Four Faculty Members Receive 2026 Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Service

Professor Jay Thomas presented the Frank F. Flegal Award for Excellence in Teaching to Professor Dorothy Brown, L’83; Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Professor Kristelia García presented the Adjunct Professor of the Year Awards to Wayne Dale Collins and Jesse Kreier, L’86, F’86; and Interim Dean Joshua C. Teitelbaum presented the Steven Goldberg Faculty Service Award to Professor Frances DeLaurentis.

2026 Frank F. Flegal Excellence in Teaching Award

Professor Dorothy Brown, L’83, Martin D. Ginsburg Chair in Taxation

A leading scholar and nationally recognized author in the areas of race, class and tax policy, Professor Dorothy Brown joined the Georgetown Law faculty in 2022 and currently teaches courses in critical race theory, fundamentals of income tax and partnership taxation. Brown is the author of The Whiteness of Wealth and Getting to Reparations, published in January.

“Students consistently describe her courses … as among the most meaningful in their legal education,” Thomas said in presenting the award, noting that many students praised not only the content and structure of her classes, but also the deeper intellectual transformation they inspired. “You invite students to think more critically, to engage more fully and to approach the law with both rigor and perspective,” he said.

In her remarks, Brown reflected on the importance of race literacy in the law school curriculum. “Never has race literacy been more necessary than in 2026,” she said. “If I can find it in tax law, then race is relevant to whatever area of law that you teach as well,” she urged her colleagues in attendance.

Adjunct Professor of the Year Awards

Every year, hundreds of Washington’s leading legal practitioners share their experience and legal expertise at the Law Center as adjunct professors, enabling Georgetown Law to offer some of the most wide-ranging and cutting-edge J.D. and LL.M. courses in the country. This year’s Adjunct Professor of the Year Awards were presented to Wayne Dale Collins and Jesse Kreier.

Wayne Dale Collins

Following 42 years in private practice focusing primarily on corporate takeover defense for high-profile companies, attorney Wayne Dale Collins has dedicated his post-retirement academic career to teaching antitrust law at the Law Center, where he began teaching in 2016.

His students praised the comprehensiveness and structure of Collins’s courses, noting that he draws upon his experience in the field to prepare students for real-world practice. “His profound knowledge and experience for the topic was the most effective thing about the course,” wrote one student.

Collins likewise offered thanks to his students upon accepting the award. “This award has my name on it, but it really reflects the work that students in my classes have done, the colleagues who vouch for me and the staff who made it all possible,” he said.

Jesse Kreier, L’86, F’86

International trade law expert Jesse Kreier began teaching at Georgetown Law in 2019, where he teaches courses on dispute settlement and also coaches the John H. Jackson Moot Court team. A graduate of Georgetown Law and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Kreier spent 26 years working at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, including serving as acting director for the WTO’s Rules Division.

Students said they were particularly appreciative of Kreier’s ability to bring complex topics to life and the support he offers both inside and outside the classroom, particularly for non-native English speaking law students. “He’s generous with his time outside of class and an invaluable resource for discussing careers, course selection and a host of other topics,” one student noted.

“I have found it very satisfying to share my experience supporting dispute settlement work at the WTO with the next generation of international trade lawyers, and to enjoy in return their energy, enthusiasm and commitment to the rule of law,” Kreier said following the ceremony.

Steven Goldberg Faculty Service Award

Frances DeLaurentis, Professor of Law, Legal Practice and Director of the Writing Center

Since joining the Law Center faculty in 1999, Professor Frances DeLaurentis has played a central role in developing and maintaining the first-year Legal Practice program, which she chaired from 2008 to 2013. Since 2007, she has served as director of the Writing Center, including supervising upper-level senior writing fellows. For more than a decade, DeLaurentis worked with the Office of Journal Administration to conduct journal write-on training.

DeLaurentis’s decades of service also include a number of leadership roles within the Law Center and broader Georgetown community, including Georgetown Law’s Professional Responsibility Committee and the Cura Georgetown university-wide working group focusing on well-being support for students, faculty and staff, among others.

“Fran exemplifies what it means to be an active, committed and present member of the Georgetown community,” said Teitelbaum in presenting the award, noting that one of DeLaurentis’s nominators for the award praised her as an “unsung hero” of the Law Center.

“I’m … humbled to share this award with the past recipients, with the faculty members who continue to show me what it means to do our job and serve our institution,” said DeLaurentis, who also thanked her colleagues and students, particularly those in the Legal Practice program, for making teaching feel “like a calling.” “I’m really grateful to all of you,” she said.