MARY MASON Adjunct Associate Professor WCL Adjunct Faculty
- Degrees
- Tulane School of Law (JD)
Bard College (BA)
Simon’s Rock College (AA) - Bio
-
Ms. Mason began teaching at 51³Ô¹Ï School of Law in the Fall of 2024, after she retired earlier in the year from a 34-year career at the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). Prior to coming to DOJ, she clerked at the Court of Federal Claims, and was a Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow at Georgetown University Law School. Professor Mason also worked at the Reproductive Freedom Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. She is a graduate of Tulane School of Law (JD), Bard College (BA), and Simon’s Rock College (AA).
As a Managerial Senior Trial Counsel and supervising attorney in DOJ’s Civil Division (Constitutional and Specialized Torts section), Ms. Mason defended the United States, its agencies and individual officers in courts across the country from trial level through court of appeals and United States Supreme Court. She represented, personally counseled (and trained and mentored those representing) high-ranking federal officials including the President, Vice President, Attorney General, Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security, and Directors of Central Intelligence, National Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, as well as countless line employees of the federal government. She was a key member of the Department’s senior management team, and the strategic architect of a number of nation-wide litigation campaigns. Ms. Mason was the lead attorney and managing supervisor in high-profile cases with expertise in a wide variety of constitutional and civil rights arenas. She practiced in and oversaw all phases of litigation from representation and initial evaluation through complex pleading and motion practice, fact and expert development, discovery, trial, settlement, appeal, and Supreme Court review. Most recently she was tapped to oversee the nation-wide defense of all individual-capacity suits arising out of the President’s Covid vaccine mandate. During her tenure with the Department, Ms. Mason also represented the Department of Health and Human Services in over 75 bench trials in the Court of Federal Claims, many of which involved novel questions of fact and required extensive use of medical and other experts. Ms. Mason is the attorney of record in more than 100 published decisions, and also has extensive appellate experience, including appearing on the briefs in numerous Supreme Court cases. In addition, Professor Mason has been a regular instructor at the Justice Department’s National Advocacy Center (teaching Assistant United States Attorneys and agency counsel nation-wide), a member of the Constitutional Torts’ hiring committee, and an interviewer for the Department’s Honors Hiring Program. She was also a member, and active participant in DOJ GEN, the Department’s Gender Equity Affinity group, and worked on a variety of reproductive justice issues post-Dobbs.
Professor Mason received numerous commendations and awards over her three-decade DOJ career, including the Michael F. Hertz Memorial Award for Exceptional Performance and Outstanding Professionalism, presented by then-Attorney General Eric Holder. She is also the recipient of multiple awards for national security litigation, a dedicated service award for International Human Rights, and led teams who received awards in a number of other areas. Ms. Mason received the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Award, the agency’s highest award, from then-HHS Secretary Donna Shalala. Professor Mason is an expert in a wide variety of fields including constitutional law and practice, national security, policing, immigration, incarceration, international law and human rights, religious liberty, governmental immunities, common law torts and healthcare, and continues to be consulted in these arenas.
- For the Media
- To request an interview for a news story, call 51³Ô¹Ï Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.