Dear Colleagues and Friends,
After twelve wonderful years as Dean of the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, I am writing to share that I will be stepping down from this role in January. The time is right, with the opening of the new courtrooms as part of the major ‘A New Day in Court’ project, and with the next era of leadership across our great University, which brings opportunities for fresh perspectives.
As I reflect on this chapter, I feel an overwhelming sense of pride and gratitude for all we have achieved together. When I became dean, I could not fully anticipate how meaningful this role would be for me personally. It has been a privilege to work alongside such brilliant and passionate faculty, staff, students, university partners, alumni, and supporters.
Brevity is not always my strong suit. In fact, at the start of one LCA meeting, an alum saw my name next to a 15-minute talk and quipped—amid smiles—"there must be a typo on the agenda about the length of Marc’s talk.” So, thank you for humoring me as I reflect on just some of the work we’ve accomplished over the years.
While our efforts have spanned a variety of initiatives, the thread that has bound them together has been the goal of expanding access to legal education.
In 2014 we launched the first BA in Law program in the U.S., in close partnership with the School of Government and Public Policy, which is part of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Today that program serves over 1,900 students across Tucson, online, and at microcampuses around the world. Indeed, I just returned from the celebration of the 10th anniversary of our premier and oldest microcampus at Ocean University of China, in Qingdao, a program that already has 581 graduates and another 493 superb current undergraduate dual degree BA in Law students. The celebration also reflected the 100th anniversary of Ocean University of China.
I love the impact our BA in Law degree has had. And how many people can say they had a hand in creating a unique, ground-up degree—and then watch their son choose that college major?
Access to legal education has also meant offering options to people, including many working professionals, who want to understand law and regulations, but don’t want a traditional JD degree. Our Master of Legal Studies program serves these individuals, and is training more than 400 current students, mostly online. The MLS has already prepared hundreds of graduates for work in diverse fields including compliance, health law, regulatory science, dispute resolution, family law, criminal law, and mining and cannabis law, creating a new generation of legal thinkers and actors.
Access has also been a theme of our 109-year-old JD program. We broke new ground by being the first law school to accept the GRE for JD admissions (Harvard followed, and now more than half of all US law schools accept that admissions test). We then created the research-based JD-Next course and JD-Next exam to further lower barriers to entry, to eliminate the racial disparities acknowledged in legacy tests, and to increase JD student success, especially for first gen students and students without prior exposure to lawyers and our legal system. Our goal has been to open new doors to JD degrees and legal careers for students from all walks of life.
And our work has not only reshaped legal education but has helped to reshape the legal profession, increasing access to lawyers and legal services that are needed throughout our country, but especially in Arizona, which ranks 49th of 50 states in lawyers per capita.
Several years ago, the Arizona Supreme Court approved the February bar option, allowing third-year JD students to take the bar before graduation. More recently, in close collaboration with our College, the Court launched the exciting Arizona Legal Apprentice Program, or ALAP, which provides a licensure pathway for those scoring 260-269 on the bar exam if they commit to working in rural areas or for public entities. We also collaborated with the Court to champion the new role of Legal Paraprofessional. Trained undergraduates and graduates can now be licensed to practice in limited but essential practice areas, expanding legal services in family law and other fields with great unmet need.
The importance of excellent legal education in a complex world is not limited to Arizona or U.S. borders, and our impact extends to many Indigenous groups and other nations.
We have supported our advanced JD admissions program to enroll talented lawyers from outside the US with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Through our collaboration with the University of Technology Sydney, we have taken an unprecedented step – becoming the first US law school ever to be approved by the ABA to deliver an accredited US JD entirely outside the borders of the US. We have extended our training of non-lawyers to hundreds of Mexican diplomats and diplomatic staff in a special partnership with the Mexican foreign service. And we opened a microcampus on the Pascua Yaqui Nation, near Tucson.
All along, our traditional JD program on our beautiful campus remains our foundation. For generations, the very best lawyers have been effective writers, and we have focused on enhancing superb, creative and highly ranked legal writing, clinical, and library faculties and programs, to help our students hone fundamental research, writing, advocacy, and other lawyering skills.
Fundamental training is the spirit behind our "A New Day in Court" project, which features just completed state-of-the-art courtrooms and classrooms designed to put advocacy front and center. This initiative is particularly special to me as it honors the legacy of Professor Emeritus Tom Mauet, whose impact on our program has been profound.
Having watched this project since its inception in 2017, I have been deeply moved by the generosity of our community. The funds raised in this 100% donor-funded project are a testament to the shared belief in our mission. I am grateful to everyone who has helped bring this vision to life. Our work with the LCA, the University of Arizona Foundation and university leaders, partners and institutions of shared governance have been crucial in driving the College's most innovative programs forward.
Over the past 12 years we’ve grown our endowment by more than $26 million, and raised tens of millions more. We established two new endowed named professorships (the Robert H. Mundheim Professorship, and the Desmond and Jean Ruley Kearns Professorship), and created 23 new endowed scholarships—all of which help us invest in our students, faculty, and the future of legal education. We have increased annual grant and research funding more than 10-fold, bringing in from two to five million dollars each year in recent years.
During my time we’ve also welcomed more than 45 faculty to the college who joined an energetic group of scholars and teachers who produce fascinating, high-impact work, and engage each other and visitors in workshops which model serious and collaborative intellectual engagement.
We have longstanding programs, such as our Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy program, that are best-in-the-world, shape entire bodies of law, train the lawyers, leaders and scholars in the field, and bring demonstrable justice to communities. Newer programs, such as our Innovation for Justice (i4J) program and our TechLaw program, and newer clinics, such as our Intellectual Property Clinic and our Natural Resource Use and Management Clinic, train students to think in fundamentally different ways about the law, and about delivery and access to legal services.
As Dean I have watched twelve cohorts of students graduate, step into the world, and make significant contributions. Our alumni are shaping policies, leading firms, working for agencies and for tribes, sitting as judges and justices, or working outside of traditional legal settings. They give back in myriad ways, as teachers and mentors, as donors, with service on the Law College Association Board, the Board of Visitors, and the Deans Economic Council. So many are models for current and future students of what it means to serve clients, their communities and the profession. Every time I meet with alumni, I am reminded of why we do what we do.
Every success, every innovation, every step forward in the last 12 years has been a collective effort. The beating heart of Arizona Law has always been our people. Our students, faculty, staff and alumni are, hands down, what makes this place special. Support from university leaders and the Regents in our endeavors has been vital and deeply appreciated as well.
With the completion of the A New Day in Court courtrooms and other spaces, the celebration of the 10th anniversary of our OUC microcampus, the launching of JD-Next, new challenges such as the study and integration of AI into legal education and practice and preparation for the NextGen Bar, and the arrival of a new generation of University leaders, the time seems right for me to pause and reflect on the next chapter of my professional life.
The last twelve years have gone swiftly by, though I step down as the 9th longest serving current law dean in the country. I am excited at the prospect of more time to be with my family – my wife Chris who shares my passion for and also teaches at the U of A in the College of Public Health, and our children, Wyatt, a junior in high school, Evie, a college freshman in Chicago, and Owen, a junior Wildcat, and with my father, Howard, a lawyer and former law professor. Even our dogs seem excited about the prospect of longer hikes!
As I look ahead, I am eager to return to the classroom, and to have more time for scholarship. I hope to strengthen our many initiatives, with a special focus on our global and online efforts, and serve the College as it continues to develop and thrive. While I am stepping down as dean, my commitment to our students and to our community’s success remains as strong as ever.
Thank you for trusting me with the responsibility of leading this extraordinary place. It has been an honor and a joy.
With a full heart and deep appreciation,
Marc