Helen Tariku ’24 Receives George Wythe Award at Law School Commencement
Helen Tariku ’24 received the George Wythe Award during William & Mary Law School’s commencement ceremony at Kaplan Arena on Saturday, May 18.
The honor is given each year by the Law School in recognition of outstanding service by a member of the graduating class.
Tariku graduated with a B.A. from William & Mary before starting law school, and since then has served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice and as President of the Black Law Students Association. She was also a member of the National Trial Team, an Associate Justice of the Honor Council, a research assistant, and the recipient of the 2022 Oliver W. Hill Scholarship.
Tariku interned for the law firms of Kaufman & Canoles and Surovell, Isaacs & Levy, and externed for the Honorable Teresa M. Chafin of the Supreme Court of Virginia and Honorable Henry E. Hudson of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
After graduation, she will be a judicial clerk for the Fairfax Circuit Court.
The award is named in honor of George Wythe (1726-1806), one of the most remarkable lawyers in Virginia of the 18th century, mentor to Thomas Jefferson, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was William & Mary's – and the nation’s—first professor of law.