Matthew Spitzer, Dean of the law school at the University of Southern California since 2000, will step down at the end of this academic year.  Six years is an above average term of service in the onerous world of law deaning, though not quite the remarkable twenty years of his precedessor as Dean, Scott Bice.  USC will be the only one of the top law schools engaged in a Dean search as things stand now, though it’s still early in the academic year.

Among Dean Spitzer’s achievements visible to outsiders was a significant improvement in the academic credentials of entering students and the recruitment to the faculty of Elizabeth Garrett (legislation, administrative law) from the University of Chicago and her husband Andrei Marmor (legal philosophy) from Israel.