Law Professor Brian Murchison to Address Washington and Lee’s Fall Convocation
Brian C. Murchison, the Charles S. Rowe Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University, will address the 2015 Fall Convocation on Sept. 9 at 5:30 p.m. on the Front Lawn.
Murchison will speak on “The Liberal Arts in Practice.”
Fall Convocation is the traditional opening of W&L’s academic year. The university will mark its 267th academic year and the 167th year of the School of Law this year. The law school’s orientation began Aug. 17 and the first day of classes was Aug. 24. Orientation for new undergraduate students begins Sept. 5, and classes begin Sept. 10.
Murchison taught English in the Peace Corps in Benin, Africa, and was an associate in a Washington, D.C., law firm prior to joining the W&L Law School faculty in 1982. He was director of the Frances Lewis Law Center, the research arm of the law school, from 1991–94 before being named the Charles S. Rowe Professor of Law in 2002. He served as acting dean of the School of Law from 2006–07.
Murchison received both his B.A. in English and J.D. from Yale University.
His specialties are mass media and the First Amendment, administrative law, torts and jurisprudence. Recent publications include “Blogging and Anonymity,” a book chapter (2013); “Reflections on Breach of Confidence from the U.S. Perspective” (2010); and “Speech and the Self-Governance Value” (2006).
Murchison received the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV) Outstanding Faculty Award in 1988, and in 1996, he was co-founder of W&L’s Black Lung Clinic.
In 2015–16, he was awarded the John W. Elrod Law Alumni Faculty Fellowship for Teaching at the law school and in 2012, received the Student Bar Association Outstanding Faculty Award, among many other awards.
The convocation is open to the public.
