Over the holiday semester break, Michael Schill completed his move to the deanship at the University of Chicago Law School, a transition which was announced in September. Schill officially began his tenure upon the new year.
As we originally detailed in this space, Schill moved from the deanship at the UCLA School of Law, where he oversaw a period of expansion that included the establishment of three new research centers. He previously held law professorial positions at New York University and the University of Pennsylvania, and his area of expertise is property and real estate law.
Installed at his new institution, Schill wasted little time in addressing prospective students with a “Message from the Dean“. In it, Schill made an effort to stress the well-rounded theoretical and practical legal education Chicago boasts to offer, including the “skills necessary to hit the ground running as a lawyer.”
Additionally, Schill admitted that ranking and accreditation pressures have the tendency to push law schools toward homogeneity, but staunchly defended Chicago’s willingness to be an “outlier.”
“Regardless of whether you are a liberal or conservative, an economist or humanist, a member of the majority or a person in the minority, it is your ideas that matter, not who you are or where you came from,” wrote Schill.
