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Press Release:
Rebecca White named permanent dean
of UGA School of Law
Writer: Larry B. Dendy, 706/542-8078, ldendy@uga.edu
Contact: Arnett Mace, 706/542-5806, amace@uga.edu
Sep 16, 2004
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| Rebecca White, new dean of UGA's School of Law |
Athens, Ga. -- Rebecca H. White, who has been interim
dean of the University of Georgia School of Law for 14 months, will become
permanent dean Oct. 1, according to Arnett C. Mace Jr., UGA’s provost and
senior vice president for academic affairs.
Mace said he and UGA President Michael F. Adams decided to appoint White to the
position based on her outstanding performance in the interim role and strong
support from the school’s faculty, staff and alumni.
White, who also holds the J. Alton Hosch Professorship in the school, became
interim dean July 1, 2003, when former dean David Shipley stepped down to return
to teaching. She will be the first female dean in the school’s 145-year
history.
“Rebecca has clearly demonstrated that she has the necessary combination of
professional competence and personal leadership skills to guide the School of
Law’s growth in the coming years,” said Adams. “The school has made
important advances under her leadership as interim dean, and we are delighted
that she will continue to devote her energy, vision and commitment to attaining
higher goals of academic excellence.”
Mace added that White’s relationship with the school’s faculty, students and
alumni was an important factor in her appointment.
“Rebecca has the respect of her fellow faculty members as well as staff and
students in the law school, and she has also won the confidence of Georgia’s
legal community, which is heavily comprised of UGA law graduates,” said Mace.
“This network of support will be extremely valuable as she works to strengthen
instruction, scholarship and outreach in the school.”
Prior to becoming interim dean, White was associate provost and associate vice
president for academic affairs. An authority in the areas of labor law,
employment law, employment discrimination and labor arbitration, she joined the
law school faculty in 1989.
White received the Josiah Meigs Award, UGA’s top teaching honor, in 2000, and
law graduates have chosen her six times to receive the law school’s Faculty
Book Award for teaching excellence. She is a member of UGA’s Teaching Academy
and has been a Senior Teaching Fellow and a Senior Faculty Fellow for the
Foundation Fellows program.
She is co-author of a text book and a treatise on employment discrimination, has
written numerous articles for law reviews and is on the editorial board of the
Labor Law Journal. Her scholarship is often cited in decisions by federal and
state courts across the country.
White graduated first in her class from the University of Kentucky law school
and served as a clerk for a judge of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
She practiced labor and employment law with a Cincinnati firm for seven years
before joining UGA.
Earlier this year she received the Woman of Distinction award from the State Bar
of Georgia Younger Lawyers Division’s Women in the Profession Committee. The
award recognizes women in the legal profession who contribute significantly to
the advancement of women or to the practice of law.
Founded in 1859, the School of Law is the third-oldest of UGA’s 14 schools and
colleges. With 41 faculty members and more than 700 professional and graduate
students, the school is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the 11
best public law schools in the nation and one of the four top public law schools
in the South.