Almost nothing was typical about the way in which Benjamin Spencer landed his new gig as dean of the College of William & Mary Marshall-Wythe School of Law—a job he will assume on July 1.

Spencer did an in-person preliminary interview in early March just as COVID-19 began to emerge in the United States, and shortly thereafter the entire hiring process moved online. William & Mary announced Spencer's appointment this week, making him the first new dean appointment at a top 50 law school during the coronavirus pandemic. (He will also be the first African American dean at the wider university.) Spencer, who is currently on the faculty at the University of Virginia School of Law and is an expert on civil procedure and federal jurisdiction, is well aware that the job he is set to take over from longtime William & Mary law dean Davison Douglas will look quite different from the one he originally envisioned, thanks to COVID-19. Law.com caught up with Spencer May 21 to discuss his unusual interview process, what classes will look like in the fall, and what he has learned from moonlighting as an Army JAG. His answers have been edited for length.

Tell me a bit about the hiring process, and how that worked with everyone staying at home.

COVID-19 hadn't hit when I did my initial interview. That first-round interview was March 6. There had been no travel restrictions or lockdowns, but people in other countries were figuring out "Hey, something is going on." We had stopped shaking hands at that point, but it was an in-person interview. That was one of the last flights I had taken before things shut down. My campus visit two weeks later was supposed to in-person, but that all got canceled. My campus visit became a virtual visit through Zoom—a series of Zoom meetings all day. You're meeting everyone through Zoom. You've got the Brady Bunch thing going on. I was able to get across my energy, my personality, and passion for the school. All the subsequent steps were through Zoom. I had never done any virtual interviewing before. When they announced me to the faculty last week, it was through Zoom. These are people who have never seen me and now I'm going to be the dean. It's pretty strange. But that's the time we're in.

How do you think the job of law dean will be different in the era of the coronavirus?

No. 1 is that there are severe adverse financial consequences that are arising as a result of COVID-19 that I think all universities are facing to various degrees. William & Mary is not immune from that. We're a public school, so state funding is a significant part of the budgets at the law school and university level. The state of Virginia is going to have less revenue, which is going to mean, probably, less funding for higher education. You have holes in the budget that have to be addressed somehow. That's an initial challenge: You aren't dealing with a time of plenty. One of my principal approaches is to really ramp up giving, to try to make up for any lost money from the state. That's the biggest challenge.

There are also challenges in figuring out what the fall will look like—all universities and law schools are trying to figure that out. Is it going to be remote? Is it going to be live? Is it going to be some hybrid approach? How do you onboard 1Ls virtually, if that's the way it's going to be? There are impacts on enrollment. Will they be down? Will they be up because the job market is poor? Do students want to come to a law school and have a 1L experience that's all online? They may not want to do that. It's a challenge, but it's exciting. I don't see it as daunting. I just see it as part of the job.

Do you have any clarity yet on what fall will look like at the law school?

William & Mary has not yet finalized what the fall is going to look like. It's not likely to be an all-online experience. But it's also not likely to be business as usual. Reading between the lines, that would suggest that it's going to be some type of in-between. But there are a lot of different ways to do in-between. I think the key word is going to be flexibility. There will be some people who may not be comfortable in live situations, and they need to be accommodated. You may need to find ways to offer classes that are live and streaming, and people have a choice.

In addition to fundraising, what are your other goals for the law school?

No. 1 for me, always, is to ensure student success. This whole thing is to give students a fantastic legal education that results in them being able to pass the bar and get jobs. We've done very well with job placement—our numbers are in the 90s, in terms of employment. And bar passage is good as well. But until it's 100% we're always striving to do better. After that, it's raising the standing of the school and the faculty. William & Mary is an extremely strong brand, a high-quality institution. I think it's the best law school in Virginia, and one of the best in the country. Our standing needs to reflect that. There are a lot of different things you can do to get there, but we should certainly be a top 25 school, if not a top 20 school. [William & Mary is currently ranked No. 31 by U.S. News & World Report.] I know that that's extremely aspirational, but we have the quality there in the faculty and students' outcomes.

You are captain in the U.S. Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps as a reservist. Is that something you plan to keep up as dean, and can you draw on that experience in your new role?

I'll be able to continue. It's just like they advertise: My role is one weekend a month, two weeks a year. I work for the government appellate division—I do appellate advocacy for the Army on criminal cases on behalf of the government. That involves me writing briefs. That's something that's teleworking and is folded into the work I do as a professor. My current assignment goes for another two and a half years. It's not going to interfere with my ability to be the dean.

As far as my approach to leadership, I'm not coming from a background where I've been active duty for 20 years in the military. I'm not bringing a command-and-control approach. The main thing that I get from the military is teamwork. You've got to be able to work as a team, and the best leaders in the Army lead that way. That's what I'll be taking from the Army—putting together a good team and working with them to move the law school forward.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I always need to thank my wife. I have nine children, 16 down to 2. My wife is a vital partner in all the success I've been able to achieve. And she'll be a vital partner in the process of boosting the law school and taking care of the kids.