March 25, 2008
Susman receives first Robert Vaughn FOIA Legend Award
(Photo by Hilary Schwab)
Washington College of Law last week presented its inaugural Robert Vaughn FOIA Legend Award to Thomas M. Susman, center, a longtime government openness advocate and principal drafter of the 1974 Freedom of Information Act. Susman is a partner at Ropes and Gray and earlier this month was appointed government affairs director for the American Bar Association.
Susman received the award on Mar. 17, the first day of Sunshine Week, a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. It honors WCL professor Robert Vaughn, left, who in the early 1970s brought a landmark FOIA lawsuit that established the means by which hundreds of such cases are litigated each year. The 17th also was WCL’s first annual Freedom of Information Day Celebration, during which Jim Rettig, right, president elect of the American Library Association, spoke.
“We are very pleased to have such a large part of the openness-in-government community on hand at WCL to help recognize Tom’s legendary status, even though neither they nor Tom knew that this award was being inaugurated today,” said Daniel Metcalfe, WCL faculty fellow in law and government. —MU
