First Amendment center director to become new law dean

First Amendment scholar and former law school vice dean Leslie Kendrick (Law ’06) will be UVA’s 13th law school dean.

Kendrick, who joined the faculty in 2008, takes over for outgoing dean Risa Goluboff on July 1.

“The law school has been my home since I arrived as a student 20 years ago,” Kendrick said when her selection was announced in December. “I believe now, as I believed then, that the UVA combination of world-class research, consummate professional preparation and deep sense of community makes this the best law school in the country.”

UVA maintained a U.S. News & World Report top-10 ranking under Goluboff, who served for eight years. Kendrick was the school’s vice dean from 2017 to 2021.

“She was a true partner in every success the law school achieved,” Goluboff said.

Kendrick directs the law school’s Center for the First Amendment and led the committee that crafted UVA’s Statement on Free Expression and Free Inquiry, which was adopted in 2021.

“Leslie is a homegrown leader,” law school professor and former dean John Jeffries (Law ’73) said in announcing Kendrick’s new role. “Her deep knowledge of this institution and the people who live and work here will be an inestimable advantage.”

Jeffries and Provost Ian B. Baucom co-chaired the search committee.