I had professors talking about the Commerce Clause, foxes, promissory estoppel, eggshell plaintiffs, Volkswagens, and who knows what else. In large part, the material might as well have been in Greek. Eventually, of course, the professors started to get through to me (not entirely as, after all, the professors are academics). My first year professors in particular, including Dan Ernst, Jim Oldham, Robyn West and Steven Goldberg (RIP Professor Goldberg), had such an impact on my life. All of that incomprehensible stuff has been part of it for 25 years and absolutely necessary. In addition to the professors, the wonderful students I met at GULC who accepted the old guy (I turned 35 in my second week of law school--seems mighty young now) remain very dear to me and were as much a part of my education as were the professors. Thank you to Georgetown University. I know you are not perfect, but I appreciate how you try.

Here are photos from the first day and last day of our law school careers. Two USC alumni become GULC alumni, too!

I still vividly remember the phone call I received from then Assistant Dean, Martha Hoff, asking me in an anxious voice, “We received your letter. The professor who was scheduled to teach our Law and Development seminar has taken a leave of absence. Are you available to teach?” This was late November and the LL.M. seminar was scheduled to start in January, about 6 weeks away! Nevertheless, I said, “Of course, it will be an honor.” And thus began a wonderful journey for me as an adjunct law professor teaching a subject close to my heart.

At the time, I was an attorney with the Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). My constant travel abroad to negotiate nearly every legal agreement under the sun for USAID’s various development programs gave me a bird’s eye view of what international development means, and how law intersects with it. It led to my writing a text, INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LAW, a Fulbright Scholarship, and now, an appointment this year as an Assistant Professor at the Uniformed Services University, School of Medicine, the Pentagon's medical school for its active-duty med students. However, I am teaching them law and not medicine! Thank you Georgetown Law for this wonderful and continuing teaching and life experience.

Classmates and I (we are young!)

In 1994, Marilyn Tucker (P'94; Founder and Director, International Internship Program; Georgetown Law Staff Member, Office of Career Services and Office of Career Strategy, 1981-Present) assists in awarding the joint JD/MBA degree to her son, Lawrence E. Tucker (L'94, MBA'94)