The University of North Carolina just posted an announcement for our dean search. It is as follows:
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill invites nominations and applications for the Dean of the School of Law. The Dean reports to the Executive Vice Chancellor/Provost and is a senior level administrator.
Long recognized as one of the top public law schools in the country, the School of Law has enjoyed strong academic leadership and sustained excellence in the quality of its students, faculty and staff. The School has sixty full-time faculty whose scholarship and teaching reflect their richly varied backgrounds and interests. The Law School also enjoys a diverse student body of approximately 700 students from across the United States as well as internationally. More information about the Law School may be found at www.law.unc.edu.
The ideal candidate will be a collaborative leader with a distinguished record of academic achievement and outstanding professional accomplishment. Successful applicants will have a vision of the importance of public legal education, a deep appreciation for the legal profession and for legal scholarship, excellent fundraising skills, the capacity for administrative and intellectual leadership, a track record of consensus building, and demonstrated excellent communication skills. A J.D. degree is required. The Dean serves at the pleasure of the Chancellor with a five year review.
Now in its third century, UNC Chapel Hill was the first public university in America to open its doors, and is one of the select group of institutions forming the Association of American Universities. With more than 29,000 students, UNC Chapel Hill's academic offerings span more than 100 fields, including bachelor's, master's, doctoral, and professional degrees. In addition to the excellent School of Law, the University has a renowned College of Arts and Sciences and nationally recognized schools of business, dentistry, education, government, information and library science, journalism and mass communication, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health, and social work.
Inquiries, nominations, and expressions of interest may be sent to Lucy A. Leske, Jean A. Dowdall Ph.D., and Werner Boel, the Witt/Kieffer consultants assisting the Law School with this search, at UNCLawDean@wittkieffer.com. Electronic submissions are strongly encouraged. A complete application will include a letter of interest, a current curriculum vitae, and contact information for five professional references. Review of applications will begin late in 2014 and will continue until the position is filled. The anticipated starting date for the new dean is July 1, 2015.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes all to apply, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.
Though these are challenging time for legal education, as I said when we announced the dean search committee last August, this is a very desirable deanship. There are a lot of terrific fundamentals in place in Chapel Hill and at the University and in our community. The students are strong (I believe that going forward the student body will be a lot closer to 600 than 700), the faculty at the law school and across campus are strong, and the law school and our alumni occupy an important place in the state. More information is available at Witt/Kiefer's website.