A Message to the Northwestern Pritzker Law Community

Earlier today, Northwestern Pritzker Law Dean Hari Osofsky shared the following message with the Northwestern Pritzker Law community:

Dear Members of the Northwestern Pritzker Law Community,

I write today to share my decision to step down as dean of Northwestern Pritzker School of Law as of July 21 to launch Northwestern’s new Energy Innovation Lab and lead forward the Rule of Law Global Academic Partnership. At this time of crisis for the issues that I have spent my career on – and after eight years of being a dean at two outstanding universities – it feels urgent and important to focus my work on the rule of law, energy, and climate change.

It has been an extraordinary honor and privilege to lead and get to know our remarkable Law School community these past four years. I am extremely proud of and grateful for all we have built together. We have recruited exceptional new faculty and students, improved student outcomes and support, launched innovative new interdisciplinary programs and centers, developed efforts to foster a welcoming community and constructive dialogue across difference, and fundraised transformational gifts to support those efforts and our students. And I love that our alumni consistently share that going to our Law School not only changed their lives, but they also made their best friends here. I care deeply about our Law School and will work closely with our\ leadership and community this summer to support a positive transition.

As we face foundational challenges to our legal system and justice, each of us needs to ask at a personal level what our values and sense of integrity require. In my twenties, I decided that my primary career goal was to leave the world a little better than I found it. Those values undergirded my decision to go to law school, practice public interest law, and become a professor and dean. And they are why it feels so important to work on the rule of law, energy, and climate change at this moment.

I am excited to collaborate with our Law School and University community on these new efforts. The Energy Innovation Lab will bring together law, business, social sciences, and STEM research and collaborate with business, government, and NGO leaders to advance needed energy innovation. Its initial areas of focus will be (1) energy investment; (2) energy and AI; and (3) energy litigation. The non-partisan Rule of Law Global Academic Partnership that I launched this spring now includes over 150 law schools from six continents and is moving forward with research, teaching, programming, and public education on (1) judicial independence and separation of powers; (2) role of lawyers and legal representation; (3) role of universities and academic freedom; and (4) due process.

Thank you. I am grateful for the partnership, the friendships, the inspiration, and the difference we have made together.

Warmly,

Hari Osofsky
Dean, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Myra and James Bradwell Professor of Law
Professor of Environmental Policy and Culture (courtesy)

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Earlier today, University Provost Kathleen Hagerty shared the following message with the Northwestern community:

Dear Northwestern Community,

Earlier today, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law Dean Hari Osofsky announced she will step down from her role as dean this summer to lead important new initiatives at Northwestern —addressing challenges related to her deep and long-term interests in the rule of law, energy and climate change. We appreciate her leadership on these exciting University initiatives integral to our strategic priorities and look forward to working with her on them.

We are grateful for Dean Osofsky’s dedication to the Law School and to Northwestern, and for her impactful leadership contributions over the past four years. Since joining Northwestern in 2021, Dean Osofsky achieved notable successes, including hiring nearly one-quarter of the research faculty at the Law School, significantly improving student employment outcomes and recruiting the most selective class in the Law School’s 165-year history each year she was dean. Her impressive fundraising totaled almost $50 million, including three new endowed chairs, significant expansion of student scholarships and major gifts supporting the Bluhm Legal Clinic.

Under Dean Osofsky’s leadership, the Law School launched numerous new programs and centers, including the West Coast Initiative, Center for Racial and Disability Justice, Knox Conversations speaker series, Bluhm Legal Clinic’s LGBTQI+ Rights Clinic, Rivkin Law and Public Advocacy Fellows Program, and Writing Lab. The Law School also re-entered the top 10 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings, was the No. 1 “Go-To Law School for Big Law” in the country for two consecutive years and was ranked No. 7 in the nation for its return on investment of a law degree.

In her new role, she will direct the Energy Innovation Lab and the Rule of Law Global Academic Partnership, both vital initiatives that will have an impact on Northwestern and beyond. Our new Energy Innovation Lab will advance cutting-edge interdisciplinary research on energy innovation in partnership with bi-partisan business, government and non-profit leaders. Since Dean Osofsky launched the non-partisan Rule of Law Global Academic Partnership earlier this spring, it has already grown to more than 150 law schools from six continents. I look forward to the critically needed research, teaching, programming and public education it will develop.

The University will announce an interim dean in the coming weeks. Please join me in thanking Dean Osofsky for her leadership both at the Law School and as she takes on these key roles for the University.

Thank you,

Kathleen Hagerty
Provost
First Chicago Professor of Finance