PENN STATE DICKINSON LAW DEAN DANIELLE M. CONWAY TO RECEIVE HONORABLE CLARENCE C. MORRISON AWARD
January 2024 — Danielle M. Conway, Dean and Donald J. Farage Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson Law, will receive the Dauphin County Bar Association’s (DCBA) Honorable Clarence C. Morrison Award at the DCBA annual membership meeting scheduled for January 31, 2024 in Harrisburg, PA. This award is presented annually to an individual or entity for their commitment to promoting diversity and their contribution to the advancement of equal professional opportunities in the local bar and the Central Pennsylvania community.
Equal Professional Opportunity Committee Chair LaToya Winfield Bellamy shared that Dean Conway was selected to receive the award “for promoting diversity in the legal profession and for steadfast commitment and dedication to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in our profession. Dean Conway is amazing, and we want to recognize that.”
Under the leadership of Dean Danielle M. Conway, Penn State Dickinson Law’s Antiracist Development Institute (ADI) was created to dismantle structures that scaffold systemic racial inequality using a systems design approach for the purpose of achieving systemic equity and offering organizations across the country systems design-based approaches to implementing antiracist practices, processes, and policies throughout each of their functions. The ADI will build on concepts and information presented throughout the book series, titled “Building an Antiracist Law School, Legal Academy, and Legal Profession,” to provide law schools and other institutions with a starting blueprint that will be iteratively workshopped through the stages of systems design and design thinking. More than 100 colleagues from the legal academy, legal profession, and adjacent organizations are contributing to the book series as chapter contributors, editors, content reviewers, and workshop facilitators, representing 55 institutions across the country.
A leading expert in procurement law, entrepreneurship, intellectual property law, and licensing intellectual property, Dean Conway is the co-recipient of the inaugural Association of American Law Schools’ (AALS) Impact Award, which honors individuals who have had a significant, positive impact on legal education or the legal profession. Dean Conway received this recognition for tireless work in establishing the Law Deans Antiracist Clearinghouse Project. Launched in June 2020, the project is a webpage for law deans, faculty and staff, and the public that contains resources and information related to addressing racism in law and legal education. Dean Conway also serves as one of three co-chairs of the Select Penn State Presidential Commission on Racism, Bias, and Community Safety. Dean Conway has been a member of the American Law Institute since 2004. In addition, Conway is an appointed member of the AALS Executive Committee, was appointed to the Board of Directors of AccessLex Institute, and serves as an appointed member of both the Pennsylvania Bar Association COVID-19 Task Force and the Joint Task Force on Continuity of Legal Services. In 2016, Dean Conway retired from the U.S. Army in the rank of lieutenant colonel after 27 years of combined active, reserve, and national guard service.
Judge Clarence C. Morrison was the first African American judge elected to serve on the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas, beginning in 1980, and served for two decades before his passing in 2012. He diligently served many community organizations throughout his lifetime and made an immeasurable impact on the legal profession and community surrounding him.
Among prior recipients of this prestigious award are Dickinson Law alumni including David E. Lehman ’67 (2011), Dianne I. Nichols ’76 (2013), Trent Hargrove ’80 (2020), and Penn State Dickinson Law’s Associate Dean for Administration, Career Services, and Policy & Planning Laura H. Williams ’90 (2023 recipient.)