Laura Bladow J.D. ’18 Receives I’Anson Award
Professional Promise During graduation, Dean Douglas presented Laura Bladow J.D. ’18 with the I’Anson Award, which recognizes great professional promise as demonstrated through scholarship, character and leadership. Photo by Odd Moxie
Laura Bladow J.D. ’18 received the I’Anson Award, the highest award given to a graduating student by the Law School faculty, during the Law School’s Diploma Ceremony on May 13.
The award recognizes great professional promise as demonstrated through scholarship, character and leadership, and is named in honor of Lawrence W. I’Anson (1907-1990), a graduate of the College of William & Mary and former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia.
Bladow came to William & Mary from the University of Colorado, where she graduated magna cum laude with a degree in international affairs and political science.
At the end of her first semester of law school, Bladow received the Wayne Lee Book Award, which goes to the student with the highest GPA after the first semester. At the end of her first year, she was honored for being the second best student in the 1L legal writing program.
Bladow would go on to serve as the Editor-in-Chief of the William & Mary Law Review, and her note was published by the Law Review. Despite a busy schedule, she managed to finish in a four-way tie for number one in her graduating class.
“I don’t remember the last time the Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review finished first in the class,” said Dean Davison Douglas. “And the reason is that editing a law review is an incredibly busy job.”
Douglas added that Bladow also served as a research assistant for a faculty member who described her as “the best research assistant that I have had in 12 years of teaching.”
After graduation, Bladow will spend a year clerking for the Chief Judge of the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk, followed by a clerkship with a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. She will then join the Washington, D.C., office of Latham & Watkins.
“Laura, we salute you for your remarkable law school success, and look forward to all that you will accomplish in your life,” Douglas said.
About William & Mary Law School
Thomas Jefferson founded William & Mary Law School in 1779 to train leaders for the new nation. Now in its third century, America's oldest law school continues its historic mission of educating citizen lawyers who are prepared both to lead and to serve.