Law School Welcomes Vivian Hamilton
The Law School welcomed Associate Professor Vivian E. Hamilton to the faculty in August. Professor Hamilton will teach Family Law, Federal Civil Procedure, and Advanced Family Law Advocacy (a simulation-based course that introduces students to domestic relations practice). Her scholarship centers on theories of family law, marriage, and the socioeconomic implications of family policy.
Professor Hamilton received a B.A. from Yale College and is a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. At Harvard, she was Articles Editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review and served as a student attorney for the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. She was awarded the National Association of Women Lawyers' Outstanding Woman Graduate Award at commencement.
After earning her law degree, Professor Hamilton clerked for Judge Gladys Kessler of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She later practiced law at Steptoe & Johnson LLP in Washington, DC, then at the Legal Aid Society of Washington, DC.
Professor Hamilton taught previously at American University's Washington College of Law and at the West Virginia University College of Law.
She began her academic career at American where she was first a Practitioner-in- Residence, then Director of the Women and the Law Clinic. In the Clinic, she supervised law students who represented indigent clients in civil matters. She co-taught the Clinic's seminar component and also taught Family Law and a Public Interest and Government Externship seminar.
At West Virginia, where she was an associate professor of law, Professor Hamilton taught Federal Civil Procedure, Family Law, and Advanced Family Law Advocacy. She served as Parliamentarian of the 120-person University Faculty Senate and was active in student life-she served as faculty advisor to multiple student organizations, including the Gay, Lesbian, Alternative, and Straight Student Alliance and the Non-Traditional Students' Organization. She also initiated and coordinated a school-wide Discussion Series.
Professor Hamilton was recently elected to serve on the Executive Committee of the Section on Family and Juvenile Law of the Association of American Law Schools, and she chairs the Section's Scholarship Review Program. She is on the boards of several non-profit organizations, including the Frederick B. Abramson Memorial Foundation, which awards college scholarships to seniors in the D.C. public school system and public interest fellowships to graduating law students, and the Black Student Fund, which provides funding and support for lower-income African-American students to enable them to attend private school. She is a former member of the Board of Directors of the West Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.