Date: Tuesday, March 24, 3:30 – 5:00 PM ET/2:50 PM– 4:00 PM CT/1:50 PM – 3:00 PM MT/12:50 PM – 2:00 PM PT
Section on Aspiring Law School Leaders
Aspiring Law School Leaders Section will host a panel of current and former associate deans of various types to encourage law faculty to consider these essential roles, to understand the requirements of the position, and the benefits to future career choices. Current associate deans may find the strategies and best practices discussions helpful as well.
Jeffrey R. Baker, Associate Dean of Experiential Learning and Clinical Professor of Law, The University of Alabama School of Law
Jeff Baker is the Law School’s first Associate Dean of Experiential Learning and Clinical Professor of Law. He directs the Law School’s seven clinics and helps lead other programs of experiential education across the curriculum. His scholarship focuses on issues of human rights and dignity, social justice, legal education, and ethics, at the intersections of law, theology, jurisprudence, and public policy.
From 2013 to 2025, Dean Baker served as the Associate Dean of Clinical Education and Global Programs at Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law in Los Angeles. There, he founded and directed the Community Justice Clinic and the Disaster Relief Clinic. He led the school’s programs in London, Washington, D.C., Germany, and Switzerland, and he taught, trained, and consulted with partners in India, Brazil, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom. While at Pepperdine, he received the 2025 Stephen J. Ellmann Memorial Clinical Scholarship Award from the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), the 2024 Belonging Award for Faculty, and the 2019 Citizen of the Year Dolphin Award from The Malibu Times, among other honors.
From 2006 to 2013, Dean Baker served as an Associate Professor of Law and the Director of Clinical Programs at Faulkner University Jones School of Law in Montgomery. There, he directed the Family Violence Clinic and founded the Elder Law Clinic. While at Faulkner Law, he received the Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Honors Award from The Montgomery Advertiser in 2009, was named an Honorary Member of the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, and was named Professor of the Year in 2012.
Dean Baker holds degrees in political science and ministry from Harding University. After graduating from Vanderbilt University Law School in 2000, he returned to his home state of Mississippi where he had a diverse trial and appellate practice in complex litigation with Watkins & Eager in Jackson after a stint with Phelps Dunbar. He also taught as an adjunct at Belhaven University in Jackson.
Dean Baker speaks and writes regularly on legal education, professional formation, public interest lawyering, and social justice. He is a mediator and teaches strategic negotiation. He edits the Clinical Law Prof Blog and is actively involved with the Clinical Legal Education Association and the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education. He has served as a director and counsel for several nonprofits devoted to human rights, social justice, and community development, and he is active in church service and leadership. He is a 2025 Fellow of the Fred D. Gray Institute for Civil and Human Rights.
Dean Baker is a member of the Alabama, California, and Mississippi bar associations.
Kami N. Chavis, Vice Dean, R. Hugh and Nolie Haynes Professor of Law, and Director of the W&M Center for Criminal Justice Policy and Reform, William & Mary Law School
Kami Chavis is the R. Hugh and Nolie Haynes Professor of Law and Director of the W&M Center of Criminal Justice Policy and Reform at William & Mary Law School. In 2015, she was appointed as a Senior Academic Fellow at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. She has substantial practice experience and writes and teaches in areas related to criminal law, criminal procedure, and criminal justice reform. After receiving her J.D. from Harvard Law School, she worked as an associate at private law firms in Washington, D.C., where she participated in various aspects of civil litigation, white-collar criminal defense, and internal investigations. In 2003, she became an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, involving her in a wide range of criminal prosecutions and in arguing and briefing appeals before the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Professor Chavis frequently makes presentations on law-enforcement issues and is a leader in the field of police accountability. Her articles have appeared in the American Criminal Law Review, the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, the University of Alabama Law Review, and the Catholic University Law Review, and other legal journals. Her research focuses on using Cooperative Federalism principles and stakeholder participation to implement sustainable reforms in the criminal justice system. She writes in the areas of police and prosecutorial accountability, federal hate crimes legislation and enforcement, and racial profiling. She was elected to the American Law Institute in 2012.
She is a frequent contributor to national and international media outlets and has appeared on CNN, CTV, and NPR. She has written for the New York Times and the Huffington Post, and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, BBC News, U.S. News and World Report, International Business Times, Deutsche Welle, and other outlets regarding police accountability and the structural reform of law enforcement agencies.
Zoe Niesel, Professor of Law, University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law
Zoe Niesel is a Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law, where she teaches Civil Procedure, Legal and Equitable Remedies, and Drafting with Generative AI. Her scholarship explores the intersections of law and technology, civil procedure, federal courts, administrative law, and innovations in legal education.
Professor Niesel has published on civil procedure, jurisdiction, administrative law, and the impact of emerging technologies on the legal system. Her recent work addresses artificial intelligence in judicial review, complex jurisdictional questions in the federal courts, and administrative procedure. Her articles have appeared in the Alabama Law Review, Indiana Law Journal, Tulane Law Review, and SMU Law Review. She is also co-author of Legal Research Guide: Patterns and Practice (Carolina Academic Press, 8th ed. 2019; 9th ed. forthcoming 2026), a legal research textbook that integrates artificial intelligence into the research process.
An active contributor to legal education and professional organizations, Professor Niesel has presented nationally and internationally on topics including civil and administrative procedure, AI in the legal profession, and innovations in pedagogy.
Before joining the Joseph F. Rice School of Law, Professor Niesel served as the Albert Herrmann Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. She earned her J.D., summa cum laude, from Wake Forest University School of Law and her B.A., magna cum laude, from Southern Methodist University.
Patty Roberts, Dean and Professor of Law, St. Mary’s University School of Law
Patricia Roberts, J.D., became the tenth dean of St. Mary’s School of Law on June 1, 2020. A legal educator for more than two decades, the majority of her career has been spent in clinical teaching, supervising law students in providing assistance to underserved members of the community. She is in her sixth year as dean and is a Marianist Educational Associate. She received the St. Mary’s Marianist Heritage Award in 2025.
Under Roberts’ leadership, the School of Law faculty and staff created the first entirely online J.D. program accredited by the American Bar Association, increased applications and financial aid awarded to entering classes, improved LSAT and GPA medians, earned a No. 1 in the nation advocacy team ranking, boosted graduate employment, and, in partnership with law students, established the Lawtina Network Summit to increase the presence of, and support for, Latinas in the legal profession.
Fundraising records supported initiatives such as a First Generation Bootcamp for entering students, a high school pipeline and college pre-law program, a joint undergraduate degree with the Greehey School of Business, an intensive clerkship preparation program, and Mentor Circles, a partnership with the San Antonio Bar Association that creates small groups of law students with members of the bench and bar. A recent bequest established the Bock Center for Business and Transactional Law, and enrollment across the M.L.S. and LL.M. programs has risen considerably.
Roberts earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia, with a double major in Biology and Psychology. She practiced law for eight years as a solo practitioner and later as a managing partner of a civil practice law firm after earning her law degree from William & Mary.
She returned to William & Mary in 2000 and held numerous administrative roles until her appointment to the clinical faculty in 2008 as Director of Clinical Programs. In 2017, after holding numerous administrative and academic positions, she was named Vice Dean, a position she left to become the Dean at St. Mary’s Law.
As Vice Dean, Roberts was William & Mary Law’s chief academic officer, responsible for academic programs and policies that are essential to an excellent legal education. She simultaneously served as the Director of Clinical Programs, overseeing a center and nine legal clinics that provided pro bono representation to underserved clients in Virginia’s Hampton Roads area. The school’s first in-house clinics, including those specializing in veterans’ benefits, elder law, special education, appellate and Supreme Court litigation, and a center for coastal policy, were created during her tenure as director. She also helped create the Institute for Special Education Advocacy, an intensive one-week program to train attorneys and advocates to maximize their effectiveness. A similar program is now held annually at St. Mary’s, the Special Education Advocacy Summit.
Roberts was a nationwide leader in legal efforts to aid veterans. She was the inaugural President of the Board of Directors of the National Law School Veterans Clinic Consortium and creator of Military Mondays, a program that began at William & Mary Law School and served as a model for providing advice and counsel to veterans in numerous Starbucks locations across the country. She was a regular speaker on issues related to veterans’ law and access to justice nationwide.
Roberts is the host of the Aspen Leading Edge, and was the founding host of EdUp Legal, both podcasts about legal education and its future.
