Sept. 3, 2024 — Emily Berman was recently named the University of Houston Law Center’s Assistant Dean for Faculty Development and the William B. Bates Distinguished Chair in Law. Both roles will be effective in September.
“Professor Berman’s name was frequently suggested by members of the Law Center faculty for the Assistant Deanship for Faculty Development,” UHLC Dean Leonard M. Baynes said. “This is a very important deanship that serves the Law Center community by working with the Law Center faculty to advance the quality, dissemination, and proliferation of our institution’s legal scholarship.
“Those ‘volunteering’ Professor Berman’s name cited her intelligence, the quality of her scholarship, her leadership as Chair of the Faculty Appointments Committee, and her kindness and generosity in giving her time and energy to others’ success. For all these reasons, she was chosen to be the next Assistant Dean for Faculty Development. In this role, she will serve as a role model for her faculty peers.”
Berman, who succeeds Baker Botts LLP Professor of Law Dave Fagundes as assistant dean, joined the Law Center’s faculty in 2014. She previously taught at the Brooklyn Law School and was a Furman Fellow and Brennan Center Fellow at the New York University School of Law. Berman earned her J.D. and LL.M. from the New York University School of Law.
“In her 10 years at the University of Houston Law Center, Professor Emily Berman has been an excellent faculty member excelling in the areas of legal scholarship, teaching, and service to the institution. I’ve appointed Professor Berman to hold the William B. Bates Distinguished Chair in Law. This faculty chair was last held by our now-deceased colleague and prolific scholar, Professor Michael A. Olivas. Faculty chairs and professorships are the highest academic award that the University can bestow on a faculty member,” said Baynes.
“I’m honored and humbled at being named the William B. Bates Chair, and I very much look forward to working with my amazing colleagues to maximize the impact of the cutting-edge scholarly work that they are doing,” said Berman.
The Bates Chair is named for Colonel William B. Bates, who was a prominent Houston attorney who once served on the University of Houston’s Board of Regents. Baynes added that Berman deserves this recognition given her growing prominence in Constitutional and National Security Law, as evidenced by her scholarship published in the nation’s leading law review publications.
