The University of Connecticut School of Law, the leading public law school in the northeast, seeks applications and nominations for the position of Dean. The Law School has a faculty internationally recognized for its interdisciplinary and innovative work and distinguished alumni serving as leaders in the bar, bench, government, and the private sector. The school is also at the forefront of experiential learning, with fifteen in-house, partnership, and externship clinics, and is a pioneer in developing exchange programs with universities across the world. The Dean would be part of a uniquely collegial and collaborative intellectual community and lead the institution in a period of growth. In the last five years, the school has added an Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship Law Clinic, a Center on Energy and Environmental Law, a semester in D.C. program, and an international S.J.D. program to its world-renowned Insurance Law Center and other longstanding centers of excellence. Through new faculty hiring, the Law School is also building on its existing excellence in human rights, public policy, insurance and risk, and financial regulation.
The Law School offers a day program and part-time evening program leading to the JD. In addition, it offers two LL.M.programs (in insurance law and in U.S. Legal Studies) as well as the new S.J.D. program. With 54 full-time faculty, 70.5 staff, 565 J.D. students, and 71graduate students, we have small classes and an excellent student-faculty ratio. The Law School's beautiful 21-acre campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Sites and located ten minutes from the state legislature, the Governor’s office, the federal courthouse, and the Connecticut Supreme Court. More information on the Law School may be found at www.law.uconn.edu.
The Law School seeks a Dean who will:
· develop and implement a strategic vision for the Law School to grow and thrive in a changing legal environment
· be a charismatic, energetic and visionary leader to partner with members of the faculty, student body, staff and broader university and national community
· teach, promote, and reflect the value of the legal professional in today’s complex world
· manage the school’s human and financial resources fairly, effectively, and transparently
· enhance the school’s visibility and reputation both nationally and internationally
· participate in its lively intellectual community and support faculty in producing world-class scholarship
· recruit gifted students, staff, and faculty and facilitate their success in the law school’s educational, professional, scholarly, and public service missions, inspire and mobilize the considerable strengths of its students, alumni, faculty and staff
· work to enhance the fund-raising and financial capacity of the law school to meet the strategic challenges of the future, and
· compellingly communicate with all audiences and build bridges across many communities.
A record of scholarly or commensurate exceptional achievement that warrants appointment at the rank of Professor of Law is required, as is an advanced degree in a field related to the law (J.D., L.L.M., J.S.D./S.J.D., or Ph.D. or foreign equivalent). For a full list of the position requirements, please see the leadership profile, which can be found at http://provost.uconn.edu/dean-school-of-law/.
The University of Connecticut (www.uconn.edu), for the last twelve years the highest ranked public university in New England, is one of the nation’s leading research extensive public universities. The University plays a critical role in the lives of Connecticut’s citizens and the State’s economy as well as an increasingly national role in education, research, and outreach. It is in the final phase of its efforts to renew, rebuild, and enhance its campuses through UCONN 2000 and 21st Century UConn, a $2.3 billion, twenty-year State investment in the University’s future, creating more than 9.2 million square feet of new and renovated space for research, teaching, living, and learning. As other institutions are slowing – or even reversing – the growth of their faculty, UConn has embarked on one of the most ambitious faculty-hiring plans in U.S. higher education. Seeking to strategically expand its faculty in key research and teaching areas and boost the number of classes offered, UConn is aiming to hire 300 new tenure-track faculty members over the next four years, including 65 beginning this fall and another 90 for the fall of 2013. This includes five new faculty positions at the Law School this year alone. The University has also increased research fundingten percent in the last fiscal year, while competing with other leading institutions for the best faculty and students.
Inquiries, nominations and applications are invited. Applications should include a curriculum vitae , letter of interest and the names of five references (who will not be contacted without permission), which should be sent electronically to Lucy A. Leske, John K. Thornburgh, or Stephen Davis, the Witt/Kieffer consultants assisting the University of Connecticut School of Law with this search, at UConnLaw@wittkieffer.com. Candidate review begins on December 15, 2012. The preferred starting date is July 1, 2013.
The University of Connecticut is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer,
and seeks candidates who are committed to the highest standards of scholarship and professional activities and to the development of a campus climate that supports equality and diversity.