Lisa M. Schenck

Associate Dean for National Security, Cybersecurity, and Foreign Relations Law & Professorial Lecturer in Law, The George Washington University Law School

Education

J.S.D., LL.M., Yale Law School; LL.M., The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School; J.D., Notre Dame Law School; M.P.A., Fairleigh Dickinson University; B.A.; LL.D. (honorary), Providence College

Associate Dean

Lisa M. Schenck served for twelve years as the GW Law Associate Dean for Academic Affairs overseeing over 300 adjunct faculty members and recently was appointed as the inaugural Associate Dean and Program Director for National Security, Cybersecurity, and Foreign Relations Law overseeing LLM and MSL degree programs in National Security and Cybersecurity and National Security and U.S. Foreign Relations Law, as well as JD Concentrations in those areas. She also teaches Military Justice as a professorial lecturer in law. Dean Schenck joined the law school in 2009 after serving in the Army for more than 25 years, initially as a Signal Corps Officer and then as a judge, lawyer, and educator in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. In 2002, she was appointed as a military judge on the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals. In 2003, she received the Judge Advocates Association Outstanding Career Armed Services Attorney Award (Army). In 2005, Dean Schenck was the first woman appointed as a Senior Judge on that court, where she served as the lead judge for Panel 3 until she retired. She concurrently served as an Associate Judge on the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review, appointed by the Secretary of Defense in 2007 and was subsequently reappointed to that court by the President in 2019, and appointed as Chief Judge of that court in February 2022. Dean Schenck retired in 2008 as a U.S. Army colonel and became the Senior Adviser to the Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military Services.

As an Army attorney, Dean Schenck held a variety of positions, including as Environmental Attorney and Department of the Army Criminal Law Division's Executive Officer. At the United States Military Academy, West Point, she was Chief of the Administrative and Civil Law Division, Assistant Professor of Constitutional and Military Law, Co-Course Director for Introduction to Legal Methods, and the Law Department Academic Counselor. She received the National Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi Scholastic Achievement Award and was one of five West Point faculty and staff members to be inducted into the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society. Dean Schenck's other assignments included: Deputy Staff Judge Advocate, Chief, Criminal Law Division, Supervising Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, and Chief, Claims and Legal Assistance Divisions, U.S. Army Aviation Center, Fort Rucker; Acting Command Judge Advocate, Claims and Legal Assistance Attorney, and Trial Counsel and Infantry Brigade Legal Advisor, Republic of Korea; and Asst. Fielding Team Chief and Asst. Secretary of the General Staff, Communications-Electronics Command, Fort Monmouth.

In 2021, Dean Schenck was appointed as the Honorary Colonel of the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps Regiment. In 2020, she received the U.S. Navy Superior Civilian Service Award for service on the Executive Review Panel for the Comprehensive Review of the Navy and Marine Corps Uniformed Legal Communities. In 2019, she was appointed as a Distinguished Member (one of two that year) of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps Regiment. In 2018, Dean Schenck received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Providence College. In 2015, she received "The George Washington University Robert A. Chernak Spark a Life Award for Staff Member of the Year," presented to one university staff member for significant impact on a student organization. In 2014, Dean Schenck received "The George Washington University Valor Excellence Award" for demonstrated excellence in learning and service to the benefit of GW student military members, veterans, and their families. Dean Schenck has served on numerous DoD committees including the Uniform Code of Military Justice Code Committee, the Judicial Proceedings Panel Subcommittee, and the Response Systems to Adult Sexual Assault Crimes Panel (RSP) Victim Services Subcommittee, and the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board's study, "The Combating of Sexual Assault".

Dean Schenck authored MODERN MILITARY JUSTICE: CASES AND MATERIALS (3rd Ed.) (West Academic 2019) and coauthored CONSTITUTIONAL AND MILITARY LAW 2021-22 (West Academic Publishing 2021), with Gregory E. Maggs and Peter J. Smith. She has written and co-authored numerous articles including, Taking Charge of Court-Martial Charges: The Important Role of the Commander in the American Military Justice System, 14 N.Y.U. JOURNAL OF LAW & LIBERTY 529 (2021) and National, Military, and College Reports on Prosecution of Sexual Assaults and Victims' Rights: Is the Military Actually Safer than Civilian Society?, 56 GONZAGA LAW REVIEW 285 (2021) with David Schlueter. She authored "Just the Facts Ma’am": How Military Appellate Courts Rely on Factual Sufficiency Review to Overturn Sexual Assault Cases When Victims Are "Incapacitated," 45 SOUTHWESTERN LAW REVIEW 522 (2016); Sex Offenses Under Military Law: Will the Recent Changes in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) Re-Traumatize Sexual Assault Survivors in the Courtroom?, 11 OHIO STATE JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW 439 (2014); and, Informing the Debate About Sexual Assault in the Military Services: Is the Department of Defense Its Own Worst Enemy?, 11 OHIO STATE JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW 579 (2014).

 

Advisory Council Committee: 
Military Claims / Civilian Pay