UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA
SCHOOL OF LAW
DEAN SEARCH STATEMENT
For 140 years, Alabama Law has produced attorneys
who become leaders locally, nationally, and globally.
Our graduates do more than practice law – they shape
the future.
CANDIDATE CHARACTERISTICS
The University of Alabama School of Law seeks a dean with excellent academic credentials, extensive administrative leadership experience, and strong communication and fundraising skills.
Leaders from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines may be considered. Candidates from the academy should possess a JD or equivalent degree and have a distinguished record of (or outstanding potential for) chairholder-level scholarship and teaching. Candidates holding advanced degrees with scholarly interests related to the law and involving interdisciplinary, jurisprudential, empirical, or social science work, or exceptional jurists or practitioners may also receive consideration.
The position requires a candidate who can:
THE SCHOOL OF LAW
The University of Alabama School of Law is a top-ten public law school that offers its students an exciting, challenging educational environment coupled with a high quality of life. An intimate, student-centered institution, the School’s 45 full-time faculty teach approximately 500 students, offering a JD and seven JD joint/dual programs of study, as well as an international LLM, an LLM in taxation, and an LLM concentration in business transactions. The curriculum is traditional but includes a variety of elective classes in business law, criminal law, environmental law, intellectual property, international law, and tax law. The curriculum is also rich in clinical, advocacy, skills, and perspective offerings.
The Law School attracts a racially diverse group of students drawn from both Alabama and the larger nation. For the JD Class of 2015, the School received almost 1,700 applications and admitted 423 candidates; the median LSAT of the 2015 class is 165. The School is widely recognized for the value of its education, with current in-state tuition of $20,770 (out-of-state $34,840). In a challenging environment, the School’s graduates have succeeded in the job market: in 2012, within nine months of graduation, 92 percent of graduates were employed in JD-required or preferred positions or were attending graduate school.
The Law School is part of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, a public research university and the flagship of the University of Alabama System. Tuscaloosa is a thriving, affordable city of 100,000 that lies 50 miles southwest of Birmingham.
More information about the School and University may be found at http://www.law.ua.edu/and http://www.ua.edu/.
THE SEARCH PROCESS
The University of Alabama is being assisted in this effort by the executive search firm Spencer Stuart. The search committee welcomes comments, questions, and nominations or expressions of interest. To contact the committee, please email alabamalawdean@spencerstuart.com. All submissions will be held in strict confidence.
The University of Alabama School of Law is committed to a policy of equal opportunity and of nondiscrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, handicap or disability, or sexual orientation. It does not discriminate on these factors in administering its educational policies; admission policies; employment, promotion, and compensation policies; financial aid and scholarship programs; and other school-related activities.
Richard Jaffe, a 1976 graduate of Alabama Law, was recently named a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Mr. Jaffe said, “I am humbled and honored to be a 2013 inductee as a Fellow into the American College of Trial Lawyers, along with the other 2013 inductees. It is one thing to be acknowledged for one’s hard work and achievements but even more to be recognized for one’s commitment to the highest professional standards of trial practice for which the organization stands.”
Professor Ronald J. Krotoszynski, John S. Stone Chairholder of Law and Director of Faculty Research, was elected to serve as a member of the American Law Institute (ALI). The ALI drafts, discusses, revises, and publishes Restatements of the Law, in model statues, and principles of law that are influential in the courts and legislatures.
Professor Krotoszynski had previously clerked for the Honorable Frank M. Johnson, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and was an associate with Covington & Burling, DC. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Alabama School of Law, he served on the law faculty at Washington and Lee University and, prior to that, on the law faculty of the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis.
He also has taught as a visiting professor at the Washington and Lee University School of Law, the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary, at the Florida State University College of Law, and at Brooklyn Law School. Professor Krotoszynski has held appointments as a visiting scholar in residence at the University of Washington-Seattle School of Law, the Seattle University School of Law, and the Lewis and Clark School of Law.
EDUCATION: Emory University, B.A.; Emory University, M.A.; Duke University, J.D.; Duke University, LL.M.
Other Alabama Law Faculty ALI members include:
William S. Brewbaker III
Camille W. Cook
Bryan K. Fair
Charles W. Gamble
William H. Henning
Thomas L. Jones
Art Richey, a 3L student, won first place in the 2013 Mid-South Commercial Law Institute Writing Competition. The competition called for essays addressing a current issue within the area of commercial or bankruptcy law. Mr. Richey’s paper analyzed the principal standards defining the “undue hardship” provision of Section 523(a)(8) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in relation to the discharge of student loan debt, focusing on the Brunner standard. Congratulations to Mr. Richey on his accomplishment.
Professor Andrew Morriss, cited today in The Economist in an article which examined the changing American economy: “The new American capitalism: Rise of the distorporation”.
Enduring Hierarchies in American Legal Education—co-authored by Andrew Morriss, University of Alabama School of Law; Olufunmilayo Arewa, University of California Irvine School of Law; and William Henderson, Indiana University Maurer School of Law—was recently listed on SSRN’s Top Ten download list for Legal Scholarship Network. This study is the first of its kind to look across time, using a wide range of data sources, at the hierarchies in legal education. There has been remarkably little change over the last 80 years in that hierarchy, and this affects the ability of legal education to adapt to the changing employment market. Click here to download Enduring Hierarchies in American Legal Education. Listen to Professor Andrew Morriss describe the article click here.
The video of the 2013 Harper Lee Prize ceremony is now available. Please go to HarperLeePrize.com .
Professor Dan Joyner, an expert on nuclear non-proliferation, was recently quoted by Bloomberg News regarding the UN resolutions calling for the cessation of uranium enrichment in Iran. Read the full Bloomberg News article.
Associate Dean Montré Carodine was interviewed today on NPR’s Morning Edition regarding the ongoing civil trial against British Petroleum. Listen to the entire Morning Edition segment.
Associate Dean Montré Carodine was recently quoted in an article entitled “Gulf Oil Spill: How much flowed? BP Trial Judge to Decide”, printed in The Christian Science Monitor. How much oil was spilled into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, at what rate did it spill, and why did it take so long to stop the flow? These are a few questions that the federal civil trial against British Petroleum seeks to answer. Read the full article in The Christian Science Monitor.
