Darby Dickerson ’88 has been named dean of The John Marshall Law School in Chicago, effective January 1, 2017.
Dickerson joins John Marshall from Texas Tech University School of Law, where she has been dean since 2011 and also holds the W. Frank Newton Endowed Professorship. From 2003 until 2011, Dickerson was the interim dean and dean of Stetson University College of Law.
“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,” said Leonard F. Amari, president of John Marshall’s board of trustees.
“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,” said Paula Hudson Holderman, who also sits on John Marshall’s board of trustees and chaired the law school’s decanal search committee.
Dickerson is a nationally known leader in legal education who serves on the executive committee of the Association of American Law Schools and is also a past chair of several AALS sections, including the Section for Law School Dean and the Section on 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.
Before earning her law degree at Vanderbilt, Dickerson received her B.A. and M.A. from the College of William and Mary. After law school, she 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. In January 2013 she was the inaugural recipient of the Darby Dickerson Award for Revolutionary Change in Legal Writing, named by the Association of Legal Writing Directors to honor her contributions to legal writing.