Nell Newton

Nell Jessup Newton became Notre Dame Law School’s tenth dean on July 1, 2009. Newton came to Notre Dame from UC Hastings College of Law, where she was the Chancellor & Dean and William B. Lockhart Professor of Law. Previously she served as dean at, first, the University of Denver College of Law and, later, the University of Connecticut School of Law. Dean Newton taught Contracts, Property, Constitutional Law, and American Indian Law at Catholic University Law School (1976-1992) and then at American University Law School (1992-1998). From 1990 to 1997 Dean Newton also taught at the Pre-Law Summer Institute for Native American Students (PLSI) at the University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Newton earned her bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley in humanities with an emphasis on ancient Greek, and her law degree from UC Hastings, where she was elected to the Thurston Society and the Order of the Coif and served as managing editor of the Hastings Law Journal. She is active in scholarly and educational organizations, such as the American Association of Law Schools, the American Bar Association, and the Law School Admissions Council. She is a director of the National Association of Law Placement Foundation and is a life fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Connecticut Bar Foundation. She also served as an associate justice of the Yurok Tribal Supreme Court in 2008-2009.