Florida International University faculty raise red flags as Trump aide moves to interim law dean post
Faculty at Florida International University are raising red flags regarding the appointment of Daniel Z. Epstein as the interim dean of the law school, who started in the post last month. (Photo from Shutterstock)
Faculty at Florida International University are raising red flags regarding the appointment of Daniel Z. Epstein as the interim dean of the law school, who started in the post last month.
Epstein, who worked as a special assistant and a senior associate counsel to President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2020, had been eliminated from consideration by a search committee to find a permanent law dean, Florida International University professors told Law.com.
But sources told Law.com that it was likely that Epstein would have become the dean of the Florida International University College of Law permanently. But in July, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams of the Southern District of Florida issued sanctions against Epstein in an ongoing case between Trump and the IRS.
Williams denied Epstein’s motions to appear in the case pro hac vice for at least one year and held that parties cannot refer to, use or cite the “purported ‘settlement agreement,’” which she found was “improperly” sought in an attempt to gain “judicial legitimacy.”
Last month, the Florida International University faculty senate steering committee discussed asking the full senate to endorse a statement calling for Epstein to be placed on administrative leave until his court battles are resolved, according to sources familiar with the matter.
When the deanship became open, the Florida International University search committee vetted more than 30 candidates, but Epstein did not make the first cut of 20 candidates, unnamed sources familiar with the decision told Law.com, because he was then an untenured professor at the St. Thomas University College of Law with “no administrative experience.”
Ultimately, the committee’s three top recommendations were rejected, and Jeanette Nuñez, the state’s former lieutenant governor who was hired as the president of Florida International University last year at the request of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, named a law dean not included in the recommendations list, sources said.
Epstein represented Trump in his lawsuit against the Department of Justice for its investigation into possible ties between Russia and his 2016 campaign and during the 2022 search led by the FBI for classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
He was the vice president of America First Legal, a conservative litigation group, and he worked as the chair of the Palm Beach State College.
Epstein’s appointment comes after a move by Florida in January to become the second among a handful of Republican-led states to distance themselves from the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar as the Florida Supreme Court opened the door to other law school accreditors, allowing graduates from non-ABA-accredited law schools to take that state’s bar.
The move was later blessed by the Federal Trade Commission, sending a 14-page letter to the Florida Supreme Court to “applaud the amendment.”
The Florida International University College of Law had 581 JD students in 2025, according to the most recent information submitted to the ABA, and a first-time bar pass rate of 88.34%.
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