Two BU Law Professors Receive Boston University’s Highest Awards for Teaching
Naomi Mann and Gary Lawson will be honored with Metcalf Awards at the University-wide Commencement on May 21.
BU Law is pleased to announce that Clinical Associate Professor of Law Naomi Mann has been awarded this year’s Metcalf Cup and Prize, the highest teaching honor bestowed by the University, and Philip S. Beck Professor of Law Gary Lawson has received a Metcalf Award in recognition of his excellence in teaching. Only one other law school faculty member, Professor of Law emeritus Fran Miller, has won the Metcalf Cup and Prize since it was established in 1973. Nine BU Law faculty have been previously honored with a Metcalf Award.
Professor Mann joined BU Law’s faculty in 2013, and it is a tribute to her excellence that the University would honor her with its highest teaching award after four years. Professor Mann teaches students in our Civil Litigation Program, bringing not just her lawyering skills to her students, but also her passion for justice. She is a mentor, role model, counselor in time of need, and inspiration to her students and clients alike. She has taken on leadership roles since her arrival at BU Law, chairing or co-chairing our Lawyering Lab Committee, and working tirelessly to ensure the course’s success. She is also a wonderful colleague, assisting other faculty members with the preparation of simulations and guest lectures. We are fortunate to count Professor Mann as a member of our faculty, and thrilled that the University has recognized her excellence with the Metcalf Cup and Prize.
Professor Lawson joined the School of Law faculty in 2000 after 12 years at Northwestern University’s Law School. At BU Law, he has taught a wide range of courses including Property, Evidence, and Administrative Law to large numbers of students (almost 50 percent of any given class!). He teaches all of his courses at an extremely high intellectual level, and receives outstanding evaluations. In addition, he is a wonderful colleague, taking on teaching in areas outside his expertise and excelling, and helping out his colleagues in the classroom and in their scholarship. His own scholarship is voluminous and influential. We are delighted that the University is honoring him with a long overdue Metcalf Award.
BU President Robert A. Brown announced the winners of the University’s highest teaching honors at the Class of 2017 Senior Breakfast. Sophie Godley (SPH’17), a School of Public Health clinical assistant professor of community health sciences, was also named a Metcalf Award winner this year. The three faculty members will be honored at the University-wide Commencement ceremony. The Metcalf Cup and Prize and Metcalf Awards were established in 1973 by a gift from the late alumnus and BU Trustee, Dr. Arthur G. B. Metcalf, to create “a systematic procedure for the review of the quality of teaching at Boston University and the identification and advancement of those members of the faculty who excel as teachers.”
