Georgetown Law’s Year in Review 2024

Clinical excellence

The fall semester kicked off with the first-ever oath ceremony for the some 300 students taking part this year in the Law Center’s 17 legal clinics. Participants pledged to work “zealously and diligently” on behalf of their clients while gaining first-hand experience as student lawyers.

As always, clinic students advocated within the broader legal community. In December, members of Georgetown Law’s Environmental Law & Justice Clinic joined RISE St. James, a grassroots environmental justice organization, to make the case for reparations for climate and environmental harms at the United Nations in New York.

2024 also marked a milestone year for the Juvenile Justice Clinic — one of the first Law Center clinics and a pioneer in clinical legal education — which celebrated its 50th anniversary in June. “We’ve prevented more kids than I can count from being harmed,” reflected Professor Wallace Mlyniec, L’70, the clinic’s founding director and current senior counsel.

Students in the spotlight

Whether facing a panel of real-life judges as part of the Robert J. Beaudry Moot Court Competition or presenting oral arguments during “Week One” experiential learning courses, 1L and upper-class students had the chance to start thinking like attorneys — and polish their courtroom skills.

For the Law Center’s evening student cohort, the work didn’t end in the classroom: In February, four evening students reflected on the joys and challenges of balancing their “double-duty” roles as law students and full-time professionals working in fields such as medicine and tech.

In June, U.S. Air Force veteran Karim Ibrahim, L’26, was named a 2024 Tillman Scholar, a prestigious educational fellowship honoring armed forces members, veterans and military spouses. “It’s beautiful how here in D.C., you can be a pillar within your community,” he said.

Identical triplets Nicholas, Zachary and Benjamin Osborne, G’20, L’24, who found a passion for public service and a sense of belonging at Georgetown Law, echoed that sentiment. “When we got the acceptance letter, it was saying welcome home,” Nicholas reflected as the trio prepared for graduation. “We’ve been able to really discover who we are and what we want to do … what we want to do is to help people.”

Georgetown Law at SCOTUS

In the midst of a high-profile U.S. Supreme Court term, students and faculty were hard at work on legal issues that made their way to the nation’s highest court — and in March, for the first time ever, two members of the Georgetown Law faculty argued opposite each other: Professor David Cole represented the plaintiff and Professor Neal Katyal argued on behalf of the respondent in the First Amendment case National Rifle Association v. Vullo. (The justices ruled for the plaintiff, but we are equally proud of both scholar-advocates.)

In April, Georgetown Law’s Appellate Courts Immersion Clinic secured a resounding 9-0 victory in employment discrimination case Muldrow v. City of St. Louis after years of legal advocacy by clinic director Professor Brian Wolfman and his fellows and students. “The idea was not to just take a case, but change the law,” Wolfman said.

That same month, the Supreme Court Institute (SCI), which hosts moot courts for attorneys preparing to appear before the Court, celebrated its 25th anniversary. Three Supreme Court justices — Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr., Associate Justice Elena Kagan and Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh — were among the guests who gathered on campus to honor the SCI’s innovation and impact.

Hoyas for others

As always, faculty, staff and students were hard at work on initiatives to serve their communities at home and abroad. For Lauren Dubin, a founding staff member of the Office of Public Interest and Community Service (OPICS), that work starts on campus. “This school takes public interest law and social justice seriously. It’s not just a motto on a wall,” Dubin said of Georgetown Law’s investment in OPICS over the years.

Service is also at the heart of the work of Jesuit priests and Georgetown Law students Mike Lamanna, S.J., L’25, and Rodrigue Ntungu, S.J., L’22, L’27, who see legal advocacy as a means of living out their commitment to Jesuit values such as cura personalis, or “care of the whole person.”

At the 37th Home Court charity basketball game in March, Georgetown Law’s Hoya Lawyas team celebrated a resounding 73-54 victory over George Washington University Law School’s Rowdy Revs. But the real winner was the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, which took home a check for $788,982.50 — bringing the total raised through the annual event to over $12 million.

On an international scale, Georgetown Law’s new International Criminal Justice Initiative continued its work as the lead implementer of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group for Ukraine, an unprecedented partnership in which Law Center faculty, staff, fellows and students provide practical support and guidance to the Ukrainian lawyers investigating and prosecuting atrocity crimes during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War.

Celebrating across generations

At commencement in May, graduates gathered with family and loved ones to celebrate their time at the Law Center and embrace their next chapter. “Your formal education may end today, but you are not done learning,” urged Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, L’79, H’24, in his address to the class of 2024.

In August, more than 1,000 students arrived on campus for orientation, where they previewed the 1L experience and forged connections with new classmates. And in October, old friends reconnected at reunion, with more than 1,600 alumni of class years ending in 4 and 9 and their guests taking part.

Potential future “Hoya Lawyas” were also welcomed on campus: In April, some 120 high school students visited the Law Center for a day of enrichment and experiential learning as part of the Office of Admissions’s Early Outreach Initiative, which aims to increase diversity among law school applicants by engaging with high schoolers in underserved communities across the country.

Faculty in focus

Over the summer, the Georgetown Law faculty welcomed seven members — five new to campus and two joining the tenure track — with expertise in national security, environmental justice, constitutional law, immigration, antitrust and more. “I’ve always been interested in how the academic and real worlds inform each other,” said Professor Stephen Vladeck, who underscored the link between research and legal practice at Georgetown Law.

Another link? Vladeck already had a campus connection: ​​his uncle, Professor David Vladeck. Both Vladecks taught 1L civil procedure courses this year — and their students competed in an on-camera trivia battle to prove how well they knew the Vladecks.

The Georgetown Law community also bid farewell to Professor Sherman L. Cohn, F’54, L’57, L’60, who died in August. Known to all as “Sherm,” he was our longest-serving faculty member. He leaves a tremendous professional legacy at the Law Center and beyond — but don’t miss out on learning about his personal legacy. In the comment section below his obituary, more than 40 colleagues and former students shared heartfelt memories of him as “brilliant,” “kind” and “a mensch.”