As it welcomes the Class of 2012 this fall, The George Washington Law School will also welcome Alan B. Morrison as the first Lerner Family Associate Dean for Public Interest and Public Service. Dean Morrison will be very busy in his new position, which will entail fostering and expanding the school's pro bono and public interest programs, cultivating student growth and attempting to effect legal change through various reform projects, teaching first year Civil Procedure to Section 13C, and fulfilling many other roles and responsibilities.

Dean Morrison was first introduced to the GW community in early June at an event held at the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue. The event, intended to honor Morrison's commitment to public interest law, was attended by Morrison's family, friends, and colleagues, including Ralph Nader and Justice Stephen Breyer, as well as the Lerner family and other leaders and friends of GW Law.  Dean Morrison describes that this was a very nice event, and states that he was "pleased to be honored without having to do anything yet."

In reality, however, Dean Morrison accomplished a great deal before accepting this position at GW Law.  Not only has he argued 20 cases before the Supreme Court, including winning cases such as Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar and INS v. Chadha, he has also worked with Ralph Nader to co-found Public Citizen-a national, non-profit consumer advocacy organization-and direct its Litigation Division for over 20 years, served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, lectured at 8 law schools across the country including Stanford, Harvard, and NYU, and wrote numerous law review articles and books.

One of the books that he has written, Beyond the Big Law Firm: Profiles of Lawyers Who Want Something More, is especially relevant for students seeking careers in the public interest arena. In it, Morrison tells the stories of thirty lawyers who have found success in aspects of the law at places other than large law firms. The profiles were accumulated by Morrison's students at Stanford Law School, and describe lawyers of all backgrounds, educations, genders, and ethnicities who perform public interest law, something virtually all of them are excited to do everyday. Morrison believes that the book describes "careers that many people don't even know exist," and may open peoples' eyes to the many possibilities to do public interest work that are out there.

The law school was fortunate to receive the services of Dean Morrison thanks to a phone call placed by Dean Lawrence last spring.  Since that time Morrison has been busy settling into his new position, meeting with the Career Development Office to explore new ideas on how to provide students with pro bono and public service projects, meeting with a University-wide committee on service projects to help foster greater public service at a University level, and working with other outside attorneys on ongoing court cases.

Dean Morrison hopes to accomplish a great deal through his position, including extending more public service and pro bono opportunities to GW law students, working directly with students in various election reform projects, and making the public service path more affordable through greater summer stipends and reform to the federal loan forgiveness program.  In fact, he is most excited to "help students to see how intellectually challenging, exciting, and personally rewarding public service is and to do everything I can to make that more affordable." In other words, to "make it easier for students to do the things that they came to law school to do." Dean Morrison's goals are described in greater detail both in a YouTube clip of his speech at the Newseum event, and in an interview he gave to Sua Sponte this past July.

Likewise, many GW Law students are excited for Dean Morrison's presence this year.  As third year student Kimberly Clark explains, "I think it's great that Associate Dean Morrison has come to GW Law."  She believes that "his position as Dean of Public Interest will bring greater focus to the area of public interest, an area which seems to be neglected in favor of firms."  She is further "encouraged by the focus he plans on taking to make a public interest career a more realistic option for students that have been taking loans out," and feels that "overall this is a change that GW Law public interest students will really welcome."

It is certain to be an exciting year for Dean Morrison, the Class of 2012, and the GW Law student body as a whole. When asked what advice he would give to the students as they enter this new academic challenge, Morrison had the following recommendation: "Don't forget why you came to law school.  Go back and re-read your admissions essay and find a way to do all the things you said you were going to do, both while you are here and beyond."

For more information, check out Sua Sponte's interview with Dean Morrison @ http://suasponteblog.com/2009/07/16/public-interest-law-at-gw-an-intervi...