The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law announces the appointment of two new Donald Gaines Murray Teaching Fellows for the 2024-2025 academic year, Asees Bhasin and Gregory Schwab ’04.
“We are thrilled to welcome Asees Bhasin and Gregory Schwab to the Maryland Carey Law community” said Vice Dean Deborah Eisenberg. “They stood out from a highly competitive pool of applicants for the experience they will bring to our Lawyering Program and for their exceptional promise as legal scholars.”
Established in 2022, the fellowship is filled by distinguished candidates who are a combination of early-career lawyers and experienced practitioners seeking to enter legal academia. Built into the fellowship is structured mentorship from senior faculty and opportunities for the fellows to workshop their research. Murray Fellows teach in the law school’s innovative first-year Lawyering Program, which seamlessly integrates legal theory, doctrine, and professional skills. “Their addition to our roster of Lawyering Program faculty greatly benefits our first-year students,” added Eisenberg. "The program attracts dynamic practitioners who bring valuable real-world experience to their teaching and emerging scholars who will contribute to legal knowledge. This year’s fellows are shining examples.”
Asees Bhasin comes to Maryland Carey Law from Boston University School of Law, where she was a postdoctoral associate. Her research focuses on critical evidence law, race and the law, reproductive justice, and the intersections between these fields.
Previously, Bhasin was a senior research fellow at the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale University. She began her legal career as a Georgetown Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow at the National Partnership for Women & Families in Washington, D.C.
Bhasin’s scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in the Yale Law Journal, the Indiana Health Law Review, the North Carolina Journal of Law and Technology, and the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal. She received a joint JD-LLB degree from Georgetown University Law Center and King’s College London and a bachelor’s degree from Lady Shri Ram College for Women in India.
Gregory Schwab ’04 comes to Maryland Carey Law from the Drexel University Kline School of Law, where he taught state constitutional law as an adjunct professor. His research interests include state constitutional law, especially executive power, and administrative law.
Before teaching, Schwab served as general counsel of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where he advised the governor, executive staff, and cabinet on all legal issues facing the state. He also served other attorney roles in state government, and prior to that he practiced law in the litigation department of a large law firm in Philadelphia.
Schwab graduated with honors from Maryland Carey Law in 2004. He received his bachelor's degree summa cum laude from The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC.
Bhasin and Schwab join current Murray Scholar Chelsea Bannister Millington, who, this year, enters her third year in the fellowship. As well as Lawyering I and II, Millington teaches Trademarks and Unfair Competition and Contract Drafting.
Maryland Carey Law named the fellowship for Donald Gaines Murray ’38, who was the first Black person to graduate from the University of Maryland School of Law following the 1890 segregation of the University of Maryland professional schools (two Black students graduated with law degrees prior to 1890). In 1936, Murray was admitted to the law school as a result of the landmark civil rights case Murray v. Pearson, one of Thurgood Marshall and Charles Hamilton Houston’s first civil rights cases. Murray’s case laid the foundation for Brown v. Board of Education.
After graduating, Murray went on to build a successful law practice in Baltimore and was involved in several cases leading to the removal of the color barrier from the University of Maryland graduate schools. He was a member of the Baltimore Urban League and the American Civil Liberties Union.
“It is a privilege to honor Donald Gaines Murray by creating opportunities for developing scholars,” said Maryland Carey Law Dean Renée Hutchins Laurent. “His success in making this law school open its doors is an inspiring reminder for us to keep up the fight for a more just society.”