New Women Law School Deans

Updated June 8, 2017

For awhile, it looked like the appointments of new law deans this year was trending women.  For my thoughts as to possible explanations for this trend, see my quoted comments in Karen Sloan, If It's a New Law Dean, It's Likely a Woman.  

However, now as we near the end of the 2017 hiring season, it seems that the trend is less to a gender preference, and more to equality of appointment.   

To date in 2017, 14 of 28 (50%) new deans are women. Two are women of color.  

In 2015, 46% of new law dean appointments were women. Annual List of New Women Law Deans.   

Women are currently only 30% of law deans. This is a relatively recent increase as just three or so years ago women were 21% of law deans. See The Rise of Women Law Deans (June 2015). 

Still, a new study of law school deans, US Law School Industry: Dean Positions 2015-2016, concludes that “Law programs and their leadership remain potentially gendered. . . . Women continue to be substantially under-represented at the highest levels of leadership, though we find that differences are significantly less pronounced at Assistant and Associate Dean positions.”

Here is the 2017 list:

Aviva Abramovsky, Buffalo (Associate Dean for International Initiatives, Syracuse)

Joan Bullock, Thomas Jefferson (Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Florida A&M)

Marcilynn Burke, Oregon (Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Houston)

Cathy Cox, Mercer (President, Young Harris College, former Secretary of State Georgia)

Megan Carpenter, New Hampshire (Co-Director, Intellectual Property, Texas A&M)

Darby Dickerson, John Marshall Chicago (Dean, Texas Tech)

Susan Duncan, Univ. of Mississippi (Interim Dean, Louisville)

Heather Gerken, Yale (Professor, Yale)

Judge Maureen Lally-Green, Duquesne (Judge, Interim Dean, Duquesne) 

Rachel Janutis, Capital (Interim Dean, Capital)

Judge Madeline Landrieu, Loyola New Orleans (Judge, Louisiana Court of Appeal)

Lyrissa Lidsky, Univ. of Missouri (Associate Dean, Graduate Programs, Florida)

Hari Osofksy, Penn State (Professor, Minnesota)

Judge A. Gail Prudenti, Hofstra (Judge, Interim Dean Hofstra)

 

The men appointed to new deanships are: 

Richard Bierschbach, Wayne State (Associate Dean, Cardozo)

Paul Caron, Pepperdine (Professor, Pepperdine)

Erwin Chemerinsky, Berkeley (Dean, UC Irvine)

Colin Crawford, Louisville (Professor, Tulane)

Dan Filler, Drexel (Associate Dean, Drexel)

Lee Fisher, Cleveland State (former Lt. Gov, Interim Dean CSU)

Michael Hunter Schwartz, McGeorge (Dean, Arkansas)

Michael Kaufman, Loyola Chicago (Professor, Loyola Chicago)

Gregory Mandel, Temple (Interim Dean, Temple)

John Manning, Harvard (Deputy Dean, Harvard)

Richard Moberly, Nebraska (Interim Dean, Nebraska)

Anthony Niedwiecki, Golden Gate (Associate Dean, John Marshall Chicago)

Jack Nowlin, Texas Tech (Senior Associate Dean, U Mississippi)

CJ Peters, Akron (Associate Dean for Scholarship, Baltimore)