William H. Bowen School of Law Names New Dean

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The William H. Bowen School of Law announced via a press release that Michael Hunter Schwartz has been named the school’s new dean. The law school is at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Schwartz joins the university with over 20 years of experience in legal education and right now works as an associate dean for Faculty and Academic Development at the Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas. Schwartz also serves as the co-director for the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning and Professor of Law at Washburn.

  

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Serving as the interim law school dean since July of 2012, Professor Paula Casey will remain in the position until Schwartz takes the position on July 1. Casey is a former United States attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. She will remain at the school as a professor when her role as the interim dean ends.

Schwartz was a professor of law at the Charleston School of Law in South Carolina and at Western State University College of Law in Fullerton, California prior to joining the faculty at Washburn. He also worked for Graham & James in Newport Beach, California. He worked as an associate attorney for Hufstedler, Miller, Kaus & Beardsley in Los Angeles.

“This is a very exciting time for the UALR Bowen School,” said UALR Provost Zulma Toro. “The fact that we have been able to hire a nationally and internationally recognized leader in legal education will bring many opportunities for the law school to reach an even higher academic level.”

Schwartz told the search committee at the school in his letter that he hopes to garner collaborations with the faculty and other academic units at the school. He wants to build on the success of the law school while also improving the school’s international and national profile.

“I know that faculty and staff at the UALR Bowen School of Law are incredibly excited about welcoming Michael to our school,” said Casey. “He brings a number of innovative ideas about legal education to the table, and his experience as an organizer of the first conference on Humanizing Legal Education at Washburn Law School will certainly help improve our already strong focus on student-centered legal education. He is highly respected as an educator and advocate for helping create practice-ready attorneys, and his work in these areas will continue to strengthen our focus on legal skills education.”

Schwartz earned his J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of Law in San Francisco. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mass communications at the University of California, Berkeley.