The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“TRIBUTE TO DONALD B. TOBIN” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the in the Senate section section on pages S1863-S1864 on March 30.
The Department is one of the oldest in the US, focused primarily on law enforcement and the federal prison system. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, detailed wasteful expenses such as $16 muffins at conferences and board meetings.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRIBUTE TO DONALD B. TOBIN
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, today I rise to recognize the outstanding leadership of Donald B. Tobin, Esquire, as dean of the University of Maryland Francis Carey King School of Law, following his announcement that he will step down at the end of the 2021-2022 academic year and return to full-time teaching as a member of the Maryland Carey Law faculty. This decision concludes an 8-year chapter in service to the school's 645 students, 176 faculty members, and thousands of alumni. Dean Tobin has been a tireless advocate and instructor who truly treasures the law school community.
Donald Tobin has been dean and professor of law at my alma mater, the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law located in Baltimore City, since 2014. Under his leadership, the law school has built upon two centuries of distinguished history to deliver its core academic mission of integrating legal theory and practice, serving as a resource and partner to neighboring communities and training the next generation of excellent lawyers and leaders. As dean, he has risen to meet the unprecedented challenges of the last decade.
Donald Tobin grew up in Columbia, MD, and began his career on Capitol Hill, as a professional staff member for my predecessor, the inimitable U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes. Donald also staffed the Senate Committee on the Budget and the Joint Economic Committee. He worked on the Hill before, during, and after the time he was attending law school at Georgetown University, where he earned his J.D. in 1996. It was here in this Chamber that Donald first contributed to policy at the national level. He went on to serve as a law clerk for the Honorable Francis Murnaghan, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and as an appellate attorney in the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Donald remains a leading expert on the intersection of tax and campaign finance laws, an area of law more critical to our democracy today than ever before.
Donald was professor of law and associate dean for academic affairs and associate dean for faculty at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law before he decided to come back home to Maryland. Given his wealth of expertise, I am particularly excited for him to rejoin the faculty as a professor in this next phase of his career. Donald has demonstrated an abiding passion for education, scholarship, and the public service mission of the law school. He has wisely invested his time in understanding the needs of the Maryland legal and nonprofit community. And he has fostered a supportive community that provides personalized learning experiences, which empower the school's students to realize countless possible career pathways.
Donald has always provided a welcoming presence around the school. He has taught the popular ``Lawyers as Leaders'' class, and he has put his tax law knowledge and Maryland Bar membership to use by working with students in the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic.
The Clinical Law Program makes experiential education a core component of the law school's curriculum, and it makes advancing access to justice a prerequisite for graduation. This program is unique among law schools nationally.
The law school requires every student who initially enrolls as a first year, full-time day student to provide legal services to people who are poor or otherwise lack access to justice in order to graduate--
a provision known as the ``Cardin Requirement,'' which I championed. It attracts students who care deeply about their clients and their communities.
It is no surprise that students attracted to a law school for its spirit of excellence in public service would choose someone of Donald's character for its leader. He brings that same personal attention to the law school's relationships among its many constituents, the bar, and the surrounding community.
Donald's positivity and kind nature were critical to his success throughout a deanship ``book-ended'' by unthinkable events. In the aftermath of the killing of Freddie Gray in the spring of 2015, Donald led efforts to expand the law school's positive impact in the community, bolstering channels to local volunteer opportunities and providing forums for students and faculty to explore the systemic causes that led to Baltimore's unrest and to possible solutions. Donald redoubled the school's efforts to recruit and retain highly qualified and diverse students, while keeping legal education accessible and affordable. Our law firms, judicial benches, and nonprofit leadership should all equitably reflect Maryland's population. Donald's commitment to facilitating an inclusive law school community has brought us closer to this imperative.
As a member of the Law School Board of Visitors, I greatly appreciate Donald's support for establishing the Honorable Elijah E. Cummings `76 Scholarship Endowment at the law school in 2019. The scholarship pays apt tribute to our former colleague--another luminary of the Maryland congressional delegation--and to his many contributions to his District and to our Nation as one of our most distinguished alumni. Board of visitors member and former chair Bob Kim--class of 1983--has spearheaded establishing the scholarship, which will support law school students who have an interest in public service, a record of academic excellence, and demonstrated financial need.
Toward what would be the end of his time as dean, Donald maintained a cohesive law school community despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Sustained high turnout at virtual versions of beloved events such as the alumni honors banquet and Morris Brown Myerowitz Moot Court Competition evinced this resilience and unity, with alumni volunteers serving as mock judges or interviewers, during a time of social distancing.
Even before the global pandemic, Donald took an active role in protecting student health and well-being, instituting Kindness Week to promote student resources and self-care in partnership with the board of visitors.
William Butler Yeats wrote, ``Education is not the filling of a pot but the lighting of a fire.'' For over 20 years now, Donald Tobin has been lighting fires among his students, and their glow has brought light to the law school community, the city, our State, and the Nation. I thank him for his tremendous service to the law school's students, faculty, staff and alumni, and I wish him well on this exciting new chapter in his exemplary career.
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