© 2013 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
Staff Writer for The Texas Lawbook
(June 2) – John Attanasio sat in his nearly empty office Friday evening in his final hours as dean of Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law trying to avoid discussing details of his ouster and trying to shift focus to the law school’s successes during his 15-year tenure.
“It means a lot to me to leave the school in as good shape as possible,” Attanasio said in his first and only interview since SMU’s provost told him last December that his contract would not be renewed.
But every once in a while, Attanasio’s thoughts on the tumultuous past six months and the decision by university leaders to essentially fire him leaked out.
First, he says he never saw it coming and that he was “extremely surprised” when it happened. Second, university officials have still never given him an explanation about why he was being ousted or what he had done wrong. Third, he’s been so busy that he hasn’t really had time to contemplate how he feels about it all and what comes next.
“I really haven’t had much time to sort out my emotions,” he said during the 90-minute interview.
On Monday, Professor Julie Forrester, who has taught property, real estate, transactions and land use law at SMU Dedman for more than 22 years, will take over as interim dean. By all accounts, Forrester is one of the most well liked and respected members of the faculty.
The university has established an 18-member law dean search committee that is chaired by SMU Cox School of Business Dean Albert Niemi Jr.
The past few weeks have witnessed several tributes for Attanasio. Student leaders, during the hooding ceremony at graduation two weeks ago, recognized Attanasio for “his leadership, his tireless work, and his abiding concern for the welfare of students.”
A few days later, the law school’s executive board gave Attanasio a standing ovation at its final meeting with him as dean. And just last week, SMU President Gerald Turner and Provost Paul Ludden – the two men responsible for Attanasio’s ousting – organized a faculty and staff reception to honor the outgoing dean.
Neither Turner nor Ludden have responded to numerous requests for interviews. SMU spokespeople have said that they do not comment on personnel matters.
Attanasio said that during the summer of 2012, he considered informing university officials that he would not seek a fourth five-year term as dean. The legal job market was shrinking, meaning job placements would be more difficult. Legal education was in a crisis. Trends showed student applications to law school spiraling downward.
Attanasio said he underwent a personal assessment of whether he felt he could contribute as much or more than a new dean. He determined that he did and realized that the severe duress facing legal education was “an even more compelling reason” for him to stay.
“You need a lot of energy to be a law school dean and if I didn’t think I had that level of energy, I wouldn’t have [sought another term],” he said.
By early fall, Attanasio informed all the appropriate parties, including the president and provost, that he wanted to stay. No objections or caution flags were raised. By all accounts, it seemed to be a done deal.
Then, at a private lunch meeting in early December, Ludden informed Attanasio that his contract would not be renewed. Attanasio openly expressed shock at the decision and asked three times for an explanation.
None came then and, Attanasio said in the interview, none has come since.
“Had I thought I was being flagged, I wouldn’t have gone up [for another term],” he said.
Attanasio declines to go into further detail or provide additional comment about his dismissal. To do so, he explained, would achieve no benefits for the school or himself. He also declined to make any suggestions or recommendations to the law dean search committee or the next dean.
“You don’t want to foist your views on the new dean,” he said. “You want to be very respectful of the new dean’s prerogatives.”
In a goodbye letter to the law school’s alumni, which was sent out Friday night, Attanasio praised the faculty, students, and alumni for their constant support and achievements. Hell, he even commended the two people who fired him.
“What has been achieved has been achieved together – faculty, alumni, staff, students, and the broader community,” Attanasio wrote. “I also want to thank the university administration including President Turner and the four provosts I have worked under.”
In the letter and in his interview with The Texas Lawbook, Attanasio said people should focus on the school’s accomplishments during the past 15 years. He listed the achievements, including detailed statistical data, like he was promoting his own child. The accomplishments include:
- The National Law Journal recently ranking SMU Dedman 20th among all U.S. law schools for securing jobs for its graduates that required bar passage;
- Reopening of the law school’s evening program;
- Raising more than $110 million for scholarships, building programs and academic improvements;
- An increase in the median GPA from 3.17 to 3.73 for full-time admissions credentials;
- The number of faculty-authored articles in major law reviews and legal publications quadrupled during the past decade;
- The creation of Test Drive and Partners to Practice, two innovative job placement outreach efforts that have witnessed extraordinary success;
- The addition of 21 new full-time faculty members;
- And the creation of three new advocacy clinics that provide first hand experience to students in the areas of consumer law, new business start-ups, and child advocacy.
Attanasio’s lasting legacy at SMU Dedman, according to faculty members and alumni, is how he brought so many global decision-makers to the law school. For example, Supreme Court justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent two full days on the SMU Dedman campus the past two years conducting lectures, teaching classes and meeting with students and faculty.
In addition, Attanasio worked with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and leaders at the U.S. State Department to create the Rule of Law Forums, which brought together American leaders and court and political officials from 10 countries to discuss and educate about the role of the legal system.
Attanasio’s mostly empty office was not a product of a gradual process. He said he didn’t start packing until Memorial Day Weekend, when he and his wife Kathy spent all three days sorting through his mementos.
The packing process went smoothly, he said, partially because he learned early on to not hoard papers on his desk and partially because he only had to move his belongings upstairs to his professor office – a possible hint that he will stay at SMU Dedman, where he continues to be a tenured professor of law and hold the Judge William Hawley Atwell chair of constitutional law.
Attanasio said he considers himself “first an academic, then a dean,” but he also doesn’t rule out the possibility of being a law dean again in the future.
Though he’s no longer dean, Attanasio certainly isn’t at a loss of things to do and look forward to. He is preparing for a major speaking engagement in a few weeks about cyber terrorism and his annual supplements to his casebook on constitutional law are due soon.
Most importantly, he has a trip scheduled later this month to New Jersey to visit his grandchildren, who are being baptized.
“If anything, I wish I were waking up tomorrow saying, I don’t have anything to do,” he joked.
As I left the Dean’s Suite Friday evening, Attanasio and his long-time assistant, Tina, exchanged banters that could only accumulate after working together for a long time. The camaraderie makes it evident that Dean Attanasio will be missed. But something tells me we’ll see plenty more of Attanasio in the years to come.
© 2013 The Texas Lawbook. Content of The Texas Lawbook is controlled and protected by specific licensing agreements with our subscribers and under federal copyright laws. Any distribution of this content without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.
If you see any inaccuracy in any article in The Texas Lawbook, please contact us. Our goal is content that is 100% true and accurate. Thank you.