Three USD Law Professors Awarded With Professorships
SAN DIEGO (September 6, 2025) – The University of San Diego (USD) recognized three highly respected members of the USD School of Law faculty with professorships for the 2025-2026 academic year during the annual Fall Convocation Ceremony.
Professor of Law Michael Rappaport received the University Professorship, the highest academic honor bestowed university-wide at USD. University Professors are those who have demonstrated outstanding scholarly achievements in teaching and research supporting the mission and goals of the university. Professor Rappaport is the Hugh & Hazel Darling Professor of Law, and he is also the director of the Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism. Professor Rappaport teaches Constitutional Law and Administrative Law. His research interests include originalism, administrative law, supermajority rules and the separation of powers.
Professor of Law Michelle D. Layser received the Herzog Endowed Scholar Award which recognizes the meritorious teaching and scholarly productivity of a professor in the School of Law. She joined the USD Law faculty in 2022, after four years as an assistant professor of law at the University of Illinois College of Law and two years as a research fellow at the Georgetown University Law Center. Major themes in Professor Layser’s research include the use of tax expenditures to subsidize urban development, and the effects of these expenditures on economic and social inequality.
Professor of Law Donald Dripps received The Class of 1975 Endowed Professorship, established by the Class of 1975 as its 25-year reunion gift to the Law School, recognizing meritorious teaching, leadership, and academic accomplishments of a School of Law professor. Professor Dripps is a Warren Distinguished Professor of Law and has been a faculty member since 2004. A leading scholar in criminal law and procedure, Professor Dripps brings decades of academic and professional experience to his role. His areas of expertise include federal courts, constitutional interpretation, criminal law and criminal procedure, constitutional law, administrative law, and evidence.
View the Fall 2025 Convocation Program.
About the University of San Diego School of Law
Each year, USD educates approximately 800 Juris Doctor and graduate law students from throughout the United States and around the world. The law school is best known for its offerings in the areas of business and corporate law, constitutional law, intellectual property, international and comparative law, public interest law and taxation.
USD School of Law is one of the 88 law schools elected to the Order of the Coif, a national honor society for law school graduates. The law school’s faculty is a strong group of outstanding scholars and teachers with national and international reputations and currently ranks 34th nationally among U.S. law faculties in scholarly impact and 37th nationally in past-year faculty downloads on the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN). The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. Founded in 1954, the law school is part of the University of San Diego, a private, independent, Roman Catholic university chartered in 1949.