Pepperdine names new dean of law school
Pepperdine University on Thursday named a federal appeals court judge from Kansas to succeed former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr as dean of its law school.
Deanell Reece Tacha has been a federal judge on the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals since her 1985 appointment by President Reagan.
She also has served on the Judicial Conference of the United States, the federal court system’s policymaking body, as well as on the U.S. Sentencing Commission that sets guidelines and punishment ranges for those convicted in federal courts.
As a former associate dean and vice chancellor at the University of Kansas, the 65-year-old Tacha brings academic administrative experience to the Malibu campus as well as extensive work in private practice and legal aid, Pepperdine Provost Darryl Tippens noted in announcing her selection after a nationwide search for Starr’s replacement.
Tacha, who will take over as dean in June, also has been active in international legal exchanges, including her work with an American Bar Assn. delegation to Albania to assist in that Balkan nation’s drafting of a new constitution after authoritarian regimes were ousted.
Grant Nelson, a Pepperdine law professor, said he had known Tacha for more than 40 years and pronounced her appointment “a marvelous day for Pepperdine.”
Starr, also a former federal appeals court judge but best known for the investigative report that led to President Clinton’s impeachment on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, left the helm of Pepperdine law school last spring to become president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
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