Karen L. Tokarz
Charles Nagel Professor of Public Interest Law & Public Service, Professor of African & African American Studies, and Director of Dispute Resolution Program
Office: Anheuser-Busch Hall, Room 584
Phone: (314) 935-6414
E-mail: tokarz@wulaw.wustl.edu
Assistant: Pam Finnigan - (314) 935-6419
- Curriculum Vitae [view]
(For the most recent list of publications and activities, please see the current CV.) - Activities [view]
- Publications [view]
- In The News [view]
- Africa Brochure [view]
- Tokarz Named Nagel Professor of Public Interest Law and Public Service [view]
- Photo Gallery of Installation [view]
Courses Taught
Civil Rights & Community Justice Clinic
Employment Discrimination
Mediation & ADR Theory & Practice
Public Interest Law and Policy Seminar
Faculty Advisor for Journal of Law and Policy; Africa Public Interest and Conflict Resolution Initiative
Education
B.A., 1970, Webster College
J.D., 1976, St. Louis University
LL.M., 1985, University of California, Berkeley
Profile
Professor Tokarz is an expert in dispute resolution and discrimination law, and an internationally recognized leader in clinical legal education. Named the Charles Nagel Professor of Public Interest Law and Public Service in 2008, she is the Director of the Washington University School of Law Dispute Resolution Program and the immediate past Director of the School’s Clinical Education Program. During her tenure, she helped propel the clinical program to top national rankings and established the school as a global leader in clinical legal education. The author of Elderlaw: Advocacy for the Aging, her research and scholarship address public interest law issues, including judicial selection, gender and racial bias in the legal profession, women’s legal history, and dispute resolution.
While on sabbatical in 2008-09, Professor Tokarz will be a visiting scholar at the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation. She has played a leadership role in the law school’s Africa Public Interest Law & Dispute Resolution Initiative. In 2001, she worked with the clinical education program at the University of Kwa Zulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. Soon thereafter, she initiated a student exchange program between Washington University and KwaZulu-Natal and a summer law student internship program in South Africa. Over the past seven years, she has helped place 60 Washington University law students with public interest law offices in Africa. In 2008, she was named a Fulbright Senior Specialist for Africa. She will collaborate with the University of KwaZulu-Natal in the development of their dispute resolution masters program. A recipient of Washington University’s 2005 Founders Day Distinguished Faculty Award, Professor Tokarz serves on the steering committee for the University’s Richard Gephardt Institute for Public Service and is affiliated with the University’s African & African American Studies Program, Women & Gender Studies Program, and Urban Studies Program.
Professor Tokarz coordinates the law school’s annual Public Interest Law & Policy Speaker Series and the annual Access to Equal Justice Colloquium, both designed to promote public interest and public service opportunities for law students, and to foster university and community collaborations that improve access to justice in the region. With Professor Charles McManis, she serves as co-faculty advisor for the law school's Journal of Law & Policy. With Professors Susan Appleton and Laura Rosenbury, she supervises the Women & the Law undergraduate teaching project. A respected teacher and mentor, Professor Tokarz has served as a faculty advisor for OUTLAW, the Women's Law Caucus, the Dispute Resolution Society, the Immigrants Rights Project, the Labor & Employment Society, and the National Lawyers Guild student organizations.
Professor Tokarz is past chair of the Section on Clinical Legal Education of the Association of American Law Schools, past president of the Clinical Legal Education Association, and a founding member of the Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE) and Mediators Without Borders. She served on the faculty for the GAJE Inaugural World Conference in Trivandrum, India in December 1999; served on the planning committee for the Second GAJE World Conference in Durban, South Africa in December 2001; and presented at the Fourth World GAJE Conference in Cordoba, Argentina in December 2006.
She served on the American Bar Association Accreditation Committee, Standards Review Committee, and Clinical & Skills Training Committee. She is a founder and past president of the Women Lawyers Association of Greater St. Louis and a member of Lawyers for Equality and the Mound City Bar Association. She served on the Missouri Task Force on Gender and Justice and was co-editor of the Task Force Report. She was awarded the Women Lawyers Association President’s Award in 1990 and 1996; The Daily Record Women’s Justice Award in 2003; and the Clinical Legal Education Association Outstanding Advocate Award in 2008.