Welcome From Dean Leslie Kendrick

Part of what drew me to the University of Virginia 20 years ago was it felt like it was a real community — it felt like a place where you could put down roots.

I remember what it was like to start here as a first-year law student, and how nervous I was, but also how incredibly thrilled I was to start my legal education. I didn’t even know at the time all the great opportunities I would have in terms of classes, summer jobs and work after law school, as well as all the amazing speakers to see, and activities and organizations to be a part of.

One of the things that struck me and one of the things that made me think this was a real community was just how open faculty seem to be to engaging with students. This was a place where not only would you get a wonderful education in the classroom, but you were going to encounter open doors, people in their offices ready to talk with you, having lunches, having dinners, being invited to student activities by students who really want those connections, to have those relationships, to continue discussing all of the ideas that we were hearing about in the classroom.

Having been a professor here for 16 years, serving as vice dean and now dean, I know we are the best-run law school in the country. There are a lot of people who feel this is a really special community, both among students and among faculty and staff.

It's an important process that happens here: taking people with no legal training and turning them into the lawyers of tomorrow. There are no limits to what you can do with an education from UVA. And our alumni demonstrate that. After graduation, our students go out and do great things, and our job as an institution is to get you working together and preparing you to do great things.