Posted Thursday, May 26, 10 p.m. Boston University law professor Frederick Lawrence will be the next dean of the GW Law School, assuming his duties August 1, officials announced Thursday.

University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs Donald Lehman handpicked the former assistant U.S. Attorney for southern New York and civil rights expert. Lawrence was chosen from a field of 10 applicants to head what U.S. News and World Report ranked the nation’s 20th best law school.

“We want someone who would have the earned respect of the faculty, by doing the types of things faculty members hold in right regard,” Trachtenberg said. “He came in with a lot of his tickets punched.”

The 49-year-old father of two college-aged children has spent the last 17 years at BU, teaching civil rights law and writing a book on hate crimes. He won the university’s highest teaching award in 1997.

“I was absolutely elated,” said Lawrence, who was on vacation Thursday. “It’s an exciting challenge. GW is very much a law school on the rise with excellent student body and distinguished alumni.”

Interim Dean Roger Trangsrud has headed the Law School since May 2004, after then-dean Michael Young left after seven years to become president of the University of Utah. GW has been searching for a new head of the school for about a year. It still needs to fill two high-profile academic posts: director of the School of Media and Public Affairs and dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs.

Trangsrud said he is “delighted” about the appointment of Lawrence, but added that the newcomer will have numerous challenges.

“As admissions numbers continue to rise for three straight years, Dean Lawrence will be working hard to ensure the continuing forward trajectory of the student body of the Law School,” Trangsrud said.

Another challenge facing the new dean will be to increase the Law School’s endowment, or the money gifted to it from individuals and organizations.

“By comparison to its tier schools, GW Law School does not have an endowment as large as it would like,” said Trangsrud, who will remain at the University as the Oswald Symister Colclough Research Professor of Law. “We have one of over $80 million, but the amount of endowment per student is not very high.”

Lawrence added, “The truth is (Trangsrud) is right, the endowment is low compared other schools, but among the nation’s 180 law schools, it is high.”

Trachtenberg said the new dean’s greatest challenge would be to move the Law School into the upper echelon of schools.

“We need to go to the next level, and to do that we need facilities, faculty and scholarships,” Trachtenberg said. “Ultimately all these things are available but at a price.”

Lawrence, who will be coming from a law school tied with GW as the 20th best in the U.S. News rankings, said he looks forward to new challenges.

“Legal academia is a very competitive business with a lot of good law schools who would very much like to catch up and pass GW,” Lawrence said. “We are on a very delicate position among law schools, with a relatively flat field behind us and a very steep field ahead of us.”

Law School Associate Dean Thomas Morrison said he is enthusiastic about Lawrence’s appointment, adding that the BU professor is “no stranger” to law.

“He’s a great guy, he’s going to be a super dean,” Morrison said. “Internationally known civil rights scholar, this guy has been there and done it, which is great for this school.”

Trachtenberg said he chose Lawrence “because he was the best dancer,” not completely a joke.

Shortly after his college years at Williams College and Yale Law School, Lawrence was a member of the New York Choral Society, a group he performed with at Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center.

“I’m excited about coming to a city I know quite well,” Lawrence said. “It’s the epicenter of not only the national government but a wide variety of scholars and great thinkers in the field of law.”