Law Schools

New Dean Will Be Only Woman Of Color To Lead Top 30 Law School

We can only hope that the school will continue its meteoric rise in the rankings under her guidance.

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L. Song Richardson

When Erwin Chemerinsky, the founding dean of UC Irvine School of Law, left the school this past summer for more highly ranked pastures, L. Song Richardson was appointed as interim dean. She’d been a professor at the school for three years, and Chemerinsky sang her praises, saying, “I think she will do a terrific job. I am a huge fan and supporter of hers.” At the time, Enrique Lavernia, Irvine’s provost and executive vice chancellor, said Richardson would be an effective leader while the school conducted a search for someone to replace Chemerinsky, but that their “priority [was] to find the right candidate.”

Right before the Christmas holiday, UC Irvine announced that the “right candidate” had been found — and she’d been right under their noses all along. L. Song Richardson is the next dean of Irvine Law, effective January 1, 2018. Come Monday, she will be the only woman of color to lead one of the nation’s top law schools, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report.

Richardson is a graduate of Yale Law School, and she’s taught courses in criminal procedure, criminal law, and law and social science at Irvine Law since 2014. Prior to joining the faculty at UCI, she held law professorships at DePaul University, American University, and the University of Iowa. Before transitioning to academia, Richardson was a partner at a criminal law boutique, a state and federal public defender, and assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. In her new role at Irvine Law, Richardson said she’d like the school to “continue to redefine, reinvent, and reimagine the future of legal education.” After all, the school isn’t even a decade old yet, and it’s already risen to the Top 30 in the coveted U.S. News rankings. “We want to be where legal education is going, not where it’s been,” she said.

And how does she feel about being the only woman of color to lead one of America’s top law schools? Here’s what she shared with The Recorder:

Through my life I have been inspired by other women and the incredible work they’ve done, and I hope with me in this position it will potentially inspire other women to dream big and work hard to achieve their dreams.

Congratulations to L. Song Richardson on her new deanship at UC Irvine Law. We can only hope that the school will continue its meteoric rise in the rankings under her guidance, and that additional top law schools will follow Irvine’s lead and commit to diversity and inclusion when selecting their leaders.

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New UC Irvine dean will be only woman of color to lead a top law school, university says [Daily Plot / Los Angeles Times]
UC Irvine School of Law Gets New Dean [The Recorder]
L. Song Richardson named dean of UCI School of Law [UCI News]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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