New UCLA Law Dean Will Be First Latina at Helm of a Top 20 Law School
Rachel Moran will be making history when she becomes the new dean of the law school at the University of California at Los Angeles.
A law professor at the University of California at Berkeley since 1983, Moran will be the first Latina to head a top 20 law school, according to press releases by University of California at Berkeley’s Boalt Hall and University of California, Los Angeles. She took a leave from Berkeley two years ago to become a founding faculty member at the law school at the University of California at Irvine.
Moran teaches torts, race and the law, and education law, according to the Berkeley press release. She begins her new job on Oct. 15.
The former dean, Michael Schill, resigned to become dean of the University of Chicago Law School.
Moran told the ABA Journal in an e-mail that she is thrilled to be joining the UCLA law school community.
“The ethic of expanding opportunity has been a part of the law school’s mission since its inception,” Moran said. “UCLA Law was created to allow talented individuals in southern California to pursue legal training, even if they could not afford to move north. Through the years, the law school has welcomed new generations of law students from diverse backgrounds. This commitment to access has extended to leadership positions. As a result, UCLA Law was one of the first top schools to hire a woman dean, Susan Westerberg Prager. I am grateful that this longstanding commitment to inclusion lives on and that UCLA Law has broken yet another barrier by appointing me to the deanship.”
Updated at 10 a.m. to include information about Moran’s faculty appointment at UC Irvine. Updated at 7:30 p.m. to include comments from Moran.
