Richmond Law Honors Constitutional Scholar A.E. Dick Howard with 2026 William Green Award
The University of Richmond School of Law has presented the 2026 William Green Award for Professional Excellence to Professor A.E. Dick Howard, one of the nation’s foremost constitutional scholars and the principal draftsman of Virginia’s 1971 Constitution.
Dean Wendy Perdue presented the award to Howard during a ceremony held last week. The Green Award is the law school’s highest honor and represents the most distinguished recognition the school can bestow upon a member of the legal profession.
“Professor Howard has achieved extraordinary success in the law and would meet any definition of professional excellence,” Perdue said.
In accepting the award, Howard shared highlights from his storied career, including his clerkship with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, his role in drafting Virginia’s present constitution, and his opportunity to work with constitution-makers in post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe.
Howard went on to acknowledge the many individuals who have contributed to his success. “I would love to have on the platform the people who put me where I am today,” he said, hailing his undergraduate and law school professors, Justice Black, his fellow constitutional draftsmen, and his mentors.
He gave a special recognition to a cornerstone group that has impacted his career—his students—describing them as cordial, civilized, and fun. “To teach law anywhere is wonderful, but to do so at places like Richmond and UVA is really special.”
Howard is a 1954 graduate of the University of Richmond and earned his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he serves as the Warner-Booker Distinguished Professor of International Law Emeritus.
In 1968, at just 34 years old, he was appointed executive director of the commission established by Virginia Governor Mills Godwin charged with revising the state’s Constitution. In that role, Howard served as the Constitution’s primary draftsman.
The proposed document sought to make Virginia’s government more responsive and accountable to its people. Among its most significant provisions was the assurance that every resident would have access to an education, a pointed response to the era of “massive resistance,” when some school systems chose to close rather than integrate.
Ratified in 1971, that Constitution remains in force today.
The Green Award is named for Judge William Green, one of the three original law professors at Richmond College. In 1870, Green challenged the law school’s first entering class to consider the question, “What is success in the law?” His answer: “the pursuit of excellence”—a ceaseless effort to realize one’s potential and strive always to do better. That principle continues to guide the selection of Green Award recipients.
Past honorees include some of the most influential legal minds in the nation, including U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justices William Rehnquist and John Roberts, Jr., Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, civil rights activist Oliver White Hill, Sr., and Senator Tim Kaine and Anne Holton.