Law School Interim Dean Announced

Kenneth B. Davis Jr. has been named interim dean of the Law School.

The appointment, effective Aug. 1, was announced today by Chancellor David Ward.

“Ken Davis is one of our most talented professors and one of our best citizens,” Ward said. “I am thankful he has agreed to take on this important responsibility.”

Ward said Davis will serve as interim dean until a replacement is named for Daniel Bernstine, who is stepping down as dean of the Law School to become president of Portland State University. One of Bernstine’s major accomplishments was coordinating the Law School’s addition and renovation project, a $16.5 million undertaking that updated and enlarged the Law School building.

UW–Madison is conducting a national search to replace Bernstine.

“I think Dan Bernstine did a great job in terms of running the Law School, and he leaves large shoes to fill, even on an interim basis,” Davis said.

“We have a wonderful physical facility as a result of his hard work,” he added. “The task before the new dean, both interim and permanent, is to use it as a springboard to the next century in terms of maintaining and enhancing our stature as one of the nation’s preeminent law schools.”

As interim dean, Davis will oversee approximately 50 faculty, 900 students and a budget of more than $10 million. He joined the Law School faculty in 1978 and teaches in the areas of business organizations and securities regulation. He has been a visiting professor of law at the UCLA and University of Pennsylvania law schools, and he regularly participates in the Law School’s annual “Summer Program in United States Law and Legal Institutions” for foreign lawyers.

Davis is well-known in the Wisconsin legal community and is active in local, state and national legal organizations. He has taught more than 2,000 students in his career and regularly teaches continuing legal education courses.

In recognition of his teaching ability, Davis has received both the university’s and the Law School’s Distinguished Teacher Awards. On July 1, he was named to the James E. and Ruth B. Doyle-Bascom Professorship in the Law School.

Published works by Davis include several articles in leading law journals focusing on various aspects of corporate and securities law. He is also involved in revising part of the Uniform Commercial Code and served as co-drafter for the recent revision of the Wisconsin Business Corporation Law.

A native of Louisville, Ky., Davis earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in 1969 and his law degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1974. In law school, Davis was editor-in-chief of the Case Western Law Reserve Law Review, and following graduation he clerked for Chief Judge Richard H. Chambers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Davis then practiced law at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Covington & Burling before joining the UW–Madison faculty.