Professor Spann served as a staff attorney for the Public Citizen Litigation Group before joining the Law Center faculty in 1979. He is the author of several books and articles concerning race and the constitutional concept of equality. He is currently a member of the American Law Institute. He has served on the Board of the D.C. Neighborhood Legal Services Program, and has been a Trustee of the D.C. Bar Client Security Fund. He has also served on the Board of Governors of the D.C. Bar, the Ethics Committee of the D.C. Bar, and the Administrative Conference of the United States.