Minnesota Lawyer Blog

After an intensive search spanning a year and a half, the University of Minnesota is on the verge of getting a new law dean.

Provost Thomas Sullivan has named David Wippman as dean of the law school. The Board of Regents still have to sign off, but is expected to. If things go as anticipated, Wippman will start the new post on July 1.

Wippman is currently vice provost for international relations and professor of law at Cornell University. He is a native of Minnesota and attended high school here. After graduation from Yale Law School, he clerked for Chief Judge Wilfred Feinberg of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He practiced law in Washington, D.C. from 1983 until joining Cornell Law School’s faculty in 1992. Wippman served in the Clinton administration as a director in the National Security Council’s Office of Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs from 1998-99.

Wippman holds a bachelor of arts degree summa cum laude from Princeton University, a master’s degree from Yale University and earned his juris doctorate from Yale Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal.

Wippman will be the 10th dean of the law school, which is consistently ranked in the top 20 law schools in the nation. He replaces Alex Johnson, who resigned in 2006. Guy-Uriel E. Charles and Fred L. Morrison have served as interim co-deans.