $157,300 for the Legal Clinic for the Homeless.
  • April 6, 2000 – Georgetown Children’s Advocacy Group holds its first annual interdisciplinary panel discussion, “The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997: Implications From Policy to practice.”
  • April 11, 2000 – Thurgood Marshall Award goes to Judge William Wayne Justice
  • April 13, 2000 – GULC professor James Oldham is named the 1st Thomas More professor of law and legal history.
  • September 2000 – D.C. Public Charter School Board approves the Thurgood Marshall Academy, a law-related public charter school in Washington, D.C. to open its doors September 2001. The charter school was created by GULC students and faculty, through the GULC Street Law Clinic.  Charter school Board President is Jacquelyn Davis, 3L.
  • September 26, 2000 – The proposed Eric Hotung International Law Center building was celebrated in a ceremony with U.S. President William J. Clinton. The new building will be named after Eric Hotung, C’51, a Hong-Kong businessman, who donated $5 million towards the funding of the building.  The building will house the International Law library collection, seminar rooms, space for faculty and academic and research programs.  It will also have a health and fitness building and underground parking.
  • October 2000 – EJF auction brings in $43,000.
  • October 3, 2000 – Catalina Joos wins the 31st Annual Leahy Moot Court Competition.
  • December 2000 – GULC students Joshua Kern and Jacquelyn Davis create the first law-related public charter school in southeast D.C. The Thurgood Marshall Academy will open in the Fall 2001.
  • December 2000 – GULC and Johns Hopkins School of Health establish a new Center for Law and the Public’s Health in Baltimore, with a $900,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The co-directors are GULC Professor Lawrence Gostin and Hopkins professor Stephen Teret.

2001

  • The Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship Program begins the Patricia King Fellowship program specifically for South African lawyers with a special interest in women’s rights, with the Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa (LAWA) Fellowship Program
  • Harriet R. Burg Fellowship Women’s Law & Public Policy Fellowship is started.
  • January 2001 – Gihan Fernando, L’90 is named Assistant Dean for Career Services, succeeding Abbie Willard.
  • January 2001 – Professor Vicki Jackson is appointed new Associate Dean for Research. Former Associate Dean Wendy Perdue is now Associate Dean for the JD Program.
  • January 2001 – Former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta L’76 under President Clinton returns to GULC as a visiting law professor, to teach and work on establishing a Center on Law and Technology at GULC. . He was adjunct professor here during his tenure at the White House.
  • February 2001 – Professor James Feinerman is appointed Associate Dean for International and Graduate Programs.
  • February 2001 – GULC Jewish Law Student Association starts to implement the Dreyfus program, a program an initiative aimed at promoting Jewish interest at the Law Center and the surrounding community.
  • February 2001 – OPICS initiates Pro Bono Pledge, challenging law students to complete 75 hours of law-related work before they graduate.
  • February 2001 – GG&SS production: The Crucible.
  • April 2001, Williams Library celebrates the acquisition of its one millionth volume; library acquires the library of 18th century English judge John Scott, Lord Eldon.
  • April 21, 2001 – Annual Women’s Forum celebrates “50 years of women at GULC” and recognizes First Alumnae, Alumnae “Firsts,” Mother/Daughter Graduates and Outstanding Volunteers at the Annual Alumnae Awards: The Honorable Lois Frankel, Florida state representative, the Honorable Mazie K. Hirono, lieutenant governor of Hawaii, Laura Rothstein, Dean, Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, University of Louisville, Dolores Silva Smith, director, Division of Commerce and Community Affairs, Federal Reserve Board, Donna Wilson, general counsel, Goodwill Industries, International, Inc., and Marcia Wiss, partner, Hogan & Hartson.
  • September 2001 – Thurgood Marshall Academy, a law-related public charter school in Washington, D.C. is due to open its doors. The charter school was created by GULC students and faculty, through the GULC Street Law Clinic.
  • Fall: The Friends of the Edward Bennett Williams Law Library Is established.
  • The Law Center creates the Constitutional Studies Center.
  • Fall: The Student Bar Association and Dean Judy Areen launch a new speakers series, Lawyers of Vision, to bring to the Law Center attorneys who have used their legal skills in creative ways.

2002

  • First annual Miles W. Kirkpatrick Antitrust Lecture
  • The Law Center hosts its first Jurist-in-Residence, Hon Gerald VandeWalle.
  • GG&SS Productions: Fall cabaret show, Chicago
  • The Appellate Litigation Clinic receives an award for its work in a new Pro Bono Program by the Executive Office for Immigration Review of the U.S. Department of Justice.
  • Fall: The first issue of the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy is published.
  • Richard Lazarus receives the Flegal Award.
  • Charles Lawrence is named John Carroll Research Professor, a one-year honor.
  • April 23: The Joseph E. and Madeline M. Sheehy Chair in Antitrust Law and Trade Regulation is inaugurated and Robert Pitofsky is installed as its first holder.
  • 15th Annual Home Court raises $147, 764.
  • May 19: Commencement, with Mayor Anthony Williams of D.C. and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani of New York.
  • Paul R. Dean Award Recipients: Jerry H. Heckman, Hon. Peter J. Hurtgen, William E. Schuyler, Greta Van Susteren
  • May31-June 2: The Law Center hosts the groundbreaking for the new Hotung International Law Center Building as part of the reunion weekend festivities.
  • The Office of Alumni Affairs and the National Law Alumni Board announces the Alumni Mentoring Program. (possibly 2001, but in GL, Spring 2002, p70)
  • Georgetown Law Weekly is named top law school newspaper by the ABA.
  • Several new student groups are formed including: The Collective of Women of Color, American-Japanese Law Students Alliance, the Georgetown Bowling Club, and the Georgetown Student Animal Legal Defense Fund (SALDF).
  • The space law moot court team wins international competition.
  • International Summer Program holds the final program in Florence; start of the Summer Program in London.

2003

  • May 6: Donald Langevoort is inaugurated as the first Thomas Aquinas Reynolds Professor of Law.
  • April: Home Court raises $171,930.
  • May 18: Commencement, with New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winner Anthony Lewis speaking.
  • GG&SS Productions: City of Angels, Arcadia, The Gondoliers
  • Alumnae Award Recipients: Kathryn D. Checchi, Karen J. Hedlund, Hon. Laura Denvir Stith, and Hon. Celeste Pinto McLain
  • John Carroll Award Recipients: Ismael Herrero III
  • First annual golf tournament at the Tournament Players Club at Avenel in Potomac, MD.
  • Paul R Dean Award Recipients: Peter J. Finnerty, Jane Golden Belford, Dr. Leon Robbin, Sidney J. Silver, Hon. Robert M. Kimmitt
  • The ABA announces Georgetown Law Weekly the best law school newspaper in the country.
  • Fall: Cafeteria (Café Bon Appetit) renovation is completed.
  • September: The Center for the Advancement of the Rule of Law in the Americas (CAROLA) holds its inaugural event, hosting a panel discussion on the progress of rule of law reform in Latin American countries.
  • The Employment Justice Center honors the Law Center.
  • The Student Bar Association hosts first Oktoberfest party.
  • Catholic Forum student group is established.
  • Student founds the Alexander Hamilton Historical Society.
  • The law library launches its new website.
  • The Student Bar Association amends its constitution to expand its influence over Student/Faculty committees.
  • Home Court raises $170,000.

2004

  • The John Wolff International Comparative Law Library opens.
  • September 10: GULC hosts the official ribbon cutting ceremony for the Sport and Fitness Center.
  • October 27: GULC hosts the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Eric E. Hotung International Law Center Building.
  • Judith C. Areen steps down as Executive Vice President and Dean of the Law Center. In honor of her service as Dean, the Paul Regis Dean Leadership Chair is created; Dean Areen holds this chair until her retirement from the faculty in 2019. Following her retirement the Paul R. Dean Leadership Chair passed to Dean William M. Treanor and Areen became Paul R. Dean Professor of Law Emerita.
  • November: A survey conducted by the National Law Journal and published in November 2004 lists Georgetown Law as “by far the law school ‘most mentioned’ by the nation’s largest law firms when it comes to recruitment and hiring.” Only Harvard outranked Georgetown in the “most hired” category.  (GL, Spring 2005, p6).
  • Fall: The ABA’s Law School Division recognizes the Georgetown Law Weekly as the Best Newspaper among those published by the nation’s 189 accredited law schools. It is the third consecutive year that GLW has won the honor.
  • April 19: The new Baker & McKenzie International Law Lecture series begins.
  • Federalist Society awards its Inaugural Lifetime Service Award to Richard Thornburgh.
  • Home Court raises $223,754 for the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, a record to this point.
  • Paul R. Dean Award Recipients: Robert Lighthizer, Hon. Nancy Jacklin, David G. Bradley, Edward Ricci, Hon. Marc Ginsberg
  • May 23: Commencement, with Linda Greenhouse as speaker.
  • Spring Semester: The Law Center offers its first externship program.
  • Honorary Degrees: Hon. Robert Carter and Linda Greenhouse
  • Alumnae Award Recipients: Devarieste Curry, Marianne M. Keler, Martha M. Kendrick, and Susan S. Oldham
  • John Carroll Awards Recipients: Robert Andrews, Hon. James Zazzali, Hon. Mary Lupo.
  • July 1: T.Alexander Aleinikoff becomes Executive Vice President for Law Center Affairs and Dean.

2005

  • October: The Law Center hosts a meeting to sign papers that officially creates the International Association of Law Schools (IALS).
  • The Law Center receives an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant to support work on biosecurity under the rule of law.
  • The Center for Law and the Public’s Health at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins University is designated a World Health Organization (WHO) and Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Collaborative Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights, “making it the only academic center of its kind to receive this global status.” (GL, Fall 2005, p6)
  • April 25: Professor Carrie Menkel-Meadow is formally installed as the first A.B. Chettle, Jr. Chair in Dispute Resolution and Civil Procedure.
  • April 6: 18th Annual Home Court Charity Basketball Game raises $216,548 for the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.
  • Former Solicitor General Theodor Olsen is honored with the Federalist Society’s second annual Lifetime Service Award.
  • May 22: Commencement, address by Hon. Lee Hamilton
  • Honorary Degrees: Hon. M. Margaret McKeown and Hon. Lee Hamilton.
  • John Carroll Award Recipients: Kevin J. Moynihan, James J. O’Connor, Marcia Wiss, President Jack DeGioia, Ed McManimon, Paul Besozzi
  • Patrick Healy Award Recipient: Joe Lang
  • February 25-27: First annual conference of the Black Law Students Association (BLSA).
  • Alumnae Award Recipients: Maurita Coley, April McClain-Delaney, Janice Obuchowski, Beverly Perry

2006

  • Michael Seidman is named as the Carmack Waterhouse Professor in Constitutional Law, and Randy E. Barnett is named as the Carmack Waterhouse Professor in Legal Theory.
  • April 10: GULC hosts the first annual Samuel Dash Conference on Human Rights
  • June: Professor Rebecca Tushnet starts the Georgetown Law Faculty Blog.
  • 19th Annual Home Court Charity Basketball Game raises $255,000.
  • March 29: Federalist Society honors Laurence Silberman with Third Annual Lifetime Service Award.
  • September 14: Hon. Richard A. Posner receives the Georgetown Law Federalist Society’s fourth annual Lifetime Service Award.
  • Bob Barker, host of television’s longest-running game show, “The Price is Right,” made a $1 million donation for the study of animal rights law.
  • John Carroll Award Recipients: Tibor Frekko, Denis Dangremond, Brian Greenspun, Warren Heeg, Arthur J. Murphy, Jr. and Michael J. Connelly III
  • Patrick Healy Award Recipient: Virginia Mortara
  • Paul R. Dean Award Recipients: Clifford Hudson, Hon. Thomas Ambro, Elizabeth Meers, Wallace Mlyniec, and Kevin Conry
  • March: Georgetown Law Alumnae Award Recipients at the Women’s Forum: Ramona Ortiz Brown, Leigh Ryan, Theresa Gillis, Caryl Bernstein, and Barbara Moulton.
  • The Class of ’06 graduates 858. At Commencement, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. is the commencement speaker.
  • Honorary Degrees: Gay Johnson McDougall and Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.
  • September 28-29: The first Fair and Independent Courts: A Conference on the State of the Judiciary was held, co-hosted by the American Law Institute. Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Justice Stephen Breyer co-chaired.
  • January 24: The inaugural Georgetown Law Forum is held, featuring an address by U.S. Attorney General Albert Gonzales.

2007

  • April 20 – Linda and Timothy O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law created
  • April 30 – Vicki Jackson Carmack is inaugurated as Waterhouse Professor of Constitutional Law
  • May 20 – Commencement – 925, including almost 600 JDs and more than 300 LLMs
  • Honorary Degrees: Rev. Ladislas Orsy, S.J., Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, and NPR Correspondent Nina Totenberg (Commencement speaker).
  • Kevin Conry is named to new position of Vice President for Strategic Development and External Affairs.
  • Mitchell Ballin is named to new position of Dean of Students.
  • GULC and Renmin University of China School of Law reach a new agreement to allow up to 10 Renmin graduate law students to spend one year studying at Georgetown Law. The students will receive a Georgetown LLM before returning to finish their studies in China.  The program will begin in 2007-2008 school year.
  • October 19 – The First Peter P. Weidenbruch Jr. Professor of Business Law: William Bratton (10th endowed professorship at the Law Center).
  • October: First Robert F. Drinan, S.J., Visiting Professor in Human Rights: Judge Thomas Buergenthal (Chair created in October 2006)

2008

  • Dean Alex Aleinikoff guarantees funding for all students working in unpaid summer public interest or government internships. (GL, Fall/Winter 2009, p. 45).
  • GG&SS Productions: Urinetown
  • October 28 – The Center for Transnational Legal Studies officially established in London
  • Web-based interview series starts, “On Point @ Georgetown Law.”
  • First Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of National Security Law: Neal Katyal
  • International Environmental Award from the Center for International Environmental Law: Edith Brown Weiss
  • Ari Meltzer and Ryan Creighton win both the 2008 Greenhalgh Mock Trial Competition and the 2008 Beaudry Moot Court Competition.
  • April 1 – First annual conference on “The Changing Patent Landscape” at Georgetown Law
  • April – First annual “Games on the Green” to give students a break from their studies
  • April 10 – Center on National Security and the Law launched
  • February 19 – Robin West is inaugurated as the Frederick J. Haas Professor in Law and Philosophy
  • Spring: First offering of Stress Reduction Seminar, with title later changed to Lawyers in Balance.
  • November 3 – The Georgetown Law Journal hosts inaugural Author Lecture with Professor Steven Schwarz of Duke University School of Law
  • Commencement – Joel I. Klein Commencement Speaker; 585 JDs and 318 LLMs graduates
  • Honorary Degrees: Joel I. Klein and Dr. Haleh Esfandiari.

2009

  • Dean Alex Aleinikoff steps down as Georgetown law Dean; Professor Judith Areen is appointed Interim Dean
  • New State-Federal Climate Resource Center opens, with Vicki Arroyo as executive director
  • GG&SS Productions: Undiscovered Country, Ruddigore (The Witch’s Curse)
  • Lawyers in Balance starts, “a new program at Georgetown Law designed to help busy law students cope with some of the stresses they may be facing in their lives.” (GL Fall/Winter 2009)
  • Home Court raises $335,000 for the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.
  • March – Randy Nahle (L’10) and David Suozzi (L’10) win the European and International Tax Law Moot Court Competition in Leuven, Belgium.
  • GULC team takes first place in the National Ethics Trial Competition.
  • Justice Agenda launched
  • April McCLain-Delany (L’89) and John Delaney (L’88) established the Delaney Family Professorship in Public Interest Law (which will be held by Philip Schrag), through a generous gift to the Law Center.
  • Professor Vicki Jackson is appointed to the newly created position of associate dean for transnational legal studies.
  • Professor Steven P. Goldberg is installed as the first James and Catherine Denny Professor of Law.
  • February 5 – Georgetown Federalist Society Sixth Annual Lifetime Service Award: Kenneth Starr
  • Partnership in global health law and international institutions, with the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland to offer an LLM (beginning in the 2009-2010 school year)
  • Commencement: Honorary degree: Former Solicitor General Seth Waxman

2010

  • August 16 – Fordham Law School Dean William M. Treanor is appointed Executive Vice President and Dean of the Georgetown University Law Center
  • Faculty Member of the Year: Bob Stumberg, Professor of Law
  • McCarthy Award: Therese Stratton, Assistant Dean for Faculty Support and Campus Service
  • May 8 – ABA Section on Taxation distinguished Service Award: professor Ronald Pearlman
  • April 20 – Department of Justice’s Sherman Award: Robert Pitofsky, former GULC dean for “outstanding and substantial contributions to the field of antitrust law, the protection of American consumers and the preservation of economic liberty.” (B&G vo. 19, no. 9)
  • Federalist Society Seventh Annual Lifetime Service Award: Richard Epstein
  • October 1 – Michelle Wu appointed Georgetown Law Library Director
  • May 23 – Honorary degrees at Commencement: Brenda Hale, United Kingdom Supreme Court, and Baroness Hale of Richmond. 661 JDs and 456 LLMs awarded.
  • Fall: Establishment of a new clinical program, the Community Justice Project. Developed and directed by Professor Jane Aiken, the Community Justice Project sought to educate students about how lawyers handle problems using a wide range of strategies, including litigation, policy initiatives, international law, the media, public education and transactional activities.
  • January: Dean Aleinikoff steps down as Dean to assume the position of Deputy High Commissioner in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva.
  • LL.M. in National Security Law established.
  • Georgetown Law hosts a symposium, “The Finest Legal Mind: A Symposium in Celebration of Justice John Paul Stevens”.
  • Professor Daniel Ernst is awarded the 2010 Surrency Prize from the American Society of Legal History (ASLH) for his article, “The Politics of Administrative Law: New York’s Anti-Bureaucracy Clause and the O’Brian-Wagner Campaign of 1938.”

2011

  • In recognition of her contributions to the field of dispute resolution, Professor Carrie Menkel-Meadow is selected as the first recipient of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution’s Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work.
  • Center for Transnational Legal Studies (CTLS) receives the 2011 Andrew Heiskell Award for International Partnerships from the Institute of International Education. The Heiskell Award for International Partnerships recognizes innovative international partnership efforts. Georgetown Law’s award marks first time the award has been given to a program focused on legal education.
  • Associate Dean Deborah Epstein is named the 2011 Outstanding Advocate for Clinical Teachers by the Clinical Legal Education Association. The award recognizes an individual who has served as a voice for clinical teachers and who has contributed to the advancement of clinical legal education nationally.
  • Louis Michael Seidman, Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown Law, is elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s most distinguished honorary societies.
  • Office of Public Interest and Community Service (OPICS) is recognized by the Catholic Charities Archdiocesan Legal Network (ALN) for the outstanding volunteer work performed by Georgetown Law students at the Network.
  • Professor Peter Edelman is selected as one of three recipients of the 15th annual Justice Potter Stewart Award by the Council for Court Excellence. Established in 1997, the Justice Potter Stewart Award honors the memory and public service of the late Supreme Court justice. It recognizes individuals and organizations whose work on behalf of the administration of justice has made a significant contribution to the law, the legal system, the courts, or the administrative process in our nation’s capital.
  • Professor Lisa Heinzerling is selected as the first recipient of the New Directions in Environmental Law Award by the Yale Environmental Law Association and the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy. The New Directions in Environmental Law Award recognizes individuals who are actively, creatively and ethically opening up new directions in the field of environmental law.
  • First-year student Tommy Tobin (class of 2014) is named one of 12 George J. Mitchell Scholarship recipients selected for a year of graduate study at one of Ireland’s academic institutions during academic year 2012-2013. During his scholarship year, he studies law at University College Cork.
  • Commencement 2011: Honorary degrees to Brendan V. Sullivan, Jr. (C 1964, L 1967) and Senior Judge Gladys Kessler of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Sullivan serves as Commencement speaker.

2012

  • Professor Tanina Rostain and Adjunct Professor and Associate Law Librarian for Electronic Resources & Services Roger Skalbeck are selected as recipients of the 2012 “Fastcase 50” award by legal publisher Fastcase. The “Fastcase 50” award “recognizes the smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders in the law.
  • Law Center hosts a symposium in honor of former Dean Robert Pitofksy
  • Professor Howard Shelanski is named director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Economics
  • Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Public Policy releases a report that lays out gender-specific reforms for girls in the juvenile justice system.  The report, Improving the Juvenile Justice System for Girls: Lessons from the States, offers innovative solutions for federal and state governments and suggests strategies to adopt and implement critical improvements based on successful reforms in Connecticut, Florida and Stanislaus County, California.
  • Law Library hosts “Georgetown Law Library Symposium in Celebration of 125 Years: Big Data and Big Challenges for Law and Legal Information”. The symposium examines the public good and collective harms that follow from the large-scale aggregation of information from public and private sources.
  • Todd Rubin (class of 2012) is the first recipient of the David and Mickey Bazelon Fellowship, a two-year public interest fellowship in the field of disability law.
  • Professor Eloise Pasachoff is awarded the 2012 Steven S. Goldberg Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Education Law by the Education Law Association (ELA). Pasachoff was chosen for her article, “Special Education, Poverty, and the Limits of Private Enforcement,” published in the Notre Dame Law Review (2011).
  • Samyr Laine (L’2010) is one of the five athletes representing Haiti at the Olympic Games in London, competing in the triple jump.
  • Professor Angela Campbell (LL.M.’83) is recognized by the blog appetiteforprofit.com for her work to stop predatory marketing to children.
  • Street Law clinic celebrates its 40th anniversary. Street Law sends future lawyers into area schools each year to teach the law and the critical thinking, judgment and leadership skills that accompany it.
  • Supreme Court Institute year-end reception honors Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In addition to Ginsburg, Justices Samuel Alito, Elena Kagan, and Antonin Scalia attend the event.
  • Home Court celebrates its 25th anniversary. Over its first 25 years, the charity basketball game between Law Center faculty and members of Congress has raised over $5 million for Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.

2013

  • Julie E. Cohen receives the 2013 AOIR Book Award from the Association of Internet Researchers (AOIR) for Configuring the Networked Self: Law, Code, and the Play of Everyday Practice (Yale University Press, 2012).The award celebrates the best book published in Internet research in the previous year.
  • James Feinerman, James M. Morita Professor of Asian Legal Studies, is named associate dean for Transnational Programs.
  • Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics is honored by the New York State Bar Association’s committee on professional ethics with its Sanford D. Levy Award. The award is given to recognize those who have contributed to understanding and advancement in the field of professional ethics.
  • 2013 Commencement: Honorary degree recipients are Greta Van Susteren (L’79, LL.M.’82) and Walter Pincus (L’01). Van Susteren served as Commencement speaker.
  • A successuful year for Barristers Council: Georgetown students are ranked 5th in the country in appellate advocacy by the Blakely Advocacy Institute at the University of Houston, and  8th in the country in trial advocacy by U.S. News and World Report (up from 11th the previous year).
  • Professor Adam Levitin is selected as one of two recipients of the American Law Institute’s 2013 Young Scholars Medal. The Young Scholars Medal recognizes early-career law professors whose work is relevant to the real world and has the potential to influence improvements in the law.
  • Law Center hosts a symposium, “Gay Rights Coalition of Georgetown University Law Center v. Georgetown University, 25th Anniversary.”
  • A Law Center professor and a Law Center graduate square off at the Supreme Court: Derek Schmidt (L’96), the attorney general of Kansas, argued for the state in Kansas v. Cheever, followed by Professor Neal Katyal on behalf of Scott Cheever. The case addresses the scope of the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, asking whether the use of Cheever’s court-ordered mental evaluation violates the privilege when it is introduced to rebut the defendant’s evidence that he lacked the mental state to commit capital murder.
  • A committee formed by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), National Academy of Sciences, and chaired by Professor Lawrence Gostin issues a new report, “Countering the Problem of Falsified and Substandard Drugs,” which offers recommendations to the United States and globally on protecting citizens against the health risks posed by illegitimate medications.
  • Student awards: Jeff Golimowski (L’13) and Emily Chambers (L’13), emerged victorious over 15 other law schools at the annual Andrews Kurth Moot Court National Championship. Clayton Collins (LL.M.’13) and Logan Kincheloe (LL.M.’13) were awarded first place in the LL.M. division at the 12th annual ABA Section of Taxation Law Student Tax Challenge.
  • Law Center hosts a symposium, “Reproductive Rights 40 Years After Roe”

2014

  • Students in the Institute for Public Representation clinic author a Supreme Court amicus brief for the International Center for Advocates against Discrimination. The brief was in support of Knight v. Thompson, a suit that Native American prisoners brought against Alabama’s Department of Corrections because the state forced the prisoners to cut their hair in violation of their religious beliefs.
  • DC City Council approves “Ban the Box” legislation, which will prohibit private employers from asking about criminal records on initial job applications. An initial version of the legislation was drafted by students in the Community Justice Project: Edward Williams (L’14), Flynn Burke (L’14) and Ashley Hodges (L’14).
  • Law Center announces the establishment of the new Center on Privacy and Technology. The Center will bring Georgetown Law’s legal expertise to bear on privacy debates in federal and state legislatures, regulatory agencies and the academy. It will also train Georgetown Law students to be leaders in privacy practice, policymaking and advocacy.
  • Professor Victoria Nourse joins Vice President Joe Biden’s office as counsel to the Vice President.
  • Law Center hosts “World Leaders & Global Citizens, Photographs by Patrick Leahy, U.S. Senator.”, an exhibit of more than 50 photographs taken by Senator Leahy (D-Vt.), L’64 which run the gamut of Leahy’s 40-year Senate career. The exhibit coincides with the 50th anniversary of his law school graduation and 40th anniversary of his Senate service.
  • Students from the Human Rights Institute (HRI) are recognized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Tilburg University for HRI’s April 2014 report, “Left Behind: How Statelessness in the Dominican Republic Limits Children’s Access to Education.” They were honored with a special certificate of appreciation for outstanding student research. The report was written by a group of eight J.D. and LL.M. students: B. Shaw Drake, Kimberly Fetsick, Tabitha King, Khaled Alrabe, Jamie Armstrong, Elizabeth Gibson, Young-Min Kwon and Franziska Veh.
  • At the Law Center’s inaugural “Conversation to the First-Year Class” retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens sits down with Dean William M. Treanor and approximately 350 1Ls in Hart Auditorium to discuss his career and life on the Court, and answer questions from students.
  • Professor Deborah Epstein, director of the Domestic Violence Clinic, is been named to the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) Commission on Violence Prevention. The newly created group also includes Georgetown Law alumna Kathryn Ruemmler (L’96), former White House counsel to President Obama.
  • Georgetown Climate Center celebrates its 5-year anniversary.
  • October: Street Law Clinic and the D.C. Commission on Human Rights present: Know Your Rights, an exhibition of multimedia projects about the D.C. Human Rights Act, created by D.C. high school students. During the month of October, law students from the D.C. Street Law Clinic conduct a series of classes on human rights for students from 14 public high schools, culminating in the creation of poems, songs, power points, websites, videos, books, sculptures, and more.
  • Professor David P. Stewart is elected president of the American Branch of the International Law Association (ILA).
  • Law Center hosts symposium, “Cybercrime 2020: The Future of Online Crime and Investigations”. The symposium examines where technology is taking us, how it is likely to be exploited in the near future and what law enforcement can and should be doing to address such threats while balancing privacy and civil liberties.

2015

  • Professor Rebecca Tushnet is selected as a 2015 recipient of Public Knowledge’s IP3 Award in the area of intellectual property.
  • Students in the Appellate Litigation Clinic win two prisoners’ rights cases, In Incumaa v. Stirling and Jehovah v. Clarke..
  • Dean Emeritus Robert Pitofsky is selected as a recipient of The American Lawyer’s 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award. “Bob Pitofsky’s extraordinary career is a legal trifecta,” said Georgetown Law Dean William M. Treanor. “He has been a superb teacher and leader of the Georgetown Law community, an extraordinary public servant at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and an outstanding lawyer at Arnold & Porter. He is a giant, not only in the history of the Law Center, but in the law, and this honor is richly deserved.”
  • The Law Center’s Sport & Fitness Center has been named the Scott K. Ginsburg Sport & Fitness Center in recognition of Ginsburg (L’78), whose generosity has made possible two beloved campus landmarks — the fitness center and the clock tower.
  • Georgetown University Law Center Professor of Legal Research and Writing Frances DeLaurentis is selected as a recipient of the Archdiocese of Washington John Carroll Society’s Pro Bono Legal Service Award. The Pro Bono Legal Service Award recognizes the contributions of individuals and law firms who have provided exemplary pro bono legal assistance through the Catholic Charities Legal Network to meet the legal needs of the poor of the Archdiocese of Washington.
  • Georgetown Law, the American Constitution Society and the Campaign Legal Center establish a Voting Rights Institute. Established in response to the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which nullified a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the Institute offers opportunities for students, recent graduates and fellows to engage in litigation and policy work in the field of voting rights and to educate attorneys about the skills and best practices of voting rights advocates.
  • Law Center partners with two DC law firms, Arent Fox and DLA Piper, to create DC Affordable Law Firm (DCALF), a low bono law firm with 501(c)3 status that will provide affordable, high quality legal services to D.C. residents who do not qualify for free legal aid and to small businesses and nonprofits in the District.
  • Professors Kristin N. Henning and Wallace Mlyniec, who have directed Georgetown Law’s Juvenile Justice Clinic (JJC) for more than 40 years, are honored at the DC Lawyers for Youth (DCLY) Fall Ball for Youth Justice for their commitment to training social justice lawyers. DCLY also created a “Henning-Mlyniec Award for Youth Justice” to be awarded annually to a deserving youth advocate, attorney or other person committed to advancing youth justice in their lives and careers.
  • Professor Lawrence Gostin, faculty director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law is honored by the American Public Health Association (APHA) Law Section for “Lifetime Achievement in Public Health Law.” The award is given annually to an individual who has made significant contributions to the field of public health law over the course of his or her career.
  • November 23: 10th annual Academy of WTO Law and Policy pays tribute to the man colleagues say literally coined the name of the World Trade Organization: Professor John H. Jackson, who died November 7 at the age of 83.
  • Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia addresses the first-year class, sharing his views on originalism, legal education and other topics.
  • During Reunion Weekend, Professor Sherman Cohn is recognized for his more than 50 years on the Law Center faculty.
  • Commencement 2015: Stephen B. Bright, Commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient.
    Claudia Paz y Paz Bailey, honorary degree recipient.

2016

  • Center on Poverty and Inequality releases a new report, “Lessons Learned From 40 Years of Subsidized Employment Programs.” The report examines what works in subsidized jobs programs, finding these programs to be cost-effective ways to decrease persistent unemployment and combat long-term poverty.
  • June 10: Ashley Nicolas (L’19), a West Point graduate and U.S. Army veteran, is selected as a 2016 Tillman Scholar. Tillman Scholars, recognized by the Pat Tillman Foundation, are chosen for their military service, leadership and academic excellence.
  • Center on Privacy and Technology publishes a report, “The Perpetual Lineup: Unregulated Police Face Recognition in America” authored by alumna Clare Garvie (L’15).
  • Institute of International Economic Law (IIEL) hosts a panel, “Europe After Brexit: 
A Conversation with the Ambassadors of France, Germany, 
Slovakia and the European Union”.
  • Gifts to Georgetown Law totaling more than $10 million are received from Sara Crown Star (L’85), Linda (NHS’77) and Tim (L’77) O’Neill and Tom Reynolds (B’74). The gifts come in the final year of Georgetown University’s fundraising campaign: “For Generations to Come: The Campaign for Georgetown” and contribute to a record-breaking year in fundraising for Georgetown Law — totaling $27.5 million, an all-time high for the Law Center.
  • Human Rights Institute (HRI) and Women’s Refugee Commission publish a report, “Ensuring Every Undocumented Student Succeeds: A Report on Access to Public Education for Undocumented Children,”, which found that a lack of awareness and resources in public school systems create obstacles to school enrollment for undocumented children.
  • Georgetown Law launches the Delaney Post-Graduate Residency Program, a training and mentoring program for graduates participating in fellowships in the public sector. The new program is made possible by generous gift from alumni April McClain-Delaney (L’89) and Rep. John Delaney (L’88), was established to help graduates bridge the gap between law school and practice.
  • Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg visits the Law Center as Distinguished Lecturer to the Incoming Class.
  • The Center on National Security and the Law and the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law co-sponsor a symposium, “Strengthening National Security by Protecting Public Health”
  • Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. gives the the third annual Dean’s Lecture to the Graduating Class, moderated by Dean William M. Treanor and Professor Randy Barnett.
  • Commencement 2016: Eric D. Rosenthal (L’92), Commencement speaker and Honorary Degree recipient. Zhang Yuejiao (LL.M.’83), Honorary Degree recipient

2017

  • Georgetown Law and Georgetown Medical Center launch The Health Justice Alliance, to prepare future generations of lawyers, doctors, nurses and other health professionals to work together to help vulnerable individuals overcome health crises while addressing the legal crises that often underlie them.
  • October 18-20: Georgetown Law’s Institute of International Economic Law hosted its inaugural Fintech Week. Nearly 500 participants, including tech entrepreneurs, general counsel, regulators and law enforcement officials met to discuss topics ranging from bitcoin and peer-to-peer lending to big data, money laundering and international regulatory coordination.
  • Georgetown Law Asia and the South Asian Law Students Association (SALSA) host
    a discussion on the development of the constitutional right to privacy in India. The panel featured Indian Supreme Court Justice Jasti Chelameswar, the author of a recent decision affirming a constitutional right to privacy, and Sajan Poovayya, a prominent Supreme Court advocate who had argued the privacy case before the Supreme Court. The event was co-sponsored by Amnesty International, OutLaw and the Muslim Law Students Association.
  • Center for the Advancement of the Rule of Law in the Americas (CAROLA) hosts “The Future of NAFTA and North American Economic Integration.” Three panels of experts addressed how NAFTA has worked for the countries involved, what issues ought to be part of the renegotiation and what countries can do domestically to buttress the benefits of the agreement and distribute the gains more widely.
  • Georgetown Entertainment & Media Alliance (GEMALaw) celebrates its 10th anniversary.
  • Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law, with Professor Neal Katyal as the first faculty director. Drawing on expert litigators, Georgetown Law’s constitutional scholarship and a strategic approach to high-impact cases, the new institute aims to teach students to use the power of the courts to defend U.S. constitutional rights and values.
  • Center on Privacy and Technology hosts its second Color of Surveillance conference, where leading civil rights advocates, historians, legal scholars and technologists will delve the long and continuing history of U.S. surveillance of immigrants and the latest implications for civil liberties.
  • Office of Public Interest and Community Service (OPICS) celebrates its 20th anniversary.
  • Research by three students in the Appellate Courts Immersion Clinic (Claire Chevrier, Anna Deffebach, and Meghan Breen, all L’17) plays a role in a victory at the Supreme Court. The Court held in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District that public schools must provide children with disabilities an educational program that is “appropriately ambitious” in light of the child’s circumstances. The students had researched and written part of the Supreme Court opening merits brief, working with Professor Brian Wolfman.
  • Home Court charity basketball game celebrates 30 years. The 2017 game raises more than $1 million for Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.
  • Commencement 2017. Charles R. Lawrence III, a former Georgetown Law faculty member who now teaches at the University of Hawaii, received an honorary degree and addressed the graduates.

2018

  • Law Center hosts “Vision, Law and Human Rights, A Celebration of the Work of Professor Ladislas Orsy, S.J.” Professors David Luban, Robin West and Naomi Mezey host a lineup of philosophers, theologians, lawyers and human rights advocates to examine Orsy’s scholarship on Vatican II, canon law and international human rights, as well as his life as a professor, lawyer, and priest.
  • Professor Sheryll Cashin is appointed the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law, Civil Rights and Social Justice; Professor Daniel Ernst is appointed the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal History.
  • Jerome H. Powell (L’79) is sworn in as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
  • Professor Emeritus Peter P. Weidenbruch Jr. (L’56, LL.M.’57, H’86), who joined the Georgetown Law faculty in 1965, passes away at the age of 88. During his more than 40 years as a professor, he inspired more than 12,000 students in the field of taxation as well as trusts and estates.
  • Dean Emeritus Robert Pitofsky passes away at the age of 88.
  • Twenty five years after its beginning at the Law Center, Georgetown University expands the Women’s Forum university-wide. The 25th anniversary Forum includes a keynote address on women’s movements from alumna Sally Yates and panels exploring topics such as inspiring women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM); how to increase the numbers of women in the C-suite; women driving policy change for a more inclusive world; navigating one’s career path; disruptive alumnae changing their industries; how to run for office; and women’s economic empowerment.
  • Commencement 2018: 654 JD students, 601 LL.M. students, and 7 SJD students receive their diplomas; Congressworman Eleanor Holmes Norton addresses the graduates and receives an honorary degree. Also receiving an honorary degree is Judge Merrick B. Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
  • Professor Laura Donohue, director of the Center on National Security and the Law and director of the Center on Privacy and Technology, testifies before Congress on warrantless smartphone searches at the border.
  • During Orientation Week, Dean Treanor and 285 first-year students do community service projects in a variety of local agencies, including D.C. Central Kitchen, Father McKenna Center, Capital Area Food Bank, Armed Forces Retirement Home, Central Union Mission and National Arboretum.
  • Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, appears at Georgetown Law as part of the American Bar Association’s 10th Annual Celebration of Pro Bono. In 2017, students performed more than 32,000 hours of pro bono work as part of the Pro Bono Pledge.
  • Georgetown Law and the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department establish the “Police for Tomorrow Fellowship”, a fellowship program for police officers consisting of in-depth workshops, community engagement activities, and a capstone project, all providing a deep understanding of the community they serve and prepare them to become leaders in innovative policing.
  • Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) honors the Georgetown Climate Center for its yearlong work supporting residents of the city’s environmentally vulnerable Ward 7 to come up with ideas to make their community more resilient and sustainable.

2019

  • Fourteen volunteers from the Human Rights Institute spend five days of their winter break in Dilley, Texas helping women at the South Texas Family Residential Center prepare for interviews in connection with claims for asylum in the United States. The Georgetown group works in teams — one Spanish speaker paired with a non-Spanish speaker — under the supervision of staff from the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the Dilley Pro Bono Project.
  • Research from the Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession and Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute shows that the traditional law firm model, which has served firms well for decades, is now largely broken apart because of new market realities, such as such as competition from the likes of the Big Four and more-nimble alternative legal service providers (ALSPs).
  • Matt Blaze, an expert in computer and network security and one of the world’s leading cryptographers, joins the Georgetown faculty on a joint appointment in the Law Center and the Department of Computer Science. He is the first computer scientist teaching without a J.D. in a tenured or tenure- track position at an American law school.
  • Georgetown Law dedicates Tower Green to Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Professor Emerita of Law and faculty member for 36 years. Speaking at the dedication, Dean William M. Treanor praised Norton as “a giant in the law, a giant in the fight for justice, a giant in the history of Washington, D.C., and a giant in the history of Georgetown Law.”.
  • Georgetown Climate Center welcomes technologist, investor, and philanthropist Bill Gates to Georgetown Law for discussion with a panel of invited leaders from academia, civil society, finance, industry, policy, and technology. Climate Center Executive Director Vicki Arroyo facilitated a wide-ranging exchange of ideas around the policies, economics, and technology innovations needed to address climate change.
  • Center on National Security and the Law launches the Foreign Intelligence Law Collection — a publicly available, online searchable database of all declassified and redacted U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and Court of Review opinions; all Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) statutes; legislative history; associated regulations, guidelines, executive orders, and presidential directives; all publicly available reports on FISA implementation, and more.
  • The Workers’ Rights Institute is established, with Mark Gaston Pearce, former Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) as its first executive director. Professor Jamillah Bowman Williams, whose research focuses on antidiscrimination law and social change, is the first faculty director. The institute focuses on innovative legal and policy initiatives to support workers’ rights and on empowering the nation’s most vulnerable workers to access labor protections.
  • The O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law joins with The Lancet — the world’s oldest and best known medical journal — to examine how law can be used to advance the right to health in the United States and around the world. The two institutions create a Lancet-O’Neill Institute Commission, chaired by University Professor Lawrence O. Gostin and John T. Monahan (C’83, L’87), to explore the vital role of law in responding to major global health law challenges.
  • Commencement 2019: Barbara Underwood, Solicitor General at the Office of the Attorney General, State of New York, and the Honorable Emmet G. Sullivan, District Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, each received honorary degrees. Underwood, a graduate of Georgetown Law, delivered the Commencement address.
  • House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)(H’02) and Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates visit the Law Center to deliver addresses to the graduating class. Said Gates to the graduates: “As we grapple with the rollbacks following the eight-year tenure of the first black president, he said, “we can’t escape our own civic duties to preserve the gains we’ve earned — by exercising our vote, holding those in power to account, defending our democratic institutions and lifting each other up when the will of others becomes sapped and fear and anxiety crowd in.”. Pelosi tells the class, “Look at your beautiful futures, the magnificent education you have received here, grounded in the values of Georgetown, and enlightened by the quality of your professors… We love to take great pride in the fact that you are right down the street from us, studying the laws that we have made … “Thank you for taking the steps to become a custodian of justice in our country. That is what it is all about — liberty and justice for all.”