Annual Report

22-23 Annual Report

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Dean’s Message

Seven years ago, in my first dean’s message for this publication, I wrote that I was honored to take the helm of an institution as deeply loved by its alumni as the University of Virginia School of Law. As I enter what will be the last year of my deanship, I not only appreciate that affection as a historical matter, but I feel it as a very personal one.

One of the great joys of my service as dean has been getting to know you, our alumni and friends. I never cease to be amazed at the depth and breadth of your generosity—as measured in the thousands of hours you dedicate to the Law School as volunteers, guest speakers, and adjunct faculty; the hundreds of students you recruit and mentor; and in the millions of dollars of financial support you provide each year. In the last fiscal year, 9,624 donors gave a total of $17.7 million for the benefit of the Law School. An astounding 8,406 alumni—more than 46% of our living alumni contributed to the Annual Giving campaign, and more than 1,000 graduates served as volunteers in the effort. With support from 71% of our alumni, we have now raised $374 million of our $400 million campaign goal, part of the $5 billion Honor the Future capital campaign that concludes in June 2025.

Your gifts truly make everything possible here and enable the Law School to reach new heights. Over the course of my deanship, we have recruited remarkable people to join our community—hiring 34 stellar faculty members and welcoming new students who have exceeded previous records on both academic achievement and diversity of all kinds. We have expanded our course offerings—including 24 clinics and more than 250 courses—and have dramatically lowered our student-faculty ratio. To continue to make a world-class UVA Law education accessible to talented students from all walks of life, we have expanded financial aid, now providing scholarships to more than two-thirds of our J.D. students. We have deepened our financial commitments to students pursuing public service careers by increasing funding for summer and postgraduate public service work, expanding our Virginia Loan Forgiveness Program, and establishing the full-tuition Virginia Public Service Scholarships. And we have launched the Roadmap Scholars Initiative, which provides comprehensive support to first-generation and low-income college students interested in pursuing careers in the legal profession.

All this, and so much more, is the result of your extraordinary generosity. As I exit this role, let me thank you again for all you have done to maintain this historic institution and to ensure for it a future as august as its past.

Risa Goluboff, Dean
Arnold H. Leon Professor of Law
Professor of History