Vikram David Amar is moving to the Midwest after being named the next dean of the University of Illinois College of Law. He will assume the new post, as well as Iwan Foundation Professor of Law, on Aug. 16.

Ilesanmi Adesida, the vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost of the university’s Urbana campus, said in a statement that Amar was “the clear choice to lead the College of Law here at Illinois,” after a nationwide search.

Adesida cited Amar’s vision “for its cutting-edge scholarship and for close connections to the profession and society in which its graduates will serve,” as the reasoning behind his selection.

Amar, according to the university statement, has been impressed by the College of Law’s faculty, staff and student body, as well as the alumni base.

“Chicago is among the biggest, most sophisticated and most diverse of legal markets, and Springfield, Ill., has helped produce both Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln, the greatest lawyers in American history,” Amar said in a statement.

“My time at Illinois will be guided by the twin values that defined Mr. Lincoln’s career – lawyerly excellence in private and public practice, and a commitment to the highest professional and ethical values,” he added.

Previously, Amar spent seven years as senior associate dean for academic affairs and a professor of law at the U.C. Davis School of Law, during which he was involved in faculty hiring, tenure and promotions, clinical programming, admissions, career services and curricular development.

He has also been a professor of law at U.C. Hastings and a visiting professor of law at U.C. Berkeley and UCLA.

Amar is a national authority on constitutional law, federal courts and civil procedure. He has written a number of books and scores of articles in leading law journals and is the co-author of a one-volume civil procedure treatise and several volumes of the Wright & Miller treatise on federal practice and procedure.

The Indian American professor writes a biweekly column on constitutional matters for justia.com, is a frequent commentator on local and national radio and TV, and has penned dozens of op-ed pieces for major newspapers and magazines.

Amar is an elected member of the American Law Institute and has been a consultant for a number of government agencies and officials, including the National Association of Attorneys General and the U.S. Department of Justice, among others.

Amar earned his bachelor’s degree from U.C. Berkeley and his juris doctor degree from Yale Law School. While at Yale, he was an editor for the Yale Law Journal.

He then clerked for Judge William A. Norris of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court before joining Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher to handle a number of civil and white collar criminal matters.

At Illinois, Amar intends to increase engagement between the legal academy, the legal and business professions and the public, as well as continue Illinois’ commitment to educational affordability.

“Illinois produces a lot of innovative scholarship, much of it interdisciplinary, but we have to be more energetic in highlighting and explaining what practitioners can learn from law professors – and vice versa,” Amar said in the statement.

“Another priority is to begin to restore affordability to legal education … True, great law schools require great personnel and programs, both of which cost money. But those of us privileged to serve in our great law schools must be ever vigilant to keep these schools within the reach of all persons of ability, especially the younger generation’s gifted aspirants who come from modest backgrounds, the next generation’s Abe Lincolns and Barack Obamas,” Amar added.

|