DICKINSON LAW DEAN DANIELLE M. CONWAY NAMED PRESIDENT-ELECT OF ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN LAW SCHOOLS (AALS)
January 2025 — Throughout her career, Penn State Dickinson Law Dean and Donald J. Farage Professor of Law Danielle M. Conway has focused on inclusion within the legal academy and the legal profession. Part of her motivation has been that early on, she did not always feel included herself.
“For too long, especially during the beginning of my career, I never felt like part of the legal academy. I always felt like I was on the fringe. I held a legal writing and research instructor position, and at that time, we were called instructors. We were not professors,” said Conway.
In the more than 30 years since Conway earned that first position within the legal academy, she has championed inclusivity as a core value to ensure everyone in this profession feels seen and appreciated. She practiced this ethos during her 14 years on the faculty of the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, William S. Richardson School of Law and later as dean of the University of Maine School of Law for four years, and she has continued the practice at Penn State Dickinson Law since 2019.
Now she has a new opportunity to scale this inclusive ethos. Conway has been voted 2025 president-elect of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), the nonprofit whose member schools enroll most of the country’s law students and produce the majority of the country’s attorneys and judges. Her election follows time spent on the AALS Executive Committee and AALS Steering Committee.
“I have aspired to serve as AALS president for 10 years, beginning years ago when I was selected to serve on the Steering Committee,” said Conway. “My ongoing support of and strong relationship with AALS has helped provide me with a platform for much of the work we are doing now at Penn State Dickinson Law. My contributions to legal education demonstrated to the community of legal educators and law-affiliated organizations that I am a trusted resource, especially in areas of governance, teaching and learning, leadership, and, yes, antiracism.”
AALS presidents serve for one year. Each leader develops a theme for their term, and Conway will introduce hers later this year. As president-elect, Conway will support the incoming president and the greater association, as well as serve once again on the Executive Committee and Steering Committee.
“I applaud Dean Conway for achieving the high honor of being voted president-elect of AALS,” said Penn State Interim Executive Vice President and Provost Tracy Langkilde. “Through her contributions to the field of legal education, she has demonstrated to the community of legal educators and law-affiliated organizations that she is a trusted resource. We appreciate her leadership and dedication to the faculty, staff, alumni, and students at Penn State Dickinson Law.”
Achieving a Penn State first
Conway’s election marks the first time a dean from Penn State Dickinson Law or any Penn State academic leader has been elevated to an executive leadership position within AALS. It comes after Conway led efforts to reunify Penn State’s two law schools, now known as Penn State Dickinson Law, which recently earned American Bar Association approval.
She has risen steadily through the ranks of the leadership of the legal academy while earning recognition for her scholarly agenda and speeches advocating for public education and actualizing the rights of marginalized groups, including Indigenous Peoples, minoritized people and groups, and members of rural communities.
Conway received a bachelor of science degree in finance and international business from New York University Stern School of Business; a J.D. (cum laude) from Howard University School of Law; and an LL.M. (government procurement law and environmental law) from George Washington University Law School. Conway served as a full-time lecturer at Georgetown University Law Center and as a member of the faculty of the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law before serving on the faculty of the William S. Richardson School of Law. She also is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI).
In 2016, she retired from the U.S. Army after 27 years of combined active, reserve, and national guard service. She has authored or edited six books and casebooks, as well as numerous book chapters, articles, and essays.
In 2020, Conway was a co-recipient of the inaugural AALS Impact Award, which honors individuals or groups who have had a significant positive impact on legal education or the legal profession. She and four Black women law dean colleagues were recognized for creating the Law Deans Antiracist Clearinghouse Project, a webpage for law deans, faculty and staff, and the public providing resources and information to encourage and support action by individuals and organizations to dismantle structures supporting systemic racial inequality in law and legal education.
In 2021, Conway launched the Antiracist Development Institute (ADI) at Penn State Dickinson Law, which also aims to dismantle structures that scaffold systemic racial inequality using a three-pillar approach based on systems design, institutional antiracism, and critical pedagogy.
The impact of great mentors
Great leaders are not born but rather made, and Conway credits the many mentors throughout her career who aided in developing her leadership skills.
“All these people helped develop what you see in me now. Without examples of both leadership successes and deficits, you would not know what works and what does not,” said Conway. “From their examples, I have built an effective framework for leadership that is based on experience, practice, theory, and heart.”
Conway made impactful connections from the start. She grew close to Georgetown Law Professor Emeritus Jill Ramsfield, who hired Conway for that initial legal writing and research instructor position and later became godmother to her son. Conway also worked under then-Georgetown Law Dean Judith C. Areen, now Paul Regis Dean Professor of Law, Emerita. Ramsfield’s and Areen’s mentorships have spanned nearly three decades. “Those relationships have been instrumental in my progress through the legal academy,” said Conway.
Conway is also beholden to mentors Professor Christopher Kando Iijima (dec.) and Professor Emeritus David L. Callies, both demonstrating the power of love and integrity in shepherding her from assistant professor of law to the holder of the inaugural Michael J. Marks Distinguished Professorship in Business Law.
She also pointed to a trio of mentors who “helped me see myself as a legitimate entrant into the legal academy:” Vincent D. Rougeau, currently president of the College of the Holy Cross and a former AALS president himself; Blake D. Morant, former George Washington Law dean, currently Law Robert Kramer Research Professor of Law, and also a former AALS president; and Elizabeth “Ginger” Hayes Patterson, a former Georgetown Law faculty member and former associate director of AALS.
Conway recognized AALS Executive Director and Chief Executive Kellye Y. Testy as another valued mentor. She also praised the mentorship of two of her book co-authors, University of Washington Pendleton Miller Chair in Law Xuan-Thao Nguyen and University of Washington Judson Falknor Professor of Law Robert Gomulkiewicz.
And Conway pointed to newer colleagues who have been part of her vital support system as well as mentors, including the women who co-curated the Law Deans Antiracist Clearinghouse Project with her: Mount Holyoke College President Danielle Holley, Phyllis W. Beck Visiting Chair in Law at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law Kim Mutcherson, Boston University School of Law Dean Angela Onwuachi-Willig, and Oklahoma University Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher Chair in Civil Rights, Race and Justice Carla D. Pratt.
Looking toward the future
Austen Parrish, dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law, will serve as AALS president in 2025, succeeding Melanie D. Wilson, dean and Roy L. Steinheimer, Jr., Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law.
His presidential theme will examine the far-reaching impact of legal education — appropriate given that AALS celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2025. Parrish plans to highlight the changes and innovations in legal education over the past decades, as well as the contributions made by schools, their faculty, and their staff to the local communities, the nation, and the world that the schools serve.
“The time as president-elect offers a fabulous opportunity to work with leaders within the legal academy and the profession, and to connect with those really leading the charge on new and exciting ideas,” Parrish said. “Dean Conway is a fantastic choice to take on this leadership role and will be a tremendous officer of the Association. I am certain it will be a whirlwind year, but I am looking forward to working together. I am eager to see how she develops her own theme and have no doubt that she will serve an inspiring term.”
Conway said she is eager to begin her new duties.
“I always viewed the potential to become a leader in AALS as an opportunity to engage the association in practices that encourage even greater inclusiveness between and among its member schools and the individuals within those schools,” said Conway. “That is also very consistent with the ethos of Penn State Dickinson Law and how we have grown our reputation as a law school that practices a culture of equity, inclusiveness, and antiracism.”
