UCLA law school dean, professor

Murray L. Schwartz, 87, dean of the UCLA School of Law from 1969 to 1975 and a longtime professor there, died of heart failure Feb. 15 at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, said UCLA spokeswoman Sara Wolosky.

A specialist in criminal law and legal ethics, Schwartz joined the UCLA faculty in 1958 and was the first to hold the David G. Price and Dallas P. Price Chair in Law. He also served as UCLA’s vice chancellor from 1988 until 1991, when he was granted emeritus status.

Known for his teaching skills, Schwartz won the law school’s Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching and was named professor of the year by the graduating class of 1986.

He was born in Philadelphia in 1920. After earning a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Penn State University in 1942, he worked for Standard Oil as a chemist, then served in the Navy during World War II.

Schwartz earned his law degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1949 and was a clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson. He served in the office of the solicitor general in the early 1950s and practiced law in Philadelphia until moving west.

Schwartz wrote “The Reorganization of the Legal Profession” (1980), co-wrote “Lawyers and the Legal Profession: Cases and Materials” (1979) and edited “Law and the American Future” (1976).