Summer 2019 Summer 2019 Gavel | Page 26

MOVING FORWARD FOR A GREAT FUTURE AT UND LAW MICHAEL S. MCGINNISS Dean, University of North Dakota School of Law Having officially begun my service as the Dean of the University of North Dakota (UND) School of Law on July 1, I am both humbled and excited by the opportunity to provide leadership for a law school I love so much. I am grateful to Interim Dean Brad Myers, who did an excellent job under very challenging circumstances to bring us through our time of transition as we worked together for our law school community. I am also grateful to our Dean for so many years, Kathryn Rand, who recruited me to our faculty in 2010; offered me immense support and opportunities to grow in my teaching, scholarship, and service; and provided such strong and effective leadership to our School of Law through the positive challenges of enlisting financial support for our law school building project and seeing that project through to a completion that was timely and amazing in its quality and results. I undertake this role with an acute awareness that I follow in the footsteps of many deans before me who helped make UND Law’s traditions, values, and integrity so strong, and an institution in which its alumni and friends take so much proper pride. I have been deeply honored, and moved by the numerous calls, emails, and other expressions 26 THE GAVEL of enthusiastic support that were made on my behalf in the dean selection process, and that have continued to arrive in the forms of congratulations and expressions of support for my leadership of the UND School of Law. Thank you to all who have done this, from the fullness of my heart. Since joining our faculty nine years ago, I have considered it my responsibility to serve our North Dakota legal community and act as an ambassador for the UND School of Law. I have had opportunities to interact with and learn from some of the best lawyers and judges in North Dakota. But what I have enjoyed most about my service here is teaching and getting to know my students. I have considered my role as a law teacher to be analogous to that of a fiduciary. Students place trust and confidence in us to care about their learning and to devote ourselves to teaching them effectively, both in and out of the classroom. I have been privileged to have countless conversations with students about topics including their professional goals, uncertainties in the face of ethical dilemmas, or finding the will to persevere when struggling with their studies or personal obstacles. The relationships I have formed with our students and graduates have meant the world to me. The UND School of Law is North Dakota’s law school. I am deeply committed to ensuring the qualities that have made us so distinctive and special among law schools endure for the future of our state. Touchstones in my philosophy of legal education are student success and well-being in the short term – accomplished through a rigorous academic program and a culture of caring and respect for individuals – and in the long term, including bar passage after graduation and the best possible preparation for professional life thereafter. I also strongly embrace the reality that changes in our national and regional landscape for legal education (and for higher education generally) will require continued innovation and flexibility in both the content and the delivery of our courses, yet always consistent with sound principles of effective teaching and learning. We face many challenges, including the need to recover from the consequential impacts of the significant cuts to our budget that occurred in recent years, and to flourish in a very competitive environment for recruiting and retaining law students in our region. I intend to approach these challenges by (1) making continued vigorous efforts as a strong and effective advocate among all of our stakeholders about the critical importance of North Dakota’s law school to the future of our state, and in providing the benefit of legal assistance and access to justice for its citizens and (2) being a servant leader who builds a positive and rewarding law school culture that promotes the dedication of each person – student, staff, and faculty – to our common enterprise of excellence in legal education.