Record Year for Full-time Faculty Hires

Dean David M. Schizer announced the appointments of three new professors to the Columbia Law School faculty, concluding a year of record appointments of full-time faculty and deepening scholarship vitally connected to the changing face of the law.

 

“Growing the faculty allows Columbia Law School to broaden our areas of expertise in an increasingly complex world," Schizer said. " These appointments strengthen strategic initiatives in international aspects of public interest law and in business law. I am delighted to welcome such fine scholars to an already distinguished faculty.”

 

Philip Bobbitt, a leading authority on constitutional law and international security law, served in the White House, the U.S. Senate, and the National Security Council. He joins Columbia from the University of Texas. With scholarly interests that include the history of strategy, Professor Bobbitt  holds a Ph.D. from Oxford and a J.D. from Yale. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Bobbitt has published six books—most recently The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History (Knopf, 2002), described by The London Times Literary Supplement and The Economist as one of the best books of the year. His essays on foreign policy appear in The New York Times and The Guardian (of London). Bobbitt is currently working on a book about terrorism. His interests range beyond the law. He endows the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, awarded by the Library of Congress. It is one of the top prizes to recognize the most distinguished book of poetry written by an American and published during the preceding two years.

 

Ronald J. Mann is an expert in commercial law and electronic commerce from the University of Texas. He received his J.D. from the University of Texas and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. He served the U.S. Justice Department as an assistant for the solicitor general. The author of several books, he most recently co-authored the first American legal casebook in electronic commerce: Electronic Commerce (with Jane Winn, 2nd ed. 2005).

 

Matthew Waxman, an expert in the domestic and international legal aspects of fighting terrorism, holds a J.D. from Yale Law School. He clerked for Associate Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter and Judge Joel M. Flaum of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and served in senior positions at the U.S. State Department, Department of Defense and National Security Council. Professor Waxman was a Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom, where he studied international relations. He authored several books on the use of military force as an instrument of American foreign policy.

 

The latest announcement brings to16 the number of new faculty hired since an initiative to nearly double it began under Schizer’s leadership three years ago. As well as broadening the faculty’s expertise, the plan allows smaller classes and more concentrated interactions with students. This year, the faculty voted to add a record number of 7 full-time faculty and to grant tenure to four junior faculty, another record, to the Columbia Law School faculty.

 

Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, stands at the forefront of legal education and of the law in a global society. Columbia Law School graduates have provided leadership worldwide in a remarkably broad range of fields – government, diplomacy, the judiciary, business, non-profit, advocacy, entertainment, academia, science and the arts. Led by Dean Schizer, Columbia Law School joins traditional strengths in international and comparative law, constitutional law, administrative law and human rights law with pioneering work in the areas of intellectual property, digital technology, sexuality and gender, and criminal law. The Law School offers J.D., J.S.D. and LL.M. degree programs to a diverse student body. For further information, visit www.law.columbia.edu.