From the Dean's Desk

I hope this issue of The Advocate finds you as well and as safe as can be. I know many of your families, businesses, and communities are facing the same uncertain circumstances brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic as our law school community has encountered since March. Since assuming the role of acting dean in July, I have witnessed the tremendous strength and empathy of the American University Washington College of Law community—and the ingenuity of our faculty, staff, and students. These qualities only serve to reinforce my belief that AUWCL is up to the challenges of the year ahead.

When the decision was made to close the University campus following spring break, WCL successfully transitioned all of its more than 200 spring semester offerings online. Our excellent Office of Online Learning helped faculty adapt to teaching live class sessions via Zoom and recording lectures from home (see more on p. 10). We had hoped to utilize our 8.5-acre campus to its fullest possible extent this fall, and initially we developed a hybrid learning option. Unfortunately, the pandemic prevented that course of action. However, I am proud of the teamwork and inclusiveness shown by our community as we coordinated remote courses and limited use of our campus and Law Library this semester. Additional training and planning time have enabled faculty to use remote learning environments to promote creativity and a vibrant sense of community. We hope that we will be able to open our campus more broadly in the spring, including for alumni events!

Even with the challenges of the pandemic, our fall 2020 entering class demonstrated remarkable strength in both median LSAT (160) and GPA (3.51). The class also includes more than 40% diversity representation, exemplifying our law school’s ongoing dedication to inclusive excellence. These areas of excellence have helped WCL move up 10 places in the U.S. News and World Report rankings over the past three years. Your support of our scholarship funds has contributed to our ability to attract top-notch students. Thank you for your investment in and commitment to Washington College of Law!

Justice and Equity: 2020-2021

A one-year acting deanship presented me with a unique opportunity to focus with intention on matters of importance to both the law school and society. The COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences; the need to design a remote learning curriculum that maintains our sense of community; postponed bar examinations; the worst economy since the Great Depression; the closing of our borders; society’s belated response to the Black Lives Matter movement, fueled by one incident of police brutality toward African Americans after another—any one of these phenomena would be enough to engage our full attention. To deal with them all at once—well, that’s a tall order. The good news is that I firmly believe our dedicated community of scholar teachers, talented staff, and terrific students is up to the task. I also knew that inequality could be exacerbated by even the most well-intentioned solutions to any of these issues. Therefore, I announced a theme for the year and my leadership: “Justice and Equity: 2020-2021.”

I intend this theme as a call to our community that we must not squander this moment, but instead use it as a catalyst for change, both within our institution and more broadly. This theme will serve as a charge to the WCL community to find ways to commit to the principles of diversity and inclusion. I am pleased that our Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Affinity Relations has already made such outstanding progress, including conducting implicit bias training, formalizing efforts to inject anti-racism into the WCL curriculum, and organizing a new Staff Allies for Racial Justice Program. See more in the story Committing to Anti-Racism on p. 24.

What We Might Learn

Dealing with uncertainty as a lawyer is a skill. Part of what we focus on in specialized, experiential programs such as AUWCL’s clinical programs, is giving our students a broad set of skills that enable them to manage constantly changing circumstances. Balance. Self-care. Empathy. These skills are invaluable when dealing with a challenging case—when one ruling can upend your argument and take you back to square one. The same skills can help during the uncertain circumstances brought on by the pandemic. There is an overused cliché, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Though we don’t know when this particular crisis is going to end, or how many lives it will touch, we do know that institutions, including legal education, are at the brink of major change because of it. Going forward, I would predict greater use of remote learning technology that incorporates synchronous and asynchronous learning; a more robust focus on diversity and inclusion; new forms of experiential education; continued changes in the practice of law, to which law schools will need to adapt; and more flexibility in the ways law schools deliver education to their students.

This year promises to be like no other in our law school’s nearly 125-year history. I hope I will have an opportunity to meet with many of you, even if only by Zoom! Please stay safe and healthy.

Sincerely

ROBERT DINERSTEIN
ACTING DEAN AND PROFESSOR OF LAW