For Immediate Release
December 2, 2009

Media Contact:

Kara Tershel, (202) 662-9500

 

 

Dean Aleinikoff

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Georgetown University Law Center Dean T. Alexander Aleinikoff has been appointed United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, effective February 1, 2010. The UNHCR, located in Geneva, Switzerland, is responsible for leading and coordinating international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Aleinikoff will continue to serve as dean of the Law Center until late January.

"During his tenure, Alex has been responsible for significant development at the Law Center. A dedicated teacher, scholar and administrator, he has been committed to fostering an intellectually engaged community, to supporting our faculty, to ensuring that our Law student body is more competitive every year and to creating new opportunities for alumni outreach, both here and abroad," said Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia.

"Refugee and asylum law has been a central focus of my scholarship and research. The first course I taught at the Law Center was Refugee Law. In taking up the position at UNHCR, I will be joining a UN organization that provides protection or assistance to nearly 34 million people around the world. UNHCR has twice been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its work on behalf of the persecuted and the dispossessed," said Aleinikoff of his new appointment.

Aleinikoff joined the Georgetown Law faculty in 1997. He served as associate dean for research from 2003 to 2004. He was named dean of Georgetown University Law Center and executive vice president of Georgetown University in 2004.

In a message to the Georgetown Law community, Aleinikoff wrote:

"One cannot walk our halls, talk with our students, or meet with our alumni without appreciating the remarkable community that thrives here. Our reach is broad, our bonds are deep."

Aleinikoff continued, "I am not able to express adequately my gratitude to those with whom I have worked during my tenure as dean. The faculty and staff of this law school sustain an institution that makes enormous contributions to our community, our nation and the world. I have been very proud every day as dean to be a member of this community, and I look forward to returning to teaching and scholarship at Georgetown upon completion of my term of service at UNHCR."

During his deanship, Aleinikoff worked to enhance the Law Center’s transnational and international curriculum. Spearheaded by Georgetown Law, the Center for Transnational Legal Studies in London opened its doors in 2008. In 2006, the Law Center initiated a one-week course at the beginning of the second semester for first-year students, which explores the role of law in a global context. The Law Center’s transnational agenda also focused on alumni engagement in Europe and Asia and the creation of alumni advisory boards on both continents.

Several centers and institutes were established under Aleinikoff’s leadership, including the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Center on National Security and the Law, Center for the Study of the Legal Profession, Human Rights Institute and Georgetown State-Federal Climate Resource Center, as well as the Sandra Day O’Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary.

Aleinikoff recruited talented faculty hires and strengthened the legal research and writing program. Over $90 million was raised for the Law Center during his tenure, and endowed professorships were established in the areas of business, national security, human rights and public interest. Public interest programs continued to thrive with the launch of the Justice Agenda, an enhanced Loan Repayment Assistance Program and the guarantee of summer public interest fellowships to over 350 first and second-year law students.

Aleinikoff has a long history of commitment to public service and global justice. He served as general counsel and executive associate commissioner for programs at the Immigration and Naturalization Service for several years during the Clinton administration. Last year, he co-led the immigration policy working group for President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team. He also serves as chairman of the Global Agenda Counsel on Migration of the World Economic Forum.

From 1981 to 1994, Aleinikoff was a professor at the University of Michigan Law School. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Yale Law School.

DeGioia will be working in the coming weeks to appoint interim leadership at the Law Center and to organize a formal search process to recruit Aleinikoff’s successor.

 

About Georgetown University Law Center 

Georgetown University Law Center is one of the world's premier law schools. It has the largest full-time faculty in the nation and is pre-eminent in several areas, including constitutional, international, tax and clinical law. Drawing on its Jesuit heritage, it has a strong tradition of public service and is dedicated to the principle that law is but a means, justice is the end. With this principle in mind, Georgetown Law has built an environment that cultivates an exchange of ideas and the pursuit of academic excellence. It brings together an extraordinarily varied group of teachers, scholars and practitioners, as well as an outstanding student body representing more than 60 countries.