As a top ranking law school, with a ranking of 21 according to U.S. News and World Report ranking, GW Law School is necessarily careful in how it will choose its new dean. In fact, it was careful when it made the same decision in 2010, but their choice, Paul Schiff Berman, resigned in November, after only 18 months into the position, after the threat of a vote of no confidence. In this next choice for Dean, which is anticipated to take place this spring, they will use for the first time a search firm, a method sometimes used to find applicants outside of academia – but the university does plan on choosing somebody within academia, perhaps a top official from other schools, or a leader at a top law practice, perhaps.
“The dean of a Top 25 law school is almost certain to come from the professoriate, so the need is not as strong for a firm. But most feel that it couldn’t hurt,” said professor Roger Trangsrud, as reported in the GW Hatchet. Transgrud heads the committee that picked Berman as the last dean.
The new dean will have his job cut out for him. Law Schools are facing a drop in applicants interested in attending, while seeing alumni struggle to find the employment they are looking for; and one thing good about Berman was his effectiveness as a fundraiser – as GW, one of the largest law schools with 2,000 students, operates on a $80 million budget, $10 million of which it attempts to gain through fundraising.
Applicants will be selected and vetted this January, with campus visits made in February and March. The vetting will be done by a GW-led search committee, which will include a trustee, a law school graduate, a member of the provost’s office, and a member of the dean’s advisory committee, as the Hatchet reported.