Emory University has named Mary Anne Bobinski dean of Emory University School of Law. She will assume the post in August 2019, becoming the first woman to serve in the role since the school’s founding in 1916.  

“Mary Anne Bobinski is a nationally recognized legal scholar in health law and one that leads with an eye towards the impact lawyers can have on society,” says Emory President Claire E. Sterk. “Her track record of inclusiveness and ideals around collective impact will enhance our program and deepen our relationships with the legal community and beyond.”

Bobinski is currently a professor at the Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia, Canada, where she also served as dean from 2003-2015.

“In Mary Anne Bobinski not only have we found a distinguished legal scholar, but a leader whose vision and strategic approach led to her law school’s recognition as one of the strongest programs in Canada and one of the top 35 law schools in the world,” says Dwight A. McBride, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “Given her scholarship, experience, leadership, and demonstrated track record as a fundraiser, she will excel as a transformational leader for Emory Law.”

Bobinski will provide visionary leadership for Emory Law, recognized as a top-ranked law school known for its creativity and innovation in legal education. In line with this, she will be charged with developing a strategic plan to operationalize efforts and build on the law school’s success with addressing challenges to legal education in the 21st century. 

Erika James, dean of Emory’s Goizueta Business School, served as chair of the search advisory committee. “Emory Law School is a university gem and deserves an experienced, passionate, and forward-thinking leader,” James says. “The search advisory committee did an outstanding job in identifying Mary Anne Bobinski from a strong and deep field of candidates. I am confident that she will lead the law school with purpose and conviction and I personally look forward to working with her as a fellow dean at Emory.”

During Bobinski’s tenure as dean at the Allard School of Law, she worked with faculty, staff, and students to establish and carry out an ambitious and comprehensive strategic plan that guided the recruitment of outstanding and engaged faculty members, the expansion of the curriculum, and the enhancement of student support.

She led successful campaigns to enhance the law school’s endowment and to construct a new law building, which opened in 2011. Allard Hall was the first purpose-built, all-new law building for a Canadian law school in 30 years.

“I am truly honored to join Emory Law and look forward to working with the law school community, alumni, and others to develop and implement an ambitious plan for the law school’s future,” Bobinski says.

Bobinski previously served as the senior associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Houston Law Center in Texas, where she was also a John and Rebecca Moores Professor of Law and the director of what was, during her term, the top-ranked health law program in the United States.

She is a past president and board member of the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics and a past member of the Canadian Public Health Officer's Ethics Advisory Committee. She has served as a visiting scholar at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, the University of Sydney Law School, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Melbourne Law School, and the Faculty of Law at Oxford University, where she also held a Plumer Visiting Research Fellowship at St. Anne’s College.

Bobinski received her LL.M. from Harvard Law School and holds a J.D. and a B.A. in psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo, both received summa cum laude. Her research and teaching interests include comparative health law, health care finance and bioethics.

ABOUT EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW

Emory University School of Law is a top-ranked law school defined by creativity and innovation in legal education. Located in Atlanta, it enrolls students from throughout the United States and the world pursuing juris doctor, juris master, master of laws, doctor of juridical science, and master of comparative law degrees. Emory Law alumni work across the globe as leaders in law, business, government, philanthropy, and education. Emory Law strives for a world in which law provides a common framework for courageous leaders to engage our most complex social and economic challenges and to achieve positive social transformation by advancing the rule of law.