2017 Metcalf Cup and Prize Recipient: Naomi Mann

Naomi Mann joined Boston University School of Law in 2013 as Clinical Associate Professor of Law in the Civil Litigation Program, where she teaches in both the Employment Rights clinic and the Housing, Employment, Family Law, and Disability clinic. Her scholarship explores the tension between Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and constitutional procedural due process rights. Her research interests also include domestic violence and sexual assault.

Professor Mann is dedicated to augmenting the curriculum and devising pedagogical methods to meet the demands of the changing legal profession. Shortly after joining BU Law, Professor Mann played a key role in modernizing the School of Law curriculum. She co-chaired the faculty Task Force on Teaching Competencies that led to the creation of the Lawyering Lab, a highly regarded first-year simulation designed to teach skills in client counseling, teamwork, negotiation, and contract drafting. She has chaired or co-chaired the lab program the last three years.

Law school clinics provide law students with their primary, and often only, real-world opportunity to represent clients and exercise legal judgment. Professor Mann’s approach to clinical experience is built around four conversations with each student: critical assessment and judgment, reflection, assumptions and cross-cultural lawyering, and professional identity. She also serves as an inspiration. An alumnus says, “To be in Professor Mann’s presence is to be in awe. Her patience and wisdom inspire students to accomplish feats they did not know they were capable of.”

A colleague describes her as a “gifted teacher, manager, negotiator, and diplomat.” Another, as “passionate, brilliant, and deeply devoted to her students.” Yet another considers her to be “light-years ahead of most clinical teachers.”

Professor Mann received a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in Social Anthropology from Harvard University and a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center. Before coming to BU Law, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Boston College Law School, a civil rights attorney in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, and a staff attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services and Washington Empowered Against Violence.