Epstein to serve as Interim Dean of the Law School during search

The Law School faculty has appointed six of its members to a Dean Search Committee to recommend to President Randel candidates to succeed Daniel Fischel, the Lee and Brena Freeman Professor of Law and Business in the Law School.

Richard Epstein

Fischel announced Monday, Feb. 12, that for personal reasons he would step down as Dean after serving for more than two years. Until a new Dean is chosen, Professor Richard Epstein has agreed to serve as Interim Dean of the Law School.

Epstein is the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor in the Law School and has served on the Law School faculty since 1972. He holds an A.B. from Columbia College and a B.A. from Oxford University. He graduated from Yale University Law School in 1968. Epstein’s research interests include law and economics, contracts, health care law, libertarian economics and politics, and constitutional issues.

His many books include Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty with the Common Good (1998); Mortal Peril: Our Inalienable Right to Health Care? (1997), Simple Rules for a Complex World (1995), Bargaining with the State (1993), and Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain (1985). From 1981 to 1991, Epstein served as editor of the Journal of Legal Studies, and since 1991, he has been an editor of the Journal of Law & Economics.

Among his many honors, Epstein was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1985.

He has served on numerous University committees, and several times has served as Spokesman for the Council of the University Senate. He is currently a member of the Committee of the Council of the University Senate and Chairman of the faculty Committee on Intellectual Property.

Cass Sunstein, the Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor of Jurisprudence in the Law School, has been named Chair of the Dean Search Committee. Other search committee members are Jack Goldsmith, Professor in the Law School; Tracey Meares, Professor in the Law School and Director of the Center for Studies in Criminal Justice; Eric Posner, Professor in the Law School; David Strauss, the Harry N. Wyatt Professor and the Russell Baker Scholar in the Law School; and David Weisbach, Professor in the Law School.