Professor Emerita McQueary Smith Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

Beverly McQueary Smith Earns 2025 ABA State & Local Government Law Section Jefferson B. Fordham/Daniel J. Curtin, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award

Beverly McQueary Smith, Professor Emerita who taught at Touro Law from 1988 to 2013, received the Daniel J. Curtin, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award from the ABA Section of State & Local Government Law at its annual meeting, held in Ontario, Canada in August.

In 1998, the ABA Section of State & Local Government Law was inspired to establish the Jefferson B. Fordham Awards to honor the accomplishments of practitioners and institutions active in the varied areas of practice associated with state and local government law.

Professor McQueary Smith is eminent in federal, state and local government legal circles, academe, and non-profit organizations, including the ABA, where she has been a Delegate at Large and is currently a member of the Council of the Section of State & Local Government Law. She served as President of the National Bar Association in 1998-1999 and was a member of its Board of Governors from 1988-2005. She remains an active advocate and citizen, initiating action, and inspiring others to engage.

Professor Emerita McQueary-Smith holds an MA in English literature from Rutgers University (1974), a JD from New York University School of Law (1977) and an LLM from Harvard Law School (1988). She has had several careers: in the Federal government, in the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches; as a legal educator, including 25 years at the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center at Touro, where from 1988 through August 2013 she served as Associate Professor, Professor, and Acting Associate Dean, before becoming Emerita, and visiting professorships/adjunct positions at the University of Detroit Law School, Northeastern University School of Law, Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University, South Texas College of Law, and the University of Oklahoma Law Center.

Throughout her professional life, Professor Emerita McQueary-Smith has been committed to helping minority, educationally or economically disadvantaged students determine their aptitude for the study of law and helping all of her students succeed in the law profession.

Her government experience in Washington, D.C. and Federal courts, after law school, included serving as a Legislative Assistant in the United States Senate Office of Jacob K. Javits (1977-79); Senior Law Clerk, United States District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, Detroit (1979-80); Program Advisor, Federal Trade Commission (1980-1982); and Director of Research, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, United States House of Representatives (1982). From 1982-1984 she was an Attorney Advisor with the United States Department of the Interior, where she provided legal advice to the Office of Surface Mining and drafted a regulation and its statement of basis and purpose concerning mining operations on Indian lands.

Her work experience informed her teaching. At Touro, she taught courses in consumer and environmental law, race and American law, legislation, contracts, torts, selected topics in environmental law, international environmental law, land use planning, and professional responsibility, supervised students' independent
research projects, externships and internships; and coached student competitors in moot court and mock trial contests. She offered workshops in the nuts and bolts of writing a law school exam and effective appellate advocacy.

Her advocacy work continued even after retiring through the ABA’s Gun Violence Task Force and other appointments. She continues to mentor her former students and new lawyers, as well as many bar leaders.

The award was presented to Professor McQueary Smith by Touro Law former Dean and current Professor of Law, Senior VP of Academic Affairs and Provost of Touro University Patricia E. Salkin, also a nationally recognized scholar on land use law and zoning. Salkin stated, “Beverly is a kind, giving, passionate, talented lawyer and a remarkable human being. I am honored to call her a colleague and personal friend and was thrilled to be the person to present her with this award.”