PORTLAND, Maine — A professor of business law in Hawaii will take over the reins of Maine’s only law school on July 1.
Danielle Conway, 46, is the Michael J. Marks Distinguished Professor of Business Law and Director of the Hawaii Procurement Institute at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, William S. Richardson School of Law, according to a press release issued Friday by Maine Law.
Over the past 14 years at Hawaii, Conway has earned a reputation as a leading expert in public procurement law, entrepreneurship, and as an advocate for minorities and indigenous peoples. She also has more than 20 years of active and reserve duty service with the U.S. Army, and currently serves as a lieutenant colonel.
Her annual salary at Maine Law will be $212,000.
Conway will be the seventh dean at Maine Law since its founding in 1962. She will become the first African American to serve as dean and succeed Peter Pitegoff. Pitegoff, who has been dean since 2005, will remain at Maine Law as an active member of the faculty.
“I’m both thrilled and honored to be named the next dean of the University of Maine School of Law. The school is a resource that is vital to the University of Maine System, and to the broader community,” Conway said in the press release.
The new dean said Friday morning in a telephone interview that she will be working on the proposal to combine the law school and the graduate business school at the University of Southern Maine. The law school is located on USM’s Portland campus.
“I will be working to create a particular synergy between those two disciplines so that students get the skills they need to achieve their goals,” she said.
A strong supporter of public education, Conway is praised by colleagues for her ability to motivate and inspire colleagues and students, and her fearlessness in tackling the toughest social and economic challenges, the press release said. In the area of social justice, which is a core principle at Maine Law, Conway has drawn on her expertise in government procurement and other areas of the law to help minority communities throughout the world.
“Professor Conway impressed me and many other stakeholders within the USM and Maine Law communities during the search process and her time spent in Portland,” USM President David Flanagan said in the release. “As a public resource and a training ground for leaders, the law school plays a unique and important role in Maine. We believe that resource will be in good hands with Professor Conway, and we’re thrilled to have her on board.”
Since 2003, Conway has been of counsel at Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing LLP. She is a graduate of the Stern School of Business at New York University, Howard University School of Law, and earned her LL.M. degree from The George Washington University School of Law.
She was the Godfrey Visiting Scholar at Maine Law in 2008.
Conway said Friday that she and her husband, Emmanuel Quainoo, and their son will be moving to the Portland area next summer.