UT Faculty Member Chosen to Lead Law School: Sager Joined Staff in ’02, Fills Position Left By New University President
By James M. O’Neill, The Dallas Morning News
May 11–The University of Texas at Austin has chosen one of its own, a nationally recognized constitutional law scholar, to head the university’s law school.
Lawrence Sager, 64, who joined the UT law school faculty in 2002 after 25 years at New York University, becomes the law school’s 13th dean, replacing William Powers Jr., UT-Austin’s new president.
“We recruited Larry to the campus about four years ago as one of the leading constitutional scholars in the country, and as a bonus he also was enthusiastic about being a major player in helping build the law school,” Mr. Powers said. “That vision and ambition for our law school is a terrific asset we’re going to have under his leadership.”
Mr. Sager said that when he put his name in for consideration at UT, another prominent law school asked him to consider its own opening as dean.
But he said he turned down that chance in large part because of the opportunity to work so closely with Mr. Powers, whom he said he respects highly.
One of the largest challenges facing the new dean will be retaining UT’s stars on its law faculty and enticing young prospects to come aboard. That will require a significant fundraising effort to ensure that the school has the money to compete.
These days, the competition is intense for top faculty members, not only from other law schools, but from the private sector as well. Mr. Sager noted that young associates routinely start at law firms in Dallas or Houston making $140,000 or more.
In addition to fundraising, he said, there are several ways to attract and retain talent.
“We need to make it clear that good scholarship and teaching are prized and that your colleagues will be an important part of your intellectual growth,” he said.
He said the fact that he comes to the dean’s chair not as a seasoned administrator but as an academic reinforces the idea that UT’s law school values scholarship and teaching.
Mr. Sager grew up in Southern California, and he said Austin reminds him of the California of his childhood.
He said that during his first semester at Pomona College as an undergraduate, he took a course on government. That sparked a lifelong fascination with the U.S. Constitution. Constitutional law has become his specialty.
He has written extensively on the subject and has two forthcoming books.
One will look at religious liberty, and another, Justice in Plainclothes: A Theory of American Constitutional Practice, provides a systematic account of the central features of American constitutionalism.
Mr. Sager is married to Jane M. Cohen, a law professor at UT. They have nine children. Seven are adults, and two are twin 9-year-old girls.
He enjoys hiking, computer programming and tinkering with his old Saab convertible. He and his wife are avid photographers, and they make occasional trips to a small house they own in Umbria, Italy, near the Tuscan border.
In addition to his many years at NYU, Mr. Sager has also taught at Harvard, Princeton, Boston University, UCLA and the University of Michigan.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Pomona in 1963 and a law degree from Columbia University in 1966.
E-mail joneill@dallasnews.com
—–
Copyright (c) 2006, The Dallas Morning News
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.