Bunch, B.A. '02, J.D. '06, and Smith, J.D. '06, Honored with Inaugural Reveley Award
The William & Mary Law School Association recognized Douglas Bunch, B.A. '02, J.D. '06, and Douglas Smith, J.D. '06, during graduation on May 15 as co-recipients of the Taylor Reveley Award for their work on behalf of children in the developing world. The new award, announced earlier this year, recognizes outstanding commitment to public service by an alumnus or alumna who has graduated within the previous 10 years.
Bunch and Smith, both practicing attorneys, are among the founders of Global Playground, a charity based in New York City which helps build schools and libraries for children in the developing world. The co-recipients could not be present at the ceremony, due to a previously scheduled trip on behalf of the organization to Thailand. The pair did, however, have a chance to receive the congratulations of William & Mary President Taylor Reveley, the award's namesake, during an April trip to Williamsburg for their class reunion.
Association President Fernand A. Lavallee '88, a partner at DLA Piper in Washington, DC, told the audience the award honored Reveley's "many contributions as a Citizen Lawyer and his advancement of the Citizen-Lawyer ideal while dean of the Law School."
Bunch and Smith, Lavallee said, helped to shape a charitable organization that has a goal "as huge as it is straightforward: to the degree that underdeveloped countries lack the educational resources they need, Global Playground aims to provide them."
Bunch serves as Global Playground's chairman and practices law at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll in Washington, DC. He is also the founder and executive director of Ascanius: The Youth Classics Institute and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
Smith, who clerks for Judge Richard L. Gabriel of the Colorado Court of Appeals, is a director of the charity and serves as its secretary. He practiced law in New York City earlier in his career and served as a clerk to Judge Beverly B. Martin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
This is the second award created by the Law School Association to recognize public service. The first, the Citizen-Lawyer Award, is also given annually at graduation and recognizes a graduate or friend of the Law School who has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to citizenship and leadership.