Joan Marie Shaughnessy, ’78, 1953-2024
Joan Marie Shaughnessy
Professor Joan Marie "Shaun" Shaughnessy, of Lexington, VA and New York, NY, passed away on Sunday, November 24, 2024, while surrounded by family at the home of her sister in Fredericksburg, VA.
Born on June 7, 1953 in South Bend, Indiana, to Edward Francis and Mary Culhane Shaughnessy, Joan spent most of her childhood in Chicago, IL, as the oldest of eight children, and surrounded by a large extended family in the city. Joan moved with her family to Frederick, MD, at the age of 16 and finished her schooling there, graduating from Governor Thomas Johnson High School. She went on to receive her Bachelor's degree in anthropology from the State University of New York at Binghamton and earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School where she was associate editor of the law review and a member of the Order of the Coif.
After law school, Joan began her legal career as an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Stein & Hamilton LLP in New York, NY. She was able to fulfill her ultimate goal of joining the world of legal academia in 1983, when she became a member of the faculty at the Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, VA, where she would spend the remainder of her career as a law professor.
From the beginning of her time there, she distinguished herself as an outstanding classroom teacher. She taught a formidable range of courses, including Civil Procedure, Federal Courts, Complex Litigation, Evidence, and Jurisprudence. She also spent many years teaching Legal Writing, spending untold hours with new law students as they faced the different norms of legal analysis for the first time. She published a number of scholarly writings, covering complex issues across a number of areas, including personal jurisprudence and parental rights, as well as legal issues arising from poverty and child neglect. She also played an active role in the Shepherd Poverty Program, opening her seminars to undergraduates and law students alike.
Through her role in the classroom and in her personal time outside of it, she influenced a whole generation of W&L students to become ethical and socially responsible attorneys. She generously supported the writings of her colleagues and students, reviewing countless manuscripts and working closely with authors to develop and shape their ideas. Whenever a colleague or visiting scholar presented a work in progress, Joan's helpful questions and participation were invaluable to the ultimate success of the project. Through all of these efforts, she greatly contributed to the intellectual life of the law school.
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