---
title: 'Dean Search: Candidate Specifications'
date: '2013-11-14T10:48:57-06:00'
type: post
word_count: 633
char_count: 4536
tokens: 823
categories:
  - 'Latest News'
  - 'Law News'
---

# Dean Search: Candidate Specifications

**UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA**

**SCHOOL OF LAW

**DEAN SEARCH STATEMENT**

**For 140 years, Alabama Law has produced attorneys**

**who become leaders locally, nationally, and globally.**

**Our graduates do more than practice law – they shape**

**the future.**

**CANDIDATE CHARACTERISTICS**

The University of Alabama School of Law seeks a dean with excellent academic credentials, extensive administrative leadership experience, and strong communication and fundraising skills.

Leaders from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines may be considered. Candidates from the academy should possess a JD or equivalent degree and have a distinguished record of (or outstanding potential for) chairholder-level scholarship and teaching. Candidates holding advanced degrees with scholarly interests related to the law and involving interdisciplinary, jurisprudential, empirical, or social science work, or exceptional jurists or practitioners may also receive consideration.

The position requires a candidate who can:

- Set and achieve Law School-wide excellence in research, teaching, and public service;
- Attract, mentor, and retain high-quality faculty, students, and staff;
- Enhance diversity in all forms;
- Manage the Law School, with skills including strategic planning, program development and evaluation, and financial management;
- Raise funds and promote the Law School in Alabama and throughout the nation; and
- Maintain and improve the School’s already strong relationship with the University, alumni, and the bar.

**THE SCHOOL OF LAW**

The University of Alabama School of Law is a top-ten public law school that offers its students an exciting, challenging educational environment coupled with a high quality of life. An intimate, student-centered institution, the School’s 45 full-time faculty teach approximately 500 students, offering a JD and seven JD joint/dual programs of study, as well as an international LLM, an LLM in taxation, and an LLM concentration in business transactions. The curriculum is traditional but includes a variety of elective classes in business law, criminal law, environmental law, intellectual property, international law, and tax law. The curriculum is also rich in clinical, advocacy, skills, and perspective offerings.

The Law School attracts a racially diverse group of students drawn from both Alabama and the larger nation. For the JD Class of 2015, the School received almost 1,700 applications and admitted 423 candidates; the median LSAT of the 2015 class is 165. The School is widely recognized for the value of its education, with current in-state tuition of $20,770 (out-of-state $34,840). In a challenging environment, the School’s graduates have succeeded in the job market: in 2012, within nine months of graduation, 92 percent of graduates were employed in JD-required or preferred positions or were attending graduate school.

The Law School is part of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, a [public](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_university_(U.S.) "State university (U.S.)") [research university](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Classification_of_Institutions_of_Higher_Education#Doctorate-granting_Universities "Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education") and the [flagship](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagship_university "Flagship university") of the [University of Alabama System](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Alabama_System "University of Alabama System"). Tuscaloosa is a thriving, affordable city of 100,000 that lies 50 miles southwest of Birmingham.

More information about the School and University may be found at [http://www.law.ua.edu/](/)and <http://www.ua.edu/>.

 **THE SEARCH PROCESS**

The University of Alabama is being assisted in this effort by the executive search firm Spencer Stuart. The search committee welcomes comments, questions, and nominations or expressions of interest. To contact the committee, please email <alabamalawdean@spencerstuart.com>. All submissions will be held in strict confidence.

*The University of Alabama School of Law is committed to a policy of equal opportunity and of nondiscrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, handicap or disability, or sexual orientation. It does not discriminate on these factors in administering its educational policies; admission policies; employment, promotion, and compensation policies; financial aid and scholarship programs; and other school-related activities.