Faculty Spotlight: Professor Marjorie Silver

Balance and Legal Education Award to Prof. Marjorie Silver from Copacetic Pictures on Vimeo.

Touro Law Professor Marjorie Silver received the AALS Section on Balance & Well-Being in Legal Education Award at the Association's 2024 Annual Meeting in January. The award is designed to honor an individual for outstanding contributions to the promotion of well-being in legal education. The awardee serves as a model of Balance & Well-Being Section ideals, develops innovative programming that integrates this work into curricular or co-curricular offerings, contributes to academic scholarship in the field, and regularly serves the Section, their law school and greater legal community by providing access to well-being programming and/or services.

Professor Silver has been a pioneer in the field of balance and well-being in legal education through her scholarship, teaching, and service. Professor Silver discussed the importance of "psychological-mindedness" as a component of legal education and practice before it was commonplace, and also was among the first to highlight the importance of self-awareness and cultural awareness as core skill sets for law practice. She has continued to be a creative scholar in these and related topics, including her work connected to humanizing legal education and therapeutic jurisprudence.

In terms of teaching, Professor Silver has incorporated innovative concepts promoting well-being into every course she teaches. Last, and certainly not least, Professor Silver has also devoted a tremendous amount of her time and career to service and has made highly meaningful and lasting contributions to the legal profession, her law school, and this Section. Importantly, she was a founding member and vocal advocate for the establishment of this Section within the AALS and served as one of the first Section Chairs. In every way possible, Marjorie Silver has exemplified the foundational values of the AALS Section on Balance and Well-Being through her outstanding contributions.
Professor Silver stated, "I am thrilled to be receiving this honor in recognition of the work I have done over the past several decades to enhance the well-being of my students, the lawyers they will become, and the clients they will serve.”

Photo Caption:
Seen above are Professor Silver (center) with the two previous Section award winners Professor and Associate Dean Heidi Brown (left), New York Law School (2023) and Professor Shailini George (right), Suffolk University Law School (2022) at a recent (October 5-6, 2023) conference on Preventing Self-Inflicted Harm by Law Students and Lawyers at Suffolk University Law School in Boston.