President of LSAC Daniel O. Bernstine dies at 69
Daniel O. Bernstine, president of the Law School Admissions Council, died last week. He was 69.
A former dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School and president of Portland State University, Bernstine died suddenly at his home, the LSAC announced on its website Sunday. No cause of death was given.
Friends say he was a wonderful leader of the council during a turbulent time in legal education. In August, the organization announced it would no longer certify the Law School Admission Test and undergraduate grade-point data that law schools submit in accreditation. A reason, according to the LSAC’s letter to law school deans, was potential use of the GRE exam in law school admission instead of the LSAT.
“Dan Bernstine was a good friend to me and multitudes of people in the legal education community. His wisdom and his commitment in these times of change for legal education will be sorely missed,” says Barry Currier, the ABA’s managing director of accreditation and legal education.
Erica Moeser, president of the National Conference of Bar Examiners, describes Bernstine as a man who was both generous and funny, and a dear friend.
“His was a world-class talent, and his unexpected death leaves an enormous void both professionally and personally,” she told the ABA Journal.
Bernstine grew up in northern California, and did his undergraduate work at the University of California at Berkeley. He then attended Northwestern University School of Law, graduating in 1972. Bernstine also has a master of laws from the University of Wisconsin, where he was part of the William H. Hastie Fellowship program.
Besides serving as Wisconsin law dean, Bernstine was an interim dean at Howard University. He also served as the school’s general counsel, and at the start of his legal career was a staff attorney with the US Department of Labor.
According to the Portland Oregonian, Bernstine became interested in the law as a child. He would accompany his father, a janitor, to work cleaning law offices. In a more recent piece about his death, the newspaper notes that while Bernstine led PSU between 1997 and 2007 the university brought in $114 million in donations, its student body grew significantly and it added student housing to its downtown campus.
The LSAC’s board of trustees will name an interim president for the organization.
“While our concern right now is with helping all of Dan’s friends and colleagues to deal with his loss, the board and I have complete confidence in the senior management team that Dan built. LSAC will be instituting succession procedures at the appropriate time,” said chair Susan Krinsky, an associate dean at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.
