31st Annual Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. Lecture
Thank you to those who attended and supported the 31st Annual Joseph L. Rauh Jr. Lecture at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law.
We are grateful to everyone who joined us for this special event. Your enthusiasm for the Rauh Lecture and UDC Law is deeply appreciated. We would also like to thank U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson for sharing her expertise, experience, and jurisprudence with the UDC Law and broader D.C. community. It was an unforgettable and inspiring experience.
We look forward to sharing photos and highlights from this extraordinary evening in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for announcements and updates as we celebrate the memorable moments from this year’s lecture.
We hope you will continue to support and engage with UDC Law throughout the year. Please be on the lookout for the announcement of our 2027 Joseph L. Rauh Jr. Lecture speaker, along with information about future programs and events.
Thank you again for your interest and continued support of UDC Law. We look forward to welcoming you to campus again soon!
31st Annual
Joseph L. Rauh, Jr.
Lecture
Thank you to those who attended and supported the 31st Annual Joseph L. Rauh Jr. Lecture at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law.
We are grateful to everyone who joined us for this special event. Your enthusiasm for the Rauh Lecture and UDC Law is deeply appreciated. We would also like to thank U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson for sharing her expertise, experience, and jurisprudence with the UDC Law and broader D.C. community. It was an unforgettable and inspiring experience.
We look forward to sharing photos and highlights from this extraordinary evening in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for announcements and updates as we celebrate the memorable moments from this year’s lecture.
We hope you will continue to support and engage with UDC Law throughout the year. Please be on the lookout for the announcement of our 2027 Joseph L. Rauh Jr. Lecture speaker, along with information about future programs and events.
Thank you again for your interest and continued support of UDC Law. We look forward to welcoming you to campus again soon!
About the Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. Lecture
The annual Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. Lecture series serves as a dedicated forum at UDC Law in which leading members of the bench or bar speak directly to the people of the District and the law school community on issues of vital importance to the practice of law in the public interest.
Established in 1993 in honor of the late civil liberties attorney and founding member of the law school Board of Governors Joe Rauh, some of the nation’s most respected civil rights and public interest figures – including then-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor and many others – have delivered the Rauh Lecture.
The Rauh Lecture, which is open to the public and free of charge, includes a catered reception at the conclusion of the event courtesy of the D.C. School of Law Foundation
Mathew Ahmann, Cleveland Robinson, Joachim Prinz, A. Philip Randolph, Joseph L. Rauh Jr., John Lewis, and Floyd McKissick at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963
Joe Rauh (standing, fifth from left) (National Archives, Washington, D.C.)
Joe Rauh
About Joe Rauh
Joe Rauh envisioned a law school that would function as a training ground for public interest lawyers: a school where law students could learn basic skills and represent the underrepresented at the same time, a school that made dedication to public service a criterion for admission and commitment to public service a life-long responsibility. The University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law is Joe Rauh’s dream come true. A founding member of the Law School’s Board of Governors, Rauh remained one of its staunchest supporters until his last hours with us.
Past Rauh Lecturers
Jamie Raskin
2025
Maya Wiley
2023
Karl Racine
2021
Richard L. Trumka
2019
Vanita Gupta
2018
Stephen Bright
2017
Sen. Cory Booker
2016
Bryan Stevenson
2015
Tom Perez
2014
Sen. Elizabeth Warren
2013
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor
2012
Harold Koh
2011
| 2010 | Eric Holder | |
| 2009 | Sen. Patrick Leahy | |
| 2008 | Vernon Jordan | |
| 2007 | Nina Totenberg interviewed by Wade Henderson | |
| 2006 | Theodore M. Shaw | |
| 2005 | Congressman Barney Frank | |
| 2004 | Congressman John Lewis | |
| 2003 | Marian Wright Edelman | |
| 2002 | Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Ralph Neas and Wade Henderson on “Civil Rights in the 21st Century” | |
| 2001 | Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg | |
| 2000 | Charles Ruff |
| 1999 | The Sleep Room (an award-winning film about Joe Rauh’s last case) | |
| 1998 | Jack Greenberg | |
| 1997 | Elaine Jones | |
| 1996 | Father Robert Drinan | |
| 1995 | Rick Seymour | |
| 1994 | Judith Lichtman & Roger Wilkins | |
| 1993 | William Taylor |
