Eleanor Myers officially took over as the new Associate Dean of Students on January 3, 2017.\u00a0 Kaitlin Perry, Associate Director of Student Services,\u00a0interviewed Dean Myers to learn a little bit about her and what she is looking forward to in her new role.<\/p>\n
How long have you been at Temple Law?<\/em><\/strong> Haven\u2019t you retired from teaching? So what brought you back to Temple Law full-time?<\/em><\/strong> How has the transition been from having been a faculty member to now being part of the administration?<\/em><\/strong> What do you think the biggest challenge is going to be?<\/em><\/strong> What did you do after you graduated from law school?<\/em><\/strong> What has been your biggest accomplishment over the years at Temple<\/em>?<\/strong> You\u2019ve taught all over the world so you obviously love to travel, what is your favorite place you\u2019ve been?<\/em><\/strong>
\nI have been at the law school since 1993. I have taught an array of Business law courses but my true calling is Professional Responsibility. I\u2019ve always thought that the ethical choices lawyers make are the deepest and most personal decisions. I want students to understand you can be true to your personal moral and ethical standards and also be a very good lawyer.<\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/strong>I did retire, on the understanding that I would continue to direct the fall semester of the Intro to Transactional Skills course to the first-year day division students and teach in the Integrated Transaction Program (ITP) for two years. I teach with Professor Rob Bartow in the ITP program which I helped pioneer along with Professor Nancy Knauer.<\/p>\n
\nIt took a little convincing to come back into a full-time role, but Dean Mandel is very persuasive. And I\u2019m delighted with any opportunity to work directly with students. Our students are fantastic and I\u2019m really looking forward to meeting more of them and assisting them in their law school careers.<\/p>\n
\nI served in the Temple\u2019s University Counsel\u2019s office for 5 years with Professor Robert Reinstein when he was University Counsel, so I had a taste of academic administration. I have always deeply respected our administrators. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes which students never see. I don\u2019t think most people understand how difficult and unrelenting the job is. Following after Dean Esten makes it a special challenge as she is a deeply talented person with a good heart.<\/p>\n
\nGetting all the details right, especially for graduation. The staff in Barrack Hall (they call themselves the Barrackians, but I call them the Barrack\u2019sters) are fabulous. They have made the transition much smoother than I expected and they are not impatient (yet) with all my questions.<\/p>\n
\nI did a year-long teaching fellowship at Stanford Law School and then practiced for 5 years in a plaintiff-side securities and antitrust firm. After that, I worked in Temple\u2019s University Counsel office and then went into teaching.<\/p>\n
\nWhen I was in Counsel\u2019s Office, I worked on several mergers which advanced Temple\u2019s interests in an economical way. That was my first taste of being a transactional lawyer. I really enjoyed the problem-solving and team-work. It naturally followed that at the Law School I helped to develop our experiential programs. Learning by doing is an exceptional way to learn PR and to learn how to be a lawyer. I am very proud to have been in the vanguard of those efforts though ITP and ITS.<\/p>\n
\nI love teaching the Chinese students and lawyers who are in our program in Beijing, but I have not been back to China for several years. My favorite place is Rome and I\u2019ve been lucky to be able to teach in the summer session there a number of times. It\u2019s a beautiful, walkable city, with delicious food. And the people there like to hug, as I do. My favorite city in the United States is New Orleans.<\/p>\n