I am pleased to announce that Heather Hughes has agreed to serve as Interim Dean of the Washington College of Law (WCL) beginning July 1, 2024. Professor Hughes has taught commercial, corporate, and property law at WCL since 2007. She has served as Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs since 2022 and was director of the SJD program from 2018–2022. 

Professor Hughes’s current research concerns the impact of emerging technologies on law and the legal profession. She is the author of several publications on this topic, and she co-authors a commercial law textbook. She has been recognized with multiple awards, including the WCL Award for Excellence in Teaching (2019), the Edwin A. Mooers Scholar Award for her article on laws governing asset-backed issuances (2017), and the Emalee C. Godsey Scholar Award for her article on debt finance and environmental sustainability (2010). While at WCL, she has taught courses in study abroad programs in Chile, Argentina, and Turkey. 

Prior to her tenure at AU, Professor Hughes was an assistant professor as part of the founding faculty at FIU College of Law and an associate in the business department at Morrison & Foerster LLP. A graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Chicago, she is a member of the bar in California, Colorado, and the District of Columbia.

Dean Roger Fairfax will be working closely with Professor Hughes in the coming weeks to facilitate the transition. Many thanks to Dean Fairfax for his leadership and collaboration over the years, and we wish him well on his next chapter at the Howard University School of Law. I also want to express my gratitude to the WCL faculty for their thoughtful contributions to the selection of the interim dean. 

Please join me in thanking Heather for her dedication to WCL and welcoming her to this important role!