Law School Recognizes Schmidt with
2005-06 St. George Tucker Award

Elizabeth M. Schmidt receives the Law School's 2005-06 St. George Tucker Adjunct Professorship Award.

By Kaila Gregory ’09

Law School Dean Taylor Reveley presented the 2005-06 St. George Tucker Adjunct Professorship Award to Elizabeth M. Schmidt during a luncheon at the College’s historic Wren Building on Sept. 8. The award, created in 1995, is given each year to a member of the Law School’s adjunct faculty for outstanding service.

Schmidt serves as counsel and vice president of Guidestar, an organization that assembles a database of financial and operational reports on public charities. “GuideStar is doing great good in the nonprofit world,” said Reveley.

Schmidt has taught at the law school periodically, beginning in 1981, and most recently taught a course on nonprofit law and practice. Over the years, Schmidt also taught courses in employment law, family law, juvenile law, legal skills, and legal writing.

Throughout her career, Reveley said Schmidt, “has made extremely significant contributions to many organizations, in addition to the Law School.” Before beginning her teaching career at William & Mary, Schmidt practiced law in Minneapolis for two years.

Additionally, she has worked as a strategic and legal consultant to many nonprofit organizations and has served as a board member for others in the community as well as nationally. Schmidt has coordinated educational outreach programs for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, presented materials for continuing judicial education for the National Association of Women Judges, and developed plans for bringing charities’ reports to the general public through the Online Giving Project.

Reveley also noted that Schmidt has earned a great deal of affectionate respect from her students. “Professor Schmidt obviously has a wealth of knowledge about the nonprofit sector.  She did a great job organizing the course and presenting information,” one student wrote. Another said Schmidt, “did a fantastic job, putting together great teaching materials, bringing in excellent guest speakers, and being responsive to students.” Other students praised Schmidt for being “engaging and informal, very knowledgeable, [and] very approachable,” and for “[providing] one of the few opportunities to learn about alternative careers for lawyers” in addition to being “a very, very nice person.”

St. George Tucker was the second professor of law at William & Mary and a pioneer in legal education. He drafted a formal description of the requirements for a law degree at the College, which included an exacting schedule of qualifying examinations in history, government and related pre-law subjects. Tucker's course material was published as the first American edition of Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England. For a generation, Tucker's volume was considered the leading authority on American law.

“Though no mortal could equal [Law School founder and first American law professor George] Wythe, Tucker was extraordinary in his own right,” said Reveley, noting that Chuck Hobson is leading a project to publish Tucker’s papers. “Wythe’s and Tucker’s 20 years of leadership at the Law School produced remarkable results for legal education in this country.”