The 2009 William A. Rutter Distinguished Teaching Award honors exceptional abilities in the classroom
Thomas Griffith, a nationally respected professor at USC Gould School of Law, has won the 2009 William A. Rutter Distinguished Teaching Award for his exceptional abilities in the classroom.
Griffith, who joined the USC Law faculty in 1984, will receive $50,000 over the next five years. He was nominated by alumni, students and faculty members.
Griffith said he was deeply moved by the award. "I have gained more from my students than I have given," said Griffith, who teaches contracts, corporate taxation and criminal law. "I have learned a tremendous amount from the talented and diverse students at the law school."
At a special ceremony recently held at USC Law, Griffith was praised by Dean Robert K. Rasmussen, who said, “Tom has been the prime mover in our academic support program. In his criminal law class, he teaches an extra hour each week for which he receives no extra teaching credit, no extra compensation, but rather he does it because he recognizes that all USC Law students can be successful attorneys.”
Although tax is one of the most complex statutory courses taught at USC Law, Griffith “has that rare and important ability of great professors to be clear without inordinately simplifying the material; he's able to ensure that everyone in the classroom understands precisely what is being said and learns the basic structure and argument of our tax code," Rasmussen said.
The Rutter Award is unusual in the legal academy, where most academic institutions value scholarship and academic publishing over teaching skills.
The teaching award was established in 2007 after USC Law received a gift totaling more than $1.2 million from William Rutter, a 1955 USC Law graduate and founder of The Rutter Group, one of the leading legal publishing companies in the country. Rutter is a member of the USC Law Board of Councilors.
The purpose of the teaching award is to recognize the additional time and effort exceptional law professors apply to preparation and classroom performance.
“I see this award going to the kind of professor who exposes students to different ways of thinking,” Rutter said when he announced the prize three years ago. “My hope and expectation is that the award will encourage younger faculty to devote more time to classroom teaching, in addition to their scholarly research.”
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