Mark D. West, a highly regarded scholar of the Japanese legal system, has been selected the 17th dean of the University of Michigan Law School. He currently serves as the school’s associate dean for academic affairs.
An international studies major and member of Phi Beta Kappa at Rhodes, West graduated in 1989. He earned his JD from Columbia University School of Law, where he was notes and comments editor of the Columbia Law Review. Prior to West’s career in academia, he practiced in the firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP in New York and Tokyo. He joined the University of Michigan Law School as an assistant professor in 1998.