Being prepared to weather a Republican-led culture war inquisition wasn’t always a requirement to lead a world-class academic institution, but times have changed. Over the last few years, between the Trump administration’s assault on higher education funding and congressional hearings designed to harass institutions over “wokeness,” anyone hoping to lead America’s best schools learned that dealing with a meddlesome clicktatorship is now part of the job.
Georgetown University Law Center needed a new dean after the departure of Dean William Treanor — who spent his final year in the job telling the administration’s dullest hatchet men that they could pound sand — and have just announced their selection.
Liz Magill, the former University of Pennsylvania president (and Stanford Law dean), will take over, the school announced on Friday. Magill, who got pushed out at Penn after grandstanding legislators vilified her for committing the unforgivable sin of… accurately describing how university speech codes work, brings that battle-tested experience to the T14 institution as its 17th dean. She will take over effective August 1.
Magill wound up on the academic waiver wire following a 2023 House hearing alongside the presidents of MIT and Harvard. Representative Elise Stefanik asked whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate Penn’s code of conduct — a curious question from a legislator who had her own cozy history with replacement theory. Magill gave the legally accurate answer that it would depend upon context, igniting a class of lemming donors to push her out. Donors who, it bears mentioning, seem to have no problem with Penn’s continued employment of Amy Wax, the law professor who says Black students aren’t generally smart enough to finish in the top half of the school and invites white nationalists to campus.
In an exclusive interview with Politico, Magill reflected on how she wishes she had better phrased her congressional testimony to balance the legal reality with the concerns of students:
“My testimony in Congress left people distressed, and it particularly did that for Jewish students back on the Penn campus,” Magill told me. “I take very seriously the response that people had to my testimony, and I regret that I conveyed a lack of compassion and care and good sense to those people.” She added, “I want every Jewish student, a student of every faith, every view, every single student to feel they are in a secure environment and they’re in a place where they can flourish.”
Having left the Penn position, the former Ginsburg clerk sought out a new position with a school more willing to absorb some heat. The school whose last dean told the DOJ to get bent seemed to be a good match. In the announcement, Magill said the experience at Penn “clarified what she sees as the essential task of leadership: stating values clearly and acting consistently on them.”
Magill has proven she can take a hit and keep moving. The folks who thought they ended her career with viral clips only succeeded in helping one of the top law schools in the country lock down a new dean.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
The post Georgetown Law Hires New Dean With Experience Surviving GOP Witch-Hunt appeared first on Above the Law.
Being prepared to weather a Republican-led culture war inquisition wasn’t always a requirement to lead a world-class academic institution, but times have changed. Over the last few years, between the Trump administration’s assault on higher education funding and congressional hearings designed to harass institutions over “wokeness,” anyone hoping to lead America’s best schools learned that dealing with a meddlesome clicktatorship is now part of the job.
Georgetown University Law Center needed a new dean after the departure of Dean William Treanor — who spent his final year in the job telling the administration’s dullest hatchet men that they could pound sand — and have just announced their selection.
Liz Magill, the former University of Pennsylvania president (and Stanford Law dean), will take over, the school announced on Friday. Magill, who got pushed out at Penn after grandstanding legislators vilified her for committing the unforgivable sin of… accurately describing how university speech codes work, brings that battle-tested experience to the T14 institution as its 17th dean. She will take over effective August 1.
Magill wound up on the academic waiver wire following a 2023 House hearing alongside the presidents of MIT and Harvard. Representative Elise Stefanik asked whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate Penn’s code of conduct — a curious question from a legislator who had her own cozy history with replacement theory. Magill gave the legally accurate answer that it would depend upon context, igniting a class of lemming donors to push her out. Donors who, it bears mentioning, seem to have no problem with Penn’s continued employment of Amy Wax, the law professor who says Black students aren’t generally smart enough to finish in the top half of the school and invites white nationalists to campus.
In an exclusive interview with Politico, Magill reflected on how she wishes she had better phrased her congressional testimony to balance the legal reality with the concerns of students:
“My testimony in Congress left people distressed, and it particularly did that for Jewish students back on the Penn campus,” Magill told me. “I take very seriously the response that people had to my testimony, and I regret that I conveyed a lack of compassion and care and good sense to those people.” She added, “I want every Jewish student, a student of every faith, every view, every single student to feel they are in a secure environment and they’re in a place where they can flourish.”
Having left the Penn position, the former Ginsburg clerk sought out a new position with a school more willing to absorb some heat. The school whose last dean told the DOJ to get bent seemed to be a good match. In the announcement, Magill said the experience at Penn “clarified what she sees as the essential task of leadership: stating values clearly and acting consistently on them.”
Magill has proven she can take a hit and keep moving. The folks who thought they ended her career with viral clips only succeeded in helping one of the top law schools in the country lock down a new dean.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
The post Georgetown Law Hires New Dean With Experience Surviving GOP Witch-Hunt appeared first on Above the Law.
