William Treanor

William Treanor

William Michael Treanor (born November 16, 1957) is an attorney and legal scholar. He is the dean of Georgetown University Law Center, the former dean of Fordham University School of Law, and an expert on constitutional law, having twice been cited in Supreme Court opinions. He continues to teach as a professor. Treanor held several high-profile government positions and he is an advocate of civil service. His teaching and work evidence Treanor's commitment to his philosophy of a complete legal education: "Intellectual excellence, the craft of lawyering, and dedication to public service."[1]

Personal

Treanor graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Yale College in 1979, where he was an active member of the Yale Political Union. He obtained an M.A. in history from Harvard University in 1982. He then entered Harvard Law School, but transferred to Yale Law School because he felt they focused more on public service.[2] He was Article and Book Review Editor of the Yale Law Journal and graduated with a J.D. in 1985.

On October 15, 1994, Treanor married Allison Derivaux Ames, who was then director of strategic planning for corporate publicity and special events at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City. He now has two children, Liam and Katherine.[3]

Dean of Fordham Law School and Georgetown Law

Treanor's biggest commitment remains to legal scholarship. "William Treanor represents a new generation of scholars and teachers at Fordham's School of Law," said the Rev. Joseph A. O'Hare, S.J., president of Fordham University at the time of Treanor's appointment.[4] When he first arrived to teach at Fordham in 1991, he evidenced his broad command of legal subjects in courses such as property, land use, intellectual property, constitutional law, criminal law, and legal history. In 1998, he went on leave from the university to serve as deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, before he returned to assume his current position in 2002.

"As dean of the law school, you're required to do both broad-level thinking and strategic planning," said Treanor in regard to challenges as a law dean.[5] On July 17, 2006, Treanor announced to students and faculty that the school surpassed the $20 million mark for new gifts and pledges. This was in stark contrast to the levels reached in 2004 ($4.2 million) and 2005 ($6.9 million). The funds will help establish six new chairs and start the Feerick Center for Social Justice and Dispute Resolution, named in honor of Treanor's predecessor, John Feerick.[6]

Plans for a new skyscraper were unveiled to accommodate increasing enrollment numbers, and the school ranks fifth in the country in placing its graduates at top-shelf law firms.[7] But Treanor is not just concerned with growth and reputation. Like the law deans of Harvard (which built a state-of-the-art law student gym, limited class size to 80 students, and mandated individualized written feedback for every student in every course throughout the semester), and Yale (which abandoned the traditional law school grading system, does not rank its students, and has only one semester of required classes), Treanor has attempted to address the students' quality of life.[8] In a 2006 interview, Treanor reported instituting free cupcakes and ice cream to alleviate the intensity of law school finals. Gifts to students, though, are in the offing: At the end of the 2006 academic year, Treanor worked for the purveyance of free flip-flops with Fordham's imprint on the bottom. "I feel obliged to make the Fordham experience for our students as special as possible," said Treanor.[2] Fordham maintains a strict grading curve policy, class rankings, and a year-long 1L curriculum.

On June 29, 2010, it was announced that Dean Treanor would become the new executive vice president and Dean of Georgetown University Law Center, beginning August 16, 2010.[9]

Georgetown Law

Since Treanor became dean at Georgetown Law, he has been featured in the following:

In 2012, Treanor was named a "champion" by the National Law Journal,[15] one of the 25 "most influential in legal education" by the National Jurist[16] and a recipient of the Dave Nee Foundation's David S. Stoner Uncommon Counselor Award.[17]

Civil Service

Treanor's career in the public sector began as a speechwriter for Secretary of Education Shirley Hufstedler, followed by a clerkship for Judge James L. Oakes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. During the Iran-Contra Investigation, Treanor served as associate independent counsel. Later he became deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, responsible for supplying advice to the White House and attorney general.

Constitutional law scholar

Treanor has been cited in Supreme Court opinions twice, including by Chief Justice William Rehnquist in his dissent in Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council, Inc. v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.[18] He has written in-depth about some of the most controversial and complex turn of the 20th century constitutional law issues. He examined Congress' authority to define and declare war under the War Powers Clause. He focused on the original understanding of the Founders on the takings clause of the United States Constitution, also known as eminent domain in the United States. He wrote an article chronicling understanding of the scope of constitutional judicial review before Marbury v. Madison. He remains a prolific author of scholarly articles.

On June 6, 2006, he debated prominent classical liberal/libertarian law professor and published author Richard Epstein on the topic "Did Progressives Rewrite the Constitution?"

Quotes

Selected articles

References

  1. Pranay Gupte, Activist Dean Lifts Fordham Law's Profile, The New York Sun, May 11, 2006, at Section 1, page 2
  2. 1 2 See, above, Gupte
  3. "Weddings: Allison Ames, William Treanor", The New York Times, October 16, 1994.
  4. "New Law School Dean", Fordham Law School press release, 2002.
  5. See, above, Gupte.
  6. "Law School Fundraising Surpasses $20 Million Mark", Fordham University press release, June 30, 2006.
  7. David Dunlap, "Fordham Plans Expansion at Lincoln Center", The New York Times, May 23, 2005; "Fordham Law School Ranks Fifth for Placement at Top Paying Firms", Fordham Law School press release, May 23, 2006. Only Harvard, New York University, Columbia and Georgetown place more.
  8. Meredith McKee, "1l Curriculum Changes Yielding Positive Results", Harvard Law Record, February 26, 2002
  9. "New Law Center Dean Announced" "Georgetown University News"
  10. 1 2 Sarah Kellogg, "The Transformation of Legal Education", DC Bar magazine, May 2011
  11. Karen Sloan, "Educators: Congress Needs Law Clerks", The National Law Journal, May 5, 2011
  12. Christopher J. Gearon, "Law Schools Go Global", U.S. News & World Report, March 29, 2011
  13. Leigh Jones, "No Humbugs Here", The National Law Journal, December 20, 2010
  14. 1 2 Amanda Becker, "Q&A: Georgetown Law Center's New Dean Discusses School's Steps to Help Students in a Time of Law Firm Cutbacks", The Washington Post, August 23, 2010
  15. National Law Journal , July 9, 2012
  16. National Jurist , November 28, 2012
  17. Dave Nee Foundation website
  18. See, above, Press Release, New Law School Dean.
  19. Waas, Murray (February 9, 2006). "Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information". National Journal. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
  20. William Treanor, The War Powers Outside the Courts, 81 Indiana L.J. 1333 (2006).
  21. Wiliam Treanor, The Original Understanding of the Takings Clause, Environmental Policy Project, Georgetown Environmental Law & Policy Institute.
  22. Id.
  23. See, above, Press Release, Fordham Law School Ranks Fifth for Placement at Top Paying Firms.
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