Student Bar Association gets national honor

The American Bar Association has recognized GW’s Student Bar Association as the best student group of its kind in the nation.

An organization serving every member of the nation’s 20th-ranked Law School by U.S. News and World Report, the SBA plans student life events and helps graduating law students find internships and jobs. The group was honored last month by the organization that oversees student and professional bar associations across the country.

“We are very excited about this award because it reflects the positive changes that this administration has made in the GW law community,” said Eric Koester, the president of the group, who was also named vice president of the ABA’s law student division.

In his third year as president of the SBA, Koester’s new duties are now expanded.

“This places me as director of the presidents of all the student bar associations in the country,” Koester said.

Koester said one of his projects will be to provide resources to help similar organizations around the nation advocate change within their respective law schools. He plans to conduct case studies on how law students have previously made changes within their own law communities.

During his tenure as GW’s SBA president, Koester worked with the 75-member SBA board to overhaul its constitution and draft new policies. In the last year, Koester said he has also installed a student class gift for the Law School and increased safety on campus by ensuring that University Police do a walk-through of the law campus to lock all the doors.

Multiple criteria were used in the naming of the best student bar association in the country, including programming of events and the strength and diversity of the student body.

“I surmise that SBA won the award because of its comprehensive scope of programs and services, and new initiatives to benefit the law students at GW,” said Renee Devigne, associate dean of the Law School and dean of Law School students.

“It was probably the combination of those three things that impressed the awards committee,” Devigne added.

She said the concise way GW’s law group presented its credentials contributed to their award.

Devigne said, “They gave the committee a clear understanding of their recent accomplishments, and showed that they had great respect for these awards.”

-Samantha Kass