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UA Little Rock Hires First Woman to Lead Bowen Law School

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The University of Arkansas at Little Rock on Friday announced the hiring of Theresa Beiner as dean of its William H. Bowen School of Law, effective July 1. 

She will be the first woman to serve as dean in a permanent capacity and was selected following a national search.

Beiner is associate dean for academic affairs at the school. She will succeed John DiPippa, who will step down as interim dean on June 30. He has held that role since July 1 and was dean from 2008 to 2012, before returning to the classroom as dean emeritus and distinguished professor of law and public policy.

Beiner has worked at the school since 1994. She became the its first associate dean for faculty development in 2010 and also served as the Nadine H. Baum Distinguished Professor of Law.

She received a juris doctor in 1989 from Northwestern University School of Law, graduating cum laude, and earned a bachelor’s with the highest distinction from the University of Virginia in 1986.

“Terri Beiner is the epitome of a scholar, teacher, servant and colleague,” DiPippa said in a news release. “Her research garners national attention, and her teaching is innovative. She is devoted to her students and spends hours meeting with them outside of class. She is also a wonderful colleague.”

“I’m very excited to have the opportunity to help Bowen build on its strengths as a law school that is committed to creating a cutting edge curriculum that incorporates our core values of professionalism, public service, and access to justice,” Beiner said in the release.

Before becoming a professor, she practiced civil litigation as an associate attorney for a San Francisco law firm, after passing the bar in 1991.

Beiner is the author of numerous publications and has presented at Continuing Legal Education seminars for the Arkansas Bar Association, the Wisconsin Law Review Symposium and the Southeastern Association of Law Schools Conferences, among many others.

She was awarded the university’s William H. Bowen School of Law’s Faculty Excellence Award for Scholarship in 1998, 2005, 2009 and 2016.

Beiner has served on the Arkansas Bar Association Task Force on Maintaining a Fair & Impartial Judiciary and is a past board president of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. She was an Arkansas delegate to the Infinity Project, an organization working to appoint more women to the bench in the Eighth Circuit.

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