For Immediate Release
May 21, 2007

Contact:
Kara Tershel, (202) 662-9500

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In recognition of her dedication to the legal profession and her visionary leadership

Prof. Judith Areen

in legal education, Georgetown University Law Center Professor Judith Areen was presented the Janet Reno Torchbearer Award from the Women’s Bar Association (WBA) of the District of Columbia. She received the honor in Washington, D.C., on May 16.

"The WBA salutes Professor Judy Areen as a torchbearer who has forever changed the world for women in the law," said Tracy Durkin, president of the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia.

Named in honor of Janet Reno, the first woman to serve as U.S. Attorney General and the first recipient,

the Torchbearer Award is presented periodically "to an attorney who has blazed trails to open the path of opportunity to, and forever changed the world for, women." Areen is one of only five women who have received the award to date. The others are: Reno, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Wilma Lewis, the first African-American woman to serve as

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

Areen is the Paul Regis Dean Professor of Law at Georgetown Law. Her areas of expertise include higher education and the law, family law, and law, medicine and ethics. A graduate of Cornell University and Yale Law School, Areen has served in government at both the local and federal levels. She is the co-author of "Family Law" (5th edition, Foundation Press, 2006) with Georgetown Law Professor Milton Regan, and "Law, Science and Medicine" (3rd edition, Foundation Press, 2005) with Georgetown Law Professors Lawrence Gostin, Patricia King, and Steven Goldberg.

Areen was executive vice president of Georgetown University and dean of Georgetown Law for 15 years, from 1989 to 2004. Under her leadership, the Law Center added 49 new faculty members and more than tripled its financial aid endowment. Areen also led efforts to expand the campus to include a residence hall, a sport and fitness center, and an international law building.

In 2006, Areen served as president of the Association of American Law Schools, a non-profit association of 168 law schools dedicated to improving the legal profession through legal education. She remains a member of the Executive Committee of the Association. Areen is also a member of the American Law Institute, and a director of the Pro Bono Institute, of Equal Justice Works, and of the Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship Program. She has served on the Council of the Section of Legal Education of the American Bar Association, the board of trustees of Cornell University, and as a governor of the District of Columbia Bar.

 

About Georgetown University Law Center

Georgetown University Law Center is one of the world's premier law schools. It has the largest faculty in the nation and is preeminent in several areas, including constitutional, international, tax and clinical law. Drawing on its Jesuit heritage, it has a strong tradition of public service and is dedicated to the principle that law is but a means, justice is the end. With this principle in mind, Georgetown Law has built an environment that cultivates an exchange of practical ideas and the pursuit of academic excellence. It brings together an extraordinarily varied group of teachers, scholars and practitioners, as well as an outstanding student body.