Financial pressures lead law deans to leave their posts, new study finds
The average tenure for law school deans has shrunk from 10.3 years in the 1950s to 2.8 years since 2020—and financial pressures are largely to blame, according to a study published Wednesday by the Association of American Law Schools.
The authors reached out to 624 current and former law school deans, yielding 256 responses and data on 294 deanships, along with 70 interviews conducted between November 2025 and February 2026.
While 65.9% of those surveyed stated tight budgets and financial constraints were major or extreme challenges, other factors contributed to the pressure.
“Being held responsible for outcomes while lacking the authority, the resources or sometimes even an accurate financial picture needed to address them,” contributed to the stress, according to the study, titled Relentless: The Pressures Shortening Law School Deanships and What Must Change.
A quarter of voluntary departures happened earlier than the dean originally planned, the study found.
“While it’s often seen as happy news, behind it are reasons like differences with the university administration, health issues and burnout,” says Patricia Roberts, study co-author and dean of St. Mary’s University School of Law.
Of the deans who served fewer than four years, nearly two-thirds, or 63.2%, pointed to strained relationships with university administration as a major challenge. The fact that the university administration itself frequently changes, with one in four universities changing presidents in 2023–2024 alone, adds pressures, according to the study.
Roberts finds it “alarming” that the study showed that female deans serve an average of two years less than men, who held their posts for an average of 8.2 years. Roberts also pointed out that 46% of deanships held by Black or African American deans surveyed lasted less than four years, compared with only 31.3% of deanships held by other races.
“These are not incidental findings,” the study states. “They point to structural inequities that mentorship programs alone will not fix, and that require focused institutional attention.”
In 2025, a quarter of ABA-accredited law schools had a new dean. The study notes that costs compound once a dean resigns, including naming an interim dean, creating a search committee, hiring consultants and investing time to find a replacement.
“It’s a huge loss of momentum for the law school,” Roberts says. “More than likely a law school is going to slip back a little bit. The new dean needs to rebuild all those relationships—alumni, donors, faculty and staff.”
Work-life balance also was cited as a major or extreme challenge by 39.8% of respondents. Lower on the list of issues were declining enrollment, technology and innovation demands, and student recruitment and retention.
The good news, Roberts says, is the survey found that “even the deans who reported burnout, lack of work-life balance still said it’s the best job in the world and are glad they did it because of the impact on rule of law but most of all, the satisfaction of serving students.”
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