Law School Deans

A. Benjamin Spencer (2020-present)

A. Benjamin Spencer was appointed Dean of the College of William & Mary Law School on July 1, 2020. More information about A. Benjamin Spencer is available on his repository page.

Davison M. Douglas (2009-2020)

Davison M. Douglas was appointed Dean of the College of William & Mary Law School on July 1, 2009. More information about Dave Douglas is available here.

Lynda L. Butler (2008-2009)

Lynda Butler was the Interim Dean of the College of William & Mary Law School from February 2008 to June 2009. More information about Lynda Butler is available here.

W. Taylor Reveley, III (1998-2008)

Taylor Reveley was the Dean of the College of William & Mary Law School from August 1998 to February 2008. More information about Taylor Reveley is available here.

Paul Marcus (1993-1994; 1997-1998)

Paul Marcus was the Interim Dean of the College of William & Mary Law School from 1993 to 1994 and again from 1997 to 1998. More information about Paul Marcus is available here.

Thomas G. Krattenmaker (1994-1997)

Thomas G. Krattenmaker was the Dean of the College of William & Mary Law School from 1994 to 1997. More information about Thomas Krattenmaker is available here.

Richard A. Williamson (1992-1993)

Richard A. Williamson was the Acting Dean of the College of William & Mary Law School from 1992 to 1993. More information about Richard Williamson is available here.

Timothy J. Sullivan (1985-1992)

Timothy J. Sullivan was the Dean of the College of William & Mary Law School from 1985 to 1992. More information about Timothy Sullivan is available href="http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/tsullivan/"">here.

William B. Spong, Jr. (1976-1985)

William B. Spong, Jr. was the Dean of the College of William & Mary Law School from 1976 to 1985. More information about William Spong is available here.

Emeric Fischer (1975-1976)

Emeric Fischer served as the Acting Dean of the Law School from 1975-1976. More information about Emeric Fischer is available here.

James P. Whyte, Jr. (1970-1975)

James P Whyte, Jr. was the Dean of the College of William & Mary Law School from 1970-1975. More Information about James Whyte, Jr. is available here.

Joseph Curtis (1962-1969)

Joseph Curtis became the Acting Dean of the College of William & Mary Law School in 1962 and was appointed Dean of the Law School in 1964. He served as Dean until 1969. More information about Joseph Curtis is available here.

Dudley Warner Woodbridge (1942-1946; 1948-1962)

Dudley Warner Woodbridge served as the acting dean of the School of Jurisprudence from 1942-1946 while Thomas Cox served in the army during World War II. In 1948 Woodbridge was once again asked to serve as the acting dean. He was...

Arthur Warren Phelps (1947-1948)

Arthur Warren Phelps served as the Dean of the William & Mary Law School from 1947-1948. More information about Arthur Phelps is available here.

Theodore Sullivan Cox (1932-1942, 1946-1947)

Theodore Sullivan Cox was the Dean of the College of William & Mary Law School from 1932-1942. He took a leave of absence from 1942-1946 to serve as a lieutenant-colonel in the army, and returned to his post as Dean from 1946-1947. More...

John Garland Pollard (1923-1932)

John Garland Pollard served as Dean of the Marshall-Wythe School of Government and Citizenship from 1923-1929. More information about John Pollard is available here.

Lucian Minor (1855-1858)

Lucian Minor served as the Chair of Law at the College of William & Mary from 1855-1858. More information about Lucian Minor is available here. Portrait is held by the College of William & Mary Earl Gregg Swem Library. Photograph was taken...

Nathaniel Beverley Tucker (1834-1851)

Nathaniel Beverley Tucker served as the Chair of Law at the College of William and Mary from 1834-1851. More information about Nathaniel Beverley Tucker is available here. Portrait is held by the College of William & Mary Earl Gregg Swem...

James Semple (Signature)

James Semple's signature taken from the 1822 volume of the Acts passed at a General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Robert Nelson (Signature)

Robert Nelson's signature taken from Volume 1 of A Collection of Modern Entries, or, Select Pleadings in the Courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer ... : To which is Added a Collection of Writs in Most Cases Now in Practice...

St. George Tucker (1790-1804)

St. George Tucker served as the Chair of Law and Police at the College of William and Mary from 1790-1804. More information about St. George Tucker is available here. Portrait is held by the College of William & Mary Earl Gregg Swem...

George Wythe (1779-1789)

George Wythe served as the first Chair of Law and Police at the College of William and Mary from 1779-1789. More information about George Wythe is available here. Portrait is held by the College of William and Mary's Wolf Law Library.

From its beginnings in 1779 as the first law school in the new nation to the present, the deans of the William & Mary Law School have been leaders and innovators in American legal education. The stage was set by our first professor, George Wythe, who was asked by his former student Thomas Jefferson to begin a program of formal legal education at the College. Wythe was succeeded by St. George Tucker, who had read law under Wythe, and who would during his tenure at William & Mary author the seminal work known as Tucker’s Blackstone, the most important American legal treatise in the early 19th Century. Today the law school is led by A. Benjamin Spencer who, as scholar, an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s Corps, and a leader in public service, is fully poised to lead William & Mary into the future..

Additional information about the history of the William & Mary Law School is available here.

Directories of Faculty and Administrative personnel, with their tenure, of the William & Mary Law School are available here.