Law school hires criminal law and procedure professor
Lawton to bring outstanding teaching and experience, dean says

OCT. 14, 2004 -- Criminal procedure professor Margaret Lawton will join the faculty of the Charleston School of Law next fall as an associate professor, Dean Richard Gershon announced today.

Lawton, a native of Allendale, S.C., currently is a member of the faculty at Appalachian School of Law. At the school in Grundy, Va., Lawton was named outstanding teacher for the 2003-04 academic year. She will teach criminal law and procedure, trial advocacy and a Church, State and the Constitution seminar.

"Professor Lawton has an outstanding reputation as a teacher and a lawyer," Gershon said. "We are honored to welcome her as the newest addition to our faculty."

Lawton brings extensive trial and appellate criminal practice experience to the school. Following a clerkship with the Hon. Thomas A. Flannery of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, she prosecuted criminal cases as an assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington.

Lawton has a bachelor's degree from Duke University and a law degree (magna cum laude) from Georgetown University Law Center. At Georgetown, she was a member of the Order of the Coif, served as an editor of the Georgetown Law Journal, worked in the Criminal Justice Clinic and served as a research assistant to Father Robert Drinan, a noted scholar of international human rights and legal ethics.

The Charleston School of Law, which opened this year, is now accepting applications for next year's fall class.

###