Thomas W. Mitchell, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, is one of ten professors in the United States to receive a cash award of $25,000 from the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award Trust in 2013. The award is given to professors who inspired their former students to achieve greatness.

“Like many law students, I knew virtually nothing about land loss in minority communities until participating in the clinical externship program that Professor Mitchell built up,” said John Pollock, who nominated Mitchell for the award.

Pollock was a student at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, Mass., when he completed his externship. “That program, which sent law students like myself to land retention projects across the country, stimulated my interest in land loss issues," he said. "And his post-graduation guidance helped channel that passion into an organized force. It is not an exaggeration to say that without Professor Mitchell’s influence, neither the Heirs’ Property Retention Coalition I founded nor the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act I helped create would exist.”

The trust was established in 2008 under the will of Gail McKnight Beckman in honor of her mother Dr. Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman. Dr. Beckman was an educator, a renowned author and a pioneer in the field of psychology. The Beckman Award Trust has granted $1.3 million to 52 professors and/or faculty members to date.

Mitchell, along with the nine other 2013 Beckman Trust Recipients, was honored Saturday, November 9, at the the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta.

Submitted by Law School News on December 3, 2013

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