Legal Commentary

Disequilibrium in the Market for Law Deans

By Professor University of Miami School of Law

My colleague Tony Alfieri is quoted in Wanted: law school deans. Lots of them as saying, sensibly, that being an “austerity Dean” doesn’t sound like much fun.

Tony Alfieri, head of the Center for Ethics and Public Service at the University of Miami School of Law and a tenured professor there, agrees. Alfieri has had feelers for deanships but is ambivalent about the prospect of being “an austerity dean.”

“Many more contemporary deans are trying to strike a more appropriate work/life balance and are taking active roles in raising their children,” he said. “Plus they have serious commitments to their own scholarship, to their writing and, for many, to existing public service commitments. Add to that the fact that these are turbulent times. An austerity deanship poses uncommon and especially high challenges. And it’s doubly vexing for women.”

Which I suppose might be one more reason our job might sound attractive…

(But why is it “doubly vexing” for women? Is the idea that men don’t raise children or don’t do public interest work?)

Full post as published by Discourse.net on February 02, 2009 (boomark / email).