John Marshall Law School Professor Donald Beschle has been named The Edward T. and Noble W. Lee Chair in Constitutional Law for the 2017-2018 academic year.
As Lee Chair, Beschle will research, write and speak on constitutional law and will specifically focus on First Amendment issues.
Beschle is the seventh professor to receive this honor. Professor Samuel Olken, who was the previous Lee Chair, focused his research on Chief Justice John Marshall’s use of the preamble to interpret the interstices of the Constitution.
“The Lee Chair will give me more time to explore the always fascinating issues surrounding the speech and religion clauses of the First Amendment, and to keep an eye on how other nations deal with those issues, Beschle said.”
Edward T. Lee and his son, Noble W. Lee, collectively served John Marshall for 90 years, leading the school as deans for 65 of those years. The Lee Chair in Constitutional Law was established in 2010 to honor their contributions to the law school and the legal profession, and their shared interest in constitutional law.
Beschle received his law degree from New York University. As a law student, he served as research editor for the Annual Survey of American Law and was elected to the Order of the Coif. After graduation, Beschle spent several years as an associate at the New York firm of Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin, Krim & Ballon, working on a wide range of civil matters.
From 1979 to 1981, Beschle was a teaching fellow at Temple University School of Law, where he taught in both the law school and the undergraduate college while earning his LLM degree. His articles have appeared in more than a dozen law reviews and have been widely cited by both academic commentators and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Beschle joined the John Marshall faculty in 1981. He teaches Antitrust Law, Religion and the Law, Constitutional Law and Property.
