January 18, 2012 — Washington, D.C. - Georgetown University Law Center Dean William M. Treanor has appointed Professor Gregory Klass as associate dean for research and academic programs. Klass succeeds Professor Robin West, who will return to the faculty.

"I am very pleased that Greg has agreed to take on this new role, and I look forward to working with him in his new capacity," said Treanor. "Greg is an extraordinary scholar and teacher, and he is profoundly committed both to the value of academic scholarship and to the Law Center. We are fortunate that he is taking on a new position that will allow him to help us strengthen Georgetown’s deep commitment to scholarship."

"I also want to express my deep gratitude to Robin West for her service to the Law Center and for her generous support of her colleagues' research and scholarship," Treanor added. "Her dedication to building our fellows program, her focus on integrating our academic centers into the teaching mission of the school and her commitment to helping our colleagues produce important work have meant that she is leaving a great legacy as associate dean."

As associate dean for research and academic programs, Klass will be responsible for matters concerning both faculty research and scholarship and for major issues of curriculum design and innovation.

Klass is the John Carroll Research Professor at Georgetown Law. He came to the Law Center from the office of the New York Attorney General, where he served as an assistant solicitor general from 2003 to 2005. Prior to working at the Attorney General's office, Klass clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. He received a B.A. from Carleton College, a J.D. from Yale Law School and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the New School for Social Research.

Klass is an expert in contract law, legal theory and jurisprudence. He has written on fraud liability between contracting parties, remedies for bad faith breach and other noncooperative behavior, intent to contract requirements, the relationship between contract law and extra-legal norms, and the general theory of contract law. He received the Scribes Book Award from the American Society of Legal Writers in 2006 for Insincere Promises, a book on promissory fraud that he co-authored with Yale Law Professor Ian Ayres.