PROFESSOR EMERITA LAUREL S. TERRY RECEIVES THE 2022 RAMBO AWARD
March 2022 — Professor Laurel S. Terry, who is the H. Laddie Montague Jr. Chair in Law and Professor of Law Emerita, recently received the 2022 Hon. Sylvia H. Rambo Award during a ceremony held at Penn State Dickinson Law. The Rambo Award is presented annually by the Penn State Dickinson Law Women’s Law Caucus to a woman in the legal profession who has had a distinguished career and who, by example, has made the professional success of other women more likely.
Professor Terry received the 2022 Rambo award during a ceremony held on March 16, 2022 in the Apfelbaum Family Courtroom & Auditorium at Penn State Dickinson Law. The ceremony also honored Marissa Lawall, of the Class of 2018, who received the recent alumna award. According to Dean Conway, the 2022 Rambo ceremony was the first live event at the law school since the onset of COVID-19. Additional information and photos from the 2022 Rambo Award Ceremony honoring Professor Terry and recent alumna Marissa Lawall are available at this link.
Professor Terry’s remarks paid tribute to some of the prior Rambo award recipients who had served as mentors or made her success more likely. These included Professor Emerita Chris Kellett, who was the first female professor at Dickinson Law; Frances Del Duca, who was the first woman to serve as president of the Cumberland County Bar Association and was influential to Professor Terry because of her work helping to create a global community in Carlisle; and Judge Sylvia Rambo, for whom the award was named. Judge Rambo, who was appointed in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, was the first woman to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the first female Chief Judge in the District). By the end of March 2022, both the Senate and the House of Representatives had approved bipartisan Senate Bill 1226, which designated the new federal courthouse in Pennsylvania’s capital of Harrisburg as the “Sylvia H. Rambo United States Courthouse" and the bill was sent to the President for his signature.
Professor Terry retired from Penn State Dickinson Law on June 30, 2021 after thirty-six years. Her career was summarized by former Penn State Dickinson Law Deans Gary Gildin and Peter Glenn in Volume 126(1) of Penn State’s Dickinson Law Review, which was dedicated to Professor Terry. As they explain, while at Dickinson, Professor Terry developed and taught the first year “Contexts and Competencies” course, as well as teaching a number of additional courses, including Professional Responsibility, a seminar on globalization, and the first year Civil Procedure course. (During the Rambo Ceremony, Professor Terry showed the audience a handout she had prepared entitled “My Life in Civil Procedure Exams” that included the manatee photo she used on her Fall 2020 CivPro Final Exam.) Professor Terry concluded her remarks by noting how happy she was to be introduced by, and receive the award from, students who had been in her last Civil Procedure class and by thanking her students, colleagues, and family for allowing her to have had such a wonderful career.
Professor Emerita Laurel S. Terry, who held the inaugural H. Laddie Montague, Jr. Chair in Law and was Dickinson Law’s inaugural Associate Dean for Research and New Faculty Development, is a three-time Fulbright recipient who writes and speaks about the impact of globalization on the legal profession, especially with respect to regulatory issues. Her scholarship has identified emerging issues for the legal profession and urged stakeholder engagement, new initiatives, and regulatory reform. In addition to speaking at academic and professional conferences, she has been invited to speak about her scholarship to organizations that include the Conference of Chief Justices, the National Conference of Bar Examiners, the National Organization of Bar Counsel, the National Conference of Bar Presidents, the CCBE, which represents EU’s legal profession and legal regulators, the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, the International Institute of Law Association Chief Executives, the International Bar Association, and the International Conference of Legal Regulators.