Suellyn Scarnecchia - Deanship at The University of New Mexico School of Law

Deanship At The University of New Mexico School of Law

At the University of New Mexico School of Law, Scarnecchia succeeded a long line of distinguished deans at the school. These former deans include Vern Countryman, an avid civil rights activist who later retired as a Harvard law professor, as well as Frederick Hart (still on the faculty), who in the early 70s made it his mission to hire more women and minority faculty, to give clinical law professors full tenure status, and to start a program that led the number of Native American attorneys nationwide to grow from 300 to 4,000.

Controversy has attended Dean Scarnecchia's tenure at the law school, culminating in an editorial in the Albuquerque Journal by Christina Hoff Sommers in October, 2006. The editorial reported that while the students at the University of New Mexico law school are politically diverse, the faculty contains no conservative or Republican voices whatsoever. Furthermore, the editorial alleges, students who do not share the law faculty's political complexion frequently find themselves isolated and marginalized by the law faculty—who, for example, explicitly discourage students from joining the Federalist Society. Dean Scarnecchia, the editorial implied, played an important role in a recent decision wherein the faculty dissolved the "DA Law Clinic", which allowed students to work with the District Attorney's Office. According to the editorial, many law faculty were so extreme in their political radicalism that they were not comfortable allowing their students to work prosecuting criminals.

At the law school, Dean Scarnecchia presided over a student body of human rights advocates and athletes, environmentalists, those interested in Indian Law, natural resources advocates, and those interested in business law, particularly with respect to small businesses.

Recent graduates include Jason Marks, the head of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, and many law school classes include mayors and other public officials, doctors, and other second-career students.

The school has some of the smallest law school classes in the country, including first-year sections of 36 students, and mandatory clinic classes with 8 students or less.