Summary: The dean of the University at Buffalo Law School, Makau Mutua, has announced his resignation from the post, which is effective December 19.
Makau Mutua, the dean of the University at Buffalo Law School, has announced his resignation from the post, according to The UB Reporter.
Mutua’s resignation will take effect on December 19 and it follows a tenure of seven years in the post. During his tenure he hired 22 new faculty members and created new law school programs that follow the changing marketplace for law.
Mutua is the 19th dean in the history of the law school and will return to the school as SUNY Distinguished Professor and Floyd H. and Hilda L. Hurst Faculty Scholar.
An interim dean will be named later in the semester as the search for a new dean begins.
Provost Charles F. Zukoski said, “Dean Mutua has provided outstanding service to the university. He has led the school through a nationally challenging time for legal education while strengthening the school’s programs and faculty, and advancing UB’s teaching, research and engagement missions.
“Makau is a great believer in the power of legal education to create a path to justice and in the role of the school of law in preparing the very best legal minds to serve society. We wish him much continued success as he prepares to return to the law school faculty.”
The resignation stems from allegations that Mutua lied under oath in a 2011 case filed by Jeffrey Malkan. Malkan claims that his contract as a clinical professor was terminated wrongfully by Mutua.
Neither Zukoski or Mutua mentioned the allegations of lying under oath in their comments about the resignation.
The President of the school, Satish K. Tripathi, said that the law school is “well positioned to achieve even greater prominence in legal education and scholarship. I want to express my heartfelt thanks and deepest appreciation to Makau for his leadership and service to our university during his tenure as dean.”
Mutua has been a faculty member at the law school since 1996.
“I am most proud of my work with my colleagues and with university leadership to lead our great law school through its renaissance. In spite of challenges in the legal profession, the UB Law School is on a path to overcome them and continue on its present path of academic excellence,” Mutua said.
While working as the law school dean, Mutua helped create the Junior Faculty Forum, which provides faculty members the opportunity to showcase their work.
Mutua graduated from Harvard Law School.