 
Law
professor John P. Dwyer appointed new dean of UC Berkeley's
Boalt Hall
15
Feb 2000
By
Janet Gilmore, Public Affairs
BERKELEY-- John P. Dwyer, the John H. Boalt
Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley,
School of Law (Boalt Hall), has been named to succeed Herma
Hill Kay as dean of the law school.
 The
appointment requires approval by the UC Board of Regents. It
is expected that Dwyer, one of the most prominent environmental
law scholars in the country, will assume the deanship on July
1, 2000.
In
making the announcement today (Tuesday, Feb. 15), Chancellor
Robert M. Berdahl said, "John Dwyer's scholarly record
shows that he is superbly qualified to lead Boalt Hall. I was
impressed by his distinguished service at the law school over
the past 16 years and his plans to lead the school to new levels
of excellence.
"Berkeley
has long been committed to achieving both excellence and diversity.
Nowhere is a diverse student body and faculty more important
than in law, where we are training the future lawyers and judges
who will be serving in an increasingly diverse society. Professor
Dwyer fully embraces the importance of that objective."
Dwyer,
48, received his JD from Boalt Hall in 1980 and will become
the second Boalt Hall graduate to serve as dean in the school's
106-year history. He will share that distinction with Frank
Newman, who was dean from 1961-1966. Dwyer also holds a PhD
in chemical physics from the California Institute of Technology,
where he was a National Science Foundation Fellow.
"The
law school is not bricks and mortar," said Dwyer, "but
a community of faculty, students, staff, and alumni. Although
each of us is pursuing individual intellectual interests, we
share a common goal to build a thriving intellectual community
that embraces a diverse range of scholarly views and educates
the finest students in the nation. It will continue to be a
place where faculty and students flourish in their research,
teaching, and studies."
Dwyer
said that Boalt Hall must continue its efforts to ensure a diverse
student body. "Aggressive outreach and recruiting are critically
important; we also need to build existing and new curricular
programs that will bring a broad cross section of students to
Boalt," he said.
Dwyer
joined the Boalt Hall faculty in 1984 and in 1997 received the
law school's Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching. He served
as associate dean of Boalt Hall from 1992 to 1994 and currently
is chair of the Berkeley Campus Budget Committee.
Herma
Hill Kay, a leading scholar in family law and sex-based discrimination,
who has served as Boalt Hall's dean for the past eight years,
said Dwyer "will be an excellent dean. John knows the school
from the perspectives of a student, a faculty member, and -
because he spent two years as my associate dean - as an administrator.
He is committed to maintaining and improving the excellence
of the law school."
Dwyer
has published a number of articles on the role of risk assessment
in environmental policy, the environmental regulation of the
mining industry, federalism and environmental law, the implementation
of toxics policy, and federal court jurisdiction.
He
is the co-author of two books, "Our Town: Race, Housing
and the Soul of Suburbia," with David Kirp and Larry Rosenthal;
and "Property Law and Policy: A Comparative Institutional
Perspective," with Boalt colleague Peter Menell.
Early
in his career, Dwyer clerked for Judge Harry T. Edwards of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Justice Sandra
Day O'Connor of the U.S. Supreme Court. He also practiced with
the Public Defender Service in Washington, D.C.
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