Dean Appointed

By Eryn Olson

Santa Clara has announced Lisa Kloppenberg as the new dean of the Law School, the first female to take position. Kloppenberg will replace the current dean, Donald Polden, on July 1.

For the past 12 years, Kloppenberg has been working at the University of Dayton Law School, the largest private university in Ohio and one of the 10 largest Catholic universities in the nation. She served as dean for 10 of those years and led the university to greater national recognition as the first female law dean in the state.

"I like some of that pioneering role," said Kloppenberg. "I want to open the door for other women."

Kloppenberg admitted that she had not really been looking for another deanship, but Santa Clara stole her heart. She was attracted to Santa Clara Law because of its "brilliant faculty who care about their students, dedicated staff and talented, hardworking students." 

Kloppenberg is already thinking of ways to build on the School of Law's strengths, particularly with "the high tech/intellectual property law, its strong social justice and public interest programs, and its global legal initiatives."

Kloppenberg has met with the deans of the other schools at Santa Clara, wanting to make it her goal to get the School of Law to work more closely with them to form one interconnected team. 

Kloppenberg said that she is "a mediator and peacemaker who tries to bring out the best in each person."  

Kloppenberg attended the University of Southern California as an undergraduate, and was an English and journalism double major. 

These fields taught her how to put information together quickly and concisely, two valuable assets in the legal field. Kloppenberg did not consider becoming a lawyer until her junior year at USC when she took a First Amendment class.

She worked three jobs to put herself through USC's law school, while juggling the responsibility as editor-in-chief of the Southern California Law Review. Clerking for Judge Dorothy Wright Nelson was one of the highlights of her career. Nelson, one of the first females on the U.S. Court of Appeals and one of the first female deans in legal education, mentored Kloppenberg during her early years in the field. 

Contact Eryn Olson at eolson@scu.edu.