Turtle Talk

Holy cow!!!!

From UNM (via the Lounge):

The University of New Mexico Provost Suzanne Ortega announced today that Kevin K. Washburn has been selected to lead the UNM School of Law as its newest dean and full professor of law. Washburn will begin his tenure at UNM on June 30, 2009.

Photo: Kevin K. Washburn was chosen dean at the UNM School of Law.

“Professor Washburn has deep roots in the New Mexico legal community and national experience in legal education. We are fortunate to have him return to the School of Law,” said Ortega.

An enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, Washburn is the first American Indian to serve as the dean of UNM’s School of Law. He began his legal education at UNM at the American Indian Law Center’s summer program and later taught Indian law issues here as an adjunct professor.

Washburn currently serves as the Rosenstiel Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law. A widely published scholar, he previously taught law at Harvard and the University of Minnesota.

Prior to entering academia, Washburn was a federal prosecutor in New Mexico and later served as the General Counsel of the National Indian Gaming Commission, an independent federal regulatory agency in Washington, D.C.

Washburn earned his law degree from Yale Law School in 1993, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Journal on Regulation. Following law school, he clerked for Judge William C. Canby Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He began his career in the Honors Program at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. He has been a member of the New Mexico bar since 1994.

“UNM School of Law has a talented and committed faculty, a diverse and dynamic student body, and a deep and devoted alumni base. I will be honored to serve this community,” said Washburn.

Dean Brenda Claiborne, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and Professor Laura E. Gómez, Associate Dean at the School of Law, co-chaired the law dean search committee, which selected Washburn as a finalist following a national search.