Daniel Abebe, a legal scholar and accomplished academic administrator, has been named dean of Columbia Law School.
Abebe comes to Columbia from the University of Chicago, where for the past six years he served as vice provost for academic affairs and governance. In that role, he was responsible for stewarding critical aspects of university-wide academic life and important strategic assignments, such as articulating the principles that underpin the university’s widely emulated commitment to free expression. Previously, he was deputy dean of the University of Chicago Law School.
An expert on the constitutional law of US foreign affairs and public international law, Abebe earned his bachelor’s degree from Maryville University of St. Louis, his law degree from Harvard, and his doctorate in political science from the University of Chicago. After clerking for Judge Damon J. Keith of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, he worked at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York before returning to academia. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute.
At Columbia Law School, Abebe succeeds Gillian Lester, who led the school for almost a decade.
