Texas A&M names new dean for Fort Worth-based law school

Texas A&M University School of Law has named Andrew Morriss, currently a faculty member at the University of Alabama’s law school, the new dean, effective July 1. Morriss’ selection to lead the Fort Worth-based law school that Texas A&M acquired last year was approved May 1 by the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents. Morriss is a nationally prominent legal scholar known for his work on regulatory issues involving environmental, energy and offshore financial centers. He received a doctorate in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a law degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and is currently the D. Paul Jones Jr. & Charlene A. Jones Chairholder of Law at the University of Alabama School of Law. Morriss also earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a master of public affairs degree from UT-Austin.

Following law school, he clerked for U. S. District Judge Barefoot Sanders in the Northern District of Texas and worked two years at Texas Rural Legal Aid in Hereford and Plainview. He has taught and lectured in the Cayman Islands, China, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Nepal and other locations around the world. He is a Research Fellow at the New York University (NYU) Center for Labor and Employment Law, chairman of the editorial board for the Cayman Financial Review and is affiliated with numerous think tanks on public policy, including the Property & Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana, the Regulatory Studies Center at George Washington University, the Institute for Energy Research at Washington, D. C., and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Prior to joining the University of Alabama, Morriss was the H. Ross & Helen Workman Professor of Law and Professor of Business at the University of Illinois College of Law and the Galen J. Roush Professor of Business Law & Regulation at Case Western Reserve. His wife, Dr. Carol Akers, is a graduate of Texas A&M University’s College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences. In separate action on May 1, regents approved $5 million from the Available University Fund (AUF) for the law school now and up to $20 million over the next five years on a dollar-for-dollar basis regarding funds raised in the private sector. The AUF represents proceeds from the Permanent University Fund to enhance excellence in teaching, research and related initiatives. Fundraising and donor engagement activities are already under way. The law school is currently headed by Aric Short, who was serving in an interim capacity when Texas A&M acquired it from Texas Wesleyan University. Betty Dillard bdillard@bizpress.net