Black Firsts, March 2009: Phoebe Haddon to Head Maryland Law School

Videotaped press conference with Phoebe Haddon, the first African American Dean in 185-year history of the University of Maryland Law School:

On March 30, 2009, the University of Maryland announced the selection of Temple University law professor Phoebe Haddon to become the ninth dean of the University of Maryland School of Law. University President David J. Ramsay describes Haddon as, “passionate about legal education, about the essential role of innovative and influential scholarship in the continued development of our faculty, and about the School of Law’s vital public service mission.”

A fourth-generation lawyer, Prof. Haddon is also married to a lawyer, Temple University Professor Emeritus of Law, Frank McClellan. The have three children, a daughter and two sons.

The University of Maryland press release highlights some of Haddon’s achievements:

Haddon earned an LLM from Yale Law School and a Juris Doctor from Duquesne University School of Law, where she was editor-in-chief of the Duquesne Law Review. She received a bachelor’s degree from Smith College and served as Vice-Chair of the Smith College Board of Trustees until her appointment as dean. She served as a law clerk for The Hon. Joseph F. Weis, Jr., United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and practiced at Wilmer Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C., before joining the faculty at Temple law school. She teaches courses on constitutional law, torts, products liability, and race and ethnicity.

An accomplished national scholar on constitutional law and tort law, Haddon is the co-author of two casebooks in those fields and has written numerous scholarly articles on equal protection, jury participation, academic freedom, and diversity.

Haddon is widely recognized as a national leader in organizations dedicated to improving American legal education. She serves on the Council of the American Bar Association Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, the official accrediting body of American law schools. She has served as co-president of the board of governors and member of the executive committee of the Society of American Law Teachers, member of the executive committee of The Association of American Law Schools, and trustee of the Law School Admissions Council.

Congratulations to Professor Haddon. Black on Campus will continue to share news of academic firsts as they happen. If you know of any Black firsts or if you are one yourself, I would love to hear from you. You can email me at [email protected]

Posted by Ajuan Mance