Widener Law School Harrisburg is putting a new twist on the concept of a silver anniversary. It’s throwing a big party to celebrate its past but has also announced a brand-new profile for its future.
 This year, the Harrisburg-based law school celebrates its 25th anniversary. To mark the historic occasion and the successful conclusion of the Taking the Lead fundraising campaign, the law school plans a reception on Saturday April 18 2015, starting with a golf outing at Manada Golf Club in Grantville in the morning and ending with a celebration on the Harrisburg campus later that evening.
 The 5 p.m. celebration will take place in The Pit in the upper level of the Library building. Other activities include a wine tasting in the newly renovated law school library sponsored by Spring Gate Vineyard of Harrisburg and music provided by Wave Trio. The student honor groups will host tables at the event. There will be an iPad mini raffle and gift bags for all attendees. Alumni, students, faculty, administration and staff are encouraged to attend. To register, click here.
 The golf outing starts at 7 a.m. with registration and a light breakfast. The event will feature a four-person scramble format, with a shotgun start at 8 a.m.  To register, click here.
 The celebration follows the announcement last week of an independent identity, new name and recent appointment of a dean for the school.
 The American Bar Association last month approved the application to split the Widener University School of Law, which has campuses in Harrisburg, Pa. and Wilmington, Del., into separate law schools that will operate independently of each other, but remain part of the university.
 The new name for the newly independent law school? Widener University Commonwealth Law School.
 And with its new identity comes a new dean.
 Christian A. Johnson has been appointed to serve as dean of the Widener University Commonwealth School of Law. Johnson, is the Hugh B. Brown Presidential Endowed Chair in Law at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, where he has been on the faculty since 2008. He teaches and writes in the areas of business, banking and tax law.
 The change in status and the new name will take effect July 1, the day Johnson begins his tenure as dean.
 Widener Harrisburg alumni include United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania Magistrate Judge Susan E. Schwab; Commonwealth Court Judge P. Kevin Brobson, Mifflin County Court of Common Pleas President Judge David W. Barron, former Congressman Patrick J. Murphy, Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, Pennsylvania State Senator Richard Alloway, Pennsylvania Representative Mark Cohen, Pennsylvania Representative Peter J. Daley, II and many other familiar faces in Harrisburg and beyond.
 The president of Widener University, parent institution to the law school, Dr. James T. Harris III, will speak at the 25th Anniversary celebration, as will the law school’s Interim Dean Robyn L. Meadows and Dean Designate Johnson.
 