Woman to Head USD Law School, 1st in Its History

Kristine Strachan, a University of Utah law professor, has been named dean of the University of San Diego School of Law, making her the first woman in the school’s history to hold the post and one of just a handful of female law school deans in the nation.

Strachan (pronounced “strawn”) succeeds Sheldon Krantz, who resigned as dean of the school at the end of the 1987-88 academic term to complete a book on the future of the legal profession.

Active in national legal education groups and a leading advocate of curriculum reform for law schools, Strachan, 45, was selected after a year-long search by a 14-member committee that included faculty, students and alumni.

The school’s new dean is married to Salt Lake City lawyer Gordon C. Strachan, who was indicted in the Watergate scandal in 1974 but was granted immunity for his testimony before a Senate investigative committee. Charges against him were dismissed in March, 1975.

USD Professor Lester Snyder, chairman of the search committee, called Kristine Strachan “an outstanding teacher” whose extensive national connections will enhance USD’s reputation outside the West and attract prestigious faculty, particularly women and minorities.

“She has practiced law, she has written, she has taught, she is extraordinarily well-liked by her colleagues in Utah,” Snyder said. “We think all of those add up to an exceptional candidate for dean.”

Sixty-five applicants from around the country were considered for post, and the pool was narrowed to three finalists--including Acting Dean Grant Morris--last month. The search committee submitted the names of two candidates--Strachan and University of Washington law professor Robert Aronson--to USD President Author Hughes. Hughes picked Strachan Wednesday.

Strachan, who has two teen-aged children, said in a telephone interview Thursday from Salt Lake City that she was “thrilled” with her new job, which she will begin in mid-August.

“This is a rare and outstanding opportunity to take what is a very good school and make it one that will rival the very best,” said Strachan, who grew up in Palos Verdes and attended The Bishop’s School in La Jolla before going on to the University of Southern California and Boalt Hall at UC Berkeley.

“It has a distinguished faculty, good students and a brand new library . . . I think it’s at a perfect stage to do some really wonderful things in the future.”

As for her agenda, Strachan said the school’s “priorities are a matter for the faculty to determine. I intend to find out what direction they want to head and facilitate their progress.”

Strachan’s selection brings to 11 the number of women who occupy the top post at law schools accredited by the American Bar Assn. There are 175 such schools, and the only other one in California led by a woman is UCLA, where Susan Prager has been dean since 1982.

Women lawyers on the national and local scene applauded USD’s choice, expressing hope that the ranks of law school administrators--for years a male-dominated arena--are finally opening to females.

“I think it’s a real positive move by USD,” said Judy Hamilton, president of the Lawyers Club of San Diego, a feminist bar association. “I think it shows a commitment to increasing the representation of women in legal education and tells women students that if they go into (academics), there is room to move up.”

Betsy Levin, executive director of the Assn. of American Law Schools, said Strachan’s hiring means there are more women deans than ever before, a fact she called a “natural phenomenon” given recent, dramatic increases in the number of women pursuing law careers. About 43% of law school students are now women, she said.

“As more and more women have gone into legal careers, you are finally seeing some rising up and making the natural transition into administration,” said Levin, former dean at the University of Colorado law school. “About 20% of law faculty are now women, so it’s bound to happen.”

USD professors involved in the search predicted Strachan would deftly manage the myriad tasks confronting the dean of a private law school, where fund-raising and community relations skills are as much in demand as talents suitable for unifying the faculty.

As dean, Strachen will inherit a law school that has built a solid reputation in California over the past 15 years and has earned wider renown for its overseas study and clinical programs. More recently, USD has enjoyed a significant increase in applicants, permitting the school selectivity in choosing students.

When Krantz took over at USD in 1981, his national reputation as a criminal justice expert brought increased attention to the campus, which had been a quiet, insulated place. Through the creation of the San Diego Law Center and other programs, Krantz also forged new ties with the local legal community. That higher profile helped improve fund raising--key for a private law school that lacks the financial support of a public university.

But Krantz was criticized by some faculty members for poor interpersonal skills, and Strachan’s most tricky task may be building unity and restoring collegiality among professors. USD Professor Donald Weckstein, who preceded Krantz as dean at the law school, expressed confidence that Strachan will help heal any remaining divisions on campus.

“She is known as someone who can work very effectively with faculty in building coalitions and minimizing dissent,” said Weckstein, a member of the search committee who has known Strachan for years. “When there is dissent, she seems to treat it with respect and good humor.”

Strachan began her legal career practicing corporate and banking law with the prestigious Wall Street law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. Later, she worked for two years in the State Department’s Office of the Legal Advisor, where she handled war powers legislation, arms control issues and southeast Asian matters.

In 1973, she joined the faculty at the University of Utah College of Law, where she has taught mostly civil procedure and litigation. Recently, she has played a leading role in reforming the law school curriculum, a difficult process that USD toyed with a few years ago but so far has failed to carry out.

The Utah reforms, which require second- and third-year students to pick a specialty area and follow an ambitious interdisciplinary study program in that area, were cited by the U.S. Department of Education as an example for other law schools.

“She has made a significant contribution to our curriculum reform effort, and she is very good at identifying different viewpoints and working toward some sort of constructive solution,” said Edward Spurgeon, dean of the Utah College of Law. “I think she has great potential as dean, but we’re sad to lose her.”

In 1980, Strachan took a two-year sabbatical to work as a prosecutor for the Salt Lake County Attorney, trying homicide and major fraud cases. Currently, she does pro bono work as a prosecutor in Alta, Utah.

Strachan is a member of the prestigious executive committee of the Assn. of American Law Schools, which exists to improve the quality of teaching and scholarship at the nation’s law schools. Her published works cover international law, legal education and evidence, and she drafted laws reorganizing Utah’s Department of Natural Resources and Public Service Commission. She is a founder of Women Lawyers of Utah and active in other women’s group.

Strachan’s hiring comes 93 years after the first female law school dean was named in the United States. Ellen Spencer Mussey was the first dean of the American University Washington College of Law, which she co-founded with Emma M. Gillett in 1896 because no other law schools in the nation’s capitol would admit women. The first class at the school had four students. Mussey served until 1913.

Gordon Strachan, who worked as a political assistant to H.R. Haldeman, former President Richard M. Nixon’s chief of staff, was indicted on March 1, 1974, for conspiracy to obstruct justice and lying to a grand jury. But charges were dismissed on March 10, 1975, at the request of prosecutors, who cited his “limited role” in Watergate and concerns that evidence against him would not stand up because he had been granted immunity for his testimony before the Senate Watergate committee.