Mainebiz

W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 27 A U G U S T 7 , 2 0 1 7 In her own words In her own words In her own words In her own words In her own words In her own words In her own words In her own words In her own words In her own words In her own words In her own words In her own words In her own words What triggered your career path? I knew the law was for me when I heard a record- ing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. I associated that speech with lawyers, and it was at that moment that I started communicating to my mother my desire to become a lawyer. Did you have a mentor or role model? I have three North Stars: My mother, Gwendolyn Conway, who went to law school at night and part-time while working full-time and raising four children on her own. When she graduated, she was radiant, and I thought: She's who I want to be; Jill J. Ramsfield, who taught me how to be a teacher and how to find my voice; and Hawaii lawyer Terry Thomason, who valued me as a pro- fessional and complimented my work at every stage of my career. What advice would you give your younger self? You will become expert, so don't try so hard. What keeps you up at night? Absolutely nothing. I learned in the military, and from a couple of hard knocks, that if I am honest in my work and with people, I can always sleep at night. I have not had a sleepless night in Maine. What's the last book you read? The "Autobiography of a Black Activist, Feminist, Lawyer, Priest, and Poet," by Pauli Murray. The author had a wonderful relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt, who was her mentor. Every positive interaction between the two in this book is like my relationship with Eleanor's granddaughter and my good friend, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, president and CEO of Goodwill Northern New England. In just two years Conway has also emerged as a community force in Maine through her involvement in numerous organizations from the Portland Museum of Art, where she has served as a trustee and collections committee member, to the United Way of Greater Portland. Every chance she gets, and on social media, she talks about the law school and its Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic, around since 1970 but little-known until Conway began getting the word out. "From the moment she came to Maine Law, she recognized the special place the clinic is and has been for our students and she absolutely has wanted to raise the profi le of it," Deirdre Smith, the law profes- sor who directs the clinic. "We feel very fortunate to have her at the helm of the law school." From student to educator ough Conway would have preferred to go straight to law school from high school, she studied fi nance and international business at New York University on a U.S. Army Reserve offi cers training corps scholarship. She deferred her Army service to study at Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C., where her love of the law grew. She was particularly taken with government contracts because of a professor she admired, Warner Lawson Jr., for whom she worked as a research assistant for two years. After graduating cum laude, Conway could have taken a job with a New York City law fi rm that would have paid off her military obligation. She chose to do that herself at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Washington, where she wrote administrative deci- sions on behalf of business owners — women, veter- ans, immigrants — unfairly shut out of government contracts. " erein was born my appreciation of how this regulatory scheme could be used for justice, for fairness, for equality and for economic development." Eager to learn more, she went to George Washington University School of Law to get a master's in public procurement law and environmental law. In 1996, she reached another crossroads: Accept a high-paying job with a Washington law fi rm or teach at Georgetown University Law Center. She chose the latter, where she learned the ropes from Jill J. Ramsfi eld, then the school's director of legal research and writing. "She took it upon herself, to teach me in two years, how to be a teacher," she says. "Not how to be a law professor, how to be a teacher, but how to fi nd my own voice and at the same time connect with students. is woman has remained my North Star to this day." Ramsfi eld, now consulting and working on a book, says she remembers Conway being "a little shy" when she fi rst came to Georgetown but with an inner fi re: "I could see her warmth and her strength and her brains and interest and her energy. She got it right away, and Danielle was launched." e two remain friends to this day and, in fact, worked together for many years at the University of Hawaii's William S. Richardson's School of Law. Change agent In 2008 Conway spent three weeks at Maine Law as a visiting professor. Little did she know she would be back several years later to interview for the job of dean. Professor Jeff rey Maine, who chaired the com- mittee that selected her for the job following a nationwide search says, says, "We saw her as some- one with the energy and entrepreneurial skill set and creativity to help us develop a vision," at a time when many law schools were seeing a drop in enrollment. " ere was strong support for her candidacy." Eager to get things rolling, Conway came on board before her offi cial July 2015 start date to learn the culture and "capture the excitement" of the school's desire for change, starting with the One University Initiative for a new graduate center. While the conversation had until then cen- tered around merging schools, Conway shifted the focus to "interdisciplinarity that would support our students' needs and desires for a more robust cur- riculum." She's also done that through the newly launched certifi cate program in regulatory compli- ance for non-lawyers, and a master's of law for non- lawyers being explored by the faculty that Maine predicts will be "a great thing" for the state. She also hopes to get two pilot programs per- manently endowed: the Pre-Law Scholars Program for undergraduates from racial and ethnic minority groups underrepresented in the legal profession, as well as those from rural communities or are the fi rst in their family to go to college, and the rural lawyer program that got off the ground this summer. Two years after Conway's arrival, Jeff rey Maine fi nds that she has "far exceeded our expectations," to the point where he worries about another school try- ing to snatch her away. "I hope that we can keep her," he says. " ere's still a lot of good work to be done." While Conway feels the same way, she also dreams of becoming a forensic pathologist someday. "I love the TV show 'Quincy.' Jack Klugman is one of my heroes," she confesses with her hearty laugh. "I would love to do that in my next life, and I have dreams of going to college with my son." R C , M a i n e b i z s e n i o r w r i t e r, c a n b e reached at @ . and @ P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY On a recent visit to the Portland Museum of Art, Danielle M. Conway (center), chats with museum director Mark Bessire (far left); Bernard Osher (in yellow) and Peter Lunder.

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