Keating again named interim Wash U law dean

For a third time, Professor Daniel Keating is stepping up again as interim dean of Washington University School of Law as a search is launched for Dean Kent Syverud’s replacement.

Syverud recently was named Syracuse University’s next chancellor and will begin transitioning to that role Nov. 24.

Holden Thorp, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at the university, also has appointed an eight-member committee to identify candidates for dean. The committee will work to have a new dean in place by July 1, according to a press release from the law school.

Keating was interim dean twice before, including in fall 2005 before Syverud started at the school.

Keating, who was associate dean for 17 years and vice dean for almost four, is not throwing his hat in the ring, he said in a phone interview. The position of dean requires a lot of travel, dinners and being in the spotlight, he said.

“My personality is such that that’s not what I want to do for a long time,” Keating said. “I’m happy to fill in. I know the school, I know the players, I’ve done it before and have a sense of what needs to be done.”

Keating was the chairman of the search committee that recommended Syverud as a candidate for dean, then he served as interim dean before Syverud started.

Edward F. Lawlor, dean of the Brown School and the William E. Gordon distinguished professor, is the chairman of the new search committee. Lawlor served with Keating on the committee that recommended Syverud, Keating said.

The other committee members are: law professors John Drobak, Pauline Kim Hillary Sale and Peggie Smith; Howard Cayne, partner at Arnold & Porter, law school alumnus and member of the university’s Board of Trustees; Cort VanOstran, third-year law student; and Matthew Gabel, political science professor.