Erin O’Hara O’Connor, Vanderbilt’s Milton R. Underwood Professor of Law, has been named dean of the Florida State University College of Law.
Since joining Vanderbilt’s law faculty in 2001, O’Connor served as director of the Law and Human Behavior Program from 2007 to 2010 and as associate dean for academic affairs from 2008 to 2010. She was Vanderbilt’s FedEx Research Professor of Law in 2010-11.
O’Connor will be the eighth dean at the FSU College of Law. She will succeed Donald J. Weidner, who will retire as dean in June 2016 after serving for more than 20 years. She will leave Vanderbilt to join Florida State in July.
“A highly accomplished scholar in a variety of areas, including conflict of laws, Erin O’Hara O’Connor is well-respected in legal academic circles. We are proud to welcome her to Florida State and are confident that she will lead the law school to continued success,” said John Thrasher, president of Florida State University.
O’Connor currently serves as director of graduate studies for the doctoral program in law and economics at VLS.
Before joining Vanderbilt’s law faculty, O’Connor held faculty positions at the Northwestern University School of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, George Mason University School of Law, Clemson University and University of Chicago Law School.
O’Connor earned her a B.A. in economics and political science from the University of Rochester, where she received the John H. Berman Memorial Award, a scholarship given to an outstanding pre-law student. She earned her law degree, magna cum laude, from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1990, where she served as senior board member of the Georgetown Law Journal.
“I’m extremely proud to learn that Erin O’Connor will be leading the FSU College of Law as dean,” said Chris Guthrie, dean and John Wade-Kent Syverud Professor of Law at Vanderbilt. “My disappointment at losing an accomplished, respected colleague is tempered by my happiness that Erin’s administrative skills will benefit the legal academy through her leadership at Florida State.”