The University of Miami announced today the appointment of distinguished legal scholar, academic administrator, and attorney, Paul R. Verkuil as Acting Dean for the Law School. Verkuil will replace Dennis O. Lynch, who served as Dean of the Law School since 1999 and stepped down at the end of this academic year. He will assume his post on August 1 and serve for one year while the search for a permanent Dean is resumed.

Verkuil, senior counsel at Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP and professor of law at Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, served as dean of Cardozo law school from 1997 – 2001, where the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law was established in his honor. He also served as president of the College of William and Mary, dean of Tulane Law School, and president and CEO of the American Automobile Association. The U.S. Supreme Court appointed him Special Master in the case involving the sovereignty of Ellis Island: New Jersey v. New York. The New York Times profiled him as someone known for “tackling thorny problems.”

A life fellow of the American Bar Foundation and of the American Law Institute, Verkuil’s academic interests include government regulation and the protection of individual rights. He is a leading scholar of law and regulation and has published more than 65 articles in the field. His fourth book, Outsourcing Sovereignty:  How Privatization of Government Functions Threatens Democracy And What We Can Do About It, published by Cambridge University Press in 2007, has been hailed as “path-breaking,” “timely” and “powerful.” Professor Verkuil received his A.B. at the College of William and Mary and his J.D. from the University of Virginia. He also earned an M.A. from the New School for Social Research, and an LL.M. and J.S.D. from New York University. He is married to Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Related Links

• Paul Verkuil’s Cardozo School of Law biography
• Atlantic Monthly interview with Paul Verkuil
• Legal Talk Network radio interview with Paul Verkuil
• Miami Herald article "UM chooses Interim Law School Dean"
• South Florida Business Journal article "People on the Move"

posted 21-July-2008