Law School Dean Raymond to step down in July

Margaret Raymond, who has led the University of Wisconsin Law School since 2011, announced Friday that she will step down as dean at the end of the academic year and return to the faculty.

In a message to the school’s alumni, Raymond highlighted the challenges and successes that have marked her nine years as dean.

“We survived the downturn in law school interest and enrollment and emerged stronger, with innovative new programming, a growing generation of excellent new faculty, and extraordinary, diverse, passionate students who inspire us every day,” she said. “We continue to change lives. I’m so proud of everything we’ve done, but I also feel like this is a sensible time to stop and let a new leader help chart the course for the Law School’s next decades.”

The university will conduct a national search for Raymond’s successor.

“I’m grateful to Dean Raymond for her service. Through her leadership, the Law School has maintained and expanded on its long tradition of excellence,” said Chancellor Rebecca Blank.

“The market for lawyers has changed a great deal in the past decade. We are enormously grateful to Dean Raymond for her wise, steady leadership of the Law School in this time of change,” said Provost Karl Scholz. “She made sure UW–Madison remained a leader in legal education and scholarship, and strengthened the school’s iconic focus on law in action.”

The Law School boasts a renowned faculty, an extensive curriculum and a dynamic student body. Its curriculum places emphasis on “law in action” — how the law relates to social change and to society as a whole — while at the same time stressing experiential learning. In addition to its nationally recognized programs of legal education, it has one of the largest, most diverse and most expansive clinical programs in the country.

“Dean Raymond has had a profound positive effect on the Law School. Today, we are a stronger and more diverse institution due to her vision and tireless efforts. I am truly sorry to see her leave and wish her ‘buena suerte’ as she moves on,” said Steve Hernandez, president of the school’s Board of Visitors and a 1981 law graduate.

Before becoming the Fred W. and Vi Miller Dean, Raymond taught from 1995 to 2011 at the University of Iowa, where she was named the William G. Hammond Professor of Law and was honored with the law school’s Collegiate Teaching Award. While at Iowa, Dean Raymond held a number of campus leadership roles, including president of the University Faculty Senate.

A graduate of Carleton College, she earned her J.D. at Columbia University School of Law, where she was editor-in-chief of the Columbia Law Review and graduated first in her class. She served as a law clerk to the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and the late Judge James L. Oakes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Following her clerkships, she practiced as a commercial litigator and a criminal defense lawyer.

Her scholarship focuses on constitutional criminal procedure, substantive criminal law, and the professional responsibility of lawyers. From 2013 to 2019, she served as a member of the Standing Committee on Professional Ethics of the Wisconsin State Bar, and she participates regularly in providing ethics CLE programming to Wisconsin lawyers.