Vice Dean for Clinics and Experiential Education (Teaching Professor of Law)

Position description

Position Overview:

UCLA School of Law invites applications for a full-time Vice Dean for Clinics and Experiential Education (Teaching Professor of Law) to provide strategic, innovative leadership across all of our experiential programs, including our clinics, practicum courses, the trial advocacy program, simulations, and externships. This is a full-time faculty position with security of employment to begin July 1, 2026. For this new Vice Dean position, UCLA School of Law seeks a visionary and highly motivated individual with extensive clinical teaching and leadership experience. The Vice Dean is a key member of UCLA School of Law’s nationally recognized experiential program. Reporting directly to the Dean, the Vice Dean will serve as the principal leader responsible for advancing a comprehensive, multi-year strategy for clinical and experiential education; supporting experiential faculty and instructors; advancing learning outcomes, strengthening community and national engagement, and ensuring that UCLA Law’s experiential programs reflect best practices in pedagogy, professional responsibility, and institutional risk management. The successful candidate will be expected to engage in this administrative leadership position for at least 5 years before returning to clinical teaching at the law school.

Core Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership and Vision
• Develop and implement a multi-year strategic plan for the law school’s clinical and experiential education programs.
• Enhance curricular alignment across experiential course types.
• Advise the Dean on long-term priorities and resource allocation.

Experiential Faculty Leadership and Support
• Mentor and support clinical and experiential faculty across appointment types.
• Plan pedagogy workshops with internal and external facilitators.
• Create and maintain cohesion and community amongst clinical faculty.

Curricular Oversight
• Ensure that clinical and experiential courses meet UCLA Law and ABA standards.
• Re-establish and chair a school-wide Experiential Committee.
• Establish a process for evaluating proposals for new clinics and experiential courses.
• Promote curricular clarity for students; ensure strong student advising structures.
• Review and develop effective experiential enrollment procedures.

Operations and Budget
• Manage the central budget for all clinics and experiential programs.
• Oversee a centralized experiential operations team.
• Ensure administrative efficiency and support.
• Enhance uniformity and ensure best practices for document management, data security, and other administrative infrastructure for live client clinics.

External Engagement and Advancement
• Represent UCLA Law nationally in clinical and experiential education networks and academic conferences.
• Facilitate and strengthen partnerships between UCLA Law’s experiential and clinical programs and the Los Angeles community.
• Collaborate with communications staff to promote impact.
• Partner with Development on strategic fundraising.

Teaching Responsibilities
• Responsibilities will also include, after the conclusion of Vice Dean administrative responsibilities, directing a clinic at the law school, with a teaching load comparable to other Teaching Professors of Law.

Qualifications and Experience:
• Juris Doctorate (JD), admitted to state bar
• Extensive experience in clinical and/or experiential leadership.
• Experience directing a law school clinic.
• Demonstrated understanding of clinical and experiential pedagogies.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex academic initiatives.
• Proven ability to manage teams and build consensus.
• Strong interpersonal and collaborative skills.
• Demonstrated commitment to student success.
• National engagement profile preferred.

Confidential review of applications, nominations and expressions of interest will begin immediately and continue until an appointment is made. Please apply online at by submitting pdf copies of a cover letter that addresses the skills, experience, and vision the candidate will bring to the Vice Dean role; CV or resume; Statement on Research, Scholarship, or other Creative Work; the names and contact information for at least three professional references; and a UCLA Mission Statement. Applicants with teaching experience should also include their teaching evaluations for the past three years.

This position has an expected start date of July 1, 2026, and is subject to the rules and regulations of the Regents of the University of California, which are mostly embodied in The UCLA CALL and the University of California Academic Personnel Manual.

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The posted UC salary scales set the minimum pay determined by rank and/or step at appointment. See Table 8. The salary range for this position is Step 1 to Step 9 ($196,000 – 297,600). “Off-scale salaries” and other components of pay, i.e., a salary that is higher than the published system-wide salary at the designated rank and step, are offered when necessary to meet competitive conditions.

The University of California is committed to creating and maintaining a community dedicated to the advancement, application, and transmission of knowledge and creative endeavors through academic excellence, where all individuals who participate in University programs and activities can work and learn together in a safe and secure environment, free of violence, harassment, bullying and other demeaning behavior, discrimination, exploitation, or intimidation. With this commitment as well as a commitment to addressing all forms of academic misconduct, UCLA conducts targeted employment reference checks for finalists to whom departments or other hiring units would like to extend formal offers of appointment into Academic Senate faculty positions. The targeted employment reference checks involve contacting the finalists’ current and prior places of employment to ask whether there have been substantiated findings of misconduct that would violate the University’s Faculty Code of Conduct. To implement this process, UCLA requires all applicants for Academic Senate faculty positions to complete, sign, and upload the form entitled “Authorization to Release Information” into RECRUIT as part of their application. If the applicant does not include the signed authorization to release information with the application materials, the application will be considered incomplete. As with any incomplete application, the application will not receive further consideration. Although all applicants for faculty recruitments must complete the entire application, only finalists (i.e., those to whom the department or other hiring unit would like to extend a formal offer) considered for Academic Senate faculty positions will be subject to targeted employment reference checks.

Qualifications

Basic qualifications

Candidates must have a J.D. from an ABA-accredited law school, plus admission to a state bar or willingness to sit for a state bar bar.

Application Requirements

Document requirements

• Curriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated C.V.

• Cover Letter

• Statement of Research, Scholarship, or other Creative Work

• Reference check authorization release form - Complete and upload the

• UCLA Mission Statement - As the nation's premier public research university, UC's mission is the creation, dissemination, preservation and application of knowledge for the betterment of our global society. We have a particular responsibility to the people of California which we express in the excellence of the education we provide, the impact of the research we do, the comprehensive, life-saving medical services we provide, and the public service mission we are devoted to. The University of California promotes the social mobility of its students, equips them with the tools and experience that furthers their ambitions, and regards their accomplishments across the life span as evidence of the profoundly positive impact of higher education.

  The UCLA campus has expressed these goals in its strategic plan as follows:

  Deepen our engagement with Los Angeles
  Expand our reach as a global university
  Enhance our research and creative activities
  Elevate how we teach
  Become a more effective institution

  Prompt for candidates for recruitment:

  Reflecting on your personal and professional experiences, highlight your past contributions and future commitments to advancing UCLA's mission as embodied in the 2023-28 strategic plan. These accomplishments and ambitions may be discussed in the context of describing your teaching, scholarship, and service

Reference requirements

• 3-5 required (contact information only)

Please provide contact information for 3 professional references.

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About UCLA

As a University employee, you will be required to comply with all applicable University policies and/or collective bargaining agreements, as may be amended from time to time. Federal, state, or local government directives may impose additional requirements.

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected status under state or federal law.

As a condition of employment, the finalist will be required to disclose if they are subject to any final administrative or judicial decisions within the last seven years determining that they committed any misconduct.

• “Misconduct” means any violation of the policies or laws governing conduct at the applicant’s previous place of employment, including, but not limited to, violations of policies or laws prohibiting sexual harassment, sexual assault, or other forms of harassment, discrimination, dishonesty, or unethical conduct, as defined by the employer.

Job location

Los Angeles, CA