UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Danielle M. Conway, dean and professor of law at the University of Maine School of Law, has been named the new dean of Penn State’s Dickinson Law after a national search. Her appointment is effective on July 1, 2019.

Conway, a leading expert in public procurement law, entrepreneurship and intellectual property law, joined Maine Law as dean in 2015 after serving for 14 years on the faculty of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, William S. Richardson School of Law.

“Danielle Conway is an outstanding choice to lead Dickinson Law,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Nick Jones. “She has an impressive record of scholarship in a variety of legal fields, a dedication to advocacy on behalf of students from underrepresented groups, and significant experience as a leader in legal education. I am delighted to welcome her to Penn State.”

Dickinson Law, located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, is one of Penn State’s two separately accredited law schools: The Dickinson Schools of Law. The original Dickinson School of Law was founded in 1834 as the first law school in Pennsylvania and merged with Penn State in 1997. 

Conway will succeed Gary Gildin, who has served as dean of Dickinson Law since November 2016 after serving as interim dean beginning in May 2013. Gildin, professor of law, the Hon. G. Thomas and Anne G. Miller Chair in Advocacy, and director of the Center for Public Interest Law and Advocacy, will remain on the Dickinson Law faculty.

“I am honored to serve as the next dean of Penn State’s Dickinson Law. I consider this an opportunity to be a leader among leaders in promoting the rule of law, stewarding our constitutional democracy and creating concrete graduate and professional school pathways for our students,” said Conway. “I am eager to work with the extraordinary students, staff, faculty, administration, and alumni and friends at Penn State, generally, and at Dickinson Law, specifically. As well, I am thrilled to return to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the place of my birth and the place that fueled my dreams of attaining a college education.”

An advocate for public education and Indigenous Peoples and minority groups, Conway is the author or editor of six books and casebooks. Her scholarship has been published in the Washington University Global Studies Law Review, Computer Law Review and Technology Journal, Southern Methodist University Law Review, Texas Wesleyan Law Review, and Michigan Journal of Race and Law. Her teaching interests include intellectual property law, licensing intellectual property, international intellectual property law, internet law and policy, and government contract law.

As dean of Maine Law, Conway focused on involving the law school in the greater Maine community by promoting access to affordable legal services in rural areas, creating leadership opportunities for underrepresented students, and driving workforce development through new programs in compliance and information privacy and cybersecurity.

She began her career in legal education as a member of the faculty at the Georgetown University Law Center in 1996. She joined the faculty of the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law in 1998 and then joined the University of Hawai’i in 2000. Conway has delivered talks in Australia, China, Ghana, Japan, Micronesia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Palau and the United Kingdom on topics including globalization, government contract law, intellectual property law, intellectual property licensing and Indigenous Peoples’ rights.

Conway is a member of the Membership Review Committee and recently completed a three-year term on the Steering Committee of the Deans Forum for the Association of American Law Schools. She is a council member of the American Bar Association’s Section of State and Local Government Law, an elected member of the American Law Institute and a Fulbright Senior Scholar. In the community, she has served as a trustee of the Portland Museum of Art and on the boards of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Maine, the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce and the United Way of Greater Portland.

In 2016, Conway retired from the U.S. Army in the rank of lieutenant colonel after 27 years of military service.

Conway earned her J.D. degree with honors from the Howard University School of Law, where she served on the Howard Law Journal and the National Moot Court Team. She also holds an LL.M. from the George Washington University Law School and a bachelor’s degree from New York University Stern School of Business. She is admitted to the bars in the District of Columbia, Hawai’i, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.