Law School Dean Search Begins

The search for a new UW Law School dean has begun.

Chancellor David Ward has appointed a 16-member Search and Screen Committee to recommend a replacement for Daniel Bernstine, who is stepping down as dean to return to full-time teaching at the school. Bernstine has been dean since 1990.

The committee is conducting a nationwide search, and the deadline for nominations and applications for the position is May 1. Thomas Palay, chair of the search committee and professor at the Law School, says the chancellor would like to have a new dean in place by January 1998.

As head of the Law School, the dean oversees 50 faculty, 900 students and a budget of more than $10 million. Candidates must possess strong administrative and communication skills; leadership experience in higher education or a comparable setting; ability to relate to external constituencies; a commitment to undergraduate and graduate legal education and research; academic and professional accomplishments that would qualify for a tenured appointment as a full professor; and a dedication to diversity in background and academic and public service pursuits.

Nominations for the position should be sent to Palay in care of the Office of the Secretary of the Faculty, 133 Bascom Hall. The search committee will review nominations, invite a number of candidates to campus for interviews and recommend a short list of finalists to the chancellor, he says.

“All the finalists will be eminently qualified and people the committee would be delighted to see chosen by the chancellor,” Palay says.