Janet K. Levit was on a sabbatical in 2007 from the University of Tulsa when she received a call that would change her life.
Steadman Upham, TU president, asked Levit to serve as interim dean of the University of Tulsa College of Law.
She accepted the role.
A year later she was named dean.
Levit is stepping aside as dean on June 30, and will take another try at that sabbatical interrupted eight years ago.
Reflecting on her law school leadership role, Levit said the job wasn’t a one-person effort.
It included a “wonderful staff” working together to make things happen. There are exciting people at every level,” she said. “They are dedicated, hard-working individuals that made up the leadership team.”
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Levit said she didn’t know how involved people around her would be. What she did know was they were exciting to be with.
Changes were ahead as the law school changed to meet the new demands of the profession and business environment.
People in law school education don’t want to admit changes were necessary, she said. Other professions had adjusted to the demands of their respective industries.
Levit also learned the University of Tulsa as well as the law school is a very complex business.
“I did not realize stepping into this job that so much of my day-to-day work would be that of a chief executive officer,” she said. “I found we were engaged in bringing in ‘new products’ to expand the curriculum, including the Masters of Jurisprudence degree as well as the LLM degrees in Energy and Natural Resources and American Indian and Indigenous Law. An undergraduate program also has been introduced at the law school, something not previously available.
Legal education also has been changing at TU during the past eight years because of the demand for creativity and change.
“I am proud that TU law school community has risen to the challenge and that has been demonstrated not only in national rankings, but also in the successes our graduates have had in job placement,” Levit said. “It is important to understand that we at the university did not find these jobs. Rather, the new graduates went out and found them on their own. They were prepared because of the legal education they received here.”
“I am proud of the faculty and their commitment in the classroom and the staff outside the classroom that helped students understand what their role would be in the legal profession,” Levit continued. “It is because of those efforts that our students were equipped to go into the market and find jobs.”
The University of Tulsa College of Law is ranked among the top 40 law schools in the nation with new graduates finding employment after receiving their degree.
Lyn Entzeroth, who will become dean July 1, has a strong vision and will lead the law school through the next period of growth, Levit said. The next few years will continue to be a time of uncertainty on what will be a turbulent landscape of legal education that has not yet stabilized.
Levit thought for a moment as she reflected how the University of Tulsa is such a robust intellectual community.
She felt the college of law, located on the edge of the campus for many years was aloof, but was uncertain whether that status was by design or desire.
That has changed, Levit said because she feels the law school is fully accepted by everyone in the university.
“I feel like I have gained colleagues in the community throughout the university and I can say that President Upham and his team have been nothing but supportive of the college of law at every turn,” she said. “It would not have been possible to start the AELS — Access to Legal Education Scholarship — that provides $18,000 annually to law students with the requirement they maintain a specific grade point average.”
That support goes beyond the institutional programs and Levit said she was able to call on other deans and vice presidents for advice on how to lead because they are “extremely strong leaders.”
Another new program is the undergraduate minor in Law in Policy and Society that she hopes eventually will become a major.
This is the first year the College of Law has enrolled and taught undergraduates and that is exciting, Levit said. The law school had been the only college with graduate students. The undergraduate program will help weave the law school tighter into the university fabric.
“TU really is a beautiful tapestry and I am so proud the College of Law holds a more prominent position on that tapestry,” she said. “The dean has five different constituents to answer to.”
These include students, followed by faculty, university, administration, alumni and the broader legal community.
“I did a better job with some groups than others,” Levit said. “But all and really different skills and strategies because they are stakeholders in different ways.”
Daily demands often found Levit changed hats many times as she met with various audiences.
Her role was to motivate and excite them and find out the messages they wanted to hear.
It was a way to address the constituencies, find synergies and ways of bring them together by finding overlapping strategies and interests.
The various roles enriched and energized Levit who also found times that it sometimes was exhausting.
“These are some of my reflections,” she said. “This is a very, very sincere from the heart reaction.”
Levit feels it is important to be away from the law school for a year to give her successor space to grow into the job, learn and define the job in a new way.
“It is important that Dean Entzeroth to feel she has the space to grow into that job and I need to get some space from the ‘baby, my baby which is this law school’,” Levit said. “I feel we gave birth to a new era and it is time to let go.”
Levit will return to the classroom following her sabbatical to once again be with students who will be the future leaders.
“I think in some way, being in the classroom might have more of a direct impact as to how they evolve as lawyers,” she said.