US universities turn to lawyers as leaders in turbulent year, ETEducation
By Karen Sloan
Three top U.S. universities selected former law school deans as their incoming presidents in recent months – a sign that campuses are seeking out leaders with legal expertise amid a challenging time for higher education.
Columbia University on Sunday named Jennifer Mnookin – a former University of California at Los Angeles School of Law dean and current University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor – as its next president. The University of Michigan earlier this month chose former Washington University in St. Louis law dean and current Syracuse University chancellor Kent Syverud as its incoming president.
In October, Georgetown University selected former Cornell law dean and current Seattle University President Eduardo Penalver as its next top leader.
All three are slated to assume their new roles in July.
The number of lawyers and law deans holding university presidencies has more than doubled in each of the past three decades, according to research by Touro University senior vice president of academic affairs and provost Patricia Salkin, who wrote a 2022 book on the subject.
Those appointments spike in times of crisis, Salkin found. Mnookin and Syverud will both lead universities that were targeted by U.S. President Donald Trump over the past year and have experienced high leadership turnover. Columbia entered a $220 million deal with the Trump administration in July to resolve claims of antisemitism and restore millions in government funding.
The U.S. Department of Education in July launched an investigation into the University of Michigan over foreign donations. The Ann Arbor school, which has had three presidents in five years, also shut down its diversity, equity, and inclusion office in March, 2025.
“Higher education is under tremendous pressure with rapidly changing policies from the federal government,” Salkin said. “People are looking for the kinds of skill sets that lawyers bring to the table.” Syverud and Penalver told Reuters this week that legal training is always beneficial in leadership roles, and especially in the current political landscape. They said three former law deans taking on major university presidencies in short succession was unusual. Mnookin did not respond to a request for comment.
“The rules and practices of the federal government have changed quite a bit in a year,” Syverud said. “I think training as a lawyer makes you better able to make quick decisions when you have to deal with that.”
Penalver said his legal background enabled him to quickly analyze a February 2025 letter from the U.S. Department of Education warning colleges and universities that federal funding would be pulled from institutions maintaining what it described as illegal diversity and inclusion programs.
Seattle University did not rush to make changes in part because Penalver recognized that the letter was not a legally binding document, he said. In the past year, the Trump administration has moved to cut federal research funding to colleges and universities; attacked university diversity and inclusion efforts; investigated multiple campuses for alleged antisemitism; and revoked visas for some international students. Trump has also sought to overhaul the higher education accreditation system.
“It helps to have a president with a lot of sophistication and understanding of what’s being asked of us, what’s being required of us, and what’s not required of us,” Penalver said. “That’s more challenging for people who aren’t trained in law because you struggle to even know where you stand.”
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