Katharine Bartlett, Dean of the Duke University School of Law since 2000, will step down at the end of the 2006-07 academic year to return to the faculty.  Dean Bartlett gets credit for bringing about a significant improvement in the quality of the faculty during her tenure, as long-time observers will know.  Our 2003 survey of leading legal scholars, for example, rated the Duke faculty 17th in the nation (and this was when William van Alstyne was still on the faculty), but when we undertake the same exercise next academic year, I would expect Duke to be solidly in the top 15, given the additions of, among others, Curtis Bradley (international and foreign affairs law) from the University of Virginia and Erwin Chemerinsky (constitutional law) from the University of Southern California in the last couple of years.

It looks like Duke will be the second major law school, along with Minnesota, to be undertaking a Dean search next academic year.