UM Law Professor Named President-Elect of Law School Association

Image of Professor Ronald RychlakRonald Rychlak, the Jamie L. Whitten Chair of Law and Government at the University of Mississippi, is the new president-elect of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS). His term as president will run from August 2018-August 2019.

“It’s a great honor,” said Rychlak on being elected president. “This is an organization that I really appreciate. It helps develop young scholars and advance the legal profession.”

Rychlak has been on the Ole Miss law school faculty since 1987, and he serves as the university’s faculty athletics representative and chair of the Athletics Committee. He previously served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the law school. Earlier this year he received the Ben Hardy Faculty Excellence Award from the law school.

Rychlak is an officer (secretary) on the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Executive Committee and an advisor to the Holy See’s delegation to the United Nations. He is a member of the committee appointed by the Mississippi Supreme Court to revise the state criminal code and of the Mississippi Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. He is the author, co-author, or editor of ten books. His newest book, which was co-edited by Jane Adolphe, is The Persecution and Genocide of Christians in the Middle East: Prevention, Prohibition, & Prosecution (2017).

SEALS is an association of 102 law schools. Institutional members are from the southeastern section of the United States, but affiliate members can come from anywhere. SEALS hosts annual meetings in late July or early August each year. The meetings offer workshops, panels, and discussion groups that focus on pedagogy and a host of cutting-edge legal topics. Rychlak is the fifth president from Ole Miss in the 70-year history of SEALS. Previous presidents include Professors John Fox and Larry Bush as well as deans Parham Williams and Sam Davis.