New Law Dean at UC Davis is First Latino in the Position
Kevin Johnson was confirmed today as the new law school dean at the University of California at Davis by the school’s board of regents.
He is the first Latino to be appointed dean of any of the law schools in the UC system, according to a press release.
Johnson, 49, is an expert on immigration, race and civil rights law who has been serving as associate dean for academic affairs. A 1983 graduate of Harvard Law School, where he was editor of the Harvard Law Review, he subsequently worked as a clerk for 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt and in private practice at Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe in San Francisco. He has been a member of the UC Davis law faculty since 1989.
Johnson praises the work of his predecessor, outgoing dean Rex Perschbacher, who is returning to a faculty position after 10 years in office at the law school’s top job, and says he hopes to maintain and build on his achievements in tough economic times, retaining UC Davis’s position as a top public law school, according to the release.
“I am committed to doing what it takes to keep the best and brightest faculty and students from a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives. In my mind, this is what a public law school should strive for,” Johnson says.
He is to take office on July 1.
