On Friday, Georgetown University announced that former Stanford Law School (SLS) Dean Mary Elizabeth “Liz” Magill will be named the next Dean of the Georgetown Law Center.
Magill, a current professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School, resigned as UPenn President after a tumultuous Congressional hearing regarding antisemitism on college campuses in 2023. Previously, she served as Dean of Stanford Law School (SLS) from 2012 to 2019, and Provost and Vice President of the University of Virginia from 2019-2022. She will succeed interim Dean Joshua Teitelbaum on August 1.
“I am honored to join Georgetown Law, one of this country’s great law schools, and the university, an exceptional and distinctive research institution,” Magill said in a statement to Georgetown. She also noted her familial connections to the university — three of Magill’s five siblings, as well as her father, all received degrees from Georgetown.
The Daily has reached out to Magill for comment.
Magill’s 17-month tenure at UPenn was marked by the October 7 attack, the Israel-Gaza War and subsequent allegations of antisemitism towards the university. She came under particular scrutiny for her Congressional panel testimony, which panel lead Elise Stefanik and others criticized as a refusal to condone antisemitism on college campuses.
From 2012 to 2019, Magill served as the Dean of SLS, where she established the Law and Policy Lab. She also oversaw the Law School’s largest ever gift — a $25 million donation from alum William A. Franke that expanded the Global Studies department — and was responsible for nearly 30 percent of SLS faculty hires during her term. Currently, Magill serves as Professor Emerita at the Law School.
“I appreciate that she was supportive, and that she cared about developing the junior [professors],” SLS Professor Rabia Belt said, who joined during Magill’s tenure as dean. “She met with every junior professor — those are the untenured ones — individually once a term.”
Belt also emphasized how Magill was supportive of professors’ personal goals. “When I was hired, I was the only Black woman professor at the law school, and I wanted to meet other Black female professors around the university. And [Magill] made efforts to reach out, to try to make that happen,” she said.
The Daily has reached out to SLS for comment.
At Georgetown, Magill is expected to face the Trump administration’s ongoing battle with higher education and its targeting of law firms that challenge his federal policies.
“I think Dean Magill was one of the unfortunate casualties of one of the early flashpoints of this attack on higher education,” Belt said. “I think that hopefully some folks are recognizing what a mistake that was, and I’m glad that Georgetown is one of the places doing that.”
Magill outlined her focus on Georgetown’s mission of holistically educating future lawyers. “My goal is to make sure Georgetown Law is a place that does rigorous scholarship, is committed to open inquiry, and is the professional training ground for lawyers who are going to go out and practice law with an ethical compass,” she said.