Dean's Message

Capital University Law School is in many ways the foundation of the legal community in Central Ohio, having educated some of the finest lawyers, judges and business people that we know. And the foundation of this Law School is its outstanding faculty – a faculty that is dedicated to teaching. They are devoted to their students, providing a rigorous and demanding legal education that prepares them to enter the practice of law.

Even the ABA agreed with our faculty’s emphasis on teaching. Their 2007 site visit report states, “… teaching is viewed as a core value of the Law School. It was clear from student comments in meetings that they thought highly of the faculty.”

With the adoption of the Law School’s strategic plan in 2006, Building on Our Momentum … Securing Our Future, a major focus was made on enhancing faculty resources to support teaching and scholarship which informs their teaching. I am very pleased to say that we have accomplished one of our philanthropic goals in the strategic plan, the creation of one named professorship - The Professor Emeritus John E. Sullivan Designated Professorship.

In December 2007, Thomas R. Baruch, L’67, proposed a one-year, $200,000 matching challenge for the Sullivan Professorship. Twelve alumni stepped up to fulfill the challenge and an additional 14 donors supported the Sullivan Professorship. The professor Emeritus John E. Sullivan Professorship is Capital University Law School’s first professorship established entirely with donor gifts. Thank you to our alumni who supported this endeavor and believe in the value of named academic positions.

With the creation of the Sullivan professorship, the Law School will now have four endowed academic positions, including the soon to be named Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley Marie Nault Designated Chair in Legal Education; the Newton D. Baker/Baker & Hostetler Chair in Law held by Mark R. Brown; and the Trustees’ Professor of Law held by Mark P. Strasser. Academic positions are designed to provide financial support to honor, help retain, and recruit outstanding teachers and scholars.  Such teachers/scholars bolster the faculty, enhance the learning environment for students and contribute to the Law School’s growing academic reputation.

In the coming months I will be naming a Capital University Law School faculty member to the Sullivan Professorship. We will be celebrating the creation of this professorship and honoring Professor Emeritus John Sullivan at a donor celebration dinner on April 3, also the date for the 30th Anniversary of the John E. Sullivan Lecture, which will be given by Yale law professor, Akhil Amar. I hope you will join us for this year’s lecture.

Jack A. Guttenberg
Dean and Professor of Law