As Seen in the Los Angeles Daily Journal
(Reprinted with permission by Daily Journal Corp.)

Chapman Law Elevates Eastman to Dean

By Don J. DeBenedictis
Daily Journal Staff Writer

      SANTA ANA (June 6, 2007) - Prominent conservative constitutional scholar John C. Eastman today will be named the new dean of Chapman University School of Law in Orange.
      Eastman, a Chapman professor and associate dean, is a former clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and directs the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence within the conservative Claremont Institute.
      In a statement released by the school, Thomas said, "This is incredible news. I am excited for Chapman."
      Eastman's frequent intellectual sparring partner, Duke University law professor Erwin Chemerinksy, said he too is pleased for his friend and the school.
      "Although we're on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, ... I think very highly of him," Chemerinsky said about the man he has been debating on the radio every Wednesday for seven years. "He has enormous energy, great judgment and terrific people skills."
      Asked what meaning Eastman's ideology has for his deanship, Chemerinsky said, "Nothing."
      "He has the ability to be the dean for all the faculty and all the students," he said.
      Eastman, 47, joked that he will be only the second or third conservative law-school dean of 192 in the nation.
      "More and more law schools are recognizing how skewed academically the academy has become, ... and they are embracing conservative thought and conservative scholarship," he said.
      Many people spoke more about Eastman's energy than his politics. Founding Chapman Dean Jeremy M. Miller said that, during Eastman's year as interim associate dean for administration, he "was on fire to have the school's reputation improved."
      "The guy's brilliant, and he's ambitious," Miller added. "[The ambition] goes to more than the personal; it goes to the school. He's going to take the school to the next level."
      Indeed, Eastman's curriculum vitae runs to 41 pages, ranging from his 1993 doctorate in government from the Claremont Graduate School to his many newspaper opinion pieces and speaking engagements. The "scholarly publications" section lists 41 entries.
      While in graduate school, he directed real estate acquisitions for a Newport Beach firm and served on the staff of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
      He received his law degree from the University of Chicago in 1995 and his undergraduate degree in 1982 from the University of Dallas. After law school, he clerked first for 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge J. Michael Luttig and then for Thomas.
      Eastman was an associate at Kirkland & Ellis in Los Angeles for two years before joining the Chapman faculty in 1999.
      He also is a Boy Scout leader and a committee chair in the Federalist Society.
      As dean, Eastman said, he does hope "to take the law school to the next level."
      He pointed to the school's new master of laws program in criminal prosecution plus another planned in entertainment law. The law school and Chapman's film school will be offering a joint degree program, he said.
      He said he will be bringing in top-flight visiting scholars and new faculty.
      "I'm actually very excited about the opportunity here," Eastman said.
      His replacement as administrative dean will be former Rehnquist clerk Celestine Richards McConville, an expert on federal sentencing and habeas corpus law.
      The new dean for academic affairs is Timothy A. Canova, the director of the school's Center for Global Trade and Development, who describes himself as a New Deal Democrat and once was an aide to Sen. Paul Tsongas, D-Mass. Canova said Eastman encourages ideological diversity.
      "He's got the kind of stature that will help Chapman a lot," Canovoa added.
      USC associate law dean Scott Altman, who does not know Eastman, said having a prominent conservative scholar as a law school's dean could attract higher-quality students who count themselves as conservative.
      Canova said Eastman's appointment will attract higher-quality students of all stripes.
      Fellow conservative scholar Douglas W. Kmiec of Pepperdine Law School, who co-writes constitutional law texts with Eastman, said that, with Eastman, "Chapman law school will be attracting young talent who'll want to work with this energetic dean, and Orange County and the legal community ... will continue to become the center of the best legal scholarship."
      As dean, Eastman said, he hopes to continue his speaking and writing and to work with the university on fundraising and external issues. He said he hopes to be able to leave somewhat more of the internal administration of the law school to his associate deans, Canova and McConville.
      Retiring Dean Parham Williams, who won accreditation for the school from the American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools, will return home to Mississippi. But until he does, he will stay on in Orange part time as the founding director of the master of laws program in criminal prosecution.

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