Chancellor: I Bungled Chemerinsky Hire
The man responsible for the on-again, off-again hiring of a prominent constitutional scholar to serve as dean of a new law school being created at the University of California at Irvine admits his handling of the matter left much to be desired.
“This is certainly something that I bungled, and I regret it completely and totally,” Chancellor Michael Drake tells the Los Angeles Times. “I am always trying to do what I can to enhance the institution and have it move forward. It’s awful that all this has blown up like this. I couldn’t regret it more.”
As discussed in earlier ABAJournal.com posts, Drake this month changed his mind, roughly a week after Erwin Chemerinsky signed a contract to be dean, about hiring him. The explanation he reportedly offered Chemerinsky—that the board of regents of the University of California might not approve his appointment because he was too liberal—ignited a firestorm of controversy, which put Drake himself on the hot seat. On Monday, Drake and Chemerinsky jointly announced that the Duke University professor had again been offered the job of dean of the new law school at the university’s Irvine campus and had again accepted.
The regents are expected to approve today a $350,000 salary for Chemerinsky, who will be the as-yet-unopened law school’s first dean. Meanwhile, they met with Drake seeking an explanation, the Times writes. Drake reportedly told Chemerinsky that a lack of support among the regents was the reason for the Chancellor’s rapid-fire decision to hire and fire him. However, it appears that this was an attempt to offer a more palatable explanation for Drake’s own discomfort with Chemerinsky or pressure from some other source (although Drake denies that he was pressured by anyone), according to the Times.
While Drake admits error, he hasn’t offered any specific public explanation. “We have an outstanding candidate for dean and he will bring distinction to us,” he tells the Times. “That’s what I want us to focus on and begin to work on.”
