Year one as dean
Graduation of the Class of 2025 was a joyous event. With it, the academic year, and my first year as dean, come to a close. It has been a busy, productive, and positive year, with accomplishments, some challenges, and strong forward momentum. Personally, it has been a remarkable learning experience. I feel profound gratitude, pride, and excitement as we build on that momentum.
This year, we honed our mission—to educate and prepare principled, sophisticated legal professionals who can thrive anywhere—to embrace five strategic goals. These “Top Five” animate every decision we make: (1) student flourishing, (2) academic eminence, (3) maximizing the impact of our centers, programs, and clinics, (4) fiscal accountability, and (5) enhancing our organizational and social culture.
We hit the decks running and have not slowed down. Our approach to student professional development is holistic, with new courses, new levels of bar awareness, and increased curricular coherence complemented with initiatives supporting wellness and mentoring. The goal is to provide the finest professional development program in the United States: the education, skills (including soft skills), networking, and mentoring to ensure that our graduates enter the profession with confidence—as ready to enter the profession as one can be.
And the efforts bear fruit. Emory Law ranks #17 nationally for placing lawyers in the top 500 law firms, #22 in reputation among judges and lawyers, and #25 in clerkship placement.
On academic eminence, our faculty continues to impress: #18 nationally in the Sisk ranking of scholarly impact, #19 in Forward-Looking Academic Impact Rankings, and #22 in reputation among academic peers. As teachers, the faculty is equally impressive, with increased collaboration on pedagogy and assessment, earning high ranks from our students.
In March, we opened the newest jewel in the Emory Law crown: the William and Jane Carney Center for Business and Transactional Law. It was a wonderful gala celebrating the transformational gift of Bill Carney, our colleague and Charles Howard Candler Professor emeritus. In April, we hosted our decennial ABA reaccreditation review. And, as all law schools in major research universities, we are facing financial challenges. But our discipline, teamwork, and focus on mission have guided us well as we rise to meet them.
And, thanks to our alumni and other friends, this year was the most successful in history for philanthropic investment, with more than $18.5 million in gifts and pledges. This surge of support gives us confidence to continue with more strategic and focused action. This year, we will bring curricular innovation and will see us adapt to prepare our students for a wholly redesigned bar examination in 2028. It will bring faculty hiring and innovation in the AI/Legal Tech space and study of initiatives in health law.
Everywhere I have gone this year—from Seattle to Miami, from San Francisco to New York and points between, interacting with alumni and those with no affiliation to Emory Law—the message is resounding: Emory Law’s national brand is strong and getting stronger and stronger. What a privilege it is for me to work with our dedicated faculty and selfless staff. And what a joy to reconnect with four decades’ worth of former students and other alumni. As I always say: by being who you are—consummate, principled professionals, you reflect more credit on Emory Law than any promotional campaign ever could.
My one year as dean has confirmed what the 41 previous years had taught me: what we do at the law school matters because what our students and alumni do in the profession matters. Stated another way, there are lawyers, and then there are Emory Lawyers.
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