The Board of Trustees of The John Marshall Law School approved the appointment of two new deans at its June 7, 2013, board meeting, and Dean John E. Corkery has appointed two new administrators.
Margaret “Peg” O’Mara Frossard
Margaret (Peg) O’Mara Frossard was named associate dean for Professionalism and Career Strategy. After serving as a judge for 22 years—including 13 years on the Illinois Appellate Court—Frossard came to the law school as director of Professionalism and Engagement in 2011.
“By hiring a person with Peg’s legal and judicial experience, we re-emphasize our commitment to producing graduates who are practice ready,” said Dean John E. Corkery. “No other law school in Illinois has a person directing their career strategy efforts who has as much experience in high level law practice as Peg.”
Frossard was named director of Professionalism and Career Strategy in January 2013. In her role as associate dean, she is supervising the Career Services Office, and is responsible for implementing programs for students to develop career-related skills throughout law school, and for implementing programs to facilitate job placement for graduates.
Under her direction, John Marshall was the first law school in Illinois to be approved by the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism to launch the Lawyer-to-Lawyer Mentoring Program. Since the program was first set in motion in 2011, Frossard has paired more than 100 mentors and mentees who have completed orientation and attended professionalism events at John Marshall.
Her office hosts a variety of professionalism events, including the Justice Anne Burke Professionalism Series. Judges and practitioners are also welcomed for a series of panel discussions with the mentors and mentees. She also designed the In-Classroom Professionalism & Engagement Program. Judges, practitioners, alumni, and other professionals are guest presenters discussing their careers. Then, they explain to students what professionalism means in the workplace, how to resolve ethical challenges, how to achieve the skills valued by employers, and how to market those skills.
Anthony Niedwiecki
Anthony Niedwiecki was named associate dean for Skills, Experiential Learning and Assessment.
“The terms ‘skills’ and ‘experiential learning’ in his title refer to those things mentioned in the strategic plan that will most prepare our students to be practice ready when they graduate,” Corkery said. “It is critical that we develop our programs in this area, and I cannot think of a better person to lead this effort for us than Anthony.”
Niedwiecki has served as director of John Marshall’s Lawyering Skills Program which U.S. News & World Report ranks second in the country. In August he will complete a term as president of the Association of Legal Writing Directors.
As associate dean, Niedwiecki will continue directing the Lawyering Skills Program, and will take on responsibilities for the law school’s overall experiential learning requirement. He also will develop and institute a broad assessment program for the law school. Niedwiecki will work with professors to develop learning outcomes, and he will help professors expand their use of assessments to improve student learning and to establish programmatic and institutional assessment methods.
Upon arriving at John Marshall in 2010, Niedwiecki conducted a full Lawyering Skills Program assessment taking input from surveys sent to alumni and those in the legal community asking how well prepared John Marshall students are after four semesters in the program. Using that feedback he worked with faculty to redesign the four courses so students get more writing practice and research instruction; improve their analysis, advocacy and communication skills; learn how to write basic contracts; and do electronic filing. For faculty, new tools are in place to help them assess students’ reasoning and critical thinking. Since making these changes, John Marshall’s legal writing program has improved in the U.S. News rankings.
Niedwiecki has a bachelor’s degree from Wayne State University, a JD from Tulane University Law School and an LLM from Temple University Beasley School of Law. Before becoming a law professor, he was a commercial litigation attorney at Mayer Brown’s Houston, Texas, office and a labor and employment attorney with Gardere & Wynne in Dallas. He previously was a professor at Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center.
June Liebert
Corkery appointed June Liebert to chief information officer. In making the announcement, Corkery said “June has done excellent work in directing our library and our distance education programs. I believe her to be the best person to manage and direct all our technology and information initiatives.”
Liebert came to John Marshall in May 2007 as director of the Louis L. Biro Law Library, and has, in addition, worked to develop and improve the law school’s distance education initiatives. She developed the Academic Technology unit to help with the growth of online learning that today offers the Employee Benefits, Intellectual Property Law and Estate Planning LLM degree programs online, and a number of other LLM courses. In addition, John Marshall’s MS in Employee Benefits and MS in Intellectual Property Law are offered online. This summer, the law school is developing a massive open online course (MOOC) in military law.
In her new role, Liebert will continue serving as director of the library with added responsibility for all of the technology and information services at the school. The focus will be on using technology to better support student learning, both online and in class.
Liebert previously was chief information officer at the University of Texas School of Law at Austin. She received a bachelor’s degree in management from Case Western Reserve University, a JD from Indiana University School of Law, and a master of library science degree from Indiana University School of Library and Information Science.
Teresa Do
Teresa Do was named director of Administrative Support for Faculty. In 2008, as a new John Marshall Law School graduate, Do was hired as the first library research fellow assisting faculty with scholarship projects that led to law review journal articles. In 2010, Do accepted an assistant director position in the Career Services Office that included not only working with students but also assisting Associate Deans Ralph Ruebner and Rory Smith.
From that work, Do took on greater responsibilities for accreditation through the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), the American Bar Association (ABA) and the American Association of Law Schools, as well as the Consortium of Law School Diversity Professionals and overall faculty administrative support.
“Teresa is already helping administer faculty works in progress and the faculty roundtable programs,” Corkery said. “In the future she will also work with Cynthia Sah, our chief financial officer, and faculty on budgetary matters and work with June Liebert, our chief information officer, on technology training and technology needs for faculty.”
In this director’s role, Do will take on even greater responsibility, including working on the HLC and ABA accreditation matters, aspects of the Pro Bono Clinic, and faculty portfolio projects. She will administer and help faculty develop programs, manage budgets and reports and assist with information pertinent to webpages, blogs, publications, etc.
Do received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame in 2003.