Thomas J. Miles has been appointed dean of the University of Chicago Law School for a second five-year term, President Robert J. Zimmer and Provost Daniel Diermeier announced. The new term begins July 1.
During his first term as dean, Miles built on the Law School’s legacy of intellectual leadership, pioneering scholarship and global impact. His leadership will continue to advance the Law School’s eminence in the years ahead.
Since becoming dean, Miles has collaborated with Madhav Rajan, dean of the Booth School of Business, to launch an accelerated, three-year JD/MBA program and strengthened the Law School’s position at the forefront of the study of law and economics with a new program to bring insight from behavioral economics to corporate governance and finance.
Miles has placed a priority on expanding experiential learning opportunities for students, and under his leadership, the Law School set up two new clinics—one focused on immigration rights and a partnership with the firm Jenner & Block that pairs students with litigators to work on U.S. Supreme Court and federal appellate cases. Law School graduates continue to achieve market-leading employment outcomes, including an increase in the number of judicial clerkships.
“I am honored to continue leading our great law school and grateful to President Zimmer and Provost Diermeier for the opportunity,” Miles said. “I appreciate the work of our faculty committee, and I am excited for the new initiatives ahead of us.”
Miles, the Clifton R. Musser Professor of Law and Economics and Walter Mander Research Scholar, is a leading scholar of criminal justice and judicial behavior. Prior to joining the Law School faculty, he was as an Olin Fellow in Law and Economics at the Law School and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jay S. Bybee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Miles received a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University, a Ph.D. in economics from UChicago, and a JD from Harvard Law School.
The appointment of Miles was informed by the recommendations of a faculty review committee chaired by Emily Buss, the Mark and Barbara Fried Professor of Law; and Lior Strahilevitz, the Sidley Austin Professor of Law.
—Prof. Jacqueline Stewart
