Stanford Law School Professor G. Marcus Cole, the William F. Baxter-Visa International Professor of Law, has been appointed the Joseph A. Matson Dean of the Law School and professor of law at the University of Notre Dame. Cole will assume the deanship in the summer of 2019.

“Professor Cole has been a member of the Stanford Law School faculty for twenty-two years and has made an indelible and positive mark on this institution–as a teacher, scholar, and citizen of the school, the profession, and the wider world,” said M. Elizabeth Magill, Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and dean of Stanford Law School. “He will be sorely missed, but his wide-ranging intellect, deep learning, and passion will make him a great leader, and we wish him well in this new chapter.”

“Professor Cole brings to Notre Dame scholarly accomplishment, experience in academic leadership, an impressive set of international appointments and a concern for social inequities and the human impact of law,” said Notre Dame University President Rev. John I. Jenkins in a press release. “We warmly welcome Professor Cole as the new dean of our law school.”

A leading scholar of the empirical law and economics of commerce and finance, Cole joined the Stanford Law school faculty in 1997 where he held two endowed chairs and served for five years as associate dean for curriculum and academic affairs. Before joining the Stanford Law faculty, Cole was an associate with the Chicago law firm of Mayer Brown. He clerked for Judge Morris Sheppard Arnold on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“This transition is a bittersweet moment for me. I have spent twenty-two wonderful years among the most special people I have ever known. The professional excellence of the Stanford Law faculty is commonly known, and second to none,” said Cole. “My colleagues here held me, and my work, to the highest standards of excellence, and persistently challenged me to rise to my best on all occasions. Mere words cannot express how deeply I admire and appreciate each and every member of this faculty, as people and as professionals.”

Cole has also served as a national fellow at the Hoover Institution and is a fellow at the University of Amsterdam Center for Law and Economics. He has been a visiting professor at a number of institutions around the world, including the University of Amsterdam, the University of Vienna, the University of Leiden, Bucerius University in Hamburg, Germany, Northwestern University, Korea University, and Peking University School of Transnational Law in Shenzhen.

Cole earned his bachelor’s degree in applied economics from Cornell University and his juris doctorate at Northwestern University, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business.

For more information, please visit the University of Notre Dame’s press release and Professor Cole’s bio page.