Until the next dean of LSU’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center is named next semester, William “Bill” Corbett and Cheney Joseph Jr. are navigating territory abruptly vacated by former Chancellor and Dean Jack Weiss.
A search committee was established earlier this week to select the best candidate to lead the Law School for the 2016-2017 academic year. The new dean is expected to assume power summer 2016.
The law center’s ideal applicant would respect the important relationship between the state-funded school and the state legal system, appreciate strong teaching and scholarship and have impressive legal experience, Corbett said.
Corbett and Joseph were appointed interim co-deans of the 100-year-old law center following Weiss’s resignation in July.
After serving as chancellor for eight years, Weiss stepped down, citing “major policy differences” with faculty at the law center, according to a July LSU Media Relations news release.
Prior to his resignation, faculty members signed a petition demanding a change in leadership, complete with 25 of the law center’s 33 tenured or tenure-track faculty’s signatures.
The petition stated faculty, “do not have confidence in the leadership of the law center’s Chancellor, Jack M. Weiss.”
Despite the terms of his resignation, Joseph said Weiss was a great leader and will be missed.
“Jack got a lot accomplished in that period of time,” Joseph said. “Frankly, eight years is a long time for a person to serve in the capacity of a dean of a law school.”
Weiss will return to the law center in the next academic year as a media law professor.
“I’m looking forward to working with him as a colleague,” Joseph said.
LSU President F. King Alexander and Vice Provost Jane Cassidy appointed Corbett and Joseph over the summer, but they did not officially take office until Aug. 17, when classes started.
This is not the first time the two reluctant leaders have joined forces. They also worked together on planning LSU’s legal and judicial education programs for the past 24 years as Law Center colleagues.
“There’s a lot to be done,” Joseph said. “It really takes both people to get all of our chores out of the way.”
Corbett left his Birmingham, Alabama, practice in 1991 to join the law center faculty as a professor. He served as interim vice chancellor and then vice chancellor for academic affairs at the law center for nearly three years. He also served as executive director of the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel for almost 15 years.
Joseph, a 1964 cum laude graduate of Princeton University, has a law career spanning more than 50 years. He worked his way up the legal ladder, first as an administrative assistant in the District Attorney’s office in East Baton Rouge Parish and then as district attorney for the parish in 1990.
After a brief stint in the early ’90s as judge pro tempore of the 16th and 40th judicial courts, Joseph served as vice chancellor for academic affairs for the past 15 years.
Though the co-interim deans said they look forward to the academic year, leftover challenges from the previous administration still need attention.
“We are worried about paying the bills,” Joseph said. “We didn’t have to worry about that on the academic affairs side before.”
Corbett said alumni relations are essential for fundraising. The law school relies heavily on donations of distinguished alumni with prominent law firms.
The Chancellor’s Council appeals to alumni to make different levels of contributions to the school.
Corbett and Joseph plan to host continuing legal education seminars for lawyers, which have a high alumni turnout. Corbett said he hopes alumni will make donations as they mingle during the receptions.
“In the times of budget cuts that we’re in now, raising private funds becomes a difficult job,” Corbett said.
Other than fundraising and alumni relations, Joseph said taking on administrative chores has been an “interesting challenge” for the duo.
He said the faculty has been surprisingly cooperative with and accommodating to the new leadership arrangement but that faculty disagreements with Weiss were part of the “inevitable process” that comes with the title.
Corbett said he and Joseph’s leadership strategy differs from Weiss’s by necessity. They have been relying heavily on executive committees to aid them in guiding the school.
Both plan to tackle issues involving declining enrollment and generating alumni interest.
“We face a number of challenges with the decline of the current interest of students in legal education, along with challenges to attract as many good students as we possibly can,” Joseph said.
The 3+3 program, in partnership with the LSU College of Humanities and Social Sciences, would serve as a great bargaining tool for prospective students, he said.
Corbett agreed that both financially and in terms of time commitment, 3+3 might be a nice incentive to join the law center.
Joseph said he and Corbett hope to smooth out these issues before the new dean takes charge and that he is optimistic about the law center’s future.
“Next year at this time, we’ll have a new dean in place,” Joseph said. “Bill and I will be part of the history of the administration of this place.”