Liz Magill, who will become the executive vice president and 17th dean of the Georgetown University Law Center on Aug. 1, brings decades of experience as a leader of higher-education institutions.

Magill served as the president of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) between 2022 and 2023 and previously served as provost of the University of Virginia (UVA) and dean of Stanford Law School. Her tenures featured expanding global initiatives, hiring new faculty and extensive legal scholarship.

Interim University President Robert M. Groves said Magill’s legal and leadership experience qualifies her for the position.

“Liz is the right person to lead Georgetown Law. She is a distinguished legal scholar and an accomplished administrator who brings a values-driven vision to Georgetown Law,” Groves said in a university press release. “We are excited to see her take the helm and join our vibrant community.”

After earning a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University, Magill served as a senior legislative assistant for then-Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) before attending the UVA School of Law in 1992. 

After graduating law school, Magill clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and later for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. During a memorial Zoom chat about Ginsburg in 2020, Magill said the justice served as an important role model for her.

“I learned a lot of things about professionalism, law and craft that are not that interesting to talk about in a water cooler setting. But I take all of those with me,” Magill said during the chat. “I admired her work ethic, and her attention to the large and the small issues.” 

Following her clerkship, Magill returned to UVA School of Law in 1997 as a professor and eventually served as vice dean. 

Daniel Ortiz, a law professor at UVA who taught Magill while she was a law student and later co-taught with her when she was a law professor, said Magill held her students to a high standard, but was well-liked as a professor. 

“She was very good with students,” Ortiz told The Hoya. “Students always respected her and liked her, that said that she was a very demanding teacher, she wanted her students to be the best that they could be. So she wasn’t someone who was known by any means as a pushover. Her classes were rigorous but they were also fun and it was a pleasure for me to be able to teach with her.” 

As a professor, Magill developed an expertise in constitutional law, administrative law, and food and drug law. She currently serves as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a member of the American Law Institute, both academic professional societies.

From 2012 to 2019, Magill served as dean and professor at Stanford Law School. She left Stanford to become provost and executive vice president at UVA from 2019 to 2022. 

Persis Drell, who was provost of Stanford University during Magill’s tenure, said Magill’s hiring of new faculty left a lasting legacy at the law school.

“She was a great dean of our law school here at Stanford and was particularly effective in hiring outstanding faculty who are shaping the future of the school,” Drell wrote to The Hoya. “What I especially appreciated, both as a peer dean and as provost, is that Liz partnered to support all of her fellow deans to be successful. She was a great collaborator, and it was always a pleasure to work with her.” 

During her tenure as dean of Stanford Law, Magill expanded Stanford Law’s Global Law Program, providing students with immersive experiences in different legal and political environments around the world. She also launched the Law and Policy Lab, a global initiative that features discussion seminars focused on incorporating global issues into the law school curriculum. 

As provost of UVA, Magill helped the school navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, led eight searches for new school deans and created a new internal budget system. In 2022, Magill left UVA when she was unanimously elected by the Penn board of trustees as president.

Ortiz said Magill’s experience in different positions of leadership across higher education institutions will aid her in leading Georgetown Law.

“She’s also been in these various different positions in different cultures,” Ortiz said. “So, the culture at Stanford is different from the culture at UVA, which is different from the culture at Penn, which is somewhat different, I am sure, than the culture at Georgetown.”

“Georgetown is a religious school, so I think that will be sort of new for her but she’s looked at these different universities from different perspectives, and that’s got to help a lot when you’re landing in a new place,” Ortiz added.

Magill’s 17-month tenure as president of Penn ended controversially following significant pushback from Penn community members and major donors in response to her handling of the Israel-Hamas war. After a Dec. 5, 2023 congressional hearing where she received backlash for her response to questions about antisemitism on campus, Magill ultimately resigned Dec. 9. 

Magill said she spent a lot of time reflecting on the December 2023 hearing and regrets the way her response affected the Jewish community at Penn.

“My testimony in Congress left people distressed, and it particularly did that for Jewish students back on the Penn campus,” Magill told Politico in a Feb. 13 profile. “I take very seriously the response that people had to my testimony, and I regret that I conveyed a lack of compassion and care and good sense to those people. I want every Jewish student, a student of every faith, every view, every single student to feel they are in a secure environment and they’re in a place where they can flourish.”

Magill has since spent time as a visiting fellow at Harvard University and a volunteer fellow at Yale University, and is currently a faculty member at Penn Carey Law. She will serve as a visiting professor of law at the London School of Economics Law School until 2027.

Magill, whose father and three out of five siblings graduated from Georgetown, said she plans to uphold Georgetown Law’s legacy of legal scholarship and impact.

“Georgetown has an unmatched combination of great attributes: its size, impact and location,” Magill said in the university press release. “The impact it has always had and will have in the future is unlimited. That’s an exciting opportunity and challenge to figure out how to build on the enormous excellence and strengths of the school.”