Casey inducted to Virginia Law Foundation

January 24, 2019
Clinical law professor recognized for her excellence in the profession

Tara Casey, associate clinical professor of law and director of the Carrico Center for Pro Bono and Public Service, will be inducted into the 2019 class of Virginia Law Foundation Fellows on January 24. The Virginia Law Foundation supports efforts surrounding access to justice, promoting an understanding of the Rule of Law, and providing education in support of these ideals – all through a grant program that has provided over $25 million in funding since its inception.  

Fellows of the Virginia Law Foundation, who are appointed to life terms, help administer those grants, amongst other roles. “We like [the fellows] to be engaged with the Foundation in a way that best suits their background, availability, and interests,” said Ray White, executive director of the Foundation. That means teaching continuing legal education courses, helping with fundraising campaigns, or volunteering their time toward the Foundation’s mission. Fellows are elected by their peers, and include 500 lawyers across Virginia.  

“Induction into the Virginia Law Foundation makes me feel like the career that I have enjoyed these 20 years has also meant something to my community; that somehow, in small ways along the way, I have contributed to improving the world through the law,” said Casey, who has served has director of the Carrico Center for 10 years. She was recognized as the YWCA “Outstanding Woman of Achievement in Law” in 2007, and was the recipient of the Metro Richmond Women’s Bar Association 2015 Women of Achievement Award. She also serves on the Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission and the Association of American Law Schools Pro Bono Section.  

“It’s [the type of work that Tara] does, a lot of which is unknown, except to those closest to her and those benefitting from her work, that’s part of the real genuineness of what she’s doing,” said White. “She’s not doing it for the publicity or the self-servingness about it. She’s doing it because it needs to be done.”