Durkee installed as William Gardiner Hammond Professor of Law

Melissa Durkee (right) with Dean Russell Osgood
Melissa J. Durkee (right), a professor of law, received her medallion from Russell Osgood, dean of the School of Law, during Durkee’s installation ceremony as the William Gardiner Hammond Professor of Law March 20. (Photo: Dan Donovan/Washington University)

Melissa J. Durkee, a professor of law, has been installed as the William Gardiner Hammond Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis. An installation ceremony was held March 20 in Anheuser-Busch Hall.

Durkee is an expert in international law with a focus on international legal theory and specialties in business, environment and governance. Durkee’s scholarship has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Virginia Law Review, American Journal of International Law, and other prominent peer-reviewed and student-edited publications. Her volume, “States, Firms, And Their Legal Fictions” was recently published by Cambridge University Press. She serves on the American Journal of International Law board of editors. 

William Gardiner Hammond began his law practice in Brooklyn and New York City. In 1881, he was appointed the first full-time dean and professor of the Saint Louis Law School, which later became the Washington University School of Law. The Washington University School of Law established this professorship in 2000 with funds from early benefactors who decided to create an endowment fund, otherwise known as the “Subscription of 1936.”

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