Andrew Block

Andrew Block

Professor of Law, General Faculty
Director, State and Local Government Law Clinic
Email
Phone
(434) 243-4320
Room
SL244C

Andrew Block has served as the director of the State and Local Government Policy Clinic since returning to the Law School in the fall of 2019. Under Block’s leadership, the clinic has provided nonpartisan legal and policy research support for both the legislative and executive branches of Virginia’s state government, and also provided assistance to various local governments across the commonwealth. Some of the significant efforts Block and his students have supported include serving as primary research staff for Gov. Ralph Northam’s Commission to Examine Racial Inequity in Virginia Law, working with Del. Carrie Coyner, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration and others to develop, secure passage of, and implement the Virginia Literacy Act, and working with Sen. Creigh Deeds to help improve Virginia’s behavioral health system.

Prior to his return to the Law School, Block served as director of the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice from 2014-19, where he led major reforms and improvements in the department, including safely reducing the population of youth in state-operated juvenile correction centers, reforming rehabilitative programming, closing juvenile correction centers, and replacing them with a continuum of community and evidence-based programs and alternative placements.

Before leading the department, Block directed the Child Advocacy Clinic at the Law School from 2010-14, previously founded and served as the legal director of the JustChildren program of the Legal Aid Justice Center, and was a staff attorney for the Seattle-King County Public Defender Association.

A graduate of Yale University and Northwestern University School of Law, Block received various awards for his work at JustChildren, including the American Bar Association Young Lawyer’s Division Child Advocacy Award, the Virginia State Bar’s Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year and the Virginia Bar Association’s Robert F. Shepherd, Jr. Award.