Legal Scholar Named New Law Library Services Director

The School of Law recently welcomed Dr. Dana Neacsu as its new director of law library services and associate professor of legal skills. A multilingual legal scholar, she leads the school’s Center for Legal Information and the Allegheny County Law Library.

In her new role, Neacsu joins her faculty and staff colleagues as part of the team that walks alongside law students and helps them realize bigger goals during their academic journey at Duquesne.

“Ecumenical in its spirit, Duquesne University values equality of opportunity as an educational institution and as an employer,” said Neacsu.

She most recently worked at the Columbia Law School Library in New York, where she served in various roles including reference librarian, administrator, head of public services and supervisor of the inter-library loan services. A teacher-scholar, she also was a lecturer in law at Columbia University.

“Dana employs extensive knowledge about the world, the law and the library,” Law School Dean April Barton said. “She is current and forward-thinking. Both traits coupled with her experience will serve our community well.”

Neacsu also was an adjunct professor in environmental science from 2003-2021 at Barnard College, where she taught Environmental Law Policy with another faculty member with whom she co-authored Introduction to U.S. Law, Policy and Research—An Environmental Perspective.

Prior to joining Columbia Law School in 2000, Neacsu was a visiting professor at the Pratt Institute and worked as an attorney at the New York City Corporation Counsel’s office and Bickel & Brewer. She previously worked as an assistant law professor at the University of Bucharest in Romania and a researcher at the Romanian Academy’s Institute of Legal Research.

Neacsu, who speaks Italian, French, English and her native Romanian, also spent a year as a trial judge in training in family, civil and criminal court in Romania.

She earned an LLB from the University of Bucharest Faculty (School) of Law; a DEA from the School of Law and Political Studies in Caen, France; and a master of library science degree from the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Neacsu also has a Ph.D. from the State University of New Jersey and a master of law degree from Harvard Law School.