Mary Elizabeth Magill is Former Dean and Professor Emerita at Stanford Law School. She was the Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and Dean of Stanford Law School September 1, 2012 – March 31, 2019 and the law school’s 13th dean. She left Stanford Law School to become Provost of University of Virginia as of July 1, 2019.   She served as Provost and Professor of Law until 2022 when she became the 9th President of the University of Pennsylvania until December of 2023.  She is currently a Professor of Law at Penn Carey Law School.

An expert in administrative law and constitutional structure, Dean Magill has taught administrative law, constitutional law, and food and drug law.  Her scholarly articles have been published in leading law reviews, and she has won several awards for her scholarly contributions. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Law Institute, and served as a fellow in the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, and the Thomas Jefferson Visiting Fellow at Downing College, Cambridge University.  From 2024-2027, she is serving as a visiting professor of law at London School of Economics Law School.

After completing her BA in history at Yale University in 1988, Dean Magill served as a senior legislative assistant for energy and natural resources for U.S. Senator Kent Conrad, a position she held for four years.  She left the Hill to attend the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was articles development editor of the Virginia Law Review and received several awards for academic and scholarly achievement. After graduating in 1995, Dean Magill clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and then for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.