Professor Bill Rich Named Interim Dean
Law professor Bill Rich has been appointed interim dean for the Washburn University School of Law, effective Aug. 1. He will assume the duties of Dean Dennis R. Honabach, who has accepted the position of dean of Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, Ky.
As interim, Rich will promote the development of joint degree programs between the law school and the School of Business and department of social work. He will also continue emphasis of the Business and Transactional Law Center, the Center for Excellence in Advocacy, the Children and Family Law Center and the Washburn Law Clinic.
Rich joined the law school faculty in 1977 and for the past two years has held the position of associate dean for academic affairs. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law, he was a law clerk for Chief Justice Donald Wright of the California Supreme Court and served as a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Wichita. Rich also was a Rockefeller Fellow at Yale Divinity School.
For several years he worked with Washburn Law Clinic students representing inmates in constitutional challenges to Kansas prison conditions. Rich co-authored the second edition of Modern Constitutional Law, published in 1997.
A screening committee of faculty, staff, students, alumni and judiciary is being formed to search for a permanent dean. The opening will be advertised immediately throughout the nation and initial screening of applicants could begin Sept. 1.
On-campus interviews are expected to take place at the end of the fall 2006 semester and a replacement could be named by Jan. 1, 2007.
(Posted: June 27, 2006)
