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Katharine Bartlett Reappointed Dean of Duke Law School

Bartlett will continue as dean of Duke School of Law for five more years

Katharine T. Bartlett, dean of the Duke School of Law since 2000, has been reappointed to a second five-year term as dean, Provost Peter Lange announced Thursday.

"I had thought five years would be enough time -- more than enough -- to be away from the classroom and the research I love," said Bartlett, the A. Kenneth Pye Professor of Law and a full-time member of the Duke law school faculty since 1983. "But despite the law school's very positive trajectory, there is still so much to do. I look forward to working with the university and law faculty to complete some important unfinished business."

Lange said he and President Richard Brodhead were pleased that Bartlett would serve another term.

"Dean Bartlett has done a superb job in leading the law school," Lange said. "The new members of the faculty are outstanding and contribute not only to the strategic goals of the law school, but contribute much to the university's strategic priorities as well.

"Kate has also been creative and dogged in improving the facilities of the school and assuring that the ever-improving student body gets the best possible legal education. I am immensely pleased that she has responded to the continuing possibilities for further improvement of the law school and agreed to continue serving as dean."

Bartlett said that faculty recruitment would continue to be among the law school's priorities. 

"We have been fortunate to recruit 15 new faculty to the law school since 2000, many in our academic priority areas of international and comparative law, intellectual property and other science- and technology-related fields, and constitutional law," Bartlett said. "The highest recruitment priority is now attracting additional first-rate scholars in business and finance law."

Bartlett said the law school will continue its push to play a leading role in improving standards of professionalism, public perceptions of lawyers, and public awareness of the importance of law to society.

The law school is also in the midst of a $20 million fundraising program for its building and renovation projects, which include expanded and updated classrooms, a new building facade and landscaped gardens, and a 25,000-square-foot addition to accommodate faculty, clinics, interdisciplinary centers and law journals. Construction of a new atrium will begin in May 2005, transforming the school's outdoor courtyard into an indoor space with a cafe, student meeting spaces and lounge areas.

"The look and feel of the law school will be transformed by this project," Bartlett said.