Legal Education Leadership 2026: Dean Conway's Monthly AALS Presidential Update for January

A monthly look at Penn State Dickinson Law and School of International Affairs Dean and Donald J. Farage Professor of Law Danielle M. Conway’s year of intellectual inquiry as president of the Association of American Law Schools.

On January 9, 2026, Penn State Dickinson Law and School of International Affairs Dean and Donald J. Farage Professor of Law Danielle M. Conway was elected president of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS).

During her address to the AALS House of Representatives, which received a standing ovation, she introduced her theme for the term leading up to the 2027 Annual Meeting: “Emancipate. Academic. Freedom.”

During the four-day AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, Conway made a number of appearances. She shared insights at an AALS Arc of Career Program for first-time Annual Meeting attendees. She also delivered the president-elect’s traditional address to the Federalist Society Annual Conference and offered commentary during an AALS Research Collaboration panel examining "Women Attorneys in Higher Education Leadership."

Conway and more than a dozen Penn State Dickinson Law faculty and staff members participated in the Critical Legal Collective’s “March and Rally for Racial Justice, Academic Freedom & the Rule of Law,” where she delivered remarks upon the march’s culmination in Lafayette Square.

She also previewed her theme in a gathering of AALS section leaders held the evening before she became president. “Academic freedom is a special duty. The more that we can articulate that special duty—the more we can show that it depends on an understanding of facts, data, evidence, analysis, and our voices—the more we can appreciate our obligation to be accountable to it,” said Conway.

Throughout her one-year term as president, Conway will travel across the country to speak at law schools, universities, symposia, conferences, and community events discussing her 2026 theme as well as current challenges and issues in legal education.

Her theme will highlight higher education and law schools as sites of connection between values of intellectual inquiry and the public good, creation and advancement of knowledge, and the foundational centering of education as an essential part of the democratic project.

Conway began her speaking engagements less than two weeks after becoming AALS president. On January 21, she delivered the keynote address to launch the Inaugural Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture Series at Bloomington College of Montclair State University. Her speech, titled “All Men Are Created Equal,” examined that well-known phrase from the Declaration of Independence and its meaning for our evolving nation. Following the lecture, Conway participated in a Q&A with students, staff, and faculty.

Up Next: Dean Conway’s February Speaking Engagements

• University of Houston Law Center Decanal Speaker Series and Work-in-Progress Presentation: “A Look Back on the Foundations of Government Procurement of Intellectual Property in the New Era of America First IP Ideology, Policy, and Legislation” (February 2, 2026)
• Boston University School of Law, Women's Law Association (WLA) and Women of Color Collaborative (WOCC) Fireside Chat: “On Leadership, Success, and Stewardship” (February 12, 2026)
• Boston University School of Law, AALS Women in Legal Education Conference: “Gender and Status in the Legal Academy and Profession” (February 12–13, 2026)