BY JODI SOKOLOWSKI
Buffalo Law Journal

After an extensive search for a new dean, the University at Buffalo Law School has opted to offer the position to its interim dean, Makau Mutua.

"I never thought of being a dean at a law school, so it's a very surprising development in my career and one that I humbly accept," he said Thursday.

The appointment was announced Wednesday by Satish Tripathi, UB provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.

Mutua was not one of four candidates named after R. Nils Olsen announced in the spring that he would step down at year-end to return to the school's faculty. But when Mutua took the interim position in December, he presented the Dean Advisory Council with "enthusiastic" plans to increase enrollment, hire more faculty and boost funding.

"Many people asked the question, ‘Why couldn't it be this guy?' " Dennis McCoy, immediate past president of the UB Law Alumni Association, said Wednesday afternoon. "What it does is, it really lets him hit the ground running."

Because Mutua has been on the faculty since 1996 and remains its SUNY Distinguished Professor and Floyd H. and Hilda L. Hurst Faculty Scholar, he's intimate with the school.

"Dean Mutua is certainly very familiar with the law school and its issues and challenges and strengths, so I think he's in a great position," said Margaret Gyrko, current UB Law Alumni president.

UB Law recently slid from 77th to 100th place in the nation in U.S. News & World Report's annual rankings of law schools, and New York's 2008 budget included funding to start or study the creation of three other law schools. Mutua has been vocal in response to both challenges, saying that "without increasing financial comm22222nts from the state and alumni, the law school cannot scale the next heights."

McCoy said Mutua's acceptance of the position shows his "loyalty" and "commitment."

"I don't think this was an ambition of his. It's something that was asked of him and something that he will be successful at," he said. "It's a rare combination of having a scholar of his ability, intellect and reputation with a gift to communicate with all types of people and meeting them at their own level."

A native of Kenya and a worldwide authority in the area of human-rights law, Mutua is director of the Buffalo Human Rights Center at UB.

Mutua said he looks forward to building the university of the future.

"In an increasingly complex world, the practice of law is becoming more globalized," he said. "Students are not just looking for work within the border of the state or even the nation, but across the world."

Mutua, who teaches international human rights, international business transactions and international law, has conducted numerous diplomatic and rule-of-law missions and spoken at public forums around the world. He is a member of the Executive Council and Executive Committee of the American Society of International Law and serves as chairman of the Kenya Human Rights Commission.

The author of numerous books and scholarly articles, he has been a visiting professor at such institutions as Harvard Law School, where he earned his law degree.

He was honored May 1 at the 46th annual UB Law Alumni Association dinner, at which he was presented an award for outstanding service to the university and the community by a non-alumnus.

"He's a citizen of the world and plays on the world stage," McCoy said. "He's a big deal."