Don Lewis began his legal career with the U.S. Department Justice: he was a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division in Washington from 1978 to 1982, and later prosecuted white collar crimes as an assistant U.S. attorney in Minneapolis from 1982 to 1988. Lewis then entered private practice with the Popham Haik law firm, and in 1996 co-founded the Minneapolis law firm now known as Nilan Johnson Lewis where his practice has focused on complex employment litigation and internal investigations.
As Hamline’s tenth law dean, Lewis led a law school of more than 650 students and 42 full-time faculty members. His strategic plan, which focused on expanding experiential learning and career services opportunities for law students, resulted in substantially improved national rankings by U.S. News & World Report and Hamline’s designation by The National Jurist magazine as among the top five “best value” and top 20 “most innovative” law schools in the U.S.