Each year, one or more leading members of the bench or the bar address/es the UDC Law community – students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends – on a law-related topic of interest. Some of the nation’s most respected civil rights and other public interest, public policy or public service attorneys, as well as the Attorney General and two sitting US Supreme Court Justices have honored us with their participation.
The Annual Joe Rauh Lecture is always open to the public, free of charge, and followed by a reception – a tradition of which we are certain Joe Rauh would have heartily approved!
Past Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. Lecturers
| 2021 | DC Attorney General Karl Racine  |
| 2019 | Richard L. Trumka |
| 2018 | Vanita Gupta |
| 2017 | Stephen Bright |
| 2016 | Senator Cory Booker |
| 2015 | Bryan Stevenson |
| 2014 | Secretary of Labor Tom Perez |
| 2013 | Senator Elizabeth Warren |
| 2012 | Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor |
| 2011 | Harold Koh, Legal Adviser of the Department of State |
| 2010 | US Attorney General Eric Holder |
| 2009 | Senator Patrick Leahy |
| 2008 | Vernon Jordan |
| 2007 | Nina Totenberg interviewed by Wade Henderson |
| 2006 | Theodore M. Shaw |
| 2005 | Congressman Barney Frank |
| 2004 | Congressman John Lewis |
| 2003 | Marian Wright Edelman |
| 2002 | Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Ralph Neas and Wade Henderson on “Civil Rights in the 21st Century” |
| 2001 | Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg |
| 2000 | Charles Ruff |
| 1999 | The Sleep Room (an award-winning film about Joe Rauh’s last case) |
| 1998 | Jack Greenberg |
| 1997 | Elaine Jones |
| 1996 | Father Robert Drinan |
| 1995 | Rick Seymour |
| 1994 | Judith Lichtman & Roger Wilkins |
| 1993 | William Taylor |
About Joseph L. Rauh, Jr.
Joe Rauh may not have invented public interest law, but he certainly perfected it. For more than half a century, Joe championed the under-dog, the disenfranchised, and all minorities. His widely-known battles for civil rights, civil liberties, and equal access to justice are the essence of public interest law.
Less well known was Joe’s vision of a wholly new approach to legal education tied to the practice of public interest law. Joe believed law students should “learn by doing,” not just by reading cases. To Joe, this meant not only expanded clinical education within conventional law schools, but much more.
Joe envisioned a law school that would function as a training ground for public interest lawyers: a school where law students could learn basic skills and represent the underrepresented at the same time, a school that made dedication to public service a criterion for admission, and commitment to public service a life-long responsibility. The University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law is Joe’s dream come true. A founding member of the Law School’s Board of Governors, Joe remained one of its staunchest supporters until his last hours with us. Read more about Joe…
