Two Law School Deans Step Down from Posts

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According to Knox News, the Lincoln Memorial University’s law dean has resigned from his post and will return to the classroom because of uncertainty with the accreditation of the school. University president James Dawson said that the school will begin a search for an interim dean immediately. The dean, Sydney Beckman, has been in the position since August of 2008. Dawson said that Beckman will begin a ‘research leave’ that will last until the end of the year. He will return to the classroom next fall.

“I think it’s a situation where we had literally exhausted Dean Beckman and I say that with great respect for the service he provided, but he felt he did not have the energy level or the personal or professional interest to remain in an administrative position and wanted to move to teaching position, which is not uncommon,” Dawson said.

  

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In July, the American Bar Association denied the John J. Duncan Jr. School of Law but did tell the school that it could appeal for a second time. The school has yet to be notified of the decision for its second appeal. The school was granted an extension for its provisional state approval by the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners. This approval is required for students to take the bar exam in Tennessee. The school now has until 2017 to earn accreditation from the ABA.

Beckman was a professor at Charleston School of Law and an adjunct professor at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law prior to joining Lincoln Memorial.

Another law school dean, Richard Revesz, is leaving his post at New York University School of law effective in May. He has been the dean since 2002. The school announced the decision on Wednesday and said that Revesz will stay as a tenured faculty member, will continue to teach and will remain the head of the law school’s Institute for Policy Integrity.

Revesz spoke with the New York Times Law Blog this week about his decision.

“The vast majority of our students are doing very well,” Revesz said. “Obviously the number of jobs in the private sector has decreased in recent years. The market has contracted after 2008, and it’s affected every sector, including this sector.”

Revesz said that the legal industry has not returned to the heights it was at in the middle 2000s but did say that things are starting to take a turn for the better. “The number of employers coming to early interviews this fall was back to pre-2008 levels,” Revesz said. “It was a very encouraging statistic.”