A familiar face will be the next dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
Pitt announced Thursday that current Vice Dean Jerry Dickinson will begin leading the law school following a months-long national search.
School officials believe Mr. Dickinson, 38, could be the youngest law school dean in the country. His tenure will officially begin Jan. 15.
“A Pittsburgh native, Jerry has built a national, international and local reputation as a constitutional law scholar and civil rights lawyer,” Pitt Provost Joseph McCarthy wrote in a letter to the Pitt Law community. “He has extensive litigation and transactional pro bono experience in civil rights and civil liberties.”
A human rights activist, Mr. Dickinson joined the Pitt Law faculty in 2017 as a professor, later becoming vice dean in 2023. His areas of expertise include constitutional law, civil rights and civil liberties, judicial federalism, property, law and democracy, and race and the law, according to a university news release.
His extensive resume includes two runs for Congress in 2020 and 2022 and a law clerkship for Theodore McKee, former chief judge of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.
He also practiced at Reed Smith LLP in Pittsburgh. There, he founded the Housing Rights Project, which advocates pro bono for indigent Allegheny County tenants in eviction proceedings.
Mr. Dickinson earned his juris doctor from Fordham University, his master of laws degree from the University of the Witwatersrand School of Law in Johannesburg, South Africa, and his bachelor of arts degree from the College of the Holy Cross. He is a former Fulbright scholar to Johannesburg, South Africa.
He succeeds interim dean Mary Crossley, who stepped into the temporary role in 2023 following the departure of former dean Amy Wildermuth. Ms. Crossley previously served as Pitt Law dean between 2005 and 2012.
First Published: January 9, 2025, 6:16 p.m.
