Distinguished Professor Recipients
2021 Distinguished Professor
Professor Dian Tooley-Knoblett
Professor Dian Tooley-Knoblett is the Jones-Walker Distinguished Professor of Law at Loyola New Orleans College of Law. She received her J.D. from LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center in 1980, where she served as Executive Editor of the Louisiana Law Review and graduated Order of the Coif. Before joining the Loyola faculty in 1984, she served as law clerk to Chief Justice John A. Dixon of the Louisiana Supreme Court and was an attorney in the legal department of Shell Oil Company. She has taught over 20 common and civil law courses at Loyola and has received the "Best Professor" award numerous times. Her areas of expertise are Community Property, Louisiana Sales Law, Conflict of Laws and Civil Law Property. She has published in the areas of Louisiana property, sales and leases, community property, conflict of laws, and Louisiana water law. Since 1987 she has actively participated in law reform in Louisiana by serving as a member of the Council of the Louisiana State Law Institute and as a member of over 25 law reform advisory committees that have drafted legislation, principally revisions of Louisiana’s Civil Code. She is the lead editor of the tenth edition of Yiannopoulos’ Civil Law Property Coursebook, a co-author of a West treatise on Louisiana Civil Law Treatise on Sales and a coursebook on Louisiana Secured Credit. Professor Tooley-Knoblett was also one of the founding members of the Louisiana Lawyer’s Assistance Program, which works with lawyers and their family members to overcome addiction within the legal community and to restore those suffering from addiction to useful and productive lives.
2020 Distinguished Professor
Professor Donald W. North
Vice Chancellor Donald W. North, Colonel North, the Johnny Cochran Endowed Law Professor at Southern University Law Center (SULC) received his Associate Degree in Criminal Justice and Bachelors Degree in Political Science from Grambling State University. He received his Juris Doctorate Degree from the Southern University Law Center in 1983.
Vice Chancellor North accepted a commission in the Army ROTC Program where he was first branched as a military police officer before being selected as an officer to join the Judge Advocate Generals Corp. He is currently retired from the United States Army, where he received numerous acknowledgments and awards. He is one of the first African American Louisiana Army Judge Advocate General Reservists to be promoted to the rank of Full Colonel.
After serving active on duty during Desert Storm One, Professor North returned to Louisiana to serve as a prosecutor in the Criminal Division of the Louisiana Department of Justice, handling cases in all 64 Louisiana parishes.
In 1998 he was offered a position as a Clinical Professor at SULC, before becoming Director of Clinical Education. Professor North left the Law Clinic in 2013 to become the Director of the Pro Bono Project. In 2015 he began serving as the Director of Experiential Learning and in 2019 Professor North was promoted to Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs.
Professor North is a member of the American Legion, a three-time member of the Board of Governors, the Law Institute and the Public Defender Board. He serves the Shady Grove First Missionary Baptist Church as Servant Treasurer and Deacon. He works as a volunteer with the Zachary Food Bank; and has served as an Ad Hoc Judge on many occasions in Baton Rouge City Court and operates a client community service program.
He has been married for over thirty-four years to the love of his life, Dr. Jyotibala Joy North, and has two children, Kimberly and Donald.
