The next Allan R. Tessler Dean of Cornell Law School has been named. Eduardo M. Peñalver, undergraduate class of 1994, and a faculty member at the school from 2006 to 2012, has been named the new dean, according to the Cornell Chronicle.
Peñalver takes over as dean beginning on July 1. Right now, he works as a John P. Wilson Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. He becomes the first Latino dean of any law school in the Ivy League. He succeeds Stewart J. Schwab, who has served as dean since 2004. Schwab has taught at the school since 1983 and will return to the faculty following a sabbatical in 2014-2015.
“Eduardo’s extraordinary academic pedigree, deep love for Cornell, personal warmth and engaging vision make him ideally suited to build upon the excellent work of Dean Schwab and to further advance the pre-eminence of the Law School,” said Provost Kent Fuchs.
“I am excited and honored to return home to Cornell Law School as its next dean. My most formative intellectual experiences have been at Cornell, both as an undergraduate and, more recently, as a member of the law school faculty,” said Peñalver. “Cornell Law School is a remarkable community of scholars and students. It is diverse, intellectually rigorous and exceptionally collegial, and I look forward to working with our faculty, students, staff, alumni and the university leadership to guide the law school into the future.”
Peñalver earned his B.A. from the school’s College of Arts and Sciences in 1994. He earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1999. He has also taught at Fordham Law School from 2003 to 2006 and has served as a visiting professor at Yale and Harvard law schools.
Peñalver clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi at the United States Court of Appeals in the Second Circuit and for Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. He also studied theology and philosophy at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar.
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