(L to R) Patricia White, Shelley Broderick and Donald Guter. (Courtesy photos)

A number of the nation's longest-serving deans are soon to leave their posts, which means a lot of institutional knowledge is retiring—or at least moving out of the dean's suite.

The average tenure of a law dean is currently about four years, according to a database maintained by Jim Rosenblatt, a professor at Mississippi College School of Law (and former dean). According to that database, two of the five longest-serving deans are soon to step down, and a third left the deanship at the end of the previous academic year.

While the departures mean the loss of entrenched deans who understand the dynamics of their faculty, the turnover also makes room for more fresh leadership who can present innovative approaches to legal education.

Here's a quick rundown:

• Chicago-Kent College of Law Dean Harold Krent is wrapping up his deanship this semester after 17 years in the job. That makes him third-longest-serving dean in the country.
• Avi Soifer announced this month that he will step down as the dean of the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law as soon as the school can find his replacement. He has been in the job for 16 years, landing him right behind Krent as the fourth-longest-serving dean.
• Last year, longtime University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law Dean Katherine “Shelley” Broderick left the dean's office after occupying it for 20 years. (She's no longer on Rosenblatt's list, but that tenure would have landed her as the third-longest-serving dean if she were on it today.)

Four more of the 15 longest deanships are wrapping up: Alan Michaels at Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law (11 years); Nell Newton at the University of Notre Dame Law School (10 years); Patricia White at the University of Miami School of Law (10 years); and Donald Guter at South Texas College of Law Houston (10 years).

Those are long tenures in a job that is high-pressured under good circumstances, and was made all the more difficult over the past eight years because of a shrinking applicant pool, newfound budget pressures, a difficult entry-level legal job market and declining bar pass rates.

“Deans have many constituencies—students, faculty, staff, university, community, and the legal academy,” said Krent, at Chicago-Kent  “I have consoled myself that one cannot be a hit with all constituencies, and success with the respective groups over the years have ebbed and flowed. But I think it critical to keep good lines of communication with all the groups and offer help when feasible.”

With so many experienced deans stepping down, who's left at the top? According to Rosenblatt's database, it's John O'Brien, who has been dean of New England Law Boston for more than three decades. Bradley Toben has been at Baylor University School of Law for more than 27 years. And Marquette University Law School's Joseph Kearney rounds out the top five longest-serving deans. He has been dean for 16 years.

“I love my work,” Toben said in a 2018 interview with Law.com affiliate Texas Lawyer. “It's not a matter of length of years, it's a matter of can you make a contribution that moves the institution forward. I hope to have a blessing of doing that a lot more years.”

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