Brian Wall Honored with 2024 Walter L. Williams, Jr., Memorial Teaching Award
Dean and Trustee Professor of Law A. Benjamin Spencer presented Associate Dean Brian Wall with the Walter L. Williams, Jr., Memorial Teaching Award during William & Mary Law School’s Commencement Ceremony at Kaplan Arena on Saturday, May 18.
The award is determined by a vote of the graduating class, and honors the memory of the late Walter L. Williams, Jr., an outstanding teacher, and member of the faculty from 1972 to 1991. 
Spencer quoted from several of Wall’s teaching evaluations at the ceremony. One student remarked that Wall “makes an effort to know everyone and embodies the mission of William & Mary Law School,” while another said, “his teaching style is outstanding, as he has a remarkable ability to explain complex concepts in a clear and understandable manner.” Yet another student said he is “very honest about what we should be focusing on not just in law school but in life.”
Wall, a Class of 2011 alumnus, returned to the Law School less than a year ago but is already making a huge difference. He not only serves full-time as Associate Dean for Student Affairs & Academic Support, but this past year he taught Trusts & Estates, Leadership & Professional Development, Advanced Legal Analysis & Doctrine, and co-taught Law & Literature with the Wolf Law Library team.
Most recently, Wall was Associate Dean for Student Affairs at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, where he also served as an adjunct professor teaching Property, Wills and Trusts, Bar Exam Foundations, and Lawyering Process, as well as a course at the UNLV Honors College. He joined Boyd in 2016 as Director of Graduate Programs and led the Admissions and Financial Aid team from 2017-21, before becoming Associate Dean for Student Affairs.
Wall earned his B.A. and M.A. from Brigham Young University, after which he earned his J.D. from William & Mary Law School and a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh. Prior to joining the Boyd School of Law, he was a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at the University of Edinburgh.
As a William & Mary law student, Wall was President of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society and the International Law Society, Chief of Staff for the Student Bar Association, and Senior Articles Editor of the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal. In 2021, he served on his 10th Law School Reunion Gift Committee.
Wall’s published scholarship combines his fields of legal thought and English and American literature. His Doctoral thesis, for instance, examined transatlantic depictions of property and criminal law in nineteenth-century British and American fiction.