Dean of the University of Chicago Law School: 1994-1999
Douglas G. Baird’s tenure as tenth dean of the Law School saw important additions both to the faculty and the campus. Several distinguished scholars came on board, including future dean of the Law School, Saul Levmore (law and economics), Lisa Bernstein (contract and commercial law), Emily Buss (children’s and family law), Martha Nussbaum (law and philosophy), Eric Posner (law and economics, international law, constitutional law), and tax scholars Julie A. Roin and David Weisbach. These scholars all continue to contribute their talents as teachers and researchers to the Law School to the present day. It was also during Baird’s tenure as dean that future-President Barack Obama was promoted to Senior Lecturer and expanded his presence at the Law School, before departing to serve in the U.S. Senate in 2004.
The Law School’s campus grew when the Arthur Kane Center for Clinical Legal Education was dedicated on October 11, 1998. The expansion was made possible by a $3 million gift from Arthur O. Kane, ’39. The new facility constituted a 10,000-square-foot addition to the Law School with new office, conference, and meeting spaces as well as a library for the clinical programs. Kane was a noted authority in the field of workers’ compensation law and sought to encourage the Law School’s clinical work because it both served the community and offered practical training for lawyers. The physical expansion also included a new classroom wing with two lecture halls and two seminar rooms, an addition supported by gifts from Paul Leffmann and the Class of 1967.
The Kane Center housed the Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic, the MacArthur Justice Center, and the new Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship. The Mandel Legal Aid Clinic had grown significantly in both size and influence since its founding in 1957. By the 1990s, it was recognized as one of the preeminent law school-based clinics in the nation, and required a larger and more modern physical space to continue its work. Baird facilitated the establishment of the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship, which continues to provide legal counsel for small businesses based in Chicago’s inner city.
In 1994, Baird oversaw an artistic addition to the Law School environs. Four paintings by Chicago artist Judy Ledgerwood, known as “The Law School Series,” were hung in the Green Lounge that autumn. The Law School commissioned the landscape-like abstract paintings with the generous assistance of Mrs. Marion F. Green. [See photographs of the paintings in the Baird image gallery!]