LUBBOCK -- Texas Tech School of Law dean and professor Darby Dickerson has announced she is leaving to become the new dean at the John Marshall School of Law in Chicago, starting Jan. 1, 2017.
According to Texas Tech’s website, Dickerson earned her J.D. from Vanderbilt in 1988 and joined Texas Tech School of Law in 2011 after serving as dean at Stetson University College of Law from 2003 until 2011. Before earning her law degree at Vanderbilt, she received her B.A. and M.A. from the College of William and Mary. Her interests and focus include higher education law and policy, legal citation and litigation ethics.
After law school, Dickerson clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and then practiced commercial litigation with Locke Lord in Dallas, where she was named both Outstanding Young Lawyer and Outstanding Director of the Texas Young Lawyers Association in 1995.
We greatly look forward to working with Dean Dickerson to produce practice-ready lawyers as she takes the reins of our historic, mission-driven institution,” Leonard F. Amari, president of John Marshall’s board of trustees, said in a statement.
Dickerson has considerable experience and is a nationally known leader in legal education. She serves on the executive committee of the Association of American Law Schools and is also a past chair of several AALS sections, including the law school dean and the institutional advancement.
She is an elected member of the American Law Institute, a sustaining life fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and an inaugural member of the Texas Tech University School of Law American Inn of Court. She also serves on the council of the appellate section of the State Bar of Texas and is the Immediate past president of Scribes—The American Society of Legal Writers.
Her list of accomplishments delights John Marshall trustees and officials.
“We are delighted that Dean Darby Dickerson will be leading The John Marshall Law School at this pivotal point in our history. Her dynamic style and deep knowledge of skills-based learning stood out to all who met her during the process,” Paula Hudson Holderman, who also sits on John Marshall’s board of trustees and chaired the law school’s search committee, said in a statement.
In an email to the Texas Tech student body and staff, Dickerson announced her transition, as well as her praise for the time spent at the university.
“It has been a tremendous pleasure and honor to serve as dean and the W. Frank Newton Professor of law for the last 5 1/2 years,” she said in the email. “We have a strong, dynamic community, and I will always cherish my time here and the relationships I developed.
"Over the next couple of months, I look forward to continuing to interact with the Tech law students, faculty, staff and alumni, and to say a more personal goodbye before I move from the Hub City to the Windy City.”