Farewell, Dean Sargent
‘Peanut Girl’ dean resigns at Villanova.
One of our favorite law school deans is stepping down. Dean Mark A. Sargent — best known for L’Affaire Peanut Girl, and more recently gracing these pages after memorably quipping in a school-wide email that “The internet really is a type of hell!” — is departing as dean of Villanova Law.
One student’s reaction to the news:
We did NOT, contrary to popular belief, celebrate like munchkins [rejoicing in] the Wicked Witch’s death when the “Peanut Girl” transferred — but we are definitely doing so now (unless, of course, Dean Sargent is ill — in which case we wish him the best).
Sadly, Dean Sargent may be ill; he is stepping down for “personal and medical reasons.” We wish him a speedy recovery. We also hope his successor is similarly skilled in the use of the “reply all” function.
Read the announcement, from Villanova President Peter Donohue, after the jump.
Here’s the message that went out from the office of the Rev. Peter M. Donohue, President of Villanova University, to alumni and friends of the law school. A similar email was sent to current students as well.
REV. PETER M. DONOHUE, O.S.A. - MEMORANDUM — RESIGNATION OF MARK SARGENT AS DEAN OF VILLANOVA LAW
Dear Alumni and Friends:
Yesterday morning, citing personal and medical reasons, Mark Sargent resigned as Dean of the Villanova University School of Law, and I accepted his resignation. I am grateful for Mark’s outstanding service to the University and his dedication to building the excellence of our Law School.
I have appointed Associate Dean Doris DelTosto Brogan as Acting Dean of the Law School, effective immediately. I am confident that under the leadership of Acting Dean Brogan, the Law School is in strong and capable hands, and that our students will continue to receive an outstanding education. Dean Brogan is a long-standing member of the Villanova community and has served as the Law School’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs since 1992. She graduated magna cum laude from Villanova’s School of Law and was an associate in the Philadelphia office of Morgan Lewis & Bockius, before returning to Villanova as a member of the law faculty in 1983.
I believe that Dean Brogan will provide excellent guidance for the Law School. As always, our primary responsibility is to our students, and we will move forward with a search for a new dean as quickly and diligently as possible.
Father Peter Donohue, O.S.A.
Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Villanova Law
(75) Comments
Comments
first?
He was a good dean. He will be missed.
Being First is some kind of hell
He was NOT a good dean. Let's hope Brogan (and the permanent successor) does a better job.
There goes my hero... watch him as he goes.
Awesome. Now get rid of Dean Walkaround and the extremely useless head of Career Services Elaine Petrossian (she probably couldn't get people jobs at McDonalds let alone law firms) and Villanova might be able to get up in the rankings.
Ehhhhh.... it doesn't matter anyway... Nova will forever be a rip off who ever the new dean is..
Hopefully Brogan stays on indefinitely in the big chair. I shave feeling that if she were in charge, she'd run a tighter ship (i.e. can 1/3 of the idle administrative staff).
Does chronic embarrassment count as "personal and medical?"
New dean, new building, new US News ranking?
(I really do hope he's not sick though...)
This has nothing to do with finding an explanation as to why Mystal is licking peanut butter out of Blutarski's ass.
so, no other top firm has pulled a latham. doesn't this put them at a big disadvantage in recruiting? since they had that other incident in the 90s, people are connecting the dots and viewing BIG LAYOFFS as latham's mo.
so, wouldn't it have been better for them to take the short term hit like the other top firms are doing instead of pwning themselves? worse recruits will translate into less money in the long term. not to mention they injected about 400 attorneys (counting the stealths) into the market who likely do not view them favorably. some will land in positions where they can withhold business from latham. not to mention the effects of the trash talking.
11, YOU ARE AN IDIOT.
-LATHAM SECURE
David Santee for dean! Why can't us? Why can't us?
The man has medical issues and you are still belittling him. No class, Elie.
DelTosto: another affirmative action twofer? Did someone say Sotomayor?
Just read that Sanford wanted his wife to meet his mistress. Unless he was angling for a threesome, I call creepy.
14, I gotta rash, man.
I don't see the post as "belittling" Sargent. It is pretty restrained.
This post is by Lat, not Elie.
I heard DelTosto attempt to speak Spanish once, it was like watching Stephen Hawking perform Swan Lake.
15, you are an idiot. Dean Brogan has been there forever and was Dean of Students for years until today, as well as one of the best professors VLS has.
Also, DelTosto is Italian, not Spanish. Last I checked, Italians didn't qualify for affirmative action. Moron.
Del Toasto is Italian, dumbasses.
Dean James worked extra hard today by sending out TWO emails. Thankfully he only forwarded emails written by other people so he probably didn't strain himself too much.
Brogan's first order of business will be to have Star Trek doors installed throughout the new building, effectively downsizing
Dean James.
6, is that really Dean Walkaround himself or his ghost? I swear I saw him walkig around past midnight once. And you can't firs Petrossian, she has sovereign immunity, she's a nation unto herself.
12, that's an oxymoron. ask current latham ny junior associates how "latham secure" they feel.
"Last I checked, Italians didn't qualify for affirmative action. Moron."
How did you think SCALIA, J., wound up on the Supreme Court?
Reagan wanted to curry favor with the Italian American community. That's why he put Nino on SCOTUS.
You mean italians and latinos aren't the same thing? I read somewhere that Scalia was the first latino on SCOTUS
To clarify everyone's confusion:
Benicio del Toro, is a Puerto Rican actor
I suppose that I should know the answer to this question, but is Villanova University School of Law accredited by the American Bar Association?
You have to give Sargent a little credit. The new building looks amazing and is actually done on time.
http://www.law.villanova.edu/campaign/thebuilding/tourthenewbuilding.html
I'm confused. Is Benicio del Toro on the Supreme Court? Is Antonin Scalia Puerto Rican?
Lat, that peanut girl post was a great post from back in the day. We need more comments clusterfucks about topics like that.
Elie, perhaps you can dig up a law student we can all pick on in the comments. Those are my favorite kinds of threads.
31: you know that's a computer rendering, don't you?
34, I see the new building every day and it looks exactly like that.
34, You're our only hope.
Meh, looks like every othe new Villanova building. Nice gratuitous basketball team photo though.
30 - Yes, Villanova is ABA-accredited. It is actually a very good school (second to U. Penn. among law schools in the Philadelphia area).
31 - if by "on time," you mean 4 years after they told incoming students it would be done, then yes. It is "on time."
wasn't west side story about italian gangs? I remember that song they sang "I want to be In America" correct me if I'm wrong.
Comments on the Peanut Girl post, one of the all-time best in ATL history, are open again:
http://abovethelaw.com/2007/11/dingdong_the_peanuthating_witc.php?show=comments#comments
I'm pretty sure that Scalia was the first Latino on SCOTUS that's why they make the Latina distinction for Sotomayor.
Villanova's JD MBA program is top 5 in the country
No, not Scalia. Maybe Cardozo:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/readers/2009/06/sotomayor-cardozo-and-the-question-of-hispanic-and-latinos.html
27: I take offense to your curry flavor remark, Italians and Indians aren't the same people, asswipe.
I'll miss the guy... he did a pretty good job despite what the anonymous trolls on here say. Best of luck, Dean Sargent.
As a recent VLS grad, I will very much miss Dean Sargent. He always worked for the best of his students, and he managed to build a beautiful new law school.
I wish him the best of luck!
Sadly, Dean Sargent has developed a peanut allergy and is too sick to continue.
Rumors that his wife has been purchasing bulk quantities of peanuts are unsubstantiated.
Shame on you. The post is in remarkably bad taste. The half-hearted well wishes are just cover for taking a parting shot at someone who is ill.
49 - I disagree. It's close to the line, but fine.
What specific line(s) in the post would you cite as being in poor taste?
Blame peanut girl. Out her by name, and let the world know the kind of person she really is.
Is peanut girl Erin Elmore? Cuz she was on the apprentice.
38 - TTTemple beats Villanofun in quality law grads in the Philly market. Who cares about USNWR rankings besides stupid administrators at schools like Illinois who don't know how the world works.
I only wish he'd left sooner so I could have attended VLS without ever having to see him using my tuition money to take his twin purebred dogs for a walk through the halls during the day.
I only wish he'd left sooner so I could have attended VLS without ever having to see him using my tuition money to take his twin purebred dogs for a walk through the halls during the day.
Cardozo is Jewish not Italian, yeshiva Cardozo law school, duh!
At least Sargent wasn't mauled again by his dogs.
Was Mark Sargent gay? He wasn't married, lived with his mom and had very well groomed dogs. Just curious.
Was Mark Sargent gay? He wasn't married, lived with his mom and had very well groomed dogs. Just curious.
Was Mark Sargent gay? He wasn't married, lived with his mom and had very well groomed dogs. Just curious.
Was Mark Sargent gay? He wasn't married, lived with his mom and had very well groomed dogs. Just curious.
follow the money
38- I have been working in Philly for years- Temple is half the price and has a much better reputation than Villanova. Villanova is for rich kids with mediocre college transcripts and marginal work ethics. Sure Villanova can buy a new building and skapegoat a Dean, but it doesn't change the fact that their students are idiots and their professors are third-rate. And no, I didn't go to Temple.
On a related note, there're about 6 jobs available to graduating 3LS in the entire Philadelphia market right now, so I wouldn't want to be graduating from any Philly school now, regardless of what a computer rendering of my new law school cafeteria looks like.
58-61 - he is married
57: nice
57: nice
63 - you are just plain wrong. Villanova has a very good reputation, most notably its faculty. The force of the alumni throughout the Philadelphia legal community is more than any other law school, because Penn students leave Philly. Temple is a good school, but only recently, so its alumni aren't as prominent.
Peanut girl is not Erin Elmore. If she were, I would have slipped her a Snickers years ago.
So Sargent and Maule weren't an item? And 57 wasn't
alluding to their allegedly secret affair?
Villanova had more notable alums than temple. Ed Rendell, Erin Elmore, that Russian mail order bride who was in Penthouse, to name a few. Who does temple have? John Street? The most notoriously corrupt (non-Italian) mayor? Big whoopeee! (actually, that is a pretty big accomplishmet)
Villanova had more notable alums than temple. Ed Rendell, Erin Elmore, that Russian mail order bride who was in Penthouse, to name a few. Who does temple have? John Street? The most notoriously corrupt (non-Italian) mayor? Big whoopeee! (actually, that is a pretty big accomplishmet)
Peanut Girl pales in comparison to the news that is about to come out about this!
Wow, was 72 ever right.
72: Reveal your identity and your sources
Regarding the Philadelphia Grand Jury Report into clergy sexual abuse, we cannot forget “courage” from the esteemed representatives of local Catholic institutions in the Philadelphia area. For this we turn to the esteemed dean of Villanova Law School, Mark Sargent (one wonders if he will ever be promoted to lieutenant).
Writes wonderful prose on various legal blogs re how Villanova Law struggles to retain its Catholic identity. On the other hand, last year, the shameless dean did drive down to Dover, Delaware to testify AGAINST the civil windows legislation concerning child sexual abuse. Fortunately, the Delaware bill was enacted and Mark Sargent was last seen driving north to the Main Line (Villanova area), licking his wounds, and bemoaning the sad state of ethics and morality in our culture.
There is no way Hollywood could ever write this tale…………this is most certainly being scripted, produced and directed by the Devil.
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