Mr. Shawn has tried over 100 bench and jury trials and arbitrations involving partnership, legal ethics, intellectual property, antitrust, banking, regulatory, and tax issues in Federal and state courts and administrative agencies. He has litigated hundreds of procedural and dispositive motions throughout the courts, and argued approximately 25 appeals before Federal and state appellate courts. Mr. Shawn also represents and counsels clients in national and international mergers and acquisitions, licensing, franchising, LBO’s, joint ventures, financings, and similar commercial transactions. He is also co-inventor of Method and Apparatus for Securing The Privacy of a Computer Network, Patent No. 9,621,539.
Education
George Washington University, Elliot School of International Affairs, BA, International Affairs
1973: The George Washington University Law School, J.D.
GW Student Evaluations
Student Review (1)
06/22/23
Professor Shawn is among the most knowledgeable and sophisticated speakers I’ve had throughout my law school experience. You can tell he cares about the subject matter, and his students really benefit from his ability to draw from many real world experiences. He presented all the material in an extremely organized and clear manner. I also appreciated the extremely high caliber of guest speakers, from whom we learned much, and the “Ethics Today” segment. which provided us with timely real world examples of ethics issues. If I were presenting the class, I might break up the lecture with the case briefs, rather than doing them in two sequential blocks — only because the rules can feel a little bit technical without contextualization.
Student
Student Review (2)
06/22/23
Great job presenting the material. I absolutely loved the live-fire exercises, and I think they’re incredibly useful.
Student
Student Review (3)
06/22/23
Thank you Prof. Shawn for a great semester! The live fire exercises were a great way to stay engage with the material and really helped to solidify the class concepts
Student
Student Review (4)
06/22/23
You can tell Professor Shawn cares about this subject matter and that makes the class more interesting. Very experienced lawyer who gives insight on where the legal field is moving. I enjoyed that aspect of this course.
Student
Student Review (5)
06/22/23
Professor does great with an otherwise dry subject. Cases often felt less helpful to review than just going over the rules. I enjoyed the live fire exercises and appreciated receiving the answer sheets with them. Would be helpful to have these answers uploaded to the portal as well.
Student
Student Review (6)
06/22/23
I greatly enjoyed the live-fire interactive exercises and the various guests you had come before class. It helped contextualize and understand how these rules operate in practice.
Student
Student Review (7)
06/22/23
I liked the structure of the course, and was interested in the assigned materials. I do think that commercial matters serve as a good primer for the MPRE exam, and I think that they additionally serve as a good primer for the material discussed in this course. I think that I would have felt less comfortable with the MPRE exam without access to commercial materials, for what it is worth!
Student
Student Review (8)
06/22/23
Great professor, very personable and has great war stories to tell.
Student
Affiliations
2004 – present: NetFax Development, Managing Member
2000 – present: George Washington University Law School Board of Advisors, Member
2000 – present: George Washington University Law School, Distinguished Alumnus
1999 – present: National Arbitration Forum, Arbitrator
Admitted
1984: U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit; U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
1982: U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
1980: U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit
1979: U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
1976: U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
1974: U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
1974: District of Columbia
Lectures and Presentations
Present: George Washington University Law School, Professor of Law, Adjunct Faculty
Law 6599, Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Seminar
Law 6218, Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility
July 2011: “All You Ever Wanted to Know About Intellectual Property Law and Were Afraid to Ask” Paper and Presentation to Mississippi Bar Annual Convention, July 12, 2011.
Selected Publications
The George Washington University Law School Inaugural Symposium on Legal Fees in Complex Litigation and Transactions, October 13, 2011.
“The US Credit Crisis Will Affect Personal and Corporate Liability for years to Come” The In-House Lawyer, November 2008.
“Reduced US Government Interference in Accused Executives’ Defense Arrangements” The In-House Lawyer, October 2008.
