January 21, 2025 – Stanford, CA—Stanford Law School announced today that Adam Sterling has joined the law school as its inaugural Associate Dean for Executive Education and Strategic Partnerships. Sterling will oversee training and professional development for legal professionals, organizational leaders, and Stanford Law alumni. He will also drive a range of strategic partnerships across Stanford University and throughout the broader legal community.

Sterling brings a decade of experience from UC Berkeley School of Law, where he served in a similar capacity and built a robust executive education portfolio that gained international recognition. He also led the Berkeley Center for Law and Business.

“Stanford Law is already a leader in educating law students, and my goal is to ensure we also become the leader in educating lawyers, policymakers, and executives across various sectors.” said Sterling, who holds a JD and MBA from UC Berkeley. He said his new role emphasizes collaboration with Stanford Law’s faculty, centers, and clinics to expand their reach through tailored programs and partnerships, including offering programming in the areas of leadership and management, artificial intelligence, private equity, and philanthropy. 

Stanford Law is on the leading edge of a handful of law schools that are incorporating executive training into their mandates, Sterling said, as business schools have been doing for some time. “Training lawyers to be effective leaders is arguably just as important as training them to be good lawyers, and with this in mind, we are focused on the entire school and all of our graduates: public sector, litigators, business lawyers, private sector, government, and beyond.”

George Triantis, JSD ’89, Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and Dean of Stanford Law, said  the new role at Stanford Law reflects the school’s mission to provide students with the skills and tools needed across a range of career paths and to expand the school’s educational reach to new audiences. “Adam comes to Stanford Law with extensive experience creating and running top-notch, innovative educational programs and with an extraordinary combination of ideas and energy. I am absolutely delighted that he has joined us as a new associate dean and look forward to working with him to execute on exciting initiatives.”

Prior to joining UC Berkeley, Sterling counseled early stage founders and companies as an attorney with law firm Gunderson Dettmer. While an undergraduate student at UCLA, he developed policies for the university as it considered divesting from Sudan, which had become embroiled in what is now a decade-long civil war. The policies Sterling helped develop eventually were incorporated into the federal government’s Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act, which Sterling helped draft. 

About Stanford Law School

Stanford Law School is one of the nation’s leading institutions for legal scholarship and education. Its alumni are among the most influential decision makers in law, politics, business, and high technology. Faculty members argue before the Supreme Court, testify before Congress, produce outstanding legal scholarship and empirical analysis, and contribute regularly to the nation’s press as legal and policy experts. Stanford Law School has established a model for legal education that provides rigorous interdisciplinary training, hands-on experience, global perspective and a focus on public service.