Sujit Choudhury named as new Dean of UC Berkeley School of Law

Choudhury will assume new position starting from July 1.

By Deepak Chitnis

WASHINGTON, DC: The University of California (UC) at Berkeley has announced that Sujit Choudhry, a well-regarded expert on comparative Constitutional law, will become the new Dean of the School of Law, effective from July 1.

Choudhry (44) is currently the Cecilia Goetz Professor of Law at New York University. He earned his B.Sc. in Biology from McGill University in 1992, followed by a B.A. (with first-class honors) in Law from the University of Oxford’s University College, in 1994. Following that, he went to the University of Toronto, graduating with an LL.B. (with honors) in 1996, and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School in 1998.

“Berkeley Law is simply a remarkable institution,” Choudhry said, in a statement to Berkeley Law. “It is among the very best law schools in the nation, and is an integral part of one of the world’s great research universities. I am deeply attracted to Berkeley Law’s public mission; it is committed to equality of opportunity, academic excellence, and diversity like no other law school that I know.”

Choudhry has spent his time at NYU teaching a number of legal courses, including Comparative Constitutional Law, Constitutional Law, Constitutional Transitions & Global and Comparative Law Colloquium (for J.D.s), and Constitutional Transitions Clinic (for J.D.s).

Prior to his time at NYU, Choudhry was Scholl Chair and Associate Dean of the First Year Program at the University of Toronto. Additionally, Choudhry was a law clerk to Chief Justice Antonio Lamer of the Supreme Court of Canada, and was a Graduate Fellow at the Harvard University Center for Ethics and the Professions, in addition to being a Rhodes Scholar, too.

Choudhry was also named Practitioner of the Year by the South Asian Bar Association of Toronto, in 2011. The year before, he was awarded the Trudeau Fellowship by the Trudeau Foundation. Choudhry was also given Harvard University’s Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship, and the William E. Taylor Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, both in 1997.

In being appointed as the new Dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Law, Choudhry will become the 12th person to hold the title. The previous dean, Christopher Edley, Jr., left the post in December, and has been replaced by acting Dean Gillian Lester.