Fordham University is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Michael M. Martin, Fordham University Distinguished Professor of Law, as the dean of the Law School after an exhaustive national search, chaired by one of its most distinguished Law School graduates. Martin has been serving as interim dean for the Law School during the 2010-2011 academic year. His appointment as permanent dean is effective immediately.
“There are many reasons why Mike Martin is the ideal dean for the Law School,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “He is widely respected within the Law School and University, and in the greater legal community. He has a stellar record of achievement as a scholar and author, and he has already provided the Law School with strong and steady leadership during a period of great transition. We are, therefore, delighted that he has accepted the dean’s position.”
Martin’s scholarship is as distinguished as his commitment to Fordham Law. He earned a B.A. and a J.D. with High Distinction from the University of Iowa, where he was editor-in-chief of the Iowa Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. Following law school, he studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He is a co-author of the five-volume Federal Rules of Evidence Manual and of the New York Evidence Handbook. He has also written other books, law review articles and, for 26 years, a column on evidence for the New York Law Journal.
For the past 38 years, Martin has displayed unflagging dedication to Fordham Law. He served as associate dean from 1995 to 2001 and twice as associate dean for administration. During the past year, while he was serving as interim dean, the Law School has risen in the national rankings, hired an outstanding roster of new faculty members and enrolled the most talented incoming class in the School’s history.
“I have spent close to 40 years working with the people of Fordham University and the Law School, and my wife Ellen is a Fordham Law graduate,” said Michael M. Martin. “In these last eight months as interim dean, I have been impressed by the tremendous support of the School’s alumni, faculty, staff and students. When I was asked to become a candidate in the dean search, I came to see that I could not only maintain the trajectory and momentum that had been established at Fordham Law, but also provide the stability and focus needed to achieve the goals the university has for the Law School.”
Because Martin was the lead faculty member on the committee appointed to plan for the construction of the new $250 million Law School building on the University’s Lincoln Center campus, he is uniquely qualified to prepare the Law School community to move into the building, which is presently under construction and scheduled to open in the Fall of 2014.
“Mike Martin’s scholarship, his conspicuous success as a teacher and his demonstrated ability to lead one of the nation’s top Law Schools have rightfully earned him tremendous respect from colleagues in and out of the academy,” said Stephen Freedman, Ph.D., provost of the University. “His impeccable academic credentials, coupled with his distinguished record of publication, make Professor Martin the ideal choice to head the Law School as it prepares to move into new quarters and even greater prominence.”
– Carrie Johnson
