Loyola Law School (My Alma Mater) Gets New Dean

Professor Waterstone, currently the J. Howard Ziemann Fellow and Professor of Law at Loyola, is a distinguished educator, accomplished academic leader, and an esteemed scholar. He is a leader in American legal education and an active participant in addressing the challenges facing law schools, including leadership positions in the American Association of Law Schools. He has taught at the University of Mississippi Law School, the University of Haifa, and Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, where he was selected as the Outstanding First-Year Course Professor. He is an eminent scholar on the civil rights of persons with disabilities and an influential voice in the national disability community. He has published articles in top law reviews, authored a casebook, testified before the United States Senate, and worked extensively with foreign governments and nongovernmental organizations on disability laws. Professor Waterstone is also an experienced attorney, who practiced law in Los Angeles at Munger, Tolles, & Olson, LLP. He has held appointments in the California Bar and in the American Bar Association, focusing on diversity issues.

After joining Loyola’s faculty in 2006, Professor Waterstone served as Loyola’s associate dean for research and academic centers from 2009 to 2014, where he helped raise the law school’s academic profile, spearheaded a fundraising initiative for junior alumni, and designed Orientation II, an ambitious networking program for first-year law students, recognized by PreLaw Magazine as one of the most innovative programs of the year. He clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit for the Honorable Richard S. Arnold. Professor Waterstone earned his law degree from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, and his B.A. in Political Science, summa cum laude, from U.C.L.A.

As we transition to Dean Waterstone’s leadership, I maintain great gratitude to Interim Dean Paul Hayden, who has ably guided the law school since June 2015. Professor Hayden has been a member of the Loyola Law School faculty since 1995, concentrating his teaching and writing on tort law and legal ethics. Before serving as interim dean, he was associate dean for faculty from 2013 to 2015. He was named the inaugural Thomas V. Girardi Chair in Consumer Protection Law in 2012, and he continues to hold that appointment.

Our search could not have succeeded without the thoughtful and diligent help of our search committee, which was led by Professor Ellen Aprill and included Yungmoon Chang, Professor Brietta Clark, Brittany Daigle-Leonard, Professor Aimee Dudovitz, Thomas Fleming, Jr., Thomas Girardi, Brian Kabateck, Professor Elizabeth Pollman, Jannell Roberts, and Professor Adam Zimmerman. Professor Aprill and the committee combed the nation and worked tenaciously to assure that our next leader is of “Waterstone quality”—and they succeeded.

Michael is a leader—and a teacher and scholar—of rare magnitude. He is a beacon of sound judgment, creativity, integrity, and an understanding of the legal profession and its future, while also being a person who brings immediate joy to those with whom he interacts. I look forward to working with Michael as he guides Loyola Law School, and I ask you to join me in congratulating him on his appointment.

With sincere appreciation and thanks,

Timothy Law Snyder, Ph.D.
President