MACON – Paul D. Clement, former United States Solicitor General and current partner in the Washington, D.C., office of King & Spalding law firm, is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the annual Law Day luncheon at Mercer University’s Walter F. George School of Law on March 6. During the visit, Clement will also give a lecture during a class of first-year Mercer law students.
A graduate of Harvard Law School, Clement was nominated as solicitor general by President George W. Bush on March 14, 2005. He served as the 43rd U.S. Solicitor General from June 2005 until June 2008. Prior to his confirmation as solicitor general, he served as acting solicitor general for nearly a year and as principal deputy solicitor general for over three years. He has argued 49 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including McConnell v. FEC, Tennessee v. Lane, Rumsfield v. Padilla, and the United States v. Booker.
Clement received a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a master’s degree in economics from Cambridge University. Following graduation from Harvard Law School, where he was the Supreme Court editor of the Harvard Law Review, Clement clerked for Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Clement will deliver the keynote address during the Friday Law Day luncheon at 12:30 p.m. in the Mercer University Center, during which time Mercer Law School alumni Gerald Edenfield (1970) and Judge W. Louis Sands (1974) and will receive the Outstanding Alumnus Award and Meritorious Service Award, respectively. His class lecture begins at 9:40 a.m. during a “Constitutional Law” class.
“We are very excited to have Paul Clement as our Law Day speaker,” Mercer Law School Dean Daisy Hurst Floyd said. “His extraordinary career as a lawyer at the highest levels of government gives him a unique insight from which we all can learn. Our students, in particular, will benefit tremendously from his breadth of knowledge.”
Established in 1958 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Law Day is designed to strengthen the public’s understanding of the American justice system. Though the national observance of Law Day is generally May 1, many law schools, including Mercer Law School, publicly recognize it earlier in the Spring semester due to the heavy academic demands in May. In recognition of the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, the Law Day 2009 theme is “A Legacy of Liberty.”
About Mercer Law School
The Mercer University Walter F. George School of Law is ranked among the Top 100 law schools in the United States, and its legal writing program is ranked No. 1 in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2009 ranking of “America’s Best Graduate Schools.” The law school’s public interest law program was recently ranked No. 6 in the nation by preLaw Magazine. Founded in 1873, Mercer Law School is among the oldest in the nation. Its innovative Woodruff Curriculum – which focuses on ethics and practical skills amid small class sizes – earned the Gambrell Professionalism Award from the American Bar Association for its “depth of excellence.” With a total enrollment of about 400 students, taught by some of the sharpest legal minds in the country, Mercer Law School is recognized as one of the nation’s best.
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