Anna Shavers to be interim dean of College of Law

Anna Shavers, Cline Williams Professor of Citizenship Law Chair, has accepted appointment as interim dean of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Law. The appointment was announced by Barbara Couture, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs.

Additionally, Robert Denicola, Margaret R. Larson Professor of Intellectual Property Law, will serve as interim associate dean of the college. Shavers had been associate dean since August 2008.

Both appointments are effective Aug. 17. Shavers will replace Steven Willborn, who has been dean since 2001. Willborn announced in fall 2008 his intention to return to the law faculty. Shavers said she does not intend to seek the position on a permanent basis.

"I felt this was something I wouldn't mind doing for a year but I'm not interested in pursuing it longer," Shavers said. "Steve accomplished so much during his tenure and I wanted to be sure the school stays on an even keel and keeps moving forward." She said she agreed to the position because activities she engaged in as associate dean are interesting and compelling, including improving technologies for teaching, particularly technologies associated with the college's space law program, and reviewing the college's curriculum.

Couture said she expects the search for a permanent dean to begin anew in the fall. Law faculty have been asked to think about and suggest potential candidates, she said.

Shavers joined the UNL law faculty in 1989. She received her bachelor's degree from Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, and her master's in business from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She received her juris doctor (cum laude) from the University of Minnesota where she served as managing editor of the Minnesota Law Review. She was admitted to the Minnesota Bar in 1979 and the Nebraska Bar in 1989.

Shavers teaches administrative law, immigration law, gender issues and civil procedure. She is faculty co-adviser to the Multi-Cultural Legal Society and the Black Allied Law Students Association. She is a board member of the Midwestern People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference Inc.; liaison for the American Bar Association Administrative Law Section to the ABA Commission on Immigration; and publication chair of the ABA Administrative Law Section. She is a frequent national and international presenter on immigration and administrative law issues.

Denicola joined the Law College faculty in 1976. He received a bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 197l and a juris doctor from Harvard Law School in 1974. He also received a master of laws from Harvard in 1976. Denicola worked with a Boston law firm before coming to Nebraska. He has also been a visiting professor at Cornell University and the University of Alabama, and was acting dean of the UNL Law College from 1994-96. He teaches courses in contracts, copyright and unfair competition. He has written a casebook on copyright law published by Foundation Press and was the co-reporter for the American Law Institute's Restatement of the Law of Unfair Competition.