Catholic University is joining the movement to look outside academia for its law deans. The University has named Steven Payne as the dean of Catholic Law. Payne, a health care lawyer and partner at Gibson Dunn in D.C., holds a JD from Yale. He will take over on July 1.
Steven Payne Named Dean of Catholic Law
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Actually, Catholic's prior dean Dan Attridge also came from BigLaw (Kirkland & Ellis) and his five-year deanship was very successful in terms of fund-raising and alumni engagement. Practicing lawyers at the level of Attridge and Payne bring sophisticated management skills and, frankly, a drive to perform that can be hard to find within the more traditional academic cohort. For Payne, the task at hand should be to improve this under-ranked school's standing in the U.S News tables.
BigLaw partners bring "a drive to perform that can be hard to find within the more traditional academic cohort." Yeah, academics don't care much about success; we are slackards and have no drive. [Total sarcasm]