We seem to be well into "dean season" this year with many schools, including my own, going into dean search mode.
One question that has always intrigued me – and perhaps intrigues me more since I've now experienced one stint on a dean search committee in the past – is what motivates certain people to want to become law deans. I think it's an even more interesting question now that more schools seem to be opening the field to what one might call "non traditional candidates" ie non-law-professors who come to the job with often a quite different skill set.
I wonder if motivations are different between the "traditional" and "non traditional" candidate groups. And I also wonder if motivations vary between internal and external candidates: for example, an internal candidate might be someone who is interested in the deanship at his/her own school because (s)he has watched the school develop over the years and has ideas about how things might be done better. An external candidate may or may not have an interest in any particular school and, if (s)he does, the interest may be based on a number of factors eg geographic location, ranking, state school versus private school, size of faculty, size of student body, specialist programs, relationship of the law school to the greater university, or conversely the opportunity of leading the helm at a stand-alone law school. None of this is to say that someone who is an internal candidate at one school may not well be an external candidate at a number of others – but does that person typically have different motivations for being interested in different schools?
I'd really be interested in the thoughts of anyone who is on, or who has been on, the dean market as to their motivations. And the beauty of blogging is that you can post comments anonymously! (And you notice I didn't mention "money", "power", "ego" or "megalomania" as motivating factors, but of course I wouldn't necessarily discount them…)
Well, Dean of any law school is a pretty impressive credential on someone's resume. Not surprising, I guess.
My sense is that traditional candidates who are interested in being Dean often just want to try something new. If you become a professor at 30 and receive tenure at 35, you're facing 40 or so years of doing the same thing year after year. Why not take 5-10 years off in the middle of that to try something totally different? That seems to be the thinking, at least.
While I buy Orin's explanation, I'm not sure that the idea of just having something impressive on a C.V. would be a motivating factor for that many people. It seems a very large challenge/commitment just for the sake of a line on a C.V. (unless you're planning to use that first deanship to move to another deanship or a provost/president position in which case the line on the C.V. is very relevant).
Because the job is an enormous 24/7 commitment, I think academic candidates are often most interested in the program and institution building aspects of a deanship. They also have to enjoy public and ceremonial events.
I sincerely hope your life, work, and family be blessed.