Message from Dean Thomas J. Miles: Future Plans and My Gratitude
Dean Miles sent this announcement via email to the Law School community on July 8, 2024.
Dear Members of the Law School Community,
I am writing to share the news that I have decided to return to the full-time faculty at the end of the next academic year, June 30, 2025. The next academic year will mark my tenth in the Deanship, and I am deeply grateful for all that our Law School has accomplished in the past nine years.
The University of Chicago Law School is distinctive in its commitment to intellectual life. Our school is defined by the ambition to expand the understanding of law and legal institutions, to develop and question ideas in an environment of open inquiry, and to prepare students for important professional responsibilities through a rigorous and participatory education. In this, our Law School is a beacon for all of higher education. It has been a great honor to serve as Dean of our distinctive institution.
I am especially thankful to have had the opportunity to collaborate with our faculty, administrators, and alumni in sustaining and advancing our Law School. There are many milestones that the Law School has reached thanks to everyone’s efforts and dedication: the superb new faculty colleagues we have welcomed and the admired faculty colleagues we have come to admire even more; the outpouring of influential scholarship from our faculty; the impressive students we have recruited and the prestigious employment opportunities they have secured; the new centers and clinics launched; the enrichment of our curriculum, the introduction of new degree offerings, and the expansion of student programs; and the generous and visionary philanthropy of our alumni and friends that made all of these milestones possible. I hope that these and other efforts will continue to raise the excellence and eminence of our Law School in the years ahead.
I will depart the Deanship with a deeper admiration for our Law School and a greater optimism for its future than ever before. Our defining conviction – that ideas matter, that they are worth discussing, and that they are made better through close questioning and exposure to contrasting viewpoints – is more important than ever. For all of the milestones we have reached in recent years, our enduring commitment to the highest standards of teaching and scholarship will continue to open exciting new opportunities for our Law School in the future.
I am excited to return to full-time scholarship and teaching a year from now. Until then, I look forward to all we will accomplish for our Law School and its distinctive mission in the coming year. Thank you again.
Best wishes,
Tom Miles